Gender machineries vs. feminist movements? Collective political subjectivity in the time of passive revolution

ABSTRACT

The aim of this article is to pose some questions concerning kairos and feminist activism. In recent years state feminism in Spain has been presented as a ‘success story’ of legislative victories and policy programmes regarding women’ equality and equal opportunities. Only two years ago, feminist movements in Spain showed unexpected vitality in forcing the government to withdraw the intended reform of the abortion law. However, relations between state feminism and feminist movements in Spain are weak and ambivalent, and feminism in Spain, as in other parts of Europe, is said to be in crisis. I refer to ideas elaborated by Antonio Gramsci in order to identify possible barriers to the formation of relationships between state feminism and feminist movements that could impact favourably upon possibilities of collective political subjectivity and social transformation. Education plays a two-fold role in this argument. In its formal manifestations, it is a component of the institutional feminism that this article critiques, and as a series of informal pedagogical networks, education is understood here as entangled in the different expressions of feminist activism and can thus contribute significantly to the development of feminist aims.     

Towards a ‘critical cultural political economy’ account of the globalising of education

This paper outlines the basis of an alternative theoretical approach to the study of the globalisation of ‘education’ – a Critical, Cultural Political Economy of Education (CCPEE) approach. Our purpose here is to bring this body of concepts – critical, cultural, political, economy – into our interrogation of globalising projects and processes within what we will refer to as the ‘education ensemble’ as the topic of enquiry, whose authoritative, allocative, ideational and feeling structures, properties and practices, emerge from and play into global economic, political and cultural processes In the first half of the paper we introduce and develop the concepts that will underpin our approach. In the second half of the paper we explore the explanatory potential and epistemic gain of a CCPEE approach by examining the different manifestations of the relationship between globalisation as a political, cultural and economic project and an education ensemble. We conclude by reflecting on the possibilities this perspective offers.     

Economic globalization,politico‐cultural identity and university autonomy: the struggle of Tsinghua University in China

A great deal of research has addressed the tension between economic globalization and local cultural identity, and the tension between convergence in global policy objectives and divergence in local practices, but research has not explored the impact of the complex interactions between these tensions on an individual university, especially in relation to university autonomy. This paper attempts to bridge this gap. Based on a case study of Tsinghua University in China, this paper explores the university's role in three interrelated processes: the incorporation of international experience into higher education, in order to respond to economic globalization; the reinforcement of political education, as a means of preserving the state‐prescribed cultural identity; and the quest for autonomy, to facilitate the university's move towards world‐class status. Tensions raised by the interaction of these processes will also be discussed. This paper concludes by applying the concept of ‘glocalization’—i.e., ‘thinking and acting both globally and locally’—as a means of understanding the complex interrelations of global, national, and local factors that inform the translation of global imperatives into local realities in the context of Tsinghua.     

“Truth or consequences”: a feminist critical policy analysis of the STEM crisis

STEM education has received significant attention in the USA and is largely fueled by rhetoric suggesting the USA is losing its global competitive edge and that there is a lack of qualified workers available to fill growing STEM jobs. However, a counter discourse is emerging that questions the legitimacy of these claims. In response, we employed feminist critical policy analysis as both a theory and a method to further critique the STEM crisis discourse. We argue that the nature of the current discourse is misleading at worst and incomplete at best and show who is fueling the crisis discourse and who stands to win or lose as a result. We reveal how the crisis discourse draws attention away from the multi-layered complexity of the issue and surface what is missing in the discourse to re-center public attention on protracted problems that still need dismantling.     

Ahead of the pack? Explaining the unequal distribution of scholarships in Germany

This article investigates to what extent scholarships are unequally distributed among students in Germany and how these inequalities can be explained. Following sociological theory, the article argues that elites seek qualitative ways of distinguishing themselves in a mass higher education system. Using student surveys, we demonstrate that class effects cannot merely be explained with reference to class differences in academic achievement but that higher classes have better access to scholarships independent of earlier school performance. Class differences were particularly persistent when the intermediate classes were compared with higher classes with more education. These findings illustrate that social classes have different strategies when it comes to participating in higher education and suggest that information about and access to scholarships is important in gaining a class advantage.     

The expansion of educredit in Latin American higher education: Promise or peril?

Credit facilities for students in Latin American universities have grown rapidly in recent years. The implications of this development are critically examined with particular attention to the inhibiting influence of loan-based higher education on the freedom of the student as an individual.     

Assumption of the burden: Science or criticism?

This article adjudicates the claim to science made by current researchers in speech communication. It argues the point that contemporary research is best characterized as criticism, and that the cause of research in the field would be best advanced if scholars engaged in the enterprise of discourse analysis and conversation analysis regarded themselves as critics and made themselves subject to criticism as such.     

A national hero or a Wily Politician? Students’ ideas about the origins of the nation in Sweden

The topic of this article is how primary school students express ideas about the ‘origins of the nation’. The study is based on texts written by Swedish students aged 12–13 about a historical event well embedded in Swedish national mythology, the rise to power of Swedish ‘founding father’ Gustav Vasa. The analysis is inspired by James V. Wertsch's concept of schematic narrative templates. The main finding of the study is that the students mainly structure their answers along one of two different narrative templates; either a kind of historical master narrative with strong foundations in traditional Swedish history culture, or a more generic story about the founding father as a ruthless or corrupt politician, which is arguably influenced by presentism.     

Providing Written or Oral Explanations? Differential Effects of the Modality of Explaining on Students' Conceptual Learning and Transfer

Learning-by-explaining (to fictitious others) has been shown to be an effective instructional method to support students' generative learning. In this study, we investigated differential effects of the modality of explaining (written versus oral) on students' quality of explanations and learning. Forty-eight students worked on a hypertext about combustion engines. Afterwards, they were asked to explain the learning content, either orally or in writing. Findings indicated that providing written explanations was more effective than providing oral explanations in supporting students to organize the content of the explanations. The higher levels of organization yielded higher levels of students' conceptual knowledge. In contrast, generating oral explanations, relative to written explanations, triggered students' elaborative processes to a more pronounced extent, which was more beneficial to attaining transferable knowledge. Thus, we conclude that the modality of explaining plays a critical role in learning-by-explaining inasmuch as different modes differentially support student learning.     

Subjectivity as a site of struggle: refusing neoliberalism?

This paper extends the author’s previous enquiries and discussions of governmentality and neoliberal policy technologies in a number of ways. The paper explores the specificity and generality of performativity as a particular contemporary mode of power relations. It addresses our own imbrication in the politics of performative truths, through our ordinary everyday life and work. The paper is about the here and now, us, you and me, and who we are in neoliberal education. It draws upon and considers a set of ongoing email exchanges with a small group of teachers who are struggling with performativity. It enters the ‘theoretical silence’ of governmentality studies around the issues of resistance and contestation. Above all, the paper attempts to articulate the risks of refusal through Foucault’s notion of fearless speech or truth-telling (parrhesia).     

English language learners who struggle with reading: language acquisition or LD?

We review empirical research on English language learners (ELLs) who struggle with reading and who may have learning disabilities (LD). We sought to determine research indicators that can help us better differentiate between ELLs who struggle to acquire literacy because of their limited proficiency in English and ELLs who have actual LD. We conclude that more research is warranted to further elucidate the strengths and learning needs of subgroups of underachieving ELLs, to help us determine who should qualify for special education, and to clarify why some ELLs who do not have LD still struggle with language and literacy acquisition. Future research should account for the complexities involved in becoming literate in another language and focus more on cultural and contextual factors that affect student achievement.     

Reading religion in Norwegian textbooks: are individual religions ideas or people?

Different religions are treated in different ways in Norwegian sixth form textbooks. We carried out an exhaustive content analysis of the chapters devoted to individual religions in textbooks for the Religion and Ethics course currently available in Norway, using rigorous indicators to code each word, image and question according to whether they were treated the religion as a set of ideas or a group of people. After adjusting for trends in the different kinds of data (word, image, question), we found that Buddhism and Christianity receive significantly more attention for their ideas than Hinduism, Islam and Judaism, which are treated more as people. This difference cannot be explained by the national syllabus or the particularities of the individual religions. The asymmetry also has implications for the pupils’ academic, moral and pedagogical agency for which teachers play a critical role in compensating.     

Superintendent’s leadership: the cultural aspects of the role enactment

This qualitative study seeks to create a better understanding of the work of school superintendents. This study was conducted using ethnographic techniques as a way to describe the practice of a Latino superintendent in a borderland community in south Texas. Guiding questions for this study were: What goes on in the workday life of a superintendent? and how does the superintendent enact his role as superintendent? Field study for this qualitative inquiry occurred over a period of seven months. Data for this study, including transgressive data, were collected primarily through participant observations, semi-structured ethnographic interviews, from artefacts and journal notes.     

Legitimacy and identity in teacher education: a micro‐political struggle constrained by macro‐political pressures1

To gain a clear sense of teacher educators at work, we need to look closely at the context in which they practice. Any attempt to address the questions of what works and the nature of evidence must be situated in the macro‐political context that constrains the work of teacher educators struggling for legitimacy and identity within both the university and the professional field of teaching. We characterize the macro‐political context as a set of neo‐liberalist forces that works to undermine the central role universities have played in the development of the nation state. As the university's role has become focused on supporting economic development and global competitiveness, this context is at odds with longstanding agendas of professional responsibility and self‐governance in teacher education. In this policy context, we argue that teacher educators need to engage in rigorous practice‐based inquiry that addresses issues of policy and governance, particularly those that tend toward direct government intervention or professional governance.     

Explaining the Success of the World’s Leading Education Systems: The Case of Singapore

International comparative data on student performance has led McKinsey&Company, among others, to suggest that education systems will inexorably converge in their developmental trajectories with principals and schools enjoying more autonomy. This article challenges these assumptions through referencing Singapore where schools and professionals are still tightly controlled in key resources, curricula and assessment, and where other key factors contribute to its success – thereby evidencing multiple pathways to success.