Collaborative research in contexts of inequality: the role of social reflexivity

This article reports on the role and value of social reflexivity in collaborative research in contexts of extreme inequality. Social reflexivity mediates the enablements and constraints generated by the internal and external contextual conditions impinging on the research collaboration. It fosters the ability of participants in a collaborative project to align their interests and collectively extend their agency towards a common purpose. It influences the productivity and quality of learning outcomes of the research collaboration. The article is written by fourteen members of a larger research team, which comprised 18 individuals working within the academic development environment in eight South African universities. The overarching research project investigated the participation of academics in professional development activities, and how contextual, i.e. structural and cultural, and agential conditions, influence this participation. For this sub-study on the experience of the collaboration by fourteen of the researchers, we wrote reflective pieces on our own experience of participating in the project towards the end of the third year of its duration. We discuss the structural and cultural conditions external to and internal to the project, and how the social reflexivity of the participants mediated these conditions. We conclude with the observation that policy injunctions and support from funding agencies for collaborative research, as well as support from participants’ home institutions are necessary for the flourishing of collaborative research, but that the commitment by individual participants to participate, learn and share, is also necessary.     

Changing as a person: the experience of learning to research in the social sciences

In this study of learning to research on a higher degree programme in Education, half the sample of 18 students reported that the experience of learning changed them as people. The lived experience of learning of these students was analysed using an approach based on a Variation Theory of learning. The critical aspects of this object of learning and the relevance structure and dimensions of variation related to this change were identified and are illustrated in individual cases of learning. The critical aspects relate to epistemological stance, perception of others’ perspectives, the (relational) nature of learning, interpretation (reflexivity) and perception of professional practice. It is contended that change in relation to these aspects of a person’s world is related to change in one’s own person, and that learning to research on a professional doctorate is congruent with this object of learning.     

Understanding student engagement in online learning environments: the role of reflexivity

It is important to develop understanding of what underpins the engagement of students in online learning environments. This article reports on a multiple case study that explored student engagement in a set of postgraduate degrees offered on a fully online basis. The study was based on a theorization of student engagement as the exercise of intentional human action, .or agency. It identified ways in which tasks and social relations in the online learning environments triggered reflexivity on the part of students, with ‘reflexivity’ understood to mean the ordinary mental capacity to consider oneself in relation to one’s social setting. A different relationship between reflexivity and student engagement was in view than that identified by Margaret Archer with regard to reflexivity and social mobility. Rather than displaying one dominant mode of reflexivity, the students considered in the study were seen to draw on a range of modes. The engagement of these students in their learning was also seen to depend on the manner in which they engaged in reflexivity centred on the pursuit of shared goals, that is in collective reflexivity. Specific practices were seen to trigger constructive forms of collective reflexivity, while fractured and restricted forms of collective reflexivity were linked to student disengagement in relation to joint tasks. As well as adverting to the importance of collective reflexivity to learning, the study highlights scope for dissonance between the modes of reflexivity and practices favoured by an online learning environment and the reflexive profile of the student.     

Reflections on working with critical action learning

Critical action learning engages participants in a process of drawing from critical perspectives to make connections between their learning and work experiences, to understand and change interpersonal and organisational practices. But what does this mean in practice? How can critical action learning be expedited? What outcomes can critical action learning have for participants, and can the hopes for critical action learning be fulfilled? The intentions of this paper are to contribute reflections of our empirical experience on working with critical action learning in management development.     

The Use of Reflective Journals to Stimulate Critical Thinking in the Academic Internship

Reflective journals have been widely accepted throughout various educational disciplines for many years as a means of enhancing experiential learning practices. Reflective journals allow for students to gain a better understanding of a given experience and explore the levels of critical thinking as they work through the understanding and learning processes. Critical thinking involves the logical progression from mere knowledge and understanding to the highest levels of synthesis and evaluation. The immediate study presents findings of the analyses of a series of sequential reflective journals presented over the course of a semester-long internship experience. Findings indicate that reflective journals are shown to facilitate progression through the levels of critical thinking as identified in Bloom’s taxonomy and promote a higher level of understanding and application of theoretical concepts to practical experiential learning.     

Voices of educational administration internship mentors

Within the field of leadership preparation, there is agreement by both scholars and practitioners of the need to engage aspiring leaders in authentic field-based learning experiences that tightly align to coursework (Perez, Uline, Johnson, James-Ward, & Basom, 2011). An integrated approach including mentoring is critical to the success of the internship activities and therefore the overall experience. Using data gathered from interns, as well as issues emerging in existent literature, the researchers developed and administered a survey to mentors to assess the activities, level of engagement, and general feedback on the internship experience for those they supervised, as well as their own development during the interaction. We subsequently conducted interviews of five mentors who had responded to the survey to allow for further exploration of the emergent themes.     

Leaving authority at the door: equal-status community-based experiences and the preparation of teachers for diverse classrooms

US society is becoming increasingly socioculturally diverse while our teaching force consists of white females who have led largely monocultural lives. Teacher education continues to struggle to find sufficiently powerful approaches to preparing future teachers for the classrooms in which they will be teaching. This paper explores the influences of a cross-cultural, equal-status internship on prospective teachers’ emerging sociocultural perspectives and raced identities. In particular, it explores the success and continued challenges of this experience as well as what we have learned about supporting more mature anti-racist identities in the 3 years that students have been engaged in this internship.     

高职院校学生顶岗实习法律风险探析

顶岗实习作为校企合作的主要形式在实践中被各职业学校广泛采用,但目前情况下高职院校学生顶岗实习过程中很容易遭遇各种法律风险,致使他们的合法权益得不到有效的保障,只有强化教育与预防,建立健全相应规范,加强风险管理,才能有效保障顶岗实习学生的合法权益,保障顶岗实习顺利进行。     

Peace education and peace education research: Toward a concept of poststructural violence and second-order reflexivity

Peace and conflict studies (PACS) education has grown significantly in the last 30 years, mainly in Higher Education. This article critically analyzes the ways in which this field might be subject to poststructural critique, and posits Bourdieusian second-order reflexivity as a means of responding to these critiques. We propose here that theory-building within PACS education is often limited by the dominance of Galtung and Freire, and that, while the foundational ideas of positive and negative peace, structural and cultural violence, conscientization, reflexivity and critical pedagogy are still relevant today, they nevertheless need to be combined in new ways with each other, and with Bourdieu’s notions of habitus and field, to adequately respond to poststructural critique. Thus, we call here for greater field-based reflexivity in twenty-first century PACS.     

Student satisfaction,teacher internships,and the case for a critical approach to international education

In recent times distinctions between the economic and political imperatives of international education and its cultural and educational aspects have become conveniently aligned. This alignment is troubling because it allows the pursuit of profit to fit neatly and without apparent controversy into the pursuit of more lofty political cultural and educational goals. Measures of student satisfaction with international education do little to challenge this comfortable affiliation. Indeed, they appear to reinforce the view that international education as currently pursued is travelling well and yielding maximum profits and benefits for all. The discussion in this article is based on the results of a pilot study that examined international student satisfaction with a teacher education internship program in Australia. Our findings showed that students were satisfied with their international education experience and that the internship/work integrated learning experience enhanced their satisfaction. Importantly however, our pre-departure study showed that students expected study abroad to make a difference to their lives even before they left home. The study led us to consider the meaning of student satisfaction and whether assessments of satisfaction might simply confirm what students already expect. If this is the case, it is not altogether clear what student satisfaction with international education means or measures.     

Students’ readiness to move from consumers to producers of digital video content: A cross-cultural analysis of Irish and Indian Students

Evidence has shown that students have greatly increased their consumption of digital video, principally through video sharing sites. In parallel, students’ participation in video sharing and creation has also risen. As educators, we need to question how this can be effectively translated into a positive learning experience for students, whilst examining how willing students actually are to critically engage with digital video and analysing how best to hone their digital literacy skills. Firstly, this article presents a cross-cultural analysis of Irish and Indian students’ perception of themselves as creators of digital video and examines their readiness to produce such videos as part of third level curricula. Secondly, it attempts to quantify the expose of both student cohorts to video sharing and creation. Thirdly, it analyses student perceptions of what challenges they face as they move from consumers to creators of digital video. Results indicate that whilst students are willing to adopt digital video for academic tasks, this article will analyse what supports and considerations need to be put in place in order for its successful integration in curricula.     

Go your own way: lifelong learning and reflexive autobiographies in postmodernity

This article provides an autobiographical account of two adult educators engaged in what may be seen as an identity crisis for contemporary adult education. Through our autobiographical analysis, we address the question of what it means to be an adult educator or to practice adult education in circumstances where dedifferentiation has taken hold under the sign of lifelong learning. First, we outline the challenges that are taking place to many of the practices and institutional structures of adult education. At the heart of these, we argue that there is an intensification of reflexivity wherein the identity crisis with which we are working is both a condition for and a response to increasing individualization and reflexivity. Second, we illustrate the link between reflexivity and identity by drawing on our own autobiographies. Here we exemplify the processes we argue to be operating under the sign of lifelong learning through the exploration of our own autobiographical bricolages. Third, we explore the cultural conditions which give rise to the similarities and differences in these bricolages, in particular the rise of the new middle classes, the increased significance of popular culture and the development of postmodern positions.     

Models of Vocational Development Revisited: reflecting on concerns

Abstract

This paper supports the notion of incorporating developmental, concerns‐based models and reflective models together, to provide a suitable framework for vocational preparation. However, it emphasises the importance of the learning group as the milieu in which reflection may be most powerfully enabled (or repressed) and the need to assist people in some reframing of their concerns, through critical reflection, before these can be adequately addressed. Data from an action research study, with mature‐age, male tradespeople in an internship system of training as Technology Studies teachers in secondary schools, are drawn upon to illustrate these points. This study indicates that people become reflective when: current actions are recognised as inappropriate; conditions are created in which stress may be openly acknowledged and addressed through group support, and thinking is challenged. A reflective, developmental model for adult learners is presented, relevant to learning situations in which changes of identity are required.     

25 Hours in Family: How Family Internships Can Help School Leaders Transform from Within

This article describes the ways in which a 25-hour internship with families who have children with disabilities impacted four doctoral students in educational leadership. We discuss the lessons we learned as a result of our experiences and provide insight into the structural components of the internship experience that were critical to enhancing our professional development. Key lessons include: (1) the realization that disability is a socially-constructed term that does not describe the talents, feelings, and aspirations of individuals with disabilities; (2) increased knowledge and strategies about how school leaders can provide support to families by listening to their hopes, dreams, and challenges; and (3) the critical need to include families in decision-making processes to ensure that the family perspective is represented. Important structural components of the internship experience included spending time with families in their homes and communities for extended periods of time. Implications for the preparation of educational leaders are discussed.     

从实习到入职:新手教师班级管理的实践性知识建构及启示

本文通过质性研究方法,对一位新手教师从实习到入职在班级管理方面的实践性知识建构的过程进行深刻剖析,揭示了实习中开始萌芽的实践性知识对于教师成长的意义。从知识形态看,该新手教师的实践性知识的获得经历了结合化、内化、社会化、外化的连续过程,表现出主体性、情境性、反思性和信念化等特征。案例启示我们:应正视实践性知识及其研究的复杂性,深挖实践性知识对教师成长的意义;完善相关的培养制度,特别是指导教师制度,增加实习生和新手教师发展实践性知识的可能性和能力;激发实习生与新手教师的反思潜质,促使其实践性知识的生成,为他们跨越理论与实践的鸿沟提供可能。     

Partners in Learning—educators,practitioners and students collaborate on work‐based learning—a case study

Work‐based learning is incorporated into a wide range of undergraduate courses that emphasise education for the professions. Yet, there is a lack of literature examining successful models that are structured around the principles of experiential learning. Partners in Learning (PAL) is a 12‐month, part‐time internship developed for Library and Information Studies students at the University of Canberra. Now in its fourth year, PAL is judged successful by students, mentors and academics alike. In this article, PAL is examined in relation to a model of experiential learning. Elements of successful work‐based experience are identified in published literature and related to “best practices” underlying the PAL model. Implications for educators introducing such a model are highlighted.     

Beyond cultural competence: transforming teacher professional learning through Aboriginal community-controlled cultural immersion

ABSTRACT

This paper problematises the concept of cultural competence in teacher professional learning arguing instead for opportunities to develop critical reflexivity in the ongoing construction of a pedagogical cultural identity. In the Aboriginal context within Australia, this research study demonstrates how attaining cultural knowledge, understandings and skills is most effective when professional learning is delivered by local Aboriginal cultural knowledge holders. This research study analyses the New South Wales Aboriginal Education Consultative Group Connecting to Country cultural immersion programme for local communities and schools. A mixed methods approach, analysing quantitative and qualitative data from questionnaires and interviews, highlights the significant impact this experience has on teachers in building relationships with local Aboriginal community members. Teachers reported learning new knowledge about local Aboriginal people, culture, history and issues that challenged their assumptions, personal and collective positioning and pedagogical approaches to teaching Aboriginal students. Implications from the study identify the significance of privileging Indigenous ways of knowing, being and doing in order to realise culturally responsive schooling and empower teachers as critically reflective change agents in their schools. It further identifies the need for significant human and financial investment so that all teachers can engage with this authentic and potentially transformative professional learning experience.     

质性研究中的多重研究关系和伦理“雷区”：一位行动研究者的自反性思考

作为质性研究发展的新趋向,行动研究所提倡的“合作”、“反思”、“变革”等理念越来越多地渗入至当代的民族志研究中。例如,批判民族志（Critical Ethnography）结合了批判理论和建构主义的认识论,认为研究者不应局限于客观地观察和记录被研究者的生活,还应充分反思自己在建构知识的过程中所扮演的角色,并充分“赋权”被研究者。基于平等的对话,被研究者才能够成为思考和行动的主体;研究所获得的知识才能在最大程度上摆脱意识形态的扭曲。在这篇论文中,作者主要回顾自己在一项突出行动性的民族志研究中的经验。通过反身性思考,本文揭示了研究关系的多重性、复杂性和敏感性,尤其是跨越“虚拟”与“真实”的伦理“雷区”。文章主要探讨两大问题：第一,在具体的社会情境中,研究关系是如何逐步建立起来的？第二,整个研究过程遭遇了哪些伦理危机？最佳解决途径是什么？作者对这些问题的讨论为今后的行动研究提供了一些与社会情境紧密相联的“经验性智慧”。这些经验可以帮助行动研究逐渐适应我国的具体国情,真正调动其广大一线教师的参与积极性。     

Understanding and Theorizing the Role of Culture in the Conceptualizations of Successful Aging and Lifelong Learning

Successful aging and lifelong learning are value-laden concepts that are culturally determined. To this effect, people with different value systems and cultural backgrounds may perceive and understand these two concepts differently, resulting in different definitions and conceptualizations by people in diverse cultural contexts. There have been studies of successful aging and lifelong learning that considered what role culture plays in these two constructs separately. However, there is a lack of research studying successful aging and lifelong learning alongside each other, using the same culturally relevant approach to examine the impact of culture on how these two constructs are understood and conceptualized. The aim of this paper is, therefore, two-fold. First, it will examine the concepts of successful aging and lifelong learning and consider the role that culture plays in the understanding of these two constructs. Second, it will present a culturally relevant theoretical framework to theorize and explain older people's own value systems and the predominant cultural values that have influenced their understandings and conceptualizations of what successful aging and lifelong learning mean to them in old age. Considering and examining the theoretical framework from the perspectives of elders themselves is necessary if we are to understand the ways in which culture shapes the experiences of aging and learning in later life.     

An investigation of experienced secondary science teachers' beliefs about inquiry: An examination of competing belief sets

The purpose of this study was to investigate the beliefs of six experienced high school science teachers about (1) what is successful science learning; (2) what are the purposes of laboratory in science teaching; and (3) how inquiry is implemented in the classroom. An interpretive multiple case study with an ethnographic orientation was used. The teachers' beliefs about successful science learning were substantively linked to their beliefs about laboratory and inquiry implementation. For example, two teachers who believed that successful science learning was deep conceptual understanding, used verification labs primarily to illustrate these concepts and used inquiry as a type of isolated problem‐solving experience. Another teacher who believed that successful science learning was enculturation into scientific practices used inquiry‐based labs extensively to teach the practices of science. Tension in competing beliefs sets and implications for reform are discussed. ? 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 41: 936‐960, 2004.