‘If they can say it they can write it’: Inclusive pedagogies for senior secondary physical education

Pedagogical practices are fundamental to teachers' work, and in the spaces of schooling impact significantly on students' success and achievement (Evans, J. 1986. Physical Education, Sport and Schooling: Studies in the Sociology of Physical Education. London: Falmer Press.). This is especially the case for students from disadvantaged backgrounds who are deeply reliant on schooling for their educational resources. This article explores the interrelationships between pedagogical practices, the physical education curriculum at the senior secondary level and learning by both students and a teacher in a school located in an area of socio-economic disadvantage. Action research investigating a pedagogical redesign of a unit of ‘Skill Acquisition’ is the specific focus. Of key interest are pedagogical practices that incorporated opportunities to learn ‘about’ Skill Acquisition ‘through’ and ‘in’ movement. These practices attempted to develop and apply scientific literacies specific to the human movement sciences, which are important for academic success in senior secondary physical education. Findings reveal high student engagement, increasing utilisation of scientific literacies and application of new learning to life-world situations. We argue that pedagogical practices that integrate learning ‘about’ ‘through’ and ‘in’ movement disrupt default modes of teaching theoretical concepts in physical education, which diminish opportunities for academic success amongst students from low-socio-economic backgrounds.     

Writing the Self: Wittgenstein,Confession and Pedagogy

In this paper I investigate ‘the confessional’ as an aspect of Wittgenstein's style both as a mode of philosophising and as a mode of ‘writing the self’, tied explicitly to pedagogical practices. There are strong links between Wittgenstein's confessional mode of philosophising and his life—for him philosophy is a way of life —and interesting theoretical connections between confessional practices and pedagogy, usefully explored in the writings of the French philosopher, Michel Foucault. The Investigations provides a basis and springboard for understanding the notion of ‘writing the self’ as a pedagogical practice which encourages a confessional mode compelling us to tell the truth about ourselves and, thus, creating the conditions for ethico‐poetical self‐constitution.     

Mind the gap: Dewey on educational bridge‐building

This is the first of four commentaries discussing John Dewey's short essay, ‘Education as engineering’. The essay provides a fascinating model of how the example of engineering could guide the interaction between educational research and practice. It has much in common with Herbart's ideas on how ‘pedagogical tact’ bridges the gap between theory and practice. Re‐introducing both Dewey and Herbart's ideas could help to overcome the current naivity of ‘evidence‐based’ school improvement.     

‘Do they think we live in huts?’ – Cultural essentialism and the challenges of facilitating professional development in cross-cultural settings

Depending on the particular definition of culture they employ, pedagogical approaches meant to promote integration, inclusion, and empowerment across cultural divides can end up magnifying existing feelings of alienation, exclusion, and disempowerment. This article explores the negative consequences that can arise when ‘funds of knowledge’ approaches are employed to construct ‘culturally responsive pedagogy’ through the case of the Sharing the Environment programme, a situated professional development programme that sought to promote inquiry-based environmental education at the elementary school level. The programme directors' efforts to mediate the cultural differences between the different groups of participating teachers inadvertently engendered a process of ‘othering’ that actually inflamed the ethnocentric opinions participants had of one another. I argue that the reasons their well-intentioned, theoretically grounded efforts failed so spectacularly have to do with their reliance on a particular, essentialised concept of ‘culture’ that entered science education research in the 1950s and remains at the heart of funds of knowledge pedagogical approaches.     

Philosophical Walks as Place-Based Environmental Education

Place-based education has a long tradition in philosophy, and has been a cherished pedagogy for many in the field of environment studies. The practice of taking students outdoors to discover nature is first traced back to foundations in ancient Greece, in the writings of local chroniclers and in the teachings of Aristotle and the Stoics, and then into the Enlightenment and Progressive movement with Rousseau and Dewey. Contemporary bases are also surveyed in the pioneering work of Orr and Sobel, and the Heidegger-inspired writings of Ingold, Tuan, Relph and Bonnett. An instance of this immersive approach to teaching is then narrated, based on the author's repertoire in conducting place-based environmental education on the University of Toronto campus. Offering sketches of the different kinds of pedagogical interventions and resources used, it is hoped that this particular case will inspire readers to develop their own album of locally developed outdoor lessons. The ‘Philosopher's Walk’ depicted is a real place in Toronto (as in Kyoto), but it is also ‘imaginary’ in the sense of being a free-space for group or independent modes of critical and creative inquiry, adopting Goethe's and Hesse's concept of ‘pedagogical provinces’ for excursively playful self-discovery.     

Experience is Not The Whole Story: The Integral Role of the Situation in Dewey's Democracy and Education

The central objective of Dewey's Democracy and Education is to explain ‘what is needed to live a meaningful life and how can education contribute?’ While most acquainted with Dewey's educational philosophy know that ‘experience’ plays a central role, the role of ‘situations’ may be less familiar or understood. This essay explains why ‘situation’ is inseparable from ‘experience’ and deeply important to Democracy and Education’s educational methods and rationales. First, a prefatory section explores how experience is invoked and involved in pedagogical practice, especially experience insofar as it is (a) experimental, (b) direct, and (c) social‐moral in character. The second and main section on situations follows. After a brief introduction to Dewey's special philosophical use of ‘situation’, I examine how situations are implicated in (a) student interest and motivation; (b) ‘aims’ and ‘criteria’ in problem‐solving; and (c) moral education (habits, values, and judgements). What should become abundantly clear from these examinations is that there could be no such thing as meaningful education, as Dewey understood it, without educators’ conscious, intentional, and imaginative deployment of experience and situations.     

Do nontask interactions matter? The relationship between nontask sociability of computer supported collaborative learning and learning outcomes

While technological improvements of the computer supported collaborative learning (CSCL) have been substantial, its nontask social aspect has not received proportional attention. This study investigates the notion of nontask sociability of CSCL, and identifies its relationship with the students' learning outcomes using the case of an Australian postgraduate programme. Learning outcome is defined as a multiple variable consisting of pedagogical affect, student's interest and perceived learning. Five items were identified for operationalising the nontask sociability. These are ‘finding help’, ‘sense of appealing’, ‘sense of boringness’, ‘sense of interactivity’ and ‘sense of frustration’. In addition, a strong relationship was revealed between nontask sociability and learning outcomes which implies that further attention needs to be given to the nontask aspect of the CSCL interactions. Theoretical and practical implications of the findings are then discussed.     

English and French pedagogical cultures: convergence and divergence in Cameroonian primary school teachers' discourse

This article approaches the phenomenon of the continuing influence of French and English pedagogical cultures in Africa relying on post-modern notions of time and space. It reports on a project carried out in Cameroon where both cultures are in contact and where the teachers from two primary schools were observed and interviewed over a period of five weeks each. The data collected is interpreted as revealing divergent professional contexts within which the teachers' discourse about their professional roles and the place of languages rests on assumptions reminiscent of the pedagogical values of the former colonisers. However, teachers from both schools are strongly in favour of maintaining French and English as medium of education. The significance of the phenomena reported is critically discussed to highlight new discontinuities in present day Cameroon which transform these apparently sharp distinctions: the disjunction between the notion of place and the medium of education, the fast evolving meanings of ‘French’ ‘English’ and ‘bilingualism’ in the twenty first century and the fact that schools are multilingual sites. The paper concludes that the differences in the way teachers construct their professional identities has prevented them from developing a joint pedagogical repertoire and that lack of mutual understanding might be a reason for the reported mere ‘cohabitation’ provided by bilingual schools.     

Constructing and educating 'problem children': the case of post-communist Estonia

Estonia is a post-communist Baltic state in which neoliberal market ideologies and still prevailing socialist norms exist side by side in educational policies and practices. It is no longer self-evident what is ‘normal’ and what is ‘problematic’. Special education class for students regarded as having problems is a new innovation in Estonia. The paper analyses the history and current changes and discusses how a ‘problem child’ is constructed in Estonian teachers' perceptions and in the pedagogical methods used with these children. The paper draws on teachers' writings and on an ethnographic study in a special education class. Some comparisons with Finnish educational policies and ethnographic research on secondary schools are made. The findings suggests that in Estonia, a ‘problem child’ is a student who does not conform to the norms of the school, and in focus is behaviour that disturbs the teacher: problems in relation to schools' regulations of time, voice, embodiment and equipment, lack of engagement and unruly behaviour. We reflect the Estonian case with some comparisons with Finland using the concept ‘professional pupil’ introduced in an ethnographic research.     

Progressive education and the case of a bilingual Palestinian-Arab and Jewish co-existence school in Israel

The purpose of this paper is to exemplify a ‘grass-roots’ change based on Dewey's experimental progressive education model employed in the ‘Bridge over the Valley’ bilingual school, a Palestinian-Arab and Jewish school in Israel. In order to identify the progressive ‘approach' underlying this change, the ‘method' that guided the implementation of a bilingual school, it's evaluation and then its dissemination to other schools, we used a qualitative case study method to understand whether John Dewey’s theory of education for peace was able to effect change in Palestinian-Arab and Jewish school education in Israel. The case findings describes the use of the progressive approach of education for peace in the ‘Bridge over the Valley’ bilingual school, as it is expressed in the school’s pedagogy, the implementation of the progressive method and in the accompanying discourse. Reciprocal teacher–child relations are considered an important factor to create fertile conditions for learning. The case findings contribute to our introduction of democratic education in a spatial reality. Underlying this approach stood a pedagogical method and conceptualization for conflict resolution and the opening of a space for empowering dialog for co-existence.     

Sophia's funds of knowledge: theoretical and pedagogical insights,possibilities and dilemmas

Children's interests and thinking emanate from their daily lived experiences in their families, communities and cultures. This paper substantiates the view that the construct of ‘funds of knowledge’, understood through the lens of ‘cultural repertoires of practice’, provides an analytical tool for early years teachers to interpret their observations of, and conversations with, young children. The paper reports findings from a qualitative case study in early childhood settings of children's interests and thinking. The methods included participant observation, interviews with teachers and children and gathering of pedagogical documentation. This paper specifically draws on and problematises the funds of knowledge and related gendered thinking that a young Chinese girl revealed through her interests and practices. It argues that although the construct of funds of knowledge provides an authentic conceptual framework to guide and justify teachers' pedagogical decision-making, it should not be accepted uncritically. The concept may raise some issues for teachers' responses to children's thinking and relationships with diverse families. Teachers and researchers have future work to undertake to understand children's complex cultural knowledges and positionings in an increasingly globalised world.     

Without Criteria: Art and Learning and the Adventure of Pedagogy

A key aim of this article is to present a discursus on learning and teaching in the context of art education that softens transcendent historical and ideological framings of art education and its purpose. In contrast it places emphasis upon the immanence and necessary transcendence of local events of learning that occur in whatever framing and which have the potential to extend our comprehension of what art and learning can become. It recommends a ‘pedagogical reversal’ whereby external transcendent lenses and their respective knowledge and criteria for practice are relaxed and proposes a pedagogy ‘without criteria’. A key pedagogical issue revolves around ‘how something matters’ for a learner in his or her experience of a learning encounter and trying to comprehend this ‘mattering’ constitutes a pedagogical adventure for a teacher. The notion of mattering in the context of art practice and learning cannot be divorced from the force of art which is the motive force that precipitates a potential for learning and can expand our understanding of what art and learning can become. The article is therefore premised on the idea that it is not a case of coming to understand art through established knowledge and practice but the force of art challenging us to think. The force of art, or art's event, can be conceived therefore as a process with a potential for the individuation of new worlds or to see that other worlds might be possible.     

007 Spies,surveillance and pedagogical middle leadership: for the good of the empire of education

ABSTRACT

This research critically examines the role of pedagogical leadership as it is distributed amongst middle leaders. It seeks to better understand the playful utility of a popular culture metaphor as a frame for understanding empirical data about pedagogical leadership in two Australian schools during a period of imposed curriculum change. Utilising ‘the theory of practice architectures’ (Kemmis, Stephen, Jane Wilkinson, Christine Edwards-Groves, Ian Hardy, Peter Grootenboer, and Laurette Bristol. 2014. Changing Practices, Changing Education. Wagga Wagga: Springer), the paper explores a direct quotation as metaphor from several pedagogical middle leaders that ‘we’re spies’ – and from one participant, ‘in a good James Bond sort of way.’ This research plays with and interprets the politics of practice including collaborating or ‘licensed trouble shooting’, and empowerment or ‘interrogation’ in everyday pedagogical leadership practice where distributing leadership may create espionage, or compliance during reform. Educational reform is espoused for ‘the good of the empire’ of education through the enabling and constraining practices of pedagogical middle leaders.     

Inclusive pedagogies in digital post-Covid-19 higher education

The Covid-19 pandemic has not only led to medical conundrums and uncharted scientific territories but has also engendered new educational challenges and opportunities that need to be considered in order to reconceptualise, recalibrate and reconfigure higher education in terms of its inclusive foundations and orientations. While current research has highlighted the role of digital teaching methodologies in creating the ‘new normal’ in higher education in the post-Covid-19 era, the ‘new normal’ must be concomitantly envisaged in terms of the role of higher education in fostering more inclusive e-learning spaces. This article discusses the ways in which the tenets of an inclusive pedagogical discourse can be conceptualized and enacted in virtual learning environments in terms of teaching methodologies, learner-centred content delivery and formative assessment implementation. The pedagogical triptych should be underpinned by an inclusive and equity-based ‘cyberculture’ that constitutes a sine qua non element in developing all students' sense of belonging and learning in higher education.     

What remains of history? Historical epistemology and historical understanding in Scotland's Curriculum for Excellence

This paper critically examines the framing of historical knowledge in the primary and ‘broad general education’ phases (ages 4–14) of Scotland's Curriculum for Excellence. The paper focuses on curriculum documentation, particularly the curriculum's aims and ‘Experiences and Outcomes’ and evaluates these in light of recent research on children's historical understanding. It is argued that the decision to frame historical understanding as ‘People, Past Events and Societies’ within the context of a ‘social studies’ curriculum area has been motivated by a misunderstanding of history's unique disciplinary identity. It is argued that history curricula must take account of the unique ontological and epistemological challenges posed by investigating the past and that by failing to do this, ‘Curriculum for Excellence’ offers children in Scotland a problematic representation of what it means to study the past. The paper challenges the curriculum in both epistemic and pedagogical terms, before suggesting that a rigorous study of history as a discipline can make a valuable contribution to children's personal and social development.     

Re-conceptualizing college and university teaching through the lens of adult education: regarding undergraduates as adults

In this paper, I advocate for enhancing critical thinking skill development in undergraduate education by taking advantage of the increased experiential maturity of today's students. I argue that many undergraduates are in fact ‘adults’, by virtue of their age or experiential maturity, and they should be educated as such. Undergraduates who have not yet transitioned into ‘adulthood’ would also benefit greatly from exposure to the adult education teaching techniques that emphasize critical thinking development. The demographics of higher education today demand a reexamination of outdated pedagogical practices. Considering college and university students to be the adults that most of them are, or soon will be, would more effectively educate all of today's undergraduate students.     

Finding Truth in ‘Lies’: Nietzsche's Perspectivism and its Relation to Education

In his 2001 article ‘Teaching to Lie and Obey: Nietzsche on Education’, Stefan Ramaekers defends Nietzsche's concept of perspectivism against the charge that it is relativistic. He argues that perspectivism is not relativistic because it denies the dichotomy between the ‘true’ world and the ‘seeming’ world, a dichotomy central to claims to relativism. While Ramaekers' article is correct in denying relativistic interpretations of perspectivism it does not go far enough in this direction. In fact, the way Ramaekers makes his case may actually encourage the charge of relativism, especially when it comes to his appropriation of perspectivism for education. This article proposes to pick up where Ramaekers left off. It will argue that Nietzsche's denial of the opposition between the ‘true’ world and the ‘seeming’ world opens up the possibility for the reestablishment of truth, albeit in a modified form. After examining Nietzsche's modified ‘realist’ epistemology, the paper will explore the implications of it for his philosophy of education. It will be argued that Nietzsche's educational philosophy is founded on his concept of perspectivism in so far as he demands that students be rigorously inculcated into a pedagogical framework that teaches students to discriminate between ‘true’ and ‘false’ perspectives. This framework is essential for the development of an intellectually robust and life‐affirming culture.     

Becoming a coach: reform,identity, and the pedagogy of negation

This article examines one US high school teacher's attempt to become a coach by enacting what I call ‘a pedagogy of negation’. For this teacher, the challenge of becoming a coach is nested within a wider agenda of social and personal transformation. That agenda is symbolized first in words as she constructs ‘a language of coaching’ to inform her interactions with students and content as well her conception of herself as a teacher. Second, talk is transformed into pedagogical action through, as described by Driver, the ‘playful work’ of ritualized negation. I argue that the phenomenon of negation is a logical sense-making strategy for teachers attempting to realise transformed pedagogical identities. Negation also reveals a range of uncertainties involved in enacting the practice of coaching. As this case reveals, the pedagogy of negation is constructed as a corrective to restrictive and oppressive forms of schooling. It serves as a mechanism for ‘becoming’ a different, presumably better, kind of teacher. And though the results are mixed, this portrait of practice in the midst of change illuminates the complex and reciprocal links between identity and practice entailed in becoming a coach.     

Living in contradiction without shame: the challenge of intertextual response in GCSE poetry

Changes to the GCSE Literature syllabuses introduced in 2004 have raised a number of pedagogical challenges for teachers and their pupils. One of the most significant is the increased emphasis on intertextuality. In many ways, the fact that students are now expected to be able to make comparisons between texts, as well as to locate them within their political, social and historical context, is to be welcomed. However, this shift in emphasis from the relation between text and reader to one between text and text could threaten the importance of personal response. Insecure readers, particularly, may find it difficult to achieve and demonstrate the appropriate qualities of critical detachment—with their emphasis on complex skills of analysis, synthesis and evaluation—which the new assessment objectives demand. This article explores one young writer's response to an examination question designed to test these skills and seeks to offer some pedagogical explanations for the candidate's relative lack of success in meeting two key examination imperatives: ‘choose’ and ‘compare’.     

Teacher Educators: hidden professionals?

The pace of change in today's society means that there is an ongoing need for teachers to learn, have new knowledge and use new pedagogical approaches to meet the needs of their pupils. For many teachers, this requires redefining their identity as teachers and what ‘teaching’ means in 21st century learning environments. These changes also require teachers to be supported in learning to ‘teach’ in different ways that are relevant to their own individual needs and to the contexts in which they work throughout their career. In this article, it is argued that a more integrated and collaborative approach to teacher education is needed with better understanding of those who take up the roles of teacher educator across a teacher's career. With a particular emphasis on ‘teacher educators’ working in school to support teachers' career-long professional learning it is argued that currently many do not recognise themselves as teacher educators nor are they recognised by those they work with as teacher educators. Drawing on an empirical study carried out with mentors in schools in Scotland, it is suggested that these teacher educators may be ‘unrecognised’ and remain ‘hidden professionals’ because of the identities they construct for themselves, the values and priorities that they or others attach to their roles or because of the institutional structures and cultures in which they work. It is concluded that it will be difficult to recognise and value these ‘hidden teacher educators’ and the distinctive contribution they can make to teachers' career-long professional learning without further clarification by them and others of the roles and responsibilities they hold.