Pedagogy,Patriotism, and Democracy: On the educational meanings of 11 September 2001

In this article, I examine the social and pedagogic context of the 11 September tragedy. Although a good deal has been written about the national and international politics of 11 September, I focus on the most local of levels: the complicated ways in which 9/11 was experienced phenomenologically by teachers such as myself, and on the little known effects it had on pedagogy and on the urge to have schools participate in a complicated set of patriotic discourses and practices that swept over the United States in the wake of the disaster. Given this focus, parts of my analysis are personal, while others parts are more institutional and ideological. I describe one instance in which the 'compulsory patriotism' that arose in schools after 9/11 had damaging effects. The discussion demonstrates that no analysis of the effects of 9/11 on schools can go on without an understanding of the ways in which the global is dynamically linked to the local. Such an analysis must more fully understand the larger ideological work and history of the neoliberal and neoconservative project and its effects on the discourses that circulate and become common sense in society. And no analysis can afford to ignore the contradictory needs and contradictions that this project has created.     

Faith-Based Schooling and the Invisible Effects of 11 September 2001: The view from England

The specific problematic of this paper is the effects of the events of 11 September on English education policy, particularly policy surrounding faith schooling. One story to be told is one of an absence of effect, of policy discussions and directions continuing on the same trajectory before and after that date, a story of 'no U-turn'. However, this article presents an alternative account that recognizes important effects, but effects that have largely remained below the surface. The central focus of the paper is the symbolic power of 11 September operating around an axis of destabilization. It is argued that the event symbolizes a disruption of myths of urban order and of the 'safe' accommodations between modernity and postmodernity; and that there has been an analogous impact on the myth of liberalism as the all-encompassing voice of reason and civilization. '11 September', it is suggested, serves as a potent reminder of the fundamental tensions in models of liberal education, evident, in particular, in the paradox of 'liberal imperialism'. It can thus be effectively mobilized in policy discussions by either regressive or progressive thinkers. The paper draws attention to the way in which these tensions and mobilization practices can be seen behind current English policy debates on faith schooling. It concludes that intensified public anxieties about 'Osama Bin Laden academies' fundamentally undermining 'our way of life' have not coalesced into anything 'measurable'; but that the lack of a U-turn by New Labour on the faith schooling issue could be understood as an important 'intervention' designed to act as one stabilizing message in destabilized times.     

Examining power,knowledge and power relations in a science research apprenticeship

Cultural Studies of Science Education - The science laboratory is a politically entrenched space where complex power relations interplay while social agents learn about the rules and routines to...     

Beyond individual behaviour change: the role of power,knowledge and strategy in tackling climate change

Individual behaviour change is fast becoming a kind of ‘holy grail’ to tackle climate change, in environmental policy, the environmental movement and academic literature. This is contested by those who claim that social structures are the main problem and who advocate collective social action. The objective of the research presented in this paper is to better understand why environmentally concerned citizens choose one of these two types of engagement. Our focus is on the role of experiences of and/or convictions about power in shaping this choice. Within the framework of an explorative qualitative study, we engaged in in-depth interviews with 12 young environmentally concerned citizens. On this basis, five main findings are elaborated. Firstly, powerlessness is shown to be a crucial experience, whatever the respondents’ engagement. Secondly, ‘strategy scepticism’ seems to be a more important obstacle for engagement than ‘climate scepticism’. Thirdly, many respondents express significant resistance towards being ‘conditioned’ by awareness-raising campaigns. Fourthly, a ‘gap’ is observed between respondents’ analysis and their strategy proposals. Finally, we underscore another important gap between concrete and abstract levels in respondents’ discourses. All these findings disclose paradoxical aspects of the role of power in shaping the concerned citizens’ engaged choices.     

The renaissance engineer: educating engineers in a post-9/11 world * Presented at the SEFIrenze Conference, 11 September 2002, Florence,Italy.

Technology that fuels the economy and adds to the quality of life can also bring with it unexpected complexities. The events of 11 September bring into sharp relief some of the vulnerabilities that exist in the world, and also challenge us to re-examine the role of engineers in society. To date, the traditional responsibilities of the engineering communities in preventing future catastrophes have been defined purely in terms of technological advances. However, it is clear that engineering must go beyond pure technology to consider also the causes of vulnerabilities and examine if and how engineering can address matters that are often embedded in the social and economic fabric of society. Moreover, engineers must go beyond being technical experts who understand and consider social, financial and political factors in their work, and become leaders in all arenas of society. These expectations call for renaissance engineers and the need for a renaissance in engineering education. Recommendations to cultivate a new generation of renaissance engineers centre on recognition of individual talent and customizing education accordingly.     

Modes of knowledge and patterns of power

The paper attempts to identify the extent to which modes of knowledge can be associated with different patterns of and assumptions about power.It discusses the meanings and scope of power itself, i.e. both within and beyond epistemic communities, as against ‘social robustness’ implying more democratic or inclusive forms of evaluation.It analyses the extent to which knowledge has shifted from an internalist perspective relying on the prestige of epistemic communities towards socially relevant assumptions resting within social contexts. It discusses the factors affecting types of power patterns, such as: the nature of sponsors’ objectives and the uses to which they might put knowledge; epistemic characteristics; the nature of the resource required, and the stage of finalisation reached. It sketches the range of models of sponsorship to which knowledge is subjected – from that of the free standing and autonomous individual through different patterns of sponsorship to the directly managed.It attempts to link these classifications to a range of empirical examples, including the power of knowledge in government and in crossing the boundaries between universities and industry.In discussing the reciprocal relationships between power and knowledge, it accepts that power affects the identification, use and transmission of knowledge. It is concerned, however, to question overdetermined perspectives of the relationships between knowledge and power whose mutual impacts may be strong but not easily predicted or defined.     

Curricular change in Turkey: Time,sequentiality, and differential power of actors in establishing a new knowledge path

This paper introduces the knowledge path concept to research on curriculum change. Vis-à-vis existing inquiries into curriculum making, the paper explores the usefulness of the knowledge path concept in an empirical analysis of curriculum change that primary education in Turkey underwent at the turn of the century. Based on the documentary interpretation of expert interviews and other material, the paper enquires into the processes that instigated and enabled the curriculum change and rendered it durable. This concept may contribute to four previously identified research approaches to curriculum change: empirical case studies, ideology-critical and New Institutionalist inquiries, and a focus on organizational politics. It emphasizes the significance of time and sequentiality during change processes and underpins the differentiated power of actors.     

论课程知识与权力主体的关系——基于合法性的视角

课程知识与权力粘合孪生,课程知识的合法性状况规定了它的权力主体是否合法。事实性与有效性是课程知识具有合法性的两个因素,课程知识的有效性是判断权力主体是否合法的关键因素。新课程改革是在具有合法性的建构主义知识观影响下进行的,它的权力主体——国家、地方、学校（教师和学生）都具有合法性。     

Between the Lines: Philosophy, Text and Conversation

In doing philosophy we need to be aware of the awkwardness of thinking in terms of having a method, still more any kind of 'methodology'. Instead we might consider the different ways in which philosophy has been conceived in terms of contrasts: for example between the written and the spoken word, between exposition and dialogue, and between—in Richard Rorty's terms—systematic and edifying philosophy. This article offers no easy answer to how to proceed, suggesting rather that those who attempt philosophy need to be alert to the possibilities and dangers that lie on either side. This is not just any kind of alertness, but a matter of close reading rather than skimming, of carefully attending—listening—to those with whom we engage, whether they are people or texts.     

Life on the Coalface: the aftermath of amalgamation

The ongoing ‘rationalisation’ of tertiary education in Australia is symptomatic, it is argued here, of the deeper tensions inherent in corporate capitalism. This paper examines one aspect of the rationalisation process — amalgamation — based on research carried out at two amalgamated colleges, with the aim of ‘demystifying’ the rhetoric of ‘efficiency and effectiveness’ underpinning current managerialist approaches to education.

The impact of amalgamation on college life — increased bureaucratisation and centralisation of power harnessed to a form of ‘entrepreneurial zeal’, resulting in administrative inefficiencies and increasing staff alienation — may be partly explained, it is suggested, by the contradictions and limitations of the ideological/economistic parameters within which the amalgamation policy was conceived, namely the ‘Razor Gang’ proposals of the former Liberal government. This in turn, it is suggested, reflects something of the interrelationship between education policy, the fiscal crisis’ of capitalism, and the ‘legitimation crisis’ of the State.     

A question of reflexivity in a qualitative study of South Asians in education: power,knowledge and shared ethnicity

In a qualitative study of South Asians in education, methodological issues pertaining to the social interactions between the same-ethnicity researcher and researched are analysed and interpreted. Based on in-depth interviews with 89 South Asian school pupils and 25 South Asian parents, it was found that political ideology and shared ethnicity were a source of inspiration in how the same-ethnicity researcher generated answers to the research questions, but also a weakness in how they were potentially shaped by the very same factors. This paper suggests that for situations where the subject, the researcher and the researched are inextricably linked, there is the potential for both ‘good’ and ‘harm’ to the research. This paper provides a case study of the ontological and epistemological issues that can emerge in the research process, and how reflexivity facilitates the production of knowledge without it necessarily gaining or losing because of shared ethnicity.     

In‐Text Questions: A Note on an Experiment in Instructional Design

The use of instructional design is increasingly being discussed in the distance education and higher education literature. This paper reports an experiment in which self study questions are inserted in the text of lecture note material for external students. An evaluation revealed that students who received notes with in‐text questions were no different from those who received the standard lecture notes as judged by both performance and attitudinal criteria. Possible reasons for the perverse findings are given and it is concluded that professional instructional design assistance would be of value to subject matter experts.     

浅谈分析在汉英翻译中的重要性

在汉英翻译实践中,为使读者准确理解原文,从而达到正确翻译的目的,译者必须在熟练掌握汉、英两种语言的基础上,认真分析原文的句子结构和语境,并结合汉语特点挖掘其深层含义,力求用地道的英语从内容到形式上准确无误地再现原文。     

Sustaining academic community in the aftermath of tragedy

Campus recovery from the shootings at Virginia Tech in April has, in part, been supported by a process of community building launched at the institution years ago.Terry Wildman, director of the Center for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching, explains.     

Practical intelligence and elementary-school teacher effectiveness in the United States and Israel: Measuring the predictive power of tacit knowledge

One important aspect of teacher effectiveness, of course, is formal knowledge of one or more academic disciplines. But another aspect of teacher effectiveness may be informal, or tacit knowledge of how to handle challenging situations, or even crises, that arise in the classroom. Tacit knowledge is what a person needs to know to succeed in an endeavor that is typically not explicitly taught and that often is not even verbalized. It is procedural knowledge, and thus is not just a static form of knowledge, but rather, knowledge in use. We constructed a measure of tacit knowledge for elementary-school teachers, in order to determine the teachers’ likely effectiveness in dealing with problematical classroom situations. In Study 1, our primary goal was to determine whether our measure predicted principals’ ratings of the teachers’ classroom performance as well as teachers’ ratings of their own effectiveness. We found that teachers who scored higher on our tacit-knowledge inventory generally were rated as more effective by their principals, but as less effective by themselves. In Study 2, we investigated whether responses to problematical situations that were viewed as better or worse, respectively, in the United States were also viewed as better or worse, respectively, in Israel. We found a high correlation between responses in the two countries. We concluded that it is possible to measure an important aspect of teacher effectiveness via a measure of tacit knowledge, and that comparable measurements may be possible across at least two cultures.     

《真正的英雄》翻译问题评析

以《真正的英雄》为例,指出了译文在原文理解、词语搭配、人称代词处理、术语和专有名词翻译、表达、人名翻译方面存在的问题,对一些问题进行了定量和定性分析,并就问题的解决提出了建议。