Revisioning the Origin: Tracing Inventional Agency Through Genetic Inquiry

The authors respond to the charge that reading for intentionality necessarily leads critics into a naive conception of agency. They argue for methods that hold authors, texts, and audiences in productive tension. Genetic criticism is offered as a perspective in which the author may be integrated within this tension. Using Di Gregorio and Gill's study of Darwin's marginalia and Campbell's examination of Darwin's notebooks, the authors apply genetic criticism to Darwin's writings to demonstrate that intentionalist readings offer scholars a useful critical resource.     

The search for the complicit native: Epistemic violence,historical amnesia,and the anthropologist as ideologue of empire

This essay analyzes a number of issues surrounding the Menchu/Stoll dispute. In locating Stoll's criticism of Rigoberta within a larger referential arena that includes an attack on the North American academic left and an unbridled anti-Marxism, the authors attempt to reveal how Stoll's ideological agenda is functionally compatible with the larger political agenda of the New Right. The authors also attempt to reveal Stoll's distortions of Guatemalan guerrilla history as well as problems with his analysis and collection of the data.     

Education,Freedom, and Temporality: A Response to Biesta and Säfström's Manifesto

Since it was first published in 2011, ‘A Manifesto for Education’ by Gert Biesta and Karl Anders Säfström has received numerous enthusiastic reviews and been hailed as providing ‘an alternative vision for education’. Such enthusiasm, however, is perhaps not purely attributable to the substance of the text but also to the form that it adopts. In this regard, I attempt to explore what the authors refer to as the ironic usage of this genre of writing in relation to its message. The authors diagnose a problem in education related to the modern understanding of time, and they suggest an alternative ‘non‐temporality’ in which we ‘stay in the tension between “what is” and “what is not” ’. While I appreciate the Manifesto's attempt to offer criticism based on the link between freedom and temporality in education, I take issue with aspects of their analysis. I discuss temporality and freedom through a reading of Martin Heidegger in which the concept of time in education is understood in terms of human freedom as possibility.     

Social alienation by communication denial

The major claim of this essay is that an important relationship between hermeneutics and rhetoric has been overlooked by communication scholars. By describing the nature of this relationship the authors clarify rhetoric's epistemic function and, in turn, provide important theoretical directives for rhetorical criticism.     

Understanding narrative relations in teacher education

The use of stories in teacher education is ubiquitous; yet, the question regarding how stories help teachers make sense of their professional lives is more complex than it first appears. The authors draw from Adriana Cavarero's understanding of narrative relations as the political site where one's unique singularity is revealed in the desire to have one's story told. They compare her insights to Judith Butler's resignification of injurious speech, examining both positions as they apply to a beginning teacher's efforts to become the professional she admires. It is suggested to teacher educators that they use stories from practice to foreground the tension between a teacher's life and her life-story. By understanding the irresolvable tension of desire to have one's story told, a teacher has a better chance of recognising her own vulnerability and that of her students, and of teaching at the starting place of ethics.     

Social difference,cultural arbitrary and identity: An analysis of a new national curriculum document in a non-secular environment

This article focuses on the idea of the Curriculum as a 'selection from the cultures of society' and as a site of contestation for legitimacy and identity affirmation. The purpose is to shed some light on the nature of curricular reform being advocated in a specific context - Malta. Throughout the past four years, there has been a revamping of the National Minimum Curriculum (NMC) document in Malta, established in 1988. The 'old' National Minimum Curriculum was subject to criticism focusing on a variety of issues (echoing criticisms levelled at similar National Curricula elsewhere), including issues concerning difference and identity. The first part of the article deals briefly with the issues concerning difference raised in this criticism, focusing on the issues of class, race/ethnicity, gender and disability. The second part focuses on the long and gradual build up towards the development of the new National Curriculum document. The process centres around two documents, the preliminary Tomorrow's Schoolsdocument and the draft NMC document. The issues of equity and the affirmation of social difference, as well as the move towards de-streaming, are discussed. It is argued that this process of reform benefited from the criticism of the earlier NMC document. The process of reform involved an attempt at widespread participation by various stakeholders - parents, teachers, students, unions, women's organisations, disabled person's organisations etc. The final section focuses on the final new NMC document. In this section, the authors explore the compromises, which have been made in reaction to the draft document, indicating the interests at play. Whose cultural arbitrary is reflected in the final document? The article concludes with a discussion centring around lessons to be drawn from a process of curricular reform, involving issues related to identity and difference, carried out in a country characterised by a non-secular environment.     

Links between kropotkin' theory of ‘mutual aid’ and the values and practices of action research

The purpose of this article is to outline some of the key ideas of Peter Kropotkin on Mutual Aid, which can be seen to have a resonance and relevance to the value base and practices of action research. Written in 1902 as a refutation of the appropriation of Darwin's theories by social philosophers, Kropotkin's work stresses the importance of cooperation, rather than competition amongst humans as the basis for a creative, supportive and developmental human community (society). His ideas can be seen to have a particular importance or relationship to the growing body of action research in the community health and social care fields, where Kropotkin's theory can also be seen to support and explain the activity of the growing numbers of self help/mutual aid groups in both condition specific groups and in social/community concerns more generally.     

论余华小说《第七天》的艺术张力

继《兄弟》之后,沉寂七年的余华在2013年推出长篇新作《第七天》。小说一经发表,随之而来的各种评论不绝于耳,褒奖者有之,批评者更甚。余华深谙张力因素对小说的功用,在《第七天》中完美地呈现了三组显著的艺术张力：一是叙事结构上真实与虚构形成的巨大张力贯穿小说始终,推动故事的发展;二是苦难与温情的张力体现作家对底层人深沉的爱与同情;三是活着与死亡两个世界之间的张力体现作者强烈的现实主义批判精神。客观说来,《第七天》以其饱满的艺术张力,理应在余华的所有创作中占有一席之地。     

A reconsidering chronos: Chronistic criticism and the first ‘Iraqi national calendar

Chronos is a traditionally marginalized term in rhetorical studies. Historically paired with kairos, chronos is commonly taken to refer to chronology, empty, homogenous, and external time. I argue for a reconsideration and redefinition of chronos that pairs the term with a critical materialist theory of time as change, immanent temporalities. Chronos understood as an entanglement of immanent temporalities informs chronistic criticism. Chronistic criticism is a conceptual criticism investigating the rhetorical arrangement, or synchronization, of multiple processes of change. Reconsidering chronos makes room for investigating time-related texts, like ‘Iraq's first national calendar. This calendar emerged after the establishment of the ‘Iraqi state under the League of Nation's Mandate System where British authorities were charged with building a modern nation state from territories of the former Ottoman Empire. I demonstrate chronistic criticism examining Gertrude Bell's digital archive for observations about successes, failures, and competitors with the national calendar. A vitalized chronos stands to make substantive contributions to the study of numerous rhetorical concepts. Specifically, for this investigation, chronos offers new insights into political myths, calendars, nation building, and the potential influences of nonhuman immanent temporalities.     

Rhetorical criticism of interpersonal discourse: An exploratory study

This study demonstrates how rhetorical criticism can be utilized to clarify the rhetorical nature of interpersonal discourse. Bitzer's situational theory, Bormann's fantasy theme analysis, and Arnold's criticism of oral rhetoric are synthesized to explain the nature and form of selected portions of taped and transcribed interpersonal dialogue.     

新批评观下的玫瑰——细读《献给艾米丽的一朵玫瑰》

新批评的批评理论不仅被运用于对诗歌的解读,也可被用来对小说进行剖析。通过细读,运用新批评的象征意义、神话原型、反讽以及张力等批评范畴来对福克纳的《献给爱米丽的一朵玫瑰》进行赏析,透过缺失的玫瑰来看福克纳对美国南方爱恨交织的复杂感情。     

论刘勰的作者批评观——《文心雕龙·才略》论

刘勰的《文心雕龙.才略》是一篇历代作家通论,他对先秦到魏晋的近百位作家进行了评论,集中体现了刘勰的作者批评观,也是中国古代作者批评观的代表作。在《才略》篇中,刘勰用了三种作者批评研究法:一、作者比较批评法;二、结合作家和作品来分析的作家批评法,三结合作者与时代的关系来分析的作者批评法。     

Of dogs and martyrs. Sherrington,Richards, Pavlov and Vygotsky

I. A. Richards' psychological account of the poet's experience was central to his The principles of literary criticism. He aimed to ‘rehabilitate’ English criticism through perspectives gained from scientific discoveries in psychology after the Great War. A chief source for this was the work of the neurophysiologist, C. S. Sherrington. The title of this piece refers to a remark made by Sherrington to the Russian physiologist, Ivan Pavlov: ‘the animal [a dog] seemed to me in a state of persecution best comparable with that of a Christian martyr’. Paradoxically, Vygotsky retold the story within a critique of Pavlov's limiting accounts of human behaviour. Richards' picture of the complexity of the poet's experience—the balancing of conflicting impulses—also relied on an essentially reductive account of behaviour, in which the ‘extraordinary’ quality of the poet's experience is traceable to the workings of the brain and the nervous system. In contrast, Vygotsky offered a powerful picture of semiotically mediated consciousness, dependent on human agency and purpose. The story restores neglected European historical perspectives to a key development in English studies.     

Problematising Critique in Education and Child‐Rearing: Ruhloff's Scepticism

In ‘Problematising Critique in Pedagogy’ Jörg Ruhloff develops a concept of critique that is motivated by a deep concern for the state of humanity. This is a thought‐provoking development of critique, but I find myself disagreeing over, or rather simply unconvinced by, his understanding of the human condition, and, connected to this, of criticism. Referring to Nietzsche, I start by illustrating one way in which a concept of critique such as Ruhloff's may in some sense be implied in educational praxis, focusing mainly on his concern that critique is not domesticated by political, economic, or other forces. In the second section I draw on Stanley Cavell to discuss some contentious aspects of Ruhloff's construal of criticism. Here I focus on Ruhloff's claim to universality, as contained in his appeal to what he calls the condition of human rationality and to a procedure of critical‐transcendental‐sceptical deliberation over the presuppositions of different standpoints. Ruhloff's understanding of criticism exemplifies an attitude that presents itself as a hostility to the ordinary. Connected to this, I sketch a conception of scepticism that is different—viz. more dynamic—than his understanding of it as a kind of methodological tool in the service of exposing presuppositions. Scepticism needs to be acknowledged in existential terms, as inherent to the human condition: a condition of life with language. With further reference to Cavell, the importance of expression, of revealing oneself as an exemplar, can then be emphasised. I conclude, in the third section, by indicating in what sense I find that a commitment to substantial judgements is lacking in Ruhloff's conception of critique and criticality.     

Issues in identifying gifted students: How Renzulli's model stacks up

Traditional approaches to the identification of gifted and talented students are the subject of increasing scrutiny and criticism. Several problems, limitations and issues have been noted in the literature, and as a result, new conceptualizations and procedures have been advanced. Renzulli's Revolving Door Identification Model (RDIM) is one such model which has been widely adopted. This article first gives a brief summary of the model and investigates the reasons for its popularity. It then addresses some of the more serious criticisms that have been levelled against the model. Finally, it reviews what the authors feel are the more legitimate concerns about the model as they assess its validity and utility for identifying and serving gifted students.     

The Great evolution trial: Use of role-play in the classroom

This article gives both the pedagogic and scientific thinking that guided the construction of a classroom role-play—The Great Evolution Debate. This role-play is about the publication of Darwin's The Origin of Species, which is supposed to be on trial for blasphemy. Historical characters are used to show the range of ideas which were current at that time. The literature on learning history, and on learning about the nature of science, is discussed, leading to an examination of historical empathy as a classroom objective. The reasons for including the various characters in the role-play are explained. The exercise has been used by 15 to 16-year-old students in British high schools with considerable success, and some tentative findings about learning from role-play are drawn from its observation.     

Troubled Diversities,Multiple Identities and the Relevance of Royce: What makes a community worth caring about?

Based on a rather simple thesis that we can learn from our mistakes, Karl Popper developed a falsificationist epistemology in which knowledge grows through falsifying, or criticizing, our theories. According to him, knowledge, especially scientific knowledge, progresses through conjectures (i.e. tentative solutions to problems) that are controlled by criticism, or attempted refutations (including severely critical tests). As he puts it, ‘Criticism of our conjectures is of decisive importance: by bringing out our mistakes it makes us understand the difficulties of the problem which we are trying to solve. This is how we become better acquainted with our problem, and able to propose more mature solutions: the very refutation of a theory ... is always a step forward that takes us nearer to the truth. And this is how we can learn from our mistakes’ (1989, p. vii). Since criticism plays such a crucial role in Popper's falsificationist methodology, it seems natural to envisage his heuristic as a helpful resource for developing critical thinking. However, there is much controversy in the psychological literature over the feasibility and utility of his falsificationism as a heuristic. In this paper, I first consider Popper's falsificationism within the framework of his critical rationalism, elucidating three core and interrelated concepts, viz. fallibilism, criticism, and verisimilitude. Then I argue that the implementation of Popper's falsificationism means exposing to criticism various philosophical presuppositions that work against criticism, such as essentialism, instrumentalism, and conventionalism; it also means combating what seems a common tendency of humans to be biased towards confirmation. I examine the confirmation bias, to which Popper did not give much attention: its pervasiveness and various guises, some theoretical explanations for it, and the role of teachers in undermining its strength and spread. Finally, I consider the question whether students can and should be taught to use disconfirmatory strategies for solving problems.     

A biological basis for generative learning in technology-and-science Part I: A theory of learning

The modern history of biology shows how Darwin's selectionist theory has replaced instructionist theories in explaining the operations of living things: first, in the 1850s, with inheritance through the gene pool and second, in the 1960s, with the replacement of a template theory of immune system function. Now, scholars in several disciplines consider that the brain is a Darwin machine, too. Underpinning Darwinism is a generative heuristic, in which entities (or variants) are generated, and later subjected to tests. Entities which survive the testing are re-generated, and so on. This heuristic offers considerable value for technology-and-science education. This article, the first of a set of two, is devoted to an exposition of the science on which such a view of learning is based. In the second article, we pursue the implications for technology-and-science learning and teaching of holding such a view.