Translation and its discontents: key concepts in English and German history education

Key terms and concepts are crucial tools in teaching and learning in the disciplines. Different linguistic traditions approach such tools in diverse ways. This paper offers an initial contribution by a monolingual Anglophone history educator in dialogue with German history educators. It presents three different scenarios for the potential of translation between German and Anglophone research communities. In the case of Geschichtsbewußtsein or ‘historical consciousness’, the Anglophone field has already been enriched by the introduction of a new concept over the past decade. In the case of the fundamental group of concepts – ‘source’, ‘evidence’, ‘trace’ and ‘account’ – the Anglophone field is shown to be in surprising disarray, but clarification is within reach. German history education researchers may have a similar need; if so, perhaps they can benefit from the English language discussion. In the third case, that of Triftigkeit or ‘plausibility’, the German field is poised, again to make a significant contribution to a gaping hole in the theory, research and practice of Anglophone history education.     

Primary humanities: a perspective from Wales

ABSTRACT

How the humanities subjects are represented in primary schools in Wales has been influenced by curriculum developments including Curriculum Cymraeg, the Skills Framework and the Foundation Phase. A central tenet of Welsh Government policy has been to actively encourage schools to promote a sense of ‘Welshness’ through curriculum content, pedagogies and school policies. In addition, early years’ education has been extended to 5–7-year olds and at Key Stage 2 skills and competencies are priorities, with subject content providing the context for learning. In 2015, the Donaldson Review’s recommendations were fully implemented in the Government’s plans for a new 3–16 Curriculum for Wales to be fully implemented by 2021. Humanities became one of six Areas of Learning and Experience (AoLE) with the curriculum content to be developed by an all-Wales partnership team which includes the Pioneer Schools’ network. This article traces the post devolution build-up to this latest ‘radical change’. It suggests that for stakeholders developing the humanities curriculum the challenge will be considering how the key concepts of different ‘subject pedagogies’ are represented, while fulfilling the Government’s emphasis on early years’ pedagogy and its focus on a competency-led curriculum.     

The intersection between perceived severity and frequency of being bullied: a Rasch measurement approach

School bullying has been investigated by looking at either the frequency of bullying or the perceived severity of being bullied. However, the relationship between these two constructs needs further clarification. The aim of this study was to clarify the connections between the frequency and the perceived severity of being bullied for bullying intervention and prevention, and examine gender differences in these two constructs. The participants consisted of 1423 secondary school students in southern Taiwan. The 21-item School Bullying Scales with Frequency and Severity were administered. Using Rasch analysis, the two subscales of frequency and severity were aligned on the interval logit scale to yield four quadrants. Results showed that the two latent traits derived from the two subscales had a weak correlation (r = ?.11). Some bullying behaviours, including ‘one’s friendship being ruined’, ‘belongings taken without permission’, ‘being hit and kicked’, ‘being spoken ill of in public’, and ‘being ostracised’, were perceived as the most severe and most frequent behaviours. Boys reported to be more frequently bullied than girls were, whereas girls perceived bullying to be more severe than boys did. It was suggested that bullying behaviours perceived as higher severity and frequency deserve greater attention.     

Primary humanities – a perspective from Northern Ireland

ABSTRACT

The word ‘humanities’ does not appear in the current Northern Ireland Curriculum (NIC). Geography and history are taught within an Area of Learning called ‘The World Around Us’ which also contains science and technology. The curriculum has a strong emphasis on an integrated, ‘connected learning’ way of teaching and learning. Religious Education is a separate subject that stands alongside, rather than within, the NIC, and the curriculum also includes a new Area of Learning – ‘Personal Development and Mutual Understanding’. The distinctive content and modes of teaching which the humanities subjects tend to encourage ought to be seen as particularly important in Northern Ireland – a part of the UK which has endured a complicated past and remains to a large extent segregated, both socially and educationally. This complicated past means that there is often wariness and reluctance on the part of teachers towards tackling controversial personal and social issues in the primary school.     

Clarifying Values in Schools

This article defends an approach to the clarification of values by schools which involves ‘reflexive evaluative enquiry or action research’ rather than an abstract or ‘armchair’ approach. An analysis is offered of the implications for this activity of the context of ‘market choice’ in which it must now be undertaken.     

Translation and its discontents II: a German perspective

International cooperation in history teaching and related teacher education requires clarification of terminology as well as of underlying concepts and theoretical foundations, since these levels are fundamentally intertwining. If these levels are addressed, both comparison and translation do not only make cooperation possible, but promise valuable contributions to the clarification of such concepts on either side. Being the German counterpart to the viewpoint of Peter Seixas, this article both corroborates and adds to his reflections. Three complexes of theory and terminology are addressed: ‘Geschichtsbewusstsein’ (‘historical consciousness’) with special regard to the concept of ‘Sinnbildung’ in Jörn Rüsen’s theory, the German focus on the concepts of source (‘Quelle’) compared to the Anglosaxon concept of ‘evidence’ and the challenges posed by translating Jörn Rüsen’s concept of ‘Triftigkeiten’ (plausibility) as a criterion for assessing the quality of historical statements.     

‘Invisible’ teachers of literacy: collusion between siblings and teachers in creating classroom cultures

The promise to raise literacy standards significantly at age 11 in economically disadvantaged areas has been an important part of the present British Government's educational policy. Integral to this promise has been the introduction of official home/school ‘contracts’ or ‘agreements’, which oblige parents to engage in specific literacy activities with their children. However, evidence from a longitudinal study of family literacy practices in East London suggests that family and community members other than parents might play a crucial role in initiating young children into literacy. Siblings particularly have been found to be efficient ‘teachers’ of school literacy practices. In this paper, I investigate particularly ways in which an unspoken collusion takes place between teacher and older sibling revealed during ‘play school’ sessions in Bangladeshi British households in East London.     

Representing education 1969–80: notes on ‘Kes’ and ‘Grange Hill’

Focusing on the Working Men’s College (WMC), this study charts the chequered fortunes of a Victorian project: providing workers with a ‘liberal education’. The paper analyses the project’s aim (making ‘better citizens’), its disciplinary content (the humanities and/or the sciences) and its challenges (the increasing prestige of vocational studies). It argues that, in an increasingly professionalised society, a ‘liberal education’ for workers became contentious ground. As the role of the sciences within a ‘liberal education’ diminished, and the provision of practical skills took precedence in the local-authority-funded courses, Victorian workers’ opportunities for education became polarised between ‘useful’ sciences and ‘profitless’ humanities. With natural scientists losing the intellectual independence of their discipline to technicians, the WMC Edwardian educators chose to side unequivocally with the humanities. The paper contends that it was in the Edwardian context of the adult education movement that the ‘two cultures’ debate first emerged in Britain.     

Singapore’s educational policy through the prism of student voice: recasting students as co-agents of educational change and ‘disrupting’ the status quo?

This paper examines the implementation of Singapore’s landmark policy, ‘Thinking Schools, learning Nation’ (TSLN), in developing ‘thinking students’ through the prism of student voice. In the context of twenty-first century education and the growing importance of student voice in education, this paper argues that the time might be right to ‘disrupt’ Singapore’s education status quo and incorporate meaningful student voice in education policies. Instead of perceiving students as mere subjects of educational policy enactment, and seeing policy as something that is done to them, it should be reconceptualised as something which is done with them; importantly, students should be recast as key co-agents of educational change, consistent with TSLN’s reconceptualization of learners as ‘thinking students’. Basing its arguments on findings from a qualitative case study of students’ perceptions and schooling experiences of critical thinking in TSLN, this paper considers the case for the inclusion of significant student voice in Singapore’s educational policy reforms. It fills gaps in research on student voices in Singapore’s educational reforms and TSLN’s research from students’ perspective. The paper suggests that the inclusion of student voice in educational reform might be the next landmark step in ‘disrupting’ its educational landscape after the ‘big bang’ of TSLN.     

Meritocracy through education and social mobility in post‐war Britain: a critical examination

After the Second World War, education in advanced capitalist societies has been perceived as the main ‘saviour’ of the meritocratic ideal. In this paper I will investigate some of the implications of the lasting emphasis that has been placed upon education in Britain, in the pursuit of a more just and equal society. Initially, I will present two main strands of thought vis‐à‐vis meritocracy. I will then show how these different approaches have shaped the pertinent debate. The main line of reasoning will be that the ‘meritocracy through education’ discourse can potentially conceal inequalities and injustices in contemporary market‐driven British society. This contention will be supported by evidence from social mobility research, which clearly indicates that the expansion of educational provision and the increase in educational qualifications of the past 60 years has done little to eliminate social class differences and associated privileges.     

The Future Starts in the Past. The Loss of the Spiritual Centre of the University

Discussion on the crisis in/of the humanities and in/of the university institution has in the past decades become ubiquitous. The surge of literature on the subject strongly suggests that the problem is a genuine one. However, the variety of explanations that have been offered not only have brought along confusion, but the majority of these explanations also neglect the historical development of higher education. As such, they tend to underestimate the scale of the problems affecting the humanities and higher education. This article seeks to investigate an alternative explanation that takes into consideration the history of the changing ‘value’ of humanities within higher education. In doing so, the legacy of postmodernism is considered and the idea of a ‘spiritual centre’ of the university and its relation to the humanities is put forth and explored. The article concludes with some contemplations on a possible way out of the current crisis in the humanities and in higher education.     

Deterritorializations: Putting postmodernism to work on teacher education and inclusion

This paper presents an overview of the elements which characterize a research attitude and approach introduced by Michel Foucault and further developed as ‘studies of governmentality’ into a sub‐discipline of the humanities during the past decade, including also applications in the field of education. The paper recalls Foucault's introduction of the notion of ‘governmentality’ and its relation to the ‘mapping of the present’ and sketches briefly the way in which the studies of governmentality have been elaborated in general and in the context of research in education more particularly. It indicates how the studies of governmentality can be related to a cartography of the learning society, a cartography which helps us to get lost and to liberate our view.     

Move over Rover! An essay/assay of the field of educational management in the UK

UK educational administration scholars have undertaken a survey to redefine the field of knowledge in educational management and/or administration. In responding to the resulting corpus of work, I argue that that this is an exercise in ‘turf talk’. I draw on theorizations of the socio-spatialities of fields of knowledge to consider educational management and/or administration and its border scuffles with policy sociology and the exclusion of debates about knowledge and truth claims that characterize the ‘new humanities’. I suggest that the lack of regard accorded the situated empirical and practical knowledges of practitioners, and the invisibility in the analyses of the active role of head teacher professional associations in the current context, places the academy in an adversarial position vis-á-vis practitioners. As government moves to make research ‘more useful’, and positions academics as training providers and management consultants for head teachers, I propose that educational management and/or administration scholars must move over to share ground and dialogue with the emerging head teacher profession.     

High quality in primary humanities: insights from the UK’s school inspectorates

ABSTRACT

The school inspectorates of the four jurisdictions of the UK are sources of evidence about the quality of humanities teaching, learning and curriculum in primary schools. The term ‘humanities’ usually refers to the subjects of geography, history and Religious Education, but here they are considered holistically, not separately. Discrete subject and inter-subject humanities inspection reports are used to identify what inspectors report to be high-quality practices in this curriculum area. Six themes are presented, which reveal that: the best humanities curricula are based on subject and cross-subject ideas and connections, with subject learning clearly visible; flexible but rigorous approaches to planning enable progression in children’s learning; strong teacher–child and teacher–humanities relationships reflect teachers’ evident enthusiasm, commitment and expectations; teachers use a diverse range of approaches and resources; active and enquiry-based learning approaches engage children in developing their studies; and strong humanities leadership and explicit emphasis in school development priorities underpin high-quality primary humanities. These features reflect the skills and qualities of expert primary teachers.     

Language and content ‘integration’: the affordances of additional languages as a tool within a single curriculum space

‘Language across the curriculum’ has been pivotal in establishing a knowledge base on the role of language for accessing opportunities afforded by the curriculum. Yet, the ubiquity of language within all facets of human activity – not least of all the more abstract domains of thinking and relating with others – can easily obscure its perceptibility as an object for research relative to other priorities; especially when the curriculum focus is directed towards content-oriented areas, such as mathematics or the humanities. This paper uses an ecological framework to consider the place of language when the teacher’s focus is not solely on language, or content, but is equally attentive to both through a relatively new approach to theorizing learners’ non-native language within the curriculum: content and language integrated learning. In particular, it critically examines the notion of ‘integration’ as a pedagogical assumption for working with language in curriculum domains by focusing on teachers’ perceptions of the affordances of language as a meditational tool within the classroom space. Findings raise new implications for understanding the role of language(s) within the curriculum, and are significant for addressing the needs of a changing, globalized student demographic where the presence of multiple languages will increasingly shape learners’ engagement with the curriculum.     

The Normative Dimensions of Teacher/Student Interaction

The asymmetrical structure of educational attainment has been documented widely. The main unresolved problem in educational research now is to explain the process by which this occurs (i.e. the process of social reproduction). In this research, all students in government secondary colleges in Tasmania were asked to nominate teachers who had been ‘especially helpful or encouraging’. A teaching style questionnaire was issued subsequently to all teachers (n = 505) receiving two or more nominations. Also, the top 25 teachers were interviewed. The results show that the teacher/student relationship is critical in facilitating the ‘educational process’, that this relationship is based on the reciprocal expectations (norms) of students and teachers, and that ‘effective’ teachers use specific techniques in establishing their relationships with students. The research is based on an innovative technique of quantifying the qualitative aspects of these norms or ‘working models’. The results suggest that training effective teachers requires more attention to the nature of the relationship between teachers and students. An effective relationship with students can be achieved using a variety of ‘role destructuring’ techniques.     

(Re)theorising laddish masculinities in higher education

In the context of renewed debates and interest in this area, this paper reframes the theoretical agenda around laddish masculinities in UK higher education, and similar masculinities overseas. These can be contextualised within consumerist neoliberal rationalities, the neoconservative backlash against feminism and other social justice movements, and the postfeminist belief that women are winning the ‘battle of the sexes’. Contemporary discussions of ‘lad culture’ have rightly centred sexism and men's violence against women: however, we need a more intersectional analysis. In the UK a key intersecting category is social class, and there is evidence that while working-class articulations of laddism proceed from being dominated within alienating education systems, middle-class and elite versions are a reaction to feeling dominated due to a loss of gender, class and race privilege. These are important differences, and we need to know more about the conditions which shape and produce particular performances of laddism, in interaction with masculinities articulated by other social groups. It is perhaps unhelpful, therefore, to collapse these social positions and identities under the banner of ‘lad culture’, as has been done in the past.     

Why do Chinese postgraduates struggle with critical thinking? Some clues from the higher education curriculum in China

There has been a good deal of research into the problems Chinese postgraduate students studying in English-speaking universities face with regard to critical thinking. This project is an attempt to tackle this issue from a new perspective. It aims to explore how a unique aspect of the university curriculum in China – the so-called ‘four treasures’ (four compulsory modules of political thought taken by all Chinese undergraduate students: ‘The Fundamentals of Marxism’; ‘Maoism and Chinese Characteristic Socialism’; ‘The Outline of Modern Chinese History’; and ‘Moral Thoughts, Legal and Civic Education’) – influence Chinese students in terms of their political and cultural values. It will trace the emergence of this programme and offer a content analysis of the curriculum. The study also uses focus groups to investigate how the Chinese postgraduate students regard their undergraduate courses in China. This article will argue that the higher education curriculum in China, which is heavily regulated by the state, has become one of the main obstacles preventing Chinese undergraduate students from developing independent and critical thinking, particularly in the arts, humanities and social sciences.