Grammar in the Curriculum for English: What Next?

It is clear from several government reports and research papers published recently that the curriculum for English in primary and secondary schools is about to change yet again. After years of bureaucratic stranglehold that has left even Ofsted report writers criticising the teaching of English, it seems as if the conditions are right for further revisions. One of the questions that inevitably arise when a curriculum for English is reviewed, relates to the place and purpose of the teaching of grammar. This paper outlines a possible curriculum for grammar across both primary and secondary phases, arguing that for the teaching of grammar to have any salience or purpose at all, it has to be integrated into the curriculum as a whole, and not just writing. A recontextualised curriculum for grammar, of the kind proposed here, would teach pupils to become critically literate in ways which recognise diversity as well as unity, and with the aim of providing them with the means to analyse critically and appraise the culture in which they live.     

Language of instruction in Tanzania: Why are research findings not heeded?

The issue of language of instruction (LOI) and its effects on education in Tanzanian secondary education has been widely researched since the early 1980s. In 2009, the Ministry of Education and Vocational Training proposed a new education and training policy that allows English to be used as LOI from nursery school to tertiary education. The proposed policy goes against what researchers in this area have recommended over the years. In the light of the proposed policy, the author of this article felt the need to review studies done on LOI in Tanzania from 1974 to date, aiming to eliminate or greatly reduce the negative effects of the policy on education in Tanzania. Quoting examples, the paper demonstrates students’ levels of proficiency in English; suggests reasons why governmental policy has over time ignored research findings; and recommends as well as proposes the way forward.     

Competition in Physical Education: Avoid,Ask, Adapt or Accept?

Competition is an essential part of youth sport. But should it also be part of the curriculum in physical education? Or are competitive activities incompatible with the educational context? While some researchers have argued that physical education should embrace the sporting logic of competition, others have criticized the negative experiences it can create for some students in school. In this article, we draw on insights from the philosophy of sport as well as educational philosophy, with the aim of questioning and critically examining the integration of competitive activities in physical education. We present and discuss four normative arguments (AVOID, ASK, ADAPT, and ACCEPT) that can each in their own way inform and guide future talks on the topic.     

Globalization or Colonization in Online Education: Opportunity or Oppression?

ABSTRACT

A proliferation of student enrollment in online higher education, particularly in social work, may reflect a neoliberal shift from public good to private commodity. Critical theory is an excellent lens to assess whether there has been such a shift. While online higher education represents opportunities for information globalization, consciousness-raising, and social justice, it may also be an instrument of colonization related to profit generation, reliance on market transactions, and power related to discourse. Recommendations made here include targeted student recruitment and accessibility, geographically and culturally grounded knowledge integration, cultivation of market skills and student voice, and intentional outcome measures.     

Education,Education, Education: or,What has Jane Austen to teach Tony Blunkett?

The difference between training and education has been recognised at least since the days when Socrates searched Athens for someone who knew more than he himself did—and was disappointed to find many craftsmen but no philosophers. The distinction persisted strongly when the universities developed in the twelfth and thirteenth Christian centuries. It was continuously vindicated by poets, novelists, essayists, and generation after generation of teachers, from the Renaissance until about the time Kenneth Baker became Education Secretary, whereupon it vanished from English consciousness—so completely, that the polytechnics were renamed universities, the universities made polytechnics and the Departments of Education and Employment merged, as if that were not only obviously sensible in itself but perfectly consistent with two-and-a-half thousand years of previous thought and practice. The English educated classes are now composed of amnesiacs.     

English,England or Britain?

请译下面两句:1.I'm British,but I'm not English.I speak English.2.Only the people of Engtand call themselves English.好多同学对此迷惑,这是因为他们对Britain的国情缺乏了解。易误解之处有二:     

Inclusive education in Sweden? A critical analysis

When it comes to pupils in need of special support and pupils with disabilities, Sweden’s compulsory school system is sometimes considered a one‐track system. This article analyses and critically discusses current policy and practices at various levels of Sweden’s compulsory school system for these pupils. The analysis traces three themes at the national and municipal levels: (1) values and goals; (2) organisation and placement of pupils; and (3) importance of categories in obtaining support. A rather complex picture emerges from this analysis. Several conclusions are made: (1) state policies leave a lot of room for interpretation at the municipal and school levels, and this results in an extensive variation; (2) Swedish state policy is not as inclusive as is often stated; (3) celebration of difference seems to be hard to achieve; (4) learning goals can be a double‐edged sword with regard to inclusion; and (5) most pupils appear to enjoy participation in school, and in an international perspective, Swedish classrooms seem to be largely democratic.     

Research in Special Needs Education: Objectivity or Ideology?

Social science, including research into special educational needs, purports to be objective, and much of special needs research falls into the empirical-analytic paradigm which regards human affairs as containing measurable, law-like qualities to be identified and manipulated. It is argued, however, that this may be a flawed assumption and that all researchers need to be aware of the potentially political nature of their position. The sources, for instance, of a physical disability need to be located, not in the physical problem per se , but within the way society seeks to deal with it. Although researchers may like to view themselves as impartial seekers of the truth, it is suggested that research techniques themselves emerge from a theoretical position which reflects their beliefs, values and dispositions towards the world. They also gain, directly or indirectly, from the research process in terms of kudos or academic recognition. A tentative alternative paradigm is presented which attempts to challenge the 'normalisation' approach to teaching those designated as having special needs.     

Security,Extremism and Education: Safeguarding or Surveillance?

This article analyses how education is positioned in the current concerns about security and extremism. This means firstly examining the different meanings of security (national, human and societal) and who provides security for whom. Initially, a central dilemma is acknowledged: that schooling appears to be simultaneously irrelevant to the huge global questions of security and yet central to the learning of alternative ways to conduct human relations. With regard to extremism, two aspects of importance in ideological compliance or challenge are firstly the attempted securitisation of education, and secondly the role of education in young people joining or supporting extremist movements. The UK’s ‘Prevent’ strategy is examined here. The issue of how to safeguard young people without securitising institutions suggests four key features: inclusivity, encounters with difference, networking and active citizenship. Critiquing sacred texts and the use of humour and satire also act to foster resilience. Educational approaches within transitional justice underline the importance of tackling violence in schools and promoting a human rights culture that promotes both human security and ultimately national security.     

Recurrent Education: Strategy for Change,or Cooptation?

Abstracts

English

Is recurrent education a practical strategy for change? This research paper reports some of the reactions of the Australian legal profession to recurrent education and suggests that a covert alliance between the profession and its educators results in a strong resistance to this rather radical approach to education.     

Lecturing in Post‐Compulsory Education: profession,occupation or reflective practice?

Abstract

This paper argues that a new conceptualisation of teaching in post‐compulsory education is required. Taking into account the radical ideology‐driven change experienced in the sector in recent times, it is suggested that there are difficulties with the model of the lecturer as a ‘professional’, chief amongst which is that lecturers do not seem to think of themselves in this way. It is suggested that any alternative conceptualisation must: (i) take into account lecturers' own conceptions of their working practices, (ii) reflect the range of these practices, and (Hi) reflect the epistemological and ethical basis of teaching, in particular lecturers' sense of the value and worth of what they do. Finally, some implications of the proposed model of teaching for management practice and development, and the potential of the approach for theory practice and practitioners, are explored.     

ICT in French Primary Education,Twenty Years Later: Infusion or Transformation?

Twenty years have elapsed since ICT has been introduced on a large scale in French primary schools. Since then many developments have occurred, many of them outside of the technical sphere (for example decentralization has much progressed), new issues have appeared. This paper briefly analyzes changes and trends in the field of ICT in French primary education. It suggests that the development of ICT, still uncomplete, does not seem to have brought much change in the system. However, new ideas and activities have emerged, that deserve further research and invite to international comparisons. First contextual elements about France and the situation of primary education are recalled. Then issues linked with the development of ICT are analysed, taking into account the situation of both pupils and teachers.     

“Artificial grammar learning” in pigeons: A preliminary analysis

An avian analogue to humanartificial orsynthetic grammar learning (Reber, 1967) was developed. Pigeons viewed horizontal strings of three to eight colored letters. These strings either conformed to Reber’s artificial grammar or violated it in one or two locations. Pigeons categorized the letter strings asgrammatical (left keypeck) ornongrammatical (right keypeck). Overall accuracy of categorization was above chance to both familiar training strings and to novel transfer strings, thereby satisfying a conventional criterion for learning anabstract concept. The results support amultiple mechanisms point of view according to which pigeons, like humans, learn both abstract concepts and specific strings, or specific parts of strings, in artificial grammar learning tasks.     

Moving Forwards,Sideways or Backwards? Inclusive Education in Samoa

The introduction of inclusive education (IE) has been promoted to meet the needs of all students. Initially this was a western-driven ideology but has been adopted by numerous developing countries such as Samoa. In this country, the education of students with special learning needs has followed the usual pattern of development from voluntary provision to government-funded segregated placements, followed by mainstreaming, and finally inclusion in regular schools. This qualitative phenomenologically oriented study gathered data from educators and parents about their perceptions of IE and how it was being implemented. The results indicated that this has not always been an easy transition and many participants in the study, although subscribing to the notion of IE, believe that there are a number of implementation difficulties, particularly around issues of support. In relation to this, IE is regarded as a borrowed policy that has overlooked cultural issues and ownership. A model for future developments is outlined and recommendations for future research are indicated.     

Global English:gift or curse?

The status of the English language as the lingua franca of the global information society is beyond dispute, but what is not so clear is whether it is capable of fulfilling that role efficiently. In the following article Ross Smith responds to the supporters of Global English by examining the qualities that an ideal international auxiliary language would possess and then discussing the extent to which those qualities are to be found in modern English.     

Liberalism,Pluralism, and Political Education: Paradox or paradigm?

Inspired by concern about promoting civic participation and preserving the liberal democratic state, political theorists have recently reignited a debate about the nature of political education in a liberal society. These theorists' arguments in favor of teaching toleration are significant for the progress of education reforms currently being debated and implemented in current liberal democracies and some emerging nations. Despite the increasing attention paid to the value of liberal civic education, however, its specific content is typically left virtually blank. This article aims to redress this gap in the literature by developing a coherent and comprehensive (albeit still very general) curriculum for liberal political education. To this end, Section I analyses the nature of the ideal liberal democratic state and develops a general curriculum for liberal political education based on the type of citizens needed to preserve and take advantage of such a state. It concludes by introducing two potentially illiberal outcomes of this curriculum: children's forced development of the capacity for autonomy, and the reduction of diversity in the state. Section II argues that the development of autonomy is actually central to liberal theory and liberal education more broadly conceived, while Section III suggests that civic and social diversity will persist, but rightly play a secondary role to the goals of liberal political education. The article concludes, therefore, with a reassertion of the content and importance of liberal political education.     

Transnational Education in the Slovak Republic: Threat or Challenge?

This article discusses the pros and cons of transnational higher education offerings from the vantage point of a small Central European country, the Slovak Republic, and with special reference to franchising. Transnational higher education offerings are definitely needed, not only in the Slovak Republic, but in the other countries of Central and Eastern Europe as well, existing national higher education systems and institutions not being sufficiently developed to cope with increasing enrolment pressures. But there need to be adequate safeguards against fraudulent offerings, debased standards, and other such problems. The implantation of two franchised campuses of City University, Bellevue, Washington (USA) is cited as a very positive example of a foreign higher education institution that has been able to successfully integrate itself into the fabric of Slovak higher education by faithfully complying with all Slovak higher education regulations and offering high-quality course programmes.     

Covert action? Education,social policy and law in the European Union

Education in Europe has been one more aspect of social policy, traditionally held to exist within the sovereignty of member states, which has been encroached upon by supranational institutions. This paper explores the legitimacy of the partial control over education matters that has been gained by the European Union since the 1970s, examining in particular the role of the European Court of Justice and also the European Commission, in reshaping and altering definitions of legal competence in the fields of education and training. Special emphasis is placed on the method by which an original competence in training has been reconstituted to incorporate some aspects of education policy. Implications for democratic legitimacy and accountability at the European level are discussed.