Shameful interest in educational research

ABSTRACT

This article considers ontological conceptualizations of shame-interest as experienced in educational research. Shame has frequently been reported in research as a property of the autonomous individual: the shame of the participant to share with the researcher, and the shame of the researcher to reflexively eliminate. Shame-interest is re-theorized here as a generative research event, as intra-action, as one simultaneous movement in the ongoing present. We attempt an ethical shift from a reflexive stance to fluxing movements of response-ability and co-consequence in order to encourage socially responsive educational research, informed through the conceptual resources of psychologist Silvan Tomkins, and feminist philosopher and physicist Karen Barad. Theory is threaded through a series of personal research vignettes to illustrate our thinking through ways shame-interest materialized within research events. Shame is re/conceptualized as a contestable composite feeling entangled with interest that allows an alternate non-reductive and ethical approach to educational research. We amplify our researcher responsibility, and our shame, by placing ourselves as entangled with the research ‘problem’ under investigation.     

From silence to stillness: decolonial feminist ontologies and the mattering of history in educational research

This paper explores undocumented adolescent Latina becomings that move beyond Western, white dominant cultural values and recognize egalitarian entanglements of difference. I begin by recognizing my positionality in this work that speaks to my own feminist theoretical entanglements of this project that draw upon new materialist and post-qualitative embodied, inspirited, affective becomings. In the second half of this paper, I resituate this project within a decolonizing framework that parallels discussions of feminist new materialist and post-qualitative work in an effort to begin thinking differently about educational research, schooling, and the impact of oppressive and colonizing practices on undocumented immigrant youth in this country. Finally, I do not offer this research project in the conventional qualitative structure, but am not claiming this research as post-qualitative either - as it lies somewhere in between - and resides in a liminal methodological space.     

Toward an educational sphereology: Air,wind, and materialist pedagogy

Abstract

It’s not uncommon for people to make reference to atmospheres, including in relationship with educational spaces. In this article, we investigate educational atmospheres by turning to Western and Chinese literature on the air and wind. We pursue this task in three phases. First, we examine the Western literature to see the possible strings of thought that would help us reinvigorate the element of air/atmosphere as a foundational component of an educational sphere. Second, we historicize the Chinese notion of wind as a style of reasoning which structures ancient Chinese cosmology, tempo-spatiality, teaching, and governing into a grid of intelligibility. Third, we argue for a bracketing of a trap of philology and a signifier-signified representational logic through reconceptualizing the atmosphere as a thing that blurs the material-figural boundary and that pushes into a new genre of educational life.     

Short Cuts and Extended Techniques: Rethinking relations between technology and educational theory

Building upon a recent call to renew actor-network theory (ANT) for educational research, this article reconsiders relations between technology and educational theory. Taking cues from actor-network theorists, this discussion considers the technologically-mediated networks in which learning actors are situated, acted upon, and acting, and traces the novel positions of creative capacity and participation that emerging media may enable. Whereas traditional theories of educational technology tend to focus on the harmonization of new technologies with extant curricular goals and educational practices, an educational theory of technology looks to novel forms of technologically-mediated learning experience—from production pedagogies to role play in the virtual—to make visible the surprising relations, techniques, and opportunities that emerging media, and their attendant social contexts, may offer educational research.     

重思“剧中人”与“剧作者”的关系

马克思明确指出我们在探讨有关人与社会的关系问题时,应该将人们既当成他们本身的历史剧的"剧作者"又当成"剧中人",这一思想是历史唯物主义的重要内容和重要方法论原则。现实的人作为"剧中人"与"剧作者"的统一体,只能是实践中的存在。未来社会要最终实现个人的自由全面发展,意味着人应该既超拔于任由自然控制的动物性状态,又摆脱特定历史或社会关系条件对人的限制和不合理规制,从而克服"剧中人"与"剧作者"两种角色相互分裂的状态。对"剧中人"与"剧作者"之间关系的辩证理解,既是马克思世界观、价值观,又是认识论与方法论。它蕴涵着马克思对社会发展的科学态度与人类命运的终极关怀,是马克思的唯物史观与未来社会理论的理论生长点和基本的运思路径。     

Education,horizontal inequalities and ethnic relations in Nigeria

The article focuses on the role of higher education in generating or mitigating inequality among ethno-regional groups and its impact on ethnic relations with evidence from Nigeria. It shows that access to education in Nigeria has been politicised. This is because of the perceived role of education in engendering political and socio-economic inequalities. It assesses the intervention mechanisms of successive Nigerian governments at federal and state levels to expand access to and enhance equity in educational opportunities as well as the responses of the different publics to such programmes. The article shows that although educational inequalities persist, state policies have enhanced the ability of the different ethno-regional groups to produce qualified personnel to occupy critical public service positions. Thus, conflicts that were historically traced to the domination of the public sector of some regions by personnel from other regions have been averted. The Nigerian case study therefore suggests that while policies aimed at equalising access to education may create incentives for ethno-regional mobilisations, they are nevertheless necessary to prevent violent conflicts that arise from perceived ethno-regional domination of the public sector.     

中小学教育科研的异化与回归

中小学教育科研一般指中小学教师和学校管理人员就中小学教育实践中的问题开展的研究或尝试性实践。作为高校和科研机构及专职教育研究的移植物,中小学教育科研在移植的过程中难免会产生异化现象,这不仅影响了其自身的健康发展,而且也阻碍了其功能的充分发挥,降低了它的社会声誉。分析中小学教育科研产生异化现象的原因,以便在此基础上寻求中小学教育科研的回归,探索克服异化现象的有效方策。     

Rethinking lifelong learning through online distance learning in Chinese educational policies, practices and research

This paper offers a critique of the Chinese philosophy of online distance learning as a means of building a lifelong learning society. Literature about lifelong learning and its implications for online distance learning is reviewed. Documents, reports and research papers are examined to explore the characteristics of the Chinese philosophy of online distance learning as reflected in the prevailing understanding and debates in the field. Phenomenological analysis, deconstructive discourse analysis and internal criticism are employed, guided by a phenomenological qualitative methodology. The critique reveals that the notion of lifelong learning is to some extent obscured in meaning in the prevailing understanding of and debates about Chinese online distance learning. Furthermore, it shows that the Chinese philosophy of online distance learning paradoxically combines a sense of overenthusiasm with a sense of underestimation associated with the potential of online distance learning in promoting lifelong learning. Also identified is the emerging development of Chinese online distance learning towards its 'in-depth development', based on an increasing awareness of the necessity to enhance the quality of online distance learning through integration of educational theories with information and communication technologies (ICT). The paper calls for a new vision on ICT for learning as a necessary condition for successful incorporation of Chinese online distance learning with and into lifelong learning.     

论教育空间与社会空间

文章基于“空间的生产”理论,阐述了教育空间与社会空间之间的辩证关系：1.在社会维上,教育空间由政治、经济、文化等社会要素经“再空间化”而塑造,即教育空间的社会塑造;2.业经“再空间化”而形成的,作为社会空间核心要素之一的教育空间,对社会空间的再生产具有重要影响,即教育空间的社会空间生产。具有要素和地域层级关系的教育空间在实体层面上形成“教育综合体”,“教育综合体”与社会要素的关系在“行动者网络理论”中可以表现为事物之间的“无缝之网”关系,即聚焦于教育活动的“消除教育”与社会二元界限的“教育—社会”关系。     

Rethinking the relationship between research and practice in teaching

The paper examines the relationship between contemporary research on teaching and teaching practice, including the varied reasons educators give for the weak relationship, several questionable assumptions researchers share about the linkage between research and practice, and researchers' implicit view that teaching is an applied science. As an alternative to the applied science conception, the author proposes teaching be viewed as a moral craft. In comparison to the applied science conception, the moral craft perspective engenders a more holistic view of teaching, leads to a stronger link between research on teaching and teaching practice, and decreases the likelihood that research on teaching will mask normative issues fundamental to teaching practice.     

校本发展:培训、教研、管理的校本化

校本发展是21世纪学校教育改革的新理念，它是一种注重学校自身发展的理念，也是实现学校优质化和特色化的策略。校本发展应该是在科学发展观指导下，在政府宏观指导与社会积极的参与下，以校为本，依靠学校自身力量，谋求学校的自主办学和自主发展。校本发展主要体现在培训、教研、管理的校本化上。校本培训，是指围绕学校的工作中心和重点开展旨在提高教师专业素质的培训活动：校本教研，就是以学校的办学理念和办学特色为本，     

Sexual choreographies of the classroom: movement in sexuality education

This paper is interested in thinking more about sexuality education at school. As such, it is concerned with a mundane and unacknowledged feature of the sexuality classroom – the mapping of movement. While human movement is a familiar focus of educational research, the movement of things is not. With reference to Barad’s concept of intra-activity, the paper maps human-non-human movements and characterises these as a sexual choreography of schooling. Instead of asking what does movement mean or reveal about sexuality education, I attend to the event movement inaugurates. Predominantly theoretical, the paper weaves together ideas from conventionally disparate disciplinary fields. These include Edensor’s concept of rhythm from geography, Eggermont’s notion of the choreography of schooling from education, and Barad’s spacetimemattering from quantum physics. This theorisation enables a recognition of movement as a force in human-non-human classroom intra-actions implicated in the becoming of sexuality education as event.     

Church schools,educational markets and the rural idyll

Researchers have begun to explore the role that faith schools play in contemporary educational markets but the emphasis to date has been on urban rather than rural contexts. This article approaches the issue of marketisation through a qualitative case-study comparison of two Anglican primary schools in contrasting rural localities in England and Wales. Engaging with a range of stakeholders, including parents and pupils, the article explores reasons why the schools were valued, drawing on wider constructions of childhood, religion and rurality. The consequences of the schools’ popularity on factors such as traffic, parking, school ethos and local community ties are also considered. The findings of the study problematise some of the prevalent assumptions about marketisation, including the role of social class and geography in these processes. As such, the article makes an important contribution to the sociological literature on faith schools, rural schools and educational markets.     

The configurative agency of metrics in education: a research agenda involving a different engagement with data

ABSTRACT

The increased use of quantitative education data is often regarded by scholars as evidence of the emergence of’governing by numbers’. These scholars ascribe major stakeholders such as the OECD and nation states agency as they produce, distribute and consume data, and respond to these with policy and management initiatives. This paper argues that metrics themselves have a configurative agency that affects education in terms of educational ideas and designs. The paper illustrates this point by analysing two cases of graduate employability metrics, each of which configures education differently, and discusses how the configurative agency of metrics can become the focal point of a different research agenda using distinct analytical concepts drawn from the sociology of quantification and new materialism. The paper concludes that such a research agenda can enable actors involved in the design and development of education to enter into a professional dialogue and engagement with education data, rather than merely dismissing it.     

中小学教师教育科研素质的现状调查与分析

本文对教师的教育科研意识、能力以及教师在教育科研过程中所存在的问题进行调查,并针对教师教育科研素质的现状提出建议.     

中小学师生冲突及其教育价值

师生冲突是师生互动行为中极其重要的一个方面。师生冲突既会给教育教学活动带来一些负面影响,但应对得当也会产生正向的教育价值。师生冲突的教育价值表现为反思自身的价值、增进理解的价值、文化反哺的价值、心理保健的价值和激发活力的价值等方面。     

构建“六环式”中小学教育科研模式

在新课程改革的背景下,越来越多的中小学为了提高教学质量和办学水平,纷纷实施“科研兴校”的策略。但是,现实中不少中小学的教育科研工作却往往陷入“开题轰轰烈烈,中间冷冷清清,后来不了了之”的怪圈,实际效果与预先期望形成强烈的反差。究其原因,笔者认为主要缘于如下两个方面的症结：     

以教研促教改——重庆高中美术课程改革伊始之我见

当前，高中课程改革是基础教育的重要任务。通过对高中课程改革背景下第一次教学研究会的分析，针对重庆高中课程改革早期问题．从完善教学评价体系、加强教育理论培训、创建一个使用资源的方法体系三个方面提出解决问题的策略。     

On the image of hate in education: desirable emotions,learning, and the visibility of bodies in educational relations

ABSTRACT

In this article I explore how images of hate from the work of feminist, psychoanalytical educational thinkers Deborah Britzman and Alice Pitt, and from Sara Ahmed's investigation into the cultural politics of emotion, function to shift the ideal-image of pedagogically desired emotions and complicate the emotional landscape of educational relations. Analysing two counter-images, I consider the ambivalent role of hate in the pedagogical lives of teachers and students, and the ways in which hate may actually support learning and motivate a desire for pedagogy as shared world-making. In different ways, each of the counter-images explores the idea that educational relations need to be able to address hate. Yet the second counter-image leads me to question whether all the bodies involved in those relations have been taken into account.     

Relations between educational research,policy, planning and implementation: The Thai experience

The relations between educational research, policy, planning and implementation in Thailand are the topic of this paper. The major focus is on the research/policy linkage. A complex educational administrative structure and a pluralistic informal power structure characterize the Thai research context. A tetrahedral model of linkages provides the conceptual framework for the analysis. Details are then provided with respect to the actual operationalization of the model in terms of the Thai approach in practice. Major elements in the Thai approach include the use of expert policy committees, joint committees involving both administrators and researchers, problem-oriented seminars, and commissioned research. Actual examples of research efforts described are an educational reform study, local level school mapping, a school cluster experiment, a budget exercise to improve the equity of primary school resource allocations, and a policy evaluation of sub-district secondary schools. Finally, lessons to be learned from the Thai experience are summarized. Thailand has experienced some success in building analytical educational research capacity and ensuring its utilization. Key elements in this success have been an emphasis on strengthening human capacities; judging political will in a timely, flexible manner; creatively utilizing bureaucratic forms such as committees; and remaining both politically detached and sensitive.

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Zusammenfassung Dieser Artikel befaßt sich mit den Beziehungen zwischen erziehungswissenschaftlicher Forschung, Bildungspolitik, Planung und Durchführung in Thailand. Der Nachdruck liegt auf der Verbindung von Forschung und Politik. Hervorstechende Merkmale des Thai Hintergrunds für Bildungsforschung sind die komplizierte Verwaltungsstruktur und die pluralistische, informelle Struktur der Kompetenzen im Bildungswesen. Ein tetraedrisches Modell der Beziehungen liefert den Rahmen für die Analyse. Dann werden Einzelheiten über die Operationalisierung des Modells aus der Praxis aufgeführt. Zu den Hauptelementen dieser Praxis gehören: Experten-Ausschüße für Bildungspolitik; gemeinsame Ausschüße von Forschern und Administratoren; problem-orientierte Seminare; und Forschungsaufträge. Es folgt eine Beschreibung der folgenden Beispiele von Forschungstätigkeiten: eine Bildungsreform-Studie; ein Plan für Schulkapazitäten auf regionaler Ebene; ein Experiment mit einer Gruppe von Schulen; ein Etat-Versuch, die Zuteilung von Mitteln für Primarschulen gleichwertiger zu gestalten; und eine Evaluation der Grundsätze für die Sekundarschulen von Landkreisen. Zum Schluß werden die aus der Erfahrung von Thailand abzuleitenden Lehren zusammengefaßt. Thailand hat einige Erfolge beim Aufbau analytischer Bildungsforschungs-Kapazität sowie bei der Anwendung derselben zu verzeichnen. Dieser Erfolg beruht hauptsächlich auf einer Verstärkung der personellen Kapazitäten; zeitgemäßer, flexibler Beurteilung des politischen Willens; kreativem Gebrauch bürokratischer Formen, wie z.B. Ausschüße; und eine politisch unabhängige und sensitive Einstellung.

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Résumé Cet article est consacré aux relations entre la recherche, la politique, la planification et la mise en pratique dans le domaine de l'éducation en Thaïlande. L'accent est plus particulièrement mis sur les liens entre la recherche et la politique. Le contexte de la recherche Thaï est caractérisé par une structure administrative complexe du système éducatif ainsi que par une structure du pouvoir pluraliste et informelle. Un modèle tétraédrique de systèmes de liaison fournit la charpente conceptuelle pour l'analyse. Des détails sont donnés concernant la mise en oeuvre du modèle en respectant les conceptions locales. Les principaux éléments de l'approche Thaï sont les comités d'experts chargés de la politique éducationnelle, les comités mixtes composés d'administrateurs et de chercheurs, les séminaires spécialisés, et les recherches sous contrat. L'auteur fournit des exemples concrets des efforts de la recherche: une étude de réforme de l'éducation, une répartition des écoles à l'échelon local, une expérimentation scolaire collective, un budget prévoyant une répartition équitable entre les écoles primaires, et une évaluation de la politique mise en pratique dans les écoles secondaires de sous-divisions régionales. Enfin, les leçons que l'on peut tirer de l'expérience Thaï sont brièvement résumées. La Thaïlande a obtenu quelques succès en forgeant un potentiel de recherche analytique en matière d'éducation et en assurant sa mise en oeuvre. Les éléments clés de ce succès ont été l'importance accordée au renforcement du potentiel humain; la détermination souple et opportune de la volonté politique; l'utilisation créative de formes bureaucratiques telles que les comités; l'attitude vigilante et attentive aux nécessités de la politique mais prudente et conservant le recul indispensable à un jugement objectif.