Popular education: The Latin American experience

The author discusses the theory and practice of popular education in Latin America, seen as an alternative model for social change at the popular level, rather than simply an educational method. The development of popular education is located in the context of the political-economic history of Latin America, and the consequences of this for the peasantry and the working class. The author presents the defining characteristics of popular education, together with its main tendencies, both negative and positive.

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Zusammenfassung Der Verfasser behandelt Theorie und Praxis der Volksbildung in Lateinamerika, die eher als ein alternatives Modell zur gesellschaftlichen Veränderung auf allgemeiner Ebene als eine reine Bildungsmethode verstanden wird. Die Entwicklung der Volksbildung wird im Zusammenhang mit der politisch-wirtschaftlichen Geschichte Lateinamerikas und deren Auswirkung auf den Bauern-stand und die Arbeiterklasse angesehen. Der Verfasser stellt die genau umrissenen Charakteristiken der Volksbildung mit ihren sowohl negativen als auch positiven Hauptströmungen vor.

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Résumé L'auteur analyse la théorie et la pratique de l'éducation populaire qui est perçue en Amérique Latine plus comme un modèle alternatif de changement social au niveau populaire, qu'un simple méthode éducative. Le développement de l'éducation populaire est à placer dans le contexte de l'histoire politico-economique de l'Amérique Latine et de ses conséquences pour la paysannerie et la classe des travailleurs. L'auteur dégage les caractéristiques essentielles de l'éducation populaire en même temps que ses principales tendances aussi bien négatives que positives.

     

Institutional and cultural political resistance: Necessary conditions for the transformative intellectual

This naturalistic case study of a group of eighth grade middle school teachers depicts them asresistant in two areas: institutional politics and cultural politics. These resistances are first described and then analyzed. Resistance is then connected to what counts as the transformative intellectual. The conclusion suggests that both types of resistances may lead to a teacher commitment in acting to counter ideological barriers. Counterhegemonic possibilities, then, becomes a real potentiality.     

Sport as a site of transformative non-formal education: A South African action research project

One of the legacies of apartheid is a crisis in South African education. The existing formal structures of education cannot cope with the scale nor the nature of the educational needs of the vast majority of South Africa's population. This article explores the potential role that sports programmes can play in non-formal educational provision. Within an action research format, the research project utilized the apprenticeship model of social organization for the general development of 10-year old boys through the medium of the game of rugby. Results of the project show that the developmental benefits of participation in a well organized sports programme, generalize to the contexts of formal schooling, home, and broader community life.     

Making connections: a conference approach to developing transformative environmental and sustainability education within initial teacher education

Abstract

Children today face significant challenges in response to living in a globalised world and the predicted environmental threats to the planet. However, implementing environmental and sustainability education (ESE) within schools can be complex and is often ignored within initial teacher education (ITE). In response, this project aimed to evaluate pedagogies for developing transformative learning for ESE within the context of university-based ITE. We ran a conference for trainee teachers informed by critical, participatory and arts-based pedagogic approaches. Alongside this, we undertook an interpretive case study, collecting data through questionnaires, focus groups and in-conference spoken reflection. Findings suggest trainee teachers gained a more nuanced understanding of the value and nature of ESE, as well as more affective and informed engagement with it, across the conference. Implications for ESE within ITE focus around the potential of pedagogies which provide affective experiences, in particular participatory and arts-based pedagogical approaches, for inspiring and empowering trainee teachers to enter into schools and develop their own ESE practice as classroom teachers.     

From the outside in: tutor perspectives of student transformative experiences within Indigenous Studies health education

ABSTRACT

While more is becoming understood about the effects of Indigenous Studies health curricula on student preparedness and attitudes toward working in Indigenous health contexts, less is known about how tutors in this space interpret student experiences and contribute to the development of preparedness. Reporting on a qualitative study, this article provides insight into tutors’ perceptions of tertiary first year health students’ transformative experiences in an Indigenous Studies health course. Twelve Indigenous and non-Indigenous tutors were interviewed about their teaching experiences within this context. Framed by Mezirow’s transformative learning theory, thematic analysis findings suggest tutors observe several precursor steps to transformative learning including disorienting dilemmas, critical reflection on assumptions, exploration of new roles, and trying on new roles. The content of these themes extends our understanding of how these precursor steps manifest, and the elements related to this. Findings also suggest tutors vary in their identification, interpretation and response to many of these pedagogical entry points. Within this learning context, the concept of teacher/student relationship is suggested as playing a meaningful role in the positioning and efficacy of tutors. This impacts tutors' understanding of transformative learning, the social construction of students, consequent interpretations of student experiences, and means of facilitating cognitive and affective learning. We propose a reconceptualisation of thinking around teaching in this space, with a focus on both further development of educator capabilities and student curricular opportunities to promote transformative learning appropriate to the stated goals of the Australian Indigenous Studies learning and teaching context. The findings indicate that institutional investment in the development of educators in this space remains vitally important.     

英美现代公民教育的文化转向

公民身份与公民教育之间是相望互动的,从公民身份观念地演化可以透视出公民教育的实践走向.20世纪下半叶以来,文化公民身份观念应运而生,并逐渐在西方众多国家兴起.这牵连出了英美现代公民教育中的诸多文化议题,公民教育实践需要在民族性与全球性、民主性与多样性之间保持适当地张力与整合.在这场“漫长的革命”中,英美现代公民教育正处于文化转向的过程之中.所谓“文化转向”不是一种视文化为全部内容和终极目的的教育形态,而是平等的凸显文化维度在公民教育中的重要地位.     

Pedagogies of experience: a case of the African American male teacher

Numerous scholars have illustrated how African American teachers’ past experiences provide them a philosophical vision committed to teaching for social and educational change for African American students. This article draws from this body of work by looking at the diverse ways five African American male teachers used their past experiences to shape their vision for working with African American male students. However, this article also extends this body of work by illustrating that while the teachers in this study had similar commitments to working with African American males, their varied life experiences and social locations provided them different sources of practical and philosophical knowledge. These findings illustrate the diversity of experiences these teachers drew from, thus troubling the common sense discourses that essentialize African American male teachers as one-dimensional monolithic role models.     

International education: the transformative potential of experiential learning

Academic outcomes of post-16 education can be understood in terms of their value for gaining access to university and, at a time when global educational mobility is growing, internationally recognised university entrance qualifications may be considered a form of personal capital. However, narrowly measured outcomes may not reflect the breadth of the school experience nor the extent to which this breadth contributes to the development of the young person. One curriculum which aims to prepare students in ways that extend beyond the academic is the International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme, which incorporates an experiential element at its core. Creativity, Activity, Service attaches a transformative purpose to education, where students’ experiences in each of the three strands can support personal learning that is not confined to subject areas of an academic curriculum. This paper describes the evolution of CAS in the academically rigorous Diploma Programme and presents the findings from a review of literature which contribute towards developing an understanding of the transformative potential of this component.     

Perceptions of communication choice and usage among African American hearing parents: Afrocentric cultural implications for African American deaf and hard of hearing children

In a qualitative study employing an exploratory design, the researcher explored the perceptions of communication choice and usage among 14 African American hearing parents of deaf and hard of hearing children. Semistructured, in-depth thematic interviews were used with a modified grounded-theory approach in which themes were analyzed and coded. Four thematic challenges and opportunities related to communication choice and usage were found: (a) oral tradition-nommo, (b) sign and oral-diunital, (c) literacy, and (d) racial/ethnic cultural socialization. Afrocentric implications for deaf and hard of hearing children are explored based on research observations pertaining to the significance of the oral tradition in African American culture and the socialization of African American deaf and hard of hearing children in the context of African American hearing families.     

Challenging change: transformative education for economically disadvantaged adult learners

This paper focuses on the results of a mixed-methods study of 13 participants in a Radical Humanities programme designed as a transformative learning space for low-income adults who have experienced barriers to learning. Using demographic questionnaires, semi-structured narrative interviews and course evaluations this study examined participants’ experiences in the programme and the impact on their learning, sense of agency and future ambitions. As the first phase of a longitudinal project on the well-being and agency of under-represented and marginalized learners, this preliminary study revealed five predominant themes emerging from learners’ experiences: (1) self-reflective meaning-making processes; (2) interrelated personal and communal growth; (3) appreciation of diversity; (4) emerging sense of self-as-learner; (5) renewed aspirations. This paper argues that transformative learning for low-income adults is a complex and challenging process that entails participants’ ongoing negotiations of self, learning, and purpose. Understanding and evaluating the effectiveness of transformative learning within a social-emancipatory humanities programme requires attention to the programme’s social context and choices faced by participants. Programme participation fosters increased well-being, deeper relationships and hope for the future. However, these tangible benefits are tempered by constraints of individual and structural systems that, for some students, impose limitations on their ability to enact change in themselves and in their lives.     

影响美国双语教育的文化价值取向分析

一个国家的文化价值取向是影响其教育现象或政策的主要因素之一,特定时期的教育现象或政策又会折射出该时期的文化价值取向。从文化价值取向角度分析美国的双语教育,有助于我们更好地理解其错综复杂的变迁过程,以及影响其变迁的精神实质和文化内涵。     

Organisational culture in higher education: mapping the way to understanding cultural research

This article examines the complexity and multiplicity of perspectives in studying organisational culture in higher education settings. This multiplicity of conceptualisations of cultures has purportedly been derived from the different points of view of many disciplines, which have made the study of culture and cultural research enigmatic for neophyte researchers in particular. In view of this, this article aims to put those varied points of view together to build a hybrid composed of cultural definitions, manifestations and university culture, using semiotics and functionalist perspectives, and elements of various methodologies used in conducting cultural research. The latter is grounded on the premise that the epistemology, theoretical perspectives and methodology used influence the strength of research designs that ultimately contribute to the production of legitimate knowledge. It is expected that this proposed hybrid mode of understanding and researching culture can become a model for studying culture and organisational culture in higher education sectors for professionals in general and for those undertaking PhD studies (neophyte researchers) in particular.     

Physical literacy praxis: A theoretical framework for transformative physical education

PROSPECTS - This article aims to propose a theoretical framework, based on the literature, that supports the growth of students’ physical literacy in physical education. The framework...     

The experience of black African religious education trainee teachers training in England

This study addresses issues surrounding the recruitment and training of black African religious education teachers within the context of the government’s intention to make the teaching profession more representative of the wider community. In relation to this there is a strong emphasis in the Teacher Training Agency’s Qualifying to Teach on selection procedures which promote equality of opportunity and the recognition of individual training needs. The study is informed by the work of Sikes and Everington who have highlighted the place of religion and culture within the personal histories of religious education teachers. Black African members of two successive cohorts of PGCE students are tracked to identify their training needs in relation to their cultural and religious backgrounds. The data identifies four cultural and religious factors which impact on their training to teach religious education in the UK. Finally, as advised by the Carrington Report, recommendations are made for the practice of teacher educators.     

A case for culturally relevant science education in the summer for African American youth

Abstract

This article focuses on the impact of culturally relevant teaching and learning during a summer enrichment program for high school students. Culturally relevant science instruction and curriculum helped students to foster a more positive interest in science and STEM careers as it provided students the opportunity to do science in meaningful and relevant ways. Students were able to see themselves represented in the curriculum and recognized their own strengths; as a result, they were more validated and affirmed in and transformed by, their learning. We use this case to warrant increased support for summer learning programs focused on providing African American youth with access to high quality, culturally relevant/responsive science education.     

The transformative power of Chicana/o Studies: social justice and education

This essay responds to Professor Aguirre’s article in this issue that explores through personal narrative the trials and tribulations of being a faculty member with an expertise in Chicana/o Studies. The author joins his exploration by introducing the structural disadvantages that Chicana/o Studies suffers as a field. She then expounds on what we have gained by developing a new field with an explicitly political focus that includes putting student interests at the center of its development while fighting for economic and social justice as an integral part of its intellectual agenda. Her conclusion explores the challenges that the field of Chicana/o Studies faces as we confront changing demographic and societal conditions.     

美国中小学的信息技术教育及其基本经验

美国是世界上信息技术教育最为发达的国家之一.本文介绍了美国中小学信息技术教育的状况及其基本经验,为我国目前在中小学加快普及信息技术教育提供参考和借鉴.     

Diversifying the secondary school curriculum: The African experience

The paper discusses some African experiences in the diversification of secondary education, which is taken to mean curriculum change in a practical or vocational direction. This approach is intended to provide a wider set of future career options than is offered in the more uniform academic curriculum. The diversification policy has generally been seen as a solution to a number of economic and social problems facing the independent African countries, notably the increasing youth unemployment and the escalating costs of formal education.Studies which have so far been carried out have, however, revealed that diversification programmes have not met the intended objectives, although there is sustained interest in vocationalising formal education. Problems which commonly face these programmes include high unit costs, an absence of clarity in aims and objectives, a shortage of qualified teachers and the low status of vocational subjects as viewed by the students and the community.For future development, it is suggested that diversification programmes be reorganised to relate to more realistic goals through wider community participation and through the work-orientation of post-school training programmes.

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Zusammenfassung In diesem Artikel werden einige afrikanische Erfahrungen mit der Diversifikation der Sekundarbildung behandelt, wodurch eine Änderung des Curriculums zu einem praktischen oder beruflichen Schwerpunkt bewirkt werden sollte. Dieser Ansatz soll eine größere Auswahl bei der späteren Berufswahl ermöglichen als sie das einheitlichere akademische Curriculum bietet. Die Politik einer Diversifikation wurde allgemein als Lösung für eine ganze Reihe wirtschaftlicher und sozialer Probleme der unabhängigen Länder Afrikas gesehen, besonders hinsichtlich steigender Jugendarbeitslosigkeit und eskalierender Kosten formaler Bildung.Bis heute durchgeführte Studien zeigten jedoch, daß die Diversifikationsprogramme die angestrebten Ziele nicht erreichen konnten, obwohl ein anhaltendes Interesse an einem mehr beruflichen Schwerpunkt formaler Bildung besteht. Probleme, mit denen diese Programme gemeinhin zu kämpfen haben beinhalten hohe Kosten für jeden einzelnen Posten, das Fehlen klar umrissener Ziele, ein Mangel an qualifizierten Lehrern und die geringe Anerkennung beruflicher Fächer durch Schüler und Gesellschaft.Zur Weiterentwicklung wird der Vorschlag einer Umstellung der Diversifikations-programme gemacht, damit realistischere Ziele durch eine erweiterte Beteiligung der Gesellschaft und durch die berufliche Orientierung der Fortbildungsprogramme nach Beendigung der Schule erreicht werden können.

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Résumé On examine dans le présent article quelques expériences africaines en matière de diversification de l'enseignement secondaire, dont l'objectif est de donner une orientation pratique ou professionnelle au curriculum. Cette approche cherche à offrir un plus grand choix d'options professionnelles que ne le font les programmes d'études théoriques plus uniformes. Cette politique de diversification est généralement considérée comme une solution à un certain nombre de problèmes économiques et sociaux auxquels font face les pays africains indépendants, notamment le chômage des jeunes et l'augmentation du coût de l'éducation formelle.Les études ayant été effectuées jusqu'ici ont, cependant, révélé que les programmes de diversification n'ont pas atteint les objectifs fixés, bien qu'on s'applique particulièrement à donner une orientation professionelle à l'éducation formelle. Les problèmes qu'on rencontre habituellement dans ces programmes incluent des coûts unitaires élevés, une absence de clarté dans les buts et les objectifs, un nombre insuffisant d'enseignants qualifiés et le bas statut des matières d'enseignement professionnel perçu par les élèves et la communauté.En vue de renforcer davantage le développement, on suggère de réorganiser les programmes de diversification afin qu'ils s'apparentent à des objectifs plus réalistes grâce à une participation accrue de la communauté et à des programmes de formation postscolaire orientés vers le travail.