Sex education,state policy and the principle of mutual consent

Constitutive of the prevalent sexual morality in most Western European countries is the liberal principle of mutual consent (PMC). This sociological fact may give rise to the ethical question as to whether or not the state has the right to make sure that its citizens will observe PMC, among other ways by prescribing some form of sex education which has PMC as its moral content. With reference to the ambiguity of the term ‘morally permissible’, it is argued that PMC can be interpreted in two fundamentally different ways, namely, as the freedom to arrange one's sexual life according to one's own values and preferences (PMC(a)) or as the view that consensual sex is morally all right or morally unobjectionable (PMC(b)). The claim is defended that PMC(a) should be taken as part of the public morality, whereas PMC(b) should be seen as a private morality. Accordingly, the state has the right to take PMC(a) as a basis for its educational policy, but the state is not allowed to prescribe any form of sex education that has PMC(b) as its moral content. The importance of the distinction between PMC(a) and PMC(b) is shown by giving an evaluation of the Dutch state's responses to recent public statements of orthodox religious leaders about the moral status of homosexuality. Also on the basis of this distinction, the central differences between liberal orthodox and fundamentalist orthodox religious views on sexuality and the role of the state are pointed out. In this connection, it is argued that any view which takes PMC(b) as part of the public morality should be disavowed as a kind of ‘liberal funda‐ mentalism’.     

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.     

Liberal education: An overlapping pragmatic consensus

In reviewing the course of liberal education in the US during the 20th century, Bruce Kimball in 1995 proposed that a pragmatic consensus was emerging about the understanding of liberal education. The two-fold tradition of liberal education, with its shifting emphases and accommodations between 'orators' and 'philosophers,' was being transformed into a 'new American tradition of liberal education deeply rooted in the resurgent intellectual tradition of pragmatism'. A number of different, even contradictory, criticisms of Kimball's thesis have been offered concerning the existence and nature of such a consensus and its relationship(s) to pragmatism. We suggest that the consensus thesis and the criticisms it has encountered might be best understood by comparing it to Rawls's idea of an 'overlapping consensus'. Comparing and contrasting Kimball's project and Rawls's approach suggests that the emerging consensus concerning liberal education at the beginning of the 21st century is an overlapping consensus, that is, a consensus whose nature is pragmatic, as well as a consensus whose substantive tenets are rationalized by pragmatism. Understanding the consensus in this way accounts for the varied criticism that Kimball's thesis has received and makes a significant difference in understanding the theory and practice of liberal education in the 21st century.     

Between Private and Public: Recognition,revolution and political renewal

This paper deals with some issues underlying the role of education in the preparation of students for democratic participation. Throughout, I maintain two basic ideas: first, that a political action undertaken to obtain practical ends reflects a set of privately held values whose recognition is therefore essential to any idea of the political; second, that the continued viability of liberal democracy is dependent upon its openness to alteration through its recognition of private values. In order to bring these ideas to light more clearly, I will develop my position in the form of a critique of some contemporary liberal theories of civic education, most notably Amy Gutmann's, as expressed in her influential work Democratic Education. Maintaining Gutmann's requirement of educational relativism, I intend to show how her emphasis on individual deliberation as a goal of education fits within a system of deliberative democracy, and that the two serve to minimize, on the individual level, the ability of individuals to seek recognition within the public sphere, and on the political level, the ability of democratic institutions to be renewed through participation.     

The Innovative Educational Thought of Jane Roland Martin: A Review Essay

D. G. Mulcahy highlights some of Jane Roland Martin's major contributions to the field of philosophy of education in this review essay. He focuses on several of Martin's better‐known works — including Reclaiming a Conversation, The Schoolhome, Changing the Educational Landscape, Coming of Age in Academe, Educational Metamorphoses, and School Was Our Life — tracing through them the development of her reconceptualization of the idea of a liberal education from the early1980s to the present day. Viewing Martin's contribution from the perspective of liberal education, he contends, underscores the optimistic spirit of her work as well as its originality and significance for the theory of education as a whole. Mulcahy gives particular attention to these elements of Martin's thought: the importance she attributes to educating the young for active participation in the world and not mere observation of it; her analysis of the range and complexity of our cultural wealth; her concept of a gender‐sensitive education; and her emphasis on the unique contribution of the experience of women to education. Martin's substantial body of work, Mulcahy concludes, stands as a compelling alternative to mainstream educational theorizing, one that offers hope for the potential of educational renewal.     

From the Crick Report to the Parekh Report: multiculturalism,cultural difference,and democracy—the re‐visioning of citizenship education1

This paper attempts to develop a more sophisticated notion of multiculturalism in Britain. It starts by examining the philosophical basis of the Crick Report on citizenship education to resolve the theoretical tension between liberal and multicultural approaches to the subject. To achieve this resolution, it compares the Crick Report to the Parekh Report on the Future of Multi Ethnic Britain, published on 11^th October 2000. The Parekh report is then used to critique the Crick report and re‐theorise the practical imperatives of multicultural citizenship education. I claim that the Crick report, typical of liberal analyses, is suspicious of departure from the presumption of a unified social structure, and represents citizenship education as the imposition of a uniform standard applied to all groups and peoples. On this basis it is claimed that, although the Crick Report’s conception of citizenship fails to adequately take account of cultural difference, it need not do so, as there is room within liberal approaches to citizenship education for a recognition of difference. The paper explains how such a resolution can be effected.     

美国成人教育家及其实践

在美国成人教育发展史上,产生了诸如佛朗西斯·韦特、伊丽贝萨·凯蒂·斯通、林德曼、马尔科姆·诺尔斯、希里尔·侯尔等一大批闻名于世的成人教育学者。他们在女性主义与妇女教育、种族平等、民族融合与多元文化教育等广泛领域,为美国成人教育的发展做出了开拓性的贡献。这些成就的取得既与美国时代和社会发展的需要分不开,又与美国社会为这些专业工作者所提供的良好职业环境和专业平台密不可分。     

RETHINKING EDUCATION FOR AUTONOMY IN PLURALISTIC SOCIETIES

If we are to posit, as do many liberal theorists, that autonomy is an educational goal that the state should endorse across cultural difference, key questions remain: What type of autonomy should we strive for, exactly, and how should this goal be achieved? Many liberal philosophers of education have argued that autonomy should enable cultural choice and that the development of autonomy requires students to be exposed to different beliefs and traditions. Shelley Burtt has challenged this dominant position, however, insisting that autonomy (properly understood) can be developed within a “comprehensive education” that does not seek to sympathetically expose students to cultural difference. In this essay, Bryan Warnick responds that Burtt's arguments are inconsistent and lack cultural imagination, and that her underlying concept of autonomy is inadequate, primarily because it lacks a compelling picture of cultural self‐criticism. There is a lack of appreciation, he argues, for how frameworks of cultural comparison are necessary in the development of this self‐criticism. At the same time, Warnick argues that there is much to be learned from Burtt's analysis about the tough choices that need to be made as liberals seek to champion autonomy as an educational end across cultural difference.     

An exploration of mothers' attitudes towards their daughters' menarche

Menarche is a significant milestone for young women, representing an important juncture between girlhood and maturation. The limited literature that exists suggests that a mother's reaction to her daughter's first periods can shape her experiences and perceptions of menstruation which, in turn, may impact on her self-image and, consequently, sexual risk taking. However, very little is known about UK mothers' attitudes towards their daughters' menarche. This paper aims to add to the body of knowledge by applying a postmodern critique, a Derridian deconstructive analysis, to a discussion thread found on mumsnet.com – a UK parenting website. The thread is concerned with a mother's response to her daughter's menarche to which other mothers respond. The deconstruction revealed a number of meta-narratives and themes within the text: secrecy, sorrow, a lack of competency and knowledge, power, gender and motherhood. Unwittingly, the women appear to be socialising their daughters to comply with and perpetuate the menstrual taboo that they endured themselves, thus repeating the cycles of shame associated with menstruation. The findings of this critique suggest that menstrual education is an area that requires more attention, particularly in the context of perceived menstrual shame and its impact on sexual decision-making.     

Samuel Bowles,Herbert Gintis and Diane Ravitch: a classic controversy in education revisited

Two important books in the field of US education, Samuel Bowles & Herbert Gintis's Schooling in Capitalist America and Diane Ravitch's Revisionists Revised, are reviewed. The author contends that the dynamic tension in the debate on US education that existed in the late 1970s when these two books were published has virtually disappeared from the mainstream of educational thought. After more than a decade of conservative national leadership the mainstream debate on educational reform has centered on more technical and institutional issues and away from the fundamental philosophical debate over the role of schools in US society. The radical analysis informed by Marxism which Bowles & Gintis employed has been essentially eliminated from the mainstream of educational thought, while the conservative‐to‐liberal analyses have moved to the right politically. Diane Ravitch has continued to be a force in this debate; she is currently a US Assistant Secretary of Education. The author examines Ravitch's response to the radical critique represented by Bowles & Gintis and argues that without the latter's challenges to conventional reason, liberal educational thought will become increasingly conservative, sterile and reactionary. No salutary dialogue can emerge from parties (i.e. US conservative and liberal thought) who share similar basic assumptions about the nature of society and education.     

Virtuous Vampires and Voluptuous Vamps: Romance Conventions Reconsidered in Stephenie Meyer’s “Twilight” Series

It is presumed that readers of Stephenie Meyer’s ‘Twilight’ enjoy the sexual tension between Bella and Edward; a tension that remains unresolved until the couple are married. This very traditional solution to the couple’s carnal desires is just one of many ways in which the novels adhere to the conventions of romance writing for young people. Readers know what to expect and their expectations are satisfied. Fans, however, claim that Meyer’s books offer them something that other texts do not. By comparing the ‘Twilight’ series with the conventions for adult romances, teen romances and children’s literature more generally, I demonstrate that Meyer is combining conventions from related, but slightly different, genres. The result valorises certain beliefs which run counter to both those promoted by conservative Christian activists and those endorsed by the liberal, feminist left.     

Gender Paradoxes in College Student Development

This chapter is an exploration of gender and the contemporary college student, with particular attention to points of tension and contradiction in emerging analyses of gender relations on college campuses. Evidence of considerable convergence in men's and women's aspirations, attitudes, sex-role sterotypes, alcohol and other drug use, and personality and cognitive abilities inform models arguing for an appreciation of essential similarities between the sexes. on the other hand, differences perspectives call attention to persistent patterns of gender differentiation in interaction styles, appearance norms, eating disorders, sexual coercion, and other arenas of campus life. College policy and practice affecting gender issues need to strike a careful balance between recognizing the legitimate points of contention and arenas for misunderstanding between the sexes without exaggerating their claims of difference.     

Computers for Literacy: Making the difference?

Starting from the premise that literacy is a set of practices situated within particular contexts, and that any practice of literacy always involves technologies which affect its forms and use, this paper draws on three diverse examples of classroom and curricular practice, in order to explore how particular forms of cultural difference are being produced through different practices of literacy pedagogy. One form of literacy pedagogy uses drill-forskill programs via information and communication technologies (ICTs) for reasons of efficiency. Where such programs are used, they may promote assimilation in several overlapping forms. In a second form of pedagogy ICTs are used for enhancement or amplification. But even a liberal constructivist environment may lead to the reproduction of a schooled sameness - of information, types of text, and the literacy practices that teachers and students accept as the norm. A third pedagogical approach encourages transformation through new genres and new hypermedia literacy practices. Where a curriculum is driven by teachers' intentions to negotiate difference explicitly, they and their students may use ICTs to manipulate texts, knowledge and positions for comprehending and composing. Nonetheless, given the complex relationships among teachers, students, classrooms and ICTs, no practice is likely to be 'pure' or certain in its effects. Partly for these reasons teacher educators need to help pre- and in-service teachers to be scrupulous in analysing the role of ICTs in pedagogic work with least-advantaged groups of students.     

Religion,Sexual Orientation,and School Policy: How the Christian Right Frames Its Arguments

The Christian Right opposes the inclusion of sexual orientation in school policies, charging that the schools are legitimating and promoting homosexuality. The arguments have moved past the trite, “God created Adam and Eve, not Adam and Steve,” to claims of violations of parental rights and the First Amendment, often positioning Christians as the ones who are now being discriminated against. The purpose of this study is to examine if opponents frame their arguments using language that's agreeable to the larger and more liberal public to garner more broad based support; if so, what are some examples; and to see if opponents' arguments are aligned with a Christian Right worldview. The findings of this ethnographic case study focus on the Christian Right's perceived threat to its hegemony over American social life and highlight the debate over the purposes of schooling.     

Eccentric subject,impossible object: A 1 poststructural reading of Hannah Cullwick

The paper explores poststructural figures of identity via a reading of a collection of texts by and about a Victorian maidservant, Hannah Cullwick. Drawing on Donna Haraway's figure of the trickster or shape changer and on the theorizing of the ''subaltern'' subject in postcolonial writing, the paper challenges readings of Hannah and her life that offer her up as an exemplary figure of suffering or heroic womanhood. Instead, it is proposed that Hannah can be seen as an ambivalent and transgressive figure of difference and in - between - ness . The paper gestures towards some implications for the handling of first-person narratives in qualitative research. The ''Hannah Cullwick'' texts include her diaries and those of her secret lover and, later, husband, an eminent barrister, together with the commentaries of their respective editors. Reference is also made to a photographic essay and to contemporary scholarly works about Hannah and her life.     

Education, Philosophy of Education and the Fragmentation of Value

ABSTRACT How are educational theory and practice to respond to the problem of the fragmentation of value, characteristic of modernity? This paper criticises Susan Mendus' recent examination of three different arguments for revaluing past traditions. While endorsing her rejection of proposals to return to the past, the paper challenges the converse proposal that education should rely on the development of critical understanding. Such a proposal attends to only one of two features of modern consciousness which are of central relevance to education. The paper further argues that liberal education's theoretical framework itself impedes a more adequate response to this and to related questions of individual and social development.     

ACT UP 25: HIV/AIDS,Archival Queers,and Mnemonic World Making

Audre Lorde's speech, “The Transformation of Silence into Language and Action, “sheds light on the margins of rhetoric in the sense of the public speech because she examines factors that may cause some people to remain silent while enabling others to speak and act. “Margins” refers both to the parameters employed for defining a practice and the relative place or value of varied activities exemplifying the practice. Lorde interweaves her commentary on the silence surrounding breast cancer with insights about silence drawn from her experiences as a member of several subordinated communities, especially as they relate to the misuse of power to silence those who are different. Her speech comments on silencing and power, sexism, verbal abuse, violence and sexualized aggression, shame, the taboo, and hostile social environments. Paradoxically, Lorde's speech is as much about the possibilities of rhetoric as its limits.     

Consensual Faculty—Student Sexual Relationships in Counselor Education: Recommendations for Counselor Educators' Decision Making

The authors explore the issue of consensual sexual relationships between counselor educators and students. The American Counseling Association's (2005) ACA Code of Ethics is consulted, and the complex issues associated with these relationships are discussed. A case example is provided that generates suggestions to guide counselor educators' decision making related to consensual sexual relationships with students.     

Debating anti‐Semitism: Ernestine Rose vs. Horace Seaver in the Boston Investigator, 1863–1864

Jewish women have struggled to develop identities that allow them to meet the needs of their various communities and remain true to themselves. Ernestine Rose has been described as having disavowed her Jewish heritage; yet, she is included as “the Jewish woman's rights advocate.”; This analysis focuses on an 1863–1864 debate with editor Horace Seaver about anti‐Semitism and the Jews published in the Boston Investigator. This single encounter is rhetorically significant, because it illustrates the subtle, non‐institutional character of anti‐Semitism among mid‐nineteenth century liberal intellectuals. It also illustrates that Rose's Jewish identity was neither elusive nor conflicted, but a basis for her advocacy of human rights which has historic as well as contemporary relevance for the understanding identity development.