Becoming a PI: From ‘doing’ to ‘managing’ research

While achieving research independence by becoming a principal investigator (PI) is a key aspiration for many postdocs, little is known of the trajectory from PhD graduation to first PI grant. This interview-based study examined how 16 PIs in science, technology engineering, mathematics or medicine, in the UK and continental Europe, prepared for and dealt with this career transition. Individuals demonstrated commitment to lengthy periods of postdoctoral work in a range of institutions (often involving international mobility) to achieve PI-status. Their emotionally laden journeys required resilience and self-belief, since getting a grant was conceived as partly luck. Once individuals had their grant they faced new challenges that distanced them from actively researching. Still, individuals navigated their intentions in a sustained fashion to create a distinct intellectual profile in the face of challenging circumstances. The results highlight the centrality of emotion in the journey, as well as curricular imperatives for both doctoral and postdoctoral learning.     

‘I love a curry’: student-teacher discourse around ‘race’ and ethnicity at a UK university

This paper presents aspects of a small scale study that considered student teachers’ language and discourse around race and ethnicity at a university in the northwest of England. The first part of the paper critiques current education-related policy, context and practice to situate the research and then draws upon aspects of critical race theory and whiteness theory as frames of reference. In the research, 250 student-teachers completed questionnaires that invited responses to statements about race and ethnicity and this was followed by two semi-structured group interviews. A discourse analysis approach was taken to analyse the language used in the questionnaire responses and, in particular, the group interviews. Recurrent discursive configurations were characterised by language that signified othering, correct knowledge, personalisation and discomfort. Hesitations and silences during group discussions perhaps intimated thinking time and also maybe a reluctance to talk about aspects of race and ethnicity, and what was not said remains significant. It is suggested that a reconstruction of a teacher/educator subjectivity that fosters self-reflection on values and racial positioning, is needed in teacher education, alongside critical examination of the silences and discomfort surrounding race and ethnicity.     

Good Use of a ‘Bad’ Metaphor

Entropy is often introduced to students through the use of the disorder metaphor. However, many weaknesses and limitations of this metaphor have been identified, and it has therefore been argued that it is more harmful than useful in teaching. For instance, under the influence of the disorder metaphor, students tend to focus on spatial configuration with regard to entropy but disregard the role of energy, which may lead their intuition astray in problem solving. Albeit so, a review of research of students’ ideas about entropy in relation to the disorder metaphor shows that students can use the metaphor in developing a more nuanced, complex view of the concept, by connecting entropy as disorder to other concepts such as microstates and spreading. The disorder metaphor—in combination with other explanatory approaches—can be used as a resource for learning, in giving students an early flavour of what entropy means, so long as we acknowledge its limitations; we can put this “bad” metaphor to good use in teaching.     

Environmental education in a ‘green classroom’

The ‘Green Classroom’ in the Botanical Garden of Ulm is an experiential learning forum outside school. Its educational concept is based on experimental learning and is geared towards expanding biological knowledge and developing positive attitudes towards small animals such as invertebrates and insects. The attitudes of 68 school students towards small animals, before and after they visited the ‘Green Classroom’, were assessed and the answers they gave in their questionnaires were compared with those of 60 students froma control group that was not yet exposed to this learning environment. Although the students spent only one morning in the ‘Green Classroom’, some of their attitudes towards small animals improved after their visit. These studies underscore the necessity for direct observation and familiarization of the environment including small animals such as invertebrates and insects for appreciating issues related to biodiversity and conservation.     

Mathematics education as a ‘design science’

Mathematics education (didactics of mathematics) cannot grow without close relationships to mathematics, psychology, pedagogy and other areas. However, there is the risk that by adopting standards, methods and research contexts from other well-established disciplines, the applied nature of mathematics education may be undermined. In order to preserve the specific status and the relative autonomy of mathematics education, the suggestion to conceive of mathematics education as a design science is made.Revised and extended version of the paper Mathematikdidaktik als design science, published inJournal für Mathematikdidaktik 13 (1992), 55–70. I am indebted to Jerry P. Becker, P. Bender, H. Besuden, W. Blum, E. Cohors-Fresenborg, Th.J. Cooney, L. Führer, H.N. Jahnke, A. Kirsch, G.N. Müller, H._Chr. Reichel, H. Schupp, Ch. Selter, H.-J. Vollrath, J. Voigt, G. Walther and H. Winter for critical remarks to earlier drafts.     

The International Baccalaureate and ‘growth scepticism’: a ‘social limits’ framework

The number of schools offering the programmes of the International Baccalaureate (IB) hit 3000 in July 2010. Since 2004 the IB has aimed for further growth within a ‘wider access’ and ‘greater impact’ paradigm. A further 7000 schools are expected to be involved by 2020. However, there is now considerable concern about growth, especially within the ‘international school movement’ who see it as compromising quality. This recent phenomenon can be termed ‘growth scepticism’ in the same way economic growth is now questioned as desirable. This paper charts this development and argues there is room for a much wider framework of analysis, viewing the global growth of the IB within a social and moral lens. This paper takes the economist Fred Hirsch’s 1976 Hirsch, F. 1976. The social limits to growth, Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. [Crossref] , [Google Scholar] book The social limits to growth as its core theoretical framework, linking growth to potential social externalities such as increased competition and the commercialization of society.     

On semiotics and subjectivity: a response to Tony Brown’s “signifying ‘students’, ‘teachers’, and ‘mathematics’: a reading of a special issue”

In this response we address some of the significant issues that Tony Brown raised in his analysis and critique of the Special Issue of Educational Studies in Mathematics on “Semiotic perspectives in mathematics education” (Sáenz-Ludlow & Presmeg, Educational Studies in Mathematics 61(1–2), 2006). Among these issues are conceptualizations of subjectivity and the notion that particular readings of Peircean and Vygotskian semiotics may limit the ways that authors define key actors or elements in mathematics education, namely students, teachers and the nature of mathematics. To deepen the conversation, we comment on Brown’s approach and explore the theoretical apparatus of Jacques Lacan that informs Brown’s discourse. We show some of the intrinsic limitations of the Lacanian idea of subjectivity that permeates Brown’s insightful analysis and conclude with a suggestion about some possible lines of research in mathematics education.

Individuating ‘sparks’ and ‘flickers’ of ‘a life’ in dance practices with preschoolers: the ‘monstrous child’ of Colebrook's Queer Vitalism

ABSTRACT

What are the dominant images of the Child in contemporary Western societies? In order to challenge some dominant images of the Child, this essay explores the possibilities of analyzing an experimental dance practice with preschoolers aged 1–2 years with Claire Colebrook's theorizing on ‘the war on norms’. Colebrook suggests a Queer Vitalism to push the limits of how to understand humanness generally, and more specifically, how to understand processes of subjectification. She moves from a post-structuralist understanding toward the Deleuzian notion of practices of individuation and processes of becoming-imperceptible. In this essay, we draw on Queer Vitalism to show how it is possible to understand children's constructions of subjectivity in events of experimental dance practices for preschoolers. The analysis is performed in close interactions with video-films from these workshops transformed to still photography. We aspire to show how these practices can be understood as counter-power strategies in the enactment of an image of a Monstrous Child. Such an image might transform the taken-for-granted image of the Child and preschool practices in subversive ways.     

Scientific ‘Laws’, ‘Hypotheses’ and ‘Theories’

Some commonly held erroneous notions about the terms laws, hypotheses and theories are pointed out with specific examples from different branches of science.     

‘知’‘信’‘行’德育三部曲

所谓德育 ,就是按照特定时代、特定社会的道德规范来培养塑造个体的道德意识、信念和行为习惯。它具有三层意义 :第一 ,首先必须使受教育者知晓和理解社会的行为规范 ,并发展其道德认识能力 ,道德判断能力和道德选择能力 ,这便是德育中的“知”。第二 ,要使受教育者相信“知”的内容 ,把其道德认识内化 ,升华为道德信念和道德理想 ,这就是德育中的“信”。第三 ,德育的最终目标就是使教育者将道德认识与道德信念转化为道德行为 ,并培养良好的习惯 ,这是德育的“行”。因此 ,由未知到知、由知到信、由信到行是德育工作有机的三个环节 ,构成了…     

‘亲戚’就是‘父母’

讲《廉颇蔺相如列传》,我说:“臣所以去亲戚而事君者,徒慕君之高义也”一句中的“亲戚”,其义如同“父母”。有人跟我指出:“你讲错了,‘亲戚’并非     

‘三个面向’与‘高分低能’

去年本刊发表了天门县大面积提高语文教学质量的经验,转载了秦牧同志赞扬该县成为一九八三年“全国高考状元”的文章,各地闻讯到天门取经者络绎不绝。此后,我们听到反映说:“天门能上去,主要经验是教师拼命地灌,学生死命地背,把课本记得滚瓜烂熟,所以能对付高考。如果考能力,肯定赶不上城市学生。”一九八四去年高考试题测重于考能力,天门县高考的录取人数,北一九八三年还要多,又居全省各县之首,高达一千馀人。由此可见,他们在培养能力上也是成绩显著的。本期我们编发了一组文章,介他绍们如何更新教学思想、改革教学方法、开辟第二教学渠道、不断开拓学生知识面和培养能力(包括培养创造能力)的经验,请大家看看,择其善者而从之。此外,我们还编发了一组沔阳县的文章。沔阳与天门是邻县,与天门不相上下,他们的语文教学成绩也很显著。现在这两县正在总结经验,以期进一步改进各科教学,为大面积提高教学质量作出贡献。     

‘树人’与‘树木’

学校组织青少年学生参加植树造林,意义在于把「树木」和「树人」结合起来。在活动中,让学生接触自然,开阔视野,寓教于动,有利于陶冶学生情操,然而,生活中也有不尽然的情况发生。据笔者所知,今年植树节,为了迎报检查团,上级把清理某干线路边花池杂物的任务交给附近的某所中学。师生热情很高,立即行动起来。     

‘采’和‘采’

“采”和“采”是音、形、义都不同的两个字。“采”音cǎi,小篆写作“采”,上面从爪,下面从木,表示用手(爪)摘取树上的果实。“采”字八笔。写“采”的时候,不要把“爪字头”中间的点和木字中间的竖连接起来。用“采”作声旁的字有:睬、踩、彩、菜。     

On not becoming ‘a mere empirical existence’: exploring ‘who’ and ‘what’ narratives in pre-service English teachers’ writing

Standards-based reforms of education favour narrow forms of teacher professional learning tied to generic standards and pre-determined, measurable outcomes. In high-stakes accountability-driven environments, in schools and initial teacher education programs, educators are rarely encouraged to inquire into their work and professional identities through narrative writing. This article describes and analyses an assessment task in a pre-service teacher education course wherein students explore dialogic forms of critical autobiographical writing as part of an ongoing process of examining and clarifying their views and values about English teaching. Drawing on Cavarero, we argue that the writing these preservice teachers do provides a space for them to negotiate ‘what’ and ‘who’ narratives as they journey to become English teachers. Their writing productively grapples with generic ‘what’ stories such as what standards documents attempt to tell about English teaching, and the ‘unrepeatable uniqueness’ of ‘who’ stories developed out of their individual cultural, educational and linguistic difference.     

Discourse in a small class: the ‘diverge-converge pattern’ and ‘relaxed freedom’

In an attempt to uncover differences in student behavior as a function of class size, the author observed a small class and a large class for 15 hours each and conducted interviews with eight students who were members of both classes. Two trends emerged from these qualitative data. First, a ‘diverge-converge’ pattern was evident in the small class (absent from the large class) in which students were much more able to get back on task after becoming off-task or off-topic. Second, the atmosphere in the smaller class was more relaxed and had a very conversational tone.     

Between ‘pedagogy’ and ‘Pädagogik’: a critique of lived pedagogy

The present paper is an analysis of the recently formulated concept of Lived Pedagogy. With roots in phenomenology and narrative research and research on ‘student voice’, the concept is coined as a way to research participants’ experience of practical pedagogy in school. The main theoretical and methodological challenges in Lived Pedagogy stem from the use of relational theory (i.e. phenomenology and narrative theory) while a priori maintaining a number of divisions that challenge this relational logic. Having outlined these problems, a suggestion is made to inform Lived Pedagogy by way of the German Pädagogik with its central focus on purpose(s) of education. Specifically, I employ Løvlie’s educational transformation of Habermas’s discourse ethics as a framework for structuring the deliberation of what is educationally desirable.     

Understanding: ‘Knowledge’, ‘Belief’ and ‘Understanding’

The following paper is intended as an exercise in friendly criticism of one of Harvey Siegel's and Mike Smith's (Knowing, Believing and Understanding, this volume). I'm in substantial sympathy with the general thrust of their paper and my remarks merely provide some criticism of their discussion's conceptual coherence and clarity and a correspondingly slightly adjusted version of what they have to say. My focus is limited to the conceptions of knowledge, belief and understanding and their inter-relationships in terms of which they offer suggestions to science educators.