Lesson study for learning community (LSLC): conceptualising teachers’ practices within a social justice perspective

Under neo-liberal policies in many countries, there has been an extensive trend of educational reform which intensifies competition. Such educational reform is underpinned by direct government control, seen in centre to periphery forms of policy administration and implementation with strong emphasis on managerialism and test-oriented accountability models. There are critical views and opinions about such neo-liberal reforms, but a need still exists to discuss ways forward to protect the equality and right of teachers and student learners in schooling. This essay accordingly aims to discuss how the lesson study for learning community (LSLC) approach of school reform from Japan might signal a practical shift in emphasis away from competitive models of schooling fostered by school reform movements. The aim of this study is to discuss the philosophical underpinnings of LSLC, with particular emphasis on its social justice nature, particularly in reference to criticisms against neo-liberal reform agendas.     

Inclusive education in accelerated and professional development schools: a case-based study of two school reform efforts in the USA

This case-based study of two school reform efforts in the USA examines how the process of inclusive education works for SEN students and the extent to which these students and their teachers feel as though they are an integral part of school reform. At its heart, this study focuses on three central questions. Do the philosophy, process, practices and organizational structures of these school reform movements promote inclusion for all students? What is the impact of the schools' practices and principles on individual students? What conditions and contexts best promote inclusion, and which ones act as barriers to successful inclusion? The schools in these two school reform movements provide powerful examples of how changes in school organization, climate, curriculum and instructional strategies build on the strengths of students, staff and community to create optimal learning results for all students. In this study, the perception of pedagogical and political ‘gaps’ between school effectiveness reform agendas and inclusive education reveal a narrow, rational-technical view of reform. The hope for the future is that the growing efforts in support of inclusive education within the broader socio-political and constructivist school reform movements, exemplified by the schools in this case study, will become an influential counter-force for social justice and disability-rights' action in schools everywhere.     

Subjectivity,social change and the reform problematic

The theme of ‘new directions for research in relation to social justice and teacher education’ raises questions about not only the broad economic and cultural shifts which now frame education (what types of exclusions and unfairnesses are being created?), and not only about the changing construction of inequalities in education in the reshaped education institutions (what is social justice?). It also raises the very difficult issue of how older research and reform agendas meet, or fail to meet, the subjectivity of students today; and the problem of how adequately the (human) subject, subject formation and the historical specificity of human subjects is now considered in the reform agendas. This paper will illustrate some of these questions by drawing on a seven-year longitudinal, qualitative study, now nearing completion, of students going through school. It will argue for the continued utility of this form of more traditional academic research, in addition to the types of action-directed and ‘partnership’ research that are commonly seen as the task of ‘teacher education’ now. From this study of the current generation of students at school, the paper will point to some continuities and some shifts regarding how winners and losers are being created through schooling today. It will also revisit the old issue for researchers and reformers in education, about who is speaking to whom and with what effects.     

‘I was dead restorative today’: from restorative justice to restorative approaches in school

This paper explores definitions and understandings of restorative practices in education. It offers a critique of current theoretical models of restorative justice originally derived from the criminal justice system and now becoming popular in educational settings. It questions the appropriateness of these concepts as they are being introduced to schools in parts of the UK and refers to a recent Scottish Executive funded pilot initiative to implement restorative practices in schools. The paper then reflects on some findings from the evaluation of this pilot project, outlines a new notion of restorative approaches and suggests that this broader conceptualisation may offer an important way in which to promote social justice in education and to reassess the importance and inevitability of conflicting social interaction and structures inherent in schools as complex social institutions.     

Economic Rationality or Social Justice? Gender,the National Qualifications Framework and educational reform in South Africa, 1989‐1996

This article examines the ways in which gender redress has been conceptualised in different phases of the policy development work on the National Qualifications Framework, a key initiative of education reform in South Africa. It identifies two discursive framings for the NQF‐‐the discourse of economic rationalisation, utilised by business and COSATU, and that of social justice, utilised by the ANC and COSATU. It concludes that neither, for different reasons, have grappled with gendered social relations or the gendered, but dispersed, power of the state. The paper points out that the existence of a widespread women's organisation in South Africa during the transition period had little impact on policy formulation in education and training, thus raising questions about ways in which women's demands can have an impact on education policy change.     

Neo-liberalism and the politics of higher education policy in Indonesia

This paper examines Indonesia's experience with neo-liberal higher education reform. It argues that this agenda has encountered strong resistance from the dominant predatory political, military, and bureaucratic elements who occupy the state apparatus, their corporate clients, and popular forces, leading to continuation of the centralist and predatory system of higher education that was established under the New Order. The only areas in which neo-liberal reform has progressed have been those where the neo-liberal agenda has aligned well with that of popular forces and there has been little resistance from predatory elements. In presenting this argument, the paper illustrates the role of domestic configurations of power and interest in mediating global pressures for neo-liberal higher education reform. It accordingly suggests that Indonesia needs to construct a model of higher education that simultaneously fits with the reigning political settlement and produces better research and teaching outcomes than the present model.     

Lifelong Learning and Adult Education: Russia Meets the West

This article examines the impact of social change and economic transformation on adult education and lifelong learning in post-Soviet Russia. The article begins with a brief economic and historical background to lifelong learning and adult education in terms of its significance as a feature of the Russian cultural heritage. An analysis of Ministerial education policy and curriculum changes reveals that these policies reflect neo-liberal and neo-conservative paradigms in the post-Soviet economy and education. Current issues and trends in adult education are also discussed, with particular attention to the Adult Education Centres, which operate as a vast umbrella framework for a variety of adult education and lifelong learning initiatives. The Centres are designed to promote social justice by means of compensatory education and social rehabilitation for individuals dislocated by economic restructuring. The article comments on their role in helping to develop popular consciousness of democratic rights and active citizenship in a participatory and pluralistic democracy.     

论制度化教育下的教育公平诉求——基于对基础教育阶段教育制度、学校管理、教学行为的事理分析

随着社会民主化进程的发展,随着对高质量教育的追求,教育公平日益成为学者们研究的焦点,然而制度化教育自身的特性成了实现教育公平的羁绊.本文透析了在制度化教育的运转过程中,基础教育阶段的教育制度、学校管理和教学行为中所凸现的有悖于教育公平的种种表征,并试图寻找变革制度化教育的改良措施,力求实现教育公平的最大化.     

A contested profession: employability,performativity and professionalism in Irish further education

Further education typically represents the vocational, technical and practice-based forms of education, but this is now being repositioned in a neo-liberal era that is driving a performance-based and market-orientated vision of education in the Republic of Ireland and elsewhere. The implacable drive of neo-liberal economics in everyday practice is evident in the current economic and training discourses of further education, which aim to upgrade the employability of low-skilled and marginalised sectors of the population. The article provides an overview of shifts in educational policy and practices that align Irish further education with what has occurred in the UK and elsewhere through processes of professionalisation and performativity. Analysis of the potential impact on notions of professional identity in the sector helps to articulate the principles, pedagogies and philosophies that will be vital when contesting the performance cultures of New Managerialism that seem likely to ensue. We explore the implications in terms of the policy discourses, organisational structure and professional practices of further education. We contend that changes in these areas have profound impacts on the learning and knowledge base of further education, constraining its social justice and transformative capacity for the learners at the heart of further education.     

Neoliberal versus social justice reforms in education policy and practice: discourses,politics and disability rights in education

This article uses critical discourse analysis in order to discuss the equity and social justice implications of an envisaged education reform agenda in Cyprus, as articulated by two consultation reports commissioned by the World Bank. The reports highlight, inter alia, the imperative to improve teaching and enhance accountability regimes with regard to students’ learning. Selected extracts from these documents are analyzed in order to highlight the absence of a social justice discourse in the rhetoric of educational reforms, despite the alleged centrality of a social justice discourse in official policy. The reports fail to include issues of social justice and learner diversity in discussing the necessity to strengthen the existing teacher policy framework and to mobilize structural educational reforms. This omission is indicative of the neoliberal imperatives that drive the envisaged education policy reforms as well as the low priority attributed to issues of equity and learner diversity, with particular reference to students designated as having special educational needs and/or disabilities.     

论高考制度的公平价值

高考制度在我国长期被视为能够最大限度地保障社会公平的人才选拔制度,＂高考公平＂是＂社会公平＂的重要内容和尺度,是＂社会公平＂在教育领域的延伸,也是实现＂社会公平＂的重要手段和途径。高考本身虽然具有相对的公平性,但究其本质,它毕竟只是一种普通的人才选拔制度,在日趋复杂的社会背景下,它并不具有保障社会公平的责任和能力。目前我国高考改革领域出现的众多问题和阻碍,正是由于高考被赋予了太多它本身不该也不能承担的社会责任所致。因此,让高考回归＂教育本性＂,才是目前高考改革的理性目标。     

Global influences and local responses: The restructuring of the University of Botswana, 1990–2000

The University of Botswana has not escaped the reform fever currently gripping higher education institutions the world-over. In the late 1980s the University initiated an administrative/management restructuring exercise whose resultant structure was implemented between 1998 and 2000. The exercise, in many respects, was a response to globalization. The emergence, in the past two decades, of a global economy, the massification of higher education, and the globalization of neo-liberal economic thinking have compelled universities to recast their social and economic missions. Consequently, universities have had to restructure within the framework of a global ideology characterized by an emphasis on effectiveness, quality and efficiency. This paper explicates the restructuring exercise at the University of Botswana by locating the exercise within its global and local contexts. It argues that while the resultant structure reflected global influences and trends, it was as much a product of local concerns.     

Widening participation in higher education: the role of professional and social class identities and commitments

Since the neoliberal reforms to British education in the 1980s, education debates have been saturated with claims to the efficacy of the market as a mechanism for improving the content and delivery of state education. In recent decades with the expansion and ‘massification’ of higher education, widening participation (WP) has acquired an increasingly important role in redressing the under-representation of certain social groups in universities. Taken together, these trends neatly capture the twin goals of New Labour’s programme for education reform: economic competitiveness and social justice. But how do WP professionals negotiate competing demands of social equity and economic incentive? In this paper we explore how the hegemony of neoliberal discourse – of which the student as consumer is possibly the most pervasive – can be usefully disentangled from socially progressive, professional discourses exemplified through the speech and actions of WP practitioners and managers working in British higher education institutions.     

Competing Paradigms of Educational Justice: Parent Organizing for Educational Equity in a Neoliberal Reform Context

This article examines a grassroots parent organizing effort in a large, high-poverty, urban school district. Drawing from ethnographic field research at a community-based popular education organization, the study describes how parent organizers worked to educate and mobilize Latina/o immigrant parents on issues of educational justice and equity. It identifies three pillars of their approach—a social theory, a theory of change, and a theory of knowledge— and argues that these were not reducible to a set of practices or methods; rather, they constituted a coherent paradigm of educational justice. This paradigm differs in significant ways from the neoliberal justice paradigm that currently dominates education reform and policy. By examining points of tension between these two competing paradigms, this article seeks to accomplish two aims. First, it aims to deepen our understanding of how underlying paradigms of educational justice shape the work of educating, organizing, and reforming schools. Second, it aims to expose the cultural specificity, or non-universality, of the neoliberal paradigm in order to challenge its hegemonic status in education reform and policy.     

Teaching for Social Justice and K-12 Student Outcomes: A Conceptual Framework and Research Review

Redressing educational inequity requires taking a comprehensive and systemic approach to education reform, a practice increasingly framed as “social justice (in) education.” However, while state and federal accountability mandates require any reform intended for K-12 classroom implementation to have a demonstrable impact on student achievement, published accounts of classroom-level “teaching for social justice” are widely varied and scantly evaluated. This article examines the conceptual foundations of teaching for social justice, presents a concrete framework for teaching for social justice in K-12 classrooms, and examines how elements of teaching for social justice are supported by existing research on secondary students’ academic, behavioral/motivational, and attitudinal outcomes. In conducting this review, the author hopes to provide both a rationale for teaching for social justice in K-12 classrooms and a foundation for future empirical research on how doing so affects student outcomes.     

Mixed messages: discourses of education in policy speeches to the Japanese Diet

This paper will examine how Japanese education policy was articulated discursively from 1996 to 2010 in the semi-annual speeches of prime ministers to the Diet. It will identify three distinct discourses within these policy statements: a progressive discourse emphasizing the rights of individuals; a neo-liberal discourse of social independence and multi-tracked schooling; and a moral conservative discourse of patriotism and social conformism. In the 1990s, progressive and neo-liberal discourses held sway. Discursively, they were centred on key phrases such as kosei jūshi (“respect for individuality”) and sōzōsei (creativity), which were employed in a strategically ambiguous way to satisfy both progressive and neo-liberal demands. In the 2000s, however, right-wing politicians began to push a moral conservative agenda, which emphasized not the rights of individuals but their subservience to the wider needs of society and state. With neo-liberalism backed by powerful business interests, policymakers had to find a way to reconcile these two conflicting viewpoints discursively. They did this by binding the concept of individuality to traditional notions of Japanese identity and national citizenship, creating a hybrid discourse that attempted to blur the fundamental difference in ideologies.     

Historicizing Mathematics and Mathematizing Social Studies for Social Justice: A Call for Integration

Researchers and theorists in education have offered persuasive arguments and evidence documenting the need for, and benefits of, education for social justice. Despite these efforts the intersection of social justice with interdisciplinary curricular designs remains underexplored. This article argues that social justice education is enriched through interdisciplinary curricula, in that it holds the potential for students to develop deeper conceptions of social justice and experience deeper learning outcomes related to content knowledge across subject matter areas. Central to this argument is the notion that situating disciplinary relationships explicitly within social justice perspectives encourages an emphasis on broader and richer sociopolitical consciousness among learners. We draw on historical and contemporary narratives to position social justice in mathematics and social studies education. As researchers in these two fields, we envision greater possibilities for the advancement of knowledge, and we envision learning from inequalities and resisting oppression by nurturing deeper, more explicit connections between mathematics and social studies. We conclude this article with three overviews of learning segments as potential representations of interdisciplinary mathematics-social studies for social justice work in secondary school contexts.     

Social justice education with Chinese characteristics: An example from Shanghai

This article analyses a Chinese approach to social justice in education using the example of Shanghai. In addressing schooling inequalities, Shanghai illustrates social justice education with Chinese characteristics, which revolves around the ideal of ‘educational balance’ (jiaoyu junheng). The ‘balance’ in question is about achieving a values-centred and all-round education in and across all schools through the cultivation of a school’s ‘inner quality’ (neihan). This Chinese formulation of social justice education is manifested through two representative policy measures: creating and strengthening ‘new high-quality schools’ and helping weak schools to level up. The Chinese characteristics of these action plans are seen in two ways: a focus on social justice between schools rather than between students; and an emphasis on the moral cultivation of students. It is argued that a Chinese model of social justice education promotes educational equity to some extent through the politics of redistribution, recognition and representation. However, a major critique is its hegemonic and top-down nature, which overlooks alternative and competitive voices—especially those of migrant children—as part of a politics of representation.     

Teacher influence on pupil cognitive performance

Following the U.S. financial crisis of 2008, demands on our social safety nets grew as federal, state, and local revenues declined. Projected shortfalls are forcing deep cuts in state and local services including education. It is too early to know fully the nature of the cuts or impacts on various communities and constituencies. This article looks to recent reform history to understand the shaping of educational priorities in the context of shrinking public coffers, disenchantment with public institutions, and anxiety about individual and collective positions in the global economy. I employ Steven Lukes's (2005) multidimensional view of power to examine the emergence of performance accountability policy as part and parcel of a neo-liberal reconsideration of schooling. From this recounting, I raise questions about the preference and press for particular reform priorities—reconstitution and pay for performance models of remuneration—ensconced in No Child Left Behind and Race to the Top.     

论多元化教育的理论研究框架

多元文化教育的理论研究必须建立在一定的哲学思想基础之上，其研究框架应含盖即课程改革、公平教学、多元文化能力和社会公平四个领域。这对于反思多元文化教育的理论和实践及师范教育的改革具有重要意义。