The history of education in the 1980s

ABSTRACT

This paper uses Basil Bernstein’s work on pedagogic discourses to examine a largely neglected facet of the history of vocational education – the liberal studies movement in English further education colleges. Initially, the paper discusses some of the competing conceptions of education, work and society which underpinned the rise and fall of the liberal studies movement – if indeed it can be described as such. The paper then draws on data from interviews with former liberal and general studies lecturers to focus on the ways in which different variants of liberal studies were, over time, implicated in inculcating certain forms of knowledge in vocational learners. Whilst it is acknowledged that liberal and general studies always represented contested territory and that it was highly variable both in terms of content and quality, the paper argues that, at least under certain circumstances, liberal studies provided young working-class people with the opportunity to locate their experiences of vocational learning within a critical framework that is largely absent from further education today. This, it is argued, can be conceptualised as an engagement with what Bernstein described as ‘powerful knowledge’.     

Understanding the approaches to the teaching of religious education of pre-service primary teachers: The influence of religio-scientific frameworks

This paper explores what foundational concepts pre-service primary teachers are employing when they teach religious education. The study measured the attitudes to science and its relationship to religion of 92 pre-service primary teachers. Analysis of extended interviews with eight of the pre-service primary teachers illustrated how specific religio-scientific frameworks could be linked to distinct differences in approach to the teaching of religious education. The implications for teacher education were then discussed, as well as the necessity to integrate the teaching of religion and science into the design of future pedagogical approaches.     

Perspectives on Australian,Indian and Malaysian approaches to STEM education

STEM education faces an interesting conundrum. Western countries have implemented constructivist inspired student centred practices which are argued to be more engaging and relevant to student learning than the traditional, didactic approaches. However, student interest in pursuing careers in STEM have fallen or stagnated. In contrast, students in many developing countries in which teaching is still somewhat didactic and teacher centred are more disposed to STEM related careers than their western counterparts. Clearly factors are at work which impact the way students value science and mathematics. This review draws on three components that act as determinants of science education in three different countries – Australia, India and Malaysia. We explore how national priorities and educational philosophy impacts educational practices as well as teacher beliefs and the need for suitable professional development. Socio-economic conditions for science education that are fundamental for developing countries in adopting constructivist educational models are analysed. It is identified that in order to reduce structural dissimilarities among countries that cause fragmentation of scientific knowledge, for Malaysia constructivist science education through English medium without losing the spirit of Malaysian culture and Malay language is essential while India need to adopt constructivist quality indicators in education. While adopting international English education, and reducing dominance of impact evaluation, India and Malaysia need to prevent losing their cultural and social capital vigour. Furthermore the paper argues that Australia might need to question the efficacy of current models that fail to engage students’ long term interest in STEM related careers. Australian and Malaysian science teachers must be capable of changing the personal biographies of learners for developing scientific conceptual information. In addition both Malaysia and Australia need to provide opportunities for access to different curricular programmes of knowledge based constructivist learning for different levels of learner competencies.     

Race and class silences in teacher education: resisting strategy-based approaches to literacy methods instruction

This article draws on qualitative and practitioner research methodologies to unpack one critical incident from an undergraduate literacy methods course in which possessing complex understandings of endemic poverty proved central to assessing student achievement. In particular, we use an example of a comprehension lesson based on the children’s book Leah’s Pony as a key example through which to consider the dangers inherent in teaching pre-service teachers to adopt strategies that seem universal and innocuous, like answering comprehension questions or filling in worksheets, outside of broader critiques of social class, racism, poverty and student positioning in schools.     

潘懋元与中国高等教育学分支学科的发展

中国高等教育学科的开创者潘懋元教授十分关注高等教育学分支学科的建设与发展。他辩证地看待学科和研究领域的关系,确立了高等教育学分支学科的地位;积极倡导多学科研究方法,推动高等教育学分支学科的发展;热情为分支学科的专著作序,鼓励学者进行分支学科理论研究;招收不同学科背景的研究生,培养高等教育学分支学科的骨干力量。分析潘懋元教授的相关论述,可以为中国高等教育学分支学科未来的发展提供以下启示:正确认识分支学科与主干学科的关系,走学科建设与问题研究并重的道路,在发展中既要重视知识增长也要注重组织发展。     

在教育与历史之间——高等教育史研究四探

教育史不是教育与历史的简单相加 ,而是两个学科的汇聚与共生。没有教育学作指导的教育史研究可能较为盲目 ,没有历史学作基础的教育史研究可能流于空洞。在教育与历史之间兼收并蓄、博采众长 ,是教育史学科更上一层楼的有效途径和必然选择     

An alternative model of special education teacher education socialization

The process of organizational socialization sheds light on the difficulty of a university program to effectively socialize its special education teacher candidates into believing and acting on theories of inclusion for students with disabilities in public schools. In general, people are socialized by prior experiences, then the university, then the workplace. In this case, the workplace socialization exists prior to participation in the university setting and in conjunction with it potentially complicating traditional university socialization. This study explores how prospective special education teachers in a moderate/severe special education teacher credential program adopt, adapt, and redefine the concept of inclusion. An analysis of their use of the term “inclusion” in semi-structured interviews draws attention to the degree to which they have or have not been socialized into believing and acting on inclusion at their schools.     

Using a meta-analysis activity to make critical reflection explicit in teacher education

This paper describes how the development of critical reflection in student teachers has been made an explicit part of a teacher education programme. Using a rubric presented by Ward and McCotter, (2004) and supported by an online discussion forum, the rubric was used in a meta-analysis activity where students identified the quality of critical reflection in their lesson evaluations. The evidence suggests that the activity can result in a qualitative improvement in the nature of critical reflection. The intervention also appeared to generate a growing acknowledgement by students that writing lesson evaluations, is a valuable process which can enhance their practice.     

Factors relating to regular education teacher burnout in inclusive education

The aims of the research were to identify the environmental factors that relate to the work of regular school teachers who have students with special needs in their classroom, and to find out the correlation between these factors and teacher burnout. A total 330 primary school teachers filled in a questionnaire that had three parts: (1) personal background data; (2) the Friedman’s burnout questionnaire; and (3) environmental features typical of the work of school teachers that include students with special needs in their classroom, in four areas: psychological features, organizational, structural and social. Results show that the background data that related significantly to burnout was teachers’ attitudes towards inclusion. The more positive the attitude was, the more the teacher experienced burnout in the category of self‐fulfilment. This finding was contrary to the hypothesis of the research. Two other background variables were found to relate to the de‐personalization aspect of burnout, teaching higher‐grade students and having an additional administrative role in school. Two other findings that were found to correlate with higher burnout rates were the number of students with special needs in class (more than 20%) and very little assistance provided to the teacher. Three environmental factors were found to have negative correlation with burnout: the organizational factor, the psychological and the social, with the latter being the most significantly negatively correlated with burnout—i.e. the less social support the teacher experienced, the higher was her level of burnout.     

The promise of experiential education in teacher education: transforming teacher beliefs and practices

Building from the theories of Dewey and Kolb and Fry, we sought to examine the impact of experiential education in teacher education on teacher beliefs and practices. The teacher education model described in this article sets out to challenge the seduction of the apprenticeship of observation and create an opportunity for in-service teachers to re-imagine their teaching in concrete and transformative ways. Immersed in a weeklong experiential residency in either the mountains or at a local environmental education farm, the teachers in the study were challenged physically, intellectually, socially, and emotionally in and through the experience. The experiential work ultimately led to changes in teacher participants’ beliefs and practices related to teacher and student roles and potentialities. Although challenges exist for this type of practice in K-12 classrooms and in teacher education, experiential education has a significant potential to change the way teachers think about and act in their practice.     

当代教育改革视野中的教育史研究

在大力提倡教育改革的今天,很多人认为教育史研究巴失去其生存价值.其实不然,教育史研究不仅可以使我们以历史的视角去审视今天的教育改革,而且可为教育改革提供智力支持.因此,越是在教育改革进行得如火如荼的时代,我们越需要冷静地反思过去,总结经验,充分认识教育史研究在当代教育改革中的独特功能,使其更好地为教育现实服务.     

Teacher education, preservice teacher beliefs, and the moral work of teaching

This paper presents a case for attending to preservice teachers’ beliefs that are relevant to the moral work of teaching within teacher education research and practice, and examines what it would look like to do so. The case for attending to candidate beliefs is grounded in a learner-centered approach to teacher education and in the literature on the role of beliefs in teacher learning and change. The authors demonstrate how attending to preservice teacher beliefs is particularly critical for the task of preparing candidates for the moral work of teaching, and present a conceptual framework that can guide that task and teacher education research and practice designed to support it.     

Institutional separation in schools of education: Understanding the functions of space in general and special education teacher preparation

The purpose of this spatial study is to understand the function space play in a combined credential program in the US in helping or hindering the program’s inclusive mission. The study examines how physical and social manifestations of general and special education are (re)organized in the new program. The data provides evidence for the pervasive separation between general and special education within the new program. This study points to the importance of examining space in relation to teacher education reform as a way to highlight where policy, institutional, programmatic, physical, and pedagogic changes are needed to support inclusive teacher preparation.     

Enhancing quality: Listening to participant voices to improve our Master's program in special education

Newly inducted special education teachers must be well-prepared to address changes in today's schools, including increased student diversity, implementation of tiered systems of support, and the need for increased collaboration with general education teachers and specialists. The purpose of this qualitative study was to develop and implement a data-based continual improvement approach to identify the strengths of our special education Master's program and address changes needed to ensure that graduates are ready to engage with the demands of their chosen profession. Using data gathered from 24 recent graduates and 20 field mentors, we describe our model and what we have done with our results over two years. An important finding is that our students greatly value the relationships they form during the program and the relationships the faculty model, and participants attribute our graduates' skills in collaboration to our program's modeling of collaborative processes and positive relationships. Implications for effective approaches to continuous improvement of special education teacher preparation programs are discussed.     

Teachers' beliefs about students,and the intention of students to drop out of secondary education in Flanders

Students dropping out of education with no qualifications has been an important problem in the West for decades. Little relevant research has concentrated on school characteristics, and research into the role teachers might play in students' decision to quit school is particularly scarce. Using multilevel analyses of data for 11,844 students in 84 Flemish secondary schools, we investigate whether teachers' shared expectations of students are associated with students' intention to drop out. Particularly in vocational education, teachers' beliefs about the teachability of students influence the students' intention to quit, irrespective of perceived teacher support and students' sense of futility.     

An exploration of the interaction between global education policy orthodoxies and national education practices in Cambodia,illuminated through the voices of local teacher educators

Abstract

This research is based on a multi-disciplinary and multi-levelled analysis of evidence to present the case that education reform needs to be contextualised far more widely than is currently practised. It focuses on the voices of Cambodian local teacher trainers through interviews over a five-year period. Interview data is triangulated against academic sources, national policy documents and classroom observations. The research reveals how notions of globalisation and knowledge economy have led to education being driven by measurable outcomes resulting in simplified educational policies that have a negative impact on teacher development. By allowing the Khmer teacher trainers to articulate their opinions on a wide range of themes, the interviews provide evidence to support historical and cultural theories proposed by academics working in the social sciences in Cambodia. This approach identifies that a deeper contextual analysis should enable teacher development programmes to be more closely aligned to national contexts.     

A framework for conducting research on collaborative teacher education

The purpose of this paper is to propose a framework for conducting research on teacher education programmes that practise collaboration between special and general education faculty to advance inclusion. Such a framework can establish a common language for collaborative teacher education and provide a structure for conducting research on individual programmes as well as cross-site comparisons. It is based on the assumption that collaboration represents a robust, systematic integration of special and general education across all aspects of the preservice curriculum. The proposed framework includes three collaborative program models and five programme dimensions.     

教师教育培养模式发展的思考

为适应基础教育改革发展的需要，全国各高等院校开展了教师教育的探索，形成了多样化的教师培养模式，青海师范大学在这一方面也进行了有效的尝试，目前我国在教师教育培养模式方面还面临许多问题和挑战，加强教师培养模式的理论研究，促进教师培养模式的健康发展，将教师培养模式与教师教育改革有机结合，适应基础教育改革发展的需要。     

Backing the right horse: Teacher education,sociocultural analysis and literacy in rural education

This paper is a reflection on the way that a background in sociocultural theory and research actually saved my teaching career by allowing me to shift from being a dispenser of knowledge to a cultural neophyte attempting to understand where he is. Teaching then is understood as a reading exercise which is undertaken in a particular place which itself needs to be read by the effective teacher. This is a narrative inquiry into practice which represents an attempt to understand my own teaching career in the light of Frank Smith's (1984) provocative essay “How education backed the wrong horse” in which he argues that anthropology would have made a better choice for a foundational discipline for education than psychology. I conclude with some thoughts on what this perspective implies for literacy instruction.