From Co-Construction to Takeovers: Science Talk in a Group of Four Girls

The goal of this article is to add to our knowledge of what kinds of interaction take place within small groups. To that end the nature of the interaction among four girls in a small group science activity is analyzed with respect to the other work on both girls' talk and on small group interactions. It is shown that three participants obtained very different access to this conversation from their usual access to whole class lessons. It is further shown that the student whose participation in the small group differed most from that of the others had a different orientation to the task and indicated she was playing by different conversational rules. Co-construction is then explored as a major means of interaction for the other three participants, but the question posed is to what extent this form is necessarily collaborative. The findings suggest that future research look beyond participation rates as measures of status and look more deeply into the impact of talk that is in form cooperative.     

The British and curriculum development in West Africa: A historical discourse

THE BRITISH AND CURRICULUM DEVELOPMENT IN WEST AFRICA: A HISTORICAL STUDY – Only recently have African nations begun to make their way towards establishing genuinely autonomous education systems incorporating elements of indigenous culture. The present study examines the historical development of curriculum in British West Africa in its links with the educational activities of the early Christian missionaries and the imposition of British colonial rule. For over 300 years, the curriculum content was essentially European in nature. African interests and cultural practices were largely excluded, as “bookwork” was favored over “handwork”. The colonial curriculum also helped introduce a new social order to West Africa, leading to the rise of new local elites reading, writing, and speaking foreign European languages. This study explores how the idea of a “civilized” person, promoted through the colonial school curriculum, developed new local elites with different sets of values and expectations that often made them strangers in their own societies. It also describes the connection between this curriculum and the repeated failure of education-reform efforts.     

The British and curriculum development in West Africa: A historical discourse

THE BRITISH AND CURRICULUM DEVELOPMENT IN WEST AFRICA: A HISTORICAL STUDY – Only recently have African nations begun to make their way towards establishing genuinely autonomous education systems incorporating elements of indigenous culture. The present study examines the historical development of curriculum in British West Africa in its links with the educational activities of the early Christian missionaries and the imposition of British colonial rule. For over 300 years, the curriculum content was essentially European in nature. African interests and cultural practices were largely excluded, as “bookwork” was favored over “handwork”. The colonial curriculum also helped introduce a new social order to West Africa, leading to the rise of new local elites reading, writing, and speaking foreign European languages. This study explores how the idea of a “civilized” person, promoted through the colonial school curriculum, developed new local elites with different sets of values and expectations that often made them strangers in their own societies. It also describes the connection between this curriculum and the repeated failure of education-reform efforts.     

Science learning in the context of discourse

The original article by Kamberelis and Wehunt (2012) discusses an interesting and important research subject in science education as it focus on classroom interactions and the characteristics of the discourse production of interlocutors. The authors start from the premise that discourse heterogeneity is constitutive of social activities, which is supported by others like Mikhail Bakhtin (Speech genres and other late essays. University of Texas Press, Austin, 1981) and Erving Goffman (Frame analysis: an essay on the organization of experience. Harper and Row, London, 1974). They also present the definitions of three key elements that organize hybrid discourse: (a) lamination of multiple cultural frames, (b) shifting relations between people and their discourse, and (c) shifting power relations between people. Finally, the authors analyze how these three elements organize students’ science discourse in the classroom and how it contributes to the creation of a micro-community of practice capable of helping the emergence of a disciplinary knowledge that is legitimized by and strengthens the identity of the group. In the present commentary, I discuss how Michael Foucault’s (1970) concept of discursive procedure may help us to analyze the (often neglected) teacher’s role in the development of hybrid discourse practices.     

Technology for Girls in Sweden

Sweden is placing much greater emphasis on the technical education and training of young people. Since 1982/83, technology has become a required area of study throughout the compulsory school system. This provides an excellent opportunity for girls to learn much more about science and technology at a young age and to become confident in these fields. However, school teachers of young children themselves lack confidence and expertise in technology and are inclined to approach the teaching of the subject in a diffident, somewhat abstract manner

A range of very practical activities are outlined which can be introduced into the training of compulsory school and indeed nursery school teachers, so that they have a much better approach to the organisation of technology classes. The author has direct experience of all the work she describes and has been very active in developing curriculum content for technology classes at nursery and compulsory school level. She has arranged for a number of her engineering students at LinkÖping Institute of Technology, mainly women, to become involved as instructors of trainee nursery school teachers. Other students have worked on special technology projects with compulsory level school teachers. The women engineering students act as powerful role models for young trainee teachers and for school girls alike

The author stresses that quite simple, often home made and inexpensive materials can be used in imaginative ways to intrigue and involve children and especially girls, in technical activities and studies.     

Girls and Occupational Choice: anti‐sexism in action in a curriculum development project

This paper is an interim report on the Girls and Occupational Choice Project at the Institute of Education, London. The research design and methods used are briefly described but the paper focuses on the action research component of this project, and discusses anti‐sexist curriculum development and implementation in a number of schools. The emphasis is on methodological and political issues which arise in doing anti‐sexist action research in the educational setting.     

Girls and Primary-School Science Education: Sexism,Stereotypes, and Remedies

Most research and the development of curriculum interventions relating to girls' opportunities in science education have concerned secondary and tertiary levels. Increasingly, however, evidence and opinions are being reported to the effect that differences between the sexes which appear to be associated with girls' opting out of science already exist when pupils enter secondary education. The encouragement of science and technology in primary schools is frequently proposed as a likely remedy for inequality between the sexes in science education [29, p. 287]. But is this necessarily so? The science education girls now receive leads the vast majority of them to reject it. We must ask what kind of science experience is likely to help and what kind likely to hinder the equal success of girls and boys. We need to know what evidence there is as to the effect of various types of science education and what are the possibilities of expanding access to the better models.     

Science Career-Related Possible Selves of Adolescent Girls: A Longitudinal Study

This paper uses a possible selves theoretical framework to examine whether and how adolescent girls' images of themselves as future scientists change during their transition from high school to college. Forty-one female high school graduates from diverse ethnic and socioeconomic backgrounds, who had enrolled in an intensive math and science program while in high school, participated in interviews focused on their perceptions of factors that influenced their career plans over time. Participants suggested that career-related internships and intensive academic programs, especially those that yielded important mentoring relationships, were contexts in which they negotiated career-related possible selves and subsequent career plans.     

Developing a discourse of the postmodern community development professional

This article seeks to promote the generation of a discourse of the postmodern community work professional. A shared discourse will lead, we propose to shared capital. We argue that there is a tension between the modern and postmodern for those of us engaged in the profession of community learning and development (CL&D). We need to value reflexivity which allows the community worker to make sense of multiple discourses and to make the transition from modernism to postmodernism. We need in the CL&D profession to recognise that Marxist principles that we espoused in the 1980s may be enhanced by a new theoretical base that still values change.     

推动科技创新 科技伦理教育不能缺位

高等学校必须重视科技伦理教育。进行科技德育,对培育科技创新后备军的道德良知,把握高校参与科技创新正确的道德方向,推动科技创新健康、可持续发展等具有重要意义。科技德育的重点在于使大学生树立起科学的、人民的、全球的科技伦理新观念,构建良好的创新文化,为我国走自主创新道路提供有道德感的人才支持。     

International development,disability, and education: Towards a capabilities-focused discourse and praxis

This exploratory study seeks to identify ways in which the international development community (IDC) can contribute to improved educational provision for young people with disabilities in low income countries. The discourse and praxis often adopted by IDC in this field are critiqued in the light of development realities and the principle that education systems should develop the diverse potentials of all students. It is concluded that IDC needs to adopt a new, ‘capabilities-focused’ discourse-praxis that is person-centred and context-sensitive – although it is acknowledged that there are significant obstacles to (as well as opportunities for) the adoption of this discourse-praxis.     

The expositive discourse as pedagogical discourse: studying recontextualization in the production of a science museum exhibition

In this paper I report on the sociological and educational particulars of The Biodiscovery Space exhibition of the Life Museum of the Oswaldo Cruz Foundation in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, using Basil Bernstein’s framework of pedagogic discourse and recontextualization. Data for analysis was obtained from interviews with the exhibition developers, field observations of museum visitors and analysis of exhibition documents. Using the ideas of power, classification and framework, among others, I analyzed the recontextualization process of the production of expositive discourse. Thus, working with Bernstein’s idea of classification, I explain the relationship between the discourses of the science of biology, history of science, museology, education, and communication in order to produce an expositive discourse. I also make explicit how agents of the Official Recontextualization Field of the Museum and the Pedagogic Recontextualization Field “....of the Museum determine partly the final expositive discourse of an exhibition”. Using the idea of a pedagogic discourse framework, I discuss how the constraints imposed by objects and texts in exhibitions help to create a specific manner of visitor interaction with these elements, “even if they have some autonomy”. Considerations about the audience and the intended process of acquisition are presented, when I discuss the control strategies of the exhibition. I propose that the Biodiscovery Space exhibit has a visible pedagogy. Finally, using the collected data I discuss the power tensions created in the production of expositive discourse showing how distributive, recontextualization and evaluation rules work in the context of exhibitions. The study of the dynamics in forming the expositive discourse using Bernstein’s framework reveals the individuals and institutions, the selection criteria, the negotiations and the power relations involved. It has the potential to assist both educators and researchers in the museum education field, as well as designers to understand the teaching and learning processes that occur during a visit and to establish relevant criteria to evaluate quality to best produce exhibitions in science museums.     

Conceptions of the Nature of Science and Technology: a Study with Children and Youths in a Non-Formal Science and Technology Education Setting

This study investigated some of the aspects that characterise the understanding of the Nature of Science (NOS) and Nature of Technology (NOT) of 20 children and youths from different countries who perform scientific and technological activities in a non-formal teaching and learning setting. Data were collected using a questionnaire and semistructured interviews. A categorical instrument was developed to analyse the participants’ conceptions of the following subjects: (1) the role of the scientist, (2) NOS and (3) NOT. The results suggest that the participants had naïve conceptions of NOS that are marked by empirical and technical-instrumental views. They characterised NOT primarily as an instrumental apparatus, an application of knowledge and something important that is part of their lives. They exhibited a stereotypical understanding of the role of the scientist (development of methods, demonstration of facts, relationship with technological devices, etc.).     

How the environment is positioned in the Next Generation Science Standards: a critical discourse analysis

The purpose of this paper is to describe how the environment and environmental issues are conceptualized and positioned in the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) to examine underlying assumptions about the environment. The NGSS are a recent set of science standards in the USA, organized and led by Achieve Inc., that propose science education goals based on the National Research Council report, A Framework for K-12 Science Education. Drawing from critical discourse analysis, we present a detailed textual analysis of the NGSS to identify the positioning of the environment with respect to humans and human activity. This analysis shows patterns in the ways that the environment is conceptualized and inscribed in the standards as an entity separate from people through both exclusion and ambiguity. We also discuss findings about how agency is more often ascribed to actions or activities rather than people and when solutions to environmental issues are included, the focus is on technoscientific solutions. Finally, we provide implications for considering scientific and environmental literacy, education for action, and the role of standards documents in shaping educational practice.     

Teaching Discourses: Science Teachers' Responses to the Voices of Adolescent Girls

The purpose of this study was to provide an opportunity for science teachers to listen to adolescent girls discuss their ideas and feelings about the contemporary structure of middle-level science education. The reflections of these teachers were then analyzed to capture how the teachers interpreted what adolescent girls had to say and the action that they will take in the classroom as a result of those interpretations. This qualitative study investigated 11 teachers and 51 Grade 7 and 8 girls from various states across the continental USA. The girls discussed such things as their favorite science topics, comfort level in science classrooms, and curiosities about the physical world. The study revealed that adolescent girls strive to make a connection to science. They can see how science can help them to understand better themselves and their world, but they seldom find such understandings in contemporary science classrooms. In addition, adolescent girls not only need to have choices in their studies, but they understand that need. The study revealed that the teachers interpreted the girls' request from an assimilative perspective by seeking ways to help the girls fit into the existing structure of science education. The implications of the study suggest that science education will need to change in response to the voices of the others, but that change will only happen if we prepare teachers better to be prepared to listen and change practice in light of what they hear.     

A 21st century collaborative policy development and implementation approach: a discourse analysis

Abstract

The article used Unisa Framework for the implementation of a team approach to curriculum and learning development to explore and analyse the views and experiences of academic lecturers and curriculum and learning development experts on the conceptualisation and development of the said framework and its subsequent implementation thereof. I used a qualitative poststructuralist paradigm underpinned by the case study research design to critically analyse the processes that were followed to craft the policy. I posit that a policy that is conceptualised by an inflexible classical hierarchical organisational structure without the full collaborative participation of all the stakeholders is bound to fail in its crucial implementation processes. I used online blogging, facebook, documents and face-to-face tape-recorded interviews to collect the data. Results indicated that the elite mass (traditional) policy-making model was used to craft the policy and as a result its operationalisation process received indifferent attention and responses by Colleges.