Justice,belonging and trust among Israeli middle school students

Contending that justice experiences at school transmit messages about the wider society and affects students' attitudes and behaviour, we investigated the effects of students' sense of distributive and (school) procedural justice on their sense of belonging to school and on their social and institutional trust. The study was carried out among about 5000 eighth and ninth graders in a national sample of 48 middle schools in Israel in the 2010–2011 school year. The two‐level data—individual and school—were analyzed by HLM7 (Hierarchical Linear Model). Findings basically support our hypotheses: sense of distributive justice, especially, with regard to teachers'–students' relation positively affected students' sense of belonging and their trust in people and formal institutions; and school (aggregate) sense of procedural justice added to these positive effects. However, these attitudes were also dependent on sectorial affiliation (Jewish secular, Jewish religious, Arab), which explained a considerable portion of between‐school variation in student attitudes.     

Intrinsic Goods and Distributive Justice in Education

What is the relationship between the fair distribution of goods in general, and the intrinsic, or distinctive, value of educational goods in particular? In this article, Christopher Martin and Tal Gilead argue that clarifying this relationship has significant importance for educational justice, and they aim to accomplish this by focusing on questions of resource allocation. In particular, the authors draw on Michael Walzer's theory of “spherical” justice in order to argue that intrinsic goods are important enough that they should be of normative concern for any theory of educational justice. That is to say, a conception of educational justice that takes distributive relationships seriously should account for how the nonpositional values of education are served by resource allocation, and not only socioeconomic or other positional goods. However, Martin and Gilead also claim that such a pluralist theory of educational justice should not open the door to educational policies and practices that are plainly “antiegalitarian.” They address this concern by proffering a distinction between, and criteria for adjudicating, legitimate and illegitimate judgments of justice that aim to protect or promote intrinsic educational goods.     

Dewey's Conception of Interest and its Significance for Teacher Education

Many teachers in teacher education programs are cursorily introduced to Dewey's ‘epochmaking’ ideas on interest and effort through discussions based on the need for child‐centered pedagogies that utilize students' interests. Unfortunately, this strategy often tacitly encourages teachers to over‐rely on students' interests. In this paper, I recommend a way of introducing Dewey's conception of interest that avoids the common pitfall of over‐reliance on students' interests. I argue that if we focus on the changes Dewey made to the expression of his philosophy during a seventeen‐year period, we can help illuminate the force of his theory while protecting against unfortunate misinterpretations.     

Understanding Young Children's Three‐Dimensional Creative Potential in Art Making

This article explores aspects of young children's three‐dimensional development in art making. Understanding young children's three‐dimensional awareness and development is often a neglected area of early childhood educators' education and practice and often children's creative potential is not fully realised. The present article is based on a small scale qualitative study which focused on understanding 5–6 year‐olds' representational intentions in three‐dimensional artworks, understanding of visual/design concepts and expressive use of media (scrap paper and mod roc). The findings of the study suggest that young children are able to create satisfying three‐dimensional representations giving emphasis on forms, uprightness, balance, movement and modeling of multiple sides.     

Should Students Have to Borrow? Autonomy,Wellbeing and Student Debt

The orthodox view on higher education financing is that students should bear some of the costs of attending and, where necessary, meet that cost through debt financing. New economic realties, including protracted economic slowdown and increasing austerity of the state with respect to the public funding of goods and services has meant that the same generation who have to borrow the most in order to attend face significantly fewer employment prospects upon graduation. In this context, is the current approach of shifting the costs of post‐secondary education from the general public to individual students justified? Most debate on the issue has focused on the demands of distributive justice within the modern higher education system and on the whole accepts the idea that students ought to pay. I argue that distributive arguments alone are insufficient because they tacitly endorse the provision of higher education as being much like a consumer's choice. As an alternative, I explore the place and importance of higher education in supporting personal autonomy as a central liberal democratic value. I then argue that debt financing of higher education places unreasonable constraints on student's choices with respect to the kind of democratic citizens that they would otherwise aspire to be. This constraint has negative implications for the wellbeing of individual students and the larger society.     

Teachers and tolerance: Discriminating diversity dispositions

Abstract

Prevailing values of equity and social justice are increasingly espoused in the mission and policy statements of public institutions, organizations, and agencies. In higher education, teacher preparation programs are considered to be key contributors to the cultivation of mores of inclusiveness, where diversity is embraced and appreciated in its multitude of forms. The purpose of this qualitative study was to examine the diversity dispositions of a group of preservice and inservice teachers participating in a multicultural education course at a university in the deep southern region of the United States. Data were collected in the following ways: (a) autobiographical accounts that participants compiled and shared; (b) responses to abbreviated biographies in an online discussion forum; (c) face‐to‐face discussions of issues related to goals of equity, tolerance, and social justice in schools; and (d) instructor observations of participants' interactions with each other. The research revealed that in the electronic forum the teacher candidates and practicing teachers were particularly candid in reflecting upon and revealing their cultural roots, perceptions, and experiences and validated many—but not all—‐peer self‐reports of marginalization. Three major diversity dispositions emerged in the data analysis: (a) cultural consciousness, (b) intercultural sensitivity, and (c) commitment to social justice. The study also illuminated the challenge inherent in critically examining and sharing diversity dispositions when considering issues of discrimination, prejudice, and segregation in a multicultural setting. Although limited in scope and generalizibility, the findings provide insights into ways of framing tolerance sensibilities and for improving educators' capacities to reassess candidates' diversity dispositions.     

‘Ahead of all Beaten Tracks’: Ryle,Heidegger and the Ways of Thinking

The purpose of this article is to examine two philosophical accounts of thinking—yet examine them anew by considering what I take to be their under‐examined relationship. These are the accounts of Gilbert Ryle and Martin Heidegger. It is often supposed that these two philosophers belong to differing, even conflicting, philosophical traditions. However, this article will seek to demonstrate that an unrecognised affinity exists between them on account of their shared endeavour to venture ahead of the ‘beaten tracks’ of Modern Philosophy. In this way, I will seek to challenge a number of preconceptions that inform the way these thinkers are interpreted and utilised by philosophers of education—particularly preconceptions about Ryle that appear to be active in much ‘thinking skills’ literature. Through exploring certain under‐attended‐to aspects of Ryle's work (including his early essays on phenomenology and his later reflections on the nature of thinking) this article will seek to offer a renewed investigation into these two philosophical accounts of thinking, in terms of both their limitations and the ways of thinking they open.     

组织成员之间物质利益公平分配的理据与策略选择

在组织可供分配的物质利益有限且短缺成为常态的情况下,组织必须注重物质利益分配的公平公正,避免因分配不公而引起人员激励受挫。由于成员之间物质利益的公平分配主要体现在外部公平、内部公平和绩效公平。因此,组织可以采取重视其他组织物质利益分配的水平和标准、采用科学的职位评价方法、建立和实施绩效管理系统等策略,有效增进成员的公平感。     

Rising from the Ashes: the Michigan Memorial Phoenix Project and the corporatization of university‐based scientific research

A plethora of books and articles have appeared recently that announce the global triumph of corporate capitalism and its attendant ideologies. Nowhere are these articles more scathing in their critique of corporatization than in the field of education. However, few have taken a historical perspective in examining the institutional policies and practices that paved the way for private‐sector influence and the adoption of business and administrative sensibilities in higher education. This article examines the University of Michigan (U‐M) between 1945 and the early 1960s as a case study of the kinds of physical and philosophical changes that occurred to usher in the process of corporatization at a major research university. I focus predominantly on one major research effort‐‐the Phoenix Memorial Project‐‐that set in motion many of the forces that would effectively reshape the school's philosophy and practices. The article begins with a discussion of the ideological and political tensions that characterized the course of U‐M scientific research after World War II, particularly the complex intermingling of university, government and corporate interests. Next, I document the Phoenix Project itself and the emphasis on institutional restructuring for capital investment that it inspired. Despite conflicting and contradictory ideas about links between education and both military and corporate research interests, U‐M's top administrators restructured the university to attract venture capital by constructing innovative mechanisms for integrating investors’ needs into the work of academic (mostly scientific) inquiry. Finally, I want to look at some of the cultural narratives that enabled this triumph of corporate interests to infuse itself into the U‐M's institutional and social mission.     

Common Problems,Different Solutions

The provision, in most industrialized democracies, of public funding for schools that differ from the state system in religion or pedagogy has the effect of encouraging philosophical diversity and school-level decision making alongside a substantial degree of curriculum alignment and with various forms of government protection for the interests of at-risk pupils. Each has found its own way to balance between autonomy and accountability, between freedom and justice; this article reflects on the particular balance point adopted by Denmark, France, and Spain.It is not often that American policymakers interest themselves in how other countries organize their educational systems. Now and then, it is true, the public is warned that American students fare poorly by comparison with those in many of the other industrialized nations, and there have been some valuable studies of classroom practices in Japan and elsewhere that could be—but seldom are—suggestive for American educators. All in all, though, American debates about education occur in a sort of vacuum, and it is common for the future teachers in my classes at Boston University to protest that circumstances in this country are so unique that we have nothing to learn from other countries and their educational systems.     

Up or down and out? A systemic analysis of young people's educational pathways in the youth justice system in England and Wales

Many young people in the youth justice system in England and Wales are educationally marginalised and systemic barriers to their engagement with education persist. This article presents an analytical framework for understanding how education and youth justice practices shape young people's educational pathways during their time in the youth justice system with the aim of understanding the systemic dynamics that encourage or impede young people's engagement with education. It draws on data from a case study of 32 young people who were serving either a community or a custodial sentence under the supervision of one youth offending team in England and Wales. Using as analytical starting points Bourdieu's and Wacquant's conceptualisations of competing dynamics within the ‘bureaucratic field’ of state governance and Hodkinson's careership theory, this article discusses the interplay between exclusionary and inclusionary interests operating within and between the agencies of education and youth justice and the extent to which they play a role in sustaining young people's involvement in education or compounding their educational and social marginalisation.     

The Gender Equity Expert Panel: A Dissemination Model

Poor white children, often with roots in Appalachia, can present puzzling and intractable challenges for the multicultural educator. These students are not considered in multicultural textbooks, yet they face language and dialect issues, low educational attainment, under-representation in curriculum, and negative cultural stereotypes. This article details the history, language, dialect, and school experiences of marginalized ethnic Whites; explores problems inherent in representation related to race, class, and marginality; and discusses action research on pre-service education intended to strengthen teachers' perception of the special problem of marginalized Whites. This work highlights the importance of problematizing and expanding “basic” categories and terms such as “black,” “white,” “urban,” and “rural” to consider important differences of experience—an imperative in an education profession committed to diversity and social justice.     

Educational Justice,Epistemic Justice,and Leveling Down

Harry Brighouse and Adam Swift argue that education is a positional good; this, they hold, implies that there is a qualified case for leveling down educational provision. In this essay, Ben Kotzee discusses Brighouse and Swift's argument for leveling down. He holds that the argument fails in its own terms and that, in presenting the problem of educational justice as one of balancing education's positional and nonpositional benefits, Brighouse and Swift lose sight of what a consideration of the nonpositional benefits by itself can reveal. Instead of focusing on education's positional benefits, Kotzee investigates what emphasizing education's nonpositional benefits would imply for educational justice. Drawing on recent work in social epistemology, Kotzee holds that theories of educational justice would benefit from a consideration of the virtue of epistemic justice, and he outlines solutions to a number of problems in the area from this perspective.     

Schooling and social justice through the lenses of Nancy Fraser

This review essay draws on Nancy Fraser's work as featured in Adding insult to injury: Nancy Fraser debates her critics to explore issues of schooling and social justice. The review focuses on the applicability and usefulness of Fraser's three-dimensional model for understanding matters of justice in education. It begins with an overview of the principles of economic, cultural and political justice as they are reflected in specific examples of equity and schooling policy and practice. This is followed by (1) a consideration of Fraser's concerns that current forms of identity politics are reifying group identity and displacing matters of distributive justice and (2) with an account of her concerns about the political justice issues of representation and misframing in the contemporary global era. With reference to the sphere of Indigenous education, the review examines some of the problematics involved in pursuing distributive, recognitive and representative justice. Fraser's ‘status model’ is presented as a way through these problematics because it engages with a politics that begins with overcoming status subordination rather than with a politics of group identity. Against this theoretical backdrop, the final section of the review briefly considers some of the future challenges for schooling and social justice.     

Statutory assessment of the class? Supporting the additional needs of the learning context

The dialogue of this paper operates at two levels. First, it seeks to rethink the various perspectives on social justice evident in the academic literature, reviewing what is collectively known about it and where current thinking is taking and/or should be taking us. Second, it reports on research concerning the schooling of students with disabilities or, more accurately, research concerning the practices of teachers in relation to the inclusion of students with disabilities within ‘mainstream’ classrooms. These two discussions come together through their collaborative interest in recognizing social justice when they ‘see’ it; the data from the research are used to inform the theory it illustrates and the theory is used to explain teachers' practices. In this critical sense it is more than a dialogue, with its parts dialectically related. The paper's critique also extends to questioning whose interests are served (and whose are not) by various social justice perspectives and their applications to schooling. It concludes that ‘a critical theory of social justice must consider not only distributive patterns, but also the processes and relationships that produce and reproduce those patterns’ (Young 1990: 241).     

An intervention study to enhance girls' interest,self‐concept,and achievement in physics classes

Many interest studies have shown the decline of students' interest in physics during secondary education, particularly among girls. Research into physics‐related interests of students suggests applying different measures to reduce or reverse that trend such as: (a) suggesting curricular changes that do justice to the specific interests and experiences of girls, (b) improving the ability of teachers to support girls in the development of a positive physics related self‐concept, and (c) changing to an organizational setting that gives girls a better chance to improve their self‐concept about physics. The purpose of this study was to examine whether these hypothetically effective measures lead to an improvement of the situation for girls when implemented in the physics classroom. The intervention took a whole school year of some 60 one‐hour lessons and comprised 12 experimental and 7 control classes of seventh graders (age about 13). Their immediate and long‐term achievements, as well as their change of interest in physics, their subjectively experienced competence, and their physics‐related self‐concept were assessed by written tests at various stages of the intervention. The intervention proved successful and significantly improved most of these indicators for girls (and boys) in the experimental group. © 2002 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 39: 870–888, 2002     

The Lived Experiences of LGBTQQIAA Advocates in Education

Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, questioning, intersex, asexual, and ally (LGBTQQIAA) students are not commonly discussed in teacher education programs. Issues related to LGBTQQIAA learners need to be addressed in schools and in teacher education programs. Extant research shows that LGBTQQIAA students often face hostile school climates, with few resources and little support, which can lead to higher levels of absence and truancy, lower levels of academic achievement, and numerous negative health outcomes. This article uses autoethnographic methods to examine the experiences of an activist group working with preservice teachers, teacher educators, and other social justice advocates on a long-term service project for undergraduate teacher candidates aimed at increasing recognition of and giving voice to K—12 LGBTQQIAA students' experiences. Issues related to agency and resistance are addressed, and implications for teacher preparation programs are discussed.     

Factors Influencing M.S.W. Students' Interest in Clinical Practice

This study utilizes linear and log‐linear stochastic models to examine the impact that a variety of variables (including graduate education) have on M.S.W. students' desires to work in clinical practice. Data was collected biannually (between 1992 and 1998) from a complete population sample of all students entering and exiting accredited graduate programs of social work in California (n = 5,793). The influences of past practice experiences, professional motivations, socio‐demographic characteristics, ideological affiliations, and education and training experiences while a graduate students were all examined. Findings suggest that there is tremendous commonality in the variability of interest toward doing clinical practice among all student groups both before and after the completion of graduate studies. Male and female students, students of varied ethnic, social class and political identifications/affiliations, along with students of varied ages did not differ in their desire or interest to engage in clinical practice. The desire to prepare for private practice had the strongest influence—that was maintained over the course of their education—on students' interests in clinical social work. Desires to work with the poor were not associated with students' desires to be clinicians who wish to apply their trade across a wide variety of problems and populations.     

The Religious Education Association in Our Global Reality

The article identifies international cases—from the United States, Europe, and the United Nations—of an emergent interface of religion, education, and security. This is manifest in the uses of religion in education to counter religious extremism, the notional “counter terrorist classroom.” To avoid an over-association of extremism with religion, the article provides some historical reminders that the post-Enlightenment centuries were marked by political extremism, particularly in the phenomenon that came to be known as totalitarianism. In freedom-espousing doctrines on all sides—Communist, Fascist, and Nazi as well as democratic—education here too was an invariant adjunct of political and security processes. All regarded religion too as contributory or contrary to such freedom. What is new now is the global use of religion in education for political and of late security purpose. Using Isaiah Berlin's (2002) “two concepts of liberty,” I argue that evidence of—often subtle, often explicit—security uses of religion in education mark in new ways a connection of the political with the religious. Although such moves are in intention benign, I conclude that political and security interventions and justifications for religion in education will inevitably shift the aims and purposes of religious education to the aims and purposes of political and security interest.     

Levinas and an Ethics for Science Education

Despite claims that STS(E) science education promotes ethical responsibility, this approach is not supported by a clear philosophy of ethics. This paper argues that the work of Emmanuel Levinas provides an ethics suitable for an STS(E) science education. His concept of the face of the Other redefines education as learning from the other, rather than about the other. Extrapolating the face of the Other to the non‐human world suggests an ethics for science education where the goal of pedagogy is peace with each other and the world through the rupture, eros and justice that arises from openness to the demands of the world. Understanding the infinite responsibility of the invocation presented by the face of the Other radically reconceptualizes science education from STS(E) towards an E‐STS curriculum of responsiveness that critically employs the said of modern science and opportunities of experience to enable the next generation of citizens to act in peace to what the world is saying.