Deciding for Others

In this paper, I offer Brighouse et al some friendly suggestions for expanding the notion of ‘educational goods’, pose some challenges for their book's decision-making framework and offer an opportunity for them to fill some small, but interesting lacunas. I start by comparing their typology of desirable educational outcomes with alternative classificatory schemes. I then suggest that certain processes and relationships might constitute ‘educational goods’. Building on the discussion of outcome-typologies, I ask Brighouse et al to indicate how knowledge contributes to flourishing and to comment on whether false belief might sometimes constitute an educational good. I then ask for a response to the view that their decision-making framework may seem objectionable to some by endorsing a particular conception of the good life. I pose four questions regarding for whom educational goods are good, the objectivity of the decision-making procedure, and possible lacunas regarding the issues of decision maker legitimacy and resolving disagreement. The paper concludes with an account of my own pedagogical uses of the book's most helpful framework.     

Strangely familiar?—teachers making sense of young children's spiritual development

I discuss philosophical and methodological difficulties in researching young children's spiritual development. I describe my research involving detailed discussions with, and observations of, 14 teachers of 4‐ and 5‐year‐olds. I highlight key issues, including what distinguishes spiritual from other sorts of development, the nature of children's spiritual experience and to what extent young children can and do engage in spiritual experience. Drawing on a critical evaluation of common features of the teachers' understanding, I sketch out features of a new and inclusive understanding of spiritual experience as that which relates to identity, place and purpose. I consider possible implications, in terms of policy, professional development and practice, based on the conclusion that environments and relationships are more important than specific experiences, techniques and skills.     

Pupil participation: the NASEN policy

NASEN is to be congratulated for developing a Policy on Pupil Participation (NASEN, 2004). The importance of developing this practice has been increasingly recognised over recent years by policy makers, practitioners and researchers. In this short article I shall address some of the issues that the development of such a policy raises. Although generally welcoming NASEN's initiatives and similar actions by other organizations, I consider it important also to review the issue more broadly.     

“Forget birth pains,we haven't got past the conception stage yet”. A reply to Frank Coffield's ‘Britain's continuing failure to train: the birth pangs of a new policy’

This article is a response to Frank Coffield's recent reflections in this journal on the Performance and Innovation Unit's project on workforce development in Britain. It questions the extent to which the PIU's findings represent a ‘new understanding’ of the UK's skills problem and asks why academics have been so reluctant to spell out what a demand‐side strategy for tackling the problem would involve.     

‘In praise of educational research’: formative assessment

Abstract The authors trace the development of the King's Formative Assessment Programme from its origins in diagnostic testing in the 1970s, through the graded assessment movement in the 1980s, to the present day. In doing so, they discuss the practical issues involved in reviewing research and outline the strategies that were used to try to communicate the findings to as wide an audience as possible (including policy‐makers and practitioners as well as academics). They describe how they worked with teachers to develop formative practice in classrooms, and discuss the impact that this work has had on practice and policy. Finally, they speculate about some of the reasons for this impact, and make suggestions for how the impact of educational research on policy and practice might be improved.     

Illuminating a dialectical transformative activist stance in education

In this essay I comment on Stetsenko’s (2008) essay that draws together the work of Vygotsky, Piaget and Dewey, as she attempts to counter the ‘new’ reductionist synthesis in public educational policy. While this theoretical work is helpful, it could be enhanced further by illuminating everyday practices of learners. I pose some questions that might provoke ongoing discussions by researchers as they transform collaboratively cultural–historical activity theory.     

Exploring educational policy transfer: A structure–agency perspective

This study presents some of the current methodological issues regarding the analysis and comprehension of educational policy transfer, with particular emphasis on the issue of structure and agency. It suggests some shortcomings of current educational policy transfer research in dealing with the complex interaction between structure and agency. To fill those voids, drawing from Archer's morphogenetic approach in educational policy transfer, an alternative framework of educational policy transfer is presented. A case from the author's current research on China's interest in Japanese vocational education during the late Qing Dynasty is given to explain the usage of this new interpretive framework. It is hoped that this new conceptual framework will aid in analysing educational policy transfer and open up a new methodological and theoretical space for future educational policy transfer research.     

Problem-posing research in mathematics education: looking back, looking around, and looking ahead

In this paper, I comment on the set of papers in this special issue on mathematical problem posing. I offer some observations about the papers in relation to several key issues, and I suggest some productive directions for continued research inquiry on mathematical problem posing.     

Labour,Learning and the Economy: a ‘policy sociology’ perspective

This paper considers Labour's education policy portfolio in two loosely related ways. Firstly, I argue for the need to see the policy continuities between the Conservatives and Labour in an international context and to suggest that in a sense Labour's policies are not specific to Labour at all; they are local manifestations of global policy paradigms. Secondly, I begin to sketch out an argument which suggests that in one key respect Labour's policy thrust is contradictory in its own terms. That is, the over‐riding emphasis on education's role in contributing to economic competitiveness rests on a set of pedagogical strategies the effects of which are actually antithetical to the needs of a ‘high skills’ economy. This contradiction arises in part from an inherited, and ultimately self‐defeating, impoverished view of ‘learning’. I shall also point to some of the effects of performativity in relation to teaching and learning     

Higher education in Vietnam: key areas need assistance

Many developing countries are in the process of restructuring their higher education system to meet their nation's socio-economic development. As their educational budget is not unlimited, working with international educational institutions has become one of the attractive solutions to improve the quality of their education and to make it relevant to meet their nation's educational demand for economic development. This paper identifies some key issues which have prevented the Vietnamese higher education system from serving effectively its country's open-door policy and provide necessary recommendations to help Vietnam overcome its short-comings and weaknesses. The issues identified together with recommendations, on the other hand, may help some educational policy makers from developed countries select their fields of assistance or cooperation as well as to establish their long term educational strategies to deal with developing countries such as Vietnam.     

Women's leadership of ‘much needed national work’ in wartime education

While there is a wealth of feminist research on women's educational leadership and policy-making in the interwar years, this article extends the discussion into the Second World War. My focus is the educational leadership of Dorothy Walker, head teacher of St Peter's Infant School and the youngest head teacher in Birmingham, and Lillian de Lissa, longstanding principal of Gipsy Hill Training College (where Walker trained) and national advocate for early childhood education. I highlight Walker and de Lissa's ongoing challenges to patriarchal authority and their continuing commitments to progressive education, as well as many war-related issues they encountered in their lives and work. Working at different levels of policy-making and contrasting in age, Walker and de Lissa invested their leadership with a national significance during the war.     

St. Ives Pathfinder Children's Trust: From Idea to Reality and Further

Abstract

As the formal arrangements for Pathfinder Children's Trusts across England come to a close, and many Authorities move to firm arrangements for integrated children's services, this is an opportune moment for one pathfinder project to reflect upon its experiences over the past years and to share some of its learning about process issues. This article traces the progress of social inclusion work from its inception in the St. Ives cluster of schools through to its present-day position as a Children's Trust. As well as explaining the underlying theory and rationale for the work, a number of sound, practical lessons and pointers are offered. The article also identifies celebratory high-points of the project and highlights some implications for future developments within the context of Every Child Matters, via extended schools and children's centres.     

Precursors to Policy Innovation: How Tennessee Entered Race to the Top

This article examines the education policy environment in Tennessee that preceded a comprehensive reform bill enacted to enhance the state's Race to the Top application. Through interviews with key policymakers in Tennessee, I describe how recent reform efforts undertaken at the state level positioned Tennessee as a strong contender for the Race to the Top funding. My analysis is framed by Mazzoni's (1991) conceptualization of precursors to policy innovation, and my findings reframe this theory to include an additional stimulus for major change. In doing so, I renew attention to education policymaking initiated at the state level and offer an expanded explanation for the political context that precipitates innovation.     

A Sociologist Teaches History: Some Epistemological and Pedagogical Reflections

This article discusses the concept of historical sociology in relation to the teaching of a module on an undergraduate degree in Education Studies at a university in the United Kingdom. The module examines the history of education policy in England from 1870 until the present day. Drawing upon comparisons with Social Foundations of Education programs in the United States, I examine some key epistemological and pedagogical issues raised by the interdisciplinary approach to teaching and learning followed within the module in which we combine historical and sociological perspectives as a means to understand the evolution of the English education system. In particular, using Bernstein's concept of the pedagogic device as an analytical framework, I consider the epistemological congruence of sociology and history as the contributory disciplines of the undergraduate module. From a discussion of the concept of historical sociology, I conclude that although sociology and history are distinct subjects, they share a large amount of analytical ground that thus facilitates the interdisciplinary approach pursued within the module. Following that, I examine some pedagogical issues that have arisen in my experience of teaching upon the module and I discuss how I have addressed these. I conclude the article by making comparisons to relevant examples from pedagogical practices in Social Foundations of Education programs in the United States.     

Citing Discourses: Making Sense of Homophobia and Heteronormativity at Dynamic High School

In this article, I draw on poststructuralist work on "citationality" to elucidate an urban high school's student culture and intervention efforts with regard to LGBQ issues. I contend that the language, ideas and practices of LGBQ issues and awareness among students and staff "cite" or draw on broader (and often competing) discourses of normalcy, sexuality, and/or "good teaching." I discuss how the citational process makes it difficult to bring about change, as well as the possibilities for bringing about change. The significance of this article is the way it explicates the discourses used to articulate and describe LGBQ people, issues, and intervention efforts; and how these discourses may hinder efforts to create LGBQ support and awareness in schools.     

School Leaders as Political Strategists: William Boyd's Contributions to our Understanding of the Politics of Leadership

William Boyd's contributions to the education field's understanding of the political nature of school leadership are formidable. In this article, I describe the growth and development, over a roughly 30-year time span, of his key insight that successful school leaders should have the capabilities of a political strategist and that the actualization of this capacity is related to school leaders’ political and policy context. The perennial question of “who governs education” was central to Boyd's work and his various answers are important touchstones for today's educational leaders.     

Prediction,policy, and quantitative inquiry: A reply to Worrall

In his critique of my 1997 JCJE article, John Worrall attempts a partial defense of the current emphasis on quantitative methods in criminal justice education and research. Despite some hesitation, especially near the end of his critique, he suggests that it is reasonable for quantitative methods to receive more attention than qualitative methods. His argument centers on the ability of quantitative methodology to facilitate correct predictions in the field of criminal justice, the contributions of quantitative research to criminal justice policy, and a distinction between theoretical and methodological problems. In this reply, I argue that Worrall's examination of these issues is insufficient and reflects several misinterpretations. I conclude there remains no clear logical basis for the privileging of quantitative methods over qualitative methods in criminal justice education.     

Hong Kong Higher Education, 1981–2001: public policy and re-emergent social stratification

In this paper I first place the development of Hong Kong's higher education in the larger context of education and governance histories. Next I describe one of the deepest policy quandaries for Hong Kong's government in charting the futures of its higher education system: whether to view the ultimate benefits of higher education for individuals in terms of ‘sponsored’ versus ‘contest’ mobility. I then turn to evidence from HK census data about the changing distribution of opportunity for higher education. I discuss trends in educational stratification since 1981, focusing most attention on changes in the opportunity for post-secondary and, especially, for university education to the Bachelors' degree level. I discuss methods for the use of Hong Kong's 1981, 1991 and 2001 census, and I present bivariate and multivariate analysis of the changing impact of family cultural and material resources on the odds of continuing and attending education at the university level. From 1991 to 2001, census data suggest there was a reversal of a trend towards greater equality of opportunity that was observed between the 1981 and 1991 census. I conclude by relating the findings from these analyses to future higher education planning in Hong Kong.     

‘We are like dictionaries,Miss, you can look things up in us’: evaluating child-centred research methods

Research concerning children is often presented with only a brief comment on the research methods adopted. This paper takes a ‘behind the scenes’ view and I discuss my adoption of a non-hierarchical ‘least adult role’ adapted from Mandell's work in 1991 to undertake qualitative research in the sensitive area of children's multicultural awareness in two high-proportion minority ethnic schools and two schools with a predominantly white intake. I discuss my approach as a ‘traveller’ rather than a ‘miner’ and the use of jelly beans and Bean Sheet to gauge the children's perceptions of their multicultural awareness. The value placed on the role of the child in the research design and implementation is examined, and I evaluate the advantages and limitations of adopting such child-centred approaches for the teacher researcher.