Black on black education 2.0: critical race perspectives on personally engaged pedagogy for/by black pre-service teachers

ABSTRACT

Public schools have increasing numbers of its teachers fitting into one demographic, white and female, while the numbers of Black/African American teachers decrease. This trend has not changed since the publication of Black on Black Education: Personally Engaged Pedagogy for/by African American Pre-Service Teachers. Furthermore, African American collegiate students who decide to enter teaching may face a chilly climate because of their cultural and educational experiences as they encounter devaluation in the classroom. This work provides a critical race reflective examination into the teaching and learning experiences and dilemmasI using personally engaged pedagogy as a means of enhancing the quality of the learning experiences for African American pre-service teachers. Critical race theory (CRT) and Critical Race Feminism (CRF) will be used as the theoretical framework for understanding the role of race and gender in teacher education. Critical autoethnography is the methodological approach used to examine the subject phenomenon. Field notes, research journaling, and student memoirs provide data for this critical autoethnography. This work highlights the significance of CRT/CRF’s unique voice of color and CRF’s multidimensionality to engaged pedagogy, creating a personally engaged pedagogy.     

The Tasks of the Class Teacher: Tradition and Renewal – An Evaluation of Development Projects Carried out in the Danish Folkeskole

This paper firstly outlines some of the problems children can experience as a result of transferring from primary to secondary school. It then goes on to describe an initiative by the West Midlands Quaker Peace Education Project, Blessed William Howard Roman Catholic School in Stafford and its feeder schools to coordinate a secondary school preparation project. This involved special training for all primary pupils about to enter the school and a group of sixth formers.     

Review essay

Culture and Pedagogy: International Comparisons in Primary Education Alexander, R. J. (2000), Oxford, Blackwell, pp.642. ISBN 0–631–22051–8 Paperback $77     

The Freirean factor

ABSTRACT

Why bother thinking about Freire today? Who cares about the accuracy or lack of it in the translation of his books? In 2018 after 50 years of the original publication of Pedagogy of the Oppressed, there is a large industry of people profiting from translating and repeating Freire’s ideas – we are well aware that this text is another small contribution to such industry – but we firmly believe that contemporary social scientists could greatly benefit from reflecting about Freire’s long-term powerful conceptual, pedagogical, and political impact, and in particular about the role of translations in the social sciences.     

Investigating Critical Friendship: Peeling Back the Layers

ABSTRACT

This self-study documents two teacher educators’ professional inquiry into the notions of critical friendship. Specifically, we asked: How does our interactive inquiry on the topic of critical friendship lead us to new understandings of critical friends? Three theoretical perspectives framed this study – More Knowledgeable Others, Thought Collective, and reflection. Data sources included (a) artifacts from the self-study scholarship/literature, (b) written and real-time (audio recorded) dialogue, and (c) critical friend response memos. We systematically analyzed our data, linking the initial themes to our theoretical frame. These themes led to three findings about critical friendship: flexible definitions, complex characteristics, and multiple learning phases. Based on these findings, we created two research tools useful for researchers enacting critical friendship – the Critical Friend Definition Continuum and the Critical Friend Guide for Quality Assurance. Ultimately, we assert that we, along with our colleagues, must be responsible brokers of critical friendship by explicitly explaining our purposes, definitions and uses of critical friendship within our work as self-study researchers.     

Mapping inclusive education within the discipline of Pedagogy. Comparative analysis of new study programmes in Slovenia

In the research in the field of inclusiveness it is often neglected how inclusiveness is constructed differently within the so-called Anglo-American and continental educational contexts. In Slovenia, the field of educational studies has historically developed within the continental, particularly German tradition, as a discipline called Pedagogy at the Faculty of Arts. Since Pedagogy is fundamentally theorising the processes of becoming a free human being and does not take a particular interest in the issues of vulnerable social groups, a complementary area of tertiary study emerged in today's Faculty of Education (e.g. Special needs Pedagogy). However, recently we can identify a trend of emerging new study programmes, the so-called inclusive education. Because of this separation between scientific fields, this paper is dealing with a question of which of the disciplines is offering a more convincing answers to the question of how to conceptualise and implement the inclusiveness. Using qualitative analyses of the concept of inclusiveness and content analyses of Slovenian study programmes and courses related to inclusive education, we attempt to show that discipline of Pedagogy provides a conceptualising of inclusiveness that is more complex through successfully interweaving the humanistic and social paradigm.     

The Race for Class: Reflections on a Critical Raceclass Theory of Education

This article is intended to appraise the insights gained from Critical Race Theory (CRT) in Education. It is particularly interested in CRT's relationship with Marxist discourse, which falls under two questions. One, how does CRT understand Marxist concepts, such as capital, which show up in the way CRT appropriates them? The article argues that Marxist concepts, such as historical classes, class-for-itself, are useful for race analysis as it sets parameters around the conceptual use of historical races and a race-for-itself. Two, how does CRT understand the role of capitalism, therefore shedding light on its position regarding the class problem? It is no doubt attentive to class power, but this is not the same as performing an immanent critique of capitalism. As a result, within CRT class achieves a color whereby class becomes a variant of race, better known as classism. Race becomes the theory with class vocabulary superimposed on it. Last, I suggest areas where CRT could combine with Marxism in order to forge a Critical Raceclass Theory of Education.     

ADORNO AND HORKHEIMER: DIASPORIC PHILOSOPHY, NEGATIVE THEOLOGY, AND COUNTER-EDUCATION

From a contemporary perspective, the work of the Frankfurt School thinkers can be considered the last grand modern attempt to offer transcendence, meaning, and religiosity rather than "emancipation" and "truth." In the very first stage of their work, Adorno and Horkheimer interlaced the goals of Critical Theory with the Marxian revolutionary project. The development of their thought led them to criticize orthodox Marxism and ended in a complete break with that tradition, as they developed a quest for a unique kind religiosity connected with the Gnostic tradition and emanating, to a certain extent, from Judaism. This religiosity offers a reformulated Negative Theology within the framework of what I call "Diasporic philosophy." In his later work, Horkheimer explicitly presented Critical Theory as a new Jewish theology. Rearticulating Critical Theory is of vital importance today, both for understanding the current historical moment and for going beyond the oppressive dimensions of Critical Pedagogy. This article does not satisfy itself by offering a new reconstruction of Critical Theory; its goal is to offer a blueprint for a Diasporic counter-education that transcends Critical Pedagogy and goes beyond the emancipatory dimensions of Judaism itself.     

批判教育学的困境与出路

批判教育学的发展面临着三大困境:为谁批判的立场困境;如何批判的风格困境;批判必要性的价值困境.只要那些处于受苦和异化环境的人存在,教育批判就有它存在的必要,批判教育学就能从困境中寻找到出路.     

Catastrophe,commemoration and education: On the concept of memory pedagogy

Abstract

Dealing with memories of catastrophes is undoubtedly important for education. Yet, how is such an education possible? On which theoretical basis can we describe it? In this article, I build a bridge between ‘Memory Studies’ and educational studies with regard to the topic of ‘catastrophe’ and thus present a provisional general theory of education, such as ‘Memory Pedagogy’ in analogy to ‘Memory Studies’. After describing the category ‘catastrophe’, I outline the basic differentiation between ‘communicative memory’ and ‘cultural memory’ in the field of Memory Studies. I will demonstrate how this basic differentiation can be connected to education through the concept of ‘Bildung’ in German philosophy. On the basis of these preliminary remarks, I highlight the potential of Memory Pedagogy by interpreting a case of catastrophe education, the project ‘Picture of Atomic Bomb’ (PAB). Based on the analysis of the PAB project, I insist that functions as a generator of communicative memory concerning catastrophes through education. Additionally, I point out that the transition from communicative memory (kommunikatives Gedächtnis) to cultural memory (kulturelles Gedächtnis) in the meaning of Jan and Aleida Asmann can also be observed in the PAB project.     

A Willingness to Fail: Reflections on the 2018 Religious Education Association Conference

Abstract

The 2018 Religious Education Association (REA) meeting, Beyond White Normativity: Creating Brave Spaces shed light for many on the failure of the REA to effectively confront the reality of white racial bias within its systemic and structural practices. This essay reflects on four specific ways these challenges emerged during the 2018 session and highlights strategies for how the association might continue the effort to address explicit and implicit racism in its midst.     

Educational Dreams and Political Realities

This paper addresses key themes in a new book of posthumously published writings by Paulo Freire, Daring to Dream: Toward a Pedagogy of the Unfinished (Paradigm Publishers, 2007). The paper comments on the structure and content of the book and places it in the context of Freire’s wider corpus of published works. Particular attention is paid to the relationship between critical dreams and educational realities, and consideration is given to the ongoing relevance of Freirean ideas in the contemporary world. Critical Notice of Daring to Dream: Toward a Pedagogy of the Unfinished, by P. Freire. (2007). Boulder, CO: Paradigm Publishers.     

Lesbian and Gay Lives

Abstract

Social Work educators require effective teaching strategies to deliver Council on Social Work Education (CSWE) mandated content on lesbian and gay persons. Content must cover the dynamics of oppression and strategies to create social change. Simulations offer one useful approach in presenting such content. This article describes two simulations designed to teach about lesbian and gay persons and how to make social change efforts on their behalf. An analysis of the effectiveness of these simulations is discussed along with recommendations for their use.     

The Great Education Reform Bill 1988 ‐ some issues and implications

The article explores some of the wider policy issues and concerns raised by the 1988 Education Bill, in particular the implications of the Bill for control over schooling. There is a brief discussion about the main aspects of the Bill's proposals as they affect schools. The paper then moves on to consider the extent to which the Bill gives power both to the Secretary of State for Education and to parents and school governors, whilst removing power from Local Education Authorities and teachers themselves. It is pointed out that the proposals will make long term educational planning and policy implementation across a range of schools very difficult. The paper concludes by questioning whether all the intentions of the Bill will be realized but notes that opposition to the Bill has not really fully taken on board alternative strategies for improving the quality of education.     

Religious Education: Race,Dreams, and the Guild

Abstract

Introducing dreams of new centers for the guild, this article responds to the 2018 Religious Education Association's annual conference, "Beyond White Normativity." After remarks on embedded whiteness within religious education, I ask, "Can people of color be the center of the guild?" There is an opportunity if the guild focuses on love (specifically self-love for people of color) for a radical transformation of its practices, activities, behaviors, and dreams for religious educators of color and the guild. Can the nightmares caused by white systems of power be turned into dreams for scholars of color to experience love and community?     

Student engagement and inclusive education: reframing student engagement

Engagement, or student engagement, is widely used in educational research and public discourse to refer to the problem of public education. The underlying ontological and epistemological assumptions buoying engagement are rarely, if ever, addressed by educational researchers. The ‘silent omission’ (Sidorkin 2014. “On the Theoretical Limits of Education.” In Making a Difference in Theory: The Theory Question in Education and the Education Question in Theory, edited by Julie Allan Gert Biesta and Richard Edwards, 121–137. New York: Routledge) of engagement’s metaphysics has implications for inclusive education. This paper finds that despite being employed with good intent, engagement operates in a paradigm of normativity. In a gesture of bifocality (Weis and Fine 2012. “Critical Bifocality and Circuits of Privilege: Expanding Critical Ethnographic Theory and Design.” Harvard Educational Review 82 (2): 173–201), I critique engagement discourse and its historical context to find that it reproduces a longstanding tradition of psychologising public problems (Fine and Cross 2015. “Critical Race, Psychology and Social Policy: Refusing Damage, Cataloguing Oppression, and Documenting Desire.” In Contextualizing the Costs of Racism, edited by A. Alvarez and H. Neville. Washington, DC: APA Publications), thereby displacing conversations about what may be the most influential issue of public education: social and economic inequality. A reframing of engagement as [student/teacher] engagement is proposed. Highlighted in the reframing is the educational relationship and the context in which it is nested. Mitigated is the pathologising and exclusionary effect of engagement discourse which operates within a dialectic of normal/engaged // ab/normal/disengaged.     

We are not social justice equals: the need for white scholars to understand their whiteness

Abstract

This article presents White social justice archetypes identified applying extended case study methods over 6 years at two Predominantly White Institutions (PWIs) in the USA. Primary data collection was conducted during public departmental and program meetings, supported by meeting minutes and the documentation of counter White-hegemonic narratives through critical incident journaling. White scholar social justice archetypes were interpreted applying Critical Whiteness Studies (CWS) and Critical Race Theory (CRT) lens to conversational and metaphor analysis using Witnessing–Interpreting–Knowing protocols. This research is in response to a growing number of White scholars, entering the field of CRT, identifying as ‘Crit’ social justice scholars without using CRT as a lens to interrogate their role in perpetuating White Supremacist ‘racial ideology in the composition and culture of American Institutions [i.e. Higher Education]’) .     

A sociocultural perspective on mediated activity in third grade science

This ethnographic study of a third grade classroom examined elementary school science learning as a sociocultural accomplishment. The research focused on how a teacher helped his students acquire psychological tools for learning to think and engage in scientific practices as locally defined. Analyses of classroom discourse examined both how the teacher used mediational strategies to frame disciplinary knowledge in science as well as how students internalized and appropriated ways of knowing in science. The study documented and analyzed how students came to appropriate scientific knowledge as their own in an ongoing manner tied to their identities as student scientists. Implications for sociocultural theory in science education research are discussed. John Reveles is an assistant professor in the Elementary Education Department at California State University, Northridge. He received his Ph.D. from the University of California, Santa Barbara in 2005. Before pursuing his Ph.D., he worked as a bilingual elementary school teacher for 3 years. His research focuses on the development of scientific literacy in elementary school settings; sociocultural influences on students' academic identity; equity of access issues in science education; qualitative and quantitative research methods. Within the Michael D. Eisner College of Education, he teaches elementary science curriculum methods courses, graduate science education seminars, and graduate research courses. Gregory Kelly is a professor of science education at Penn State University. He is a former Peace Corps Volunteer and physics teacher. He received his Ph.D. from Cornell in 1994. His research focuses on classroom discourse, epistemology, and science learning. This work has been supported by grants from Spencer Foundation, National Science Foundation, and the National Academy of Education. He teaches courses concerning the uses of history, philosophy, sociology of science in science teaching and teaching and learning science in secondary schools. He is editor of the journal Science Education. Richard Durán is a Professor in the Gevirtz Graduate School of Education, University of California, Santa Barbara. His research and publications have been in the areas of literacy and assessment of English Language Learners and Latino students. He has also conducted research on after school computer clubs, technology and learning as part of the international UC Links Network. With support from the Kellogg Foundation, he is implementing and investigating community and family-centered intervention programs serving the educational progress of Latino students in the middle and high school grades.     

教育学教学模式的批判与重建

教育学是师范院校的一门必修课,它对培养合格的教师具有重要的作用。但实际上,大多数师范生对教育学并不重视,教育学对这些准教师也没起到应有的作用,其中原因是多方面的,针对教育学教学中存在的问题,重点关注教育学教学模式的改革,以期改进教育学教学,推进高师院校教育学课程改革,使其成为一门让高师学生真正受益的学科。     

Concepts of peace education: A view of western experience

Approaches to the theory and practice of peace education are as varied as the situations across the world in which it is undertaken. Against a framework established by the Peace Education Commission of IPRA, current trends in the conceptualization and experience of peace education (from a Western view-point) are considered and reveal (1) acceptance of ‘development’ with ‘justice’ and ‘human rights’ as integral to the concept of peace; (2) emphasis on the psychological as well as socio-political, economic and structural conditions that maintain present injustices and oppressions; (3) renewed efforts to try out innovative educational approaches to a variety of learning situations, from the pre-school to adult formal and non-formal settings; (4) new concern about the materials, content and techniques of learning; and (5) fresh examination of the inter-relationships between theory and practice, research and action. Analyzing a number of conceptual approaches to peace and disarmament education, the authors support a political, participatory strategy and set it in a historical context. Hence, its connection with development education and the significance and implications of a global perspective are demonstrated. The global perspective is seen as a growing-point for peace education today, providing the potential for political consciousness and action.