Opening and transforming South African education

This article examines the challenge of opening and transforming South African education. ‘Openness’ and ‘transformation’ of any education programme in any society are ethicopolitical processes. In the case of South Africa, the transition from an autocratic education system serving the interests of a minority to a more modern and democratic educational dispensation demands a critical rethinking of the meaning of these twin concepts of openness and transformation. The policy of outcomes‐based education (OBE) has been used as a strategy for educational change. This article argues that, although OBE can be understood in the context of the desire for change, the programme’s implementation does not lead to radical opening and qualitative transformation of the South African educational sector. Any pedagogy of radical empowerment through political and deliberate advocacy policies needs to take into consideration the content of the new system of education, the professional quality of the educators, and the calibre of the new learners.     

Professor Ninian Smart,phenomenology and religious education

I reply to L. Philip Barnes’ assessment of the contributions of Ninian Smart and phenomenology to religious education. My argument is that Barnes first misconceives and then underestimates Smart’s legacy. I sketch Smart’s relevance to some current issues in religious education, suggesting that his thought helps us to avoid potentially damaging polarisations (of language and concepts to experience, and of learning about religion to learning from religion). I conclude that Smart may have little to say about classroom practice, but should still be a reference point for any practitioner.     

Boya education in China: Lessons from liberal arts education in the U.S. and Hong Kong

In this paper, taking as our point of departure the importance of China’s “boya” education (BYE) and the West’s liberal arts education (LAE) in an era that will be increasingly dominated by information technology (IT) and Artificial Intelligence (AI), we examine the importance of BYE in Mainland China and LAE in the U.S. and Hong Kong. We argue that (a) the recent resurgence and growing significance of LAE in the world has been due to the right skill sets it provides in the information technology era in which many new jobs will be created and existing jobs destroyed ; (b) professional or technical training is not only compatible with the fundamental values of boya or liberal arts but also important in showcasing the strengths of BYE and LAE; (c) the combined benefits of BYE or LAE and professional or technical training may be achieved by adopting the main features of LAE such as its broad-based curriculum and whole-person development approach to undergraduate education or by combining a student's undergraduate and postgraduate studies over time; and (d) for BYE to achieve its goals in China it should occupy a central rather than tangential role in the undergraduate curriculum.     

Evil,virtue, and education in Kant

Abstract

For Kant, we cannot understand how to approach moral education without confronting the radical evil of humanity. But if we start out, as Kant thinks we do, from a morally corrupt state, how can we make moral progress? In response, I explore in this paper Kant’s gradualist and revolutionary accounts of moral progress. These differing accounts of progress raise two key questions in the literature: are these accounts compatible and which type of progress comes first? Against other views in the literature, I argue that gradual progress through a change of mores must come first and can gradually lead toward, as its ideal endpoint, a revolution in our disposition (or a change of heart) and the overthrowing of our radical evil. This has important implications for moral pedagogy.     

Sexuality education in South Africa: Three essential questions

Sex education is the cornerstone on which most HIV/AIDS prevention programmes rest and since the adoption of Outcomes-Based Education (OBE), has become a compulsory part of the South African school curriculum through the Life Orientation learning area. However, while much focus has been on providing young people with accurate and frank information about safe sex, this paper questions whether school-based programmes sufficiently support the needs of young people. This paper is based on a desk-review of the literature on sex and sexuality education and examines it in relation to the South African educational context and policies. It poses three questions: (a) what do youth need from sexuality education? (b) Is school an appropriate environment for sex education? (c) If so, what can be said about the content of sex education as well as pedagogy surrounding it? Through reviewing the literature this paper critically engages with education on sex and sexuality in South Africa and will argue that in order to effectively meet the needs of youth, the content of sexual health programmes needs to span the whole spectrum of discourses, from disease to desire. Within this spectrum, youth should be constructed as “knowers” as opposed to innocent in relation to sex. How youth are taught as well as how their own knowledge and experience is positioned in the classroom is as important as content in ensuring that youth avoid negative sexual health outcomes.     

Bringing knowledge back in: perspectives from liberal education

From the vantage point of liberal education, this article attempts to contribute to the conversation initiated by Michael Young and his colleagues on ‘bringing knowledge back’ into the current global discourse on curriculum policy and practice. The contribution is made through revisiting the knowledge-its-own-end thesis associated with Newman and Hirst, Bildung-centred Didaktik and the Schwabian model of a liberal education. The central thesis is that if education is centrally concerned with the cultivation of human powers (capacities, ways of thinking, dispositions), then knowledge needs to be seen as an important resource for that cultivation. A theory of knowledge is needed that conceives the significance of knowledge in ways productive of this cultivation. Furthermore, a theory of content is needed that concerns how knowledge is selected and translated into curriculum content and how content can be analysed and unpacked in ways that open up manifold opportunities for cultivating human powers.     

Against all odds: Peace education in times of crisis

Contexts of violent, intractable conflict such as those present in Israel, Nigeria, or Iraq represent times of severe crisis. Reducing the high indices of violence is very urgent, but the attempts of establishing peaceful arrangements in the short- or medium-term usually fail. Peace education, by contrast, is a long-term endeavor to resolve violent, intractable conflicts that aims at affecting moral stances that the conflicting parties take vis-à-vis each other. Unfortunately, however, peace education in times of severe crisis also faces many impediments. These impediments concern the agential, cultural, financial, and legal aspects of educative institutions within context of violent and intractable conflicts. Although these impediments strongly put into question the practice of peace education, this article shows that four reasons nevertheless strongly support this practice. These reasons refer to (1) humanity’s natural goodness, (2) the symbolic importance of peace education, (3) the peace-promoting experiences facilitated through peace education, and (4) peace education’s contribution to overcoming prejudices.     

Universities and adult education

Conclusion This article has sought to examine university adult education in a global context and not from the standpoint of any particular national tradition. On two broad fronts the future looks promising. Universities are becoming increasingly involved in the continuing education of the members of the communities they serve, and their main preoccupation seems likely to be focused on work and role-oriented studies. This is not to deny the importance of general cultural provision, an element of adult education which also will assume greater significance as people are able to enjoy more leisure time during their working lives and longer and more secure periods of retirement. The point of debate is simply how far work of this kind is a task for universities or whether it should be the responsibility of other agencies in the community which could, of course, call upon the resources of universities.The second promising area of expansion is in the study and teaching of adult education. The acceptance of adult education as an equal partner of the educational family will accelerate the demand, already being felt in many countries, that those responsible for it must themselves be professionally prepared for their vocation. Clearly a share of this work should be undertaken by universities.

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Universitäten und Erwachsenenbildung

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Les universites et l'education des adultes

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This article was written before the author joined UNESCO in December 1971. The views expressed are entirely his own and do not necessarily coincide with those of UNESCO.     

Gender, BMI, values, and learning in physical education: A study on Chinese middle schoolers

Students' different perceptions of task values influence their learning experience and achievement in physical education. Framed using the subjective task value construct, this study was conducted to determine the extent to which male and female Chinese middle schoolers with different body sizes differed in their perception of the task values. A second goal of the study was to identify the extent to which the task values along with gender and body size predicted students' performance on knowledge and physical skill tests. Data from a random sample of students (N = 860) from eight Chinese middle schools revealed that the boys appreciated intrinsic (p = .001) and utility values (p = 02); both boys and girls, however, equally appreciated the attainment value (p = .73). The boys performed better in physical skill tests than the girls (p = .001), whereas the girls scored higher in knowledge tests than the boys (p = .04). Regression analyses revealed that gender is the only predictor for performance on both knowledge and skill tests. Utility value and body size were predictors for skill, not for knowledge. These findings indicate that Chinese middle school boys and girls differed in valuing and achieving in physical education. The findings imply that Chinese boys need to strengthen cognitive learning and girls need to strengthen psychomotor skill development in physical education.     

Learner-centred education and ‘cultural translation’

This paper contests the proposal that learner-centred education (LCE) may simply be a western construct, irrelevant to the current educational needs of developing countries, by arguing that its specific forms will be more effective when introduced through small-scale institutional relationships than through large-scale contracts with national governments. LCE initiatives are more likely to impact successfully if their professional language has been ‘culturally translated’, a process which relates features of the surface level of an intervention to its underlying social relations of production as part of a dialogue which respects addressees not merely as listeners but also as active agents.     

Developing fundamental principles for teacher education programs and practices

Traditional approaches to teacher education are increasingly critiqued for their limited relationship to student teachers’ needs and for their meager impact on practice. Many pleas are heard for a radical new and effective pedagogy of teacher education in which theory and practice are linked effectively. Although various attempts to restructure teacher education have been published, no coherent body of knowledge exists about central principles underlying teacher education programs that are responsive to the expectations, needs and practices of student teachers. By analyzing effective features of programs in Australia, Canada, and the Netherlands, this study contributes an initial framework of seven fundamental principles to guide the development of responsive teacher education programs that make a difference.     

Free but inaccessible primary education: A critique of the pedagogy of English and Mathematics in Lesotho

The Free Primary Education programme in Lesotho has enabled nearly all children to attend primary school, but the prevailing pedagogy denies or restricts the opportunities of these children for effective learning. This paper focuses on the theme of the inaccessibility of learning in the key subjects of English and Mathematics, reporting recent research. Some of the major problems identified are specific to each subject, while others are common to both. Referring to previous theoretical and empirical work on primary education in developing countries, the paper identifies the major factors shaping restrictive pedagogy in Lesotho.     

Child-centred education and the promise of democratic learning: Pedagogic messages in rural Indian primary schools

Global and national agendas to achieve universal primary education and improve the ‘quality’ of school provision in developing countries have identified the need to reform classroom pedagogy. Since the 1990s, child-centred ideas in particular have been utilised in teacher-training programmes and school reforms across many parts of Africa and Asia with the intention of creating more child-friendly, democratic learning environments. Analysing episodes from classroom observations conducted in a rural Indian primary school, this paper reveals the tensions experienced by one teacher in handing over greater classroom control to pupils. It provides insight into the complex processes of pedagogic interaction, and sheds light on some of the possibilities and conditions for achieving child-centred pedagogic change in such development contexts.     

现象学与成人教育研究

现象学哲学理论颇具方法论的意味,它使社会人文科学研究范式在19世纪实证主义盛行的情况下发生了重要转向。成人教育研究不可忽视这一具有方法论意义的哲学思想,其对成人教育研究“研究什么?”“怎样研究?”“成人教育研究者的成长”以及成人教育研究的基本问题有着重要的启示。     

略论成人人文教育

在成人教育的实践中加强人教育,是完整的职业素质观的体现和要求,也是全面体现成人教育的社会功能和教育特征的需要;要通过增加人知识教育含量,促进人精神与科学教育的融合和营造良好的人精神氛围等方式和途径来强化成人人教育。     

论后现代主义教育思潮对成人教育教学的启示

后现代主义作为一种教育思潮，为成人教育教学改革提供了新的思路、新的视角。它启示成人教育研究应从一元走向多元，教学目标应从统一走向差异，课程应从静态单一走向动态综合，教师应从权威者走向“平等对话者”。     

Research paradigms and adult education

Those who see research as structured by ‘paradigms’ of inquiry are often unclear about the precise nature of these paradigms due to the complexity of the concept. It is argued that there are competing understandings of paradigm, not simply different substantive paradigms. A ‘strong’ or socio‐historical account associated with Kuhn's work is contrasted with a ‘weak’ or philosophical account of paradigm that has become influential in educational circles. This analysis is applied to adult education as an academic field, which in terms of the ‘strong’ account of paradigm is not a unified scholarly enterprise but one animated by divergent, institutionalised research traditions. Three traditions are discussed in detail: participation studies, adult learning theory and participatory research. It is concluded that the field will be advanced by recognising the paradigmatic depth of its scholarly conflicts, and relating these differences to developments in other fields of human inquiry.     

Using multiple levels of experience to promote autonomy in adventure education students

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to discuss how adventure education instructors in higher education may use different levels of experience in their teaching to promote student autonomy. The E model identifies four levels of experience and explains why it is important for instructors to provide students with higher-level experiences that will help promote student autonomy. The model is theoretically rooted in the fields of adventure education, experiential education and social psychology. Using these bodies of knowledge combined with practical application, the authors recommend ways of applying their model to all teaching situations.     

Radical adult education and learning

How can we speak about radical education in these seemingly unpropitious times? I explore this question first by examining aspects of our radical heritage (self-directed learning, facilitation, democratic pedagogy, learning in hegemonic struggle, learning in social action, critical pedagogy) and then by discussing what radical learning and education mean now, in an era of capitalist triumphalism. I outline a method which helps practitioners to investigae and act on what people are actuallly learning and teaching each other in different sites—educational instititions, workplace families, communities, the mass media and social movements. Culture is ordinary: that is where we must start. (Williams, 1958a)     

Repertoire of practice: Reconceptualizing instructor competency in contemporary adventure education

Abstract

Historically, adventure educators have used the metaphor of hard and soft skills to understand their practice: hard skills representing technical competencies, and soft skills representing interpersonal competencies. In light of current research and in the face of increasingly complex varieties of adventure practice, the categorization of skills into “hard” or “soft” may obscure important aspects of experiential learning and limit the development of an effective pedagogy for adventure education. This paper interrogates the hard/soft metaphor from various perspectives and offers “repertoire of practice” (Wenger, 1998) as a possible framework to further discuss instruction and learning in contemporary adventure education. ‘What we have learned to see something as, becomes in turn, the guide to our outward practical activity’. (Wartofsky, 1979, p. 207)