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.     

Reflecting critically on the critical disposition within Internationalisation of the Curriculum (IoC): the developmental journey of a curriculum design team

ABSTRACT

Internationalisation of curriculum (IoC) practices promote students developing knowledge of other cultures, attitudes, values and ethics. This conceptual article argues that embedding critical reflection in the IoC program – through integrating insights from both IoC thinkers and critical reflection literature – may allow educators and students to not only gain understanding and/or competency in other cultures but better address questions of privilege, power and colonisation and thereby interrogate their own normative cultural understandings. Borrowing from debates within IoC pedagogy, as well as from Ahmed’s work on critical reflection, this article also argues that cross/intercultural understanding should be understood (and taught) not as a competency but a disposition towards thinking, analysing and understanding the world which is based on critiquing the ‘self’ and its relationship with the ‘other’.     

Study abroad as governmentality: the construction of hypermobile subjectivities in higher education

ABSTRACT

Drawing on the concept of hypermobility, the paper examines a case of study-abroad mobility from a governmentality perspective. Based on a critical analysis of policy texts and interviews with Irish students who have taken part in the Erasmus exchange programme, it argues that under the conditions of neoliberal globalisation, the normalisation of study abroad aims to produce self-governing practices that align with dominant discourses promoting voluntarist attitudes to labour mobility. These dispositions, described as hypermobility, are an additional dimension of the flexible, entrepreneurial subject imagined in neoliberal societies. The paper examines the discourses and practices at state and institutional levels and how they circulate and impact on students’ subjectivities – analysing affective detachment from home and cosmopolitan sociability as self-disciplining practices that align with the production of neoliberal hypermobile subjectivities.     

Life skills for ‘real life’: How critical thinking is contextualised across vocational programmes

Background: This article presents an analysis of how critical thinking is contextualised in everyday teaching in three vocational education and training (VET) programmes: Vehicle and transport, Restaurant and management, and Health and social care.

Purpose: The main question addressed is: What knowledge discourses permeate different VET-contexts, and hence what kinds of opportunities for critical thinking do they offer students?

Method: The qualitative analysis draws on data from a four-year ethnographic project exploring learning processes that can be characterised as civic education in Swedish vocational education. The analysis presented here used data collected during 85 days of observations of teaching in six VET classes, interviews with 81 students and 10 teachers, and collected teaching material. To explore why some contextualisations provided more opportunities and encouragement for critical thinking than others, we applied Bernsteinian concepts of ‘horizontal and vertical knowledge discourses’ and ‘discursive gaps’.

Findings and conclusions: Overall, teaching that was observed focused primarily on ‘doing’. However, in all three programmes, the analysis identified that there were also situations that touched upon critical thinking. Three major themes were identified: critical thinking related to ‘Personal experiences’, ‘The other(s)’ and ‘Wider perspectives’. It appeared that the frequency and nature of such situations varied with the knowledge discourses permeating the programme. Furthermore, we discuss the manifestations of critical thinking in relation to the wider context of what Bernstein refers to as pedagogic rights; individual enhancement, social inclusion and development of the competence and confidence to participate in political processes.     

When the black box springs open: practical work in schools and the nature of science

The aim of this paper is not to bury practical work in school science but to (once again) reconsider it. We draw on three main areas of discussion: accounts of science and ‘school science work'; teachers and others’ views of the nature of science; and our own data on teachers’ reactions to ‘critical incidents’ and practicals which go wrong. We use this as a basis for re‐thinking the role of practicals. An account of practical work is suggested which has as its main feature diversity rather than a single model or template. Within this diversity we believe that teachers should be open and honest with pupils about which type of practical work they are doing and why. We advocate that students should be made aware of the different kinds of practical work they do and the purposes of this practical work. In short, teachers should explain to students what type of practical work they are doing and why. Our second message is that teachers’ views about the nature of science both inform and are informed by their classroom practices and experiences‐‐especially during lab‐work. To encourage, promote and support critical reflection of these classroom practices and experiences is therefore a vital part of teacher professional development; this in time will promote science curriculum development.     

The craftivists: Pushing for affective,materially informed pedagogy

The idea of making as a form of activism or, as we refer to it in this paper, craftivism, underpins our ambition to transform pedagogical environments into spaces of possibility through sensory and affective making practices. A craftivist agenda pushes for open teaching and learning with materials so that students can inhabit a what if space which ruptures institutional time and space. Beginning with a theorization of disruptive making and dissensus and then moving on to foreground a materialist stance on making, the paper illustrates how students experience materialities across two very different classroom environments and how these experiences led to greater presence, voice and agency for students. There is an underlying focus in the paper on embodied responses and affective flows. After theorizing craftivism, there are three sections that explore making, teaching and feeling through craftivist, postdigital methods.     

Materialising effects of difference in sex education: the ‘absurd’ banana penis

ABSTRACT

This article scrutinises pedagogical practices undergone in sexuality education as recorded with two intergenerational groups of former Australian schoolgirls. It discusses the surprising widespread use of the plastic, white, circumcised banana penis in sexuality education experienced by the younger group. The normalisation of the white, circumcised, plastic, banana penis (without reference to the vulva and/or vagina) is telling about what bodies matter and how sex materialises. The banana penis, as uncritically modelled in sexuality education, effectively materialises difference as both sexist and racist. This paper considers diffractive thinking in classroom with these practices, with students, and ways pedagogical practice may bring about a renormalisation that moves from reiterating racist heteronormative hierarchies to a creative opening up of ways students (as sexed, gendered and raced) can come to safely and affirmatively negotiate differences.     

Why critical literacy should turn to ‘the affective turn’: making a case for critical affective literacy

The central argument of this essay is that critical literacy with a rationalistic bent may not enable us to cope with ethical dilemmas in our responsiveness to human sufferings. I argue that critical literacy education would benefit from turning to the recent scholarship on affect/emotion studies. I draw upon the works of Sara Ahmed – one of the leading contributors to critical affect studies – to shed light on what is called a regulatory power that creates a schism in our responsiveness to violence and suffering. The key contribution of this essay is to present an actionable framework of what I describe as critical affective literacy. To delineate this framework, I present four pedagogical principles, along with examples of instructional activities.     

Perceptions of challenge in science learning

Prior research has indicated that decisions made by students about their learning are influenced by perceptions of various factors related to the task and classroom context. This influence seems to be mediated by the extent to which the learner perceives personal challenge in what is done. This concept of personal challenge comprises both cognitive (demand) and affective (motivation) components. In the current paper, response trends of almost 4000 secondary science students to a questionnaire structured according to factors associated with challenge are considered by school, year level and gender. These trends indicate that challenge in science diminishes as students move from Years 7 to 10, due to increasingly negative perceptions of many of these factors. Results also indicate however that, through purposeful change in teaching perspectives and practices, teachers can establish and sustain students’ sense of challenge in classroom learning.     

On historical thinking and the history educational challenge

Abstract

The notion of historical thinking has in recent years become popular in research on history education, particularly so in North America, the UK and Australia. The aim of this paper is to discuss the cognitive competencies related to historical thinking, as expressed by some influential Canadian researchers, as an history educational notion from two aspects: what is historical thinking and what does it mean in an educational context, and what are the consequences of historical thinking for history education? Our discussion will focus on possible implications of this approach to history education regarding what should be taught in history classrooms and why. By focusing on the notion of historicity, we want to argue that while a focus on a more disciplinary approach to history education is welcome, we think that more attention should be given to what could qualify as a disciplinary approach. We further argue historical thinking and the history educational challenge should be understood as wider and more complex than what history education informed by historical thinking entails.     

Counter conducts as affective practices in the classroom: the task of pedagogies of affirmative estrangement

This paper suggests that scholarship in critical pedagogy needs to consider two important issues: first, how students’ affective life (‘affect’ and ‘emotion’ are used as interchangeable terms here) is manifested through ‘counter-conduct practices’, namely, practices of resistance that challenge dominant or hegemonic social forces; and, second, how critical pedagogies may cultivate such practices in order to inspire estrangement from hegemonic forces. Seeking to bring together these two issues, the paper explores opportunities for critical pedagogies that may subvert or redirect the conducting role of hegemonic emotion norms and rules. It is particularly emphasized that estrangement from hegemonic norms and rules is essential in developing critical and affective commitments to social justice. The conclusion points out that what are called here ‘pedagogies of affirmative estrangement’ can make a valuable intervention in the scholarship on critical pedagogy by renewing conceptualizations of the politics of the self and emotion in the classroom.     

Critical Thinking in Criminal Justice Ethics: Using the Affective Domain to Discover Gray Matters

This paper proposes that an effective way to teach critical thinking would be through a criminal justice ethics class that prioritizes learning in the affective domain to prevent persistence of a polarizing perspective. The premise is twofold: first, that us versus them dichotomies hinder higher order thinking and moral decision-making; and, secondly, that it is much more difficult to overcome dichotomous thinking exclusively through cognitive domain teaching because the tendency is for students to sift through new information and focus only on facts which support preexisting positions and, also, because students may anticipate an intellectual attack on their opinions and become defensive or resistant. For those reasons, the suggestion is to use carefully selected, empathy-evoking films as a stealthier, softer introduction to controversial issues.     

PREFACE

Abstract

Critical thinking about moral decisions considers the consequences of options for the achievement of people's goals. Attempts to think critically lead to error and bias, so intuitive rules are needed to guard against these errors and to save time. Intuitive rules, however, lead to errors and biases of their own. I propose that students be taught to approximate critical thinking itself and that they learn rules of thumb to guard against its pitfalls. In particular, students need to learn certain powerful devices of consequentialist reasoning, such as consideration of precedent setting and of the possibility of error in thinking itself. They also need to learn about the common biases of thinking, especially the bias to favour what one already believes, or what is nearby in time and space.     

Singapore international education hub and its dilemmas: the challenges and makings for cosmopolitan learning

ABSTRACT

Higher education in Asia is massifying at an exceptional pace and scale. In this paper, I ask how practices and discourses which inform the internationalization of Singapore’s higher education can provide opportunities for developing cosmopolitan learning that it claims to provide. Cosmopolitan learning is closely related to cross-border student mobility and plays an important role in shaping the international students’ identities, aspirations and worldviews. Based on a recent study in Singapore of a group of international students from various parts of Asia and Europe, this paper attempts to bring the theoretical and grounded realities of cosmopolitan learning in an Asian context into the fore. The aim of the paper is to provide a useful frame for rethinking the purpose of international education for cosmopolitan learning in an increasingly interconnected world that is strewn with ambivalence, and what that means in the context of Singapore as an erudite nation-state critical to building Asian education hub aspirations.     

(Un)becoming dysfunctional: ADHD and how matter comes to matter

Various neuropsychiatric disorders are a common feature today, not least in educational contexts where Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) is a common diagnosis. The dominant perspective regarding ADHD is biomedical. This perspective has been questioned and challenged in various ways. The aim of this article is to think ADHD through quantum physicist and philosopher Karen Barad’s [Barad, K. 2007. Meeting the Universe Halfway: Quantum Physics and the Entanglement of Matter and Meaning. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.] theory of agential realism. According to Barad, what we perceive as singular entities do not exist in advance. Barad pays attention to the world’s entanglements, and what we perceive as singular objects and subjects are effects of specific and various material-discursive practices acting as agential cuts. The theory of agential realism assigns performativity to matter, which highlights that ADHD is something that continuously comes into being together with human and non-human bodies. The material dimension has not previously been emphasised as a causal factor in studies on ADHD. In this article, the focus is on the agency of the book. As a conclusion, the importance of taking responsibility for every material-discursive practice with which we are always entangled is emphasised.     

Discipline and Pleasure: The pedagogical work of Disneyland

Abstract

Disneyland is work disguised as play; school disguised as vacation. While Walt Disney’s curriculum deploys across all of its products, it literally engulfs the approximately 50 million ‘guests’ who visit the Disney Parks each year. Drawing on Sarah Ahmed’s phenomenological reading of orientation in Queer phenomenology, this article investigates the ways in which Disney’s didacticism is made material through practices and procedures designed to orient the park’s visitors, to ensure that those visitors always know where they are and who they are, as a means of educating ‘good’ citizens. The argument focuses not on Disneyland’s narrative curriculum but on its corporeal one: visitors are enticed to make affective investments, to construct or reconstruct their identities to comply with the Disney version of the ideal American worker and consumer, as the park attempts to reorient those who resist those roles.     

A Teacher Who Left His Mark

Abstract

Discussion of the nature of critical thinking and the ways in which it can be enhanced has increased in recent years among social work educators, and yet little is known about the impact of MSW education on the critical thinking of students. This paper examines the nature of critical thinking, presents an adult cognitive developmental model, the Reflective Judgment Model (King &; Kitchener, 1994), which holds promise for enlarging social work's understanding of critical thinking and examines approaches to teaching which enhance critical thinking. The Reflective Judgment Model focuses on the development of assumptions about knowledge and the process of knowing as development occurs through adulthood. Specific implications for creating classroom and field learning environments are detailed, including characteristics of effective teachers and of effective assignments.     

Impact of professional development programme on teachers’ competencies in assessment

ABSTRACT

In the past few decades, increasing demands have been placed on developing students’ autonomy and critical thinking skills. To enhance students’ agency in learning, teachers have been encouraged to adopt alternative pedagogical practices. The revamp of pedagogy needs to be reflected in assessment as it is an integral part of instruction. Practising teachers, however, lack assessment knowledge due to inadequate training during the pre-service preparation programmes. The enhancement of assessment knowledge is being urgently called for, which demands the professional development of teachers. This study seeks to investigate the impact of a professional development programme organized by a university in Hong Kong on the development of assessment knowledge of four teachers in two elementary schools. Findings indicate that the acquisition of assessment knowledge is a long-term achievement, which requires ongoing professional development efforts.     

Critical thinking in education: a review

National governments and employers have argued that it is important for all sectors of education to prepare individuals who are able to think well and for themselves. 'Good thinking' and 'thinking well' are commonly used terms bound up with what is called 'critical thinking' in the research literature. Evidence is presented in this paper, however, which suggests that not all students may be good at critical thinking; nor do some teachers appear to teach students 'good thinking' skills. A review of the research literature in this area was undertaken and the methods and conceptions of teaching likely to inhibit and enhance critical thinking are outlined, as well as what is required to improve students' thinking skills. Ways forward in teaching critical thinking, and in helping students to learn to think well and for themselves, are described and discussed.