Transforming education systems: comparative and critical perspectives on school leadership

The centrality of education in the pursuit of better economic and social prosperity is now well established. The dominance of human capital theory, which provides a strong argument for better education as a key factor in fuelling economic growth, has encouraged policy makers, in various countries, to focus on education reform as a key priority and to borrow policy solutions from other countries. This special edition explores one policy solution in depth. It investigates the preparation and training of school leaders in very different countries and takes a comparative perspective. This article argues that the limitations of standardized strategies are clearly visible when taking a comparative view and, most importantly, that context matters significantly in shaping, defining and explaining differential educational performance.     

Adult and community education in complex societies: reconsidering critical perspectives

In this contribution, I explore how critical pedagogical perspectives can inspire adult and community education practices. The central argument is that today, in contrast with the heydays of emancipatory practices and theories, the classical critical approaches need reconsideration. The paper explores how these approaches sometimes have a stultifying effect on the participants in practice. In line with the French philosopher Rancière, a perspective is explored that departs from emancipated participants rather than from participants in need of emancipation. The theoretical investigation is inspired by reflections on art practices that struggle with similar questions on emancipation as the field of adult and community education.     

Reimagining adult education and lifelong learning for all: Historical and critical perspectives

International Review of Education -     

Editorial: e‐Research for education: Applied,methodological and critical perspectives

This special issue brings together a set of contributions that represent and explore the state of the art regarding the development and application of digital technology‐enhanced research approaches in educational research—e‐research for education. Over the recent years, digital technologies have enhanced various aspects of scholarly practices, such as data collection and analysis, research collaboration, and publishing. New technology‐enhanced research approaches have been emerging in a number of educational research domains, such as learning analytics, educational data mining, digital ethnography and educational informatics. Although the potential of digital approaches has been generally acknowledged, many overarching conceptual and methodological questions remain unexplored and under‐theorised. This special issue provides a landmark collection that synthesises some important empirical and methodological advances in this research field, including methodologically innovative case studies and critical analyses of overarching epistemological, methodological and practical issues that inevitably will shape future developments of this research field.     

A critical and contextual approach to inclusive education: perspectives from an Indian context

Post Salamanca, inclusive education was incorporated in government policies in countries of the North and South. Since then there have been numerous books, articles, and academic debates on the topic but with little representation from the South. This article examines how inclusive education is conceptualised in India, within four recent government policies and in practice. It draws on interview data from a larger study conducted in the metropolitan city of Kolkata and document data. The findings suggest the term inclusive education is well established in government policies and amongst school heads, special educators, and counsellors. While there is consensus on the ‘goodness' of inclusive education and it being synonymous with children with disabilities, there are multiple meanings assigned to inclusive education, inclusive schools, and the includable child. Variations and discrepancies were visible not only between school staff and policy documents but even within policies and schools, respectively. A visible change is schools emerging but varying ‘consciousness of responsibility' towards children with disabilities. Based on the persisting ambiguities surrounding inclusive education, the article argues for developing contextual understanding of how education of children with disabilities can take place in India and adopting a critical stance towards inclusive education.     

Inclusive education: teacher perspectives from Malaysia

This paper reports on a survey of views of inclusive education expressed by nearly 300 Malaysian primary school teachers involved in remedial literacy and numeracy education under the country's Literacy and Numeracy Strategy. Overall, the views expressed were positive towards the principle of inclusion. However, despite common professional development on special educational needs, these teachers lacked a common consensus about the benefits of inclusion; they expressed concern about the lack of teacher skills in this area; and they articulated a negative view of children with disabilities and their families. The paper concludes that further professional development is required to address these shortcomings, and that, given the lack of sufficient teacher educators in this area, it seems likely that the government's aim of implementing inclusive education remains a distant goal.     

Inclusive education: a critical perspective

The Gulliford Lecture 2002 was given by Professor Geoff Lindsay, Director of the Centre for Educational Development, Appraisal and Research (CEDAR) at the University of Warwick. Professor Lindsay's lecture, on which this paper is based, addressed a number of key topics, including the development of inclusion and inclusive practices; models of special educational needs and disability; and the values that underpin our thinking about these matters. Basing his argument on the research evidence, Professor Lindsay provides a searching critique of prevailing notions about inclusion and of current approaches to research. His conclusions will be of interest to everyone concerned with the education of children and young people with special educational needs.     

Mathematical education versus critical education

This paper concentrates upon the relationship between mathematical education (ME) and critical education (CE) connected with the Frankfurt School and Critical Theory. To make the discussion as precise as possible a distinction is made between three alternatives in ME: Structuralism, pragmatism, and process-orientation. These alternatives are related to the key terms of CE in order to show the extent to which ME and CE contradict each other. The conclusion is that there does not exist any integration — nor even any close relationship-between ME and CE. Finally, this result is discussed in the light of the following two theses:

1. It is necessary to increase the interaction between ME and CE, if ME is not to degenerate into one of the most important ways of socializing students into the technological society and at the same time destroying the possibilities for developing a critical attitude towards precisely this technological society.
2. It is important for CE to interact with subjects from the technical sciences, and among these ME, if CE is not to be taken over by the technological development and fade away into an unimportant and uncritical educational theory.

     

Existential perspectives on education

Abstract

The purpose of the article is to contribute to the discussion about the relevance of existential issues in contemporary education. Analysis presented in the paper is related to the problems of self-awareness, becoming oneself and self-development. First, the author begins by depicting the meaning of human existence in the light of philosophy. The following aspects have been analyzed: being true to one’s own beliefs and values, recognizing personal truth, making existential choices and finding one’s own voice. A special attention is paid to the language as an essential, constitutive element of being. Second, the article attempts to consider some educational implications resulting from the existential approach to education. Some of the issues discussed are learning to philosophize and to discover meaning, the concept of encounter in education and the role of language in self-development. While describing them the author indicates that the ignoring of crucial existential questions in education contributes to spiritual vacuity in life of young people and reduces educational thinking merely to instrumental, pragmatic problems concerning qualification and transfer of communicative skills.     

Black on black education 2.0: critical race perspectives on personally engaged pedagogy for/by black pre-service teachers

ABSTRACT

Public schools have increasing numbers of its teachers fitting into one demographic, white and female, while the numbers of Black/African American teachers decrease. This trend has not changed since the publication of Black on Black Education: Personally Engaged Pedagogy for/by African American Pre-Service Teachers. Furthermore, African American collegiate students who decide to enter teaching may face a chilly climate because of their cultural and educational experiences as they encounter devaluation in the classroom. This work provides a critical race reflective examination into the teaching and learning experiences and dilemmasI using personally engaged pedagogy as a means of enhancing the quality of the learning experiences for African American pre-service teachers. Critical race theory (CRT) and Critical Race Feminism (CRF) will be used as the theoretical framework for understanding the role of race and gender in teacher education. Critical autoethnography is the methodological approach used to examine the subject phenomenon. Field notes, research journaling, and student memoirs provide data for this critical autoethnography. This work highlights the significance of CRT/CRF’s unique voice of color and CRF’s multidimensionality to engaged pedagogy, creating a personally engaged pedagogy.