OP-ED Approaches to international comparative research on curricula and curriculum-making processes

This is the second of four essays discussing Wu’s ‘Interpretation, autonomy, and transformation: Chinese pedagogic discourse in a cross-cultural perspective’ (JCS, 43(5), 569-590). The essay is interesting against the background of recent debates, both inside and outside China, about the relationship between the Chinese and Western traditions of curriculum and pedagogy. The essay helps one to understand that there is no clear divide between the so-called Chinese and Western traditions. The modern Chinese language as well as its pedagogical discourse have been hybridized with something western, with the implication that it is difficult to distinguish one from the other. However, the paper falls into a trap of cultural judgement: it (re)interprets the Confucian ‘authentic’ texts as ‘desirable’ and attributes many ‘contemporary’ pedagogical practices and/or the discourse of the so-called ‘Confucian heritage’ to the influence of the West.     

A Typology of Undergraduate Textbook Definitions of ‘Heat’ across Science Disciplines

The physics and chemistry education literature has grappled with an appropriate definition for the concept of heat for the past four decades. Most of the literature promotes the view that heat is ‘energy in transit’ or ‘involves the transfer of energy’ between the system and surroundings because of a difference in temperature. Given that many undergraduate students are not learning the concept of heat in physics and chemistry alone, the goal of this investigation is to explore the conceptions of heat as presented in textbooks from across the science disciplines. An analysis of the definitions of heat from physics, chemistry, the biological sciences and the earth sciences showed a significant variation in the definitions within a discipline and between the disciplines. Specifically, the physics and chemistry textbooks used ‘energy in transit’ or ‘transfer of energy’ definitions (Class I), whereas textbooks from other disciplines typically used definitions which relate heat to ‘molecular kinetic energy’ (Class II) or they used a hybrid of Class I and II definitions. Although a universal definition of heat across disciplines may not be possible (or even desirable), we suggest that discrepancies in definitions be acknowledged and clearly communicated to students.     

The structure of educational research

Educational research is widely construed as the scientific investigation of the causes of ‘effective’ teaching. Discussion of values and philosophical problems is condemned as descent into ‘ideology’. Opposing this is a conception of teaching as phronesis where educational research and philosophy may be desirable, but have no direct relationship to practice. It is contended in this article that both of these views are misconceived. In educational research, empirical questions are secondary, values are central, and philosophical investigation is central to the determination of these. Philosophy, not social science, directly governs policy and practice; virtue governed by logic, not causation under natural law, is the principal explanatory concept. Educational research, then, is logically tied to practice. This sanctions not the authoritarian ‘methods that work’ project, but a pluralistic conception of research anchored in the autonomy of teachers and pupils.     

Imagining the flowers,but working the rich and heavy clay: participation and empowerment in action research for health

Participation of the ‘target group’ is a key concept in working on empowerment in health education. However, it raises many questions and is not without struggle. I will discuss the findings from a study into the state of the art of empowerment in health education, which includes a literature review and the analysis of eight Dutch health‐promotion projects. An important finding is that participation is not an unequivocal concept. Professionals working in health education strongly disagree on the value, goals and meaning of participation. Moreover, in working on empowerment, a tension exists—between the ideal of participatory, ‘bottom‐up’ approaches on the one hand; and the ‘top‐down’ structure of health education programmes, on the other. I will argue for a ‘realistic approach’ in which the practice of health promotion is taken as the starting point to work on empowerment. After all, imagining the flowers is easy, but working the rich and heavy clay is the challenge.     

INCLUSION: Special or inclusive education: future trends

In this article, Lani Florian, Professor of Social and Educational Inclusion at the University of Aberdeen, examines the relationships between ‘special’ and ‘inclusive’ education. She looks at the notion of specialist knowledge among teachers and at the roles adopted by staff working with pupils with ‘additional’ or ‘special’ needs in mainstream settings. She explores the implications of the use of the concept of ‘special needs’– especially in relation to attempts to implement inclusion in practice – and she notes the tensions that arise from these relationships. She goes on to ask a series of questions: How do teachers respond to differences among their pupils? What knowledge do teachers need in order to respond more effectively to diversity in their classrooms? What are the roles of teacher education and ongoing professional development? How can teachers be better prepared to work in mixed groupings of pupils? In seeking answers to these questions, Lani Florian concludes that we should look at educational practices and undertake a thorough examination of how teachers work in their classrooms. She suggests that it is through an examination of ‘the things that teachers can do’ that we will begin to bring meaning to the concept of inclusion.     

What is ‘Natural’ in Natural Selection?

To understand Darwin’s concept of natural selection, we have to contrast it with his characterization of artificial selection, and then ask: what is natural in natural selection? While we do this, we develop two distinctions: one between ‘change by transformative action’ and ‘change by selection’, and another between ‘artificial selection’ and ‘natural selection’. The first distinction helps us understand evolution by selection and the second natural selection.     

What are the Bounds of Critical Rationality in Education?

Since Dilthey we have become used to thinking of reason as having a cultural and historical setting. If we take this insight seriously, then critical rationality or critical thinking can no longer be conceived of as context‐free skills. This paper takes up the line of thought that is elaborated by Christopher Winch in his ‘Developing Critical Rationality as a Pedagogical Aim’ and seeks to explicate it by drawing on Ludwig Wittgenstein's concept of ‘language games’ and on the re‐evaluation of ‘thinking’ by Theodor Ballauff (a German philosopher of education who was influenced by Martin Heidegger). The overcoming of a solipsistic and idealistic conception of thinking raises questions regarding the pedagogical settings and aims, as well as the problems over the limits of critique in education. A comparison of Ballauff's and Winch's positions reinforces the sense of the significance of critique: although the role of critical rationality within education is ambiguous and precarious, the investigation of autonomy (as an educational goal) shows that critique cannot be limited in any straightforward way.     

How teachers’ individual autonomy may hinder students’ academic progress and attainment: Professionalism in practice

This article reports a 3-year case study of a primary school in England, in which a recently appointed principal attempted to build ‘collegial professional autonomy’ (Nordic Journal of Studies in Educational Policy, 2 , 2015, 20) within a push to improve students’ progress and attainment. The research examined the tensions between staff who embraced the principal's agenda for collegially agreed change, and whose students’ academic progress and performance improved over a 3-year consecutive period when measured in terms of students’ entry-level attainment and socio-economic factors, and staff who asserted their right to ‘individual professional autonomy’ and whose students’ academic progress and attainment declined. The research: (i) challenges claims that reform necessarily results in school cultures of compliancy, de-professionalisation and the technicisation of teaching; (ii) raises issues concerning the pedagogical leadership of principals in a devolved, ‘self-governing’ school system; and (iii) questions teachers’ entitlements to individual professional autonomy where this is associated with students’ continuing academic underperformance.     

Implementation eines wissenschaftlich erprobten,didaktischen Konzepts: Der Einfluss pädagogischer Autonomie auf die Wirksamkeit in der Praxis

There is growing interest in evidence-based interventions that can improve student teachers’ professional development. But how can these interventions be implemented into everyday teacher education practice by teacher educators themselves—without losing their initial, lab-tested effectiveness due to teacher educators’ practical educational autonomy? Through a quasi-experimental field study the following question is investigated: What is the impact of different degrees of educational autonomy (low/middle/high) that 19 teacher educa­tors are granted while implementing an experimentally proven concept into their teacher training courses on the development of the competence to diagnose classroom situations among 261 student teachers? ANCOVAs using planned contrasts indicate that the effectiveness of the concept can be sustained in ‘the real world’ of teacher education practice, even if practitioners—no longer researchers—are responsible for the concept realization; thereby, the highest increase in student teachers’ competence occurred when low educational autonomy was granted, i.e., the concept was implemented closely to the original.     

The appropriation of ‘enlightenment’ in modern Korea and Japan: Competing ideas of the enlightenment and the loss of the individual subject

Abstract

In recent decades in Korea, many significant changes in political, social and cultural dimensions have been held by the citizen’s initiative, where the revitalization of citizenship and strong civic unity have played a role. Yet, in regard to the characteristic of Korean citizenship, it seems that the aspect of individual subject has not been fully matured or issued; that is, there is a dissymmetry between the strong civic unity and a weak individual subject. This paper attempts to explore a possible historical account of why this has been the case by examining the historical development of the concept of enlightenment in modern Korea and Japan. ‘Enlightenment’, as a modern concept in Korea, was imported via Japan in the period from the late nineteenth century to the early twentieth century as in many other new concepts such as ‘democracy’ or ‘nation’. However, by comparison to the Western idea of the Enlightenment, its modern concept, Korean or Japanese, developed a different meaning in each own context, while lacking its original meaning essential to the creation of the ‘modern individual subject’ as a ‘citizen’. Hence, in modern Korea and Japan, the word ‘enlightenment’ is regarded as a historical concept with no contemporary relevance.     

Competitive Sport,Winning and Education

Abstract

Competition in education, school sport in particular, remains a controversial issue. The author recognizes that competition is a contested concept and examines both the ‘strong’ and ‘weak’ critiques against the moral desirability of having competitive sport as a part of the compulsory curriculum. The questions of selfishness and of winning are discussed, before the role of the teacher is examined. The author concludes that competitive sport is not per se a form of mis‐education. It can be rather, if taught with understanding and skill, a form of education in which moral values are not only inherently demanded but are encouraged in practice.     

Keeping Secrets: ESP/LSP and the sociology of knowledge

Summary This article examines the notions of ‘specialisation’ or ‘specificity’ as they are used in expressions such as ‘English for special purposes’ (ESP) or languages for specific purposes’ (LSP). It is argued that a given variety of language is not ‘special’ or ‘specific’ in some absolute or objective way, inherent to its formal structures, topics and norms. ‘Specificity’ is, rather, the result of a particular relationship between participant and discourse, between two cultures or worlds of knowledge. For these reasons, it is often not particularly helpful to attempt to describe specific varieties in terms of linguistic features. Instead, we need to situate the problem within a general theory of the sociology of knowledge by asking fundamental questions such as ‘Specialised for who?’ and ‘Who knows what?’, ‘How do they acquire and use their knowledge?’. Such a theory will necessarily be both relative and social: relative to the individual and to the way in which knowledge is socially distributed. But it will also be a theory of discourse, since interactive language‐use is the principal mechanism by which individuals acquire, stock and share all knowledge, ‘specialised’ or otherwise. It is suggested that two factors need to be kept in mind by the didactician interested in LSP. First, is the discourse asymmetric?, i.e. does it assume or contain knowledge which the learner does not have? Secondly, is the discourse non‐collaborative?, i.e. one where no attempt is made to share the knowledge with uninitiated participants.     

Following the action in action learning: towards ethnomethodological studies of (critical) action learning

Action learning is a pedagogical practice that helps participants learn by talking about their workplace action with fellow participants (‘comrades in adversity’) in their action learning set. This paper raises questions about the action in action learning, such as: how do members of an action learning set learn from and through each other? How do they learn through their developing conversation and interaction?

To answer such questions, I argue that, ‘ethnomethodology’ (the study of ‘member's methods’ or ‘folk methods’ for doing any kind of practical action) is useful for showing the intricacy of the practical learning process in action learning, as in learning in action, more generally. The paper illustrates the conversational and interactional work of members doing things and learning together in action (for example discovering things in science and in board meetings); and argues that this approach may also be used to study action learning in practice.     

Who ‘owns’ the university? Institutional autonomy and academic freedom in an age of knowledge capitalism

The neoliberal reframing of universities as economic engines and the growing emphasis on ‘third stream’ commercial activities are global phenomena albeit with significant local variations. This article uses the concept of ‘ownership’ to examine how these processes are impacting on institutional self-understandings and academic–management relations. Drawing on ethnographic research from New Zealand, including recent disputes between academics and management, we ask, ‘who owns the modern university’? In conclusion, we show how debates over ownership provide a lens for examining wider tensions around institutional autonomy and academic freedom.     

Students’ perception of EdD and PhD programmes in Hong Kong

The aim of this study is to explore the learning experiences of students enrolled on a Doctorate in Education programme in Hong Kong. The main questions are as follows. How do EdD students position themselves as doctoral candidates? How do EdD students experience their education in terms of scholarly expertise and scholarly identity? How do EdD students characterise their relationships with their supervisors? What perceptions do PhD students hold of the field of knowledge of EdD students and the value of an EdD degree? The data obtained from 10 semi-structured interviews in one selected institution are discussed with reference to the four main themes; distinction between EdD and PhD degrees: ‘co-existent’ vs. ‘separate’; positioning of EdD programme: title of doctor as ‘unfair’ vs. ‘deserved’; scholarly value: ‘insightful’ vs. ‘non-academic’; and relationship with supervisor: ‘independent and self-managed’ vs. ‘never equal, unlike the relationship between PhD student and supervisor’.

     

Students’ perception of EdD and PhD programmes in Hong Kong

Abstract

The aim of this study is to explore the learning experiences of students enrolled on a Doctorate in Education programme in Hong Kong. The main questions are as follows. How do EdD students position themselves as doctoral candidates? How do EdD students experience their education in terms of scholarly expertise and scholarly identity? How do EdD students characterise their relationships with their supervisors? What perceptions do PhD students hold of the field of knowledge of EdD students and the value of an EdD degree? The data obtained from 10 semi-structured interviews in one selected institution are discussed with reference to the four main themes; distinction between EdD and PhD degrees: ‘co-existent’ vs. ‘separate’; positioning of EdD programme: title of doctor as ‘unfair’ vs. ‘deserved’; scholarly value: ‘insightful’ vs. ‘non-academic’; and relationship with supervisor: ‘independent and self-managed’ vs. ‘never equal, unlike the relationship between PhD student and supervisor’.     

Arresting Decline in Shared Governance: Towards a Flexible Model for Academic Participation

This paper considers tensions between ‘corporate’ models of governance focused on the governing body and more traditional, ‘consensual’ academic approaches. It argues that despite these tensions, a decline in the role of the academic community in matters of institutional governance (‘shared governance’) is neither desirable nor inevitable, and that successful academic participation is possible through a combination of the corporate and consensual modes. Tracing a decline in academic participation from its height in the 1970s, the paper evaluates the problematic nature of more recent corporate approaches to university governance and the work of Dearlove (1997), (2002) and Deem is used to reflect on ‘tensions between the logic of managerial control and the conventions of professional autonomy’ ( Deem, 1998 , p. 52). The paper ends by offering a broad and flexible model for successful shared governance, drawing on the role of academic departments and Clark’s strengthened steering core (1998).     

The effect of language on the performance of second‐language students in science examinations

It has been established by previous researchers that changes in the wording of multiple‐choice examination questions can significantly affect pupil performance. In this study recent ‘home’ General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE) and ‘overseas’ General Certificate of Education (GCE) papers were examined for questions in which the language could be simplified, and modified questions were prepared. When performance on the original and modified forms of the questions was compared for a sample of British school pupils, no statistically significant difference emerged. When performance on the same questions was examined for a sample of pupils for whom English was the second (or third) language, there were significant differences in their performance on modified and unmodified versions of the questions.     

Heidegger,Education and the ‘Cult of the Authentic’

Within educational philosophies that utilise the Heideggerian idea of ‘authenticity’ there can be distinguished at least two readings that correspond with the categories of ‘weak’ and ‘strong’ utopianism. ‘Strong‐utopianism’ is the nostalgia for some lost Edenic paradise to be restored at some future time. Here it is the ‘world’ that needs to be transcended for it is the source of our inauthenticity, where we are the puppets of modernist‐capitalist ideologies. ‘Authenticity’ here is a value‐judgment, understood as something that makes you a better person. The ‘inauthentic’ person is simply deceived. ‘Weak‐utopianism’ is recognising the forces for change in the ‘everyday‐immanent’ where we do not look to overcome the world but own it as ‘heritage’. ‘Authenticity’ here is an ontological choice, a modification of inauthenticity, not its opposite. The ‘cult of the authentic’ relates to the ‘strong utopianism’ where ‘authenticity’ has become fetishized, harking back to a purer, pre‐modern state, untainted by the ideals of the Enlightenment and ethos of capitalism. ‘Authentic education’ is the overcoming of our environments and socio‐historical contexts, opening up new horizons of meaning. The radical notion of freedom that this implies, where one is free from rather than free in the realisation of constraint, may also be another dividing line between the ‘strong’ and ‘weak’ readings, which lend themselves to a Messianic narrative. It will be argued that if ‘authentic education’ is understood through a ‘strong utopianism’ it actually re‐enforces those very same dystopian ideals they look to overcome as characterised by ‘enframing’.     

Swedish universities towards self‐regulation: A new look at institutional autonomy

Abstract

Swedish universities are required to change towards more effective self‐regulation as the government has recently reduced state steering and devolved further responsibilities to them. In this paper, ‘self‐regulation’ is related to the concept of ‘autonomy’, a concept which is analysed on the two dimensions of ‘purpose’ and ‘authority’, resulting in four models of state governance and consequently in a different ‘space of action’ for the institutions. However, in order to develop self‐regulation, the space granted must also be used effectively to realise autonomy. Six Swedish higher education institutions are analysed concerning how they have used their new space of action and what restrictions they have met in their efforts for self‐regulation.