John Wilson’s confused ‘Perspectives on the Philosophy of Education’

In his ‘Perspectives on the Philosophy of Education’ John Wilson laments the confusion that surrounds the current state of the philosophy of education. Unlike other branches of philosophy, he claims, it is not clear what the philosophy of education is about, and a snapshot of current work in the field reveals its lack of coherence. To remedy this he advocates starting ‘from scratch’: the philosophy of education is to be understood as a discipline concerned with the logic of value judgements and focused on questions of learning. While the present paper acknowledges the extent of Wilson’s contribution to the field, it draws attention to the confusion in the position that he holds, and shows that his assessment of the current state of the philosophy of education is both inaccurate and politically blinkered. In the process, the paper challenges his account of the philosophy of education as a branch of philosophy and offers a more coherent characterisation.     

‘In-between’ Asia and Australia: on the politics of teaching English as the ‘Other’

This article mobilizes story-telling to narrate my lived experience of teaching English as a minority academic in one Australian university. Positioning myself as living ‘in-between’ two cultures and as an ‘Other’, I tell my story of how I have been ‘racialized’ and ‘Othered’ because I do not look White, and my spoken English is distinctly accented; hence, my legitimacy of teaching English is held suspect. My story contributes to the theorizing of the sociology of the in-between with the argument that while living in-between culture can be a space of negativity, it can also be a space of empowerment if one exercises choice and agency by forging new spaces. I end my story-telling with a happy ending by presenting a contrasting story of how my run-away from Australia to (a new space in) Hong Kong to teach English has reaffirmed my cultural capital as I morph into a different ‘Other’.     

The ‘McDonaldization’ of Higher Education: food for thought?

Abstract

Having completed its reform of the schools and colleges of further education, government is now set to reform higher education. At issue here is higher education in Scotland, but the analysis has wider applicability. It operationalises Ritzer's concept of ‘McDonaldization’, and the latter's dimensions of efficiency, calculability, predictability, and control (both formally bureaucratic and informally fraternising). The analysis is set in relation to the government's earlier educational reforms, particularly of further education, and argues that its plans for higher education are of a piece. All this is related to current economic and cultural change: that is, to the fiscal pressures on the welfare state, and to the emergence of post‐modern culture. In conclusion, it is argued that policy for higher education will come to express what Charles Jencks has called (in relation to architecture) ‘double‐coding’: a mix of the bureaucratic form of modernity, tempered by appeals to post‐modern culture.     

The Role of Religious Higher Education in the Training of Teachers of Russian ‘Orthodox Culture’1

This article provides an ethnographic account of the tensions arising from the different ways of building authority as teachers and the role of higher education in establishing teachers' legitimacy in Russia through the specific example of religious education. After state atheism was abandoned in 1991, an unprecedented demand for religious knowledge appeared in Russia, in particular in relation to Russian Orthodoxy. Since the Russian context of Orthodox education lacks shared standards, there is considerable latitude in the criteria determining norms and rules. Seeking to increase its influence, the Russian Orthodox Church aspires to have Orthodox catechism taught in a systematic way both in parishes and in secular schools. In practice, the Church is encouraging professional pedagogues to submit their curriculum proposals that would be suffused with Orthodoxy and at the same time be eligible for adoption in all settings and institutions. Thus, in order to educate teachers of religion, the Church has made available multiple, diverse sources of religious knowledge (self-learning, various courses offered by the eparchies, Spiritual Academies, and other institutions of higher education). But the legitimacy of these sources is often questioned, for instance by asking whether the institution that delivers diplomas of religious higher education has been granted formal state recognition. The teachers' quest for being acknowledged as competent technicians of religious education leads to competing claims for the authenticity of the sources of their training.     

Boys' ‘underachievement’ and the feminization of teaching

In England, Scotland and other countries, policy‐makers often depict the targeted recruitment of men to the teaching profession as a panacea for male underachievement and disaffection from school. It is commonly assumed that the gender gap in achievement stems from the dearth of male role models in teaching, especially at primary level. Giving particular attention to recent literature on the influence of teacher gender on classroom interaction and educational outcomes, the paper begins by scrutinizing the policy's evidence‐base. We move on to examine the findings of a qualitative study conducted in English primary schools. Drawing upon data from semi‐structured interviews with teachers of 7‐ to 8‐year‐olds (25 men, 26 women), an attempt is made to assess their responses to the policy of targeted male recruitment and perceptions of the benefits of same‐gender matching. The paper (an earlier version of which paper was presented at the European Educational Research Association's Annual Conference at the University of Ghent, September 2007) concludes by tentatively exploring the implications of this small‐scale study for policy and practice.     

Higher Education and the Graduate Labour Market: The ‘Class Factor’

This article reviews the literature on the experiences of working‐class students at different stages of the student life cycle. It examines the factors influencing their participation rates in higher education (HE), their ability to adapt to university life, and their success in the graduate labour market. The article argues that without radical policies that fundamentally change the relationship between social class and pre‐HE qualifications, significant progress in widening participation is unlikely.     

Factors Impacting on Students’ Readiness for Higher Education

This article reports on a study that examined the readiness levels of students in the South African context. Particularly, the study explored the differences between various students’ academic proficiency, support mechanisms, motivational levels and overall integration with the university. A quantitative approach was used and 117 full-time first-year National Diploma in Human Resource Management students from the Nelson Mandela University (formerly known as Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University) participated in the study. This study therefore focused on one student cohort at a particular higher education institution (HEI). The findings revealed that a combination of cognitive and non-cognitive variables influences student readiness and success. Even though HEIs have implemented interventions, the level of student readiness remains low. It was noted, however, that students who scored high on the variables were more likely to succeed in higher education.     

An Empirical Analysis of the Development of China’s Higher Vocational Education

Abstract

After more than 20 years of practice and construction, China’s higher vocational education has developed into an important educational category and become an important force in the development of China’s higher education. But in the course of this development, higher vocational education is facing problems such as excessively fast development, weak content building, severely inadequate investment, and uneven regional development. Therefore, the government must create a policy environment suitable for the equitable development of higher education, establish fair education spending policies, strongly promote the balanced development of regional higher vocational education, and strive to strengthen basic capabilities for quality projects.     

University Lecturers’ Experiences of and Reflections on the Development of Their Pedagogical Competency

In this paper, we investigate university lecturers’ experiences of and reflections on the development of their pedagogical competency during a 9-month university pedagogical course. The effects of long-term university pedagogical training are considered through experienced pedagogical competency by analysing university lecturers’ evaluations of and reflections on their pedagogical competence areas during the course. Data was gathered from 31 participants using a self-evaluation questionnaire and reflective writings, and analysed using a mixed-methods approach. The results show that the participants experienced significant development in their pedagogical competency. However, it became evident that the concept and practice of reflection is not clear, especially in different disciplines. In addition to the number of credits of the training, the design, and the long timeframe of the pedagogical training, the context in which the training is put into practice, as well as the social aspect of reflection, need to be taken into consideration.     

Further Education of Higher Education Graduates — the More,the Better?

In times of rapid technological and organisational change, it is argued that lifelong further education becomes more and more important for labour market success. Especially in labour market segments for the highly qualified, it is essential to constantly update one's qualifications. This is reflected in the finding that graduates with tertiary education are closely involved in further training measures at the beginning of their life courses. Almost all take part in at least one further training measure in the first five years after graduation. The further education strategies of higher education graduates, however, vary greatly in terms of frequency of participation, duration of measures, financing of the measure and the type of skills acquired. Using a German graduate panel which traces a sample of graduates up to five years after they obtained their degree in 1997 (HIS Absolventenpanel), we analyse which of these strategies are most successful in terms of wages. Using random effect panel models, we find — controlling for a variety of other factors — that the frequency of participation in further education only has a significant positive influence on male graduates' wages. Moreover, it is mainly measures paid exclusively by the employer and courses directed at personality development, i.e. management skills, which have substantial wage premiums.     

Education and the Contested Meanings of ‘Global Citizenship’

This article examines the oftentaken-for-granted educational policy and curricular discourses of globalization and global citizenship within their larger cultural, political, and economically uneven histories and unequal consequences. Drawing upon evidence from recent scholarship on the implications for classroom pedagogy embodied inefforts to internationalize curricula in the North American university contexts, as well as specific related efforts in one Canadian context, the University of British Columbia,this article unpacks the contested meanings of global citizenship from above and below.The author analyzes three dominant curricular discourses of global citizenship. Far from weakening the Canadian state and building instances of transnational democratic educational communities, these dominant discourses may actually reinforce notions of Canadian gendered and racialized nation-building and nationalism. The article raises questions about what an alternative curricular and educational policy discourse from below premised upon efforts to decolonize curricula might look like. By way of provisional conclusion, the author discusses some promising examples of such an alternative,showing how they depend on seeing the relations between the local and global neither as fixed abstractions nor as a slogan system to be applied in absolutist racial, geographical,national, or culturally essentialist terms.     

China’s Strategy for the Internationalization of Higher Education: An Overview

Over the past decades, the internationalization of higher education in China has had considerable achievements, and has contributed to the current transformation of the Chinese system into one of the largest and arguably most promising ones in the world. Setting the Chinese experience in an international context, this article assesses the latest developments. It argues that China’s internationalization of higher education is part of a much larger process of cultural integration between China and the West. From this perspective, it concludes that although China’s recent developments deserve to be noted, China has a considerable distance to go before its aspirations to create truly world-class universities are fulfilled.     

‘Things change but names remain the same’: Higher Education Historiography 1975–2000

This is an analytical survey of the history of higher education – primarily but not exclusively in England – as written in the last quarter of the twentieth century. It examines the history of liberal education, of the rewriting of the history of Oxford and Cambridge, and of nineteenth‐ and twentieth‐century institutions. It addresses new methodologies and data, and the search for more comprehensive and less parochial and antiquarian approaches to the history of institutions. It examines how accounts of new sectors of higher education and national agencies relate to social hierarchies and developments. It includes discussion of the contribution of non‐historians to the history of higher education. It concludes that historical writing has firm roots in historians’ contemporary environment. Bibliographical sources are suggested, and the references themselves constitute a bibliography of the historiography of the period.