《齐物论》释义

《齐物论》以“齐”为主题,从逻辑上说,其中包含“齐物”论与齐“物论”二重涵义。“齐物”论指向世界万物,后者虽呈现千差万别的形态,但从“齐物”论的角度看,则最终可以分而齐之或不齐而齐。齐“物论”之“物论”直接所指,涉及关于“物”的不同观点,但在宽泛意义上则关乎一切是非之辩,“齐”广义论域中的“物论”,意味着消解是非的分辨和是非论争。总起来,“齐物论”以“齐”为视域,既要求超越存在之域的分别,也试图消解观念之域的是非之辩。就哲学的层面而言,扬弃“道术为天下裂”的形态、通过以道观之达到统一的存在,这一进路无疑不无所见的。然而,从现实的形态看,世界既呈现关联和统一之维,又内含多样性和差异性,所谓“物之不齐,物之情也”。以否定和拒斥的立场对待“分”与“别”,在逻辑上很难避免对存在的抽象理解,与之相涉的分而齐之,也容易疏离于真实、具体的存在,引向思辨意义上的形而上学。在庄子的齐物之论中,以道观之与抽象齐之二重取向交错而并存,呈现了多方面的理论意蕴。     

“明清以来的地方意识与国家认同”学术研讨会述评

地方研究已是学界显学,本次研讨会则旨在从国家建构的维度,考察地方意识与国家认同的关系,着力从历史人类学、社会史、政治史、思想史、知识分子研究等方向展开跨领域对话,试图透过迥异的研究路径和研究议题,共同探讨现代中国的国家建构与国家认同之历史过程。与会学者主要探讨了何处是“地方”、谁之“地方”、何种“中国”、何以“中国”等议题。首先,“地方”的意涵和所指是多样化的,不仅指行政区域,也指地理和文化空间,是从乡村、县、省到南方、北方、东北、西北等地域的动态概念。其次,参与并建构地方意识与国家认同的历史主体是多元的,故国家的知识精英和制度文化、地方的宗教专家和社团组织,以及中国边缘和外部世界所想象的“中国”也是多元的。最后,与会学者从地方与国家关系、种族/民族、赋役制度、礼仪宗教、战争、工业资本主义等多重视角,热烈地讨论了多样化“地方”背后的同一性,以及中国何时、如何成为民族国家等问题。这些多元性非但不会妨碍我们理解“中国”,而且是理解的前提和开端。     

Teaching imaginary children: University students’ narratives about their Latino practicum children

This study investigates the dialogic processes involved in how teachers talk about their students and what consequences their ways of talking (i.e., “narratives”) may have for their guidance. We take a sociocultural perspective on learning as transformation of students’ subjectivity. Teaching, as a process of guiding and facilitating learning, cannot be effective if the teacher does not actively seek how the student perceives and understands reality. We borrow and adapt from Bakhtin (1999) four narrative ways of talking about others: objectivizing, subjectivizing, problematizing and finalizing. The presence of these narratives in web discussion postings of our pre-service teachers about the Latino children they worked with in a community center are analyzed. We then compare their ways of talking about children with print- and web-based discussions about children made by in-service teachers, model teachers and our pre-service teachers in a school-based practicum. Using mixed quantitative and qualitative methodologies, we found an overwhelming predominance of objectivizing and finalizing in our pre-service teachers’ narratives about the children with whom they work that seems to define a certain pedagogical regime that we call here “teaching imaginary children/students.” This “way of talking” about children seems to be characterized by unchecked speculations guiding instruction that are not tested by finding out from the children themselves how they understand the instruction and the world. These speculations, in turn, can lead to a dogmatic approach towards children.     

在做什么,抑或知道在做什么——教师的前提性反思的危机与重建

"在做什么",是在常识、熟知、甚至自明的范围中对行为的考虑与回答。一般而言,这种考虑和回答能促使教师不断地提高自己的业务能力,反思自己行为的实效;但它并不引起教师对自己行为本身更多的反思。熟知、常识和自明并不等同于真知与明晓,却往往包含着"无知"。"知道在做什么",是对自我行为本身的一种艰苦地思索,是为了真正的知道和正当地行为,表现为对熟知、流行、常识的教师行为观念的批判与反思。这是一种教师的前提性反思。它意味着教师必须具有清醒的自我批判意识,反省自己行为所隐含的"无意识的前提",理性地抵制自己成为一个积极的、无思的共谋者。但是,教师教育对效率、手段、专门化以及科学化教育理论的过度强调使其出现了危机:前提性反思变得既不必要又无可能。重建教师前提性反思,教师需要做好一种知识的准备,即在学习和教育教学实践中努力探寻并赢得关于人、幸福以及教育的整体性知识。基于此,教师教育亦是一种通识教育。     

Beacons of light,rays, or sun catchers? A case study of the positioning of literacy teachers and their knowledge in neoliberal times

This paper reports on a case study of a “lead literacy teacher” initiative in one Canadian province. This initiative is related to a “minority world” trend in teacher in-service that seeks to develop “experts” in a field with the intent that such experts can help other teachers to raise student achievement for the betterment of the economy. Using a post-colonial theoretical framework that advocates for professional development premised on teacher knowledge production, the study finds that the initiative instead forwards a “train-the-trainer” model of information transmission that negates teachers' prior knowledge, experience, and practices. The study argues that for teachers to become critically reflective in their practice, they need material supports (e.g., time) to share with one another and knowledge must be allowed to flow in all directions within the educational hierarchy.     

Seeing one another as “other”

In this paper, the authors discuss two complementary life history research projects investigating prospective teachers' identities in relation to their race and social class. Drawing on the experiences of one student from each study, they show how both whites and students of color primarily thought about one another as “others”—people who fundamentally differed from one another and whom they understood through preconceived ideas about a group. The authors draw on a Bakhtinian notion of how a “surplus of sight” enables one to develop understandings of an “other” and also of oneself.     

Literacy's verb: Exploring what literacy is and what literacy does

This article considers contemporary policy claims about “what literacy is” and “what literacy does.” First, the article reviews in-depth the ways in which development discourses define literacy, and the claims made in development discourses about the “consequences” of literacy for economic and political development. I then draw on 24 months of ethnographic research in Brazil with 41 highly impoverished literacy students from four literacy programs in two cities in order to demonstrate that there is no predictable “impact” of literacy on development. Instead, I show that the opportunities afforded by literacy depend greatly on the types of literacy and the types of literacy programs made available to students, as well as students’ cultural understandings of literacy and the social, political, and economic contexts within which they attempt to assert new literacy practices. The article concludes that we should not consider literacy as an actor with some “impact”; instead, we should examine how people use literacy in ways that are conditioned by social and cultural forces.     

Proving “The Girl Effect”: Corporate knowledge production and educational intervention

The Nike Foundation, the philanthropic arm of Nike, Inc., seeks to prove the “The Girl Effect,” its theory of change, through investments in adolescent girls in the Global South. The foundation defines it as the “unique potential of 250 million adolescent girls to end poverty for themselves and the world.” This article examines the elaborate, yet continually contested processes of attempting to prove “The Girl Effect.” It draws on ethnographic research in the U.S. and Brazil (2009–2010) to analyze how the Nike Foundation funds, produces, and distributes knowledge on the purported potential of particular adolescent girls to end poverty. It focuses on how the monitoring and evaluation practices of one grantee in Brazil were informed by and contributed to the foundation's broader project of proving “The Girl Effect.” The analysis explains how this occurred through processes of knowledge production and educational intervention that were predicated on an epistemological understanding of the trope of “Third World girl.” It provides insights into how the foundation extends it power and authority over new bodies, institutions, and geographies by asserting itself as an expert on adolescent girls and by influencing the development agendas of more powerful global institutions.     

The beliefs of teachers and daycare staff regarding children of divorce: A Q methodological study

This Q methodological study explores beliefs of daycare staff and teachers regarding young children’s reactions related to divorce. The Q factor analysis resulted in two viewpoints. Participants on the viewpoint “Child problems” believe that children show various emotional and behavioral problems related to divorce, while those on the “Structure is working” viewpoint believe structure in daycare centers and parental cooperation help children to overcome divorce-related difficulties. Selective perception based on subjective experiences may have influenced these views. Practical implications are discussed. Q methodology and cognitive interviewing techniques seem efficient in exploring daycare staff beliefs.     

卢梭的教育意图

卢梭的《社会契约论》和《爱弥儿》之间似乎存在某种矛盾和紧张关系。《社会契约论》以"社会"为取向,否定人的"自然状态";《爱弥儿》以"个人"为取向,强调"自然教育"。然而根据卢梭本人的教育意图,二者实际上是一以贯之的。卢梭的"社会契约论"表面上是对"自然状态"的否定,其实是对"自然状态"的模仿:以"道法自然"的方式建立公民社会。并且,卢梭在《社会契约论》中着重阐述了对一般公民的教育(大众教育)。《爱弥儿》并非《社会契约论》的对立面,它阐述的是对公民社会的立法家的教育(精英教育)。正因为立法家对于社会的作用高于一般公民,所以《爱弥儿》的重要性高于《社会契约论》。     

The effect of effort grading on learning

In the fall of 2004, Benedict College – a Historically Black College in Columbia, SC – began enforcing a new grading policy called Success Equals Effort (SE²). Under this policy, students taking freshman and sophomore level courses were assigned grades that explicitly rewarded not only content learning (“knowledge” grade) but also measures of effort (“effort” grade). This paper examines the effects of effort grading using two stage least squares and fixed effect estimates. I find evidence of a strong positive correlation between “effort” grades and “knowledge” grades. Under some restrictions this relationship can be interpreted as “effort” producing “knowledge”.     

Unequal education,poverty and low growth—A theoretical framework for rural education of China

This paper constructs an intertemporal substitution educational model based on endogenous growth theory and examines the rural education, farmer income and rural economic growth problems in China. It shows that the households originally with the same economic endowment but different education endowment take different growth routes, the income difference between low- and high-income families can be enlarged as they take different educational growth routes, and the low-income family has the chance to get into the “poverty trap”. In the mean time, urban and rural, developed and underdeveloped rural areas, as they take the different education growth routes the difference of economic growth tend to be expanded for the flow of high-quality labor and different industrialization, and they also have the risk of “poverty trap”. The key to solve this problem is the active public policies that promote the equal education, rational income and equilibrium development.     

英国院校研究发展与演变的逻辑:从“平等”到“质量”

与美国相比,院校研究在英国的发展是迟缓的。从历史渊源来看,英国早期的"院校研究"活动包括"校史研究"和"政府报告"。但其"真正意义上"的院校研究起源于英国政府决定推行高等教育大众化的政策过程(1963—1987)。在此期间,院校研究主要是促进"教育平等"的政策研究和大学内部教学法改进研究。20世纪80年代后期,英国政府与大学之间的关系发生了重大变化,"质量评估运动"和"问责"促成了院校研究在英国高校内部地位的确立。院校研究的旨趣也从关注"平等"转向"质量"。院校研究在英国发展的历程和经验,对于其他欧洲国家甚至对中国院校研究的推进,都具有启发和借鉴意义。     

An analysis of community involvement in primary schools in Malawi

Through a secondary analysis of standardised test data, the paper reviews community involvement in Malawian primary schools and examines the extent to which it explains variation in pupil test scores. In so doing, the study deconstructs the concept of community involvement, demonstrating that it is not a unitary concept but rather made up of multiple effects which can be categorised into different modes: “learner support”, “financing” and “networking”. The framework developed may help with future research and the results caution policymakers in Malawi on the current reality of community participation and how this relates to existing policy ambitions.     

Creating a “third space” in student teaching: Implications for the university supervisor’s status as outsider

The work of teacher education during student teaching typically takes place in two distinct “spaces”: placement sites and college/university settings. The program featured in this article is structured in ways that clearly mark out those two spaces. Yet this configuration led our university supervisors, whose work primarily took place in the field, to feel like “outsiders.” To redress this concern, a third learning space was incorporated into our student teaching seminar. We suggest that “third spaces” in combination with return-to-campus courses not only mitigates the peripherality of university supervisors, but also amplifies the influence of a teacher preparation program.     

Additive and disruptive pedagogies: The use of slowmation as an example of digital technology implementation

The purpose of this study was to explore the experiences of 35 preservice teachers as they were introduced to a new digital technology, “Slowmation” (abbreviated from Slow Animation), as a “disruptive” pedagogy over a period of 12 months. The participants in the study were 35 preservice teachers from an elementary cohort. Primary data sources included field notes and semi-structured interviews. Findings revealed that the preservice teachers enjoyed using slowmation as learners during the on-campus part of their program, yet very few used it as a disruptive pedagogy when teaching during their extended practicum. Our study highlights the challenges inherent in introducing “disruptive” pedagogies in a teacher education program.     

Exploring gender roles’ effects of Turkish women teachers on their teaching practices

The purpose of this study is to investigate how gender roles of women teachers affect their practices in the classrooms. Participants in the study were 75 female teachers working in elementary schools in Adana, Turkey. Findings indicated that gender roles of women teachers have important effects on their educational practices. Women teachers explained how their gender roles affect their profession mostly in terms of “also being a mother” in both positive and negative directions. The main points in teachers’ explanations were “being a mother and a spouse”, “stress”, “close relationships with students and parents” and “lack of authority and issues of confidence”.     

In-service and prospective teachers’ conceptions of creativity

Teachers play a crucial role in the development of primary school students’ creative potential in either a positive or a negative way. This paper aims to draw attention to in-service and prospective teachers’ conceptions of creativity and answer three main research questions: “What are the teachers’ conceptions and implicit theories of creativity in general?”, “What are the teachers’ conceptions and implicit theories of creativity in the context of primary education?”, and “How well-trained and equipped do teachers feel to play their key role in the development of students’ creative potential?” A self-report questionnaire was used as an instrument to gather qualitative and quantitative data from 132 Greek in-service and prospective teachers. According to the selected quantitative data we present in this study, the majority of the participants reported that the facilitation of students’ creativity is included in the teachers’ role, but they (teachers themselves) do not feel well-trained and confident enough to realise this particular expectation. The authors conclude that further research is needed in order to: (i) reveal more on teachers’ conceptions on creativity and (ii) understand and classify teachers’ particular needs to facilitate the creative potential of primary school students.     

Constructing Meaning About Violence,School, and Community: Participatory Action Research with Urban Youth

In this paper, I describe how a group of young adolescents negotiate their daily lives within the seeming permanence of a toxic environment, limited social services, poverty, crime, drugs, and inadequate educational resources. The world that the young people described in this paper inhabit is a world of despair and hope, chaos and silence, violence and peace, struggle and possibility—a world in which they spend a good deal of time surviving violence while negotiating the psychosocial, economic, raced, gendered, classed, and sociocultural borders that inform and influence their lives.Through the use of participatory action research and community photography, we are problematizing those borders and creating spaces for young urban youth to engage in processes that position them as agents of inquiry and as experts about their own lives. As the data reveal, by listening to young people's stories, by giving them the opportunity to speak about their lives, and by collaborating with them in designing plans of action to address their concerns, we can more effectively frame research questions and teaching pedagogies around their understandings of violence and urban life. As important, by examining their lives via participatory action research, young people are provided with opportunities to take deliberate action to enhance community well-being.     

Telling and retelling about self and “others”: How pre-service teachers (re)interpret privilege and disadvantage in one college classroom

This paper examines how a group of mostly white, (upper) middle class pre-service teachers expressed resistance in one multicultural education course. We analyze how these students re-evaluated their educational autobiographies upon comparing their educational “story” with that of an “other” of a different race and social class whom they had interviewed. Findings reveal that despite variation in students’ incoming ideological dispositions, they all rationalized inequality by clinging to moral evaluations of their own achievements and that of others like and unlike them. Teacher-educators have wrangled insufficiently with the moral logic that rationalizes unearned privilege, accounting, in part, for the kinds of resistance these students demonstrated.