Field theory and educational practice: Bourdieu and the pedagogic qualities of local field positions in educational contexts

Bourdieu’s version of field theory has had an impressive impact on the ways that sociologists of education conceptualize educational practices. These accounts tend to focus on the varying levels of ontological complicity established between students’ cultural dispositions and educational institutions. In this paper, the wisdom of these accounts is acknowledged but it is also suggested that Bourdieu’s field theory does not go far enough to detail the ways that positions in local educational fields embody pedagogic qualities and action trajectories. Drawing on insights from social psychology and relational sociology, a field theory for local educational action is outlined that more adequately accounts for the ways that students and educators directly experience and act upon curricular and pedagogic qualities in educational settings. An empirical example is then offered of the authors’ claims within the context of curricular tracking/streaming, and the article concludes by considering the practical and political consequences of this theoretical shift.     

Mindfulness in education at the intersection of science,religion, and healing

This paper investigates mindfulness as a case study of a ‘subjective turn’ in education reflecting a postsecular age. The practice of mindfulness originates in an ancient Buddhist teaching prescribed as part of the path to enlightenment. In spite of its origins, it is becoming widespread within diverse secularly conceived social and educational settings. The paper offers a historical review of this phenomenon and analyzes why and how mindfulness has become the spearhead within a burgeoning ‘contemplative turn’ in education. The thesis suggested is that ‘normal education’ follows ‘normal science’, yet science itself is now being shaken by its own venturing into the ‘dangerous’ waters of the religious experience. The paper reflects critically on the prices and merits of mindfulness in education as a practice shaped by its becoming measurable. It locates these processes as depicting the postsecular age’s blurring of boundaries between religiosity/secularity/education, subject/object, and science/healing/education.     

Towards a pedagogical model for science education: bridging educational contexts through a blended learning approach

This paper proposes a design framework to support science education through blended learning, based on a participatory and interactive approach supported by ICT-based tools, called Science Learning Activities Model (SLAM). The development of this design framework started as a response to complex changes in society and education (e.g. high turnover rate of knowledge, changing labour market), which require a more creative response of learners to the world problems that surround them. Many of these challenges are related to science and it would be expected that students are attracted to science, however the contrary is the case. One of the origins of this disinterest can be found in the way science is taught. Therefore, after reviewing the relevant literature we propose the SLAM framework as a tool to aid the design of science courses with high motivational impact on students. The framework is concerned with the assumption that science learning activities should be applicable and relevant to contemporary life and transferable to ‘real-world’ situations. The design framework proposes three design dimensions: context, technology and pedagogy, and aims at integrating learning in formal and informal contexts through blended learning scenarios by using today’s flexible, interactive and immersive technologies (e.g. mobile, augmented reality, virtual reality).     

Girls and science education in Mauritius: a study of science class practices and their effects on girls

Background: The population of Mauritius consists of 52% females and scientific literacy is seen to be of vital importance for all young people if they are to be sufficiently equipped to meet the challenges of a fast changing world. Previous research shows, however, that science is not popular among girls. This paper explores one of many reasons why few girls opt for science subjects after compulsory schooling.

Purpose: This study investigated the approaches to teaching in four science classrooms in Mauritius, with particular emphases on the preferences of girls as they learn science.

Sample: A total of 20 student interviews and 16 teacher interviews were conducted in four schools in Mauritius. The four mixed-faith schools comprised two all-girl schools (one state, one fee-paying), and two mixed-sex schools (one state, one fee-paying), within urban, suburban and rural situations.

Design and method: 80 non-participant lessons were observed, of which 60 were science lessons while the remaining 20 non-science lessons were in economics, accounts and commerce. Group interviews with five pupils in each of the four schools were conducted and 16 individual interviews with teachers in the four schools gave an insight into the pedagogic approaches used for the teaching and learning of science.

Results: Transmissive approaches to teaching, giving little opportunity for collaborative or activity-based learning, were found to be the most important factors in alienating the girls from science.

Conclusions: There need to be radical changes in approaches to teaching to retain young girls’ interest in the sciences.     

Reconstructing science teacher education within communities of learners

This article is based on a paper which received the “Innovation in Teaching Science Teachers” Award at the 1993 annual meeting of the Association for the Education of Teachers in Science.     

Intelligence testing: the legitimation of a meritocratic educational science

This chapter addresses the origin, legacy, and persistence of intelligence testing in the United States as a process whereby education was colonized by the field of psychology. The convergence of events which fostered the development of intelligence tests and which maintain them in high standing link the history of schooling to the larger field of social change and reinforce the idea that schools are inseparable from the social climate of which they are a product. Intelligent tests were created as, and are, efficient sorting mechanisms in schools that reflect dominant values and contribute to social stability by justifying unequal educational outcomes as a natural and objective process. In spite of their seemingly meritocratic potential, intelligence tests are a primary mechanism for the reproductive role of schooling in society as reinforcing class, race, and ethnic biases.     

The effectiveness of science supervisors and their membership status within a faculty

…Teachers tend to say they find their supervision of little value. Supervisors say their work has a lot of value. Supervisors seem to be saying that they want to spend more time doing what their clients (the teachers) consider to be relatively useless.     

Extending the purposes of science education: addressing violence within socio-economic disadvantaged communities

Current discourses about science education show a wide concern towards humanisation and a more socio-cultural perspective of school science. They suggest that science education can serve diverse purposes and be responsive to social and environmental situations we currently face. However, these discourses and social approaches to science education tend to focus on global issues. They do not respond to the immediate needs and local context of some communities. I discuss in this paper why the purposes of science education need to be extended to respond to the local issue of violence. For this, I present a case study with a group of 38 students from a poor population in Bogotá, Colombia, located in one of the suburbs with highest levels of crime in the city. I examine the ways that science education contributes to and embodies its own forms of violence and explore how a new approach to science education could contribute to break the cycle of violence.     

论乡村教育运动对科教兴农的启示

上个世纪二三十年代，以晏阳初、黄炎培、陶行知、梁漱溟等为代表的一批资产阶级知识分子，怀着赤诚的爱国之心和救亡图存的良好愿望，从城市步入乡村，不仅创造了各具特色的乡村教育理论，而且开展了独且匠心的乡村教育实验。这在当时，虽然因存在只求改良不图革命的致命弱点而不能达到救民于水火的目的，但是他们对乡村教育的理论探索和实际运作仍具有重要的历史价值和现实意义，对今日的科教兴农仍不乏启迪意义。启示之一：通过教育改造乡村怎样才能改造中国、救亡图存呢？这是许多具有先进思想的中国人在上个世纪二三十年代努力思考求解…     

Social exclusion,and educational opportunity: the case of British education policies within a European Union context1

This paper first examines the New Labour government's redefinition of equality of opportunity in Britain, mainly with regard to education and the ways in which it mediates ‘opportunity’. In doing so, it also draws on wider social policy issues, such as the use of education policies to combat social exclusion. Second, the paper reviews European Union policies and selected documents that address questions of social inclusion, social cohesion and the role of education in achieving those policy goals. The main argument is that both New Labour policies in Britain and the examined EU documents promote rather minimal understandings of the term ‘equality of opportunity’, while, education, in both cases, is given an enormous burden to carry in balancing increasingly liberalised market‐driven economies, with the requirements of a socially just society.     

Globalisation and science education: Rethinking science education reforms

Like Lemke (J Res Sci Teach 38:296–316, 2001), I believe that science education has not looked enough at the impact of the changing theoretical and global landscape by which it is produced and shaped. Lemke makes a sound argument for science education to look beyond its own discourses toward those like cultural studies and politics, and to which I would add globalisation theory and relevant educational studies. Hence, in this study I draw together a range of investigations to argue that globalisation is indeed implicated in the discourses of science education, even if it remains underacknowledged and undertheorized. Establishing this relationship is important because it provides different frames of reference from which to investigate many of science education's current concerns, including those new forces that now have a direct impact on science classrooms. For example, one important question to investigate is the degree to which current science education improvement discourses are the consequences of quality research into science teaching and learning, or represent national and local responses to global economic restructuring and the imperatives of the supranational institutions that are largely beyond the control of science education. Developing globalisation as a theoretical construct to help formulate new questions and methods to examine these questions can provide science education with opportunities to expand the conceptual and analytical frameworks of much of its present and future scholarship. © 2005 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.     

知识教育：现象学教育学的检视

现象学教育学摒弃先在的理论成见和抽象的形而上学，倾注于个体真实的生活世界，力图发现教育的“意义”之所在。这样的探究理路，为我们认识知识教育提供了一种新的可能，为我们在知识教育实践中摆脱无休止的理论吵闹和纷争，重新找回生命的本真提供了新思路。在现象学教育学的视野中，不仅知识教育的生活面貌得以恢复，而且知识教育的根本使命也得以再认和申明。     

Higher education financing and the educational aspirations of teenagers and their parents

We study the impact of higher education financing on the academic aspirations of teenagers and their parents. We exploit a reform which introduced a large increase in the tuition fees universities can charge, more generous support for the poorest students and a more redistributive student loan system, and varied across the UK’s constituent countries. Using rare survey data on post compulsory secondary and university education aspirations, we find that teenagers’ aspirations are not responsive to large changes in higher education financing. In contrast, parents adjust their aspirations, resulting in a reduction of the socio-economic aspiration gap for their children.     

Towards a truer multicultural science education: how whiteness impacts science education

Cultural Studies of Science Education - The hope for multicultural, culturally competent, and diverse perspectives in science education falls short if theoretical considerations of whiteness are...     

邓小平科技教育思想与科教兴国战略的实施

本从邓小平科技教育思想出发，以科学技术是第一生产力为主线，就科教兴国战略的提出，我国科技实力现状与科教兴国的内涵及科教兴国的战略意义进行了较为详细的论述。     

略谈高职教育发展的新理念--即科学教育与人文教育的交融

人文教育的缺失,是高职教育发展中“异化”现象产生的根源,消除“异化”,促进高职教育的健康发展,高职教育必须树立科学教育与人文教育整合并重,有机交融的新理念。     

中央政府与社会教育:理学教育的视角

社会教育由于其在社会治理与发展中的重要作用而被人们所重视。理学教育家也极为关注社会教育问题,对于如何推行社会教育进行了诸多的思考与探索。理学教育家认为,在社会教育的网络体系中,中央政府处于最高的决策与管理地位,发挥着非常重要的作用。对于中央政府如何确定自身在国家社会教育中的地位并充分发挥其作用,理学教育家提出了一些很有价值的建议。     

Liminality in education: generating a creative space of encounter and dialogue between teachers and students within educational structures

ABSTRACT

The dominant results-driven/performance-oriented culture and the pressures of performativity in education have meant that the promotion of creativity has been narrow in scope and the translation into practice less apparent than the rhetoric would suggest. Creativity can survive even in times of standardisation, but it is more likely to be confined to interstitial zones. Interstitial zones are in-between social spaces outside the formal teaching zones in which creativity may give voice to those students whose voice is not always heard in the formal teaching context.

Often, creativity is equated exclusively to substantial creative outputs and, as a result, teachers who are not sensitised to creativity in a broader sense may underestimate their own creative ability and the positive impact this might have on the relationship with their students. A shift in teacher education that results in a more meaningful appreciation of both the nature of creativity and its benefits is therefore required. A developmental approach which starts with teacher cultivation of creative sensibility is essential to achieve greater infusion of creativity. The paper posits that teachers who resist rigid social structures and engage in critical pedagogy are also more likely to be receptive to creativity and its the pastoral potential in education.