Prompting teachers’ constructive reflection: pupils’ questions as critical incidents

Constructive reflection is seen as an important ingredient in the professional development of teachers, in order to stimulate significant change in approaches to classroom practice and the general provision of science education in schools. This paper explores the use of pupils’ questions in provoking ‘critical incidents’ in the professional lives of teachers. It is suggested that pupils’ questions can be both indicative of their own conceptual change as well as being sophisticated prompts for teachers to examine their own thinking. Case studies of two teachers ‐‐ one primary and one secondary ‐‐ are used to illuminate how such critical incidents can lead to changes in teacher thinking, resulting then in changes in classroom practice in science. Suggestions are made for the use of pupils’ questions as critical incidents in the professional development of teachers.     

Encouraging the transformation of personal epistemology

Educators assume a positive relationship between epistemological development and learning. But our understanding of this relationship is limited because it focuses mostly on higher education, and supporting data are biased by gender, ethnicity, and geography. The purpose of this study was to identify factors that encourage changes in Malaysian women's epistemology. Within a cultural framework, two questions guide this study: (a) How does higher education stimulate changes in epistemology in other cultural contexts, and (b) What factors other than higher education encourage changes in epistemology? Based on constant comparative analysis of in-depth interviews with 14 Malaysian women, the author identified three cultural factors that encourage transformation of thinking and knowing: family support of education for women and girls, formal and informal learning experiences, and extended international opportunities. Epistemological development occurs as a woman negotiates conflict between her cultural and personal models of self.     

‘To Give an Example is a Complex Act’: Agamben’s pedagogy of the paradigm

Abstract

Agamben’s notion of the ‘paradigm’ has far-reaching implications for educational thinking, curriculum design and pedagogical conduct. In his approach, examples—or paradigms—deeply engage our powers of analogy, enabling us to discern previously unseen affinities among singular objects by stepping outside established systems of classification. In this way we come to envision novel groupings, new patterns of connection—that nonetheless do not simply reassemble those singular objects into yet another rigidly fixed set or class. Agamben sees this sort of ‘paradigmatic understanding’ as our richest source of intelligibility. For Agamben the paradigm is ultimately about learning to see again, starting not with already perfectly known and categorized objects (or ideas), but rather with a fresh experience of one individual object and the analogical relations it may have to others, and to novel groupings that may arise. The paradigm is a method, a way in which educators might respond to a wide range of educational challenges. For a paradigmatic relation suspends while exposing, deactivates while revealing, complicates while clarifying. But articulating the enigmatic paradigmatic relation between example and class is far more than a method. It is epistemological (a way of knowing and conception of knowledge), ethical (a fostering of freedom from presupposed categories and reified principles) and ontological (a type of being that exposes the potential of knowing and communicating—their intelligibility and communicability). In these qualities, paradigms exhibit to educators a free, a new use of singularities.     

Cognitive conflict and intuitive rules

This paper is a part of an extensive project on the role of intuitive rules in science and mathematics education. First, we described the effects of two intuitive rules ‐‐ ‘Everything comes to an end’ and ‘Everything can be divided’ ‐‐ on seventh to twelfth grade students’ responses to successive division tasks related to mathematical and physical objects. Then, we studied the effect of an intervention, which provided students with two contradictory statements, one in line with students’ intuitive response, the other contradicting it, on their responses to various successive division tasks. It was found that this conflict‐based intervention did not improve students’ ability to differentiate between successive division processes related to mathematical objects and those related to material ones. These results reconfirmed that intuitive rules are stable and resistant to change. Finally, this paper raised the need for additional research related to the relationship between intuitive rules and formal knowledge.     

Jacques Rancière’s Lesson on the Lesson

Abstract

This article examines the significance of Jacques Rancière’s work on pedagogy, and argues that to make sense of Rancière’s ‘lesson on the lesson’ one must do more but also less than merely explicate Rancière’s texts. It steadfastly refuses to draw out the lessons of Rancière’s writings in the manner of a series of morals, precepts or rules. Rather, it is committed to thinking through the ‘lessons’ of Rancière in another sense. Above all, Rancière wants to ‘teach’ his readers something absolutely crucial about teaching. In making this claim the article emphasizes the extent to which Rancière advocates an utterly radical pedagogy, one that completely reconceives all the central elements of ‘schooling’, including teacher, student, intelligence and knowledge. Rancière thinks it possible to teach without knowing; he believes that the best schoolmasters can operate not on the assumption of their expertise, but on the equality of intelligence; and this means ultimately that Rancière contends that we can ‘teach what we do not know’. The best schoolmasters are ignorant schoolmasters. Rancière’s radical pedagogy depends upon, just as it consistently advances, a thoroughgoing resistance to a certain form of epistemological and ontological mastery. The rejection of mastery—of schoolmasters who would know it all, and convey this knowing to their students—forms the very backbone of all of Rancière’s writings and critical investigations. This is the chief reason why Rancière is, in a way, always talking about pedagogy, even when his subject matter appears to be something else entirely.     

HANDYNET ‐‐ The European Community Information Network on Disability

Abstract

HANDYNET is a live and vigorous project with a large ‘family’ of participants. Details of HANDYNET, and other European Commission projects for the handicapped, were published in the Commission of the European Communities Directorate General for Employment, Social Affairs and Education publication Social Europe ‐‐ supplement 7/86 directed towards ‘The Social Integration of Disabled People’. This article on HANDYNET is an edited extract from the above supplement and in particular the splendid paper by Danielle Rimbert.     

Scorched Earth: prelude to rebuilding Marxist educational theory

This paper focuses on the internal degeneration of the Marxist educational theory flowing from Bowles & Gintis (1976) and Willis (1977). It explores five interlinked ‘debilitating problematics’ ‐‐ the base/superstructure metaphor, Left functionalism, relative autonomy, resistance theory and the education for autonomy/revolution dilemma ‐‐ which have simultaneously formed the backbone of Marxist educational theory and constituted the roots of its theoretical weaknesses. The general argument is that these weaknesses are so deep‐seated that Marxists interested in theorising capitalist schooling need to start afresh. The paper points towards some possible starting points for new Marxist thinking on capitalist schooling, the preferred option being an analysis of labour‐power. One consequence of taking labour‐power as the starting point for a Marxist analysis of education is that it entails the dissolution of Marxist educational theory’. Instead, educational theory and politics become subordinated to a concern with the social production of labour‐power in capitalism.     

In Excess of Epistemology: Siegel,Taylor, Heidegger and the Conditions of Thought

Harvey Siegel's epistemologically‐informed conception of critical thinking is one of the most influential accounts of critical thinking around today. In this article, I seek to open up an account of critical thinking that goes beyond the one defended by Siegel. I do this by re‐reading an opposing view, which Siegel himself rejects as leaving epistemology (and, by implication, his epistemological account of critical thinking) ‘pretty much as it is’. This is the view proposed by Charles Taylor in his paper ‘Overcoming Epistemology’. Crucially, my aim here is not to defend Taylor's challenge to epistemology per se, but rather to demonstrate how, through its appeal to certain key tropes within Heideggerian philosophy, Taylor's paper opens us towards a radically different conception of thinking and the human being who thinks. Indeed, as will be argued, it is through this that Taylor and Heidegger come to offer us the resources for re‐thinking the nature of critical thinking—in a way that exceeds the epistemological, and does more justice to receptive and responsible conditions of human thought.     

Talking back in cyberspace: self-love,hair care,and counter narratives in Black adolescent girls’ YouTube vlogs

ABSTRACT

While the ‘natural hair movement’ has grown in popularity and criticism, educational researchers have not attended to how Black adolescent girls with all textures of natural hair are navigating the implications of foregoing chemical alterations to their curl patterns. This article reports on an investigation of self-talk in 56 internet video logs constructed by Black adolescent girls with natural hair, describing the messages of self-love, hair care, and counter narratives to dominant discourse that emerged from an in-depth ethnographic content analysis. Hair politics may seem irrelevant to the field of education, but findings suggest that the topic should matter to anyone who cares deeply about the social and academic worlds of Black adolescent girls.     

Motivation and Methodology in Moral Education

Abstract

Two basic worries about moral education are considered. The first ‐‐ whether there are or are not fundamental principles of reason and procedure which govern moral decision‐making ‐‐ is argued to be unnecessary, since there plainly are some such procedures. The second ‐‐ how and in what direction pupils should be motivated to attend to such principles ‐‐ is a more complex and difficult matter, which has to be tackled whatever one's particular philosophical views on morality. It is argued that the proper object of motivation is primarily allegiance to certain principles of rationality and justice, natural sympathy or personal benevolence being regarded as desirable but too fragile.     

Combining the ‘why’ and ‘how’ of teaching sustainability: the case of the business school academics

Abstract

Faculty are key to bringing about ‘bottom-up’ change for sustainability education. Yet, research is still needed on the backgrounds and experiences of change agents in universities and the challenges they face. This study focuses on the marketing discipline, a field fraught with epistemological tensions in seeking to integrate sustainability, mainly revolving around profit maximisation and continuous consumption while living on a planet with finite resources. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with sustainability marketing academics in Australasia, Europe and North America. The contribution of this paper lies in the development of a sustainability educator typology linking why and how integration occurs. The sustainability ‘transformer’ wishes to engage in transformational learning, changing student mindsets, the ‘thinker’ wants to encourage critical thinking to bring about the discussion of worldviews, while the ‘actioner’ hopes ‘learning by doing’ (community projects) will provide an appreciation for sustainability. We discuss implications for those disciplines which struggle with philosophical tensions and colleague resistance to the integration of sustainability in the form of suggestions for professional development (i.e. creation of positive nature experiences) and pedagogical approaches (critical, transformative and community-service learning).     

Enhancing the Educational Communication Process

Abstract

The theme of the 1987 Conference of the International Council for Educational Media to be held at Cardiff on the 26‐27 October is ‘Communication ‐‐ the Essence of Education’.     

One step forward,two steps back? Work experience,equal opportunities and TVEI

Abstract

The funding criteria of the Technical and Vocational Education Initiative included a high profile commitment to equal opportunities for boys and girls, as well as a commitment to the provision of work experience. This paper presents data from a case study of work experience provided under the auspices of ‘Masonfield’ TVEI project, a project which had a strong commitment to tackling gender inequalities in education. It is argued that the nature of work experience ‐‐ by definition explicitly allied to the needs of the labour market ‐‐ made it virtually impossible for the project to meet its equal opportunities objectives in this area. Furthermore, work experience may have served to reinforce — if not exaggerate — existing sexual divisions within the local labour market. Whilst TVEI may now be consigned to educational history, work experience continues to thrive — yet increasingly within a policy framework which ignores equal opportunities considerations.     

Prioritizing morality in the self and consistent moral responses despite encouragement to behave immorally

ABSTRACT

When morality is important and central to individuals’ identities (moral identity), it may heighten their sense of responsibility to behave in moral ways. Although research has linked moral identity to various moral actions, research has yet to demonstrate the association between moral identity and individuals’ consistent moral choices, despite situational sanctions (i.e., peer group approval) to behave immorally. The purpose of this study was to examine if prioritizing morality in the self is associated with individuals’ consistent moral responses in four situations encouraging the expression of immoral behavior. After reading about situations in which peers approved of and encouraged immoral behavior (i.e., stealing a laptop, drunk driving, cheating on an exam, keeping someone else’s money), 185 participants reported the degree to which they disagreed or agreed that: (1) each situation was immoral; (2) they would resist the ‘temptation’ to behave immorally; and (3) they would attempt to convince their peers of the ‘right thing’ to do. Results revealed that, despite being encouraged to behave immorally, heightened moral identity predicted individuals’ moral responses in three (of the four) situations. When morality is important and central to individuals’ identities, moral choices tend to emerge despite opportunities to behave immorally.     

Philosophy and educational policy: possibilities,tensions and tasks

In this study, we investigate two principals’ learning in a progressive district in the southern United States. Both principals talked about ‘ownership’ and ‘continuous progress'as key to education reform, yet their words carried different meanings for learning. Principals’ use of reform terminology was embedded within two distinctly different communities of principal's practice ‐‐ Total Quality Management and ‘whole language’. We conclude by discussing ways to bridge such gaps in understanding among principals and communities by creating opportunities for learning and discourse. Educational administrators might thereby talk about and explore the different nuances of meaning they bring to their practice.

     

Moral Socialisation in a Multi‐Racial Community

Abstract:

Various claims have been made for a connection between moral education and science. The most prominent of these‐‐'evolutionary ethics’ ‐‐ is examined and found to be philosophically unjustifiable. However, after an analysis of the form and content of scientific reasoning, it is concluded that some other claims are justifiable, in that there are connections of identity between science and morality in terms of logic, relevant knowledge, perspectives, and certain virtues, especially virtues of the will. These connections can be of value for moral education.     

Mentoring at‐risk adolescent girls: listening to ‘Little Sisters’

In order to develop an understanding of mentoring relationships and the impact these relationships might have on the development of high‐risk adolescent girls, this qualitative study explored the relationships between six ‘Little Sisters’ and their ‘Big Sister’ mentors. The purposefully‐selected sample includes women and girls who were actively involved in a formal mentoring relationship for a minimum of three years. Findings suggest that a long‐term, nurturing mentoring relationship had a positive impact on the self‐efficacy, aspirations, and possible selves of the at‐risk adolescent girls.     

Students’ qualification in environmental and sustainability education—epistemic gaps or composites of critical thinking?

In an ‘age of measurement’ where students’ qualification is a hot topic on the political agenda, it is of interest to ask what the function of qualification might implicate in relation to a complex issue as Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) and what function environmental and sustainability issues serve in science education. This paper deals with how secondary and upper secondary teachers in discussions with colleagues articulate qualification in relation to educational aims of ESD. With inspiration from discourse theory, the teachers’ articulations of qualification are analysed and put in relation to other functions of education (qualification, socialisation and subjectification). The results of this study show three discourses of qualification: scientific reasoning, awareness of complexity and to be critical. The discourse of ‘qualification as to be critical’ is articulated as a composite of differing epistemological views. In this discourse, the teachers undulate between rationalistic epistemological views and postmodern views, in a pragmatic way, to articulate a discourse of critical thinking which serves as a reflecting tool to bring about different ways of valuing issues of sustainability, which reformulates ‘matter of facts’ towards ‘matter of concerns’     

The Work‐Related Curriculum: The New Entitlement?

Abstract

In this paper I take the opportunity to explore some ideas about the work‐related curriculum which arise, both directly and indirectly, out of several projects with which I have recently been involved, namely, the national evaluations of the Lower Attaining Pupils Programme (Stradling and Saunders, 1991), the management of TVEI Extension (Saunders et.al. 1991), and the operation of Compacts (Saunders and Morris, 1992). The initiatives are (or were) all concerned with providing a work‐related curriculum for young people in their last two years of compulsory schooling, with the aim of easing the transition to adult and working life.

But these evaluations show that if the principle of ‘entitlement’ is not built into work‐related provision, its key messages ‐‐ on relevance and incentives ‐‐ are likely to be unrealised. That the work‐related curriculum needs to be developed through partnership between education and industry is now almost a truism; but partnership is harder to achieve than to eulogise. In particular, clear and precise objectives and consequent criteria of partnership success need to be established, together with a recognition that partners do not necessarily share the same starting points or compatible perspectives. Some process of ‘power‐broking’ may be called for, in order to mediate and match their different needs.