Reframing Service-Learning as Learning and Participation With Urban Youth

This article describes a critical service-learning project that resulted from an educational partnership among a national teachers' union, a local teachers' union, and a major research university. The partnership—funded by a grant from the Corporation for National and Community Service, Learn and Serve program—focused on professional development opportunities for K–12 educators across subject areas throughout an urban school district. Teachers enrolled in a university-level graduate course where they learned about critical service-learning, engaged in community-based activities, developed partnerships with local organizations, and facilitated critical service-learning projects in local schools and communities. Here, we highlight one of the many projects that emerged from this partnership as we attempt to connect theory with practice by reframing service-learning as learning and participation. We ask: How can a reframing of service-learning as learning and participation impact how we understand the educative and social engagements of four urban youth?     

Social Involvement: Deconstructing practices relating to the formation of students who work with autistic children in a university service-learning course

Participation in service-learning courses has always been considered a part of the informal education in tertiary education worldwide. Originating from the assumption that service-learning courses increase students’ civic engagement and bridge the gap between knowledge and practice, service-learning courses have gradually acquired the status of compulsory courses at universities. This being as it may be, it would seem that the nature of such courses would benefit from further analysis and discussion regarding their function in knowledge reproduction, and their role in teaching and education. The aim of this article is to examine and analyze a university service-learning course—the National Taiwan University (NTU) Star-Rain course with a commitment to serving children with autism—from a Foucaultian perspective, and reflect on how the process of putting knowledge during a service-learning course into practice comes to constitute the subjectivity of students who work with children who are autistic. We argue that the course under investigation has, in effect, become wholly entangled in the medical system’s treatment of autism in Taiwan. The service-learning process involves knowledge acquisition as well as long-term, detailed, concrete hands-on experience, and shapes, in a very complete way, students’ construction of their subject knowledge of autism.     

中国梦的实现与当代大学生的责任

中国梦事关国家富强、民族振兴,蕴涵着个人梦和民众幸福,个人梦事关个人的幸福和价值目标,影响着国家民族整体目标的实现。中国梦和个人梦相互影响相互缠绕在一起。当代大学生要想在中国梦的实现中有所作为,就必须把中国梦和个人梦有机结合起来,对中国梦的本质内涵和实现条件有一个清醒认识,对中国梦的参照系数和实现目标有一个正确态度,明确在实现中国梦中应该肩负的时代责任。     

Crafting multicultural science education with preservice teachers through service-learning

Many science educators, in the US and elsewhere, suppport the idea that all students should have fair and equal opportunities to become scientifically literate through authentic, real problem-based science education. However, this challenge requires teachers to find ways to help all students feel comfortable with, and connected to, science. Despite the general consensus around the ideal of science for all, science teacher education programmes have had little or no impact on preservice teachers' philosophies of teaching and learning, especially as it relates to serving underserved populations in science. In this paper, I explore community service-learning as one way of addressing the multicultural dimension of preservice education with the following three questions: In what ways does involving pre-service science teachers in community service-learning influence their views on multicultural science education, in theory and practice? What qualities of community service-learning make multicultural science education a realistic objective? How might service-learning be used to push our collective understanding of what an inclusive and liberatory multicultural science teaching practice could be? I explore these questions and propose further areas of research by using a case study involving service-learning from my own teaching-research with preservice students.     

In the forests of the night: an inquiry into the relevance of social dreaming for action research

This paper explores the potential for using dream material and social dreaming in action research. Access to emotional dimensions of experience is increasingly recognised as an issue for action researchers, raising questions about how to enable such inquiry and how material from the imaginative sphere may be brought into socially constituted spaces to generate new insights. Dreams provide entry into the world of image as opposed to concept. But until recently, meanings derived from dream analysis have been restricted to the private, individual sphere. Social dreaming, on the other hand, is a new technique where meanings from dreams are created by and for a socially constituted group. Drawing on a wide range of oneirological literature, studies in social dreaming and dream-sharing, and the author’s own dreams, two working assumptions are articulated to guide inquiry into how dreaming may be used in action research, one relating to the nature of dream experience and the other about practices for bringing dream material into social spaces. These assumptions guided two group-based inquiries to explore the significance of dreaming for action-based research, at meetings of action researchers and practice developers. Material from these inquiries contained a similar dream image, a house in a forest, and the image’s significance to participants and to the author is explored. Participants found that relating their dreams to their work as action researchers and practice developers was fruitful. Questions and insights were uncovered for the practice of action research, and for the practice of social dreaming for social benefit through action research.     

Do “Undocumented Aliens” Dream of Neoliberal Sheep?: Conditional DREAMing and Decolonial Imaginaries

Dreams have long been thought to be a space of fantasy and utopic hope. From Paulo Freire to Gloria Anzaldúa to Robin Kelley, many scholars have related the ability to dream with the ability to act collectively, to self-actualize, and to call into being worlds yet to be realized—dreaming as a radical political act. What happens, then, when dreams lose their ability to sense outside of the existing order? What happens when dreams become a mere recapitulation of that which already is? What happens when dreams become legislated and coerced? In conversation with contemporary literature on biopower and psychopower, this article acts as a dream interpretation of the DREAM Act (dreampower), analyzing how the assemblages of immigration, citizenship, and power come together by and through new technologies of governance. Focusing on the role dreams play in the political transformation of “undocumented aliens” into more terrestrial/palatable beings, we examine the ways material and symbolic forms of neoliberal life have been operationalized to patrol and condition what constitutes acceptable dreams and, therefore, who can be a DREAMer. We conclude with a call for a decolonial politics of ensueños: a call for a sleeping and a dreaming of alterity where we wake up in order to dream, and dream in order to wake up.     

Through the Looking Glass: Reflecting on Counsellor Dreams for Enhanced Self-Care and Effective Practice

A wealth of information can be extracted from clients’ dream narratives. Few counsellors, however, recognize the significance of monitoring their own dreams. In this clinically-informed position paper, counsellors are urged to consider their own dream content. Self-awareness is vital to the therapeutic relationship, but also instrumental to the safety and well-being of counsellors themselves. Dreaming about one’s client can reflect troubled therapeutic rapport and highlight emotional or countertransference issues. Dreams can be harbingers of vicarious traumatization. Thus, counsellors are encouraged to reflect on their own dreams as a deliberate self-care initiative in order to promote a safe and effective practice.     

先秦赵人梦文化解析

先秦赵人之梦在中国文化中具有悠久的历史和丰富的内涵,但至今未能受到学术界足够的关注。赵人的梦文化是研究赵国思想文化的典型个案。透过对先秦赵氏梦文化的研究,能够窥测中国神秘文化之一隅。在先秦赵人看来,梦不仅承担着人和祖先神灵世界的中介作用,而且具有警惕和预示的功用。赵人之梦根据造梦成因划分为忧患梦、愿望之梦、报病梦。赵人之梦根据梦的结果划分为吉梦、凶梦、正梦。赵人诸梦之间多存在历史的、因果的联系,附有警惕、预言、指示、神化政权等功能。赵人之梦具有联系性、多重性、复杂性、神秘性等特点。但赵人之梦的预示作用有时并非是百般灵验的,这在一定程度上弱化了梦本身的神秘性。     

中国梦与今日大学发展

大学发展融入中国梦的路径主要表现在以下三方面：大学是实现中国梦的重要场域,大学必须自觉融会到民族复兴的宏伟大业之中,切实提升自己的社会担当意识与服务社会的能力;大学必须以培育年轻人的梦想为己任,大学作为年轻人筑梦的场域,所展现出来的应该是年轻人朝气蓬勃、襟怀开阔的生命气象;大学必须拥有自主发展与自我超越的梦想,主要表现为大学核心价值、实践形态与现代大学制度体系的完善,由此而让越来越多的大学体现出世界一流大学的精神气质。     

苏轼涉梦诗词探析

在苏轼2000多首诗和300多首词中,涉梦诗词达352首。这些诗词分真梦诗词和欲梦诗词两类,真梦诗词有的记录其真实梦境,有的记录其在梦中的感受和状态,有的记录其在梦中所作诗词;喻梦诗词则主要抒发其古今如梦、劳生如梦的生命意识,而后者又主要表现为世事如梦和时间如梦两种形式。苏轼之所以大量创作涉梦诗词,与当时的政治环境和他本人的人生经历、敏锐的感受力及前人创作多涉梦有关。     

Here I am Now! Critical ethnography and community service-learning with immigrant and refugee undergraduate students and youth

Here I am Now! is the title a multi-ethnic group of immigrant and refugee undergraduate students and neighboring urban Vietnamese and Cambodian refugee youth gave to their participatory photography installation. The exhibit was the culmination of undergraduate students’ participation in a series of Community Service-Learning (CSL) courses offered through CIRCLE (Center for Immigrant and Refugee Community Leadership and Empowerment) at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. While CSL has become an established educational practice at most US universities campuses, little research has been conducted viewing the educational impact of this pedagogy on diverse student populations. The majority of the scholarship focuses on the experiences of white middle-class students engaged with communities from unfamiliar and different socio-cultural, racial, ethic and economic backgrounds.

This paper examines how immigrant and refugee undergraduate students understood their participation in a creative community service-learning experience where they mentored youth from familiar and similar ethno-cultural contexts. To understand this meaning-making process I employed critical ethnographic approaches and analyzed student narratives and interviews. Through the prisms of critical pedagogy, situated learning theory, and funds of knowledge concept, I viewed the higher education context, analyzed the situation under study and developed an emerging framework for CSL pedagogy with diverse communities. These theories inform the view that culturally relevant pedagogy emphasizing peer-learning, critical thinking, artistic potential and community resources offers diverse undergraduate students alternative and creative spaces of critique and possibility in their higher education and community service-learning experiences.     

《左传》之梦叙述范型

《左传》开创的梦叙述范型在保有殷周巫史记梦传统的基础上着重权力叙述之开拓 ,揭示梦及释梦成为权力拥有者垄断产品的真正原因乃在于梦能使他们的隐秘需求转化为现实并可藉口释梦牢牢地控制住社会政治斗争的主动权 ,以便狙击敌手获信民众。为此 ,《左传》把梦变成了书写预言的工具 ,并以多样化的预言性叙述方式 ,通过史实或经验告诉人们梦作为预言的准确性 ;其释梦的方法则以象征性叙述为主 ,把梦中出现的各种视象置换成其所象征的内涵 ,表现出单一对应和复杂交叉之关系。自春秋以降 ,梦的权力叙述更多地是在历史叙事中得到继承和发展 ,而梦的预言性象征性叙述却在虚构叙事里获得了大显身手的机会     

中国古代经典中的“文学梦”--评林顺夫教授《透过梦之窗口：中国古典文学与文艺理论论丛》

美国密西根大学林顺夫教授曾撷取“透过梦之窗口”这一精巧比喻诠释了中国古代经典文本中的“文学梦”。从《庄子》到晏几道、苏轼、吴文英的词再到《红楼梦》,他的研究指出这些“文学梦”并非仅仅以实际的梦境经验为基础,而是将作家特殊的哲学思考付之于特定语境的再度创造。“文学梦”既包括“我思故我梦”的层次,也包括“我思。我梦”的内容。“梦之窗口”既是一种特殊的观物方式,又创造出一种新现实。     

Editorial

I have a dream. Today, when I ask young people what they are studying, they tell me they are studying mathematics, law, economics, music—or languages. Languages— foreign languages—are offered as one of the alternatives. My dream is that languages, as an alternative, will vanish. Students, in this dream, will be using English because they are studying law, German because they are studying engineering, Italian or French because they wish to to be doctors or architects. In this dream the use of other languages would be a means of study, and not a goal, and the use of a second and third language would be as natural as the use of books and data bases, as essential as library and computer skills.

We are a long way from this goal—but it is a goal towards which Europe's teacher educators must strive. Communication is the essence of education, and communication between Europe's language groups is essential if we are to promote the mutual learning to which the ATEE is committed. I therefore welcomed Gerard Willems's offer to guest‐edit an issue of the Journal and am delighted to introduce an issue which has more than lived up to expectations.

It is appropriate that the guest Editor of an issue devoted to the teaching of languages comes from The Netherlands. Situated at a communications crossroads, the Dutch have long realised more vividly that many other European peoples the need for skill in languages: and as one of Europe's smaller linguistic groups, they have been more prepared than larger linguistic communities to undertake the serious business of language learning. As any visitor to the country can testify, the Dutch are a model and a living reproof to any who, speaking a more widely used language, believe that the serious study of language can be left to a minority of specialists.

But Gerard Willems and his team of writers have much more to offer us than good practice. Working at the leading‐edge of their field, they have drawn on the resources of one of the ATEE's most active working groups—a working group which this year produced a book of readings, Foreign Language Learning and Teaching in Europe (edited by Gerard M. Willems & P. Riley). Here they write for a wider readership, offering us analysis, theory, help—and vision.

Mouvet's article contrasts sharply with the work of Willems and his team. Where they focus on a curriculum area, and on learning and teaching in it, she turns our attention to teacher behaviour and provides insights from the ecology of the classroom to suggest ways in which teachers’ behaviour can be modified—and the modifications maintained. She, too, stresses the professionality of the teacher and his/her autonomy in dealing constantly with the unpredictable, the spontaneous, the personal.

At the time of writing, I have just confirmed plans for a meeting of the Editorial     

Children’s Participation in Slovene Preschools: The Teachers’ Viewpoints and Practice

This article presents part of the research performed in a project from 2008 to 2013, regarding the introduction of the Reggio Emilia approach to Slovene preschool educators. The study’s aim was to recognize the possible influence of the training—from 2009 to 2011—in this project on educators’ viewpoints and the promotion of children’s participation in practice. We believe that a potential reform of the Slovene national curriculum should establish the participation of children as one of its key principles. It seems that the two-year intensive training of educators, followed by projects in preschool practice, has been a successful step in this direction.     

Wittgenstein,Freud, Dreaming and Education: Psychoanalytic explanation as ‘une façon de parler’

Freud saw the dream as occupying a very important position in his theoretical model. If there were to be problems with his theoretical account of the dream then this would impinge upon proposed therapy and, of course, education as the right balance between the instincts and the institution of culture. Wittgenstein, whilst stating that Freud was interesting and important, raised several issues in relation to psychology/psychoanalysis, and to Freud in particular. Why would Wittgenstein have seen Freud as having some important things to say, even though he was sharply critical of Freud's claims to be scientific? The major issues to be considered in this paper are, in Section 1, the scientific status of Freud's work—was it science or was it more like philosophy than science; the analysis of dreams; rationality, and dreams and madness. Section 2 considers Freud and education, including the indignity of Freud's notion of ‘the talking cure.’ Section 3 considers psychoanalytic explanations not as theory but as a manner of speaking: ‘une façon de parler.’     

Mathematics education as sociopolitical: prospective teachers’ views of the What,Who, and How

In this article, I introduce a framework—the What, Who, and How of mathematics—that emerged from studying my teaching of prospective teachers and their views of the social and political dimensions of mathematics teaching and learning. The What, Who, How framework asks us to consider What messages we send about mathematics and the world, Whose perspectives are represented in mathematics, and How mathematical concepts and our world are related. I situate each aspect of the framework in the literature on social justice and critical mathematics and provide examples of prospective teachers’ views. The What, Who, How serves as a tool to understand prospective teachers’ views, to navigate a broad range of literature on social justice mathematics, and a means of informing the practice of teachers and teacher educators.     

马卡连柯前景教育对大学生“中国梦”教育的启示

"中国梦"教育是当代大学生理想信念教育的新课题,在大学生中深入开展"中国梦"教育具有重大的现实意义。马卡连柯前景教育理论从近景、中景和远景教育入手,注重个人理想和集体目标的辩证统一,强调通过价值提升的目标实现来调动学生的主体性和积极性,要求将理想和现实结合、理想和实践结合,其思想、内容和方式对大学生"中国梦"教育具有重要的启示作用。按照正确释梦、辩证寻梦、科学筑梦、实践追梦的理念和方法可以帮助广大青年学生在中国梦的生动实践中放飞青春的梦想。     

“中国梦”与当代大学生信仰教育

信仰是贯穿在人的世界观中的一种意识规范,当代大学生的信仰存在缺失的现状,在开展信仰教育的实践中遇到了很多问题和挑战,既有日益感性化、感官化的价值理念的挑战,也有世界社会主义运动处于低潮的客观现状的挑战,更有经济全球化带来的挑战。习近平主席提出的“中国梦”既是实现中华民族伟大复兴的梦,也是每一个当代青年大学生的梦。高校应在引导当代青年大学生追求“中国梦”的实践中推进信仰教育,将个人的梦想与国家的梦想结合起来,坚定马克思主义信仰,对中国特色社会主义道路充满信心。