Finding a voice – thinking with others: a conception of action research

The main theme of this article is that action research is about seeking a voice with which to speak one's experience and one's ability to learn from that experience. It is also about helping others (our students, our patients, our clients) to find their own voices. Action research is decentralising the production of knowledge. To begin with, the theme is given a historical context by presenting a general contrast between pluralism and managerialism, and the next section articulates the nature of action research by contrasting ‘participatory’ with ‘hierarchical’ structures of knowledge. The next phase of the argument is that an ‘educational’ model of action research (emphasizing continuous self-questioning) does not mean that action research lacks ‘criteria’. The final section makes some suggestions about action research’s inherent criteria by showing how the overall purpose of ‘finding a voice’ and of ‘thinking with others’ requires a particular formulation of the main phases of the inquiry process.     

Finding feminism,finding voice? Mobilising community education to build women's participation in Myanmar's political transition

ABSTRACT

This paper explores the role played by women activists and educators in mobilising community education to support new opportunities for women's activism in the context of Myanmar's political transition. Recent political reorientations in Myanmar which have resulted in a civilian-led democracy emerging from a repressive military regime, have facilitated increased international contact. Myanmar women activist-educators are rejecting hierarchical relationships and the sterile reproductions of idealised female citizenship evident in some training practices and are promoting a conceptualisation of feminist education. I reflect on the dynamics of this feminist activism, including the adaptation of feminist concepts and terminology, as articulated by activists, and I explore responses to the new avenues for women's engagement which are opening up in the first inter-election cycle.     

Researching the pupil voice: what makes a good teaching assistant?

This article reports on a small‐scale research project concerning the views of pupils on what comprises a good teaching assistant (TA). The study indicates that pupils clearly valued the support given to them by TAs. The pupils outlined the main personal and professional characteristics they wanted to see in, as well as the kinds of support they wanted from, a TA. The implications of these data for schools and for TAs themselves are briefly indicated.     

‘Finding Foucault’: orders of discourse and cultures of the self

The idea of finding Foucault first looks at the many influences on Foucault, including his Nietzschean acclamations. It examines Foucault’s critical history of thought, his work on the orders of discourse with his emphasis on being a pluralist: the problem he says that he has set himself is that of the individualization of discourses. Finally, it addresses his work on the culture of the self which became a philosophical and historical question for Foucault later in his life as he investigated the historical form of relations between subjectivity and truth in Western philosophy since Antiquity and how philosophy as an activity taught about the care of the self. The conclusion suggests some ways that students might approach his work as they proceed in finding Foucault and their own selves.     

Friends’ influence on the development of academic values in mathematics: are there differences between female and male dyads?

European Journal of Psychology of Education - Based on the social cognitive theory and the emotional contagion theory, this study investigated if friends influence (reinforce or change) the...     

The private self and literacy, a synopsis Hans Straub traces the development of silent reading and the ‘ inner voice＇

In the English language there are many expressions and words that indicate our high valuation of the individual. Any dictionary will give you several pages of words that have ‘self‘ as a component. Philosophically, self is synonymous with the ego,but encompasses one‘s nature, one‘s uniqueness, in short,one‘s individuality, which has come to be positively valued in Western culture. In fact, the idea of self and being has become interwoven in Western culture. What accounts for therelatively high valuation placed on the self in the West as compared, a lesser valuation of the same in other, more collectivistic cultures?     

On entrepreneurship,in a different voice? Finnish entrepreneurship education and pupils’ critical narratives of the entrepreneur

This study set out to explore the narratives of entrepreneurship that 15–16-year-old pupils in their last grade of comprehensive school produced in the Finnish annual writing competition Good Enterprise! We focused on narratives that can be categorized as tragedies, satires, comedies, and crime stories (N?=?219). In these stories, the pupils challenge the political ideal of the risk-taking entrepreneur by arguing for sustainable development and social justice as bases for entrepreneurship. On the one hand, the critical representations of entrepreneurs arise from the Protestant work ethic, and thus the values constructed in these stories are close to stories that can be characterized as romances of the modest entrepreneur where the motive for entrepreneurship was not the accumulation of material wealth. On the other hand, these critical stories represent “entrepreneur and consumer pathologies,” and hence make a mockery of the core neoliberal values of autonomy, competition, and choice.     

From the voice of a ‘socratic gadfly’: a call for more academic activism in the researching of disability in postsecondary education

Abstract

In this article, I use the lens of voices and silences to frame my review of research in the field of disability and postsecondary education. I argue that we need to view research in this field as a necessarily political act that seeks to turn voices of silence into voices of change. Researchers therefore need to rethink their role in order to understand how they can use and direct their political voices. In order to persuade researchers to heed my call for more academic activism, adopt the role of a ‘socratic gadfly’ to identify six political areas of research where I argue that voices and silences need more critical examination. In discussing these six areas, I hope to illuminate the implications for ‘genuinely investigative’ research in the future.     

Who teaches mathematics content courses for prospective elementary teachers in the USA? Results of a second national survey

This article reports on a second national survey of higher education institutions in the USA to answer the question “Who teaches mathematics content courses for prospective elementary teachers, and what are these instructors’ academic and teaching backgrounds?” and addresses valuable information not collected with the first survey conducted in 2010. We surveyed 1740 institutions and a faculty member from each of 413 institutions (23.7%) participated in the survey. The survey results demonstrate that the majority of these institutions are not meeting the recommendations of the Conference Board of Mathematical Sciences (2012) and the Association of Mathematics Teacher Educators (2017) for prospective elementary teachers to take at least 12 semester-hour credits of mathematics content designed specifically for them. The data do indicate that there is movement toward more activity-based approaches for these courses as compared to the 2010 survey. Additionally, there is an increase in these courses having instructors with doctorates in mathematics education as well as an increase in instructors having grades 7–12 teaching experience. Most instructors for these courses do not have elementary teaching experience and have likely not had opportunities to think deeply about the important ideas in elementary mathematics. While most institutions still do not provide training and/or support for these instructors, formalized support and training appear to be increasing since the 2010 survey.

     

Who teaches mathematics content courses for prospective elementary teachers in the United States? Results of a national survey

This article reports on a national survey of higher education institutions in the United States to answer the question, “Who teaches mathematics content courses for prospective elementary teachers, and what are these instructors’ academic and teaching backgrounds?” We surveyed 1,926 institutions, and a faculty member from each of 825 institutions (42.8?%) participated in the survey. The survey results demonstrate that the majority of institutions are not meeting the recommendations of the Conference Board of the Mathematical Sciences (The mathematical education of teachers. American Mathematical Society, Providence, RI, 2001), the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (Professional standards for teaching mathematics. National Council of Teachers of Mathematics, Reston, VA, 2005), and the National Council on Teacher Quality (Greenberg and Walsh 2008) for prospective elementary teachers to take at least nine credits of mathematics content designed specifically for them. Additionally, most instructors for these courses do not have elementary teaching experience and have likely not had opportunities to think deeply about the important ideas in elementary mathematics, and most institutions do not provide training and/or support for these instructors.     

History of mathematics in secondary school teachers’ training: towards a nonviolent mathematics education

In the context of mathematics teachers’ training, the concept of dépaysement épistémologique (epistemological disorientation) emphasizes that the contact with the history of mathematics, particularly with the use of original sources, pushes aside commonplace students’ perspectives about the discipline and offers them a critical look towards mathematics’s historical, social and cultural aspects. Conceptually supported by the theory of objectivation, an emergent sociocultural theory in mathematics education, this study describes the dépaysement épistémologique lived by future mathematics teachers engaged in the reading of historical texts. A phenomenological approach allowed us to clarify various meanings associated with students’ lived experiences and a dialogical perspective provides a way to get these meanings in tension through a polyphonic narration. Our reading of this polyphonic narration suggests that dépaysement épistémologique associated with the reading of historical texts encouraged empathy from students towards the authors and their future learners, opening up the possibility for a nonviolent mathematics education.     

A discipline apart: the challenges of ‘Fostering a Community of Learners’ in a mathematics classroom

This is the fifth in a series that examines the challenges that teachers in different domains face as they attempt to implement the pedagogical reform ‘Fostering a Community of Learners’ (FCL). Here we focus on the relationship between FCL and the teaching of mathematics. We argue that it is possible to teach mathematics through the FCL pedagogy, but that doing so requires some rethinking of both mathematics instruction and FCL. In particular, we describe three shifts that aided a teacher's implementation of FCL pedagogy with mathematics: the teacher developed a new perspective on mathematics that emphasized the importance of having students learn both mathematical concepts and processes; the teacher developed a new understanding of the role of the teacher in mathematics‐education reform; and the teacher modified his understanding of FCL, coming to believe that a discourse community could be the basis for FCL pedagogy in a mathematics classroom.     

The ��M�� in SMEC: a short history of the mathematics education presence

In this paper I examine the history of the integration of mathematics education into the Science Education Centre, which had been established by physicist, John de Laeter, within the School of Science and Engineering at Curtin University in Perth, Australia. De Laeter’s vision for science education was that teachers should have access to professional education that allowed them to extend their discipline and pedagogical knowledge using strategies that brought together theory and practice in ways that were meaningful for teachers. This model was expanded when mathematics education was also included, paving the way also for technology education. I present the history of this integration laying out the themes that are important for the continued educational effectiveness of the Science and Mathematics Education Centre (SMEC) and the role that mathematics education has played in this process. As the title suggests, this article focuses on the activities of the group of mathematics educators who have worked within the Science and Mathematics Education Centre of Curtin University since it was established 30 or so years ago and who have contributed to its reputation. The two streams operated then and now more-or-less independently in matters of student thesis topic choice but offered students opportunities for interaction that might not have been available if the “M” had not been incorporated into the Science Education Centre (SEC). This article’s focus is on the mathematics educators who contributed to the Centre’s success and reputation, highlighting the synergistic relationship between mathematics and science that helped to make SMEC a leading center for mathematics and science education.