The rhetorical theory of isocrates

In the lexicon of contemporary liberal‐democratic legal practice, to “think like a lawyer” is to have mastered the fundamental, rational principles of “the law, “ a mastery which confers a technical, professional understanding of legal practices unavailable to ordinary, untrained people. This essay invites critics to take a different approach to jurisprudence, one that looks at the ways in which laws are negotiated within the broader rhetorical culture and then transformed into legal edicts. Using a case study of the “Separate But Equal” doctrine, the authors offer a set of characteristics that demarcate the rhetorical substance of legal practices within American rhetorical culture.     

“It’s My Place”: Student Perspectives on Urban School Effectiveness

This study investigated how graduates of an urban alternative school understood, interpreted, and compared their experiences in previous schools that they considered ineffective with their experiences at an effective alternative school. This study found that students find those schools effective that create or allow spaces where they can be empowered, leading to a sense of place. Students’ ownership or affinity to school spaces that lead them to refer to school as “my place” derived from school practices that were instrumental in promoting a sense of identification, commitment, integration, and alliances among students and faculty at the school. Based on the findings of the study, this article argues that for urban schools to be effective for students at risk, they not only need to focus on caring relationships and diverse learning experiences, they also need to create the space to foster a sense of “my place” for students.     

Women and literacy: a Nepal perspective

This article looks at adult women's experiences of literacy and literacy learning in a remote area of Western Nepal. As part of a research degree at Sussex University, I spent eight months living in a small village community where an American aid agency was implementing a development programme, comprising of a literacy class with follow-up income-generating activities for women. Drawing on an “ideological” approach to literacy research, I investigated how women and men of differing ages and economic backgrounds used literacy in their everyday lives. My research aimed to move away from the simple polarisation of women and men, traditional and developed, to analyse what meanings of literacy and gender were shared or disputed between different groups of people and how they reacted to literacy interventions by a foreign aid agency.By looking at three main kinds of literacy practices which so-called “illiterate” women participated in—existing everyday practices such as religious reading; new everyday practices such as account keeping introduced by the aid agency; and the literacy class which ran every evening in the village—this article analyses how women reacted to different kinds of literacies and what they gained from attending a literacy class. Everyday literacies tended to be seen as separate or even in opposition to the literacy class or new practices since they were learnt informally in the home. Many new literacy practices, such as form filling or keeping minutes, were viewed by both men and women as symbolic of the agency's authority but not necessarily useful. The literacy class introduced women to new roles as “class participants” and more participatory methods of teaching, but they preferred the kind of education seen in local schools so encouraged the teacher to adopt chanting methods and mirror the hierarchical teacher–pupil relationship.Though the women contested the dominant model of literacy and gender presented to them by the aid agency—that reading and writing would help in their existing role as mothers or wives or were useful for income generating—they wanted to become “educated” by attending the literacy class. They felt they gained a new identity through becoming literate and valued the additional social space that the class gave them as a group of women from differing backgrounds. Certain new practices like creative writing, though imposed by the aid agency, were welcomed by women at the class as enabling them to have a new voice.     

Creating the plural self: athletic teams’ use of members’ bodies

Galatzer‐Levy and Cohler's (1993) definition of “ self” allows for the possibility of a “ plural self,” that is, moments when an individual locates the center of initiative for action, feeling, and awareness among a group of people. Using observations and interviews, this investigation explores the ways four basketball teams used players’ bodies to create such a plural self, transforming autonomous individuals into interconnected, deindividualized members. One set of somatic practices made the team perceptible as a whole: huddles, team movements, hand slapping, and certain passing drills. A complementary set of practices encouraged the players to incorporate the team into their bodies. Examples presented of such incorporation are communal relaxation of bodily tension, the rhythms of shared ritual music, and a “sixth sense” of the location of teammates. Acute pain interferes with the emergence of this plural self in both injured and healthy players. The possibility is raised that for many athletes this temporarily realized plural self continues as a possible self and invites the development of certain virtues and failings.     

Academics leave your ivory tower: form communities of practice

Institutions of higher education (HE), public and private, are moving through a crisis period of tapped‐out states, funding cuts, tuition increases and layoffs. It makes good sense to rise to meet these new realities with new ways of doing things, and the places that succeed will be the ones that do. A holistic approach is necessary whereby excellence in teaching and learning as well as research should be the ultimate aim. Among the various ways to achieve this, is the promotion of communities of practices (CoPs) among the academics. Therefore, CoPs are to be seen as an “extension” of any programme to achieve excellence, because as it has been shown it is the sharing of the tacit knowledge that makes the difference in any organisation in its pursuit for a competitive advantage. An HE institution should be considered to be at a greater advantage than any other non‐academic organisation since each staff member is a knowledge worker whose mission is to transmit, create and incorporate new knowledge to the existing knowledge. This paper looks at the possible reasons preventing academics from participating in a CoP. It will be shown that CoPs can play a very important role in a university set‐up.     

Education Practices and Maturation1

The article briefly discusses the question of how we should establish special educational practices that could help students mature. In identifying such practices, the author looks to a number of empirical studies that allow us to understand what significance the concept of “maturation” has for children and teenagers. In conclusion, the author notes that modern educational systems rarely provide students with the opportunity to try on adult roles. To allow this, changes will have to be made and special mechanisms will have to be designed that enable children, teenagers, and college students to show initiative and take responsibility.     

Uncomfortable pedagogy: experiential learning as an anthropological encounter in the Asia-Pacific

This paper features a discussion of how educators can channel anthropological practices towards the enhancement of experiential learning (EL) teaching methods, particularly on the topic of religion across the Asia-Pacific. I argue that our capacity to achieve curricular objectives through EL calls for an attentiveness to the affinity between the empirical challenges confronted by ethnographers, who work to create rapport between researcher and subject, and classroom teachers who seek to cultivate a conducive learning environment beyond the classroom walls. I show the pedagogical implications of the ways anthropologists have operationalized their discipline’s “critical turn” by highlighting two experiential domains: (1) through activities of “uncomfortable” stereotype self-inventory and (2) through a dialogic pedagogy that pursues meaningful learning outcomes through the “struggle” to recognize inter-cultural and religious agency among students.     

Implications of the olympiad studies for the development of mathematical talent in schools

In this chapter educational implications arising from the data about the Olympiad winners in the U.S., Taiwan and Mainland China (Chapters 3–5) are offered. The discussion addresses two lines of questioning: (1) How can we ensure support for recognized math talent through schooling to professional life? (2) How can we increase the pool of gifted students who participate in the Olympiad and other academic competitions and programs? To address the first question, related research studies in a number of different areas are explored. The second part of the chapter looks at how and why schools should expand the number of students who participate in competitions. This view is supported by a rationale for the role of talent development, including whether broad or narrow curricula for secondary students should be pursued and how the “the leaky pipeline” leading to math-based careers can be “plugged.”     

Meteorology and the rhetoric of nature's cultural display

On television (the primary source of weather information), meteorology, or the science of short‐term weather prediction, visually associates atmospheric information as relevant to social and economic issues. This is particularly true on The Weather Channel (TWC). This essay borrows and extends the work of Lessl and Messaris to examine the rhetoric of TV meteorology as it is displayed on TWC. I argue that TWC combines priestly (expertise) and bardic (visual eloquence) discourse to create “weathertainment” that predicates and encourages consumer practices.     

“The real and the ideal”: teacher roles and competences in South African policy and practice

Policy-makers have placed great faith in education as a means of transforming and developing South African society. Recent policy documents specify occupational, professional and academic roles and competences for teachers. These documents require a significant shift to “extended” professionalism. Do these roles and competences resonate with current classroom realities and practices? This question was addressed by mapping the practices of “effective” teachers onto research schedules based on the six major roles prescribed by policy. In practice, teachers assumed roles that were more in accord with personal value systems, local cultures, and contexts. Some significant disjunctions at the interface of policy and practice raise serious questions about policy assumptions. “Tissue rejection”, a not unlikely possibility, would jeopardise the curriculum edifice upon which transformation and development depend. Worse, historically unequal schools could become more so.     

综合类课程教学模式的改革研究与实践--以《信息系统分析与设计》课程为例

介绍了《信息系统分析与设计》这一综合类课程教学改革所进行的一些有益的研究探索与实践,研究设计了“双主体多维度”的教学模式,采取参与式与讨论式的教学方法以及小群体互动式的教学形式,从而提高了“双主体多维度”的教学模式的有效性。为保证“双主体多维度”教学模式的顺利实施,构建了双平台的保障体系,并设计开发了线上评价系统( OES)实时测评与记录教学效果。     

Mentoring “Inside” and “Outside” the Action of Teaching: A Professional Framework for Mentoring

This study seeks to contribute to the research on mentored induction by investigating the practices mentors employ in their work with new teachers in two high-need, high-poverty urban elementary schools. Informed by Schwille’s (2008) temporal framework of “educative” mentoring practices occurring “inside” and “outside” the action of teaching, this study investigated the range of practices mentors employed, new teachers’ perceptions of the practices, and if the practices contributed to new teachers’ professional learning. Participants included six new teachers and two induction mentors. Results indicate that “inside” and “outside” mentoring practices are complementary and should be conceived as assisted performance and judiciously selected to promote productive changes in new teachers’ practice. Recommendations for mentoring programs are provided.     

Silence as borderland: a semiotic approach to the “silent” pupil in nineteenth-century vocal education

Abstract

At the heart of the nineteenth-century educational soundscape lies a paradox. Whilst “modern” classrooms generally strived for orderly silence, the goal of its educational practices was the production of competent “citizens”. Middle-class boys in particular were expected to acquire a voice fit for business, the professions, or even (political) public speech whilst quietly listening to a teacher. This silence within the educational institution has generally been understood as an element of discipline. In this paper I want to examine the paradox of the silent classroom and the speaking citizen. I will focus specifically on those instances where the clear goal of education was vocal sound (i.e. fluent speech, civilised pronunciation, and song) and look at how silence was mobilised by educators. I will argue that the silences employed in these educational practices were not (only) tools of order and discipline, but rather means to create a “borderland” where the leap between childhood and its uncivilised noises, and adulthood and its rational speech, could be made.

I will draw upon the interpretations of silence as “in between” signs as it has been developed by semioticians to analyse a corpus of sources consisting mainly of French, German, and English pedagogical literature focusing on the development of children’s voices. Reframing the place of silence in “institutionalised” education allows us to delve deeper into the specific ways in which “discipline” (re)produced and articulated dichotomies of power.     

A professional development model for the positive practice of school‐based reading consultation

This paper reports on two years of a multiyear consultation/professional development project based on socioconstructivist principles (situated cognition, social context, and scaffolded instruction) that are consistent with key elements of positive psychology. The consultation model used a case analysis framework to engage 12 elementary school teachers in workshops, demonstration lessons, ad hoc inquiry groups, and coaching. Interview, questionnaire, and field note data from the participants identified “control and choice,” “focus on student needs,” “applicability to classroom practices,” “direct instruction of skills,” and “consultant feedback” as key elements of the model. Changes in classroom practices were reported by 78% of the participants with changes in confidence noted from pre‐ to posttests. Better learning for students was mentioned by 89% of the teachers. Discussion focuses on critical theoretical elements associated with positive psychology. © 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Psychol Schs 41: 51–65, 2004.     

Joan Aiken’s Armitage Family Stories: Place and Storytelling as a Way into the World

This article explores the importance of place and story in the life and work of Joan Aiken (1924–2004), with a focus on the Armitage Family short stories. It explores the fluid relationship between books, storytelling and place in Joan Aiken’s childhood and looks at her close relationship with the landscape of the Sussex Downs. Particular attention is paid to the short stories “The Land of Trees and Heroes” and “Kitty Snickersnee”. The final section of the article explores the possibilities of drawing on Aiken’s writing, and the work of other relevant authors, in the primary school classroom.     

Speaking of “Disorderly” Objects: A poetics of pedagogical discourse

To interrogate pedagogical discourses relating to child behaviour as “practices that systematically form the objects of which they speak” this paper features the analysis of three texts through the development and deployment of what might be called a poetics of pedagogical discourse. The principal text is a statement describing “problematic” behaviour in school. Of concern is how this particular statement functions—what does it do and with what effects? Here my analysis will be informed by the examination of two other texts. Each demonstrates techniques in the production of meaning; specifically, how performative language and intertextuality contribute to and enhance the constitutive properties of discourse. The aim is, first, to “try to grasp subjection in its material instance as a constitution of subjects” through the interrogation of discursive practices that, in objectifying and subjugating individual school children, create the condition of possibility for the recognition and classification of disorderly behaviour and behaviour disorders, such as attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. A second, but no less important, aim is to call attention to the dangers inherent to the ways in which child behaviour comes to be described in schools.     

Assessing equity beyond knowledge‐ and skills‐based outcomes: A comparative ethnography of two fourth‐grade reform‐based science classrooms

When evaluating equity, researchers often look at the “achievement gap.” Privileging knowledge and skills as primary outcomes of science education misses other, more subtle, but critical, outcomes indexing inequitable science education. In this comparative ethnography, we examined what it meant to “be scientific” in two fourth‐grade classes taught by teachers similarly committed to reform‐based science (RBS) practices in the service of equity. In both classrooms, students developed similar levels of scientific understanding and expressed positive attitudes about learning science. However, in one classroom, a group of African American and Latina girls expressed outright disaffiliation with promoted meanings of “smart science person” (“They are the science people. We aren't like them”), despite the fact that most of them knew the science equally well or, in one case, better than, their classmates. To make sense of these findings, we examine the normative practice of “sharing scientific ideas” in each classroom, a comparison that provided a robust account of the differently accessible meanings of scientific knowledge, scientific investigation, and scientific person in each setting. The findings illustrate that research with equity aims demands attention to culture (everyday classroom practices that promote particular meanings of “science”) and normative identities (culturally produced meanings of “science person” and the accessibility of those meanings). The study: (1) encourages researchers to question taken‐for‐granted assumptions and complexities of RBS and (2) demonstrates to practitioners that enacting what might look like RBS and producing students who know and can do science are but pieces of what it takes to achieve equitable science education. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc., Inc. J Res Sci Teach 48: 459–485, 2011     

Science Teachers Without Classrooms of Their Own: A Study of the Phenomenon of Floating

“Floating” teachers, or teachers without their own classroom, experience unique affordances and constraints as they develop professionally. To increase the knowledge in this area, this study looks at how traveling to different classrooms affects beginning secondary science teachers’ development and instruction. The participants in this study were three first-year floating secondary science teachers whose experiences were analyzed through a cultural historical activity theory framework. The data revealed how floating can either support or constrain the development of beginning science teachers, and limit the implementation of standards-based instruction. Finally, this study shows that high levels of human, physical, and social resources are necessary for progress towards standards-based science teaching. It suggests that if science teachers must move to different classrooms, we need to create ways in which to support their instruction and development. Furthermore, this study recommends that all teachers and supervisors work toward a deeper understanding of the school community’s role in the experience of the floating science teacher.     

How “Pathetic” is Your Hiring Process? An Application of the Lessig “Pathetic Dot” Model to Educational Hiring Practices

Now, more than ever, the baby-boomer administrators are retiring in massive waves. Some researchers have predicted as high as 75% turnover by 2011 for education alone. For many years, not much attention has been placed upon succession planning or developing new leaders in some colleges; others have tended to create stockpiles of leadership candidates with not enough internal leadership positions to go around. In turn, in many schools this has left the talent pool of qualified individuals to be very small, and it creates a problem, not only for educational administrators but also, especially, for those in the entrepreneurial departments of community colleges. There has been much research about “getting the right person on the bus” and “moving from good to great,” yet no one, to the knowledge of the researchers, has extended industrial-organizational psychology research on “person-fit” into community college administration research. The purpose of this study was to examine the theoretical constructs of the educational hiring process. In turn, the application of the Lessig “Pathetic Dot” model is used to create a framework to examine hiring practices and possibly show some deficiencies. This is important, now more than ever, with community college administrations having to turn to external independent sources for validation of their practices and procedures. Finally, a brief discussion of how to strengthen the hiring process, in a time of heavy turnover and attrition, concludes the discussion. The authors also present practical applications, suggestions for future research, and implications for practitioners.