Stories of Hope: a response to the ‘psychology of despair’

This paper begins by considering some of the dilemmas and complexities of living in post‐modern times and the particular problems that this poses for those teaching about environmental and global issues. It then identifies the crucial importance of hope in periods of turbulent change and describes a research project designed to investigate the sources of hope and inspiration that such educators draw on. In this the natural environment emerges both as a cause for concern and also as one of many vital sources of hope. Finally, comments are made on some of the implications of this research for teaching and learning and the need for educators themselves to identify a pedagogy of hope.     

Global competition in a ‘flat’ world: a Foucauldian analysis of the neoliberal mentalities of 2 Million Minutes

Through an application of Foucauldian theories of power and neoliberalism, this article employs an ascending analysis to identify an embedded neoliberal agenda within the documentary 2 Million Minutes. The author argues that this neoliberal agenda serves to support and maintain notions of international white supremacy as it assumes relationships between whiteness and success, American identity and privilege, and through its definition of the global economy as one in which all students can equally take part. By articulating how the film engages in techniques of biopower through a comparative portrayal of high school students from India, China, and the United States, the author argues that representations of education ‘realities’ should be examined and questioned in order to locate powerful and hidden hegemonies.     

‘Reading’ the nursery classroom: A Foucauldian perspective

This paper examines ways in which styles of language usage mediate attempts at describing classroom practice. The authors' particular focus centres on discursive power and they seek to illustrate some of the effects and consequences of applying certain Foucauldian concepts and analytical procedures within depictions of interactions between children and with the teacher in a nursery classroom. The paper begins by introducing an example of children's play. To this are applied analyses which stem from readings of Foucault. In so doing, it is shown how power both permeates and defines subjective positionings and where, as a consequence, individuals experience themselves as both powerful and powerless. A second example is offered in which a teacher talks to a child. The authors' analyses of this can, they believe, be perceived as a reflexive act, where the teacher's own beliefs, including her feminism, are critiqued and redefined.     

Educating Rita as a ‘Discourses and Literacies’ Pedagogical Text

This article discusses a project designed to engage preservice teachers in a process of reconceptualizing the traditional, autonomous views of literacy that they held upon entering the teacher preparation program and acquiring a sociocultural view of multi-literacies. The context of this project is that of a Master of Arts in Teaching (MAT) program. Through a series of activities as part of a secondary English theory and methods course, students were introduced to a sociolinguistic theory of “Discourses and Literacies”; they examined their own literacy experiences in terms of primary and secondary discourses and literacies; they analyzed the film Educating Rita in great depth for its representation of the essential elements of a theory of “Discourses and Literacies” (i.e., primary discourses, secondary discourses, learning, acquisition, bi-Discoursal situations, and more); and then over a period of many weeks of observations they analyzed the kind of Literacy Discourse that was constructed in classrooms that they were observing in. Finally, the students critically reflected on the transformation of their views of literacy as a result of the Discourses and Literacies project.     

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.

Exploring online identity representation: a response to ‘heteronarrative analysis’

This paper represents a response to Kaufmann's article in this issue on the subject of heteronarrative analysis. The author highlights three elements of Kaufmann's argument to be especially persuasive: the use of narrative as an organizing principle of identity; the propensity of identity to be inflected by heteronormative logic; and the use of photographic and electronic media to disrupt identity. This analysis concludes with a suggestion that emerging methodologies designed to explore gender and identity should be carefully interrogated at the philosophical level of understanding if they are to provide useful insights.     

Producing assessment truths: a Foucauldian analysis of teachers’ reorganisation of levels in English primary schools

This article considers a recent policy initiative in assessment in English primary schools (ages 5–11?years) in which curriculum ‘levels’ used by teachers to judge pupils’ attainment were suddenly removed. Previous work has largely focused on assessment of pupils, but we examine assessment as an activity through which teachers reproduce their professional standing. Using data from a small-scale study we investigate how teachers responded to these changes and what this tells us about the way in which the economy, and politics, of assessment practices operate at school level. Using Foucault as a theoretical framework, we make visible how this system was reorganised by teachers through the construction of new regimes of truth. Implications include evidence of a potentially damaging changing relationship between teachers and pupils, the key role of technology and the deleterious effect of neoliberalism on teachers’ and pupils’ relationships with both the process and subject matter of learning.     

Rethinking the ‘Western Tradition’: a response to Enslin and Horsthemke

This is a reply to an article authored by Enslin and Horsthemke (2014) published in Educational Philosophy and Theory (EPAT). Enslin and Horsthemke argue that those who they refer to as ‘friends of the subaltern’ pit themselves against a straw-person that is swiftly dismissed in pointing out blindness of the Western tradition. They point out that in doing so ‘friends of the subaltern’ pursue a ‘politics of resentment’. In their reply, Le Grange and Aikenhead argue that Enslin and Horsthemke mischaracterise their work by cherry picking from their selected works and by taking their words out of context. They suggest that Enslin and Horsthemke produce their own straw-person arguments that they accuse others of doing. Le Grange and Aikenhead argue that their research programmes seek cognitive justice which is not tantamount to engaging in a politics of resentment.     

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.     

Towards the ‘informed use’ of information and communication technology in education: a response to Adams’ ‘PowerPoint,habits of mind,and classroom culture’

PowerPoint, the widely‐used slide‐show software package, is finding increasing currency in lecture halls and classrooms as the preferred method of communicating and presenting information. But, as Adams [Adams, C. (2006 Adams, C. 2006. PowerPoint, habits of mind, and classroom culture. Journal of Curriculum Studies, 38(4): 389–411. [Taylor &; Francis Online], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]) PowerPoint, habits of mind, and classroom culture. Journal of Curriculum Studies, 38(4), 389–411] attempts to show, users may not appreciate that PowerPoint invites and seduces educators to reshape knowledge in particular ways to the detriment of analytical thinking and interpretive understanding. Using Adams’ material as a stimulus, we argue that digital presentation tools (along with other items of information and communication technology) can be utilized to facilitate conversational dialogue between students, their instructor, and their peers without much additional knowledge or effort. The key that unlocks the affordances of PowerPoint is ‘informed use’. This concept is explained and illustrated with an example that shows technology being used in a particular context to achieve a particular set of instructional outcomes.     

In search of Samoan research approaches to education: Tofā’a’anolasi and the Foucauldian tool box

Abstract

This article introduces Tofā’a’anolasi, a novel Samoan research framework created by drawing on the work of other Samoan and Pacific education researchers, in combination with adapting the ‘Foucauldian tool box’ to use for research carried out from a Samoan perspective. The article starts with an account and explanation of the process of developing and of naming Tofā’a’anolasi as a Samoan form of Critical Discourse Analysis. Following this is a discussion of the features of Tofā’a’anolasi and the theoretical underpinnings that explain the understandings and processes of this research framework. The article concludes with a story from assessment practice that acts as an example of applying this approach to educational research centred on Samoan students in Auckland, New Zealand.     

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.     

Understanding students’ experiences of professionalism learning: a ‘threshold’ approach

Professionalism is a core element of curricula in many disciplines but can be difficult to teach and learn. This study used audio-diary methodology to identify professionalism threshold concepts in a small group learning setting in undergraduate medicine and to understand factors that might facilitate students to ‘get’ such concepts. Fifteen students and seven tutors kept audio-diaries over two terms. Data were analysed qualitatively for content. The key themes were then cross referenced to threshold concept criteria (e.g. where language indicated that learning was troublesome, integrative or transformative). Seven potential threshold concepts were identified which centred on students’ developing professional identities including working with uncertainty, considering the bigger picture, not needing to know everything and professional culture. Reflection on workplace experiences within a small group helped students ‘get’ these concepts. The study concludes that threshold concepts and audio-diaries are useful tools for understanding lived experiences of professionalism learning.     

Hands-on history: towards a critique of the ‘everyday’

The modern Turkish state and society have been greatly influenced by reforms of the education system. Second Constitutional Period reforms can be viewed as the preparatory stage of Republican reforms and a time when many of the later reforms were planned and given limited application. In this way both periods contributed to the foundation of modern Turkey. The innovations pioneered by Late Ottoman intellectuals stemmed from various origins, mostly European positivists and materialist philosophers. American pragmatism was added as an ideological source during the foundation of the Republic. It can be observed that ideological trends took root from Ottoman times according to the degree that intellectuals were affected by them. In this paper, the ideological origins of educational reforms during the Second Constitution Period have been studied in relation to the influence of European philosophers on Ottoman intellectuals of the time and their ideological environments. Late Ottoman intellectuals were found to have been largely affected by France’s positivism, German’s materialism and Comte, Durkheim, Büchner and Spencer. The paper reveals how modern Turkey’s educational philosophy parameters have been shaped by these intellectuals’ ideas.     

Countering and exceeding ‘capital’: a ‘funds of knowledge’ approach to re-imagining community

This article discusses how the ‘funds of knowledge’ approach (FoK) offers a socially just alternative to the logics of capital, by drawing on knowledge assets from students’ family and community lifeworlds to build engaging and rigorous learning, supporting school–community interactions that build capacities. We explain how we applied FoK in an action research project – Redesigning Pedagogies in the North (RPiN) – to design curriculum and pedagogy in schools of a high-poverty region. With reference to RPiN, we also observe how high-poverty regions, and their schools, appear to be undergoing complex unsettlements, as effects of globalisation, which raise problematic questions about who/what is ‘the local community’. We argue that this calls for new thinking, both sociological and ethical, which can refine the FoK approach to take fuller account of the diverse and complex spaces of social-historical life in new times. We conclude by considering a pedagogical approach through which learners in such regions can re-imagine hopeful forms of community.     

Reflections of a ‘late-career’ early-career researcher: an account of practice

This account of practice describes the journey of an ‘accidental academic’ through the Doctoral programme in Business Administration (DBA). It reflects on her experience of action learning and lessons learned to better embed action learning in future DBA teaching and assessment. The account is told from the perspective of a mature student straddling business and academic interests. DBA students represent a mature cohort with significant business experience and responsibility. As such, they have an implicit understanding of action learning. Action learning for these individuals should be re-activated rather than re-learned for their doctoral studies. Suggestions are made for improving the utility of action learning for DBA students and their willing engagement in the action learning process.     

The daily me: a response to ‘Tocqueville on democracy and inclusive education: a more ardent and enduring love of equality than of liberty’

The relationship between a parent and their child who has SEN is one that, by necessity, is shared with a larger than usual group of professionals. It is perhaps inevitable, then, that this relationship has been an occasionally precarious one, with a potential for conflict due to differing perspectives and priorities. Although the ideal of partnership between parent and professional was originally defined in the Warnock Report in 1978 as a preference for equality, the constitution of partnership has continued to be viewed with a degree of caution. The contribution of parents in the education of their child has been a long‐standing yet somewhat relegated feature of policy reform, where limited investigation of parents’ views has perpetuated the consensus that multiple perspectives are rarely obtained. This paper explores the premise of partnership in Northern Ireland, with reference to parents’ relationships with the cross‐section of professionals who constitute an inevitable by‐product of having a child with SEN. Specifically, it will refer to their perceived status as partners within procedural infrastructures, and identification of those factors that have challenged the premise of partnership. The paper will present some findings from a phenomenological study involving 20 parents. This represented the third and final stage of a large scale research study involving quantitative and qualitative data collection. In Northern Ireland, the dual prerogatives of special education and inclusion have acquired commensurate currency as part of an ongoing process of social reform and education rationalisation. This meant that much of the research was undertaken against a backdrop of emerging educational policy and legislation for SEN, disability and inclusion. It is a timely opportunity, then, to review existing challenges and to consider possible alternatives for future partnerships