Democratic Values and Purposes: the overlooked challenge of competence

Interest in professional development based on competence‐based education and training (CBET) is growing. Competence models undoubtedly pose some important, constructive challenges to traditional arrangements for developing knowledge and expertise at all occupational levels. However, CBET's impact goes far beyond this. Its processes profoundly affect how teachers and learners view learning, assessment and the purposes of education itself. CBET is also symptomatic of wider changes in notions about ownership, pluralism and breadth in post‐compulsory education and training. It therefore poses a profound and forceful ideological challenge to particular educational values, and to the way teachers approach their professional role. This article uses post‐16 teacher education as a focus for exploring some of these wider effects. It reviews recent critiques of CBET and argues that many are preoccupied with attempting to improve its efficiency at the expense of examining the wider political and ideological context in which it is being implemented. In order to counter the drift towards a narrow utilitarian curriculum in all sectors of the post‐compulsory system, analyses of CBET will need to show its powerful effect on some important democratic traditions in learning and education. This would provide the basis for a more coherent model of professional development than the limited and fragmented choices currently on offer.     

Birds, frogs, blue skies and sheep: an investigation into the cultural notion of affordance in children's meaning making

This article draws on an ethnographic research study of children's text making in the home, as well as interviews with visual artists in South Yorkshire, to explore the idea of affordance as cultural (Kress 1997; Kress and van Leeuwen 2001). The article draws on Kress and van Leeuwen's concept of the affordance of a mode, and argues that in the case of children's meaning making, affordance has to be seen as being shaped by culture. This means attending to children's cultural and physical spaces, their worlds, in order to trace back and understand meanings inside their texts. The article takes particular instances of practice and then traces back their meaning, in order to show how cultural meanings sediment into texts. The article argues that English teachers can use this lens of texts as traces of practice to make sense of the multimodal texts children produce in classrooms.     

RELIGIOUS PARTICULARISM AND CULTURAL PLURALISM: THE POSSIBLE CONTRIBUTION OF RELIGIOUS EDUCATION TO CANADIAN POLITICAL IDENTITY

Abstract

Multiculturalism is official Canadian policy. In the context of postmodernism, pluralism has taken on a sharper meaning, particularly with regard to identity. What can possibly unify a diverse nation like Canada? Does the separation of religion from public life make sense when cultural identity includes religious expression? Political unity, religious diversity, and the common search for and establishment of justice could become the essential building blocks toward an integral political unity. In particular, the celebration of religious diversity in Canada's schools could become a primary means of political unity as well as an essential means of unifying society. Five convictions are developed which help secure a new relationship among religious education, religious diversity, and political and societal unity.     

Positive Ignorance: Unknowing as a Tool for Education and Educational Research

Positive ignorance is the putting in to question of, and sometimes moving on from, the knowledge we think we have, and asking where it might be just or helpful to do so. Drawing primarily on the work of Barbara Johnson, this article shows how the notion of positive ignorance might be offered as a tool in the context of education and educational research. Partly a critical development of Richard Smith's argument in ‘The Virtues of Unknowing’, I attempt to understand ‘unknowing’ as an active rather than passive form of ‘not knowing’, in a manner that challenges some aspects of ‘the virtues of unknowing’ and its concomitant epistemological and ethical positions, not least those tied to Smith's advocacy for what he calls the ‘well‐stocked mind’. Unknowing, in my reading, is not a dispositional acceptance of the desirability of nonknowledge, instead, unknowing is a means of epistemological resistance, especially against that which, often with very real social and political consequences, is presented as self‐evident.     

An Autoethnographical Study of Culture,Power, Identity and Art Education in Post‐Colonial South Korea

This article reflects my experiences of learning art in the 1970s and 1980s and my teaching career in school art education in twenty‐first century South Korea. This autobiographical reflection shows how I have struggled with my identity as an art teacher in the post‐colonial context of Western influences on Korean society since World War II. There has been greater tension and a greater struggle for different values, practices and identities when new values and practices have been introduced into the particular socio‐cultural context of South Korea. My struggles with particular kinds of pedagogic identity valued within the rapidly changing political, economic and cultural context of Western influences on Korean art education demonstrate the hidden structural mechanism of the relationship between culture, power and identity in the post‐colonial world of globalisation. This study as an autoethnographical research provides critical insights into how identities are produced by pedagogic discourses and practices of art education that are constructed through the specific systems of practice and language which transmit and regulate such identities and values.     

Examining Mexico's Values Education in a Globally Dynamic Context

Discussion about values education has begun to dominate the educational policy agenda in a number of countries over the last 5 years. Of particular relevance are questions on what to teach, how and why. This discussion seems to be more prominent among those countries undergoing vigorous political, economic and social change. In the last few years, Mexico has intensified its active search for democracy and invigorated its march toward modernisation. Both of these intentions have proven to have important influences on the values the Mexican state and educational policy makers see as necessary to be transmitted via education. Simultaneously, Mexican identity, which has evolved relatively consonant with the aims of a centralised and hierarchical state and in line with the principles of the 1910 Revolution, is being continuously challenged by internal as well as external forces. In this article we describe a study designed to understand the approaches to Mexico's values education as a particular instance of a larger comparative project to explore values education in a globally dynamic context. After describing Mexico's political economy, we present the current policy and approaches to values education in general and in the regions included in the Mexican study in particular. We present the findings from a survey to policy makers and educational élites and show regional differences and similarities. We discuss findings from other country contexts to contrast them with the Mexican findings in selected areas. We conclude with a discussion on how this study may help initiate a policy dialogue on values education in Mexico.     

‘Where are You?’ Giving Voice to the Teacher by Reclaiming the Private/Public Distinction

In a time of cultural pluralism and legitimation crisis (Habermas), there is an increasing uncertainty among teachers in Sweden about with what right they are fostering other people's children. What does it mean to teach ‘common values’ to the coming generation? How do teachers find legitimacy and authority for this endeavour, not as family members or as politicians, but as teachers? To respond to this uncertainty, the paper takes the public/private distinction as a starting‐point for rethinking the place of the school. Drawing on the work of Hannah Arendt and of Jan Masschelein and Maarten Simons, it argues that the school is an in‐between place—a place that transforms values into ‘common goods’ and turns fostering into a teaching matter. The overall purpose of the paper is to sketch out the consequences of this ‘in‐betweenness’ for what it means to find one's voice as a teacher in fostering the coming generation.     

Freedom as Non‐Domination,Standards and the Negotiated Curriculum

This article investigates the application of Philip Pettit's concept of freedom as non‐domination to the issues of educational standards and the negotiated curriculum. The article will argue that freedom as non‐domination (and the connected concept of debating contestations as part of a legitimate democratic state) shines a critical light on governmental practice in England over the past two decades. Joshua Cohen's proposal of an ideal deliberative procedure is offered as a potential mechanism for the facilitation of debating contestations between stakeholders over the curriculum. Cohen places particular importance on the participants being ‘formally and substantively equal’ in the proceedings and being able to ‘recognize one another as having deliberative capacities’. It will be argued that formal and substantive equality between children and responsible adults is highly problematic due to the ‘considerable interference’ (Pettit) teachers and adults have to make in children's lives. However, the article does offer examples of children's deliberative capacities on the issue of the curriculum (in response to Cohen).     

Normality,Deviance, Identity,Cultural Tracking and School Achievement: The case of Ethiopian Jews in Israel

This article reveals the intrinsic connection between the constructs normality, identity, meaning, cultural tracking, and school achievement. In particular, it illuminates the indirect connection between cultural tracking and a reduction in the meaningful engagement of school tasks. As documented elsewhere, learning proceeds in a meaningful environment with meaningful goals embedded within the broader framework and context of human life, with identity anchored in a stable cultural and communicative framework. What my study shows is how Ethiopian students are in a state of identity crisis as they grapple with two cultural systems and structures of meaning which confuse their sense of direction. In the process, meaningfully propelled learning dispositions and an affectively driven urge to achieve scholastic excellence deteriorate. Thus, the lagging academic performance of these children is partly caused by the school system which has little knowledge of the way these children and their parents feel and think in terms of identity, belongingness and negotiation of meaning. It is not that Ethiopian students are unmotivated, they work hard to achieve excellence. It is more that the process of learning a new code of behaviour, values and school culture is taking place rapidly without the original culture's active participation as a basic link and a vehicle for further learning. The article also points out the extent of the economic and otherwise power‐related differences between black and white Jews in Israel.     

Challenges to Values Education in Hong Kong School Music Education

This study deals with the issue of incorporating values education in music education in Hong Kong's primary and secondary schools. It includes the development of the state's cultural and national identity since its handover from the United Kingdom to the People's Republic of China (PRC). Thirty primary and secondary school music teachers were interviewed in order to understand how notions of “musical values” and “non-musical values” have been addressed in the curriculum. In particular, this study focuses on music teachers' perspectives on teaching world music, traditional Chinese music, the PRC national anthem, and non-musical values. This paper questions the effectiveness of existing curricular and pedagogical attempts to encourage the students' musical experience and extra-musical education. It concludes that values education must have clear conceptions of “values”, “musical cultures”, and “national identity” in order to maintain unity amidst the intensifying plurality of ethnicities and cultures in Hong Kong.     

On the Receiving End: New Labour and the LEAs

This paper (written by a Chief Education Officer wholly in a personal capacity) argues that appraising New Labour's energetic programme of educational policies from an LEA perspective should utilise the values of pluralism, achievement and equality of opportunity. The Government's actions directly related to LEAs themselves meant that LEAs now operate under close direction, under licence and subject to rigorous and high stakes scrutiny. There is a consequential loss of pluralism. The attempts of the Government significantly to raise ‘standards of achievement’ are assessed, as are its claims to have re‐addressed issues of equality of opportunity     

Community,culture and identity: geography,the National Curriculum and Wales

ABSTRACT

The 1988 Education Reform Act legislated for a National Curriculum not for one nation but for two, Wales and England. This article reviews the way in which attempts to develop a distinctive curriculum in Wales for one subject, geography, were thwarted by the dominance among key policy‐makers in England of views about the study of place which were unsympathetic to the idea of the school curriculum being a vehicle for the development of a sense of community and national identity. Drawing on evidence from a survey of secondary school geography teachers in Wales, it considers the extent to which the teaching of geography is seen by teachers as a means of achieving such educational goals.     

Now that we have all these people,what are we supposed to do with them? a field guide to workforce optimization by Ken Johnson

Ken Johnson has been helping people realize their job performance potential for 20 years. He switched from being a department manager to a career in training in 1989, completing his master's degree in instructional systems design in 1992. Today he works with people in 16 countries, applying the real‐world lesson that employee development must show its clear tie to bottom‐line results if it is to survive in the boardroom. Now That We Have All These People, What Are We Supposed to Do with Them? (ISBN: 1‐4196‐9167‐8) is published by Booksurge.     

Beyond Local Cultures: Towards a Cosmopolitan Art Education

What kind of art education best takes up the educational opportunity of cultural diversity? This article draws on Merton's distinction between local and cosmopolitan perspectives on culture to contrast different models of art education in a multicultural society. An example is given to illustrate a local perspective on education which seeks to affirm pupils in their own culture. This model is underpinned by a particular view of culture, pluralism, art and education. Alternative views on each of these constituent elements are explored in order to make a case for an alternative model of art education - one which goes beyond culture and which can more properly be described as cosmopolitan.     

Children's understanding of substances,Part 2: Explaining chemical change

This is the second part of a paper which focuses on the idea of chemical change (see Johnson 2000). The reported data comes from a study which explored the development of children's concept of a substance (ages 11-14). It examines the use of the ideas of elements, compounds and the bonding between atoms to explain chemical change and the intersection of these ideas with 'basic' particle ideas. Evidence is presented which suggests that the particle ideas were the means by which the pupils came to acknowledge the phenomenon of chemical change, having been unmoved by a macroscopic approach which identified substances by melting and boiling point. Furthermore, a basic particle model in which individual particles still retained the macroscopic properties of the substance was found to inhibit an understanding of chemical change. Findings with respect to a burning candle are reported in a separate section. Important implications for teaching are discussed.     

Element‐and‐Principles Instruction,Perceptual Drawing and Paul Klee's Pedagogical Sketchbook

This study examines the key concepts of elements‐and‐principles art instruction, as defined in the publications by Vorkurs (preliminary course) instructors at the Bauhaus. Elements‐and‐principles instruction was for decades central to formalist art training, and continues to play a role, albeit limited, today. Preceding accounts of the elements‐and‐principles have not considered contextual matters worthy of attention, specifically, two other instructional frameworks. One is perceptual drawing that dominated in Western art culture before the inception of the elements‐and‐principles approach. The second is the instructional model Paul Klee proposed in his well‐known but under‐examined instructional publication of 1925, Pedagogical Sketchbook. With regard to the latter, scholars have failed to undertake detailed analysis that would explain Klee's instructional model and, in particular, its central (and idiosyncratic) concept of ‘trichotomy’. Trichotomy is a structure rather than a formal element, providing visual equivalents for extra‐visual events. The peculiarity of trichotomy and related concepts in Pedagogical Sketchbook has kept the publication a faint presence in elements‐and‐principles instruction and in related scholarly inquiry. With a more precise presentation of Klee's pedagogical focus, this study distinguishes heretofore overlooked dissimilarities between the Pedagogical Sketchbook model and elements‐and‐principles approach, and enables recognition of affinities between Klee's model and current conversations about embodiment pedagogies in visual arts education.     

Constructivist Pedagogy and Symbolism: Vico,Cassirer, Piaget,Bateson

Constructivism is at the heart of a pedagogical philosophy going back to Vico, whose view of the interrelationship of the arts and sciences sought to reconstitute the classical paideia. The Vichian idea that human beings can only know the truth of what they themselves have made has theoretical and practical consequences for Vico's pedagogy and view of the university. Vico's ideas on education are extended in the modern period by such thinkers as Cassirer, Piaget and Bateson. At the basis of Cassirer's pedagogical philosophy is his theory of the symbol, the symbol being a universal and transcendent modality in culture. The result of this unifying theory is that symbolism, which is pervasive across the disciplines, provides a moral and ethical means for integrating communication about teaching. Cassirer's thought is compatible with Piaget's, which emphasizes the pluralism of experience and the role of dynamic learning in the construction of meaningful order. Piaget's constructivism assumes that an operational bridge exists to link together the hard sciences, the human sciences, and the historical disciplines. This systems view of epistemological matters is similar in many respects to the one advanced by Gregory Bateson, which is explored in the paper's final section.     

Between the aesthetic and the ethical: analysing the tension at the heart of Theatre in Education

Theatre in Education is a recognized form for exploring ethical issues in schools. Although the relationship between functional, didactic objectives and theatre artistry is recognized as complex and difficult, there has been little analytical work to elucidate its nature. This article takes the form of a case study intended to illuminate this tension by analysing a play that toured recently in secondary schools in Birmingham, UK. It concentrates on two aspects of this particular performance: its transgressive elements – the way in which it played with the boundaries of institutionalised values – and the features of its narrative that tended, in Eco's term, towards an aesthetic of openness. Rather than attempting to offer a clear‐cut theory, this article examines how these essentially theatrical elements of the performance meshed with the play's ethical agenda. I conclude that, despite the risks of transgressive play, it was the playful and open aspects of the enacted narrative that energized the students' moral engagement and subsequent reflection, and suggest that this has implications for moral pedagogy beyond the field of theatre.     

‘I'd rather be seen as a practitioner,come in to teach my subject’: Identity Work in Part‐Time Art and Design Tutors

This article explores issues of identity as part‐time tutors engage in teaching in further and higher education. It is based on a phenomenographic research approach that examines variation in experience. Based on interviews with 16 creative practitioners who also teach, it draws on the narratives of identity resulting from the interview process. The five possible ways that the relationship between practice and teaching can be experienced can also be associated with five different experiences of identity. The research also draws on case studies more aligned with one category of experience than another, enabling aspects of identity work to be related to the worlds of practice and teaching and to individual histories of participation in these worlds. Factors that help to contribute to particular forms of identity are therefore discussed, as well as the impact that tutor identity can have on the students' learning experience.     

Using a Critical Service-Learning Approach to Facilitate Civic Identity Development

This article highlights elements of civic engagement programs that have the rich potential to facilitate civic identity development. Focusing on research with alumni, the study examines 3 civic engagement programs, the approaches of which are guided by critical service-learning. It explores elements of the experiences that alumni name as influential to their learning, development, and present commitments to understand the ways that civic engagement programs based in a critical service-learning approach can encourage them to develop commitments to active citizenship as exemplified by Knefelkamp's (2008) vision of a mature sense of civic identity.