Parents are not born,they are made: a critical discourse analysis of an educational magazine in Flanders (Belgium)

Central to this article is a case study of one particular governmental instrument in Flanders, the educational magazine ‘Klasse voor Ouders’ (Klasse for Parents). This popular magazine aims to provide information for and communication with parents as one of the target groups in the educational field. Despite the claimed formal and neutral character, in this study, we assume that ‘Klasse voor Ouders’ plays a larger role by contributing to the (re-)organisation of the public debate. We suggest that through the ‘order of discourse’ and thus, through what is said and written, an educational reality is created in which parents and the government are ‘positioned’ and are asked to reflect on themselves and to act in a well-defined way. By means of a critical discourse analysis in line with Fairclough, we illustrate how parents are understood as having a continuous ‘drive’ for improving the quality of their own parenting practice while the government is positioned as in charge of and in control for creating a kind of ‘parental learning community’.     

Multicultural Training Resistances: Critical Incidents for Students of Color

Thirty‐two master’s students of color reported critical incidents of multicultural learning resistances. Qualitative findings suggest that students attributed resistances to limited program diversity and attention to cultural dynamics. Quantitative analyses indicate a racial difference in how students’ perceptions of peers influenced resistances. Recommendations include increasing educator cultural dialogue facilitation skills.     

Critical Religious Education (CRE) in practice: evaluating the reception of an introductory scheme of work

Critical Religious Education (CRE) is a contemporary pedagogy of religious education developed by Andrew Wright and various colleagues over the past two decades. There has been widespread academic discourse about the pedagogy in theory but increasingly commentators have called for examples of it in practice. Over the past seven years a writing group associated with The Forum of Religious and Spiritual Education at King’s College London have been developing practical materials aimed at supporting teachers in embedding the pedagogy in practice. Of particular relevance to this paper is the development of an introductory scheme of work, aimed at year 7 students, which has been trialled in a number of schools in and around London. In 2013, focus group interviews took place in four of these schools in order to ascertain the reception that the materials had received. The data suggests a very positive response to the introductory scheme of work and the CRE approach in general, partially dispelling some criticisms levelled at it in academic discourse. The author has thus suggested that the approach and the work of the writing group need further exposure, especially in schools, at conferences and on initial teacher education programmes.     

Working (and studying) day and night: Heterogeneous effects of working on the academic performance of full-time and part-time students

A growing number of students are working while in college and to a greater extent. Using nationally representative data from the 1997 National Longitudinal Survey of Youth, I analyze the effect of working on grades and credit completion for undergraduate students in the United States. Strategies to identify the causal relationship between working and academic performance include student-level fixed effects to control for permanent, unobserved characteristics that may affect both work and study intensity, and system GMM models to account for potentially endogenous relationships between working and academic performance that vary over time. I examine the consequences of working for heterogeneous subgroups, with a particular focus on differences between full-time and part-time students. I find no evidence that students’ grades are harmed by marginal work hours, but that full-time students complete fewer credits per term when increasing work.     

(Re)igniting a sociological imagination in adult education: the continuing relevance of classical theory

This article argues that sociology has been a foundational discipline for the field of adult education, but it has been largely implicit, until recently. This article contextualizes classical theories of sociology within contemporary critiques, reviews the historical roots of sociology and then briefly introduces the classical theories illustrating the continual presence of sociological thinking in the adult education field. Finally, it periodizes the lineage of the sociology of adult education, highlighting recent contributions. With 30 years of neoliberalism, social justice is eroding, authoritarianism is increasing and democracy—as the idea of a self-governing people deliberating issues of mutual concern in the public sphere—is further subordinated to the idea of society as an economy for exchanging goods and services. It is time to (re)ignite a sociological imagination among adult educators/learners, building on familiarity with both classical and contemporary sociology theories, more robust sociological analysis of the field and a (re)commitment to the historical principles of social justice and deep democracy. While international in focus, Canadian exemplars will be used.     

高等教育的国际化:外国学生政策之比较分析(续)

高等教育的国际化主要可以由学生、教师、课程及研究这四个方向来进行。由于国际学生的流动人数庞大,其消费构成价值数百亿美元的市场,因此招收外国学生不只有利于长期政治、经贸关系的耕耘。国家竞争力的提升,更是重要的外销服务性产品,故工业先进国家和区域性组织将之视为既是高等教育、也是政治和经济的重要策略。为了进一步了解高等教育国际化的内涵与策略,本文由高等教育国际化的历史发展、高等教育国际市场的类型与规模切入,并分析欧盟、荷兰、澳洲、日本和马来西亚等国的相关政策。透过比较研究,本文指出高等教育国际化具有多重目标、留学生选择留学国家时考虑多重因素,因此为了完成高等教育国际化的特定目标,各国／区域组织必须选择对应策略。值得注意的是,高等教育国际化固然有其重要性,但是过度重视招收外国学生也可能带来负面影响。     

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’.     

A Comfortable Start for Everyone: The First Week of School in Three Multi-Age (K-2) Classrooms

This article describes the start of the school year in three multi-age classrooms where 8 new kindergarten children join 16 returning first and second graders. The authors (professor/observers and teachers) describe what happens during the first week of school in this setting where the students remain with their teachers for 3 years. They explain what the start of the year is like for the returning students (first and second graders), the new students (kindergartners), the parents, and the teachers.     

Community of Inquiry (CoI): A Framework for Social Work Distance Educators

ABSTRACT

The Community of Inquiry (CoI) framework, a research-based seminal work, provides a structure for integrating a collaborative constructivist approach in course design, implementation, and evaluation. The CoI framework suggests that by fostering three essential elements – social presence, cognitive presence, and teaching presence – a community of inquiry can be created to promote student engagement and learning. This paper will present the concepts of the CoI framework for social work educators to consider for distance education course design, implementation, and evaluation.     

Making Design Education (Even More) Complex: Exploring Complexity for an Amplified Mindset of Design

An Amplified Mindset of Design (AMD) has emerged from recent research on emerging design practices, as designers are once again re‐inventing their identity to include an adaptability to uncertainty and paradox. However, this is not yet visible in what design education offers. As designers intervene in complex contexts and embrace participatory, collaborative and interdisciplinary practices informed by strong ethical and sustainability concerns, design education must adjust and expand its scope to include, for example, collaboration, cross‐cultural and interdisciplinary skills, and a way of being in the world through design. In this article, I argue for the formal introduction and exploration of social complexity in design education to assist the development of an AMD in design students. Boundaries, dependence on context, edge of chaos, emergence and organisation were identified as key qualities of complex systems to introduce to students. Embodiment and visualisation techniques were used as the most appropriate vehicles for such an endeavour. In this article, I discuss the results of a qualitative research informed by action research in which I explore ways of teaching complexity to design students. The inquiry was driven by the following core research question: How can complexity can be taught in design education using visual and embodiment methods to encourage the development of an Amplified Mindset of Design?