Reconsidering the social and economic purposes of higher education

In this article I seek to reconsider the social and economic purposes of higher education. It begins with the premise that there appears to be a general trend towards governments positioning higher education primarily in terms of the economic role that it can fulfil. Such a trend, however, has attracted considerable criticism. In this article I argue that the problem for higher education is not it having an economic role, but the narrowness of the way in which that role is often conceptualised. Drawing on critical theory I explore the interrelation of economic and social factors within higher education and the wider society in which it is situated. This article argues for a redefinition of the purposes of higher education to ensure that both universities and workplaces are sites of human creativity and that the profound and exciting work within institutions of higher education benefits all members of society.     

An Immanent Critique of Critical Pedagogy

In this essay, Quentin Wheeler‐Bell aims to reframe recent attempts to rethink the core principles of critical pedagogy. He argues that these attempts have been unsuccessful because they reproduce a deeper problem — specifically, an identity crisis — within critical pedagogy. The source of this problem, he contends, is that those working in this tradition have, over time, become more distant from and forgetful of its roots in critical theory; as a result, critical pedagogy is now in a state of dilution and fragmentation in which critical pedagogues are unable to bring the plurality of critical education approaches together theoretically around a set of shared principles. In order to address this problem and begin to reframe the core principles of critical pedagogy, Wheeler‐Bell first briefly sketches the debates around Max Horkheimer's classic essay “Critical Theory and Traditional Theory,” focusing on why critical theory grew into an interdisciplinary tradition situated between philosophy and social science. Then he explains why the recent attempts to rethink critical pedagogy rely upon a problematic, albeit dominant, narrative of the critical education tradition — a narrative that only tacitly recognizes a connection between critical education and critical theory. This dominant narrative contributes to the identity crisis within critical education because it supports a collective memory loss regarding the importance of both philosophy and social science to critical theory. Finally, Wheeler‐Bell attempts to develop a thin definition of critical education: one that connects critical education back to its roots in critical theory, while respecting the plurality of critical education approaches.     

A critical pedagogy of place: from gridlock to parallax 1

Differences of perspective, standpoint and subjectivity can help to enlarge the conceptual landscape of environmental education theory. Rejections of difference, on the other hand, can become an intolerance that narrows the scope of inquiry. This rejoinder argues that Bowers’ repeated rejections of critical pedagogy are based on a partial reading of the critical tradition, and that these critiques, including his current call to ‘avoid embracing’ a critical pedagogy of place, are unnecessarily dismissive and therefore counterproductive. Environmental education has benefited and will continue to benefit from the critical tradition of which critical pedagogy is a part. Relationships and/or antagonisms are constructed through human responses and interactions. Sameshima’s pedagogical theory of parallax is introduced as a way of seeing relationships between ideas that have been thought to be opposed. Moving toward relationship rather than rivalry, the rejoinder concludes by suggesting that Bowers’ and Freire’s criticality is actually more alike than different.     

Strengthening the Signature Pedagogy of Social Work: Conceptualizing Field Coordination as a Negotiated Social Work Pedagogy

ABSTRACT

Although field education is considered the signature pedagogy of social work, the work of field coordinators appear to remain peripheral to other aspects of social work education, such as coursework and research. In this article, we suggest that field coordination requires a far more complex set of knowledge and skills than merely matching students with placements based on availability and interest. Using critical and relational theories, this article conceptualizes field coordination as a negotiated pedagogy in which the coordinators navigate complex and often competing needs among students, field agencies, and social work practice. In making visible its nuances and intricacies, we suggest that field coordination is a critical relational pedagogy essential to advancing social work education.     

Reception of Arthur Sutherland Neill＇s pedagogical concept and his Summerhill School in Hungarian and German pedagogical literature and press

Arthur Sutherland Neill is one of the most debated personalities among the representatives of the classic reform pedagogy, due to his pedagogical concept and its practical realization, and his Summerhill School, equally. He is often mentioned during public debates, where mostly the ＂three S＂--＂sex, swearing and smoking＂, are existing as subject of the debates. While analyzing publications about Summerhill School appearing in Hungarian and German pedagogical special literature and press, a kind of polarized attitude has been realized towards the conceptions and school： Some talk about him admiringly; others criticize him while emphasizing the concept＇s drawbacks and unique features.     

Inviting discomfort: foregrounding emotional labour in teaching anthropology in post-apartheid South Africa

This article examines the potential and limitations of Megan Boler's ‘pedagogy of discomfort’ in a post-apartheid yet heavily racialised South Africa. Taking an ‘ethnographic sensibility’ to anthropological teaching, this paper sketches the social and historical context of discomfort produced by everyday classroom practices at a historically privileged university. This paper argues that new patterns of thought, if achieved at all in the course of learning through ‘discomfort’, are deeply embedded within uneasy social relationships.     

A pedagogy of emotion in teaching about social movement learning

This article explores the role of emotion in teaching about social issues in higher education. We draw and expand upon Boler's notion of a ‘Pedagogy of Discomfort’, Goodman's and Curry-Steven's concept of a ‘Pedagogy for the Privileged', and on Freire's idea of a ‘Pedagogy of Hope', in reflecting on our own experiences in teaching a graduate-level course on social movement learning. We argue for the importance of further sociological theorisation of the role of emotion in teaching and learning in higher education, and acknowledge the challenges a Pedagogy of Emotion present to those teaching in the social sciences at the post-secondary level.     

“智育”概念的理论解析与实践反思

智育概念在19世纪中叶的产生是以科学的兴起为历史背景的,这标志着学校教育的重心转向科学文化知识的教学。立足21世纪的教育实际,我们可以将智育概念从横向解析为作为一种教育活动的智育、作为人的全面发展一个方面的智育、作为教育活动一个维度的智育三个方面;从纵向将其解析为常识的教育、知识的教育、智慧的教育和精神的教育四个层次。通过对智育概念进行这样纵横两个方向的解析,我们可以揭示教育实践中的智育在不同维度和层次上的不完整性,进而在此基础上对当代人类社会诸多教育问题的深层成因进行反思。     

"教育理论与实践关系问题"的再认识

通过分析教育科学理论与教育实践理论之间的逻辑鸿沟、教育实践理论的建构、我国现行教育学存在问题的症结。以及教育实践理论对教育实践的指导等问题，旨在澄清有关教育理论与实践关系的简单化的理解。     

Bringing the social into pedagogy: unsafe learning in an uncertain world

The paper describes a collaborative curriculum development project implemented over 3 years at 2 universities in the Western Cape Province of South Africa. The project involved a short module in which students in their fourth year of study interacted and learnt collaboratively across the boundaries of institution, discipline, race and social class, about the concepts of community, self and identity. The pedagogic approach adopted is described, as well as the responses of the students, and a brief reflection on some of the learning outcomes attained. The paper considers the learning processes which the curriculum development team experienced, and suggests that in order to facilitate learning for an ‘uncertain world’, the curriculum designers, too, need to engage in learning processes in which they make themselves vulnerable, mirroring some of the learning processes they expect the students to undergo.     

从批判教育学看媒介素养教育目标及其实现方法

本文在阐述批判教育学的基本理念和回顾媒介素养教育的发展历史基础上,提出从批判教育学和媒介素养教育的共同点入手来培养当代学生批判性和主体性思维的重要性,借用批判教育学中的对话式教学方法,彻底转变师生在教育中的角色,以实现媒介素养的教育目标。     

Teaching With Tupac: Building a Solid Grounding in Theory Across the Social Work Education Continuum

This article describes a collaborative and emergent approach utilizing Tupac Shakur’s “Brenda’s Got a Baby” to leverage theory education. This song/video uses a fictionalized account of a pregnant 12-year-old African American girl to chronicle the ecological realities of life in the inner city (e.g., teen pregnancy, drug addiction and trafficking, incest, poverty, dysfunctional families, lack of opportunity, ineffective educational and welfare systems, runaway youth, commercial sexual exploitation, violence, and a racially insensitive law enforcement response). Because of the complexity and convergence of multiple issues and social problems in Brenda’s life, and their impact across the micro–macro spectrum, this song/video is an effective anchor for a semester-long emphasis on a critically conscious approach to theory. This article (a) reviews hip-hop as a vehicle for pedagogy; (b) explores Tupac’s early history and approach to information dissemination; and (c) discusses underlying assumptions and application in BSW-, MSW-, and PhD-level theory courses.     

The limits of critical pedagogy: teaching about structural obstacles to students who overcame them

This article focuses on efforts to critically analyze the social reproductive functions of schooling with a group of pre-service teachers in the US–Mexico border region, and on students’ reactions to these efforts. The students – all female, predominantly Mexican-American – had experienced both educational discrimination and academic success, and heavily invested in the dominant view of schooling as a meritocracy where individual talent and motivation regularly overcome structural obstacles. We argue that the students’ ideologies and experiences of class, gender, ethnicity, nationality, and language predisposed them to resist analysis of systemic inequalities in schools; we also examine the implications of this resistance for their future success as teachers. We conclude with recommendations for balancing structural pessimism and strategic optimism in the classroom, and for bringing students’ personal and social histories to bear on the contradictions between schooling’s promise of social mobility and its tendency to reproduce social inequality.     

批判教育研究的学术脉络与时代境遇

批判教育研究作为北美教育领域一个"左"的理论思潮,有着广泛而复杂的学术渊源,其中,马克思主义和新马克思主义的现实批判精神构成其理论的基本旨趣。但因为对文化政治的独特偏好和话语的多样性,目前正出现"视角碎片化"趋势。因而,在美国社会"右转"的语境中,摆脱困境,走向理论与行动的整合是唯一之途。批判教育研究对于我国警惕教育功利化、市场化和庸俗化倾向,建构日常教育生活民主以致整个社会的公正和民主提供了富有实践意义的启示。     

英国工人教育协会的发展及特点——基于批判教育学理论的视角

英国工人教育协会关注工人的处境,致力于为他们提供教育机会,提升工人阶级的政治地位和社会地位。批判教育学理论将知识作为赋权的工具,帮助处于不利地位的人们认识社会并进行社会解放和教育变革,这和英国工人教育协会的理念和实践有相似之处,以此提供一种新的理论视角分析工人教育协会的发展。我国工人教育正被大众和教育界所关注,从批判教育学理论的框架分析英国工人教育协会的发展,总结英国工人教育协会发展的特点,有利于借鉴国际工人教育发展历史,促进我国工人教育更好的发展。     

Developing a critical consciousness of race in place-based environmental education: Franco’s story

Environmental education (EE) has a history of support for critical place-based pedagogy as a means of learning through engagement in space, both cultural and biophysical. In this paper I tell the story of how Franco – a non-white, non-American undergraduate – engaged with local discourses in a watershed-focused EE program in the rural Midwestern US. I examine how the five tenets of critical race theory (CRT) can be used to interpret Franco’s experience, where he encountered multiple instances of racism and xenophobia. I argue that without a critical analysis of race in place-based EE programs, instructors may (a) privilege their own ways of knowing in local settings, (b) rely on ‘grit’ narratives as mechanisms for mediation of racism, and (c) send non-white students home having learned that they cannot effect meaningful change for sustainability. I conclude with recommendations for faculty in predominantly white institutions on how CRT might foster the development of critical consciousness of race in place-based EE programs.     

Critical pedagogy and emotion: working through ‘troubled knowledge’ in posttraumatic contexts

This article critiques some of the existing literature in critical pedagogy and the way it tends to overlook or downplay the strong emotional investments of troubled knowledge in posttraumatic situations. Examining existing literature in critical pedagogy reiterates the argument that the discourse of critical pedagogy constructs and sustains its own disciplinary affects. This article builds further on this argument and highlights the importance of foregrounding rather than backgrounding the complexity of difficult emotional knowledge and its pedagogical implications. Working from the assumption that critical pedagogy, especially in the context of posttraumatic societies, must engage this terrain of difficult emotional knowledge in ways that have not been sufficiently addressed by the current rhetoric of critical pedagogy, I look to work that gestures toward a discourse of critical pedagogy which considers troubled knowledge as a source of fruitful and responsive learning. As it will be emphasized, this argument entails making pedagogical space for understanding troubled knowledge in more nuanced terms. This task requires a constant reconsideration of new pedagogical resources to enhance the potential of critical pedagogy; this article discusses three such resources: the significance of pedagogic discomfort, the pedagogical principle of mutual vulnerability, and the value of compassion and strategic empathy.     

Critical Race Theory and Counselor Education Pedagogy: Creating Equitable Training

Infusing critical race theory, the authors discuss specific pedagogical strategies to enhance educational experiences of counselor trainees. The authors then provide an evaluative checklist to facilitate and evaluate curricular integration of critical race theory.     

批判教育学视野下的美国多元文化教育——访美国加州大学洛杉矶分校Peter Mclaren教授

"多元文化主义"产生于二战以来的各种社会变革思潮,旨在促进跨越种族、宗教、国家的文化理解和文化宽容,其概念被广泛地使用于各个学术领域,包括历史的、政治的、教育的等等。Peter Mclaren教授是美国加州大学洛杉矶分校教育和信息研究学院的教授,他被誉为批判教育学的领军人物之一。近年来,Mclaren教授主要运用马克思的政治经济学说,并与诸多学者和社会人士合作,积极致力于美国以及拉美地区的多元文化教育运动。Mclaren教授访问我所之际,笔者有幸与其主要就美国多元文化教育的历史发展过程以及批判的多元文化主义的核心内容进行探讨和交流。