Heidegger Teaching: An analysis and interpretation of pedagogy

German philosopher Martin Heidegger stirred educators when in 1951 he claimed teaching is more difficult than learning because teachers must ‘learn to let learn’. However in the main he left the aphorism unexplained as part of a brief four‐paragraph, less than two‐page set of observations concerning the relationship of teaching to learning; and concluded at the end of those observations that to become a teacher is an ‘exalted matter’. This paper investigates both of Heidegger's claims, interpreting letting learn in the context of Heidegger's larger philosophical project, and suggesting why in light of that project to become a teacher is an exalted concern. The methodology guiding the inquiry is largely hermeneutic, the purpose of the essay to interpret teaching from a Heideggerian perspective: its nature and general method.     

Little room for capacitation: rethinking Bourdieu on pedagogy as symbolic violence

In Bourdieu’s early work on education, he declares that ‘All pedagogic action (PA) is objectively symbolic violence insofar as it is the imposition of a cultural arbitrary by an arbitrary power’. This article rethinks Bourdieu’s proposition. It questions whether all PA is symbolic violence and the very notion of a cultural arbitrary upon which this view is based. For Bourdieu, culture is framed narrowly in terms of class, and pedagogy a mechanism by which it is reproduced. As such, it functions as a form of violence having much in common with Foucault’s notion of discipline. Unlike Foucault, however, who also acknowledges the enabling potential of power as a technology of the self, Bourdieu has no such equivalent. His concept of PA leaves little room for capacitation wherein, rather than a cultural arbitrary, certain skills can be seen to have an inherent use value equipping individuals with capacities that are a means for social transformation.     

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.     

Culturally reimagining education: Publicity,aesthetics and socially engaged art practice

Abstract

This paper sets out to reimagine education through a cultural perspective and explores education as a performative practice that establishes certain borders of ‘public’ belonging. Wide-spread debates about the public dimension of schools and universities have focused on how economic rationales need to be replaced with alternative visions of education. This paper seeks to contribute to this revisioning of the public in education by reclaiming education as a specifically cultural endeavour, one tied to practices that are at once both performative and aesthetic. To this end, I draw on theoretical notions of publicity that highlight its performative character. I then offer a reading of a socially engaged art project in order to suggest ways in which this performative character of publicity can be seen to be educational. This paper argues that education itself emerges through various cultural enactments that delineate the contours of who counts as a public and who does not.     

从当代学术思潮看文艺美学的学科前景

当前的人文学术,在总体上形成了全球化和跨学科化两大趋势.从学科基础、研究对象、理论资源等方面的特点来看,文艺美学都有可能也有必要发展全球化的文化视野和跨学科的方法论意识,以回应当代学术思潮的挑战,进而拓展自身的学术空间.     

海德格尔与中国文学的融合限度

在前期积极译介的基础上,深入融合海德格尔存在主义与中国文学,是新世纪中国文论面对的一项有意义的课题。海德格尔用存在之思深刻关涉面向可能性的人的生存境遇,这可以成为考察它与中国文学融合之径的起点。以释、道、儒为综合文化母体的中国文学,在前两个维度上与它有明显差异,但在作为主维度的儒文化维度上可以实现与它的扬弃性融合:"情本体"的文学对"存在的深渊"确能发挥积极填充与适度调节作用;但与依托两个世界格局、富于敬畏的存在主义相比,以一个世界为旨归的"情本体"容易在文学上流于静观的趣味主义与士大夫自恋气。在扬弃中探求融合,是新世纪中国文学真正关怀人的生存境遇、逐渐实现世界性品格的合理取径。     

Worlds Apart in the Curriculum: Heidegger,technology, and the poietic attunement of literature

In this article I elucidate a conception of small worlds, or ‘ontological’ contexts, within the curriculum that stand out and beyond the horizon of technological‐scientific reality, which might be linked with forgotten, marginal ways of being and thinking. As I attempt to demonstrate, it is possible that such ontological worlds apart from technology's ‘Enframing’ effect might inspire the type of meditative thinking in our classrooms that is consistent with Heidegger's notion of authentic worldly dwelling as it appears in the later writings of the 1930s, or the ‘turn’.     

The places of pedagogy: or,what we can do with culture through intersubjective experiences

Beginning by highlighting considerations of the intersections among social and ecological issues and the recent diversification of critical pedagogy, this paper suggests means by which approaches such as Gruenewald’s (2003 Gruenewald, D.A. 2003. The best of both worlds: A critical pedagogy of place. Educational Researcher, 32(4): 3–12. [Crossref] [Google Scholar]) “critical pedagogy of place” can be expanded to accommodate a broader range of possible places of pedagogy. The paper is centrally concerned with what happens when we consider socio‐ecological learning, not as occuring via cognitive critique or embodied place‐based experience, but rather as taking place in between the thought and the sensed via a range of intersubjective experiences. It suggests that these intersubjective locations that comprise the “where” of the learning of the student can be particular physical places, but can also be in and of experiences of friendship, art, literature, irony, cultural difference, community. By expanding our possible repertoire of “pedagogical arts,” or the range of intersubjective places and spaces of pedagogy engaged, we are able to conceptualise and practise education in ways that enable a deeper connection to place but also opportunities for other modes and outcomes of student learning. In particular, the paper outlines the possibilities for learning and cultural formation enabled by spaces of collective youth engagement.     

Playful explicitness with grammar: a pedagogy for writing

The place of grammar within the teaching of writing has long been contested and successive research studies have indicated no correlation between grammar teaching and writing attainment. However, a recent study has shown a significant positive impact on writing outcomes when the grammar input is intrinsically linked to the demands of the writing being taught. The study adopted a mixed methods design with a large‐scale randomised controlled trial accompanied by a qualitative dataset, which provided contextual information about how the intervention was implemented. In this paper, we will outline the pedagogical principles that underpinned the intervention, and illustrate both the theoretical grounding and practical classroom examples that exemplify the approach. We will argue that any future policy or professional development that draws on this research must take account of these pedagogical principles, rather than focusing too superficially on either the grammar or the teaching materials which exemplify them.     

Drawing and the Aestheticisation of the Human Figure by Four‐ to Ten‐Year‐Old Botswana Children: Implications for Pedagogy

Drawing is one of children's modes of communication which has recently excited academic inquiry in non‐Western cultures. It is the means through which children express their fears, desires, anxieties and conception of phenomena. This study investigated drawings by four‐ to ten‐year‐old Botswana children in response to the human figure as an aesthetic object. The methodology involved observing a sample of forty purposively selected children engaged in the drawing process and analysing their visual productions in addition to conversational talk about their art. The study found that the human figure was the dominant aesthetic subject across ages represented in both conventionalised form and personalised imagery. Older children showed interest in culture specific imagery and demonstrated mastery of occlusion and depth cues, while four‐year‐old children had limited spatial awareness. The study also found that children demonstrated gradual improvement of drawing skills with age. There was no significant difference in drawing competence between sexes. Pedagogical implications are suggested to scaffold children through the stages of art development.     

暗夜行路,天又黎明——浅论《约翰·克里斯朵夫》与东西方美学融合

本文试就法国作家罗曼·罗兰的长篇小说《约翰·克里斯朵夫》中的西方美学和艺术观,傅雷译介到中国后对中国产生的影响,以及译介过程中所体现的东西方美学差异作简单论述。     

《艺术概论》和《美学概论》:两门大学基础课教学的若干主题

《艺术概论》和《美学概论》这两门大学基础课在艺术类专业教学实践中通常会面临某些问题。这些问题的出现不是一个单纯的教学问题,其中经常涉及的若干主题,包括:技术与艺术的关系、作品与机制,艺术与媒介、传统艺术与现代艺术、艺术与民族等。从这些主题出发,可以改变我们的教学思路。     

Chinese education and Pierre Bourdieu: Power of reproduction and potential for change

Abstract

In the edited book “Bourdieu and Chinese Education”, a group of scholars in China, Australia, Canada, and the USA engage in a dialogue with Bourdieu and raise persistent questions not only about issues of equity, competition, and change in Chinese education, but also about the value, venture, and violence in using established Western intellectual frameworks for analysing Chinese education. In response to these questions, this special issue analyses and discusses Chinese rural education, teacher education, language education, health and physical education, and transnational education; and proposes a series of new conceptualisations, for example, regression- and network-based field analysis, Bourdieu-Chinese philosophy encounter, field of mediation, localised pedagogical capital, and new Chinese habituses (e.g., contemptuous habitus, diasporic cosmopolitan habitus, habitus (re)structuring). Such collective effort responds to the strident, and sometimes misleading, castigation of Bourdieu for determinism; and also disputes the non-reflexive, celebratory tone that consecrates the French sociologist and his canonical theorem, and hence reproduces the symbolic violence in the doxic academia. In this vein, the special issue is respectful for, but not restricted to, Bourdieu’s sociology, showing no timidity in questioning and contesting the framework of the famed thinker when research problems and findings demand so.     

Culturally relevant/sustaining pedagogy in a diverse urban classroom: Challenges of pedagogy for Syrian refugee youths and teachers in Turkey

This study focused on whether and how teachers implemented the principles of culturally relevant and sustaining pedagogies and the challenges teachers faced while trying to implement these principles with Syrian students in Turkey. The study was built on the four components of pedagogies: academic achievement; cultural competencies; sociopolitical consciousness; and the sustainability of culture. Qualitative data were obtained through interviews and field notes with four teachers who had Syrian students in their classes and four Syrian students. Content analysis was used to examine the data. The findings revealed that both teachers and students had low expectations of academic achievement. Teachers conducted the teaching–learning process entirely according to the perspectives of students who were from the mainstream culture. Teachers tried to improve the cultural competencies and enhance their sociopolitical consciousness of the Syrian students; however, the attempts were limited and inadequate. Although teachers were aware of the importance of sustaining the Syrian culture, they did not know how to do so. The teachers did not have sufficient competencies or experiences to make revisions or to carry out an effective instructional process tailored to the needs of Syrian students because of an absence of skills and knowledge of multicultural education.     

南朝咏物诗的形式审美与自为性理念

南朝咏物诗创作非常活跃,特点是＂赋以体物＂,这种为咏物而咏物的形式审美是文学自为性理念的显性表征。追求形式审美的咏物诗人扭转了两汉以来诗教与言志的他律传统,从自身形式因素积极开拓诗歌意义,体现文学＂自为＂的发展变化,是文学发展过程中的重要转折点。     

Extended metaphors for pedagogy: using sameness and difference

This article looks at the use of extended metaphor in teaching. Our case studies as two teachers using metaphor in different settings show how metaphor is experienced by learners to different pedagogical effect. The article demonstrates that metaphor can be used not only for the similarity between vehicle and target systems, but also for the difference. In the subject of electronics, extended metaphor (water, waves and webs) scaffolds learning by merit of the similarity of the vehicle system to the target. However, when teaching doctoral students to improve their writing skills, extended metaphor exploits the difference between vehicle and target. In this case the frustration of academic challenge is defused by using metaphors that are homely and ordinary in contrast to the formal academic genre of thesis writing. Our experience in using metaphors to teach provides support for the theory that they may be monistic (forgotten once they have fulfilled the pedagogical scaffolding task) or dualistic (remembered because both systems remain in play). The article prompts other higher education teachers to more consciously consider the potential of metaphor as a pedagogical aid.     

Personalised reading for pleasure with digital libraries: towards a pedagogy of practice and design

This paper discusses the pedagogical practice of developing reading for pleasure in pre- schools and primary phase settings through the lens of one key dimension of twenty-first-century reading: personalisation. It draws on a series of studies and examples to identify, address and problematise human- and digitally mediated personalised reading for pleasure. Through a content analysis of the key features of current digital library systems, it shows how these increasingly popular systems position teachers as librarians, curators and monitors, and undermine their potential roles as listeners, mentors and co-readers in order to foster children’s personal response to texts. Through a theory-driven approach it identifies ways in which current design limitations of library management systems can be addressed and from which their effective application and use can develop. This conceptual elaboration, which combines contemporary reading theories with the affordances of digital personalisation, provides new insights concerning personalisation in digital library systems.     

“清”与“游”——审美与人生相融合的生存境界

中华民族是一个崇＂清雅＂、重＂感悟＂自在＂神游＂的民族,在现代文化背景下,中国古典美学中＂清＂、＂游＂倡导了一种审美与人生相融合的生存境界,对如何构建具有民族特色的现代美学理论体系与现代美学话语,具有很大的借鉴意义。     

影视艺术与文学审美的日常生活化

影视艺术的发展,使文学与新的大众传媒结合,使文学的阅读由高雅趋于平常,成为审美日常生活化的重要内容;影视艺术审美意象的营造表现出省略营造的想象空间以及通过时空变异增强抒情色彩等重要特征。     

Engaging with Bourdieu’s theory of practice: an empirical tool for exploring school students’ technology practice

ABSTRACT

This article presents Bourdieu’s theory of practice as a tool for exploring school students’ technology practice in empirical research. The authors provide educational technology researchers with an accessible introduction to the theory of practice. They then detail the conceptual, methodological and analytic application of the theory of practice in two educational technology studies. The application of the theory in the two studies highlights the potential of the sociological framing for informing a robust critical research agenda and understanding the circumstances that can contribute to digital inequalities. Practically, knowledge gained through theoretically informed research is critical for researchers, governments, schools and teachers in working to overcome digital inequalities.