Roses from the Cracks: A Pedagogical Reflection on the 2018 Religious Education Association Annual Meeting

Abstract

This essay explores what surfaces when we lead a reflection on the 2018 REA meeting with questions about teaching and learning. What pedagogical models appeared to be operative during the meeting? What voices were missing and which ones were privileged? Who benefitted from the pedagogies at work in the meeting? Who was marginalized? What pedagogical possibilities burst through the painful and difficult spaces in the meeting that can be a “North Star” to guide us in our future work?     

What is Philosophy for Children? From an educational experiment to experimental education

Abstract

Philosophy seems to have gained solid ground in the hearts and minds of educational researchers and practitioners. We critique Philosophy for Children as an experimental programme aimed at improving children’s thinking capacity, by questioning the concept of critique itself. What does it mean when an institutional framework like the school claims to question its own framework, and what is the consequence of such a claim for thinking, in education, philosophy and the child? Implications for the concept of critical thinking follow.     

An action research enquiry into child voice in the primary classroom by empowering children to arrange and implement their own timetable

ABSTRACT

This paper describes one child voice enabling strategy that allowed children in sixth class in an urban primary school in Ireland to have a say in the organisation of their learning. The lack of involvement that children have in the organisation of their school week was questioned and this prompted an investigation into a new approach to enabling child voice in the classroom. Action research is an iterative process that develops through a self-reflective spiral of planning, acting and observing, re-planning and further implementation. Each cycle followed a similar approach, of planning, acting, observing and reflecting. This research found that child voice can be effectively incorporated into the organisation of their learning when neither the teacher nor the children take total control but work together as equal individuals. In this enquiry the children design, implement and adhere to their own weekly timetable while adhering to the regulations set out by the Ireland’s Department of Education and Skills (DES). This research which aims to consider child voice when determining a timetable can be seen as a first step to integrate child-centred approaches into the classroom.     

Doing curious research to cultivate tentacular becomings

Abstract

Referring to Haraway’s concept of tentacularity, this article embarks on a curious research practice-inspired speculative journey to think with material tentacular becomings in an Australian kindergarten. Some of the questions that guided our curious research practice asked: How does curious practice as a postqualitative methodology enable us, as researchers, to cultivate a presence that creates the conditions for these research encounters and events to be perceived? What becomes possible for generative relational diverse learning with matter-energies if we accept that there is no rational explanation at hand? What worlds come into being if we speculate instead of rationalize? How do children animate, and are animated relationally, in particular worlds and not in others? How do we, as researchers, become entangled within children’s ways of perceiving and naming encounters? We experimented with Haraway’s notion of tentacularity as our navigational tool to map four entangled territories in this article.     

Voice in the agentic assemblage

Abstract

In this article, we explore how a posthumanist stance has enabled us to work a different consideration of the way in which voice is constituted and constituting in educational inquiry; that is, we position voice in a posthuman ontology that is understood as attributable to a complex network of human and nonhuman agents that exceed the traditional understanding of an individual. Drawing on the work of Deleuze and Guattari, Barad, and Bennett, we present a research artifact that illustrates how this posthuman voice is productively bound to an agentic assemblage. The reconfiguration of a posthuman voice with/in an educational research artifact further enables us to explore various analytic questions: What happens when voice exceeds language and is more than (un)vocalized words emanating from a speaking subject? If the materiality of voice is not limited to sound (i.e. self-present language emitted from a human mouth), how do we account for it? That is, how might the materiality of voice be located in the space of intra-action among human and non-human objects? We conclude with implications for thinking qualitative methodology in education differently.     

Education for sustainable development in early childhood education: a review of the research literature

The aim of the study is to describe and analyse research articles relating to the subject of education for sustainable development (ESD) for early childhood education (ECE), published during the years 1996–2013. This is done by answering three specific questions: (1) How is ESD defined by researchers in ECE? (2) What are the major research inquiries and results? (3) What does the research say about young children acting for change in relation to sustainability? Our analysis identified two different definitions of ESD: first, as a threefold approach to education based on questions concerning education about, in and for the environment; and, second, as an approach to education that includes three interrelated dimensions: economic, social and environmental. Two major research areas are identified in this study. The first area relates to how teachers understand ESD, while the second area focuses on how ESD can be implemented in educational practice. During the period studied, the research has evolved from teaching children facts about the environment and sustainability issues to educating children to act for change. This new approach reveals a more competent child who can think for him- or herself and make well-considered decisions. The decisions are made by investigating and participating in critical discussions about alternative ways of acting for change.     

What do families of the ‘professional and managerial’ class educate their children for? The links between happiness and autonomy

Based on a qualitative study involving 124 professional and managerial class families in Catalonia (Spain), this paper describes the aims and objectives these families have for the education of their children. During the fieldwork, when asked what they were aiming for in the education of their children, almost all of the parents replied ‘for them to be happy’. But what kind of happiness are they talking about? What kind of education might lead to happiness? Drawing principally on the work of Kellerhals and Montandon and their ‘contractual model of education’ and Bauman’s concepts of ‘secondary security’ and ‘homo eligens’, although also taking into account the related contributions of Lareau, Vincent and Ball, Stefansen and Aarseth, and Kusserow, the paper aims to demonstrate the strong connection these families make between happiness and ‘absolute’ autonomy, understood as two sides of the same coin and seen, by the participants, as the guiding principle that should shape the way they bring their children up.     

Linguistic performance and minority groups

Abstract

Beginning with linguistic performance as currently defined, this article systematically pursues its implications to and through the notion of “successful communication.” The four divisions of the article attempt explorations of the following questions: What does linguistic performance do? What place does it have in a theory of communication? What are the practical implications of such a theory in connection with actual language use? How is all this relevant to problems of what we take to be “linguistically underprivileged” (minority) groups? The article concludes that the concept of linguistic performance, “scientifically” based, is not significant in successful communication, which is an art.     

What’s involved in ‘the work’? Understanding administrators’ roles in bringing trans-affirming policies into practice

ABSTRACT

Researchers have concluded that policy implementation is a process of mutual adaptation between policies and implementers. Our study draws attention to that relationship, especially with respect to policies that challenge assumptions about sex, gender, and sexuality. We focus on how six administrators in one United States school district understood ‘the work’ of bringing the district’s Guidelines for Supporting Transgender and Gender Nonconforming Students into practice. Our analysis of interview data focused these questions: How do administrators describe their motivation and commitment to engage in the work? What puzzles of practice do participants name? How do they talk about the work of implementation? What does that work mean/involve in everyday practice? What were their roles? We found that implementation was locally defined and enacted; participants’ sense-making, their roles in enacting the Guidelines, and the puzzles they negotiated were influenced by their unique contexts. We share examples of diverse cases in an effort to create policy knowledge.     

You Can Ask Me If You Really Want to Know What I Think

Abstract

Recent social policy discourses in Aotearoa New Zealand focus on vulnerable children’s well-being and the detrimental, long-term and costly impacts of child poverty. The discourse pervading much of the policy labels children and young people as ‘vulnerable’ or ‘at risk’ or ‘in crisis’, a view, which we argue, is both disempowering and marginalising. We propose a shift in focus which views children and young people as agentic, capable and competent. Drawing on several small-scale research projects and reports we demonstrate how, when asked, children and young people can participate effectively in discussions about policy matters that concern them (Article 12, United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, 1989 [UNCROC]). We have much to learn from the insights children share with us when asked, but very often existing structures, at both government and community level, do not include adequate processes to hear their voices, let alone act on what has been communicated.     

Teacher education for a new world

In a world climate which is increasingly closing down as far as alternative political and social options are concerned, Cyprus as a small semi-occupied country with great European aspirations is facing a number of very serious dilemmas and teachers are faced with an extremely difficult task. The citizens they are preparing have to be passionate enough to claim a Greek-Cypriot identity; have to be tolerant and accommodating enough to live and work with Turkish-Cypriots in a re-united country, which is the main political goal of the Republic of Cyprus; have to be open-minded enough to look to a European future; and have to be ready and able to function in a globalized context. How can such a citizen be 'formulated' when there appear to be immense contradictions between what is required for each goal? What are the priorities and how are they defined? This article will attempt to address these complex issues and arrive at some conclusions regarding teacher education for a very complex new world     

Families’ perceptions of early childhood educators’ fostering conversations and connections by sharing children's learning through pedagogical documentation

ABSTRACT

Belonging, Being and Becoming: The Early Years Learning Framework for Australia emphasises that families have an important role in their children's learning and it recognises that their earliest development is influenced through these relationships and adds that partnerships can be fostered with families by early childhood educators sharing the children's documented experiences. The research discussed employed an in-depth structured questionnaire. It involved 37 families with children aged from three to five years who attended an early learning centre in Northern Tasmania, Australia. The aim of this research was to determine these families’ perceptions, beliefs and experiences of educators sharing children's learning through pedagogical documentation. The documentation included hard copy and digital formats of the children's learning, capturing their voices and explorations. The findings show that families consider the sharing of documentation fosters family conversations about the children's learning experiences and helps to create stronger connections between the centre, home and extended family. Another recurring theme from the families’ responses was that children gain pride and a positive sense of identity when their documented work is shared with families.     

Towards multidimensional approaches to early childhood science education

In this forum paper, I respond to issues raised by Kristina Andersson and Annica Gullberg in their article titled What is science in preschool and what do teachers have to know to empower children? (2012). I seek to continue the discussion begun with Andersson and Gullberg’s paper, by further exploring the questions they introduce to guide their paper: “What is science in preschool?” and “What do teachers have to know to empower children?” In particular, I elaborate on the value of drawing on multiple perspectives and different epistemological frameworks, and I argue for the need for a reconceptualized notion of science as a school discipline; one that acknowledges the multifaceted ways in which young children engage in science.     

Education and the Concept of Time

Abstract

As we speak about time in the context of everyday life, we have no problem with what we mean by time. We take time as given. Different kinds of theories of development rely on the ordinary concept of time. Time is a sequence of instants, and we are moving along from the past to the future, from birth to death. Moving in time also means development. It does not take into account how a human being is in the time. It flattens our view of human life and cannot describe our manifold being. According to theories of development, if a child does not behave in a certain instant as the theories expect, there must be a problem with that child or she has not developed as well as others.

Heidegger uses terms like time-space, temporality and ecstases of time. The question of time is of the same kind as the question of Being. We are in the world and in time in the same way. We all have experience of time, how it sometimes goes quickly and sometimes very slowly. Time is not experienced as moments one after another. It is time-space. Time-space means that time has three dimensions and it consists of the ecstatical opening up of the future, the past and the present. In this article, I will open up the question how the traditional understanding of time and the ecstatic understanding of time understand children differently. What does it mean that little children live exclusively in the present?     

Adverse experiences in early childhood and their longitudinal impact on later behavioral problems of children living in poverty

BackgroundAdverse childhood experiences (ACEs) are an identified risk factor for the social and emotional development of children. What is less known is the long-term effects of ACEs when poverty and ACEs coincide.ObjectiveUsing longitudinal cohort-panel data, we examined whether exposure to ACEs by the age of three among poor children would longitudinally result in behavioral problems at ages three, five, nine, and 15, after controlling for mothers’ socioeconomic status and their children’s characteristics.Participants and settingWe used a subsample of 2750 children and their parents living in urban poverty from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing study.MethodsLogistic regression modeling was used to obtain adjusted odds ratios of ACE categories predicting behavioral problems after accounting for family socioeconomic position.ResultsOur findings indicate that experiencing ACEs in early childhood was significantly associated with later behavioral outcomes from childhood to adolescence. Exposure to multiple ACEs before the age of three was significantly associated with the top-risk behavior group at age five; the odd ratios were 2.0 (CI = 1.3–3.1) and 2.9 (CI = 1.8–4.6) for two ACEs and three or more ACEs, respectively. At both ages nine and 15, children experiencing two or more ACEs had 1.9 to 3.2 times higher odds to demonstrate more the top 10th percentile of behavioral problems. Among covariates, mothers’ race and education, and children’s gender and temperament were identified as significant factors to determine behavior problems.ConclusionsThe findings support policies and programs for families with children who have experienced economic disadvantages and early childhood adversity.     

What is to be done with curriculum and educational foundations' critical knowledges? Toward critical and decolonizing education sciences

ABSTRACT

As editors of the special issue in Teaching Education titled What Is To Be Done with Curriculum and Educational Foundations’ Critical Knowledges? New Qualitative Research on Conscientizing Preservice and In-Service Teachers, our purpose with this conceptual essay is twofold. First, we historicize and characterize the critical knowledges deployed in this special issue as a broad array of criticalities. Second, we provide a reading of these criticalities that together we tentatively call critical and decolonizing education sciences. In our discussion and conclusion, we focus on the dual challenges of developing work in critical and decolonizing education sciences: (a) better historicizing academic work and (b) clearly responding to demands of institutional praxis.     

Equal Educational Opportunity: A Definition

Abstract

Efforts aimed at the development of a European dimension to the general education curricula offered in the different European countries have been stepped up in recent years, both within the countries of the current European Union and within the wider range of European countries belonging to the Council of Europe and subscribing to its Cultural Convention. The immediate importance of these efforts is seen to lie in the desirability of offering an education to young people that helps them make the most of their opportunities not only within their own national borders but also in the wider European Community to which they now belong and in which they have new rights and responsibilities. More generally, these efforts are also seen to be important in consolidating a Europe in which past animosities can finally be abandoned and replaced by a firm pan‐European attachment to ideals of freedom and cooperation between European nations, dedicated to the defence of democracy, human rights, freedom and tolerance. But, how successful have these efforts been? What are the problems encountered? What are the prospects for the future? How far is it proving possible to develop the European dimension across the curriculum? How successful is the European dimension, or might it be, in achieving its intended objectives? These questions, all of which are more puzzling than they might at first appear to be, are touched on in this paper.     

Caring for Children: Some Long-term Issues

Using Felicity Fletcher-Campbell's work on ‘looked-after children’ (children in care) as a starting point, John Wilson considers an appropriate response to the decline of traditional support networks such as the extended family and the community in which it is situated. In his view, this should not involve separate pastoral care but a reconceptualizing of our whole picture of what the school is for. At the centre of this is the idea that, to be effective, much learning requires a personal relationship. He goes on to discuss the nature of relationships, and suggests that they must be informed by some form of clear values. The remainder of his paper discusses what it might be about a community (school) that would promote real engagement and partnership.