A Genealogical Analysis of the Concept of ‘Good’ Teaching: A Polemic

In this essay I intentionally employ Nietzsche's genealogical method as a means to critique the complex concept of ‘good’ teaching, and at the same time reconstitute ‘good’ teaching in a form that is radically different from contemporary accounts. In order to do this, I start out by undertaking a genealogical analysis to both reveal the complicated historical development of ‘good’ teaching and also disentangle the intertwining threads that remain hidden from us so we are aware of the core threads that hold it together. Two major threads are identified in my analysis, which I refer to as: Genealogy I: Teaching as applied science or practice; and, Genealogy II: Teaching as a vocational calling or neutral profession. With this in mind, I take the two value systems (Genealogy I and II) presented in my critique of ‘good’ teaching, and rather than return to old, or create new values, I argue that the true task of any educational endeavour is to make human beings human. Therefore, in the spirit of Nietzsche, I revive and extend Nietzsche's account of Bildung as a dynamic way of living timeless educational aims, such as learning to see, think, speak, write and feel in becoming true human beings.     

The Pedagogy of Persuasion: The Culture of the University of Pont‐à‐Mousson

“Henceforth, my dear philosophers, let us be on our guard against the dangerous old conceptual fiction that posits a ‘pure, will‐less, painless, timeless knowing subject'; let us guard against the snares of such contradictory concepts as ‘pure reason’, ‘absolute spirituality’, ‘knowledge in itself: these always demand that we should think of an eye that is completely unthinkable, an eye turned in no particular direc‐ tion, in which the active and interpreting forces, through which alone seeing becomes seeing something, are supposed to be lacking; these always demand of the eye an absurdity and a nonsense. There is only a perspective seeing, only a perspective ‘knowing'; and the more emotions we allow to speak about one thing, the more eyes, different eyes, we can use to observe one thing, the more complete will our ‘concept’ of this thing, our ‘objectivity’ be.”

(Friedrich Nietzsche, On the Genealogy of Morals)

As an ‘epilogue’ to this special issue on postmodernism in. the history of education the authors, as privileged witnesses, examine to what extent ‘Paedagogica Historica’ has stimulated or just mirrored trends in (post‐)modern educational historiography. To analyse the journal they make use of both measurable and interpreta‐ tive indicators. The main conclusion runs as follows: ‘Paedagogica Historica’ acted more as a mirror than a lever in developments in the history of education.     

Writing the Self: Wittgenstein,Confession and Pedagogy

In this paper I investigate ‘the confessional’ as an aspect of Wittgenstein's style both as a mode of philosophising and as a mode of ‘writing the self’, tied explicitly to pedagogical practices. There are strong links between Wittgenstein's confessional mode of philosophising and his life—for him philosophy is a way of life —and interesting theoretical connections between confessional practices and pedagogy, usefully explored in the writings of the French philosopher, Michel Foucault. The Investigations provides a basis and springboard for understanding the notion of ‘writing the self’ as a pedagogical practice which encourages a confessional mode compelling us to tell the truth about ourselves and, thus, creating the conditions for ethico‐poetical self‐constitution.     

‘Experience is Our Great and Only Teacher’: A Peircean Reading of Wim Wenders' Wings of Desire

Wim Wenders' film Wings of Desire tells the story of an angel who wishes to become mortal in order to know the simple joy of human life. Told from the angel's point of view, the film is shot in black and white. But at the very instant the angel perceives the realities of human experience, the film blossoms into colour. In this article, I use this film to illustrate and explore Peirce's notion of experience and his claim that ‘experience is our great and only teacher’. In his 1903 Harvard lectures, Peirce placed phenomenology at the heart of his philosophy, while outlining a notion of ‘experience’ that clearly integrates his semiotics, phenomenology and pragmatism. To Peirce, experience is a ‘brutally produced conscious effect’ that comes ‘out of practice’ and is a ‘forcible modification of our ways of thinking’. But as this modification is generated by the actions and flows of signs, it is pertinent to read Peirce's notion of experience in relation to his notion of semiosis. Consequently, a Peircean reading of Wings of Desire not only helps to explore how experience teaches, but also the ways in which the rudeness of experience cannot be fully understood without considering the sign's action.     

What are the Bounds of Critical Rationality in Education?

Since Dilthey we have become used to thinking of reason as having a cultural and historical setting. If we take this insight seriously, then critical rationality or critical thinking can no longer be conceived of as context‐free skills. This paper takes up the line of thought that is elaborated by Christopher Winch in his ‘Developing Critical Rationality as a Pedagogical Aim’ and seeks to explicate it by drawing on Ludwig Wittgenstein's concept of ‘language games’ and on the re‐evaluation of ‘thinking’ by Theodor Ballauff (a German philosopher of education who was influenced by Martin Heidegger). The overcoming of a solipsistic and idealistic conception of thinking raises questions regarding the pedagogical settings and aims, as well as the problems over the limits of critique in education. A comparison of Ballauff's and Winch's positions reinforces the sense of the significance of critique: although the role of critical rationality within education is ambiguous and precarious, the investigation of autonomy (as an educational goal) shows that critique cannot be limited in any straightforward way.     

How to Conceive of Critical Educational Theory Today?

This paper starts from a brief sketch of the ‘classical’ figure of critical educational theory or science (Kritische Erziehungswissenshaft). ‘Critical educational theory’ presents itself as the privileged guardian of the critical principle of education (Bildung) and its emancipatory promise. It involves the possibility of saying ‘I’ in order to speak and think in one's own name, to be critical, self‐reflective and independent, to determine dependence from the present power relations and existing social order. Actual social and educational reality and relations are approached as a limitation, threat, alienation, re/oppression or negation of ultimate human principles or potential. The task of critical educational theory becomes one of enabling an autonomous, critical, self‐reflective life. While ‘critique’ and ‘autonomy’ have meanwhile become commonplace, and ‘critique’ and ‘autonomy’ are reclaimed and required from everybody, we should also consider the question of the relation between an institutional or ideological framework as that which claims to question this frame and to constitute its opposite. The trivialisation of critique is taken as occasion to recall Michel Foucault's analysis of power relations and especially his thesis according to which the ‘government of individualisation’ is the actual figure of power. Starting from the framework offered by Foucault, it can be made clear that the autonomous, critical, self‐reflective life does not represent an ultimate principle but refers to a very specific form of subjectification operating as a transmission belt for power. The autonomous, critical, self‐reflective person appears as an historical model of self‐conduct whereby power operates precisely through the intensification of reflectiveness and critique rather than through their repression, alienation or negation. This brings us back then to the question of how to conceive of the task of a critical educational theory at a time in which critique, autonomy and self‐determination have become an essential modus operandi of the existing order.     

Affective Teaching for Effective Learning: A Deleuzian pedagogy for the (corporate era and) Chinese context

In this article I explore the pedagogical value of Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari’s philosophical concepts for helping make an ‘event’ of thought, with a view towards fostering deep learning in Chinese students' learning theory and criticism in a second language. Paying attention to the qualitative role of bodies, humour and creativity alongside an expanded trans-personal concept of ‘educational life forms’ that stretches out to include an affective assemblage of inhuman elements (such as art and technology), I explore how Deleuze and Guattari’s philosophical models provide a ethical alternative to corporate, Confucian and Cartesian models otherwise inhibiting students and teachers in the modern Sino-international university context.     

Finding Truth in ‘Lies’: Nietzsche's Perspectivism and its Relation to Education

In his 2001 article ‘Teaching to Lie and Obey: Nietzsche on Education’, Stefan Ramaekers defends Nietzsche's concept of perspectivism against the charge that it is relativistic. He argues that perspectivism is not relativistic because it denies the dichotomy between the ‘true’ world and the ‘seeming’ world, a dichotomy central to claims to relativism. While Ramaekers' article is correct in denying relativistic interpretations of perspectivism it does not go far enough in this direction. In fact, the way Ramaekers makes his case may actually encourage the charge of relativism, especially when it comes to his appropriation of perspectivism for education. This article proposes to pick up where Ramaekers left off. It will argue that Nietzsche's denial of the opposition between the ‘true’ world and the ‘seeming’ world opens up the possibility for the reestablishment of truth, albeit in a modified form. After examining Nietzsche's modified ‘realist’ epistemology, the paper will explore the implications of it for his philosophy of education. It will be argued that Nietzsche's educational philosophy is founded on his concept of perspectivism in so far as he demands that students be rigorously inculcated into a pedagogical framework that teaches students to discriminate between ‘true’ and ‘false’ perspectives. This framework is essential for the development of an intellectually robust and life‐affirming culture.     

‘Will I learn what I want to learn?’ Usable representations, ‘students’ and OECD assessment production

Amid growing debates around international assessment tools in educational policy, few have critically examined how students themselves are cast in policy tool production processes and discourse. Drawing on Stuart Hall's concept of representation, we show how higher education (HE) ‘students’ are constructed, fixed and normalized by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development's (OECD) Assessment of Higher Education Learning Outcomes (AHELO) initiative. Based on an analysis of AHELO texts, we argue that the OECD, during the early stages of test production, fixes and circulates the meaning of ‘students’ as represented objects. We identify and analyze two distinct representational practices at work in AHELO texts: classifying and organizing, and marking. We posit that by fixing images of the student as an object of learning and as a consumer–investor subject, the OECD creates ‘usable’ representations of ‘students’ to claim jurisdiction over teaching and learning in HE and to justify intervention through standardized testing.     

Change in Teacher Education: interpreting and experiencing new professional roles

In this paper we consider the effect of moves by the British Government to make initial teacher education (ITE) in England and Wales more school‐based (Blake, 1993). To monitor the impact of this shift towards school‐based training we conducted a fine grain study of what was happening on the ground within the one‐year Secondary School‐Based Postgraduate Certificate in Education (PGCE) at the Chichester Institute of Higher Education (ChIHE). * *At the time the research was conducted, the Institute's name was the West Sussex Institute of Higher Education, hence interviewees refer to ‘WSIHE’ and ‘West Sussex’. View all notes Data were gathered from questionnaire surveys and interviews. Findings from our regional case study indicate that while school‐based ITE programmes may offer student teachers greater insight into school life, this should not be at the expense of developing students’ analytical and theoretical understanding of education and schooling promoted within higher education‐based work.     

The Virtues of Unfulfilment: Rethinking Eros and Education in Plato's Symposium

The purpose of this paper is to explore the nature of eros in relation to a sense of lack in Plato's Symposium. It starts from a sketch of the idea of fulfilment that is often found in the contemporary culture, especially when it is connected to the sense of a good life. The term ‘fulfill’, consisting of ‘fill’ and ‘full’, implies a sense a lack and an action of filling. Filling the lack to the full is the image that is often entertained when a good life, or a good education, is considered. The paper examines the similar image contained in Plato's Symposium, where lack is assumed as the precondition for love. One of the aims for love is to fill the lack; that is, to obtain the object of love. Three speeches in the Symposium, given by Aristophanes, Socrates and Alcibiades, will be discussed in turn. In doing so, three issues, in particular, will be discussed: the sense of lack, the object of love, and the aim for love. I suggest that instead of a straightforward solution to the predicament of love, a better way of understanding Plato's account of love through the three speeches is by understanding it as a dilemma, an approach taken by Martha Nussbaum. Nussbaum argues for Plato's hesitation in following Socrates’ program of the ascent of love, in which the ‘lack‐filling’ is guaranteed. The teacher's role is thus understood in two different ways. It is on the one hand, as the bridge between student and knowledge, and on the other, the revealer of the values of lack. The paper finally adopts a Lacanian idea of ontological lack to supplement Nussbaum's argument, taking up the often neglected values of lack in the Symposium, and its implication for education.     

Effects of collaborative activities on group identity in virtual world

The purpose of this study was to analyze the effects of collaborative activities on group identity in a virtual world such as Second Life. To achieve this purpose, this study adopted events that promoted participants' interactions using tools inherent in Second Life. The interactive tools given to the control group in this study included ‘permissions to move, copy, edit’, ‘give item’, ‘chat’, and ‘send instant message’. In addition to these tools, special tools of ‘give item for praise’ and ‘pollster’ were given to the experimental group. The two groups were compared using scores of group identity, which has nine subcategories. The experimental group showed higher scores in five subcategories than the control group. Thus, we concluded that the use of tools for facilitating participants' interactions is effective for the formation of group identity.     

Young people,education and unlawful non‐citizenship: spectral sovereignty and governmentality in Australia

This paper considers Judith Butler’s discussion of the intersections between governmentality and sovereign power in Precarious life: the powers of mourning and violence. We consider this interrelationship with a view to considering how this might enable us to expand our understanding of contemporary discourses governing young people within and outside Australia. In particular we focus on the production of groups of young people, such as those classified as ‘illegal immigrants’ who may be situated outside the frame of ‘public good’ or the ‘private interest’. This enables for a theorisation of the lives of groups of young people who may ‘have no definitive prospect for a re‐entry into the political fabric of life, even as one’s situation is highly, if not fatally, politicized’. It is questionable whether the Foucauldian notion of governmentality gives sufficient account of the lives of these young people whose conduct is effectively considered irrelevant by the State. As educators, it is arguable that we have an ethical imperative to encourage our students to care for themselves, and for others, especially those others whose lives have been ‘fatally politicized’.     

A ‘Multimodal Ecology of Text’ in Advanced Level English Language examinations? The incorporation of graphology and ‘embodied’ facsimile texts in unit test papers and their assessment since 2001

In this paper we compare the representation of texts in a sample of Advanced Level English Language examination papers set over the past decade in order to explore the changes in ‘what constitutes English and its assessment’. Prior to the year 2000, texts used in most A Level Language examination papers were usually typeset in a word processed format stripped of original font, layout, accompanying images, and colour, and devoid of the material marks of the texts' ‘history’ and materiality. From 2001, the texts for AQA B examination papers¹ have been reproduced in facsimile form to include the original graphology used. This shift in production in the materiality of embodiment has led to a corresponding shift in assessment in the codes of recognition of what constitutes English text, and what counts as English response. The sample of texts that we discuss present an ‘ecology of text’ and an ‘ecology of texts and literacy practices’ on a ‘continuum of multimodality’: from the heavily edited, word processed, linguistically circumscribed texts of the 1990s examination papers, through to the more visually‐dependent texts of 2004 with their manner of writing, typographic detail, colour, and sometimes even complete with creases and stains. Taking a multimodal approach to these texts, we discuss the implications of this change for what is being required of students analysing texts for examination assessment and more broadly for the subject ‘English’ ‐ ‘what English is’. We also consider how this shift problematizes the English work of students, teachers, examiners, and the institutions in which these agents operate.     

What (a) to do about ‘impact’: a Bourdieusian critique

This paper presents a research‐based, theoretically‐informed contribution to the debate on ‘impact’ in educational research, and specifically a response to Gardner's 2011 presidential address to the British Educational Research Association. It begins by discussing the development of the research ‘impact’ agenda as a global phenomenon, and reviews the current state of debate about ‘impact’ in the UK's Research Excellence Framework. It goes on to argue that a radical alternative perspective on this agenda is needed, and outlines Bourdieu's sociology—including his much‐neglected concept of illusio—as offering potential for generating critical insights into demands for ‘impact’. The term illusio in particular calls us to examine the ‘stakes’ that matter in the field of educational research: the objects of value that elicit commitment from players and are ‘worth the candle’. This framework is then applied first to analyse an account of how an ESRC‐funded project that I led was received by different research ‘users’ as we sought to generate impact for our findings. Second, it is used to show that the field of educational research has changed; that it has bifurcated between the field of research production and that of research reception; and that the former is being subordinated to the latter. The paper concludes by arguing that, despite many educational researchers' commitments to ‘make a difference’ in wider society, the research ‘impact’ imperative is one that encroaches on academic freedom; and that academics need to find collective ways in which to resist it.     

A gaggle of raging grannies: the empowerment of older Canadian women through social activism

This article explores a particular expression of social activism by older Canadian women to consider its implications for later life learning. ‘Older women’, despite their heterogeneity, have tended to be pathologized as a part of the ‘problem’ of ageing and languishing welfare societies—i.e. stereotyped as passive recipients of welfare and healthcare services. Yet, they can also be seen as part of the ‘answer’ to the challenges societies like Canada face. Given the combination of a greying population and the growing tide of citizens' participatory democracy, it is timely and important to shed light on older women's social activism. Based on document analysis and fieldwork with the Raging Grannies in Canada, this qualitative case study examines the influence of activism on women's later life learning and development from an interdisciplinary perspective including adult development, critical gerontology, women's studies and psychodrama. Analysis focuses on the Grannies' motivations, the strategies they employ in their activities and the process of learning and changes they say they undergo. Themes emerging from document analysis, interviews and participant observation of 15 Grannies in Ontario are divided into three categories: (1) ‘Raging Grannies’ as a self‐defined social role; (2) the Grannies' dual‐layered mask strategies; and (3) their collective identity and sense of empowerment. These do much to explain the successes of Raging Grannies' activism as a social movement, which fosters older women's creative energy, critical awareness and self‐assurance despite their physical and psychological problems in later life. Implications of the Raging Grannies' movement help us reconsider current trends in later life learning, which tend overlook the needs and abilities of women in the third age.     

Designing a user‐friendly microcomputer‐based laboratory package through the factor analysis of teacher evaluations

In this study we analyse how the experiences of chemistry teachers on the use of a Microcomputer‐Based Laboratory (MBL), gathered by a Likert‐scale instrument, can be utilized to develop the new package Empirica 2000. We used exploratory factor analysis to identify the essential features in a large set of questionnaire data to see how our previous MBL package, Empirica for Windows 4.0, looks from the point of view of experienced chemistry teachers. Together, a six‐factor solution explained 50.1% of the common variance and indicated the teachers' perspective on the use of a MBL package in chemical education. The factors were: ‘Versatility of the tool’, ‘User interface’, ‘Data presentation’, ‘Data acquisition’, ‘Set up’, and ‘Usability’. Based on the data, some conclusions concerning the software development and desired new features in the prototype software are discussed in the framework of each factor.     

From Students to Consumers: reflections on the marketisation of Portuguese higher education

A progressive attempt to replace traditional public administration values and concepts by others that are closer to private management can be observed in the replacement of the service user concept by that of consumer or client. This redefinition's more implicit or explicit intent is to increase consumers'/clients' status, their capacity to choose and make rational choices in the market, and, ultimately, to ensure that organisations fulfil their needs. Influenced by this tendency, higher education institutions (HEIs) also started to see students as clients or consumers and to influence their choices by trying to define HE demand. This is evident in the shift in their external communication strategies: ‘institutional information’, based on HEIs' prestige, is being progressively replaced by ‘marketed information’, based on economic consumer logic. In trying to understand how students are perceived by Portuguese HEIs, we undertook qualitative research based on the content analysis of undergraduate degrees' announcements in newspapers. Major findings evidence that their content: (1) can be classified in a continuum bounded by two poles: the use of ‘institutional information’ and the use of ‘marketed information’; (2) show the presence of a social representation of students as clients or consumers; (3) seems related to HEIs' nature (public vs. private), positioning in the HE system (universities and polytechnics) and ‘symbolic capital’ (traditional vs. new institutions).     

Of All Studies,Study Your Present Condition: Essay Review of Denis Dutton's The Art Instinct: Beauty,Pleasure, and Human Evolution (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009)

In this review I will assess the validity of Denis Dutton's provocative argument for Darwinian aesthetics. In The Art Instinct Dutton draws on the insights of Darwin and the evolutionary psychologists Geoffrey Miller and Steven Pinker to analyse art as the product of evolution. Pinker asserts on the dust cover that ‘this book marks out the future of the humanities – connecting aesthetics and criticism to an understanding of human nature from the cognitive and biological sciences' and that ‘Dutton has made a bold and original contribution to this exciting new field’. Miller's opinion of The Art Instinct is noticeable by its absence. In his review of The Art Instinct, arts academic Richard Hickman concludes: ‘for educators, if we accept that young people have an “art instinct”, then it is incumbent upon us to ensure that this instinct is nurtured and developed’. I agree. My aim is to critically assess Dutton's contribution and speculate about how it might inform future directions in educational research.     

Rhythmic nootechnics: Stiegler,Whitehead, and noetic life

Abstract

In Taking Care of Youth and the Generations, Bernard Stiegler develops an account of the pedagogical responsibilities which follow from rhythmic intergenerational flows, involving the creation of milieus which care for and pay attention to the future, toward the creation of nootechnical milieus. Such milieus are defined by their objects of attention: intellectual life, spiritual life, and political life; taken together: noetic life. Such is the claim Alfred North Whitehead makes when arguing that the sole object of education is life and the creation of an art of life which is itself a rhythmic adventure.

The purpose of this paper is three-fold. First, to clarify the importance of Stiegler’s reading of Aristotle’s notion of the noetic soul in our thinking about the role, purpose, and function of educational institutions in relation to intellective, spiritual, and political life. In this paper, I will fuse this discussion with a Whiteheadian approach to rhythm, developing what I call a ‘rhythmic nootechnics’ in the service of ‘nootechnical evolution’ as, I argue, Whitehead’s approach to rhythm allows to clarify and enrich Stiegler’s reading of Aristotle. Second, and as indicated, to explore the relationship between Whitehead and Stiegler, insofar as the former has become an increasing reference point for the latter, but this relationship remains unexplored in the literature. Third, to apply this concept of ‘rhythmic nootechnics’ to think about what transformations at the level of pedagogy and politics are necessary to reinvent the university from this Stieglerian and Whiteheadian perspective.