The Teacher–Learner Relationship: Considerations for Social Work in the Digital Age

ABSTRACT

In light of a rapidly changing educational landscape, this paper will discuss the implications of online education for the teacher–learner relationship, which is a critical aspect of academic and professional development for the social work student. As technology revolutionizes relationships, how will we ensure the intra-and interpersonal nature of social work education? The pursuit of accessible and flexible educational opportunities presently driving social work education threatens to undermine this important alliance. The centrality of relationship is discussed here in the context of current trends in distance learning. Relational-Cultural Theory and Transactional Distance Theory are posited to provide evidence for the significance of relationship in learning.     

Education for enterprise: the state and alternative employment for young people

The state, industry and the voluntary sector are all investing resources in encouraging the development of the ‘enterprise culture’ among the young unemployed. Such measures can be interpreted as an attempt to sustain the work ethic while changing attitudes, aspirations and expectations towards employment. They constitute a major effort to change work cultures. The alternatives being advocated, such as self‐employment, small businesses, co‐operatives and community businesses have starkly opposing ideologies behind them.

So far there has been no systematic research on the development of alternative forms of work by young people, not even at the level of charting the extent and form in which they are emerging. This paper seeks to make a start by exploring the rhetoric behind the ‘education for enterprise’ movement and the patterns of support and advice on offer. It then discusses the implications of the fostering of the ‘enterprise culture’ for our analyses of state intervention in youth unemployment and the early labour market experiences of young people.     

Institutional innovations in higher education in central Europe: Agenda for research and co‐operation

Abstract

Research findings on graduate employment in the UK continue to highlight the importance that employers attach to the general knowledge, attitudes and social skills that graduates possess in addition to specific disciplinary knowledge and expertise. Additionally, work based learning is increasingly being viewed as an important vehicle by which undergraduates can develop personal and social skills, as well as gaining knowledge of how organisations work. In this paper I will argue that although developments in undergraduate work based learning do raise a number of issues for higher education institutions and for employers, such developments have much to offer the broader education policy of lifelong learning.     

Problem-Based Learning

Abstract

Problem-based learning has been described for use in medical education and is thought to be a superior approach to traditional didactic methods. We describe the use of PBL as an innovative approach to the education and training of social workers on an interdisciplinary health care team. An actual PBL case is described, and a discussion of the advantages and disadvantages to this approach is presented. The use of PBL on interdisciplinary teams helps educate social workers to work effectively on teams, and educates other professionals about the social work role and how to utilize social work services effectively.     

Post‐welfarism and the reconstruction of teachers’ work in the UK

A key rationale for the UK education reforms of the 1980s and 1990s was a desire on the part of agents within the state to control more directly the work of teachers. In a variety of ways, the reforms were designed to contribute to a reconstruction of the work of teaching. The first part of this paper considers the roots of this intended reconstruction. The second part explores the impact of the reforms on the culture of teachers’ work, focusing on three kinds of consequences ‐ emotional, social and pedagogical. The paper draws on loosely‐structured interviews with secondary school teachers, carried out as part of a study of the culture and values of schooling in the light of the shift from wel‐farist to post‐welfarist policies in education.     

A case study of women instructors and their education in the reign of Abdulhamid II

Abstract

This study demonstrates how the cultural role of Ottoman women began to change during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries as well as considering emerging conflicts due to their altering roles in society as they were educated in the Darulmuallimat (teachers’ college for women) and acquired social positions as woman instructors. The first phase of the study is about schooling for women in the late Ottoman Empire and how women became teachers. The work mentions an interesting historical document which shows the relationship between a female instructor and a director of education (maarif müdürü) in Trabzon. This document also points to the disturbances aroused by these changes in women’s social status which needed to be reconstructed. It indicates how the government took measures to preserve the existing norms as women became more visible in the community and reminded them that their first responsibility was always about preserving their chastity and esteem. The first woman teachers to commence participating in the public sphere were effective at shaping and structuring culture in the Ottoman Empire; thus they should be investigated in terms of their social roles and their effects on cultural transformation as well. The case of Macide Han?m is considered in the cultural, economic, and political contexts of late Ottoman history with an emphasis on women’s education and modifying social roles. The study was carried out by scrutinising historical documents in the Prime Ministry Ottoman Archives, especially documents in the maarif mektubi kalemi section.     

An anatomy of authority: the Bologna and ASEM education secretariats as policy actors and region builders

ABSTRACT

This paper examines the sources of authority behind the Bologna and ASEM secretariats’ technocratic appearance and administrative routines, and argues that they are transnational policy actors in their own right. By drawing on principal-agent theory and the concept of ‘authority’, it offers an alternative framework for understanding the various forms of authority. The case studies generate three important insights. First, it shows how the secretariats derive their authority from the tasks delegated by states, the moral values and social purpose they uphold, and the expertise they possess. Second, it compares how the different governance structures of the Bologna and ASEM education processes impact on the secretariats’ authority. Third, it highlights how the secretariats exercise their respective authorities and exert their discernible influence at different stages of higher education policy-making and region-building processes.     

Terry Storry (1950–2004) An obituary

Abstract

From the discussion in parts one and two there are two main points that emerge. The first is that it is difficult to identify from outdoor education literature a philosophical framework on which practice is based. Secondly, the body of outdoor education literature attaches more importance to learning outcomes relating to personal and social education than environmental education. The purpose of part three is to offer a philosophical framework and use it to consider the relationship between outdoor education, environmental education and the related concept of sustainability education. The paper starts out by looking at the development of western thought and how it has promoted the concept of epistemological dualism's. The paper then presents an alternative framework of epistemological diversity including experiential, presentational, propositional and practical ways of knowing that has particular relevance for environmental education and sustainability education. Although the prime focus of this paper is environmental education it also deals explicitly with a philosophical framework which includes experiential learning. Consequently, it has relevance to other claims made of outdoor education in particular personal and social education.     

Towards an Understanding of the Social Issues in Information Technology: concerning computers,intelligence and education

ABSTRACT

Information technology has numerous social and political implications. This paper is primarily concerned with beginning to outline some of the more important issues for teacher educators. An understanding of these implications is required before we, as teacher educators or as teachers in schools, can begin to address the issues in our work around information technology in colleges or in the classroom. This article outlines the issues rather than exploring how to present them in colleges.

There are important debates occurring around information technology, the nature of intelligence, and education, which have profound implications for society. This article argues that the kind of work done in schools on computers, and generally on information technology, supports implicitly the more traditional ideas in education. In order to take a more balanced position, and to give students a chance to realise how their futures may be affected, it is argued that the social implications of information technology must be addressed centrally in colleges of education.     

Educational change in post-conflict contexts: reflections on the South African experience 20 years later

ABSTRACT

Reflecting on South African experience, this paper develops an analytical framework using the work of Henri Lefebvre and Nancy Fraser to understand why socially just arrangements may be so difficult to achieve in post-conflict reconstruction. The paper uses Lefebvre's analytic to trace three sets of entangled practices (perceived–conceived–lived) as evident in education in post-apartheid South Africa in order to illustrate the complexity that is entailed in a particular moment of social reconstruction. Coupled with this approach, It draws on Fraser's analytic to show how the different forms of social injustice and their different remedies (redistribution–recognition–representation) may easily shift and slip in times of complex change. The paper shows that post-conflict reconstruction in education requires a number of different social practices that are not easily orchestrated.     

Educational trust: relational and structural perspectives on young people on the margins of the education system

Background: Across Europe and the Nordic countries, it is widely agreed that the high proportion of 15–30-year olds not in employment, education or training is a challenge, which needs to be tackled by focusing on education. The political and institutional focus is on individual training readiness, individual qualification processes, individual building of confidence in oneself and so forth, culminating in an overall individual perspective.

Purpose: The study argues for a shift in focus away from an individual perspective on young people on the margins of education and towards a relational perspective that takes the social environment and the education system into account.

Sample: Respondents were 20 young people aged 17–24 who were participating in a specific project in a provincial town in Denmark, the aim of which was to encourage the youths to re-enter education.

Design and methods: Qualitative data were collected through: (1) 40 semi-structured qualitative interviews with 11 young people on the margins of the education system, and (2) observations of 11 respondents’ participation in educational activity. The analysis was based on relational and social constructionist theories.

Findings: The analysis of data from this small-scale study provides evidence to suggest that a shift in the current focus on the individual young person on the margins of education is needed. The concept of ‘educational trust’ is introduced as a supplement to the individual concept of self-confidence in order to capture the socially constructed aspects of the young adult’s participation in education.

Conclusions: We identify three overall components of educational trust: (1) social security and recognition, (2) flexibility in structures and (3) progression in skills. The concept of educational trust, it is suggested, creates a shift in focus from the individual young person to the role and function of the education system in aiming to reach the target of more young people completing education.     

Building a Competency-Based Curriculum in Social Work Education

ABSTRACT

The focus on competency in social work education makes the development of a competency-based curriculum critical. This article describes an approach to curriculum building taking into account the integration, coherency, and integrity of such a curriculum. A presentation of how performance outcomes are fundamental to the relationship between the Educational Policy and Accreditation Standard competencies and the assignments designed to assess their attainment is presented. A demonstration of how the alignment of the components of a course reveals integrity in the curriculum is portrayed. How these aspects coalesce to build a competency-based curriculum is illustrated, and how this curriculum fulfills accreditation requirements is presented. The article concludes with the benefits and a cautionary note on this approach to curriculum building in social work education.     

A critique of neo-Hahnian outdoor education theory. Part two: “The fundamental attribution error” in contemporary outdoor education discourse

Abstract

In the first of a two part series of articles I argued that “character building” in outdoor adventure education (OAE) is a flawed concept. This, the second article, examines the persistence of the idea of character building in OAE in the face of strong evidence that outdoor experiences cannot change personal traits. I examine how the “fundamental attribution error” can explain the paradox of (a) a shortage of evidence that adventure education “works” and (b) a widespread belief that it does “work”. I review the place of character building in research, and develop a critical reading of a representative adventure education text. I show how unchallenged dispositionist assumptions emerge in neo-Hahnian discourse. I explain how discarding the intuitively appealing but fallacious foundations of neo-Hahnism can clear the way for situationist approaches to outdoor education that bring much needed sensitivity to cultural, regional, historical, and social contexts.     

WhatsApp use among African international distance education (IDE) students: transferring,translating and transforming educational experiences

ABSTRACT

Much of the research on how social media is embedded into the educational practices of higher education students has a Western orientation. In concentrating on a case study of the varied ways in which African International Distance Education (IDE) students actively use social media to shape their learning experiences, we discuss an under-researched group. The paper draws on analysis of 1295 online questionnaires and 165 in-depth interviews with IDE students at UNISA, South Africa, one of the largest providers of IDE globally. WhatsApp emerges as ‘the’ key social media tool that opens up opportunities for IDE students to transfer, translate and transform their educational journey when studying ‘at a distance’. Although WhatsApp does provide a ‘space of opportunity’ for some students, this is framed through socio-technical marginalisation, itself a reflection of demographic legacies of inequality. Exploring social media practices though the case of African IDE students places these students centre stage and adds to the awareness of the multiple centres from which international education is practiced.     

The emotional labor of doing ‘boy work’: Considering affective economies of boyhood in schooling

Abstract

Internationally, the research on the education of boys has sought to understand how social practices, behaviours and rituals contribute to identity construction. We are interested in approaches to the emotional labor of doing ‘boy work’. As educators grapple with the gendered performances and subjectivities of young men, there is an imperative to engage with the affective dimensions of boyhood. We explore what theories of affect can add to our understandings of masculinities and masculine identity practices in rapidly changing affective economies of gender and, specifically, what this may mean for relationships formed between educators and students. To illustrate how theories of affect can open up new analytical spaces, we present two vignettes from a program in the United States designed to support young men and boys to gain critical awareness of restrictive ‘gender norms’. Drawing primarily upon Ahmed’s work on affective economies, we theorize how attention to affective economies of boyhood can positively influence the work of educators today.     

Outdoor education: Research topic or universal value? Part Two

Abstract

This paper follows the theme of part one in that it sets out to discover if the history of outdoor education provides its modern exponents with a legacy of prescribed conservatism or alternatively a form of education which embraces, or is capable of embracing, diversity of theory and practice. Focusing on local authority residential outdoor education centres it begins with the 1970s through the 1980s and ends with the 1990s.

Secondary sources are used and include government and civil service education circulars as well as the body of literature that relates to outdoor education. The paper analyses how discussions of philosophical underpinnings and aims, together with the public perception of safety and risk came to influence the practice of outdoor education. This leads to a discussion of terminology and the role of outdoor education as a curricular subject. The influence of market forces on the provision of outdoor education and the increasing call for cost effectiveness is analysed in relation to the increasingly diverse range of activities coming under the umbrella term of outdoor education.

The evidence shows that throughout this period significant changes regarding the nature of outdoor education are observable. However, within this flux one point is clear. The body of outdoor education literature attaches more importance to outcomes relating to personal and social education than environmental education and this point will be the bridge between part two and part three.     

The ‘outdoor industry’ as social and educational phenomena: Gender and outdoor adventure/education

Abstract

This paper discusses social and cultural theory and tracts the ways in which gender has been conceptualised. It argues that the ‘outdoor industry’ in its various manifestations constitutes an aspect of society that can not be ignored. It suggests that outdoor adventure/education, like other dimensions of society, can usefully be subjected to critical examination. Having discussed perspectives surrounding the social construction of gender, the paper draws attention to classic work that has explored ideologies of femininity and the implication for women and men. The paper then goes on to argue that the more recent interactionist theories and cultural studies offer less deterministic and more insightful approaches to exploring people's experiences of outdoor adventure/education. The concept of hegemonic masculinity is drawn upon to examine ‘the outdoor industry’ in light of the current ‘crisis of masculinity’. Finally, the paper raises further questions regarding outdoor adventure/education as a site of alternative femininities and masculinities and as counter-culture.     

Accountability: a key‐word in the discourse of educational reform

This paper examines the relationship between language and power in education policy. It takes the example of accountability as the specific focus for an analysis of discursive power in the shaping of education in the 1990s. In doing so, it examines the ways in which language contributes to the construction and maintenance of norms and consensual positions in education. Drawing on work in critical linguistics and cultural theory, the paper considers how recent changes in education might be analysed in a way which relates specific examples of social and linguistic practice to larger scale theoretical concerns. The examples which provide the specific focus for discussion in this paper relate to the concept of accountability and are drawn from an empirical study of the enactment of the statutory curriculum for English in secondary schools in 1992‐93.