Students' Knowledge About Environmental Matters and Their Belief in Their Own Action Possibilities–A Danish Study

Abstract

Drawing chiefly from Paul Shepard's (1982) Nature and Madness and David Abram's (1996) The Spell of the Sensuous, this essay draws attention to two underlying foundations of educational thought: the process of human social development and the emergence of language and literacy. A reading of Shepard and Abram implies that the meaning of human social development and the meaning of literacy must be recovered from our shared human heritage in which human beings developed a sense of interconnection with nonhuman others. This perspective suggests many challenges to environmental educators including (a) the need to take a more philosophical (and less instrumental) approach to our work, (b) the need for a working theory of development and literacy in education that takes nonhuman otherness seriously, (c) the need to advocate for more regular and extended experiences in the natural world in order to nurture relationship with otherness, (d) the need to reinvent “accountability” in education, (e) and the need to develop in all learners, including ourselves, a sense of at-homeness.     

The Art of Living and Positive Psychology in Dialogue

Abstract

The idea of happiness boomed in the public as well as in the academic domain over the last decade and has not reached its peak yet. However, the understanding of happiness (understood as eudaimonia) as being the utmost goal of human beings is hardly new. Philosophers have discussed this topic, under various terms, throughout history. One of the most recent philosophical concepts has been conducted by Wilhelm Schmid in his book Philosophie der Lebenskunst [Philosophy of the Art of Living], which is a theory about the good and beautiful life from a modern perspective under consideration of the philosophical history of this topic. Martin Seligman presented the ‘happiness formula’ in his book Authentic Happiness in 2002 and research about happiness, subjective well-being and life satisfaction (among others) began to form the field of positive psychology. This article provides a critical comparative analysis of philosophical concepts of the art of living and positive psychological research from an educational point of view. It will explore the extent of common ground between these disciplines, where they differ, and where they might be complementary.     

关于本体论和价值论问题杂感

本体问题是人的存在方式必然要产生的问题，所以是不可能取消的。不过，在不同的历史阶段上，哲学家仍对此的理解是不同的。我仍认为，本体不是某种给定了的最终存在，而是在实践中不断实现着的理想。哲学中的价值，既不同于经济学的价值，也不同于伦理学中的价值，而是指人在实践中使自己及外部对象由有限存在向无限存在升华的自主性和创造性。     

庄子与当代哲学的互文

德里达的文字学理论认为没有外在于文字视野的意义，否定一个悬置于文字之上的超验所指的存在，意义是在文字的嬉戏中生成的。这一系列观点与中国古代哲学尤其是庄子的某些思想有契合之处。该文通过对德里达理论的分析，寻找其与庄子思想的某些相近处，希望揭示中国古代哲学本身所具有的一些语言哲学的特质。     

诠释学视野下的比较诗学

诠释学作为一门指导文本理解和解释的学科，在以前类似于修辞学、语法学、逻辑学，从属于语文学。到了20世纪，诠释学由一种理解和解释的方法论发展成为一种哲学理论。诠释学的哲学转向与世界意义的多元化转向并行。随着古典诠释学向现代哲学诠释学的转换，诠释学不再仅是对经典文本的诠释而具有多元化的意义，从而为自己找到广阔的诠释空间，因此在诠释学的视野下比较诗学也具有更加开放的被诠释可能。以诠释学为背景，进一步探讨比较诗学在学理意义上的可能性和可行性，便会发现：比较诗学之“比较”不是工具论意义上的一种手段而是存在论意义上的一种思维方式，从而为比较诗学学科研究提供一个新的视角。     

Not all preconceptions are misconceptions: finding ‘anchoring conceptions’ for grounding instruction on students’ intuitions

This study begins the task of mapping out the domain of valid, potentially helpful beliefs of students and raises the possibility of drawing on these intuitions in teaching conceptual material. Some issues are explored surrounding the identification of such intuitions, referred to as anchoring conceptions or anchors. We attempt to: (1) propose some organizing theoretical and observational definitions of the anchor construct; (2) present some initial findings from a diagnostic test designed to uncover anchors for physics instruction; and (3) provoke an initial discussion of the new methodological issues that arise in this domain.

The results of the diagnostic test indicate that a number of group anchors exist. In addition, some unexpected non‐anchors were identified. Furthermore, evidence was found indicating that some anchoring examples may be ‘brittle’, i.e., evidence that the anchor could not be extended analogically to help a student make sense of a target situation.

Finally, it is suggested that further research is needed to construct a theory of anchoring conceptions that would, for example, specify what characteristics would indicate that an anchoring conception can provide the basis for conceptual change via analogical extension.     

Comparing variation theory with Piaget’s theory of cognitive development: more similarities than differences?

ABSTRACT

Lo’s variation theory is a learning and teaching theory based on Marton’s phenomenographic approach and is one of the most important backbones of learning studies. The proponents of variation theory demarcate their approach from constructivist learning approaches, stressing constructivism as philosophical framework, but not as learning theory. At the same time, the phenomenographic approach emphasizes the importance of Piaget’s work about the cognitive development, which should be considered when talking about learning and teaching. We argue that – from a theoretical point of view – Piaget’s theory of how cognitive schemata are developed and how variation theory proposes that learning can be fostered entails many similarities which are not apparent at first glance. We demonstrate the similarities and differences using a teaching example from an English as second language classroom and show the implications for practical instructional work. Finally, we discuss concrete suggestions how variation theory could benefit even more from Piaget’s theory.     

Can Educationally Significant Learning be Assessed?

Abstract

This article argues that assessment is a central feature of teaching, particularly as a means to determine whether what has been taught has been learnt. However, I take issue with the current trend in education which places a significant amount of emphasis upon large-scale public testing, which in turn has exacerbated the ‘teaching-to-the-test’ syndrome, not to mention distorting teaching decisions that are detrimental to the overall development of student knowledge and understanding. Part of the problem with assessment in education seems to revolve around the nature of knowledge and how best to assess human knowledge and understanding. Although much philosophical uncertainty and disagreement exists surrounding the nature of knowledge, I argue that coming to know something is a sine qua non of any education. In saying this, I highlight the limits of assessment by demonstrating how certain activities are resistant to large-scale public testing because they are not easily reducible to facts which can be tested for, or at least in the same way as propositional forms of knowledge. Consequently, my argument is a philosophical one to the effect that assessment, particularly large-scale public testing is incapable of assessing all forms of learning, or even the quality of student understanding because the instruments available are both too blunt and tend to capture a certain kind of knowledge that privileges theory over practice, and mental skills over physical skills.     

How the West Was One: The Western as individualist,the African as communitarian

Abstract

There is a kernel of truth in the claim that Western philosophy and practice of education is individualistic; theory in Euro-America tends to prize properties that are internal to a human being, such as her autonomy, rationality, knowledge, pleasure, desires, self-esteem and self-realisation, and education there tends to adopt techniques focused on the individual placed at some distance from others. What is striking about other philosophical–educational traditions in the East and the South is that they are typically much more communitarian. I argue that since geographical terms such as ‘Western’, ‘African’ and the like are best construed as picking out properties that are salient in a region, it is fair to conclude that the Western is individualist and that the African is communitarian. What this means is that if I am correct about a noticeable contrast between philosophies of education typical in the West and in sub-Saharan Africa, and if there are, upon reflection, attractive facets of communitarianism, then those in the West and in societies influenced by it should in some real sense become less Western, in order to take them on.     

Abortion and Infanticide

Abstract

This issue introduces an occasional series where readers are invited to argue points of view, express opinions, raise issues they deem important ‐ or indeed disagree with an earlier point of view. Controversy need not be avoided! Contributions to the series, which should normally fall between 400 and 2000 words are now being sought.

The first contribution is concerned with abortion and infanticide and the moral problems thrown up by following certain lines of philosophical enquiry to their logical conclusion. Karin Bernath introduces the topic, pointing out that this is a topic intensely debated in the German‐speaking world, and Hans Furrer develops some of the philosophical implications in his paper. It is perhaps well to be reminded of these matters as the shades of World War II and the ideologies that underpinned it are once more in our minds.     

Politics of digital learning—Thinking education with Bernard Stiegler

Abstract

Bernard Stiegler is known as a leading philosopher of technics. He has developed an original interpretation of technics as an externalized epiphylogenetic memory that (1) remembers in the place of the human being, who appears therefore as a forgetful being and (2) is collective and constitutes a technological community, that is different from any ethnical-political community. Stiegler has also examined the social and political consequences of contemporary technology. Technics are not neutral. Contemporary digital technologies claim to inform but more fundamentally they produce pulsions in a way that is destructive to psychic and collective individuation and leads to a generalized proletarianization, where the problem is not biopower or capitalism but lack of attention and desire. Can the digital world become a new public space? Stiegler is quite pessimistic, but in principle, to some extent, it is possible to seize and convert ‘the means of memory production.’ Stiegler's insights are invaluable in the task of evaluating new learning technologies, because he analyzes political community from the double point of view of technology, and of the care of younger generations. In this article, I present Stiegler's philosophical theory and show how it can be applied to education and digital learning environments.     

Extraordinary conversations in public schools

This article reviews two ethnographic studies in which "disruptive pedagogies" are engaged in public schools, designed to enable youth to work across categories of difference toward a grounded sense of social critique and participation. Respectfully challenging/extending the premises of reproduction theory, it is argued that educational researchers not only need to theorize the means of (re)production by which public schools insure class, race, ethnic and gender stratification, but also to theorize how counter-hegemonic moments in school, in which educators undertake disruptive pedagogies, affect social consciousness and community.     

On the absent ground of transnational partnerships in education: A post-foundational intervention

ABSTRACT

Transnational multi-stakeholder partnerships (MSPs) are proliferating in the domain of education and development. This paper intervenes in scholarly discussions on such partnerships by pondering what post-foundational political thought might add. It is argued that both liberal and critical literature, albeit from very different viewpoints, tend to foreground order and stability. Drawing on post-foundational political theory, and a case study of the Global Partnership for Education, the present paper explores transnational MSPs in education as incomplete hegemonic projects. By bringing attention to fissures and disruptions, the paper exposes how the absent ground of ‘the political’ ultimately haunts the stability of partnerships.     

Toward a definition of a Latino family research paradigm

This paper analyzes some of the methodological requisites for a Latino qualitative family research paradigm. The paper explores the philosophical underpinnings, purposes, parameters, and influences of the role of the researcher. Elements of critical race theory, feminist standpoint theory, and Puerto Rican culture and experience are incorporated in the development of the paradigm. Thus, the framework reveals an epistemology that is sensitive to Latino cultural knowledge production and holds an explicit social objective to challenge existing structures, that is, to produce knowledge that presents Latinos as active agents facing constraints or exhibiting resistence behaviors within a social structure. The framework's parameters outline the boundaries all Latino groups share in the United States, such as bicultural identity, Spanish language, and cultural citizenship. The researcher's influence is examined from a Latina (Puerto Rican female) perspective to find some of the continuities and discontinuities that may influence the inherent power dynamic within the researcher informant relationship.     

A New "Stairway to Moral Heaven"? A systematic reconstruction of stages of moral thinking based on a Piagetian "logic" of cognitive development

One of the main deficiencies of the Kohlberg theory is that it has never lived up to the claim of being a structural developmental theory. First of all, it has never been shown, what specific problems arise at each stage and how these are resolved at the following one (integrating all lower stages). The present approach tries to fill this gap by starting from an elaborated developmental logic, which is then applied to the field of moral thinking. Thus, stages are (re)constructed successively out of one another. This procedure, however, yields a new taxonomy of moral stages, the "architecture" of which is expounded in some detail in the present paper. This new approach has important implications for moral education, especially as it allows for fine-tuned moral-cognitive stimulation (a feature which is discussed in comparison with received ways of fostering moral development). The article ends with a discussion of what the new "stairway" means for Kohlbergian theory.     

关于马克思主义哲学价值观问题的探讨

马克思主义哲学的价值观是一种"需要-属性"论、"意义-关系"论、"本质-实践"论的价值观,还是一种应该从实践理解价值的相关问题的实践的价值观?这是一个我们必须搞清楚的有关马克思主义哲学价值观的本质规定性和精神实质的重大问题。本文试图从方法论维度,在考察学界关于马克思主义哲学的价值观念及其局限的基础上,重点探讨了马克思主义哲学实践的价值本质论和实践的价值评价论,以期人们通过与传统马克思主义哲学教科书阐释的价值观对比,明了马克思主义哲学的价值观应该从实践理解价值的相关问题的实践的价值观。     

In the Service of Technocratic Managerialism? History in UK Universities

Abstract

This article discusses the conceptualisation, organisation and philosophical orientation of academic history culture in UK higher education. It problematises the extent to which a dominant history culture in UK universities implies and uncritically reproduces normative understandings about the subject; about its epistemological standing, sociopolitical functions, and the presumed cultural value of the discipline practices that students learn to perform. We suggest that current conceptions of history degree curricula are overly thin and organised around a dominant managerialist discourse of skills, personal development and learning outcomes. In a historicised world, in which history-focused behaviour has a crucial, ideological, affirmatory role, and in which historical narratives have a privileged cognitive function, we argue that it is critical for university history students to be able to deconstruct the processes by which history legitimises itself, and reinforces matrices of power in our societies. The positioning of history in higher education as a form of technocratic managerialism closes down spaces in which students can explore the potential of historical practices as a means of engaging with issues of current sociopolitical and ethical concern. We ask in this article, is this what we want an academic history culture to do?     

Discussing education by means of metaphors

Abstract

Metaphors help us understand a concept by resorting to the imaginary because it is sometimes difficult to do so through the use of words alone. Thinkers have made use of metaphors to not only describe ‘falling in love’, ‘the pain of losing someone dear to us’, but also to describe particular concepts both in arts and sciences. In fact, the use of metaphors in some disciplines, particularly the sciences, is now regarded as something essential for the development of the field. We note that influential philosophers of education, such as Martin Buber, Paulo Freire, Michael Apple, Gert Biesta and Ilan Gur-Ze’ev have also made use of metaphors to discuss education and specific issues in educational contexts. In this article, we do two things: (i) we discuss the methodological importance of metaphors in helping us make better sense of concepts and particular problems; (ii) building on this methodological discussion, we critically discuss the problems posed by the current processes of ‘marketisation’ and ‘learnification’ in education. We conclude by arguing that metaphors do not provide us with ultimate answers to the problems we face; rather, they help us unveil a diversity of novel perspectives and a world of new possibilities.