On Building Bridges: Cultural Agnosia,HipHopEd, and Urban Education

Abstract

In this article, the author describes a lens for engaging in research and practice in urban education rooted in deep cultural understandings of the concept of building bridges and the impact of cultural agnosia.     

Urban Poetics: Poetry, Social Justice and Critical Pedagogy in Education

Posing an alternate view to high stakes educational models, the thoughts, opinions and practices of four poetry educators are used to provide critical insights as how to infuse creative outlets in the educational process. In gathering the motivations of these poetry educators, a goal of this project is to encapsulate their philosophies through researcher observation and participation. Engaging such work with social justice at the center creates a particular disposition. It can be subjective in the sense that an understanding of improvement requires an explicit commitment to the improvement of the lives of young people in education through a participatory process.David Stovall is an Assistant Professor of Policy Studies.     

关于城乡教师公平问题的探讨

教育公平问题是教育基本普及之后面临的又一个重要课题,已引起社会的广泛关注。但对城乡教师的公平问题关注甚少。与城市教师相比,农村教师普遍存在负担过重、待遇偏低、职后教育虚无化、社会地位边缘化等不公平现象。根据教师积极性激励理论,我们必须关注农村教师的公平才有可能促使农村教师自觉自愿献身教育事业,提高义务教育的质量,实现社会的最大公平。     

论教育语境中的正义

本文旨在探讨教育语境中的正义具有什么内涵,以及是否存在一种被证实的关于正义的教育概念。本文并不主张建立一种积极的教育正义概念,而是主张避免把教育当做服务于教育之外的正义规范的工具。因此,本文重点分析了教育中的不正义,并将其在教育系统的不同层面上进行了归类,从而形成了一种有关教育语境中的不正义的教育现象学,这也就是教育现实得以改善的起点。文章最后指出了克服这些不正义的途径。     

More anti-Zionist than thou: An unlikely remedy — A reply to Joseph Agassi

The author concludes the interchange with Joseph Agassi on cultural pluralism in Israel.     

Cultural capital: strengths,weaknesses and two advancements

In this paper I discuss two weaknesses in Bourdieu’s work on cultural capital, both of which are related to his integration of the multidimensional nature of social space in different domains of life: social mobility, lifestyle differentiation, and political orientation. First, there is an anomaly between the work on social mobility and on lifestyles. Multiple dimensions of social origin (cultural and economic capital) are related to uni‐dimensional outcomes (e.g. schooling levels), whereas it would be more appropriate to study multidimensional schooling outcomes too. Secondly, although Bourdieu sees a close resemblance in the type of resources affecting lifestyle preferences and political orientations, I argue that these outcomes are affected by two different types of resources: cultural and communicative resources. Proposals for progress, including a review of the empirical results supporting these, are given.     

Resisting the marginalization of science in an urban school: Coactivating social,cultural, material,and strategic resources

This study describes the resources and strategies middle school teachers, urban fellows, and a district science staff developer coactivated to resist the marginalization of science in a high‐poverty, low‐performing urban school. Through critical narrative inquiry, I document factors that marginalized science in three teachers' classrooms. The narratives show that constraints related to cultural, material, and social resources contributed to a more global symbolic resource constraint, the low status and priority of science in the school. The narratives develop a new category of strategic resources embodied or controlled by others and leveraged to improve students' opportunities to learn science. Attention to a broader array of resources, including social, symbolic, and strategic resources, helps to excavate some of the inertial forces that might derail efforts to teach for social justice. The findings provide a sense of how and why teachers might activate resources to resist the marginalization of science in their classrooms. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 47:840–860, 2010     

市场化进程中农村基层政治之转型发展

乡村经济的市场化发展带来农村社会整体结构的深刻变革和全面变迁．由此揭开了农村经济社会转型的大幕,这一社会背景和发展体制的根本性转换在乡村民主政治的体制结构和农民日常的政治生活当中都能找到其深深的变化印迹。市场化本身固有的能够推动社会主体的多元分化、利益需求的整合联动以及社会结构的分层别类等制度性特征,使得人们的行为和需求越来越关注利益。利益在市场化过程中受到重视,成为人们的行为动力,因此需要对农民的利益诉求渠道和保障机制进行制度性的调整和整体性的规范。农村市场机制的运行和发展使得农民的民主思维、政治理念、法治观念、权利意识等开始萌芽并逐步稳固化。越来越强烈地要求参与到乡村社会具体的事务管理和政治运行当中去。面对乡村市场经济的发展和经济社会的转型,农村的民主政治制度开始发生变革。     

从“富骄贫谄”到“富而好礼”与“穷者尚文”——对上海现代都市文化建构的社会心理考察与阐释

政治与经济方面的巨大变迁是上海近现代都市社会建构与生产的直接表象与现实动力,具有城市文明性质的现代文化心理结构的重建与都市生活方式的生成是这一进程的真正完成与最终成果.就城市社会建构而言,最重要的是如何实现对迅速集聚、互不相干、甚至相互冲突的陌生人进行有效的组织与合理的配置,使他们超越混乱的生存竞争与野蛮的无序状态,在城市空间中形成新型的相对稳定的社会组织和相对平衡的文化生态.上海近现代社会的现实建构是以租界为空间中心、以外侨群体为主体基础而逐层展开的,它们与上海传统城市空间、上海本地居民及中国本土移民的冲突、互动与融合,既真实地记录着上海现代大都市社会建构的奋斗历程,也包含了上海现代都市文化与精神气质发生和发展的秘密.上海都市社会建构的起点与基础可以称之为"贫者谄"与"富者骄",而其最高境界则是"贫而无谄"与"富而好礼".正是在对"贫者谄"与"富者骄"的克服与超越中,上海作为一个大都市社会的精神性格与文化气质才逐渐培育出来.     

Hope without illusion: telling the story of democratic educational renewal

In this article, the author reflects on his participation in a project in democratic educational renewal in an inner‐city high school in Cincinnati, Ohio in the 1990s. He frames the case study within a number of broader questions in democratic educational research and theory having to do with the need to construct narratives of hope without illusion. Such research narratives, he argues, are rooted in a recognition that culture is contested and thus open rather than determined. Progressive stories open up possibilities for critical reflection and strategic action at various sites, and they cross the borders between ‘insider’ and ‘outsider’ accounts. To develop these ideas, he draws on a number of poststructural theorists, including most notably Gramsci and Foucault. He situates the case study within the context of an analysis of the new cultural politics of: corporate‐sponsored school reform, the surveillance and policing of urban youth, and the ‘othering’ of progressives voices in urban education.     

论贵州新一代政治阶层的产生

清末以来,中国现代化历程中最急剧的中心事件是社会政治变革。无论何种形式的政治变革,都要破旧立新,依赖传统政治力量是不可能完成这一使命的,它必须由新型的政治家和积极分子去完成,因此,新的政治阶层的出现是这一变革时期的主要特征。清末以来主张变法的维新派,推行“新政”中出现的资产阶级立宪派及各种政治组织成员,以推翻满清统治为己任的资产阶级革命派和它的各种政治派别,其成员都可视为在现代变革社会中逐渐形成起来的新型政治阶层群体。全国如此,贵州也不例外。     

Cultural capital,curriculum policy and teaching Latin

Latin is currently being trialled as a subject in 40 state secondary schools in England. This paper focuses on one of the justifications of this trial: that teaching Latin in state secondary schools provides students with cultural capital which in turn counters social injustice. By taking the example of Latin as a starting point, I reach two conclusions about cultural capital. The first is that providing students with cultural capital can be good for some individuals, and so justified on a case-by-case basis depending on context. However, this justification does not hold for curriculum policy making. My second conclusion is that in the long term, pursuing cultural capital as part of curriculum policy exacerbates the social injustices it purports to address. Wherever an activity is introduced for the sake of cultural capital rather than its educational value, educationally valuable activities risk being pushed off the curriculum, potentially degrading the educational value of the curriculum. In the case of teaching Latin, it may provide benefits to particular students, but as part of curriculum policy it risks exacerbating social injustices and undermining the educational value of school curricula. Going beyond the place of Latin on the curriculum, I argue that all appeals to cultural capital provide a poor basis for curriculum policy making.     

Class,Race, and Power: Interest Group Politics and Education

Literature review focuses on what theory and research primarily from political science and sociology of education have to say about families and communities working for change in education. Questions: (1) Do low-income minority families have the power to create positive and lasting change in school and/or district organization and policy? (2) Is such change possible and can it serve as a foundation for state and national education policy change? The families and communities in question are ‘the truly disadvantaged’ or ‘underclass’ in America’s urban centers. Largely black and Latino, the communities share the characteristics of developing nations: low economic development, high infant mortality rates, short life spans, and low levels of educational attainment. Social capital, collective action/social movement, and democracy theory are used. A typology of the policymaking process as described in the research is described. Local successes are treated laying the groundwork for answering the question about whether local successes can lead to state and federal reforms. Theories, typology, and stories of success are put into the context of school organization because the way that schools are organized may dictate what kinds of collective action are likely to succeed. Adriane Williams (M.Ed., The George Washington University) is affiliated with Department of Educational Policy Studies, University Of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI. Adriane Williams is a Ph.D. candidate studying how school organization facilitates or impedes the involvement of non-college graduate parents in educational decision making for their children.     

信息技术环境下的城乡教育公平探究

教育公平是全民教育中的一个重要问题。综观我国当前国情,要想在短时期内实现教育的绝对公平是不现实的,但有效而充分地利用现代信息技术可以在很大程度上促进教育和社会的公平。为此,本文提出要加大政府对农村教育的投资力度,尽快构建农村现代信息技术教育平台;改革农村办学层次结构和教育内容;加强农村师资队伍建设;改变农民教育观念和高校招生制度;保障农民工子女的受教育权;增加农村人口受教育机会等,尽快缩小城乡教育差距,促进城乡教育公平和社会的和谐发展。     

社会阶层关系结构性紧张的政治效应分析——基于政治权力合法性与社会公平正义关联性的理论视角

当代中国社会结构变迁的结果是社会资源分配悬殊,阶层关系趋于紧张。而过度的社会阶层结构性张力将动摇社会成员对于政治权力运行原则和方向的信任,削弱政治权力在建设公平正义社会方面的权威性,从而将社会紧张传递到政治系统内部,降低政治权力合法性。因此,政治权力必须促进社会公平,统筹城乡发展,培育流动有序的社会关系,这对我国建设和谐社会有非常重要的现实意义。     

简论思想政治教育的实践性

实践有多重涵义。人们的政治、道德等交往实践是思想政治教育的基础,也是理解思想政治教育学科实践性的关键。思想政治教育的实践性内在地要求在教学活动中必须使教学方法和教学内容上都要具有可实践性。     

新时期大学生思想政治素质现状与高校思想政治教育

一个人思想政治素质的高低对其本身能否确立正确的世界观、价值观和人生观具有重要的作用,同时也对坚持社会主义方向,更好地为社会主义现代化建设服务等问题起着重要的作用。文章通过对当代大学生思想政治素质的现状进行分析,结合时代要求,指出当代高校思想政治教育工作应该改进和完善的方面,以便更好地促进高校思想政治教育工作的进展,更好地为当代社会主义建设作贡献。     

论都市文化与都市流行小说——世纪之交女作家笔下的都市文化形态

都市流行小说是都市文化的代言人,世纪之交的都市文化注重消费意识,具有后现代主义的文化特质和后殖民主义的文化心态,这些特征不仅体现在都市流行小说的主题和内容上,也体现在都市流行小说的言说方式上。     

Critical Community Conversations: Cultivating the Elusive Dialogue About Racism With Parents,Community Members,and Teachers

Abstract

This article highlights how two researchers started Critical Community Conversations (CCC) with a school community in an effort to learn from one another and build solidarity. The intent was for CCC to focus on some of the most pressing issues facing our nation, state, and local neighborhoods, with a special lens on racism.     

Becoming an urban science teacher: How beginning teachers negotiate contradictory school contexts

Teacher attrition rates are high in urban schools, particularly for new science teachers. Little research has addressed how science teachers can be prepared to effectively bridge the divide between preparation and urban teaching. We utilized the theoretical frameworks of social justice, identity, and structure-agency to investigate this transition. Specifically, we examined the Urban Science Teacher Preparation (USTP) program as a critical case of “well-prepared” urban science teachers. Study participants included one cohort of four teachers. Data, primarily from individual interviews, a focus group, and written reflections, were collected from participants during pre-service preparation and their first year of teaching. The USTP program nurtured the development of a professional identity aligned with teaching science for social justice, with a unique emphasis on identifying structural injustices in schools. Findings indicate all four teachers used their identities to negotiate school policies and procedures that restricted student opportunities to learn science through three processes: deconstructing the context, positioning themselves within and against the context, and enacting their identities. These findings suggest the importance of USTP programs to provide teacher candidates with political clarity for teaching for social justice and sustained induction support to resist school socialization pressures.