The Open Courseware Movement in Higher Education: Unmasking Power and Raising Questions about the Movement's Democratic Potential

In this essay Robert Rhoads, Jennifer Berdan, and Brit Toven‐Lindsey examine some of the key literature related to the open courseware (OCW) movement (including the emergence and expansion of massive open online courses, or MOOCs), focusing particular attention on the movement's democratic potential. The discussion is organized around three central problems, all relating in some manner or form to issues of power: the problem of epistemology, the problem of pedagogy, and the problem of hegemony. More specifically, the authors raise issues related to the narrow notion of knowledge typically conveyed in the OCW movement, a limited understanding of what constitutes empowering pedagogy, and the lack of treatment of inequities associated with the production of courseware materials. The authors go on to argue that the lack of critical analysis of the OCW movement is tied to its relative alignment with educational reforms driven by neoliberal ideology and that such alignment serves to limit the movement's democratic possibilities.     

Relays and relations: tracking a policy initiative for improving teacher professionalism

This paper offers a new way of exploring some of the complexities inherent in attempts by policy makers and others to promote educational change. The focus of this study is on the current drive in education policy to alter the basis of teacher professionalism through the application of principles of lifelong learning to teachers’ professional development. Drawing upon data from two studies of the Chartered Teacher (CT) initiative in Scotland the paper examines the formation of successive transmission points as material relays of relations during the process of implementing this policy objective. It explores how three key discursive elements of a professional standard for accomplished teaching: collaborative action, critical reflection and enquiry, and teacher leadership, were progressively recontextualised during the introduction of CT status in schools. The findings indicate some of the conceptual and political struggles involved at the critical junctures where policy implementation requires the movement of a discourse from one social context to another. The paper suggests that a discursive analysis of how a centrally mandated initiative is transmitted can help to promote an understanding of the complexities of this process and increase critical awareness of the issues at stake for those involved.     

Reflections on the Umbrella Movement: Implications for civic education and critical thinking

Abstract

The 2014 Umbrella Movement was one of the most significant social and political events in recent Hong Kong history. This paper offers some initial reflections on the connections between the movement and broader issues related to civic education, critical thinking, and theories of education. First, it is suggested that the movement closely resembles a form of civic education known as ‘action civics,’ offering an alternative pedagogy that might encourage more authentic civic participation. Second, the movement raises questions about how the teaching of critical thinking can be made more practically relevant to modern citizenship. Third, the deep political polarization associated with the movement indicates that civic education and critical thinking training need to pay attention to cognitive biases that affect political ideology. Finally, the Umbrella Movement reflects the failure of democratization in Hong Kong and coincides with increasing political pressures on the local education system. We discuss how political reality connects to issues about democratic education, critical pedagogy, and the idea of political neutrality in education.     

Collaboration and contrived collegiality: Revisiting Hargreaves in the age of accountability

Andy Hargreaves is internationally renowned for his work on many topics related to educational change. His work on how educational change shapes teachers’ work, particularly with respect to teacher collaboration, is well exemplified in his award-winning 1994 volume, Changing Teachers, Changing Times: Teachers’ Work and Culture in the Postmodern Age. In this volume, he taught us the important difference between collaborative cultures and contrived collegiality. This article will bring Hargreaves’ ideas about teacher collaboration to bear as I investigate a current educational reform movement: data-driven decision making. I describe how two school systems integrated teacher collaboration as an important feature of their movements towards using data, and I explain the consequences of their efforts. I close by raising critical issues for educators and researchers to address as we consider the role of teacher collaboration in the age of accountability.     

Critical perspectives in educational leadership: a new ‘theory turn’?

In this article, I argue that we are witnessing a new phase or ‘theory turn’ in the field of educational leadership. These more critical perspectives in the field of educational leadership have typically been marginalised by the larger body of orthodox approaches due to a perceived lack of focus on best practice and ‘what works’ discourses, and especially in recent years with the rise of the school effectiveness and improvement movement. However, critical perspectives in educational leadership constitute an essential and vibrant part of educational leadership scholarship and discourse. Drawing on Michel Foucault's notion of discourse, through this article, I examine how critical perspectives have been constituted historically, with some of the main themes of research. This foregrounding also highlights a number of limitations with more orthodox and hegemonic leadership discourses. I identify a number of key writers in the field and situate them in the current theory turn, that is, an emphasis of theoretically informed research that have been prolific over the last 5–10 years.     

Russian/US comparison using the expert science teaching educational evaluation model (ESTEEM)

A small group of Russian teachers who were interested in adopting aspects of the US science educational reform movement, participated in a constructivist science teaching project. Baseline data from translated classroom observations were scored using the science classroom observation rubric from the expert science teaching educational evaluation model (ESTEEM) and compared with a traditional (teacher centered) group of US science teachers and a group of US constructivist (student centered) science teachers. The purpose of the research is to investigate how Russian teachers who were beginning a US science education reform project compared with two US groups of science teachers, a traditional and a reform group. Analysis of variance was used to analyse the total rubric score and four categories for the Russian/traditional US and the Russian/constructivist US studies in order to examine closely the traditional and the constructivist teaching practises. In the first study US traditional teachers were statistically higher on 'facilitating the learning process' and 'context-specific pedagogy'. Russian teachers were higher on the 'content' category. In the second study the experienced constructivist US teachers were statistically higher on all four categories and the total rubric score. The educational culture of both countries is very traditional. However, the reform movement in science education has changed some US teachers, and is in the process of changing some Russian teachers. Both countries are working on the reform process. The results of this study provide baseline information on a small group of Russian teachers, who have chosen to be a part of the ideas contained in the US science education reform movement. The study also promotes the mutual understanding of both cultures among teachers, administrators, and researchers, which should ultimately form a bond for working together on common educational issues.     

Making ‘place’ for ecological sustainability in early childhood education

Culturally, childhood is often understood as a time of innocence which can mean that issues such as ecological sustainability are considered too problematic for early childhood practice. By drawing on findings from a research project that focused on issues of ecological sustainability in early childhood centres in New Zealand from Western and indigenous perspectives, this article contributes a critical perspective of ecological sustainability as an educational issue in early childhood education (ECE). The article falls into two parts: the first section gives an overview of some of the conceptual and theoretical issues that underpin critical perspectives of childhood, and provides a context for current global ECE discourse, while the second section introduces the research project and discusses the intersections of ‘local’ and ‘global’ in light of teachers’ emerging ‘pedagogies of place’. The intent is to demonstrate that critical engagement with such complex global issues as ecological sustainability generates spaces for new understandings of how ECE can contribute to theory and practice of education for sustainability.     

The quest for fairness in language testing

The search for fairness in language testing is distinct from other areas of educational measurement as the object of measurement, that is, language, is part of the identity of the test takers. So, a host of issues enter the scene when one starts to reflect on how to assess people's language abilities. As the quest for fairness in language testing is still in its infancy, even the need for such a research has been controversial, with some (e.g., Davies, 2010) arguing that such research is entirely in vain. This paper will provide an overview of some of the issues involved. Special attention will be given to critical language testing (CLT) as it has had a large impact on language testing research. It will be argued that although CLT has been very effective in revealing the ideological and value implications of the constructs of focus in language testing, extremism in this direction is not justified.     

25 Hours in Family: How Family Internships Can Help School Leaders Transform from Within

This article describes the ways in which a 25-hour internship with families who have children with disabilities impacted four doctoral students in educational leadership. We discuss the lessons we learned as a result of our experiences and provide insight into the structural components of the internship experience that were critical to enhancing our professional development. Key lessons include: (1) the realization that disability is a socially-constructed term that does not describe the talents, feelings, and aspirations of individuals with disabilities; (2) increased knowledge and strategies about how school leaders can provide support to families by listening to their hopes, dreams, and challenges; and (3) the critical need to include families in decision-making processes to ensure that the family perspective is represented. Important structural components of the internship experience included spending time with families in their homes and communities for extended periods of time. Implications for the preparation of educational leaders are discussed.     

Transitions: old wine in new bottles.

The transition movement of the 1980s was preceded by two similar movements: (a) the career education movement in the 1970s and (b) the work/study movement in the 1960s. These three movements are described and compared to provide an historical context for understanding current problems and issues regarding transition. Some broad social issues, such as educational reform, are then examined to illustrate the potential influence of such issues on the future developments of policy that will affect the transition movement.     

Education of deaf and hard of hearing students and accountability reform: issues for the future

The No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (NCLB) has had a monumental impact over the past decade on how educational reform is viewed in the United States. As a result of how the law is structured, schools for students who are deaf or hard of hearing have been the focus of attention for educational reform under NCLB. While there have been some shifts in policy, reauthorization of NCLB will need to respond to some of the larger calls for changes to the law. The author discusses some key issues related to assessment and accountability that are central to how the reauthorization of NCLB affects the education of deaf and hard of hearing students.     

From a Language to a Theory of Resistance: Critical Pedagogy,the Limits of “Framing,” and Social Change

In this article, Rebecca Tarlau attempts to build a more robust theory of the relationship between education and social change by drawing on the conceptual tools offered in the critical pedagogy and social movement literatures. Tarlau argues that while critical pedagogy has been largely disconnected from its roots in political organizing, social movement literature has shifted away from a theory of educational processes within movement building. Specifically, she suggests that the currently dominant “framing perspective” in the social movement literature is incredibly limited in its ability to analyze the pedagogical aspects of organizing. Conversely, while scholars of critical pedagogy are extremely convincing when critiquing U.S. schooling, the field is weaker when theorizing about how teachers using critical pedagogy can link to larger movements for social transformation. Critical pedagogues need more organizational thinking and social movement scholars need a more pedagogical focus. Tarlau suggests three conceptual frameworks for moving forward in this direction: the notion of social movements as pedagogical spaces, the role of informal educational projects in facilitating the emergence and strength of social movements, and the role of public schools as terrains of contestation that hold the possibility of linking to larger struggles for social justice.     

Physics teaching,professional development and a socially critical ideology

The marginalization of school physics as a socially dynamic educational experience for students is a cause for concern. It is one which needs to be addressed by providers of professional development courses for physics teachers. In this paper we explore some of the issues concerning the professional development of physics teachers, taking a direction which runs counter to the traditionally accepted values inherent in the teaching of the subject. The ideology of science teaching is explored in order to provide a rationale for a socially critical professional development programme for physics teachers. A programme designed to provide a challenge to traditional teaching ideology is described; this programme has an action research component coupled with an investigation into key issues involved in a socially critical physics education.     

Community Development and Education: A Tripod Approach to Improving America

Education plays an important role in community development initiatives. A movement toward an increased linkage between the two arenas has emerged. Two major theories undergird this movement: economic/investment and the ecology of community revitalization. The Clinton administration's Empowerment Zone/Enterprise Community program offers a concrete example of a community development initiative. Preliminary reports on educational components from sites nationwide are highlighted. In addition, a review of the literature reveals several major issues that surround these community development activities, including values conflicts, economic sustainability, school improvement, trust, and administrative issues. Overall, the purpose of this paper is to bring into focus the major theoretical and practical issues that community development efforts confront in attempting to improve the lives of Americans in need.     

The Revolution Will Be Privatized: Teach For America and Charter Schools

This article examines the ways that the charter school movement is experienced and negotiated by educators who entered the profession through Teach For America (TFA). TFA’s impact has been significant in the larger educational trend towards market-based reforms and, in particular, the charter school movement. Analyzed through a critical theory lens that focuses on issues of power and on the ways individuals interact amid larger (and often distal) structural forces, the experiences of TFA corps members are situated within the larger changing context of education. Amid contested, fractured, and complex narratives about charter school reform, TFA’s idea of “relentless pursuit” shaped participants’ conceptions and actions around charter schools.     

Education and the Demand for Emancipation

This paper puts forward the hypothesis that in recent decades, pupils of schools in the western world have been given a new form of individuality. This construction has been nourished by both the demand for emancipation as it was expressed in the critical sociology of education (and pedagogy) and by the neoliberal turn in education policy. It unfolds consequences of such an alliance between romantic and neoliberal individualism, and argues that some of Simmel's concepts might fruitfully be engaged to grasp important aspects of today's educational culture. Against this backdrop, the paper discusses the construction of the new individuality in regard to educational changes in control and discipline, individually adapted education and assessment and finally academic knowledge. Primarily by using examples from the Norwegian case, the paper analyses how recent opinions on these issues can be viewed as different expressions of an educational culture promoting alienation as emancipation.     

Design implications from a usability study of GramStain-TutorTM

To examine interface issues in an educational software program, we recruited twenty-two users in health sciences departments for a usability study. Using the GramStain-Tutor™ (GST) CD-ROM, these users performed tasks in navigating the program and using various interactive features. Their actions and comments were recorded with a digital video recorder and an audio recorder. The main results of our study are: (a) the majority of the users did not use the multiple navigational options available in the program; (b) navigational patterns differed based on the training background and content knowledge of the users; (c) several visual cues critical to program use were not discovered by the majority of the users; and (d) icons representing specific functions were not intuitive from users' perspectives. We demonstrated how a usability study of a relatively small number of users can identify specific problems in interface design. We recommend these interface problems be addressed before conducting educational studies that examine how educational software programs affect student learning.     

Learning from the Confucian heritage: so size doesn’t matter?

Students from Confucian heritage cultures (CHCs), such as China, Singapore, Hong Kong, and Japan, consistently outperform Western students in many academic subjects, under conditions, such as large class teaching, that seem counter-indicated by Western research. These results have been used to justify increases in class size on the grounds that size is irrelevant to effective teaching. Such thinking is simplistic. Children in CHCs are socialized in ways that make them amenable to work in large classes, so that management problems are minimal and teachers can focus on meaningful learning using whole-class methods. An educational system forms a working whole, each component interacting with all other components. Isolating any one component (such as class size) and transplanting it into a different system shows a deep misunderstanding of how educational systems work.     

Fostering critical thinking: Features of powerful learning environments

Critical thinking is a recurrent educational ambition. At the same time, it is not self-evident how that ambition can be realised. This is partly due to the different perspectives from which Critical Thinking can be approached. The literature on critical thinking is extensive and diverse, different meanings and aspects of critical thinking have been explored. However, there is agreement among several researchers that critical thinking entails both ability and attitudinal components. Research in psychology on different types of cognitive processing has similarly pointed to the importance of both skills and attitudes. This article builds on a tripartite notion of disposition that has been proposed in the context of education. The tripartite dispositional perspective on which we elaborate highlights the importance of ability, inclination and sensitivity. We describe and discuss an educational protocol aligned with the tripartite conceptualisation of disposition. The protocol identifies characteristics of powerful learning environments. We propose that the proposed educational protocol—aligned to Critical Thinking education goals, conditions and interventions—can be used for fostering critical thinking. More specifically, the use of four types of interventions are recommended: (1) modelling, (2) inducing, (3) declaring and (4) surveillance. Finally, we underscore that there is a need for further research on the use of the educational protocol.     

Left right out: Australian education and the politics of signification

In recent years there has been a shift in popular thinking and government policy on education in Australia, away from the social democratic consensus of the Karmel era, towards a Rightist perception. While a number of sources of this movement may be identified, in this paper I will focus on the politics of discourse. Drawing on Laclau's and Mouffe's developments of Gramsci's theory of hegemony, I will explore the ways in which various educational lobby groups have sought to produce a ‘common‐sense’ concerning Australian schooling. The examination of a critical historical incident is a useful way of illustrating the strategies employed by these groups, as their political efforts are particularly concentrated at such times.

In its 1983 Education Guidelines the federal Labour government announced, amongst many things, that it intended to reduce funds to Australia's ‘best resourced’ private schools. A bitter debate between supporters of private schools and state schools ensued. On the surface each party sought merely to influence the 1984 Guidelines which would determine funding policies for some time to come. At the debates centre, however, were issues to do with the nature and purpose of schooling and what and whose interests it should serve.

This historical incident exemplifies the politics of the contending parties particularly well. Private schooling was used as a symbolic rallying point around which particular definitions of education were constructed. This paper will focus first on the discursive strategies of the private school lobby and its allies, the educational Right, then on those of the state school lobby and the Left. My contention is that the private school lobby and its allies have achieved a discursive ascendency and my intention is to suggest some reasons why this is so and how it was achieved.