Inclusion of indigenous peoples in CONFINTEA VI and follow-up processes

This paper discusses key issues raised by indigenous peoples during CONFINTEA VI and proposes strategies to enable them to participate in ongoing processes. Indigenous peoples are not involved in the design, implementation and monitoring of adult education programmes, and this often results in a ??one-size-fits-all?? model. This article takes the position that indigenous people must have full and effective participation in all matters which concern them and that well-meaning policy statements are only as effective as the display of real effort to make them work. One example of an indigenous community taking initiative in order to free itself of overwhelming deficit positioning by mainstream educational and other systems is the M??ori community of Aotearoa/New Zealand. The paper argues that through CONFINTEA VI, there is still space for the voice of indigenous peoples to be heard.     

CONFINTEA VI from a Canadian perspective

The 12-yearly International Conferences of Adult Education (CONFINTEA) organised by UNESCO are significant events in the ongoing global dialogues about adult learning and education (ALE) and its role within society. Thus, the latest conference held in Brazil in 2009 offered a major opportunity to consider and review developments about ALE policies and practices worldwide and encouraged both national governments and non-governmental organisations alike to examine their approaches to adult education and lifelong learning. After a review of the process that Canada adopted in following the UNESCO guidelines for preparing its country report, this paper focuses specifically on the involvement of Canada??s major academic adult education organisation and details its concerns with both the development and the substance of the report. Comparing it with the country reports of Finland, Sweden and the UK, the authors analyse the Canadian report and provide some explanatory reasons why, in their opinion, both the process and the result provided a less than complete picture of ALE in Canada and, in so doing, fell short of UNESCO??s aspirations for CONFINTEA.     

CONFINTEA VI follow-up and the role of university lifelong learning: Some issues for European higher education

The Belém Framework for Action underlines, among many other issues, that quality in adult learning and education must be holistic and multidimensional both as a concept and in practice, using various tools such as partnerships with higher education institutions. Bridging adult and higher education is difficult, but the lifelong learning paradigm may help European universities to meet the challenge. This paper argues that European higher education institutions should, on the one hand, educate adults to qualify them for their complex roles in society and economy either through academic programmes or in other, non-formal ways. On the other hand, higher education institutions should promote quality research on adult learning and education and develop active citizenship too. Emphasis was clearly given to the former task in the Budapest Statement in December 2008 as part of the European preparatory process for CONFINTEA VI, and the latter has been articulated by UNESCO for more than a decade. This paper suggests that a balanced position may help universities in setting themselves up as better and more effective learning organisations.     

From rhetoric to action: Implementing sts education through action research

This article outlines the arguments for an action research approach to the implementation of STS education, and describes some of the experiences and outcomes of an action research group of six teachers (one elementary, five secondary) based at The Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, Toronto. The teachers' initial views, and their changing perceptions throughout the duration of the project (the 1992-93 academic year), are presented in terms of four categories: the nature of STS education; the development of curriculum materials; personal/professional development; collaborative work. The emergence of an additional complex theme involving reinforcement, extending horizons, and building professional confidence, is considered the most significant outcome of the project.     

Lifelong learning,higher education and active citizenship: from rhetoric to action

This introductory paper provides the background to the Cape Town Statement on Characteristic Elements of a Lifelong Learning Higher Education Institution that appears in this Journal. It describes the journey of a network of adult educators and academics from the North, South, East and West through contested terrain from Hamburg, to Paris, Mumbai and Cape Town in 2000. At a conference held in Cape Town in October 2000, the delegates concluded that there were six essential characteristics of a higher education lifelong learning institution. This paper reviews the essential elements of these characteristics and comments on the journey of their development.     

Equal Opportunities: rhetoric or action

During the last 10 years many higher educational institutions following the ILEA initiatives and equal opportunity (EO) legislation of the mid 1970's, announced they were equal opportunity institutions. This paper questions whether such pronouncements and declared policies have had any more than a marginal effect on the power structures and day to day running of institutions. It proposes that a positive action programme should be adopted to increase the proportion of women lecturers in higher education. More idealistically still, it discusses a transformational model of EO which would challenge the public private divide and democratise institutions. It draws on the experience of equal opportunities initiatives in a number of higher educational institutions and emphasises the importance of understanding resistance to change.     

Imperatives in Teaching for Lifelong Learning: moving beyond rhetoric to effective educational practice

Changes wrought by the ongoing technological, economic and social revolutions have once again emphasised the importance of lifelong learning. Current projections are for three or four changes of occupation during a working lifetime. There appears clear evidence of the need for the acquisition of cognitive learning strategies to cope with continuous change and maintain knowledge and skill currency during an entire lifetime. The Australian government commissioned report by Candy, Crebert and O'Leary raised a number of issues at undergraduate level, but failed to address the need for teaching more broadly for genuinely lifelong learning. This paper considers a range of approaches and strategies which it will be necessary to adopt to move beyond rhetoric to effective educational practices. Central to effective teaching of cognitive learning strategies will be adoption of appropriate curricula in teacher education courses.     

Relationality as a response to challenges of participatory action research in indigenous contexts: reflections from the field

ABSTRACT

Three researchers share their reflections on the challenges and goodness of fit of using participatory action research (PAR) in studies with indigenous peoples in the United States and Canada. Three central challenges of participatory methodologies are identified: (1) defining what constitutes participation; (2) the extended time required for a PAR study; and (3) researcher positionality. The authors discuss tensions inherent in the western academy when shifting final decision-making authority over research processes away from the academic institution to the indigenous community. A model situating the principles of PAR alongside perspectives and values congruent with the indigenous concept of relationality is presented as a means of mitigating these challenges. This approach aligns PAR principles within culturally-congruent definitions of relationship and encourages researchers to re-imagine participation as a form of relationship, allowing them to engage more deeply and genuinely with indigenous participants.     

Learning from peers: Beyond the rhetoric of positive results

This paper extends previous efforts to provide clarity to the field of cooperative learning. Various theoretical approaches to learning from peers are described, and the implications of these approaches for key instructional choices by teachers are delineated. The primary perspectives of interest in this paper were social-behavioral approaches and cognitive approaches. Potential sources of problems are identified, and suggestions for averting such problems are provided. The role of the teacher within the cooperative classroom is also discussed.     

Civic learning: moving from the apolitical to the socially just

This study examines the knowledge and skills that characterize civic learning for young people. Building on a literature review, it reports an exploratory case study with students and teachers in four secondary schools in the Ottawa, Canada region. The perspectives of researchers co‐operating with educators and students against a backdrop of provincial government curricula and secondary literature on youth citizenship engagement provide an enriched understanding of the state and potential of civic learning. It concludes that current civic learning is primarily characterized by procedural knowledge and compliant codes of behaviour that do not envelope students in collective action for systemic understandings of political issues. This study argues for renewed efforts to put social justice at the heart of student learning. To present a convincing civic educational programme, schools should prepare students to analyse power relationships, investigate the ambiguities of political issues, and embrace opportunities for social change.     

All talk and no action: transforming the rhetoric of parent–professional partnership into practice

There is agreement in political and academic circles that partnership working between parents and professionals is critical to optimising educational provision for children who have special needs. Yet this method of optimisation often appears to be an elusive feature of current practice. In order to begin to explore this chasm between the largely hypothetical parent–professional partnerships set out centrally in British government policy and the widespread reality of parental dissatisfaction, this article identifies the key drivers and inhibitors to partnership working, as revealed within the empirical and theoretical literature. Much of the literature referred to here has its roots in organisational theory, economics, management and political studies – the aim being to learn from rigorous research undertaken in other sectors regarding partnership working, in order to begin to construct a more effective model of parent–professional partnership within special education.     

修辞学视角下的国家形象传播

国家形象是在大众意识上形成的,对一个国家的理性和感性认识的总和。国家形象传播本质上是一种修辞行为。因此,在进行国家形象传播时,具有修辞意识的不同层次的发话者,应该选择符合受众特点的话语内容,以建立良好的国家形象。     

Participatory action research and the challenges of knowledge democracy

ABSTRACT

Participatory action research investigates the living and working conditions of people by actively involving them in the research process and thus broadening their horizons and empowering them to improve their situation. The radical idea of knowledge democracy is to recognize and respect the existing knowledge and epistemologies of traditional communities, ethnic tribes, socially marginalized groups and grass roots movements as valuable resources, essential for the comprehensive understanding required to find solutions to complex local as well as global problems. Nevertheless, the question arises whether science and alternative knowledges really are compatible and on an equal footing? Is science not superior to all other knowledge systems? On the other hand, is science and its exclusive claim to rationality and universalism not the back side of the colonial project of ‘epistemicide’ – the subjugation and eradication of all traditional knowledges worldwide? Do not some of these knowledges offer ways of thinking that are valuable and eye-opening but inaccessible to science? Well known examples of a fruitful dialogue between different epistemologies are ethnobotany, complementary medicine and ethnomathematics. Knowledge democracy means appreciative exchange of different perspectives which through collaboration and partnership between local people and researchers can lead to sustainable solutions of complex problems, more self-consciousness and emancipation from social constraints.     

Administrative rhetoric: An undemocratic response to protest

Much of the criticism of protest rhetoric has centered on the protestors themselves. This essay focuses on administrators, particularly those at the University of California at Berkeley, and the rhetoric they used in response to protest. It outlines the major lines of argument that administrators traditionally use.     

The power of student resistance in action research: teacher educators respond to classroom challenges

The purpose of this research was to study the design and implementation of a newly developed, two‐semester, action research course in a Master of Arts in Teaching program. Over a four‐year period, we (the instructors) used action research methodologies for analysis and evaluation of the course. Throughout this study, students expressed varying reactions to the process of action research, ranging from enthusiasm and acceptance to continual and persistent reluctance to accept the process as ‘real research’. This resistance is the focus of our study. Four years of reflection on our data points to the following reasons for student resistance: lack of understanding about what action research is and its purpose; a discomfort with the emphasis of process over product and the associated investment of time and ability to multi‐task; and willingness to embrace the transformational process of action research as part of learning to teach.     

探究符号学视阈下的修辞理据

不同的翻译视角对修辞理据的都有不同的影响,他们各自有各自的缺陷。通过对解释体从符号学的角度做深入分析,并同时结合语言符号的特点与性质来探究修辞理据的问题,可以得出解释体的特点决定语言符号的特点,即解释体就是修辞的根源的结论。解释体根据自身的性质决定着语言符号系统的性质和分类,并利用这种机制来确立其修辞的理据。     

The visual rhetoric of the aerial view: From surveillance to resistance

We live in a world increasingly photographed from satellites, planes, and drones. Many scholars have viewed aerial imagery through a dystopian lens, largely due to its use by the state and its legacy of military applications. While problematic uses of aerial images persist, this paper theorizes rhetorical potentialities of aerial imagery. We posit how aerial imagery creates these potentialities through strategies related to questions of visibility, scale, and aesthetics. Using case studies that illuminate these strategies, we demonstrate how they can be used to resist state and corporate interests, constitute new social movements, and invite contemplation of otherwise repellent political subject matter. Ultimately, we argue that with increased technological access and the ability to reconfigure norms of expertise, the aerial view presents both opportunities for civic engagement and counter-hegemonic potential.