An analysis of the use of autobiographical narrative for teachers’ intercultural learning

The currency of intercultural education has risen worldwide in response to increased diversity within societies resulting from migration and global flows of populations. As intercultural education becomes a core responsibility of schooling, critical, detailed analysis of pedagogies for teachers’ own intercultural learning is largely absent in education research, in contrast to attention to developing students’ intercultural capabilities and theoretical and policy analyses. In beginning to address this limitation, this article offers a critical, reflexive analysis of our use and the efficacy of using autobiographical narrative for teachers’ intercultural learning. Framing theories include interculturality, autobiographical narratives for teachers’ professional learning, reflexivity, and the effects of silence and silencing in relation to diversity and intercultural relations in schools. Three instances of teacher autobiographical narrative elicited as part of a large-scale, longitudinal study of intercultural education in Australian schools are deconstructed to elucidate their explicit and hidden meanings and effects. The analysis reveals that while autobiographical narrative has productive potential as a strategy for stimulating teacher reflexivity about cultural identities and intercultural relations, it also contains hidden dangers and traps that caution against viewing it as a pedagogical cure-all in the development of teachers’ intercultural knowledge and skills.     

Education reform, indigenous politics, and decolonisation in the Bolivia of Evo Morales

The paper explores the relationship between education reform and Intercultural Bilingual Education (IBE) for Bolivia's majority indigenous peoples, as this has evolved since the 1990s into the era of Evo Morales, Latin America's first indigenous president, elected in 2005. In order to bring out the significance of the new Education Bill awaiting approval in parliament since 2006, the paper examines in detail the recent historical relationship between education reform and IBE, the role of the country's indigenous social organisations in evolving this relationship, and the ideological underpinnings of the new education reform legislation.     

Educational action research in Singapore: to prove or improve?

The rise of educational action research amongst schools in Singapore can be attributed to the government's belief that educational research and reform can improve school performance and help Singapore keep pace with the impact of globalization. However, against a backdrop of neo-liberal educational reform where efficiency, accountability and demonstrable outcomes are valued, the underlying intent of the action research projects would seem to be inconsistent with the emancipatory intent normally associated with action research. A systematic review was conducted of 71 action research projects submitted to a local educational conference in 2006. Of concern to us is how action research has been narrowly interpreted and recruited simply as an evaluative tool with the emancipatory potential largely ignored. The paper is theoretically framed by governmentality and performativity to explore the embedded power relations that may “fabricate” the action research projects. The findings and discussions suggest a need for the government, schools and teacher-researchers to reflexively question the current expectation of action research and to be clear about its broader purpose.     

Art as mode and medium: a pedagogical approach to teaching and learning about self-reflexivity and artistic expression in qualitative research†

This article highlights the ways in which arts-based approaches to research can be used in teaching and learning about the qualitative research process. Specifically, in our qualitative research class graduate students used the arts as a form of reflexivity to highlight various aspects of their research process, including their positionality, their values, any ethical issues that arose during the research process, and the various methodological steps taken. This collaborative article features the voices of the instructor and three graduate students, who used the mediums of visual art, a blog and a digital diary approach to represent their reflexivity. From the voice of the instructor, we share her rationale for using arts-based approaches in the classroom, her detailed assignment, and the ways in which we can incorporate the arts in teaching about qualitative research. In the form of case examples, three graduate students illustrate their unique qualitative research studies, describing their approach and how they incorporated various artistic mediums as a form of reflexivity within their research. Concluding thoughts will discuss the strengths, limitations and possibilities of using arts-based approaches to teaching and learning about qualitative research.     

Grasping at methodological understanding: a cautionary tale from insider research

This article offers an account of a doctoral insider research project that became problematic. The project was investigating mathematics teaching in a university in the UK, and by contrasting the research account with research diary entries pertaining to two interviewees, different interpretations of the interview data are evident. These differences offer illustrations of four aspects of the problematics of interviewing as follows: (1) personal relations and expectations position everyone in the interview; (2) the motivation for the research affects what the researcher learns; (3) the same material generates accounts that emphasize different things; and (4) things happen in people’s heads during the interviews that are not recorded. The argument developed by considering the examples is that authorial voice is constructed out of decisions regarding the data together with considerations regarding the researcher’s position. The validity of insider research requires reflexive consideration of the researcher’s position, and this is especially pertinent in the case of research undertaken by practitioner researchers on professional doctorates.     

Exploring ethnohistory and Indigenous scholarship: what is the relevance to educational historians?

For educational historians involved in the representation of Indigenous contexts and peoples, what is the relevance of ethnohistory as a discipline or methodology, and what is lost or gained in using it? This article reviews ethnohistorical literature, and brings it in conversation with literature by Indigenous scholars on research methodologies, as well as history and historiography. The inquiry raises questions for consideration by educational historians in conducting Indigenous educational histories. It is suggested that while ethnohistory as it is described in the literature may demonstrate limitations, turning towards Indigenous scholarship for guidance may extend and enhance research on the educational past that is responsive to the interests of Indigenous communities.     

Why ontology matters to reviewing environmental education research

This paper responds to a keynote paper presented by William Scott at the 2007 World Environmental Education Congress held in Durban, South Africa. The keynote address reviewed 30 years of environmental education research. In this response to William Scott's paper I contemplate the way in which environmental education research may enable reflexivity in modernity and develop knowledge that can serve as cultural mediator between individual and society. Through emphasizing ontology, I consider the reality of global knowledge production in relation to the way in which ontology may influence the reasons how and why we come to do particular forms of research, providing an ontological reference for the ever‐expanding pluralism that characterizes the field of environmental education research. The paper comments on various aspects of the Scott paper, but presents an argument for not only valuing pluralism, methodological experimentation and ‘reaching out’, but for embracing the cosmopolitan implications of wider ontological referents of environmental concerns in environmental education research. The paper argues that research in environmental education ought to become ontologically defensible at both local and global scales.     

“课例研究”反思性教学：培训体育教师反思能力

以课例研究为载体开展体育教师反思性教学,要从精心确立课例研究的问题、激发教师反思的兴趣、强化反思意识、掌握反思方法几个方面进行,达到提高中小学体育教师的自身素质、教育教学反思能力的目的。     

翻译中的跨文化意识

语言是文化的载体,翻译不仅是语言的转换,更是文化的传真。由于不同文化背景的人们的表达方式、社会生活差异、宗教历史背景、传统文化观念等几个方面的因素所造成的文化差异对翻译的影响,译者除了要具备扎实的基本功之外,跨文化意识的培养也是十分重要的。