Authenticity-Sensitive Preferentism and Educating for Well-Being and Autonomy

An overarching aim of education is the promotion of children's personal well-being. Liberal educationalists also support the promotion of children's personal autonomy as a central educational aim. On some views, such as John White's, these two goals—furthering well-being and cultivating autonomy—can come apart. Our primary aim in this paper is to argue for a species of a stronger view: assuming preferentism as our axiology, we suggest that there is an essential association between the autonomy of our springs of action, such as desires and beliefs, on the one hand, and personal well-being, on the other. If we are right about this link, then we have at our disposal a partial (non-instrumental) validation of the liberal ideal of autonomy.     

University students’ emotions,life-satisfaction and study commitment: a self-determination theoretical perspective

Based on self-determination theory, this study seeks to explore whether a study environment that provides relevant conditions for students’ basic psychological need-satisfaction can lead to more positive and less negative emotional experiences. It also addresses the question of how emotions experienced in the university context are related to students’ overall life-satisfaction and study commitment. German students in teacher education programmes (N = 792) participated in the study by completing questionnaires. The results (estimated by path-modelling) reveal that students’ emotions can be predicted by a variety of environmental conditions associated with different basic psychological needs. Altogether, the model is able to explain 28.5% of the variance in positive emotions and 39.6% in negative emotions. The strongest predictor of students’ positive and negative emotions was the perceived relevance of the study material, a factor related to the need for autonomy. This perceived relevance also had a direct impact on study commitment. Furthermore, positive relationships with peers proved to be of importance for positive and negative emotions as well as for overall life-satisfaction. As expected, emotions at university predicted life-satisfaction and study commitment, with a particularly strong association between positive emotions and study commitment. The results point to the necessity to support study conditions that facilitate the fulfilment of students’ basic psychological needs in order to ensure students’ emotional well-being and enhance study commitment.     

Predictors of Quality and Commitment in Family Child Care: Provider Education, Personal Resources, and Support

This study examined the personal characteristics and resources in 65 licensed family child care providers' lives that influence developmentally enhancing caregiving and professional commitment to child care. Several self-report instruments were utilized to assess providers' personal characteristics and resources. The Family Day Care Rating Scale (FDCRS: Harms & Clifford, 1989) was used to assess quality of care during morning observations at providers' homes, while the Organizational Commitment Questionnaire (OCQ: Mowday, Steers, & Porter, 1979) was adapted to assess professional commitment to family child care. Factors in providers' lives that uniquely contributed to higher levels of quality care were higher levels of formal education and training, college coursework in ECE, higher levels of psychological well-being, and higher family incomes. Common factors in providers' lives that predicted higher levels of professional commitment to child care were helpful and supportive resources for child care and higher levels of psychological well-being.     

物质主义与幸福感:基于自我决定理论的关系探析

物质主义是个体根据自身拥有的物质财产的数量和质量来界定自我概念及成功与否的一种价值观念,通常反映在对物质财富的看重程度上。自我决定理论认为,自主性、能力感和归属感这三种基本心理需要是否满足从根本上决定着幸福感能否产生。物质主义者在追求物质财富的过程中,更倾向于体验到较高的外控感,有意回避生活中的消极体验、消极事件;害怕他人消极评价,倾向于采用防御性自我呈现策略;对物质财物的看重程度远远超过对人际关系的重视程度,知觉到较低的社会支持,因而其自主性、能力感和归属感未能得到适度满足,由此体验到较低的幸福感。营造富有安全感的成长环境、关注经由基本心理需要满足带来的真实幸福和培养感恩等将有助于抵制物质主义及其对幸福感的危害。     

Values,autonomy and well-being: implications for learning and teaching in physical education

The paper focuses on the possibilities for physical education as an effective policy conduit and constructive contributor to the type of life-affirming values which are widely endorsed. After a critical review of recent well-being theorising, ideas on how values central to physical education and well-being could be coherently conceptualised are advanced. Underpinning discussion is a focus on merging subjective and objective character traits in ways which recognise the importance of pupil autonomy, time for reflection and respect for others. This is followed by a review of how such values could inform learning arrangements, where there is an added emphasis on dialogue and shared discussion, and strategies which use language to help make pupils’ reasoning more explicit. The paper concludes by highlighting how clarity on subject values coupled with pedagogical changes could help physical education articulate its benefits better during a time of heightened policy expectancy.     

大学教育中人本精神的当下审思

人本精神作为一种思想态度,其核心思想是尊重人,强调人的尊严和价值,鼓励对真理的追求。人本精神在大学教育发展历程中起到了重要而积极的作用。当代大学教育仍需追求人本精神的思想,培养出身心和谐发展的、具有时代精神和崇高理想并致力于服务社会发展的积极推动者。当代大学教育申的"人本精神"体现为:以教师为主体,以学生为中心;在管理、教学、服务中坚持以人为本,科学教育与人文教育的融合;大学自治、学术自由。     

A quantitative analysis of moral exemplars presented in moral education textbooks in Korea and Japan

This study is a comparative analysis of the characteristics of moral exemplars presented in moral education textbooks in Korea and Japan. The purpose of the study is to examine and compare moral values presented through the lives and stories of moral exemplars in the two countries that have moral education as an independent and separate subject based on the national curriculum. To this end, the study uses analytical criteria such as gender, nationality, social roles, historical backgrounds, and specific moral values in order to investigate characteristics of 307 moral exemplars in Korea’s and Japan’s most used moral education textbooks. The results show significant similarities and differences in moral exemplars between the two nations. In the case of the similarities, both countries emphasize moral autonomy and respect for human life. In the case of the differences, while Korea presents more historic figures as moral exemplars, Japan presents more students and ordinary people as moral exemplars.     

The effects of autonomy gap in personnel policy,principal leadership and teachers’ self-efficacy on their organizational commitment

School autonomy in personnel policy is important to effective personnel management. With increased autonomy in personnel policy, principals could wield their leadership to improve teachers’ organizational commitment. However, little is known about whether the given autonomy in personnel policy meets principals’ expectation and whether and how the gap in between has an effect on teachers’ organizational commitment. This research explores the effects of autonomy gap in personnel policy, principal leadership, teachers’ self-efficacy and school contextual factors on teachers’ organizational commitment. Multilevel analysis was used. The results show the effects of autonomy gap in personnel policy differ among areas. In particular, the autonomy gap in salary was found to be a significant antecedent of teachers’ organizational commitment. The results also highlight the importance of principal leadership in this process. Principals with a stronger leadership tend to perceive generally a larger autonomy gap in personnel policy. In addition, when transformational leadership increased, its positive influence on teachers’ organizational commitment became even stronger. Implications for developing efficacious leadership and autonomy policy in personnel management were discussed.     

Surviving and flourishing in a neoliberal world: primary trainees talking

This article examines the ways in which the context of teaching shapes teachers' perceptions of their work. Its starting point is the seminal work of Nias, who argued from research conducted in the 1970s and 1980s that the particular historical context of the time in England encouraged teachers to be socialised into a tradition of isolation, individualism and a belief in personal autonomy. Nias theorised her findings in terms of the situational and substantial self, and I suggest that this particular environment encouraged the teachers' substantial self to be dominant. I then examine how the context for teaching has changed with the introduction of neoliberal reforms from the 1980s and, drawing on data from a qualitative project that has been investigating the characteristics and values of a small number of successful teacher trainees, argue that these participants' situational self is dominant in the teaching placements, where they have to show competence in 33 professional standards in a number of different schools to pass the course. However, as Nias's teachers, these teacher trainees want to be employed in a school in which they ‘fit in’ with the prevailing values, reinforcing the importance of school context in supporting and developing teachers' long term commitment to the profession.     

Differential effects of perceptions of equal,favourable and unfavourable autonomy support on educational and well-being outcomes

In this study, we examined whether high-school students experienced optimal educational and well-being outcomes when they perceived that they and their classmates received an equal, rather than unequal, and high amount of autonomy support from teachers. In a prospective study that aimed to predict academic grades and well-being outcomes, surface analyses of polynomial regression equations pointed that perceptions of equal autonomy support were the most optimal in terms of yielding highest levels of need satisfaction, autonomous forms of motivation and happiness with math courses. Additionally, in accordance with tenets of self-determination theory, we demonstrated that effects associated with perceptions of equal autonomy support were mediated by autonomous forms of motivation and psychological needs. Findings suggest that researchers and practitioners may be able to facilitate optimal educational and well-being outcomes by encouraging teachers to distribute autonomy support equally across students.     

Must Liberal Support for Separate Schools be Subject to a Condition of Individual Autonomy?

A liberal state based on propositions about the desirability of individual autonomy is bound to be committed to educational programmes which are incompatible with the beliefs and values of parents from non-liberal religious and cultural minorities. One response to this has been support for public funding of those separate schools which offer an education culturally congruent with the values of parents in non-liberal communities. To resolve the potential threat to liberal individualist ideals a condition of support for individual autonomy is usually attached to liberal acceptance of this solution. This condition is in conflict with the motivation which underpins the setting up of such schools. Despite the growing literature on this debate surprisingly little attention has been given to the work of Isaiah Berlin. This article draws on Berlin's version of liberalism developed within the context of a commitment to value pluralism in order to seek clarification of this liberal dilemma.     

Self-determination theory,morality, and education: introduction to special issue

ABSTRACT

Self-Determination Theory (SDT) is an empirically based organismic theory of human motivation, development, and well-being that shares many points of interest with the fields of moral development and moral education. Yet, SDT has been largely disconnected from these fields so far. How can we define and empirically assess autonomous moral motivation? How is moral autonomy achieved in the course of development? And what are the relationships between leading a moral life and happiness? These questions have been occupying moral psychologists and educators for a long time. They are focal for SDT, as well. This special issue highlights various lines of intersection between SDT, morality and education. Contributions either expand SDT into the moral domain or incorporate elements of SDT into moral theory with the ultimate goal of integrating fields that inherently belong together.     

大学生不同运动阶段心理需求与主观幸福感研究

通过对大学生不同运动阶段的基本心理需求与主观幸福感的相关关系以及不同运动阶段中基本心理需求与主观幸福感的差异情形研究。结果发现主观幸福感与运动阶段及基本心理需求皆有显著的正相关;且被试在不同的运动阶段中有显著差异,运动阶段越商,主观幸福感也越高;不同运动阶段的基本心理需求有显著差异,运动阶段越高,自主性、胜任感与归属感也越高;而且发现存在性别差异,男生参与运动的情况较女生更好且男生在自主性上高于女生,而女生在归属感上高于男生。因此,运动阶段、基本心理需求与主观幸福感之间存在很高的关联性,运动阶段越高,幸福感与三大心理需求的满足程度也越高,但要注意运动阶段与心理需求上的性别差异。     

Preschool Teacher Well-Being: A Review of the Literature

Much is changing in preschool education. Current reform primarily emphasizes standardized practice, academic outcomes, and accountability. Little attention has been given to how these changes are impacting the well-being of teachers. The purpose of this review is to summarize the current literature on preschool teacher well-being and identify directions for future research. Accordingly, a thorough search of the literature was conducted and 30 articles attending to issues of preschool teacher well-being were identified and analyzed. The literature was found to be deeply fragmented, rather narrow and limited. One conclusion is that more research is needed that attends more broadly to preschool teachers’ well-being, including self-efficacy, life satisfaction, financial stability, emotional and physical health, and autonomy.     

Teacher perceptions of school culture and their organizational commitment and well-being in a Chinese school

This study aims to analyze and validate the dimensions and specific features of a school culture in a Chinese context. A sample of 181 teachers from a Chinese primary and secondary school in Beijing participated in a survey that measures school organizational cultural characteristics and teacher organizational commitment and well-being as outcomes of school culture. Specific cultural characteristics of this school and their impact on teacher organizational commitment and well-being were identified. The findings provide important information for understanding a school culture in the Chinese context. It enriches the theory related to school culture and the research findings that have been identified in the Western settings.     

Teachers and the State: forming and re‐forming ‘partnership’

Teachers in the English and Welsh State education system have experienced a changing and turbulent relationship with the State in recent decades. This article adopts a historical analysis and argues that the concept of ‘partnership’ is key to understanding the relationship between teachers and the State in the period since the Second World War. Initially a partnership based on a commitment to welfarist values, professional autonomy and collective bargaining; this has been systematically dismantled and reconstructed as a ‘social partnership’ based on teacher union involvement in workforce reform coupled with a significantly more managerialist conception of professional accountability. Re‐engineering the terms of its partnership with teachers has been central to the State’s restructuring of public education along neo‐liberal lines.     

Group Identity,Individual Autonomy and Education for Human Rights

The United Nations Declarations of Human Rights (1948) express an ideal for the protection of cultural rights of everyone. They propose an education that is multicultural and non‐discriminatory and recognise that parents have the right to choose their children's education. Article 13.3 of the International covenant on Economic and Social and Cultural Rights gave parents the right to choose for their children “schools other than those established by public authorities to ensure the religious and moral education of their children in conformity with their own convictions”. The paper feels uneasy with this principle that grants parents the right to educate their children in conformity with their own convictions. Such rights could result in restricting the education of children to the narrow framework of parental beliefs and values that could be antithetical to social harmony, individual autonomy and equal opportunity. The question is, should such a right be extended to all parents including those who believe in racial superiority, in apartheid, Nazism or Fascism or in the inherent intellectual differences between boys and girls? The paper discusses some of these issues and asks how can the best interests of the child be served in a pluralist, multicultural, multiracial society. The paper acknowledges that in a pluralistic democratic society there will always be tensions between the public interests, the interests of the group and the interests or autonomy of the individual. These interests are discussed within the framework of fundamental human rights, common or separate schooling and multicultural education. The paper sees these as interrelated issues which are connected with group identity and equal opportunity. Where these interrelated issues conflict, the paper takes the stance that the rights and the autonomy of the individual should take precedence over the others, especially if the notion of human rights and human dignity is to be preserved in practice. This is obviously a controversial issue and the hope is that the paper will open up these issues for further discussion and debate.     

Impact of the COVID-19 lockdown on gifted and non-gifted primary school students' well-being and motivation from a self-determination perspective

This study examined the impact of the COVID-19-induced school lockdown on need satisfaction, well-being and motivation in both gifted and non-gifted primary school students in the Netherlands. A total of 312 parents (122 from gifted children) participated. The lockdown had mainly negative effects on students' need satisfaction, well-being and motivation. However, the impact of the lockdown was less negative for gifted students. There was also a levelling effect: Before the lockdown, gifted students had lower need satisfaction, well-being and motivation than their non-gifted peers, but these differences decreased during the lockdown due to (stronger) declines in the non-gifted. Changes in non-gifted students' well-being and motivation, because of the lockdown, were negatively mediated by autonomy and relatedness with classmates. Among the gifted, this was positively mediated by competence. Only before the lockdown, the effects of giftedness on well-being and motivation were mediated by autonomy and relatedness satisfaction.     

Learningames for threes and fours: Adult-child play

A recent national survey has proven that all young children need to feel confident in themselves and in what they do. The best people to promote this feeling of well-being are teachers and parents. These activities have been written to help adults develop a child's self-worth through directed play. Appropriate for boys and girls, the games may be played on three levels: as everyday enrichment activities, as preschool educational experiences, and as just plain fun. They can be played in child care situations or at home. Learningames emphasize noncompetitive games, stressing each child's uniqueness and abilities to problem solve in a non-threatening way while learning the essential daily and early-learning skills. These games have been proven to be meaningful ones with developmentally handicapped children, as well as with normal children.Joseph Sparling is a research associate professor at the Frank Porter Graham Child Development Center of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Isabelle Lewis, formerly a director of day care centers, is also a research associate at the Graham Center. This article is excerpted fromLearningames for Threes and Fours: A Guide to Adult-Child Play, Walker and Co., New York, © 1984.     

When Choice Motivates and When It Does Not

This article addresses the controversy regarding the value of offering choices as a teaching practice. Inconsistent of results regarding the effects of choice in various settings suggest that choice can be either motivating or de-motivating. Based on the self-determination theory of motivation (Deci & Ryan, 2000), we propose that choice can be motivating when the options meet the students’ need for autonomy, competence, and relatedness. For example, choice is motivating when the options are relevant to the students’ interests and goals (autonomy support), are not too numerous or complex (competence support), and are congruent with the values of the students’ culture (relatedness support). Given the many factors involved, it is not surprising that in some studies choice was not found to promote engagement. However, when choice was offered in a way that met the needs of the students, it was found to enhance motivation, learning, and well-being.