行动者网络理论:教育研究的新视界

奠基于事物为本哲学的行动者网络理论在过去的三十年间被广泛应用于社会科学领域,并对以非还原论实质观为核心的关系本体论、以认识论同等效力原理为旨趣的政治认识论、以"行动者网络"为基础的社会科学方法论的形成与开创创造了条件。行动者网络理论主要由"行动者"、"转译"、"网络"和"网络效应"等核心概念所组成,作为一种新的认识论视角和复杂对象的理论分析方法,它撼动了教育研究之还原论基石,使其直面教育实践;重构已有的教育学基本概念,还抽象符号以本真;去教育学的人类与社会中心化,拓展新的研究域;最终发展起具体的描述分析方法,跟随行动者重组教育。     

Voluntary responsible bodies in English adult Education

Abstract

The paper examines the future prospects for educational research as conducted in UK universities and colleges of higher education in the light of current general changes in the organisation, funding and culture of higher education, and in respect of specific changes in the initial and in service training of teachers. It includes a critical examination of the claim made by some educational researchers that their research constitutes a special case, differentiated from other social science and humanities disciplines, both by the routes into educational research and the concerns of those who practise it. It is suggested that the special case argument for the alleged distinctiveness of educational research is largely unjustified, and does not contribute positively to the future prospects of that research or kelp to ease the relative isolation of educational researchers. Alliances between educational researchers, and those researching in the social sciences are advocated as one strategy which will help both partners. It is also suggested that educational researchers should try to ensure that novel and existing modes of training new researchers such as doctoral programmes, make connections with the training of other beginning researchers, rather than dividing would‐be educational researchers from their counterparts in other disciplinary or interdisciplinary areas.     

Complexity Conceptual Perspectives for Research About Educational Complex Systems

Abstract

This article is premised on the observation that in educational research there is an increasing use of terminology and concepts related to the field of complexity and the study of complex physical, biological, and social systems. As we are at an early stage in this cross-fertilization of complex systems ideas and methods in educational research, this article provides an overview of key complex systems conceptual perspectives and research methods in conjunction with a discussion of why educational researchers should consider their use. It is hoped that this overview of complex systems concepts and nomenclature used to describe research that views education as a complex system will help promote a broader awareness and acceptance of this work in the educational research community.     

Making Design Education (Even More) Complex: Exploring Complexity for an Amplified Mindset of Design

An Amplified Mindset of Design (AMD) has emerged from recent research on emerging design practices, as designers are once again re‐inventing their identity to include an adaptability to uncertainty and paradox. However, this is not yet visible in what design education offers. As designers intervene in complex contexts and embrace participatory, collaborative and interdisciplinary practices informed by strong ethical and sustainability concerns, design education must adjust and expand its scope to include, for example, collaboration, cross‐cultural and interdisciplinary skills, and a way of being in the world through design. In this article, I argue for the formal introduction and exploration of social complexity in design education to assist the development of an AMD in design students. Boundaries, dependence on context, edge of chaos, emergence and organisation were identified as key qualities of complex systems to introduce to students. Embodiment and visualisation techniques were used as the most appropriate vehicles for such an endeavour. In this article, I discuss the results of a qualitative research informed by action research in which I explore ways of teaching complexity to design students. The inquiry was driven by the following core research question: How can complexity can be taught in design education using visual and embodiment methods to encourage the development of an Amplified Mindset of Design?     

跨学科与博士生培养：美国顶尖研究型大学社科类人才培养研究

跨学科理念滥觞于美国,在知识生产模式转型背景下,由单一学科向跨学科的结合与转变不仅是社会科学发展的内在要求,更是解决日益复杂的现实社会问题的客观需要。当代科学发展与知识创新越来越呈现出学科交叉、融合、渗透以及整体化的趋势,新的知识生产呈现跨学科性的基本特征。知识贵为整体,过度分化的学科知识消解了社会科学研究者对复杂的社会事实与问题的认识能力,以及消解了作为整体的思想活动的能量。跨学科研究与人才培养受复杂问题的解决需求与知识创新的驱动而生,美国研究型大学重审原有培养"学科守门人"的博士生培养模式,将跨学科理念融入博士生培养全过程。跨学科研究与人才培养逐渐成为世界顶尖研究型大学博士生教育改革与发展的重要趋势。本研究通过对美国顶尖研究型大学社科类博士生跨学科培养的理念与实践以及组织制度保障进行研究,为其他研究型大学的跨学科人才培养提供借鉴价值。     

论教育科学研究的跨学科交叉融合

传统的学科化教育研究在推动教育学科发展的同时正遭遇着无法应对新兴科学技术引发的教育难题挑战的困境。为提升破解重大教育问题的能力,教育科学研究必须走向跨学科交叉融合。教育科学研究的跨学科交叉融合就是对教育的跨学科交叉融合研究,其实质就是采取学科交叉、渗透和融合的跨学科方式来研究教育问题。教育科学研究的跨学科交叉融合是不同学科在思维、方法、技术和语言等方面的全面融合,是超越学科边界、淡化学科立场而回到事情本身、面向真实教育问题的学科整合研究,其目的在于生成新的教育研究范式,提高教育科学研究创新能力和服务水平。探索自然科学和人文社会科学的大类交叉,强化前沿科学和新兴技术与教育教学的深度融合研究是教育跨学科交叉融合研究的重点方向和内容。为推动跨学科交叉融合教育研究的深入开展,有必要采取切实有效的措施应对各种困难和挑战。     

Whose knowledge,whose values? the contribution of local knowledge to education policy processes: a case study of research development initiatives in the small state of Saint Lucia

This paper draws upon a case study of education in the small Caribbean state of Saint Lucia (population 154,000) to examine how local knowledge and values can influence the education policy process. It is argued that recent research development initiatives have strengthened the ability of Saint Lucia to mediate international education agendas to suit its distinctive ‘social ecology’ and circumstances as a small state. Saint Lucians, it is argued, are reconceptualizing educational research in ways that better reflect the society's Kwéyòl‐majority culture, oral traditions and postcolonial context. The boundaries of educational research are therefore being stretched to incorporate local knowledge and values and multiple modes of meaning‐making. The paper argues that increased recognition of the epistemological issues and cultural values that are at the heart of efforts to strengthen research capacity can play a crucial role in democratizing the education policy process and educational research itself.     

教育人口研究新探

教育人口是指受过教育的人口总称。教育人口作为一个新兴的领域,它的研究是跨学科的。教育人口学的研究,目前仍处于初创阶段,研究内容仍以"教育与人口的关系研究"为主。无论作为领域或学科,教育人口研究对知识增进与问题解决兼具价值。教育人口研究需由跨学科形态走向学科形态,并不断深化和拓展教育人口学的研究范围。     

Special needs education as a social system: responding to the challenge of methodology

In this concluding article we discuss how the different contributors of this special issue deal with the methodological challenges in special needs education research. The shift from an individual perspective towards an interactional and systemic point of view in special educational needs research has introduced research methods that are able to describe the complexity and the recursiveness of the social reality under study. The different studies presented in this issue provide interesting illustrations of some of these methods. The discussion of these studies makes it clear that social cultural theory is a useful framework for research on special needs education. It is suggested that in their investigations researchers should attach importance to the meaning of discourse and keep their minds open to change and new challenges.     

Learning and teaching policies in higher education: mediations and contradictions of practice

Abstract This article utilises Rokeach's categorisation of values (i.e. moral, competency, personal and social) to analyse how values influence the choice of research method. It discusses how the ontological and epistemological position adopted by the researcher is influenced by their competency and personal values. The next section is concerned with the social values (or politics) of educational research, where the debate has polarised between those advocating a value‐neutral approach and those who argue that researchers should instead accept the partisan nature of research. Finally, the issue of research ethics is considered. Moral values are found to play an important role, but other values also influence the ethical decisions that are taken. The article concludes by highlighting how the complex interaction of the researcher's moral, competency, personal and social values has an important influence on the research process. The article contends that research methods cannot be value‐free in their application, but researchers should adopt a reflexive approach and attempt to be honest and open about how values influence their research.     

Diffraction or reflection? Sketching the contours of two methodologies in educational research

Internationally, an interest is emerging in a growing body of work on what has become known as ‘diffractive methodologies’ drawing attention to ontological aspects of research. Diffractive methodologies have largely been developed in response to a dissatisfaction with practices of ‘reflexivity’, which are seen to be grounded in a representational paradigm and the epistemological aspects of research. While work on ‘reflexivity’ and ‘critical reflection’ has over the years become predominant in educational and social science research methodology literature, our reading indicates that there is still important conceptual work to be done putting these two practices – reflection and diffraction – in conversation with each other and exploring their continuities and breaks as well as examining the consequences for research methodologies in education. This article raises important questions about how the concepts of diffraction and reflection are defined and understood and discusses the methodological implications for educational research.     

The force of habit: channelling young bodies at alternative education spaces

This article develops a novel conceptual framework for examining the (re)formulation of habits in education spaces. It is based on the premise that education spaces are key sites for channelling and intervening in children’s habits, to various ends. The article focuses on the ways educators at alternative education spaces in the United Kingdom seek to (re)formulate children’s habits. In some cases, they do so to combat social exclusion, dealing with some of the most vulnerable children in the UK’s educational system. Drawing on the habit-theories of Ravaisson and Dewey, and commensurate post-human, more-than-social approaches to childhood, the article proposes a two-fold conceptualisation of habit: as ‘(re)calibration’ and as ‘contagion’. The article draws on empirical examples taken from 10 years’ research across 59 alternative education spaces in the United Kingdom. Developing recent educational scholarship on bodies, emotions and affects, it develops an expanded, post-human notion of ‘collective’ habits that might offer a conceptual language for challenging and imagining alternatives to the perceived problems of the neoliberal educational mainstream. However, the article closes by posing some critical questions for further scholarship about why educators might specifically choose to intervene into children’s habits – not least in terms of inclusion and social justice.     

Valuing epistemic diversity in educational research: an agenda for improving research impact and initial teacher education

Research in education draws upon a wide range of epistemological traditions due in part to the wide range of problems that are investigated. While this diversity might be considered a strength of the field, it also makes researchers who work within it vulnerable to being divided into those worth listening to and those who should be ignored by ‘end-users’. These people and groups who are interested in the outcomes of educational research, such as policy makers and system providers, increasingly expect research findings to be accessible, and to inform questions of the ‘what works’ variety. Under this imperative, research processes that elaborate the complexity of educational problems, and the provisional, partial and contingent nature of solutions, tend to be dismissed as unnecessarily complex and inaccessible. Epistemological diversity in educational research also presents challenges for inducting teacher education students into the profession. We outline some of these challenges in a discussion of epistemological diversity in research in education. We also describe differences in how research traditions construct educational problems. We argue that crossing epistemic boundaries is a necessary condition of the educational practices of teachers and of those preparing to join their ranks. We compare and contrast knowledge-producing processes in education and identify the repertoires of capabilities and habits of mind associated with different epistemologies or ‘angles’. We suggest that the impact of educational research, including its contribution to teacher education programs, policy and public debate about issues in education, might be enhanced through a heuristic suite of four angles that are each understood to be necessary but not sufficient on their own. We provide a brief worked example of how such a heuristic might be applied to make sense of the diverse bodies of research regarding student engagement in school.     

Locked out: researching destinations and outcomes for pupils excluded from special schools and Pupil Referral Units

This article explores the methodological challenges encountered during a study of destinations and outcomes for pupils permanently excluded from Pupil Referral Units (PRUs) and special schools in England. It outlines the manner in which the key phrases and assumptions embedded within the specification, terms such as routes and trajectories, destinations and outcomes, framed the study – and to some extent the researchers. The article is located within a growing body of scholarly activity that has raised important questions about the epistemological bases of educational research, the representation of complex social realities and methodological issues relating to the identification and tracking of ‘hard to find’ young people. The authors conclude that their apparent inability to find the answers to some rather straightforward questions is in fact data rather than lack of data.     

Bioscience and the sociology of education: the case for biosocial education

This article makes a case for biosocial education as a field of research and as a potential framework for education practice. The article engages with sociology of education’s contemporary interests in embodiment and affect, the possibilities offered by concept studies, and uses of assemblage and complexity theory for thinking about educational phenomena. It also considers broader social science and political theory engagements with epigenetics and neuroscience. The article examines the legacy of the biology/sociology split and the risks, limits, and potentialities of degrounded collaborative trans-disciplinary biosocial research. It considers developments in biosciences that may have particular resonance and promise for education, in particular the epigenetics of care and stress and the metabolomics of diet. The article argues that sociology of education should engage with bioscience to interrogate the folding together of the social, cultural, biographical, pedagogic, political, affective, neurological, and biological in the interactive production of students and learning.     

探索MOOCs与现实课堂结合的教学模式——系统科学与圣塔菲网络课程的个案研究

从世界前沿的发展来看,MOOCs有三个值得关注的趋势：即把线上线下（020）的课程创新与体验有机结合起来;研究学科的特点和差异;注重方法的探索及方法论的创新。如何将三者有效整合,是当前推动MOOCs研究与实践深化发展所面临的一个重要课题。基于此．特意把圣塔菲研究所开设的两门MOOCs课程作为个案进行研究,基于跨学科的方法论视角、以师生对话的形式,展现了在网络课程新时空中教师和学生各自的体验、不同背景学习者之间的优势互补,揭示了信息时代建立教学相长、能者为师之新型师生关系和跨学科师生团队的重要性。特别是复杂性研究中所使用的建模工具NetLogo,此类“新工具”在网络课程新时空中开展跨学科研究和研究性学习的独特作用。Moocs是一个复杂的社会系统工程,复杂性研究、尤其是自组织理论等新思维及其方法论在MooCs研究乃至教育理论与实践创新发展中的价值和意义日益凸显,若以此指导MooCs与现实课堂的双向互动、协同创新,对实现教育信息化进程中的“深度融合”具有重要意义。     

Departments as Teams: Functioning,variations and alternatives

Complex, multi-dimensional and often conflicting reform has led in The Netherlands to a situation in which the management of schools is no longer seen as the exclusive preserve of senior management. In order to manage changes within schools it is deemed necessary to expand the management function to other levels of the organization. In this context teams are held increasingly responsible for carrying out the middle management function, in particular in the educational domain of schools. In this article the results of Dutch research into these teams, in particular subject departments, and the way they carry out the middle managment function are presented and compared to results of similar research in other educational settings. The article ends with a reflection on the desirability of departmentalisation. The functioning of departments will be compared with the functioning of teams within different contexts, in particular interdisciplinary teaming. Finally, suggestions for future research into departmentalisation and its alternatives are made.     

智能时代的教育改革：教育社会实验的演化及其价值回应

社会转型期的时代背景推动了智能时代的教育改革。如何系统化地认识与研究当下的教育改革,同时科学合理地设计教育实践的干预策略,是当下教育改革与发展面临的两个核心问题。本研究从历史学、社会学和教育学三个视角出发,通过探讨教育实践及其理论发展的历史背景,从认识论的角度梳理了教育社会实验生成演化的四个阶段,包括教育实践理论启蒙与初步探索的"前认识阶段"、教育实验形成与规范化的"前研究阶段"、从教育实践社会化到教育实验社会化的"后实践阶段",以及从关注教育实践到关注教育社会实验的"后研究阶段"。作为价值回应,"教育社会实验"在提升对教育改革的认识上起到了认识论的作用;"教育社会实验研究"在加深对当代教育改革认识的基础上,为实践干预提供了方法论指导。     

Building the Bridge Between Science and Practice: Essential Characteristics of a Translational Framework

Mind, brain, and education is a field developed with two key purposes: (1) to accelerate the knowledge developed through research by using an interdisciplinary approach, and (2) to create a bridge to connect and apply this knowledge to educational practice. While great progress has been made with regard to the interdisciplinary efforts of mind, brain and education, a chasm remains between the fields of science and educational practice. This article presents the case for bridging that chasm through the development of a translational and bidirectional framework that allows the fields of science and educational practice to access and influence each other. The characteristics of such a framework are proposed as theory‐driven and perspective‐neutral, interdisciplinary and interdependent, grounded in the science of development, context‐sensitive, and allowing for falsifiability. Potential enablers for the successful implementation of such a framework are proposed.     

Philosophy and Educational Research: a reconsideration of epistemological boundaries

This paper examines what logically is or ought to be the relationship between philosophy and educational research. It explores the sense in which philosophising itself constitutes a form of research and notes the role of philosophy in addressing the ethical, epistemological and political issues which underpin other forms of educational research of an empirical character. The paper goes on to examine more fully the role of philosophy in empirical research. It explores the complex interplay of logic and psychology in the history and biography of the development of ideas and suggests that this picture argues for freedom of movement between the two in academic lives and institutions. It then takes a step further and, drawing on Quine and Kuhn, challenges the epistemological status of the dichotomy between a posteriori and a priori reasoning.