The Subject‐Object Transformations and ‘Bildung’

Bildung, a German pedagogical term with the sense of ‘educating oneself’, refers to some of the most complex human activities. It is constitutive for human existence, because it is related to the characteristic of meaning. Because of the great relevance of Bildung for people, education is essential for furthering it. The two purposes of this contribution are: i. to examine the structure of one main process component of Bildung, namely the process of designing an image (Bild) of the changes to be furthered in the educand, and ii. to explain this process component of Bildung. This process is theoretically structured as a subject‐object transformation, and the attempt is made to explain this from an idealistic perspective. Building upon this foundation, the article shows how the process of designing an image for Bildung can be furthered educationally.     

Residing in silence and wonder: career counselling from the perspective of ‘being’

We are approaching career counselling from the perspective of “Being”, which we recognize to be a daunting task. Nevertheless we find it extremely important that the counsellor become aware of and try to think, talk and act from his or her embeddedness in being, and by that help the client to do the same. This process involves an ontological and spiritual approach, and builds upon the Socratic ability to wonder, the meditative way of “undoing” and the artful act of creation.     

The dimensions of e-learning quality: from the learner’s perspective

The present study was designed to identify the quality dimensions as perceived by adult learners who had taken one or more e-learning courses offered by higher education institutions in South Korea and to identify and confirm the structural features of these quality dimensions. The results of the exploratory factor analysis arising from a survey of 299 learners revealed that from their perspective, there were seven dimensions in evaluating the e-learning quality: Interaction, Staff Support, Institutional Quality Assurance Mechanism, Institutional Credibility, Learner Support, Information and Publicity and Learning Tasks. And the confirmatory factor analysis with responses obtained from another set of 496 adult learners confirmed a good fit of the seven-factor model to the observed data. While most of these seven dimensions are supported by previous studies, some dimensions, such as technology support, content and evaluation/assessment that e-learning providers had highlighted did not appear to be important for Korean adult learners. Possible explanations for these findings are discussed in relation to learner characteristics, e-learning design, and culture, and further research topics are suggested.     

The Relationship between the Concepts of ‘Pastoral Care’ and ‘Authority’

Abstract

The term ‘pastor’ clearly has a religious origin and is thought of in connection with providing spiritual sustenance. Such provision must be seen in relation to some concept of authority since the pastor's job could otherwise not be done.

It is likely that the connotation of a pastor in the religious sense has been carried over to the schools, especially when it is considered that schools are traditionally structures of authority.

What is necessary is to insist upon the conceptual link between ‘pastoral care’ and ‘authority’ explicitly, so as to judge the final appropriateness of ‘pastoral care’ in schools.     

Internationalisation and the development of students’ intercultural competence

Universities’ internationalisation rhetoric suggests that students studying on internationally diverse campuses will automatically engage positively with one another and develop intercultural competence. This study examined the extent to which a cohort of first year UK and non-UK students studying on an internationally diverse campus developed intercultural competence. The Intercultural Development Inventory® (IDI®) and a locally designed survey were used to assess students’ intercultural competence and to explore their intercultural experiences over seven months. Students began almost exclusively in lower (ethnocentric) stages of intercultural development and most showed little progress despite reporting relatively high levels of intercultural contact, friends from other cultures and positive experiences. Findings suggest that even positive intercultural experiences do not necessarily lead to the development of intercultural competence and that university policy and practice may need to be enhanced if producing graduates with higher levels of intercultural competence is to become a realised outcome of internationalisation.     

Situating the ‘beyond’: adventure-learning and Indigenous cultural competence

In 2010, an Indigenous Elder from the Wiradjuri nation and a group of academics from Charles Sturt University travelled to Menindee, a small locality on the edge of the Australian outback. They were embarked upon an ‘adventure-learning’ research journey to study ways of learning by creating a community of practice with an Elder from the Ngyampa/Barkandji nation. This article first explores the implications of this innovative approach to transformative learning for professional development and for teaching and learning practice. It then reflects on the significance of location for pedagogic approaches aimed at closing the education gap between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal Australians in universities.     

The problems of authority and the want of apprenticeship in soldiers’ character development

Militaries that take a character development approach in their moral education programs but rely heavily on authority figures as subject matter experts to teach soldiers face two serious problems. First, soldiers improperly defer to their instructors and, as a result, do not understand the moral virtues taught in class. Second, instructors are in a poor position to motivate soldiers to develop character through the goal-oriented, measurable and supervised practice of specific virtues. These problems threaten character-based moral education programs because people must understand and practice the moral virtues to form good character. Building on the work of several prominent moral philosophers, I propose that militaries can mitigate the problems of authority in moral education and enhance soldiers’ character development by incorporating an apprenticeship model which leverages the mutual trust that soldiers share with leaders and peers.     

The ‘Nature of Science’ and the Perils of Epistemic Relativism

Research in Science Education - There is an increasing demand in the field of science education for the incorporation of philosophical and sociological aspects that are related to the scientific...     

The ‘outdoor school’ as a school improvement process: empirical results from the perspective of teachers in Germany

This paper focuses on school improvement processes in the context of weekly curricular-based teaching and learning activities outside the classroom – known as Draußenschule or ‘outdoor school’ – in three German primary schools. Qualitative interviews were conducted with three teachers two years after implementing the ‘outdoor school’. The teachers’ experiences show that the implementation and (ongoing) development of an outdoor school affects (1) teaching as such; (2) the school staff, and (3) the entire school as an organisation. The three areas are interlinked in different ways and the school improvement process cannot be approached from the perspective of any one area alone.     

The ‘Third Wave’: education and the ideology of parentocracy

In this paper it will be argued that we are entering a ‘third wave’ in the socio‐historical development of British education and that similar trends are also evident in the USA, Australia and New Zealand. The ‘first wave’ can be characterised by the rise of mass schooling for the working classes in the late nineteenth century. The ‘second wave’ involved a shift from the provision of education based upon what Dewey called the “feudal dogma of social predestination” to one organised on the basis of individual merit and achievement. What is distinct about the ‘third wave’ is the move towards a system whereby the education a child receives must conform to the wealth and wishes of parents rather than the abilities and efforts of pupils. In other words, we have witnessed a shift away from the ‘ideology of meritocracy’ to what I will call the ‘ideology of parentocracy’. This paper will consider the evidence to support this conclusion and examine its sociological significance.

     

Standards and assessment: coherence from the teacher’s perspective

We sought to understand how teachers’ perspectives on standards-based instructional practices, classroom assessment, and external testing do or do not show coherence and alignment. Based on survey methods (n?=?155) and interviews with a sample of secondary school teachers (n?=?9) in a large urban district in the USA, we explored general trends and individual teachers’ viewpoints. Our results suggest that the teachers’ instructional use of standards, classroom assessment preferences, and beliefs about the test-driven system are moderately correlated. Interview data provide insight into reasons teachers hold beliefs that do or do not fit well into a coherent assessment system.     

The origin of counting: A study of the early meaning of ‘one’, ‘two’ and ‘three’ among Basque- and Spanish-speaking children

This study examines the beginning of the conceptual understanding of the first number-words and what role language can play in developing the notion of numbers. To that end, 2?- and 3?-year-old Basque and Spanish monolingual children's (N = 131) basic numeracy skills are analysed by means of two different experimental procedures: Give-N (in which children are requested to gather sets of objects) and How-Many (based on the ability to count collections). The paper accounts for differences as regards the performance in the Give-N procedure between children with different linguistic backgrounds. In accordance with previous research, this finding can be related to the dissimilar ways by which languages (Basque and Spanish, in this case) express grammatical number, supporting the idea that language plays a definite role in the emergence of the earliest set-size meanings of ‘one,’ ‘two,’ and ‘three’ number-words. Eventually, the work attempts to contribute to the growing body of evidence that shows that the meaning of the count-list appears from mapping numerals onto numerical cognitive representations produced by early core systems of numbers.     

The discursive construction of the ‘competent’ learner-worker: from key competencies to ‘employability skills’1

Australian unions have adopted new organizing methods to rebuild and develop their organizations. This represents a change in direction from the commitment to partnership and tripartite planning that characterized the Accord period under the Labor governments of the 1980s and 1990s to a new focus on capacity building. A serious decline in union density along with shifts in the labour process has led unions to focus on recruiting and organizing new members. The vitality involved is tempered by a hostile legal climate that supports workplace flexibility, casualization, fragmentation and low-wage work, while curtailing the rights of unions to recruit and organize. This paper explores the common heritage between the new organizing and theories of popular education, radical history and social movement experience. The paper suggests that contemporary efforts to regenerate unions as assertive organizations that rely on developing and educating new activists and leaders can benefit from drawing on emancipatory traditions of popular education, radical history and community organizing, and in so doing avoid an uncritical adoption of what might become simply a new set of organizing techniques.     

The importance of the advisor’s relational and professional competence and formal power in meetings with farmers

Purpose: The aim of the paper is to explore how advisors’ relational and professional competence influences inter-subjectivity and farmers’ perceptions of farm visits in a setting where advisors have formal power.Methodology: Advisors from the dairy company Tine, which is owned by farmers in collaboration, visit farmers at least once a year. The aim of the visit is to assist farmers in managing the farm and to control the production conditions in the cowshed. In a case study, we attended 10 such mandatory advisor visits and interviewed both farmers and advisors.Findings: Together with advisor style, our findings show that the power relation leaves room for advisors to define their roles widely, ranging from inspector to coach. Advisors have different perceptions of what their jobs are and when they have done a good job. These differences determine the degree of inter-subjectivity and how satisfied farmers are with visits. Furthermore, advisors’ relational and professional competencies are crucial for achieving high inter-subjectivity and satisfied farmers.Theoretical implications: This paper contributes to the theory by identifying factors that influence farmers’ perceptions of advisor visits, as well as by showing the importance of the advisor’s relational and professional competence in a setting where they have formal power.Practical implications: Partly as an outcome of this study, Tine has started a process to separate the control function from farm visits. Tine has also decided to let farmers choose advisors themselves. Originality/value: The power relation in our study differs from most consultant–client interactions in the literature.     

A critical exploration of Colombian teacher education from Freire’s ‘directivity’ perspective

The paper presents an exploration of Colombian teacher education from Paulo Freire’s ‘directivity’ perspective, which involves the political notion of education and the struggle for social justice. It examines certain existing tensions in teacher education, and analyses critically their implications for the teaching profession regarding an alternative pedagogical framework and new approaches for the professional identity-formation toward teaching for social justice. The paper also discusses the challenges for education research in Colombia, a country that both dreams of education as the nation’s future and fights against its inherent sense of adversity.