FORUM: Giving oneself over to science – Exploring the roles of subjectivities and identities in learning science

In this piece, Elizabeth Moje discusses with the authors of FORUM: Giving oneself over to science: Exploring the roles of subjectivities and identities in learning science (Tucker-Raymond, Varelas, & Pappas) the challenges and potentials of theorizing about the role of identities in learning science. The authors debate how identities and subjectivities should be conceptualized, and whether learning science requires people to change identities and/or subjectivities. In particular, the authors discuss the potential for thinking about how identities are enacted in practices, and how teachers might construct practices that evoke the identities associated with science as a way of developing opportunities for deep science learning. Elizabeth Birr Moje is an Arthur F. Thurnau Professor of Literacy, Language, and Culture in Educational Studies, a Faculty Associate in the Institute for Social Research and a faculty affiliate with Latina/o Studies at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. Moje teaches undergraduate and graduate courses in secondary and adolescent literacy, cultural theory, and qualitative research methods. Her research interests revolve around the intersection between the literacies and texts youth are asked to learn in the disciplines and the literacies and texts they engage outsIDe of school. Moje also studies how youth construct cultures and enact IDentities via their literacy practices outsIDe of school. Eli Tucker-Raymond is a doctoral student in the Literacy, Language, and Culture program at the University of Illinois at Chicago. He sees his evolving status as a social scientist fraught with similarities and differences between himself and social scientists “out in the world.' He is working toward a designated researcher and teacher IDentity that includes a focus on critical media literacy, collaborative action research, and developing praxis-oriented, critically-conscious learning communities in urban K-8 school settings. One evolutionary, co-constructed step toward that IDentity are these publications, his first. Maria Varelas is Professor of Science Education at the University of Illinois at Chicago. Her research, teaching, and service are highly interrelated, focusing on classroom-based teaching and learning of science in urban settings with linguistically and socio-culturally diverse populations, collaborative teacher action research, discourse in science classrooms, integration of science and literacy, and science education reform in elementary school and college science classrooms. She currently co-leads with colleagues in Education, Natural Sciences, and Computer Science, three US NSF multi-year grants. Her research has appeared in a variety of journals and edited books. Christine C. Pappas is Professor of Language and Literacy at the University of Illinois at Chicago. Her teaching and research focus on classroom discourse, genre (especially informational and science ones), teacher inquiry, collaborative school-university action research (CSUAR), and the development of culturally responsive pedagogy. She is a co-author of the 4th edition of An Integrated Language Perspective in the Elementary School: An Action Approach, which emphasizes the use of language and literacy and other modes of meaning as tools for inquiry and learning across the curriculum. She has co-edited two volumes on a Spencer-sponsored CSUAR project, Working with Teacher Researchers in Urban Classrooms: Transforming Literacy Curriculum Genres and Teacher Inquiries in Literacy Teaching-Learning: Learning to Collaborate in Elementary Urban Classrooms, and her research has been published in book chapters and various journals.     

The adolescent novel of ideas

Peter Hollindale first developed critical interests in children's literature during postgraduate teacher training at the University of Bristol, where he was taught by Margaret Meek. After teaching for several years in secondary schools he was appointed to the University of York, where he is senior lecturer in English and educational studies. He now teaches an undergraduate special paper on children's literature in the Department of English there. His bookChoosing Books for Children, a guide for parents, was published in 1974, and he has since written extensively on children's literature in academic and professional journals. His article “Ideology and the Children's Book,” which appeared inSignal 55, received the Children's Literature Association Prize for the best essay in the field of children's literature published in 1988. In recent years he has worked closely on J. M. Barrie. His edition of the “Peter Pan” prose texts was published by Oxford University Press in 1991, andPeter Pan and Other Plays appears from the same publisher in 1995. He is interested in reworkings and adaptations of classic children's texts for film and television, and his study of Steven Spielberg'sHook was published inSignal 72 in 1993. For Thimble Press he is currently completingSigns of Childness: A Short Philosophy of Children's Literature. He has contributed a number of articles toCLE, the most recent being “Westall's Kingdom” in the 1994 Autumn issue.     

Michael Sadler and the German Connection

Abstract

The peoples of Germany and their culture were a major preoccupation of Michael Sadler from his first visits to eastern Germany in the 1890s to his ultimate analysis of the Nazi‐zeit in 1940. Whilst holding the post of first Director of the Office of Special Inquiries and Reports (1895‐1903) he organised the publication of 11 massive volumes of reports and it is significant that papers dealing with German themes are numerous. Volume IX in 1902 is devoted to Education in Germany. In 1907 he published the results of his study of continuation schools and the pioneering of his friend Georg Kerschensteiner and in 1908 he edited the report of an international enquiry into Moral Education with a keynote essay by another of his German friends Professor Rudolf Eucken. The quintessence of all this pre‐war study is contained in an address on England's Debt to German Education which Sadler gave in Frankfurt‐am‐Main in 1912 when he suggested eight lessons that could be learnt from the German experience. Throughout the first world war Sadler wrote and spoke much about parallel movements in German and English education. Between the first and second world wars he watched apprehensively the emergence of Nazism. In his diary of November 1940 he attempted to identify seven tendencies of the 1930s which, had the Nazi leadership not been so powerful in curbing public opinion and ensuring totalitarian control, would have proved constructive and made a contribution towards unifying Europe economically andpolitically.     

Forty Years on: Touchstones Now

The Touchstones series of poetry anthologies was first published in the UK between 1968 and 1972 in five volumes. Over a million copies and three revisions later, Touchstones Now 11–14 appeared in the summer of 2008. Few, if any, books for the classroom can claim such longevity. In this article, the compilers of the anthologies, Michael and Peter Benton, look back over the 40 years of the series’ life. They reflect upon the principles which have guided their choices; and the social and political pressures, often exerted by governments, which they have confronted in their attempt to help school students become enthusiastic, committed and discriminating readers of poetry. Bionote: Michael and Peter Benton taught in various secondary schools in the UK for 10 years before becoming University Lecturers in Education. Separately, they have published many articles and academic books on the teaching of English and, together, they have collaborated on a variety of anthologies for the classroom in addition to the “Touchstones” series, notably their books on poetry and painting, “Double Vision”, “Painting with Words” and “Picture Poems”. Michael Benton is Emeritus Professor of Education, University of Southampton; Peter Benton is Emeritus Fellow, St Cross College, & formerly Lecturer in Education, Department of Educational Studies, University of Oxford.     

Introduction

Former Professor at the University of La Plata and the Latin American Faculty of Social Sciences, Argentina. His research deals with the sociology of education and the development process. Author of Educación y sociedad en Argentina (1971, reprinted 1979, 1981), Conceptos de sociología de la educación (1980, published in Portuguese in 1982) and El desafío educativo: calidad y democracia (1986).     

War and peace in the early elementary classroom

She has previously published inCLE and other journals, and has published two children's books,Sea, Salt, and Air, a picture book, andWhen the Frost is Gone, a preadolescent novel     

PUBLICATION OUTLETS FOR SCHOOL PSYCHOLOGY FACULTY: 2010 to 2015

Many school psychology faculty are required to publish for purposes of retention and promotion. It is useful to have an understanding of the different outlets for scholarly publications. In the present study, we investigated the peer‐reviewed journals in which school psychology faculty were published between 2010 and 2015, the number of articles in each journal, and the acceptance rates and impact estimates for each journal. We identified school psychology faculty using the National Association of School Psychologists website and conducted a search of the publications using EBSCO databases. Results indicated that there were a total of 3,675 articles and a total of 832 peer‐reviewed journals in which school psychology faculty were published during the 6‐year span. Among the peer‐reviewed journals, Psychology in the Schools, School Psychology Quarterly, School Psychology Review, and Journal of School Psychology were the journals in which school psychology faculty members most frequently published. Acceptance rates ranged from less than 5% to 98%, with an average of 29.7%. H‐indexes ranged from 1 to 890, with an average of 52. These results illustrate the variety of journals that publish works from school psychology faculty and the need for school psychology faculty and other authors to consider a variety of options when seeking publication.     

Education for Epiphany: The Case of Plato's Lysis

While a great deal has been written on Plato's Lysis in philosophy and philology journals over the last thirty years, nothing has been published on Lysis in the major Anglo‐American philosophy of education journals during that time. Nevertheless, this dialogue deserves attention from educators. In this essay, Mark Jonas argues that Lysis can serve as a model for educators who want to move their students beyond mere aporia, but also do not want to dictate answers to students. Although the dialogue ends in Socrates's affirmation of aporia, his affirmation is actually meant to persuade his interlocutors to reflect on an epiphany they had previously experienced. In what follows, Jonas offers a close reading of relevant passages of Lysis, demonstrating the way that Socrates leads his interlocutors to an epiphany without forcing his answers upon them.     

Frame Syllabus for Biology Teaching at Schools

Summaries

Engish

In 1973, the Association of German Biologists (Verband Deutscher Biologen) published a detailed frame syllabus for biology teaching at primary and secondary school level, covering the age range 6 to 18 years. The proposals were again discussed and evaluated in 1978 and confirmed as a basis for biological education in West German schools by the Schools Commission of the Association of German Biologists and representatives of all Bundeslander.

The frame syllabus represents a major contribution to the development of biological education in a European country and interest in it is likely to extend beyond FR Germany. For this reason, it is published in EJSE. Any comments or observations on the framesyllabus should be sent to Professor Schaefer.     

Academic sell-out: how an obsession with metrics and rankings is damaging academia

Increasingly, academics have to demonstrate that their research has academic impact. Universities normally use journal rankings and journal impact factors to assess the research impact of individual academics. More recently, citation counts for individual articles and the h-index have also been used to measure the academic impact of academics. There are, however, several serious problems with relying on journal rankings, journal impact factors and citation counts. For example, articles without any impact may be published in highly ranked journals or journals with high impact factor, whereas articles with high impact could be published in lower ranked journals or journals with low impact factor. Citation counts can also be easily gamed and manipulated, and the h-index disadvantages early career academics. This paper discusses these and several other problems and suggests alternatives such as post-publication peer review and open-access journals.     

Men in picture books and environments

John Warren Stewig is Professor of Education at the University of Wisconsin—Milwaukee and is a past president of the Wisconsin and the National Council of Teachers of English. He is the author of articles in over two dozen different professional journals and has published twelve books. His latest book for children is a retelling ofStone Soup (Holiday House, 1991).     

Envisioning Possibility: Schooling and Student Agency in Children’s and Young Adult Literature

This article provides a rationale for using literature in the classroom to explore conceptions of curriculum and teaching. We discuss a number of exemplars from children’s and young adult fiction, both mainstream and less well known; offer a taxonomy for categorizing the range of visions of curriculum and teaching in the literature; and describe the responses of a group of middle school students to a unit that examined schooling in literature. We argue that reading literature which addresses student experiences in school can help students make sense of those experiences and, more importantly, open their minds to ideas about teaching and schooling that they otherwise might never have considered.John Kornfeld is Professor and Director of Graduate Studies in the School of Education at Sonoma State University. His research in curriculum, children’s literature, school/ university collaboration, and the politics of schooling has been published in such journals as Theory into Practice, Social Education, and Theory and Research in Social Education.Laurie Prothro is a school library consultant and children’s librarian in Sonoma County, California. She specializes in collection development and young adult literature. Her most recent publication with John Kornfeld, entitled “Comedy, Conflict, and Community: Home and Family in Harry Potter,” appears in Elizabeth Heilman’s Harry Potter’s World: Multidisciplinary Critical Perspectives.     

The position of Distance Education in a journal network

ABSTRACT

On the occasion of the 40th anniversary of the journal Distance Education (DE), this study explores the position of this journal in a network of open and distance education, educational technology and learning design publications. A citation network analysis was undertaken to explore the scholarly communication network of distance education, using articles published in DE from 1980 onwards (n = 656), alongside references cited in those articles (n = 16,729), as well as articles (n = 6003) and associated references (n = 164,444) published in 22 leading journals indexed in the Web of Science between 2014 and 2019. A distinction is made between a narrower (intra-DE) and a wider (inter-journal) distance education network. The study reveals DE’s relationship to the wider educational technology community over time and identifies the most prolific journals and authors in this network.     

Publication productivity in selected School Psychology Journals: 1985-1991

This study examines the institutional affiliations of authors who have published in the three major journals of School Psychology and two additional journals started recently in the field between January, 1985, and July, 1991. The specific journals examined were Psychology in the Schools, Journal of School Psychology, and the School Psychology Review. These journals comprise the primary research outlets in School Psychology. In addition, papers published in Professional School Psychology and the Journal of Psychoeducational Assessment were also included in the analysis because these represent relatively new publication outlets for School Psychology. Findings regarding institutional productivity are compared with those obtained from previous studies in this area.     

Values Clarification: An Appraisal

Abstract

The paper presents a critique of the values clarification model as developed by Louis E. Raths and associates in such works as Values and Teaching: Working with Values in the Classroom and Values Clarification: A Handbook of Suggestions. After presenting an overview of the central recommendations of the authors, they are critically evaluated with reference to theoretical considerations and to other models of moral and values education. Values clarification methods are found to rest on untried empirical assumptions and seriously insufficient theoretical foundations.

A distinctive contribution to values education, and one that has had considerable influence on teaching practice in this area, particularly in the USA over the past ten years, is a teaching method of values clarification put forward by Louis E. Raths, Merrill Harmin and Sidney B. Simon in their book Values and Teaching: Working with Values in the Classroom.¹ There the authors recommend certain teaching strategies employed to some extent by other values educators whose main writings in the field have appeared since this book was first published, e.g. Peter McPhail, Lawrence Stenhouse, Milton Meux, the AVER group at the University of British Columbia, and John Wilson.²     

Citations of ETR&D and related journals, 1990–2004

Scientific communication in the field of educational technology was examined by analyzing references from and citations to articles published in Educational Technology Research and Development (ETR&D) for the period 1990–2004 with particular emphasis on other journals found in the citation record. Data were collected on the 369 core articles found in the 60 issues published during that time period, their reference lists (containing over 14,805 individual items), and citations of those articles in other journals (1,896 entries). The top cited and citing journals during that time period are listed. Nine symbiotic journals (i.e. those that are most cited by ETR&D and frequently cite it) were identified: Contemporary Educational Psychology, Educational Psychologist, Instructional Science, Journal of Computer-Based Instruction (no longer published), Journal of Educational Computing Research, Journal of Educational Psychology, Journal of Educational Research, Journal of Research in Science Teaching, and the Review of Educational Research. The results provide an in-depth, quantitative view of informal connections within the field via the citation record. Implications for further research and the potential influence of new technologies on scientific communication are also discussed.     

The Revolutions in English Philosophy and Philosophy of Education

Abstract

This article was first published in 1982 in Educational Analysis (4, 75–91) and republished in 1998 (Hirst, P. H., & White, P. (Eds.), Philosophy of education: Major themes in the analytic tradition, Vol. 1, Philosophy and education, Part 1, pp. 61–78. London: Routledge). I was then a lecturer in philosophy of education at Sheffield University teaching the subject to Master’s students on both full- and part-time programmes. My first degree was in philosophy, read under D. W. Hamlyn and David Cooper and, given their interests, inevitably emphasized the philosophy of language, in particular the work of Wittgenstein in this field. When I subsequently turned my attention to the philosophy of education it seemed obvious to me that there were serious problems with Professor Peters’ approach to language, and I had particular difficulties with his approach to criteria, meaning theory and what seemed an odd interpretation of a transcendental argument. This article thus set out to show that the then dominant form of philosophy of education seemed not to take account of developments in the philosophy of language that preceded Professor Peters’ early work by at least a decade and which cast serious doubt on the enterprise as it was then understood. As the articles in the 1998 collection indicate, I was not alone in thinking there was something amiss, although at the time I seemed to be ploughing a somewhat lonely furrow. In revisiting this early article some 30 years after it was first published I have found to my surprise that there is little I would now change, although I have been forcibly reminded of the very lively discussions Professor Peters and I had over these issues. The fact that there is little I would now add to, or subtract from, my critique is in itself a telling comment on the enduring and influential legacy of the approach to the philosophy of education that Professor Peters championed so powerfully.