“Fully Equal to That of Any Children”: Experimental Creek Education in the Antebellum Era

During the 1840s and 1850s, members of the Creek Nation rejected schools as a colonial tool and instead experimented with various forms of education to fit their own local and national needs. Diverse individuals and communities articulated educational visions for their nation in conversation with fellow citizens, national leaders, and U.S. educators. Rather than embrace education to assimilate into the American republic, Creeks turned to schools and English literacy as one strategy to shape their own society and defend it from further Euro‐American colonial policies. By the end of the 1850s, they had established a fledgling national school system consisting of both neighborhood and mission schools. These institutions reflected and reinforced changes in race, class, gender, culture, and religion in the antebellum Creek Nation.     

Miners,diggers, ferals and show‐men: school–community projects that affirm and unsettle identities and place?

Many contemporary sociologists suggest that a feature of modern life is that the practices and identities associated with ‘place’ are eroded. The local no longer matters in everyday life as it once did. Some national governments are persuaded of the possibility of an urban dystopia of Orwellian dimensions, and have found a response in theories and rhetorics of social capital, citizenship and communitarianism. They have instituted strategies to address an imaginary of harmonious local communities. In this paper I examine one such government intervention and show how four schools in Tasmania, Australia, took up the invitation to strengthen ties with their local communities. The projects reveal that the local still exists and matters, but they also hint at other possibilities. I argue that by working with a ‘place‐based’ curriculum to assist young people in building local networks and engaging productively with their local neighbourhoods, schools might provide important resources for identity‐building and learning.     

English as a global language and the question of nation‐building education in Bangladesh

The national language Bangla (Bengali), which is spoken by 98% of the people, is foundational to the nation of Bangladesh as a nation. Language played a crucial role in the struggle for independence from Pakistan which was finally successful in 1971. The medium of instruction in state‐provided basic education is Bangla. Nevertheless, as in the colonial period a significant part of the elite is educated in English medium schools and subject to British‐determined curriculum and assessment. English medium private education carries the highest prestige, and the private sector is dominant in secondary education. The role of English is now being enhanced by globalization, which threatens a cultural recolonization of Bangladesh, and by World Bank strategies designed to promote the private school sector. The article discusses these problems and explores elements of a language policy that might be able to enhance both Bangla literacy and competence in English.     

Chinese and English: primary school cultures in Singapore

The culture of a school informs every aspect of its operations. The shortest and most common definition of culture is ‘the way we do things around here’. The methodology to depict the culture of a school has been debated, especially as to whether questionnaires can be used. This study examined the cultures of two primary schools in Singapore using a variety of means, incuding a questionnaire. One school has a history and is popularly perceived today as ‘Chinese'; the other is seen as ‘English’. Differences in teacher culture were found between the two schools and to a lesser extent between the English‐medium and Chinese‐medium teachers within a school. Overall a process of national homogenisation was found, driven largely by frequent examinations common to all schools. The questionnaire used provided a wealth of impressionistic data but needs to be modified to address leadership style directly.     

Discourses of antagonism and desire: marketing for international students in neighbourhood schools

This paper explores the consequences of these discourses for the ways that international students are identified and positioned within school communities. My argument is developed in four sections. The first describes my ongoing exploration into the impact of international student programmes in Australia. The second exemplifies my argument: exploring the day‐to‐day experiences of vice principals in two Victorian government state secondary schools as they market their schools, and examining the systemic and ontological discourses played out within those conversations. The third interrogates discourses of identity and difference, neo‐liberalism and naïve cosmopolitanism which I find shape teacher conversations about international student programmes. In the final section, I argue that the impact of the discourse formations implicit in teacher talk about international student programmes has been the objectification of international students and their ambivalent inclusion within the school community.     

Walking on egg shells: the significance of socio‐cultural factors in the mentoring of primary school students

In this article I present evidence based on primary student teachers' accounts about the way in which socio‐cultural factors in placement schools affected the quality of their experiences. I examine the proposition that school culture has a significant impact upon performance, and that the strain of adjusting to school values and expectations can lead to stress and loss of confidence for a significant minority of students. I suggest that effective mentoring needs to take close account of students' socialisation into the school culture, as failure to do so may adversely influence their teaching effectiveness and well‐being.     

An Autoethnographical Study of Culture,Power, Identity and Art Education in Post‐Colonial South Korea

This article reflects my experiences of learning art in the 1970s and 1980s and my teaching career in school art education in twenty‐first century South Korea. This autobiographical reflection shows how I have struggled with my identity as an art teacher in the post‐colonial context of Western influences on Korean society since World War II. There has been greater tension and a greater struggle for different values, practices and identities when new values and practices have been introduced into the particular socio‐cultural context of South Korea. My struggles with particular kinds of pedagogic identity valued within the rapidly changing political, economic and cultural context of Western influences on Korean art education demonstrate the hidden structural mechanism of the relationship between culture, power and identity in the post‐colonial world of globalisation. This study as an autoethnographical research provides critical insights into how identities are produced by pedagogic discourses and practices of art education that are constructed through the specific systems of practice and language which transmit and regulate such identities and values.     

Anti‐racism and the ‘New’ South African Educational Order

This article traces the desegregation of South African schools, particularly within the Gauteng region, from 1990 to 1996. It argues that there is a discernible shift from ‘race’ to ethnicity in the educational discourses of South Africa and that at school level the response to ethnicity has been predominantly assimilationist. Attempts to move towards a more multicultural way of operating are affected by conceptions of identity as stereotyped, homogenised and generalised, leading to ‘bad’ multicultural approaches being adopted. Simultaneously, within official enunciations at national level, a consistent anti‐racist stance is emphasised in order to ‘redress’ apartheid's legacies. I argue that such initiatives are limited due to their structurally functionalist underpinnings and their failure to address the complexity of identities contained within the classifications of ‘black’ and ‘white’. I argue that, on both the macro and the micro level, questions of identity and difference are central in developing a school (and societal) environment that is not only free from racism, but other forms of discrimination too.     

Speaking the culture: understanding the micro-level production of school culture through leaders’ talk

Global contexts of accountability have placed unprecedented pressure on school leaders to improve the performance of their schools. Despite recognition that leaders’ influence is mediated by school culture, few studies offer systematic examinations of culture-in-action in schools. The concept of culture remains nebulous and is frequently glossed over as being ‘messy’ in studies of school change. This paper uses tools from membership categorisation analysis to demonstrate how culture is produced at a micro-level in and through the actions of leaders in one school. My analysis shows a disjuncture between the purported values and policies of the school and the ways that school leaders through their talk construct and implement school practices, and thus the culture-in-action at their school. I argue that implementing effective change is impossible without understanding and disrupting the micro-level production and reproduction of culture in schools.     

From Anthroposophy to non-confessional preparation for spirituality? Could common schools learn from spiritual education in Steiner schools?

It has been suggested common schools might have something to learn from spiritual education in Steiner schools. This arguably assumes practice in Steiner schools to be compatible with the aims of spiritual education in common schools. I question this by considering whether the former is confessional, as the latter should not be. I begin by highlighting how my concern about the potentially confessional nature of Steiner spiritual education arose. I argue for a nuanced understanding of confessional education, which distinguishes between ‘weak’ and ‘strong’ confessional education, as well as between confessional education as intentional and as defined by outcome. I then argue that spiritual education in common schools should prepare pupils for spirituality, without being confessional. I consider whether Steiner schools are confessional by drawing upon findings from research conducted at six Steiner schools. I conclude that spiritual education in Steiner schools is weakly confessional in an intentional sense. I further conclude that practices which might contribute to preparation for spirituality and which can be implemented in a non-confessional manner are worthy of consideration for transfer to common schools. Common schools committed to preparation for spirituality as an educational aim could learn from spiritual education in Steiner schools.     

Education for Autonomy: the Role of Religious Elementary Schools

I argue that religious elementary schools whose pedagogical methods satisfy the principle of rational authority have distinctive advantages over secular elementary schools for the purpose of laying the foundations for ethical autonomy in the children of religious parents. Insights from developmental psychology bolster the argument from conceptual analysis. Before children have the cognitive capacities to engage in authentically autonomous reflection, their long‐run interest in developing autonomy is best served by developing their understanding of and provisional identity within their primary culture and by encouraging a limited form of ethical reasoning within the framework provided by that secure cultural identity.     

Young Nunga males at play and playing up: the look and the talk

This paper explores how Foucault's concept of the panopticon, power and knowledge impacts on the identity of young Nunga males in a secondary educational institution. I argue that the regulation of the Nunga body in schools is embedded in the discursive formations of knowledge about Indigenous people and the workings of power that are tied up in discipline, surveillance and management of bodies in schools. Through the Indigenous concepts of ‘play’, ‘playing up’/‘stylin’ up’, I draw attention to Nunga males' resistance to surveillance and management in the schooling environment through understanding themselves as Nungas and their performance of identity through the popular culture of rap to turn the surveillance gaze back upon itself. For young Nunga males turning the gaze back on itself is an act of constructive defiance that allows them a space to explore their own identities through performance rather than through the knowledge production constructed by the hegemonic racialised institution of the school.     

Legitimacy through alternate means: schools without professionals in the private sector

The new institutionalism predicts that professionalism is a key element of organizations’ ability to be seen as legitimate. Emphasizing the professionalism and formal credentials of its members lends legitimacy to the organization, protecting it from scrutiny. What happens when this norm of professionalism is absent? How do schools legitimate themselves, if not through professionalism? This paper examines a population of small, secular non‐elite private schools that overwhelmingly hire uncertified teachers. Using data from 60 private school principals in Toronto, Canada, I examine the ways in which private schools tap into alternate means of legitimacy. This study finds that small, secular ‘rogue’ private schools fail to invoke norms of professionalism as a means to garner constituent support and legitimacy. I argue that these schools substitute an innovative, unconventional ‘caring consumer ethos’ in place of teacher professionalism.     

Paying the price for being inclusive: the story of Marshlands

This article illustrates, through the story of one mainstream primary school, the tensions between the inclusion agenda and the standards agenda. The school is situated in an area of social deprivation and nearly half of the school population have been identified as having special educational needs. The story presented in this article illustrates powerfully the inherent injustice of the performative culture which pervades education and the effects of this discourse for children with special educational needs and their teachers. I argue that a policy change is needed to create a more equitable education system and that, in the absence of such a change, schools such as the one presented here will risk being categorised as failing schools. This will have disastrous consequences for the teachers' careers, children's self‐concepts and the inclusion agenda itself.     

‘Six packs and big muscles,and stuff like that’. Primary school‐aged South African boys,black 1 and white,on sport

This paper explores the salience of sport in the lives of eight‐year‐old and nine‐year‐old South African primary school boys. Drawing on ethnographic and interview data, I argue that young boys' developing relationship with sport is inscribed within particular gendered, raced and classed discourses in South Africa. Throughout the paper I show differences and durability of meanings across the social sites that affect and position blacks, white, boys and girls. It is argued that young boys' early association with sport is centrally about identity and doing sport, or at least establishing interest in sport is one important way in claiming to be a real boy. The findings have implications for the call by the South African Government to get the nation to play.     

Schooling as a regime of equality and reproducing difference in an Afro-Ecuadorian region

In this article I compare and contrast curricular, ceremonial and pedagogical practices with how students and teachers make sense of racial identity and discrimination at the Jaime Hurtado Academy in the city and province of Esmeraldas, Ecuador, which is the only region of the nation where Afro-Ecuadorian people comprise a majority of the population. On the one hand, I found that schooling was structured as a regime of equality, where social science textbooks make invisible the concepts of race and Blackness while school ceremonies enforced membership to the nation. In addition, I demonstrate that pedagogical practices reinforce the notion of a culturally homogenous nation by providing little space for students to interrogate important issues in their lives. On the other hand, I show through an examination of how students and teachers make sense of racial identity and discrimination that race was a significant factor shaping teaching and learning at the research site and argue that schooling practices are implicated in this process by attempting to submerge racial and cultural differences.     

Decolonization,educational language policy and nation building in plural societies: The development of Chinese education in Malaysia, 1950–1970

The two decades from 1950 to 1970 were a crucial period of educational reorganization in Malaysia that stemmed from the decolonization after the Second World War. This educational reorganization sought to address the perennial issue of nation building via educational language policy. The development of Chinese education was under severe threat as the British colonial government opted for a national school system that used English and Malay as the media of instruction in place of the segregated vernacular school system that had existed during the colonial period. Much to the relief of the Chinese, the national school system failed to materialize due to the lack of financial resources to reorganize the entire educational system. But the Chinese were unable to maintain the Chinese school system within the ambit of the national educational system advocated by the postcolonial Alliance government. The Alliance government had only allowed the Chinese to undergo Chinese education at the primary level. At the secondary level, it opted for a monolingual system of education based on Malay as the main medium of instruction in order to foster national integration through a common language. The Chinese had to switch to this medium of instruction if they wanted to remain in mainstream education. Such a system of transitional bilingual education was aimed at incorporating the Chinese into the nation building process.     

Speaking of race and ethnic identities: exploring multicultural curricula

New demographic patterns as well as new communication and information technologies and administrative and marketing practices have irrevocably altered schools in Australia's large cities. This study examines the ways that teachers and parents in one urban school speak about race and ethnicity in the midst of these changes. Beneath the ironic relationship between difference and sameness which underpins multicultural debate are different understandings that determine ways some belong and some do not belong within the school community. This paradoxical relationship persists, despite increasingly post‐modern definitions of identity that underpin the field of this debate. I conclude that the examination of multicultural curricula must include the normalized ways of knowing and ‘being’ identity, which underpin conversations about race and identity.     

以语文教学培育高职生中华民族文化认同的路径研究

在全球化的今天,浸染在网络环境下的高职生广泛吸收着各国各民族文化,但由于各种原因,他们对本民族优秀传统文化存在一定程度上的认同危机。如何提升高职生中华民族文化认同已成为职业学校亟待解决的问题,以语文教学培育高职生中华民族文化认同不失为有效路径。通过对现有语文教材内容的整合、重组及重新解读,提炼其中蕴含的中华民族文化精神或要素,建设校本化特色语文课堂;开展中华民族传统文化特色的语文实践活动;结合信息化手段,建设五年制高职语文课程中华民族传统文化资源库,以此增强高职生对中华民族文化的认同,培养热爱祖国、有责任担当的劳动者和接班人。     

论"CIS"与高职院校形象的塑造

根据CIS理念和策略,学校形象已不再是一个抽象概念,而有了具体内涵,它应该是学校内在素质和外在形态的有机结合。高职院校实践形象设计可从三个方面进行,即提炼学校精神,制定核心价值观,建构理念识别系统;创设校园环境文化独特的风景线,设计视觉识别系统;创设良好的制度文化环境,制定行为识别系统。