The promise of uncertainty: Education,postmodernism and the politics of possibility

This article is set in the context of current moves in British education policy towards a fixed concept of 'what works' and a questionable certainty about 'best practice'. The author explores the value of postmodern thinking in challenging these state-endorsed certainties and in opening up new possibilities for research, critique and practice. She identifies four key areas of educational authority to which postmodernism offers a significant challenge: the authority of power/knowledge; the authority of models of learning; the authority of identity; and the authority of language. The author identifies recent work in a postmodern frame which challenges these authorities, and outlines current educational contexts in which postmodern thinking has a valuable contribution to make. In conclusion, she suggests that postmodernism opens a new window on the politics of possibility, offering one of the most powerful contemporary radical approaches to inquiry and critique available to the sociology of education.     

Teaching in Higher Education

The essay has been called the 'default genre' in high school and university education. This paper examines the nature, history and function of the essay in this role, including feminist critiques of the genre. It explores in particular the dialogic or multi-voiced character of most academic essays, and suggests that it is through dialogic structuring that new forms of academic writing might be generated. Excerpts from five student essays, and other forms of coursework and examination work are studied. The paper suggests that the handing in of essays and their role in the assessment of student performance is an elaborate game that students and teachers/lecturers have to learn to play well in order for both sides to enjoy and gain from the experience; it also concludes that it is time to recognise more formally the diverse forms of student expression as valid contributions to the demonstration of emerging knowledge.     

Teaching Emotional Virtue: A post-Kohlbergian approach

What are the educational implications of the rising tide of cognitivism and Aristotelianism in the field of emotion research and why have these not been heeded in education circles? This essay explores some of these implications and the somewhat incomplete attempts ('emotional intelligence' and 'multiple intelligences') to translate them into educational practice. It is argued that proposals about the teaching of emotional virtue in schools typically come up against a wall of 'myths' concerning the futility, if not the downright danger, of moral education in general and emotion education in particular. An attempt is made to dismantle some of these myths, paving the way for a more optimistic 'post-Kohlbergian' approach.     

Research methodology,education, and theoretical fashions: Constructing a methodology course in an era of deconstruction

In this article a case is made both for the utility of deconstructive questions and also for the danger of taking such questions as a sole or overriding methodological agenda in education. The discussion is mounted by attention to grounded contexts and dilemmas rather than by a commitment to abstract concerns about ''power'' or ''Other'' or ''polyphony of voices.'' The framing dilemma is how one might construct a research methodology course that is not based on positivism, relativism, or a reification of current theory as an enduring answer for students. The article takes two substantive fields of inquiry in education- (1) inequality and access in education and (2) gender and education- to argue that following through some substantive issues for educational research can provide ways of thinking about the relative merits, power, pertinence, and relationships among quantitative, qualitative, and deconstructive agendas. Finally, the article outlines a research methodology course constructed by the author to attempt to put into practical form the assumptionsabout education and research methodology that are argued in this article.     

Notes on contributors

The author participated in the Border Studies Program in the fall semester of 1999. He carried out his field study as a volunteer at Casa Vides in El Paso, Texas. Grounded in the same philosophical principles as the Catholic Worker movement, Casa Vides serves as a shelter for immigrants who are involved in political asylum proceedings in the United States. Because all of the residents of the intentional community of Casa Vides experienced militarization in their home countries and on the Mexico-U.S. border, this ethnography examines the themes of ''community'' and ''militarization'' and the dynamics between the two.     

The opportunism of the 'glocal': Malta's education policies

This article examines the dynamic of the relationship between the global and the local in education policy through a case study of recent policy initiatives in the small island state of Malta. The main initiative has been the setting up of a Foundation for Educational Services, which is now competing with services previously offered by the state Division of Education. It is argued that whilst the global, in this case the transnational company (TNC) HSBC Bank and the supranational European Union (EU), has particular power and can develop opportunity structures, this power is never closed or complete. The local has the power to enter or exit the global discursive field, including specific practices and structures. When the local interprets its needs to coincide with the global, as with the Foundation for Educational Services, HSBC Malta plc and the EU, then there is evidence that some political, economic or cultural 'opportunism' leads to the development of 'glocal' policy making. In this process, new and promiscuous actors and structures may take the place of older and more democratic ones. Moreover, the 'Trojan horse' politics of TNCs lead to new policy agendas in which the TNCs may be the major beneficiaries. The 'glocal' is a contested terrain over which we need to struggle.     

Eccentric subject,impossible object: A 1 poststructural reading of Hannah Cullwick

The paper explores poststructural figures of identity via a reading of a collection of texts by and about a Victorian maidservant, Hannah Cullwick. Drawing on Donna Haraway's figure of the trickster or shape changer and on the theorizing of the ''subaltern'' subject in postcolonial writing, the paper challenges readings of Hannah and her life that offer her up as an exemplary figure of suffering or heroic womanhood. Instead, it is proposed that Hannah can be seen as an ambivalent and transgressive figure of difference and in - between - ness . The paper gestures towards some implications for the handling of first-person narratives in qualitative research. The ''Hannah Cullwick'' texts include her diaries and those of her secret lover and, later, husband, an eminent barrister, together with the commentaries of their respective editors. Reference is also made to a photographic essay and to contemporary scholarly works about Hannah and her life.     

Nomadic inquiry in the smooth spaces of the field: A preface

Framing this essay as a preface to a return to the field in order to collect more data for her study of the older, white southern women of her hometown, this researcher uses Laurel Richardson's (1994) concept of ''writing as a method of inquiry'' in order to revisit some of the places in which she has already done field work. By employing Deleuze and Guattari's (1980 1987) image of the nomad deterritorializing space, she revisits some of those spaces- mental space, the space of the text, and the space of theory- in order to work out of the failure of her received understanding of fieldwork and to think differently about the spaces and places in which her research takes place.     

THE SIGNIFICANCE OF DEWEY'S AESTHETICS IN ART EDUCATION IN THE AGE OF GLOBALIZATION

On the occasion of Dewey's sesquicentennial anniversary, Kazuyo Nakamura explores Dewey's aesthetics, which holds the plurality of art and culture in high regard. Nakamura develops a theoretical foundation for art education in the present age of globalization based on educational insights drawn from Dewey's aesthetics. The theme of this essay unfolds based on three topics: Dewey's view of the educational value of art in general education, the fundamental viewpoint of art in relation to democracy, and the discussion of the educational aspect of individuality and community with respect to the experience of art. Based on Dewey's aesthetics, this essay presents new perspectives on art education that emphasize the realization of personal values, development of intelligent visual literacy, and enhancement of the quality of communication of art, in the context of globalization.     

Demographic Transformation in a Policy Vacuum: The Changing Face of U.S. Metropolitan Society and Challenges for Public Schools

Abstract

Educators and policy makers must confront the race and class disparities in learning opportunities across American society. Nowhere are these disparities more acute than in the country's great metropolitan areas. As the demographic landscape continues to shift, metropolitan areas are fueling the transition to a majority-minority country. This essay provides an overview of the challenges for the country's public schools and offers an alternative path to creating a more just and vital society.     

The Role of Nostalgia in School Choice

This paper looks in some detail at the strength and diversity of factors which influence choice of a new school in the present generation, but which stem from a previous age. The stories presented to the researcher about the process of choosing show clearly that the 'domino' effect sometimes covers three generations, and that decisions made today reflect, but are not identical to, those made in the past. Simple reproduction cannot explain the diversity found here, while responding to 'consumers' and their influences from the past is likely to lead today's schools to conservatism and restorationism. These findings have implications for the study of the micro-politics of choice at the family level, and for the validity of any form of public choice theory based upon current performance indicators.     

Research report

We examined ninth-grade students' explanations of chemical reactions using two forms of an open-ended essay question during a learning cycle. One form provided students with key terms to be used as 'anchors' upon which to base their essay, whereas the second form did not. The essays were administered at three points: pre-learning cycle, post-concept application, and after additional concept application activities. Students' explanations were qualitatively examined and grouped according to common patterns representing their understandings or misunderstandings. Findings indicated that more misunderstandings were elicited by the use of key terms as compared to the non-use of key terms in the pre-test. Misunderstandings in the key term essay responses generally involved the misuse of these terms and their association with the concept. Findings also indicated significant positive shifts in students' understanding over the learning cycle. No perceptible increase in understanding occurred after additional application activities. Differences in gender were observed, with females showing equal or greater understanding compared to males, contradicting reports that males typically outperform females in the physical sciences and supporting the need to reconstruct assessment techniques to better reveal the conceptual understandings of all students.     

Recruitment,training and local economic restructuring: an analysis

Abstract

Recruitment and training are key issues for the 1990's, given current demographic changes, skill shortages, new technologies and the advent of 1992 with an emphasis on human resource utilisation. This paper examines current debates on recruitment, training and local economic restructuring, illustrating the complexities of their interconnectedness. Two strands of research are brought together, that of vocational education and training, and that of industrial change and the labour market.     

Engaging whiteness: How racial power gets reified in education

The central question addressed in this essay is how students engage in a class that focuses on the political and social power of whiteness. Specifically, it looks at how whiteness gets inscribed and reified in our education practices, even as we try to disrupt its normative influence. The essay is based upon an in-depth qualitative study of a graduate seminar dedicated to addressing diversity issues critically. We conclude that despite students' expressed intentions and efforts at disrupting whiteness, they draw upon a variety of discourses that actually serve to protect and secure whiteness's dominant position. Twelve different discourses that students cite are described, grouped into four broad appeals: to self, to progress, to authenticity, and to extremes. Understanding how students invoke these discourses as an implicit way of resisting critical engagements with whiteness can help us to problematize these practices as well as cultivate more productive and enabling interactions.     

Strategic Planning in Schools: An oxymoron?

This paper argues that traditional approaches to school planning no longer serve the needs of schools. In particular, it puts forward the view that strategy, as applied to school planning, is only of partial use. It argues that there should be a new way forward for schools seeking to meet the challenge of effective leadership and management in the new millennium. This would utilise the concept of 'strategic intent' encapsulated in a new model which replaces the limited 'school development planning' framework.     

Majors and credits in public speaking

If politics is an art, then matters of style must be crucial to its practice. This essay considers how political actions are shaped by rhetorical practices that depend upon aesthetic perceptions. Modern assumptions of artistic autonomy are replaced by the classical concept of decorum, which offers a model for understanding how political life is styled for rhetorical effect. The role of decorousness in contemporary politics is illustrated by the extreme case of the courtly style, which constitutes power through propriety, is centered on the king's body, displaces speech with gesture, and ends in political paralysis.     

Vulnerable Children and Moral Responsibility: Loss of Humanity

In this essay, Barbara Thayer-Bacon considers the arguments made in favor of “zero tolerance” for immigration at the United States–Mexican border as an example of principled ethics, and she contrasts this position with a caring ethical response. She compares the U.S.'s current zero-tolerance immigration policy to the zero-tolerance approach U.S. public schools adopted in response to violence in schools. The zero-tolerance policies implemented by schools in the wake of several high-profile incidents serves as a strong illustration of the moral dilemmas that zero-tolerance policies create generally. Both examples illustrate that zero-tolerance policies are not an effective moral response to ethical dilemmas; on the contrary, such policies lead to a lack of attention to context, subjectivity, positionality, and institutional power, which in turn generates a range of new and different ethical quandaries. Ultimately, Thayer-Bacon argues that taking a zero tolerance approach to serious, complicated problems such as immigration policy is misguided; developing fair, humane, caring, and just immigration policies requires a more nuanced approach that attends to the full complexity of the issues involved.     

A 'Polytechnism' for the British Universities: Embracing a revised 'Soviet' model for academia

This paper offers a review of the former soviet higher education system and compares it with the current UK system, arguing that there is much that the latter can learn from the former. It goes on to argue that the 'academic drift' of the former polytechnics in the UK towards 'university' style teaching and courses was wrongheaded, and that the drift should now go the other way, with universities all moving towards a Soviet style 'polytechnism' in their structures, courses and mission statements.     

Introduction: The idea of political education

This article considers the current context for renewed concern about 'political education' worldwide and in the UK. The concept 'political education' is analysed, as are normative and positive questions about the relationship between education and political outcomes. The article goes on to consider the history of and reasons for UK exceptionalism as regards this aspect of educational policy-explanations for British antipathy to political education are sought in aspects of British political institutions and political culture.     

“Second Line to Bury White Supremacy”: Take 'Em Down Nola,monument removal,and residual memory

ABSTRACT

As Lost Cause statues come down across the country, communities are forced to reckon with monumental absences. While the rhetorical significance of monuments is well-established in scholarly literature, the rhetoric of monumental absence is not as thoroughly covered. To better understand the role that monumental absence plays in both public space and civic life, this essay theorizes residual memory as the remaining rhetorical potency that clings to a commemorative site after the focal object or structure of memorialization is removed. To demonstrate the theoretical utility of residual memory and contribute to ongoing public debates about Lost Cause monuments, this essay uses rhetorical field methods to conduct a rhetorical analysis of Take 'Em Down NOLA's “Second Line to Bury White Supremacy.” The secretive night time removal of the Liberty Place Monument in New Orleans on April 24, 2017 and the activist celebration that followed two weeks later provide an exemplary case for exploring how residual memories can be used to resist and revise regressive practices of public memory.