Special educational needs: a public issue

This article explores the contribution of sociological scholarship to understanding and analysing the notions of ‘special educational needs’ and ‘disability’ and the ways in which the two notions have been reconfigured and theorised as ‘public issues’ rather than ‘personal troubles’. Barton's contribution is signified both in terms of his contribution to the evolution of the ‘sociological imagination’ – as a powerful theoretical tool for unravelling the highly political and contested nature of disability and special educational needs – and also in terms of his analysis of the emergence and development of sociological theorising in the field. The parochial obsession with deficit and medical‐oriented approaches to dealing with ‘difference’ and ‘need’ have been significantly challenged through the ‘sociological imagination’ aimed at pointing up the highly political and complex nature of disability and ‘special educational needs’. Times have changed and sociological theorising has evolved, but presumed ‘personal troubles’ are still not unequivocally conceptualised as being intertwined with, resting upon and emanating from ‘public issues’ embedded in the social, cultural and political edifice of educational, social and national communities. The ‘sociological imagination’ should be constantly invoked and deployed in order to expose and challenge the sophisticated ways in which individual pathology accounts and special educational imperatives re‐invent themselves through more inclusive linguistic veneers.     

A third use of sociology of scientific knowledge: a lens for studying teacher practice

Over the last two decades, science educators and science education researchers have grown increasingly interested in utilising insights from the sociology of scientific knowledge (SSK) to inform their work and research. To date, researchers in science education have focused on two applications: results of sociological studies of science have been used to define new areas of content, generally referred to as Nature of Science (NOS). This has included research into students’ understanding of the NOS, teachers’ understanding of the NOS, and inclusion (or exclusion) of NOS themes in curricula. A second vein of inquiry has been investigations that consider the classroom as a microcosm of scientific discourse and inquiry. Such research has included investigations of student‐to‐student and student‐to‐teacher interactions. In this paper, we present a third application for educational research – the investigation of teacher knowledge and practice as sociological phenomena. In addition to supporting scholarly research, we believe it can be a useful tool for illuminating the complexities of teaching that needs to be taken into account by policy makers and practitioners. In this paper, we provide a thematic review of concepts from the sociology of scientific knowledge, and their application to a case of teacher work.     

Brave New World? Aspects of Office Skills Training in a College of Further Education [1]

One of the main concerns of the sociology of education has been the analysis of the part played by schooling in the transmitting and maintaining of social inequalities. Given this potentially broad, comprehensive framework the focus of sociological attention has remained surprisingly narrow. The experience of girls and women has been prone to neglect and has not been fully incorporated into social theory that purports to explain the process of schooling. This paper is based on an ethnographic study of female students on full‐time secretarial courses in a college of further education in the south‐west of England. Student behaviour in the classroom could broadly be described as ‘conformist’ in that there is no overt challenge to teacher control. Interview data are used to expose the creative activity beneath superficial appearances. The paper concludes with a plea for a more systematic cartography of educational terrain that would include such neglected features of classroom life as conformity.     

Curriculum Change: the case of special education

Special education has been somewhat neglected in the sociological study of curriculum change, despite the value of sociological perspectives on policy and provision for special educational needs. This article considers the redefinition of special education over the last decade, in both mainstream and special schools, drawing on other sociological analyses of curriculum redefinition and realisation. Particular attention is given to the professional interests involved and the contexts within which change has taken place. The article concludes with a review of the implications of recent legislation for the redefinition of special education. It is suggested that the increasing convergence of policy and curriculum frameworks for both special and mainstream education requires an integrated approach to future research and analysis.     

Pour une formation des enseignants à et par l'audiovisuel

Fauquet, M. “Pour une formation des enseignants à et par l'audiovisuel,” Revue ATEE Journal 3 (1980) 7‐23.

Teacher education geared to modern times has to deal with a new and double demand. The development of audiovisual educational technologies demands from an institution that it “educates” a teacher capable of incorporating these innovations into his practice. A training for the educational use of audio visuals presupposes an initiation into the production of audiovisual aids. It implies even more the study of semiology as well as that of psychological and sociological factors in the learning processes and communication aimed at the achievement of educational goals. This training has to be embedded in an education through the considered use of audiovisual aids. In a world where conditioning forces are ever increasing in strength it is essential that the teacher “educates himself” in such a way that he ensures his autonomy and favours that of his pupils. The strategy defined here makes possible a formative evaluation of the teacher training process. It takes as a starting point the awareness brought about by a supervised autoscopy and by discontinued teacher‐training‐periods inspires by micro‐teaching techniques which are themselves improved by sequential training techniques.     

For Whom This Reform?: outlining educational policy as a social field

Theoretically informed by the sociological work of Pierre Bourdieu, this analysis represents an initial attempt to examine what it would mean to analyse educational policy as a social field. By employing such a frame, two main claims are addressed: (1) that the sociological perspective of Bourdieu offers valuable potential for understanding both educational policy, per se, and what it means to analyse educational policy; and (2) that there is good reason to question claims about shifts in power relations in US educational policy. Where other contemporary analyses of educational policy draw on some of Bourdieu's conceptual framework, in this paper I hope to more systematically elaborate methodological concerns raised when applying a Bourdieuian framework to educational policy. Further, I argue the perspective developed here suggests that in the 1980s US educational policy reforms reveal the historical maturation of a social field which has developed its own autonomy and its own rewards.     

The emergent curriculum: navigating a complex course between unguided learning and planned enculturation

Although systemic reform seems to be a broadly accepted framework for educational change, concrete reform projects still face the uncertainty of how to meet the necessary requirements. This paper considers the case of a curriculum reform process in primary mathematics education that has a focus on the involvement and influence of parents. The data consists of a short address to the parents of first‐graders printed in the teacher’s version of a textbook. In this address, the parents are introduced to the new concept of active‐explorative learning and allocated a specific role within the process of change. By means of discourse analysis and the sociological ideas of exclusion/inclusion, autonomy, and expert/non‐technical discourse, the long‐term consequences of the social role assigned to parents in the programme is discussed.     

教育行为的社会学思考

从社会学的角度对教育行为进行分析,在传统领域有两种倾向,一是结构主义倾向的教育范式,二是人本主义倾向的教育范式。文章主要尝试对这两种倾向的教育行为进行社会学分析,综合这两种倾向,提出自己关于教育行为的社会学的另一种思考。     

Putting teacher experience back into curriculum theory: case studies from Japan 1

Teachers have been understood in their functional role and collective agency in sociology. In this article, the author rethinks the structure and agency dimension of teaching in the context of Japanese school education in transition. The new curriculum in Japan puts emphasis on children’s subjective experience of learning. This article explores the mirroring process of teaching in this curriculum transition from role‐oriented to subject‐focused. The author introduces two experiences as teacher reform movements: a teachers’ association and blogs which write about classroom teaching experiences. The findings suggest that there is a cultural transformation occurring within teachers as a group. For analysis, the author draws on the sociological idea of generations. The transformation in teachers’ self‐consciousness is significant because it creates a gap between self and representation not only externally (how educational reform describes teachers) but internally. The author concludes that this internal experience is ignored in the map of curriculum as structure and teaching as agency.     

The Pneumatic Common: Learning in,with and from the air

Air is an immersive substance that envelopes us and binds us together, yet it has dominantly been taken for granted and left out of educational and other theorizations. This article develops a conceptualization of the pneumatic common in order to address this gap. The specific intervention staged is within recent educational literature on the common by Noah De Lissovoy, Tyson E. Lewis, and Alexander Means. This literature is surveyed and analyzed in relation to educational theory, curriculum, pedagogy, and policy. Claiming that the air is a central feature of and paradigm for the common, I then concentrate on making the air conditions of the educational common explicit. I do this through a theoretical, historical, and sociological reading of air conditioning. While this explicitation is itself educational, I return to the educational common at the end of the article to ask how and what we can learn in, with, and from the air.     

Cultural capital and intellectual ability as predictors of scholastic achievement: a study of Slovenian secondary school students

Cultural capital, originally a general sociological concept, has been transformed into a construct that is often applied in predicting scholastic attainment. Intellectual ability (IQ) has also been proven to be a strong, although basically psychological, predictor of educational attainment. However, these strands of research have hardly been contrasted in terms of their predictive power and in terms of their potential interaction. In the current study of Slovenian secondary school students, the results indicated that both constructs had statistically significant predictive power, both as to attainment and as to transition into type of secondary education. Results also indicated that: both constructs were fairly robust, as their predictive power remained statistically significant even after control variables were entered into the model; and they operated independently as results indicated no interaction between these constructs. The ‘return’ on cultural capital was greater for students whose parents had lower educational status.     

The construction of ‘age difference’ and the impact of age‐mixing within UK further education colleges

‘Age’ is an important social category used to define individuals and groups within our society and, often, to structure access to power, prestige and status. However, within educational research, age has been relatively neglected when compared with other social categories such as gender, class and ethnicity. In an attempt to begin to explore the impact of age within schools and colleges, this paper focuses on students' and teachers' experience of mixed‐age learning groups within the UK further education sector. First, the paper outlines various assumptions about the distinctiveness of age groups that underpin much sociological theorizing as well as current educational policy within the United Kingdom. It then draws on an empirical study of six further education colleges in Yorkshire and the south‐east of England to suggest that the ways in which students and members of staff construct notions of ‘age’ and ‘age difference’ bear little resemblance to the models adopted by policymakers. Nevertheless, the paper goes on to argue that, although there was little consensus about where the boundary between ‘younger’ and ‘older’ learners should be drawn, most respondents were able to identify specific age‐related differences that they believed affected the process of learning. In particular, mixed‐age classes were believed to offer considerable advantages over more age‐homogeneous groups. The final part of the paper explores some of these putative advantages and discusses their significance in the light of current debates about the ‘postponement’ of adulthood and the nature of inter‐generational relationships.     

Tug‐o‐where: situating mobilities of learning (t)here

This article explores ‘mobilities’ as a research framework for learning not so much in terms of what has to be done to enhance learning using mobile technologies. Instead it focuses on our embodied ways of knowing and learning by ‘being mobile’ in physical and mediated spaces. It reviews current mobility frameworks used in mobile learning research and other technology integration studies. It proposes a practice‐based mobility agenda for learning by ‘setting in motion’ not just technologies, but also bodies and spaces from a sociological perspective and a phenomenological standpoint. It seeks to understand what is being done – the re‐configurations of bodies, spaces and technologies in a mobile society that is increasingly characterised by media convergence and ubiquitous connections and communication. To move educational research, a conceptual framework that articulates body‐types in relation to technologies is discussed.     

The end of the credential society? An analysis of the relationship between education and the labour market using big data

ABSTRACT

A major focus of sociological research is on the role of the credential as a ‘currency of opportunity’, mediating the relationship between education and occupational destinations. However, the labour market has largely remained a ‘black box’ in sociological and education policy studies. This article draws on ‘big data’ from over 21,000,000 job adverts to explore how employers in the UK describe job requirements, with particular reference to the role of credentials. It challenges existing theories premised upon the notion that higher levels of formal education determine individual (dis)advantage in the competition for jobs. Although they have different views of the relationship between credentials, opportunity and efficiency, these theories assume that credentials largely determine occupational hiring. Our analysis suggests that formal academic credentials play a relatively minor differentiating role in the UK labour market, as the majority of employer’s place greater emphasis on ‘job readiness’. This raises a number of issues for sociological and policy analysis, including the future role of credentials in the (re)production of educational and labour market inequalities. Methodologically, the article highlights how the use of big data can contribute to the analysis of education, skills and the labour market.     

Curriculum Change as a Form of Educational Policy Legitimation: the case of Spain

ABSTRACT

This paper examines how the main changes in the last Spanish Educational Reform become new forms of state educational control. The article introduces a specific sociological perspective to analyse these changes in semiperipheral social formations. Macro‐contradictions embedded in the process of mass schooling in Spain draw a framework to understand the context and the logics of curriculum change. The extremely acute state legitimation crisis in semiperipheral societies has effects on the structure and the content of curriculum change. These effects are analysed, on the one hand, at the level of educational policy, and, on the other, at the level of school practices, showing the importance of cultural obstacles for curriculum change through teachers’ beliefs and practices.     

More policies,greater inclusion? Exploring the contradictions of New Labour inclusive education policy

The era of New Labour government has witnessed unprecedented growth in inclusive education policies. There is, however, limited evidence that policies have increased disabled children’s inclusion. This article explores reasons for this contradiction. Drawing on sociological insights, it is argued that New Labour policies on inclusive education take their cues from wider neo‐liberal constructions of social exclusion; ideas that point to the personal deficits of the excluded rather than social barriers and inequalities that systematically exclude. Increasingly narrow definitions of educational success are likely to add to this exclusion. This mirrors New Labour’s broader social inclusion agenda in emphasising ‘conditional’ inclusion and an increasingly utilitarian approach to social policy. New Labour, it is argued, needs to review the lessons of history in reducing disabled children’s educational exclusion if real progress is to be made. Warnock’s recent attack on the principle of inclusive education makes this review all the more urgent.     

A Sociological Analysis of Teaching

Teaching is an activity shared by teachers and students; that is, it is an activity in which teachers, in order to realize the goals of education, instruct students in studying. The mutual influence involved is a kind of social interaction. When educators used to talk about the sociological foundations of "teaching," they stressed only the importance of the educational goal of "collectivism" or explored how best to enhance results, from the angle of the teaching process and teacher-student relations, by using "methods of socialization." Most discussions were based on normative study, not analysis of educational theory. Development of the sociology of education in the past decade or more has begun to emphasize "micro" research and employ sociological perspectives and methods to study teaching and the teacher-student relationship. Not only has its contents and concepts become more substantive, the theoretical framework has also become more complete. This article attempts to analyze classroom teaching and the teacherstudent relationship, primarily the sociological foundation of the latter. Second, it will analyze, from the point of view of the social system, classroom teaching activity. Finally, it will conclude with possible approaches to the "sociology of teaching ."     

Understanding working-class 'drop-out' from higher education through a sociocultural lens: Cultural narratives and local contexts

The 'drop-out' of working-class students from universities has been identified as one of the most pressing issues for the higher education (HE) sector in the United Kingdom. This article draws on the initial findings of a major research project that explores the meanings and implications of such withdrawal from HE amongst young working-class people. The article argues that drop-out should be seen not just as an educational problem, but also as a manifestation of sociocultural change. To understand drop-out we need to look beyond student support needs or institutional barriers to cultural narratives and local contexts. This enables us to use a sociological frame to understand the educational question, and employ the educational data to contribute to sociological debates on class. The article analyses 'drop-out' as a self-fulfilling cultural narrative that is increasingly connoted as working class, as well as being a consequence of the material exigencies of working-class circumstances. It illustrates how class identity mutates yet stays the same, with the working class still positioned in terms of 'lack'. Although the possibility of university study has become a part of working-class identity, the expectation that this experience may be 'flawed' or 'spoilt' has also become engrained. The article analyses drop-out as two sides of one coin: as both significantly influenced by local culture and as having a perceived impact upon that culture, with different effects in different locales.     

Sorcery and SSCEP: the cultural context of an educational innovation

The paper highlights the relative neglect by educational planners of a socio‐cullural analysis of the context surrounding the implementation of educational reforms designed to promote rural development in Third World countries. An examination of the sociological and anthropological literature pertaining to both village culture and rural development in Papua New Guinea suggests that there are powerful cultural constraints on schools leavers applying practical skills learned in school on their return to the village. These are exemplified by a discussion of the role of sorcery, the subordinate position of youth, and the divergence between planners’ and villagers’ priorities, and are illustrated with reference to the Secondary Schools Community Extension Project (SSCEP).     

资源与体制:我国私学发展史的社会学分析

我国私学发展的历史源渊流长 ,它对我国教育发展起着重要的作用。用社会学中的“资源—体制”理论框架对社会渐变和社会剧变过程中的私学发展史考察 ,印证了我国私学存在的必要性和必然性。因此 ,在未来的很长一段时间内 ,我国应继续改革教育管理体制 ,大力扶持和发展民办教育 ,以弥补教育资源的不足 ,满足教育需求