CHILD REARING IN THE “RISK” SOCIETY: ON THE DISCOURSE OF RIGHTS AND THE “BEST INTERESTS OF A CHILD”

Due to a number of radical changes in society, the role of parents in the upbringing of their children has been redefined. In this essay, Paul Smeyers argues that “risk” thinking, and the technologization that goes with it in the context of child rearing, naturally leads to the rights discourse, but that thinking about the relation between parents and children in terms of rights confronts one with a number of insurmountable problems. The concept of the “best interests of a child” that is often invoked is, to say the least, not at all clear. Smeyers contends that while the discourse of rights is clearly important and relevant insofar as the relation between parents and the state are discussed, it impoverishes our understanding of relations of family members when used as an all‐inclusive framework in that context. Therefore, he concludes that we must surpass the totalizing tendency of the transformation of the social realm into a system, of defining the relation between parents and children in technical terms, and of holding parents liable for their children's upbringing.     

EDUCATION AS INITIATION INTO PRACTICES

A bstract .  In this essay, Paul Smeyers and Nicholas Burbules reexamine the concept of "practice" and propose a new way of conceiving it that does justice to the idea that education is in some sense an initiation into practices without endorsing either the conservative and reproductive conception of what initiation entails or the radically social constructionist idea that all practices are arbitrary and groundless. First, drawing from the work of Ludwig Wittgenstein, Alasdair MacIntyre, and Charles Taylor, Smeyers and Burbules outline how the centrality of the concept of "practice" should be understood. Second, they indicate how the concept has come under pressure to the extent that one may doubt whether there are any "practices" left in contemporary society. Third, they differentiate between different kinds of practices in terms of how they are learned and how they are enacted, and suggest the central role that narrativization plays in these processes. They conclude that a theoretical focus on initiation into practices need not lead either to conservative or to relativistic conclusions.     

LEARNING TO LAUGH AT OURSELVES: HUMOR,SELF‐TRANSCENDENCE,AND THE CULTIVATION OF MORAL VIRTUES

In this essay Mordechai Gordon begins to address the neglect of humor among philosophers of education by focusing on some interesting connections between humor, self‐transcendence, and the development of moral virtues. More specifically, he explores the kind of humor that makes fun of oneself and how it can affect educational encounters. Gordon begins his analysis by discussing the nature and purpose of humor in general, while distinguishing it from laughter and amusement. In the next part of the essay, he takes a close look at the characteristics and benefits of the type of humor that we use when we make fun of ourselves. He then turns his attention to exploring the relation between laughing at ourselves, self‐transcendence, and a number of moral virtues. The final part of this essay briefly examines what might happen to the quality of educational encounters when teachers become more comfortable with laughing at themselves.     

Child‐Rearing Inc.: On the perils of political paralysis Down Under

In his 2007 PESA keynote address, Paul Smeyers discussed the increasing regulation of child‐rearing through government intervention and the generation of ‘experts’, citing particular examples from Europe where cases of childhood obesity and parental neglect have stirred public opinion and political debate. In his paper (‘Child‐Rearing: On government intervention and the discourse of experts’, this issue), Smeyers touches on a number of tensions before concluding that child‐rearing qualifies as a practice in which liberal governments should be reluctant to intervene. In response, I draw on recent experiences in Australia and argue that certain tragic events of late are the result of an ethical, moral and social vacuum in which these tensions coalesce. While I agree with Smeyers that governments should be reluctant to ‘intervene’ in the private domain of the family, I argue that there is a difference between intervention and support. In concluding, I maintain that if certain Western liberal democracies did a more comprehensive job of supporting children and their families through active social investment in primary school education, then schools would be better equipped to deal with the challenges they now face.     

Child‐Rearing Practices and Expert Identities: A tale of two interventions

Paul Smeyers’ keynote address to the PESA 2007 Conference, ‘The Entrepreneurial Self and Informal Education: On government intervention and the discourse of experts’ provides a timely call for questioning the governing of the family. This paper draws upon Smeyers’ key concerns to explore both historical and contemporary trends in clustering government agencies, under the guidance of child development experts. The guidance of two expert groups is problematised, with particular attention to an absence of commitment to Māori perspectives of education and child‐rearing. Such an absence reflects, in New Zealand, a dangerous undermining of the historic treaty between the British and Māori. The paper then challenges, with brief reference to Jacques Derrida's discussions on autobiography and Freud's Legacy, the identity of expert groups advocating early intervention in the lives of families measured as a burden on economic and social progress. The paper posits that perhaps it is the developmental expert that requires some form of early intervention.     

The Interplay of Psychology and Mathematics Education: From the Attraction of Psychology to the Discovery of the Social

It is a rather safe statement to claim that the social dimensions of the scientific process are accepted in a fair share of studies in the philosophy of science. It is a somewhat safe statement to claim that the social dimensions are now seen as an essential element in the understanding of what human cognition is and how it functions. But it would be a rather unsafe statement to claim that the social is fully accepted in the philosophy of mathematics. And we are not quite sure what kind of statement it is to claim that the social dimensions in theories of mathematics education are becoming more prominent, compared to the psychological dimensions. In our contribution we will focus, after a brief presentation of the above claims, on this particular domain to understand the successes and failures of the development of theories of mathematics education that focus on the social and not primarily on the psychological.     

Identity Construction Environments: Developing Personal and Moral Values Through the Design of a Virtual City

We live in a society where concepts of self, community, and "what is right and wrong" are constantly changing. This makes it particularly challenging for young people to construct a sense of self and to identify their most cherished values. Therefore, there is an amounting pressure in schools and society to create learning environments to explore these issues. Two research questions are at the heart of the work presented in this article: What kind of learning environment will afford opportunities for young people to naturally engage in reflection and discussion about issues of identity, in particular personal and moral values? and How can technologies have an impact on character and moral education? I propose identity construction environments (ICEs) as technological tools purposefully designed with the goal of supporting young people in the exploration of these issues.

I first describe the design principles that distinguish these environments from other learning technologies. I also specify the learning experiences they do afford-namely the understanding of identity as a complex construction composed by different elements, including personal and moral values. Then I present the conceptual foundations and implementation of the Zora ICE. Zora is a three dimensional multi-user virtual environment that engages learners in the design of a graphical virtual city and its social organization. I describe a summer workshop conducted with a multicultural group of teenagers using Zora. They designed a virtual city populated with objects and characters representing aspects of themselves and their values. In this participatory microcommunity those values were put to test. Finally I conclude with reflections and future work that points toward a new research agenda in the area of the learning sciences.     

主体的裂变及整合

主体的裂变是指现实社会主体在以计算机网络为基础的虚拟社会中通过符合化的方式实现的存在。这种裂变在虚拟社会实现，但也有其现实基础，即现实社会中主体与自我的分离。由于现实社会控制的功能在虚拟社会性弱化，主体的分离在虚拟社会表现为裂变，主体的裂变不仅对虚拟社会发展影响，而且影响了主体现实的心理结构和生活方式，从而直接影响了现实社会的发展，由此，以什么方式和途径整合主体的裂变成为现代社会的重大问题。     

EDUCATIONALIZATION: ON THE APPROPRIATENESS OF ASKING EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS TO SOLVE SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC PROBLEMS

Abstract Educationalization is a term most frequently used to indicate that government (in particular) has inappropriately imposed on educational institutions responsibility for providing the solution to some social or economic problem. In this essay David Bridges illustrates, however, the way in which educational institutions collude in this process, where they see doing so as in their interests. He also points to the way idealistically (rather than cynically) educators might seek to contribute to the wider social agenda of their age. Indeed it is arguable that there is a conceptual link between the idea of education and that of social improvement. These observations frame the question about educationalization as one concerning the appropriateness or otherwise of looking to educational institutions to solve social problems and how one might determine such appropriateness. To what extent, Bridges asks, can and should educational institutions play a role in addressing the wider social and economic political agenda? In this essay he attempts the beginning of an answer to both these questions.     

FACING UP TO THE MARKET

This article presents and discusses in slightly paradoxical terms the increasing action of market forces in the academic world in the United Kingdom as set against the transition in eastern and central Europe of centrally planned economies to market economies. The process in neither case is simple, nor does it necessarily deliver the desired results. For instance, can the massive job losses associated with privatization, East and West, really be construed as liberation? Since in the United Kingdom markets for health and education will always retain a degree of artificiality, their privatization must be undertaken with particular care of a kind which is not necessarily forthcoming. The tentative conclusion is that higher education will have to come to grips with the market whether it be considered inspiring or insidious.     

EDUCATION AND THE MIDDLE CLASSES: AGAINST REDUCTIONISM IN EDUCATIONAL THEORY AND RESEARCH

ABSTRACT:  This paper critiques what it sees as a tendency on the part of certain social researchers to engage in moralistic critiques of middle-class parents, especially in relation to the choices and actions of such parents within educational quasi-markets. It proceeds to a linked critique of the influence within education of certain aspects of the work of Pierre Bourdieu, with particular reference to the concepts of symbolic violence and the depiction of cultural meanings as arbitrary. It is argued that both these developments involve unhelpful and unjustified forms of reductionism that could have the effect of alienating middle-class support for a range of broadly progressive political endeavours within and beyond education.     

Slowness as a Virtue

This essay explores three practices commonly discussed in relation to each other: slow writing, slow reading and slow philosophy. These have close connections, and all of these are joined by practices of philosophical teaching and dialogue, which can also be carried out in a ‘slow’ manner. ‘Slow’ here means careful, deliberate and perspicacious—which might be said to be the prime virtues of philosophy. In this essay I want to explore what slowness means in the context of our intellectual work, concluding that slowness can be seen as a kind of virtue. Like other virtues (for example, honesty), more and more of a good thing is not always for the better. One can be too slow, just as one can be too fast, and part of the enactment of this quality entails discernment in judging what kind of slowness, and how much slowness, is suited to a particular task. Context matters, and our choices about slowness need to be viewed in relation to specific circumstances.     

EDUCATION FOR SOCIAL JUSTICE: PROVOCATIONS AND CHALLENGES

A bstract .  In this essay review of three recent edited books (Greg Dimitriadis and Dennis Carlson's Promises to Keep: Cultural Studies, Democratic Education, and Public Life; Nadine Dolby and Greg Dimitriadis's Learning to Labor in New Times; and Francisco Ibáñez-Carrasco and Erica Meiner's Disruptive Readings on Making Curriculum Public ), Kathy Hytten reflects on the relation among education, democracy, and social justice. She argues that in our current climate, progressive educators need a more powerful and compelling educational discourse that foregrounds issues of social justice. The three books under review in this essay provide a number of resources for this discourse. Hytten explores these contributions in relation to the theories that animate education for social justice, in particular, critical pedagogy, globalization theory, and cultural studies. In the end, she revisits the vision and promise of education for social justice, considering what these edited collections offer, reflecting on their gaps and weaknesses, and providing some direction for what kind of work we still need to make social justice a reality.     

多孔介质表面分形维数的标度关系及其理论验证

对原有的表面分形维数的计算方法进行了简化 ,藉此可以利用压汞或其他分析方法获得的孔分布信息计算出多孔介质的表面分形维数 .Sierpinski海绵的自相似性分析结果显示其内表面只在局部范围内存在标度不变性 .应用获得的简化计算方法分析自相似范围内 Sierpinski海绵的孔分布信息发现 ,由本文的标度关系计算出来的表面分形维数与其理论值非常吻合 ,这一结果从理论上证明了该标度关系的正确性 .     

Shaking the “Magic 8 Ball”: Reflections of a First-Time Teacher

Social work doctoral candidates and others without much or any formal teaching experience or training are frequently invited to teach a variety of graduate-level social work courses. This beginning teaching experience can be quite challenging both personally and professionally. Yet, it is seldom discussed in the literature, especially from a personal perspective. This paper seeks to address that gap by providing a narrative account of the author's first-time experience teaching an Advanced Clinical Practice course to fifteen second year social work masters students. Included is an examination of influences on the experience of teaching, with particular attention to the importance of attending to student needs, teaching techniques, and to who the “self” is that one brings to teaching. Implications of the author's experience, including an appended “list” of what might have been done differently is presented as a general guide for other new social work educators as well as for those who mentor them.     

How can I develop a theory of critical self‐reflection?

Although much of the literature on educational action research is rich in recommendations to self‐reflect, it is impoverished in examples of self‐reflective practice. This constitutes a theory‐practice gap; for how is it possible to recommend a particular form of practicewithout living up to that recommendation, and still claim that the practice has integrity? Such a contradiction is particularly serious when the issue is self‐reflection, since self‐reflection is put forward as the main constituent of moral practice, and its denial has deep implications for the practitioner's own moral standing.

In this paper I ask why there is such slippage between the theory and practice of self‐reflection? Iassume that many people either do not perceive such slippage,or choose to ignore it. Either way, this is a serious matter, and involves issues of legitimation—for by what right do we consider ourselves to be exempt from engaging in those self‐same practices that we require of others?

I challenge the separatist view that it is acceptable for some to say what others must do, without first doing it themselves. I apply the same critique to myself, and I aim to show the process of my own self‐reflection by critically analysing what I am doing as I do it. This, I hope, sets the scene for an emergent theory of critical self‐reflection.     

THE DETERMINATION OF THE ATTITUDES OF STUDENTS TO THEIR UNDERGRADUATE COURSES

It is shown that it is as necessary to gauge a student's interest in and respect for what he is learning as it is to examine his skills and knowledge. Definitions of beliefs, attitudes, disposition and motivation are given in an attempt to determine what it is that should be measured, and finally two measurement methods are proposed ‐‐ systematic observation and the Consequences Questionnaire. The uses of each are discussed and it is argued that the latter, while not yet a refined instrument, is worthy of further development.     

论职业教育的社会认同和职业教育发展之间的关系

一些人认为职业教育的社会认同和职业教育的发展是一种因果关系，只要通过教育或法令的形式来提高人们对职业教育的社会认同，就能促进职业教育的发展，摆脱职业教育目前发展的困境，作者认为这种观点是是怀疑的，需要探讨几个问题。首先，目前人们对职业教育的社会认同感是否正确，有没有更改的必要，其次是能不能更改，再次是即使人们对职业教育的社会认同感提高了，职业教育的发展状况就一定能够改善吗？通过对职业教育发展历史的回顾，作者认为，不是人们对职业教育的社会认同促进了职业教育的发展，而是职业教育的发展促进了人们对职业教育的社会认同，前者的错误在于把一系列的偶然的联系当作了必然的因果。     

Smart girls traversing assemblages of gender and class in Australian secondary mathematics classrooms

I examine experiences of former Australian schoolgirls in relation to mathematics during secondary school. This research scrutinises misunderstandings about success and impact on subject choice that can result in post-schooling trajectories that limit what girls can do in their lives beyond school. I examine ways affective relationality, as a sense of embodied belonging, may influence participation in subjects. I frame the discussion using the Baradian concept of intra-action, a co-production that engages an ethic of non-coincidence. For these participants, a reductive high-stakes testing environment and aspirations to become a master subject evoke a powerful not good enough assemblage. The responsibility to achieve enough success incites a soliciting of a particular self in affective regulation. The dread of not excelling in mathematics was often too much to endure thus participants chose to discontinue studying mathematics. They understood this as a sensible solution to prevent vulnerability, as not good enough.     

THE DETERMINATION AND EVALUATION OF RESULTS IN THE STUDY PROCESS

Student assessment and grading schemes in higher education institutions should be adapted and applied in such a way that they stimulate students to achieve to the utmost of their abilities. It is not sufficient to simply give a grade to a student for a task accomplished or even to give him an average grade for a series of tasks accomplished during a given time period, a semester, for instance. Rather it is necessary to create an action framework of a kind which links the performance dynamic of both students and teachers so as to ensure the accurate determination, evaluation, and analysis of the joint student‐teacher performance behaviour in such a way that the individual procedures subject to evaluation can be grouped into joint procedures which stimulate self‐determination self‐evaluation, and self‐analysis on the part of students, teachers, and eventually, the employers of graduates. The authors have designed two models which illustrate optimum evaluation procedures of the kind which they favour.