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.     

Schools and Moral Education: Conformism or Autonomy?

In pluralistic Western societies, schools have a specific task in moral education. This task is to be understood neither as the transmission of specific values, nor as the development of moral reasoning skills or universal values, but as teaching pupils to handle plurality in an autonomous way. The concept of autonomy is interpreted from a Vygotskian and Deweyan position, where learning in school means learning to participate in cultural activities in a reflective and critical way. Participation has both intellectual and moral aspects, and thus moral education can never be separated from cognitive education.     

Can Autonomy Counteract Extremism in Traditional Education?

The very purpose of traditional—especially religious—education is to induct the young into a unique vision of reality. When the compelling religious vision conflicts with other visions, extremist confrontations may result. This paper explores ways to 'square the circle' of the educational conundrum of how to educate for fervent commitment to tradition without precluding autonomy and diversity, both within the tradition but especially vis-à-vis outsiders. Some liberal educators see educating for autonomy as an antidote to extremism, but such an approach is found wanting both ethically and empirically. Reinforcing the roots of toleration within religious traditions is offered as a more effective alternative.     

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.     

Informal Mentors and Education: Complementary or Compensatory Resources?

Few studies have examined the impact that mentoring (i.e., developing a special relationship with a non-parental adult) has on educational achievement and attainment in the general population. In addition, prior research has yet to clarify the extent to which mentoring relationships reduce inequality by enabling disadvantaged youth to compensate for a lack of social resources or promote inequality by serving as a complementary resource for advantaged youth. Results from a nationally representative sample of youth show (1) a powerful net influence of mentors on the educational success of youth and (2) how social background, parental, peer, and personal resources condition the formation and effectiveness of mentoring relationships. The findings uncover an interesting paradox-that informal mentors may simultaneously represent compensatory and complementary resources. Youth with many resources are more likely than other young people to have mentors, but those with few resources are likely to benefit more from having a mentor-particularly teacher mentors-in their lives.     

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.     

Intelligence,Global Terrorism and Higher Education: Neutralising Threats or Alienating Allies?

The British Counter-Terrorism and Security Act 2015 appears to have drawn universities into the security apparatus of the state. Academics and administrators have been compelled to comply with measures aimed at monitoring the activities of mostly Islamic student societies. While it is not inconceivable that universities are exploited as sites for extremist propagandising or even as recruiting grounds for extremist causes, do the new counterterrorism measures suffice to reduce the threat; and if so, even in a small measure, does it outweigh the risks of alienating the many to defeat the few? This article draws on narratives of Muslim students, their experiences of existing counterterrorism policies, to examine the effects of the new security framework and asks whether there is another way – a broader framework in which intelligence agencies and academic institutions can pool resources, not to improve statecraft, but to respond more effectively to threats, both known and unknown.     

Good or Bad? : Learning Globalization, Postmodernity and a Changing China Education System

Under the setting of globalization, in the late 1970s, China began to carry out ’the reform and opening-up policy’. During 30 years reform process, Chinese economy has a great growth. The ’market mechanism’ and its effectiveness were adopted by Chinese people. With the deep reform of health system, Chinese government delegates more decision-making power to the hospitals, thus ’in employment terms, as two of largest industries (health and education) in every country’ (Meadmore P. 1999 p.91), the reform of education has become a hot topic in social debate. In other words, in the field of education in China today, marketization of education is highly focused, causing concerns of various social classes: What are the reforms? What are the results reforms bring about? On exploring the effects of globalization on Chinese education in modernity and presenting advantages and disadvantages in the process of the ’market mechanism’ working in and through education to reconsider a market education system creates an external competition for public schools.     

Language Education in English Education: Grammar instruction,grammar plus,or critical social analysis?

I consider the difficulty of deciding what to include in a one-semester course on language education in English education for preservice teachers. While it is imperative to prepare teachers to talk about language in written texts, other concerns of the English classroom, from classroom talk to reflections on self, can be illuminated by knowledge about language. I describe different representations of the language system: one proposed in a scope and sequence document prepared by a group of linguists and educators in the United States; and the other Systemic Functional Grammar (SFG), which, while relatively unknown and unsupported in the United States, has influenced education in Australia. While I admire the advances in language education being made in the United States, in my view, SFG offers a conceptual advantage to those who want to make the link between grammar and broader concerns. I believe it is possible to use SFG conceptually in the design of classroom activities, while also relying on non-SFG methods to make visible, for instance, the operations of talk in the classroom. In the end, I advocate linking language to issues that matter, focusing above the language system to meaning-making more broadly, and using knowledge about language in the service of social analysis as well as the interpretation of texts.     

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.     

Citizenship Education and National Identities in France and England: Inclusive or exclusive?

ABSTRACT This paper examines and compares recent citizenship education policy documents from France and England and explores the extent to which they encourage inclusive or exclusive concepts of national identity and citizenship. Current policies are being developed in a context of perceived disillusionment and political apathy amongst the young. Whilst citizenship education has traditionally aimed to prepare young people to take their place in adult society and a national community, today the notion of a single national identity is increasingly questioned. Using framing questions from the International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement (IEA) survey of civic education, we examine programmes of study in each country to determine the extent to which they promote human rights as shared values, make positive references to cultural diversity, and conceptualise minorities. We consider the potential of citizenship education thus defined to contribute towards the development of justice and equality in society and challenge racism and xenophobia. We note the strengths and limitations of each approach to education for citizenship and suggest what each might gain from the other.     

Education and Training: still distinguishable?

Abstract

Recently it has been proposed that the distinction between education and training is becoming obsolete. This paper disputes that conclusion, arguing that it is arrived at by failing to distinguish the Increasing sophistication of modern training, and the cognitive and social skills that tend to accompany this, from a broader, ‘liberal’ concept of education. This concept may find itself in an inconvenient tension with some of the requirements of the economy, the view previously stated, therefore, with its emphasis on consensus and identity of interest, is seen as being problematic in a context where the ‘goods’ of the citizen and of the worker may be radically divorced from one another. Alternative definitions of education and training are thus Identified and shown to generate correspondingly different analyses of the current situation, as well as alternative curricular proposals.     

Conservative force or contradictory resource? Education and affirmative action in Jharkhand,India

This article explores the combination of education and affirmative action in challenging historic inequalities faced by adivasis, or indigenous peoples, living in a remote region of Eastern India. We show how the combined effects of education and affirmative action can act as a ‘contradictory resource’. On the one hand, policies of affirmative action are enabling young educated adivasis – the children of subsistence farmers and manual labourers – to benefit from the creation of new, rural state jobs. We show how without affirmative action, such jobs may well have been monopolised by a local elite of higher castes. On the other hand, we argue several conservative processes have accompanied these changes. First, the reserved jobs secured by adivasis are relatively badly paid and insecure. Second, these jobs have not enabled relative progress for adivasis vis-à-vis traditional elites who are moving out of rural areas and diversifying their livelihoods. Third, young educated adivasis have begun to emulate the norms, values and ways of life of the local elite. This ‘culture of emulation’ is fostering new inequalities between educated adivasis and their poorer kin, who face increasing proletarianisation. The contradictory resource, we argue, concerns not only inequalities in accessing certain jobs, but also the creation of new forms of differentiation among historically marginalised people. We conclude by setting these findings within the wider complex relations emerging between caste, ethnicity and class in contemporary India.