Seeing one another as “other”

In this paper, the authors discuss two complementary life history research projects investigating prospective teachers' identities in relation to their race and social class. Drawing on the experiences of one student from each study, they show how both whites and students of color primarily thought about one another as “others”—people who fundamentally differed from one another and whom they understood through preconceived ideas about a group. The authors draw on a Bakhtinian notion of how a “surplus of sight” enables one to develop understandings of an “other” and also of oneself.     

Exploring gender roles’ effects of Turkish women teachers on their teaching practices

The purpose of this study is to investigate how gender roles of women teachers affect their practices in the classrooms. Participants in the study were 75 female teachers working in elementary schools in Adana, Turkey. Findings indicated that gender roles of women teachers have important effects on their educational practices. Women teachers explained how their gender roles affect their profession mostly in terms of “also being a mother” in both positive and negative directions. The main points in teachers’ explanations were “being a mother and a spouse”, “stress”, “close relationships with students and parents” and “lack of authority and issues of confidence”.     

Preparing LGBTQ-allies and combating homophobia in a U.S. teacher education program

Interns in a US teacher education program were surveyed regarding their attitudes towards diversity, particularly issues of sexuality, their feelings of “cultural competence” around diversity, and the repertoires of practices and resources they feel prepared to draw on in their work with middle and high schools students (11–18 year olds). Analysis of course materials provided insight into distinctions between anti-homophobia and LGBTQ-ally stances among students. Extensive semi-structured interviews with 7 students explored these issues in more depth, documenting their sense of preparedness and cultural competence, where locate and how they identify “useful experiences in learning how to teach LGBTQ youth, and the concerns they face in their work against heterosexism and homophobia in schools.     

Teaching imaginary children: University students’ narratives about their Latino practicum children

This study investigates the dialogic processes involved in how teachers talk about their students and what consequences their ways of talking (i.e., “narratives”) may have for their guidance. We take a sociocultural perspective on learning as transformation of students’ subjectivity. Teaching, as a process of guiding and facilitating learning, cannot be effective if the teacher does not actively seek how the student perceives and understands reality. We borrow and adapt from Bakhtin (1999) four narrative ways of talking about others: objectivizing, subjectivizing, problematizing and finalizing. The presence of these narratives in web discussion postings of our pre-service teachers about the Latino children they worked with in a community center are analyzed. We then compare their ways of talking about children with print- and web-based discussions about children made by in-service teachers, model teachers and our pre-service teachers in a school-based practicum. Using mixed quantitative and qualitative methodologies, we found an overwhelming predominance of objectivizing and finalizing in our pre-service teachers’ narratives about the children with whom they work that seems to define a certain pedagogical regime that we call here “teaching imaginary children/students.” This “way of talking” about children seems to be characterized by unchecked speculations guiding instruction that are not tested by finding out from the children themselves how they understand the instruction and the world. These speculations, in turn, can lead to a dogmatic approach towards children.     

Proving “The Girl Effect”: Corporate knowledge production and educational intervention

The Nike Foundation, the philanthropic arm of Nike, Inc., seeks to prove the “The Girl Effect,” its theory of change, through investments in adolescent girls in the Global South. The foundation defines it as the “unique potential of 250 million adolescent girls to end poverty for themselves and the world.” This article examines the elaborate, yet continually contested processes of attempting to prove “The Girl Effect.” It draws on ethnographic research in the U.S. and Brazil (2009–2010) to analyze how the Nike Foundation funds, produces, and distributes knowledge on the purported potential of particular adolescent girls to end poverty. It focuses on how the monitoring and evaluation practices of one grantee in Brazil were informed by and contributed to the foundation's broader project of proving “The Girl Effect.” The analysis explains how this occurred through processes of knowledge production and educational intervention that were predicated on an epistemological understanding of the trope of “Third World girl.” It provides insights into how the foundation extends it power and authority over new bodies, institutions, and geographies by asserting itself as an expert on adolescent girls and by influencing the development agendas of more powerful global institutions.     

Clickers in college classrooms: Fostering learning with questioning methods in large lecture classes

What can be done to promote student–instructor interaction in a large lecture class? One approach is to use a personal response system (or “clickers”) in which students press a button on a hand-held remote control device corresponding to their answer to a multiple choice question projected on a screen, then see the class distribution of answers on a screen, and discuss the thinking that leads to the correct answer. Students scored significantly higher on the course exams in a college-level educational psychology class when they used clickers to answer 2 to 4 questions per lecture (clicker group), as compared to an identical class with in-class questions presented without clickers (no-clicker group, d = 0.38) or with no in-class questions (control group, d = 0.40). The clicker treatment produced a gain of approximately 1/3 of a grade point over the no-clicker and control groups, which did not differ significantly from each other. Results are consistent with the generative theory of learning, which predicts students in the clicker group are more cognitively engaged during learning.     

Beacons of light,rays, or sun catchers? A case study of the positioning of literacy teachers and their knowledge in neoliberal times

This paper reports on a case study of a “lead literacy teacher” initiative in one Canadian province. This initiative is related to a “minority world” trend in teacher in-service that seeks to develop “experts” in a field with the intent that such experts can help other teachers to raise student achievement for the betterment of the economy. Using a post-colonial theoretical framework that advocates for professional development premised on teacher knowledge production, the study finds that the initiative instead forwards a “train-the-trainer” model of information transmission that negates teachers' prior knowledge, experience, and practices. The study argues that for teachers to become critically reflective in their practice, they need material supports (e.g., time) to share with one another and knowledge must be allowed to flow in all directions within the educational hierarchy.     

“Free Primary Education” in Lesotho and the disadvantages of the highlands

This article explores the effects of national policies associated with “Education for All” on a disadvantaged region, the highlands of Lesotho. Since 2000 a programme of “Free Primary Education” has improved the position of the highlands in access to primary schooling; nevertheless, highland primary schools compare poorly with those in the lowlands on various indicators of pupils’ outcomes and school resources. They are also found to have relatively difficult relations with local communities. The paper reflects critically on the management of the “Free Primary Education” initiative and the implications for educational opportunity and for community empowerment in the highlands region.     

In-service and prospective teachers’ conceptions of creativity

Teachers play a crucial role in the development of primary school students’ creative potential in either a positive or a negative way. This paper aims to draw attention to in-service and prospective teachers’ conceptions of creativity and answer three main research questions: “What are the teachers’ conceptions and implicit theories of creativity in general?”, “What are the teachers’ conceptions and implicit theories of creativity in the context of primary education?”, and “How well-trained and equipped do teachers feel to play their key role in the development of students’ creative potential?” A self-report questionnaire was used as an instrument to gather qualitative and quantitative data from 132 Greek in-service and prospective teachers. According to the selected quantitative data we present in this study, the majority of the participants reported that the facilitation of students’ creativity is included in the teachers’ role, but they (teachers themselves) do not feel well-trained and confident enough to realise this particular expectation. The authors conclude that further research is needed in order to: (i) reveal more on teachers’ conceptions on creativity and (ii) understand and classify teachers’ particular needs to facilitate the creative potential of primary school students.     

Ideal versus school learning: Analyzing Israeli secondary school students’ conceptions of learning

This study explored 130 secondary school students’ conceptions of learning using an open-ended task, analyzed both qualitatively and quantitatively. Students’ reality of learning comprised two separate spheres, ideal learning and school learning, which rarely interacted. Generally, students commented more about school than ideal learning. Factor analysis of learning conception categories revealed separate “grand” categories for each sphere and some shared ones. Strikingly, students held complex, deeper conceptions of ideal learning (as self-interest/curiosity, understanding, and knowledge acquisition), but these were separate from their conceptions of school learning as merely the minimal, surface compliance necessary to survive the system by “satisficing” [Simon, H. A. (1955). A behavioral model of rational choice. The Quarterly Journal of Economics, 69(1), 99–118] – satisfying and sufficing – the teachers (grades, task completion, and active class participation). Theoretical and educational implications were discussed regarding classroom instruction to heighten educators’ awareness of students’ thinking about learning.     

Female ‘big fish’ swimming against the tide: The ‘big-fish-little-pond effect’ and gender-ratio in special gifted classes

This study takes a second look at the “big-fish-little-pond effect” (BFLPE) on a national sample of 769 gifted Israeli students (32% female) previously investigated by Zeidner and Schleyer (Zeidner, M., & Schleyer, E. J., (1999a). The big-fish-little-pond effect for academic self-concept, test anxiety, and school grades in gifted children. Contemporary Educational Psychology, 24, 305–329). The reanalysis of the data, using HLM methodology, was designed to partition individual differences from aggregate group variance, as well as to test a number of focused hypotheses regarding the effects of gender and gender-ratio in class on self-concept. With respect to self-concept, the BFLPE hypothesizes that it is better to be a good student in an average-ability reference group than to be a good student in a high-ability reference group. Prior studies explored the BFLPE comparing gifted students in different educational contexts. Here, the BFLPE was exclusively investigated within special gifted classes. Results supported the BFLPE for academic self-concept. Furthermore, whereas girls’ academic self-concept was negatively influenced by gender-ratio (percentage of boys in class), gender-ratio had no significant influence on boys’ academic self-concept.     

在做什么,抑或知道在做什么——教师的前提性反思的危机与重建

"在做什么",是在常识、熟知、甚至自明的范围中对行为的考虑与回答。一般而言,这种考虑和回答能促使教师不断地提高自己的业务能力,反思自己行为的实效;但它并不引起教师对自己行为本身更多的反思。熟知、常识和自明并不等同于真知与明晓,却往往包含着"无知"。"知道在做什么",是对自我行为本身的一种艰苦地思索,是为了真正的知道和正当地行为,表现为对熟知、流行、常识的教师行为观念的批判与反思。这是一种教师的前提性反思。它意味着教师必须具有清醒的自我批判意识,反省自己行为所隐含的"无意识的前提",理性地抵制自己成为一个积极的、无思的共谋者。但是,教师教育对效率、手段、专门化以及科学化教育理论的过度强调使其出现了危机:前提性反思变得既不必要又无可能。重建教师前提性反思,教师需要做好一种知识的准备,即在学习和教育教学实践中努力探寻并赢得关于人、幸福以及教育的整体性知识。基于此,教师教育亦是一种通识教育。     

Literacy's verb: Exploring what literacy is and what literacy does

This article considers contemporary policy claims about “what literacy is” and “what literacy does.” First, the article reviews in-depth the ways in which development discourses define literacy, and the claims made in development discourses about the “consequences” of literacy for economic and political development. I then draw on 24 months of ethnographic research in Brazil with 41 highly impoverished literacy students from four literacy programs in two cities in order to demonstrate that there is no predictable “impact” of literacy on development. Instead, I show that the opportunities afforded by literacy depend greatly on the types of literacy and the types of literacy programs made available to students, as well as students’ cultural understandings of literacy and the social, political, and economic contexts within which they attempt to assert new literacy practices. The article concludes that we should not consider literacy as an actor with some “impact”; instead, we should examine how people use literacy in ways that are conditioned by social and cultural forces.     

“You have to get hit a couple of times”: The role of conflict in learning how to “be” a skateboarder

By examining the role of conflict in learning how to “be” a skateboarder at a skate park in the United States, this article illustrates how conflicts constitute key aspects of learning and teaching within communities of practice. Specifically, this article demonstrates how the practices of “snaking” and “heckling” are used by a group of skateboarders to learn and teach spatially appropriate behavior as well as social and ideological norms regarding class and gender. In doing so, this article builds upon and critiques the concept of community of practice used within many sociocultural theories of learning.     

Catastrophes and primary school drawing course design for moral education in China

Abstract

This paper examines how drawing classes can contribute to moral education in primary schools. This paper uses class observation, interviews with teachers and students, and analysis of students’ work to highlight how the students articulate moral concerns by drawing and designing future-oriented architectures, which aims at preventing natural and social catastrophes. It suggests that the design of this drawing class provides new possibilities of doing moral education in China’s primary schools. The drawing class made possible the articulation of becoming moral subjects, which is able to integrate ‘harmony’ into the younger generation’s value system, world views and the possibilities they envision for themselves and human-nature relationships.     

“Strategy redundancy” and its impact on the effectiveness of technology-enhanced instruction: A case study

In this study, eight teachers and three college students involved in a graduate-level Internet course developed skill in using Internet tools and authoring webware materials. The course followed a traditional classroom-based format, but was supported by a webware package developed by the instructor (http://www.sover.net/~milcasa/503). A case study research methodology was utilized to investigate how the implementation of a “strategy redundancy” device, which consisted of the instructor's use of five teaching strategies and their mirroring in five of the features of the webware package, affected the participants′ learning outcomes. Qualitative and quantitative data were collected from seven sources. A causal relationship was found between the “strategy redundancy” device and the effectiveness of the course. The need to emphasize the “quality” of the teaching/ learning experience, vis-à-vis the “cost savings” value of technology tools, and the need to conciliate constructivist and instructivist learning were highlighted.     

Utilizing Federal Funds for Experiential Education: The Job Location and Development Program

The way in which the government defines financial need does not always account for the individual decisions families make when sending a student to college. Many students who do not qualify for federal financial aid must still pay for part of their educational expenses, and need a part-time job in order to do so. The Job Location and Development (JLD) program was designed to help these students find the employment they need, to pick up where federal work study leaves off. Since 1979, the MU Career Center and the Office of Student Financial Aid at the University of Missouri–Columbia have together operated a JLD program on campus that, since its inception, has helped more than 25,000 students find employment while in school. Those employment opportunities serve to not only assist students in funding their education, but also to provide students the opportunity to learn about themselves—their strengths and weaknesses, their career interests, perhaps what major they ought to choose—as well as valuable skills they can use after graduation.     

College students’ conceptions of context-aware ubiquitous learning: A phenomenographic analysis

The purpose of this study was to explore students’ conceptions of context-aware ubiquitous learning (u-learning). The students participated in a u-learning exercise using PDAs equipped with RFID readers. The data were collected from individual interviews with each of the students by a trained researcher, and the responses of the interviewees were further analyzed using the phenomenographic method. The analysis revealed five categories of conceptions of u-learning, including “u-learning as the application of technology,” “u-learning as a platform for attaining information,” “u-learning as a timely guide,” “u-learning as increase of knowledge” and “u-learning as active learning.” There conceptions are viewed as a hierarchy, from less advanced to more sophisticated. An in-depth analysis of the students’ conceptions of learning indicated that students held multiple conceptions of u-learning. This study further suggests that inquiry practices (such as allowing open-ended exploration for the learning topic) should be addressed in u-learning activities, as these practices may foster more sophisticated conceptions of u-learning.     

“童”与“军”之悖论——民国童子军发展历程探析

20世纪初,英人贝登堡创办了Boy Scout这一儿童组织,并强调"非军事化"的发展原则。民国时期,Boy Scout在传入中国后不仅被译作"童子军",其发展也自始至终存在着"童"与"军"的悖论。指出这一悖论,是为了更好地理解童子军训练本身的教育价值;对悖论何以产生的分析,又能进一步呈现童子军在中国的独特发展历程。     

浅析声乐教学中的德育渗透

道德认知、道德情感和道德行为是道德构成的基本要素和道德教育的基本环节。声乐教学中的德育渗透就是要求声乐教师通过教学过程、实践过程以及与学生的交往过程,在潜移默化中陶冶学生的道德情操,培养学生的审美情趣,开发学生的创新潜质,塑造学生的健全人格,将学生培养成全面发展的优秀声乐人才。