Central Intervention in Local Educational Disputes 1902‐1944

This authority . . . claims to be supreme in the borough . . . this authority . . . claims to be arbiters of their own destiny. We intend to be masters in our own house untrammelled and will submit to no dictation from any source whatever . . . there is nothing in the Education Act that warrants the board of education in interfering with the local authority in its discretion as to whom it would appoint and discharge. ^{1 1}Lowestoft Journal, Report on the meeting of the borough council 16 June, 1923. View all notes

     

A Review of “Shaped By God: Twelve Essentials for Nurturing Faith in Children,Youth, and Adults”

There were moments when the weirdest things made a new and deep sense beyond sense — when Confession did not mean cleaning up oneself (the blackboard erased again) but cleansing a whole world, the first glimpse of sky or grass as one came out of church. When communion was not cannibalism, but its reverse, body taken up in Spirit. Being inwardly shaken by unsummoned prayers, as by muffled explosions. Moments of purity remembered, when the world seemed fresh out of its maker's hands, trees washed by some rain sweeter than the world's own. All these things were shared, part of community life. Not a rare isolated joy like reading poems. These moments belonged to a “people,” not to oneself. It was a ghetto, undeniably. But not a bad ghetto to grow up in. ^{1 1}Garry Wills, Bare Ruined Choirs (Garden City, New York: Doubleday, 1971), 37.

To be rooted is perhaps the most important and least recognized need of the human soul. It is one of the hardest to define. A human being has roots by virtue of his [sic] real, active, and natural participation in the life of a community, which preserves in living shape certain particular treasures of the past and certain particular expectations for the future. ^{2 2}Simone Weil, The Need for Roots (New York: Harper &; Row, 1952), 43.

     

Deconstructive Psychographies: ethical discourse and the institution of the university

Would it not be more ‘responsible’ to try pondering the ground, in the history of the West, on which the juridico‐egological values of responsibility were determined, attained, imposed? There is perhaps a fund here of ‘responsibility’ that is at once ‘older’ and—to the extent it is conceived anew, through what some would call a crisis of responsibility in its juridico‐egological form and its ideal of decidability—is yet to come, or, if you prefer, ‘younger.’ Here, perhaps, would be a chance for the task of thinking what will have been, up to this point, the representation of university responsibility, of what it is and might become, in the wake of upheavals no longer to be concealed from ourselves, even if we still have trouble analyzing them. Is a new type of university responsibility possible? ^{1 1}J. Derrida (1992) Mochlos; or, the conflict of the faculties, R. Rand & A. Wygant (Trans.), in: R. Rand (Ed.) Logomachia: the conflict of the faculties (Lincoln, University of Nebraska Press), p. 11. Original translation has been modified. View all notes     

THE BEGINNING AND END OF YOUTH IN ROMAN ANTIQUITY 1

Scholars like J.H. Van den Berg and P. Ariès ^{2 2}J.H. Van den Berg, Metabletica of leer der veranderingen (Nijkerk, 1956); P. Aries, L'enfant et la vie familiale sous I'ancien régime (Paris, 1960). — not professional historians by origin — introduced a dramatic innovation in historical approaches. Influenced by their pioneering research on children in the past, many modern psychologists, sociologists or historians don't consider childhood (or youth, old age, maternal love...) as a natural, universal, ageless and self‐evident “phenomenon “ anymore. For F. Musgrove, for example, the concept of youth as a separate age of man is fairly recent. This sociologist expresses his opinion in a radical way: “The adolescent as a distinct species is the creation of modern social attitudes and institutions. A creature neither child nor adult, he is a comparatively recent socio‐psycho/ogi‐cal invention, scarcely two centuries old. [...] The adolescent was invented at the same time as the steam engine. The principal architect of the latter was Watt in 1765, of the former Rousseau in 1762”. ^{3 3}F. Musgrove, Youth and the Social Order (London, 1968²) 13 ff. ("Making adolescents") and 33 ff. ("The invention of the adolescent").

Such statements are a simplification of historical reality. The view of A. Kriekemans is more balanced: depending on the cultural environment, the term “youth “ may cover a different period of life and may be more or less complicated, involving varying levels of conflict, having its own identity, its own way of living, its own status, and its own expectations. ^{4 4}A. Kriekemans, Geschiedenis van de jeugdpsychologie (Tielt‐Den Haag, 1967) p. 298. Let us apply these. words to Roman antiquity and examine the place of youth in the human life span as well as the circumstances which made possible its existence as a separate entity. Before starting the exposition itself, it should be noted that we are dealing with upper‐class youth (we know a/most nothing about youth in the lower classes) and with the young man (girls mostly married between the ages of 12 and 15 and there was no real interval between childhood and adulthood).

     

FUNDAMENTALISM AS A CHALLENGE FOR RELIGIOUS EDUCATION

“. . . human experience is shaped, molded, and in a sense constituted by cultural and linguistic forms. There are numberless thoughts we cannot think, sentiments we cannot have, and realities we cannot perceive unless we learn to use the appropriate symbol systems ... to become religious involves becoming skilled in the language, the symbol system of a given religion.” — George Lindbeck ^{1 1}George Lindbeck, The Nature of Doctrine (Philadelphia: The Westminster Press, 1984), 34.

“My child is not learning anything. All they do in there is play.” — disgruntled parent after observing a preschool church school class.

     

Between patriotism and nationalism: Johan Hendrik Swildens and the ‘pedagogy of the patriotic virtues’ in the United Dutch Provinces during the 1780s and 1790s

The dominant influences that forged curriculum policy in relation to the literacy curriculum in New Zealand during the 1930s can be seen to be enmeshed in the politics of the wider context of what de Castell and Luke have identified as the ‘literacy ideologies of the British Empire’. ^{1 1} See de Castell, Suzanne and Allan Luke. “Literacy Instruction: Technology and Technique.” American Journal of Education 95, no. 3 (1987): 413–440. It was these literacy ideologies and concerns over the cultural authority of ‘standard English’ that were to spark a growing public and professional concern during the 1930s over New Zealanders’ speech and the growing ‘insidious’ influence of American‐derived popular culture. These tensions led to debates that would eventually highlight the need for New Zealanders to develop their own national and cultural identity. They would also bring into question the role of Maori language and culture in New Zealand primary school education, and herald the first challenges to the cultural dominance of the English language in New Zealand’s Native schools in the late 1930s.     

The Cleveland Conference

Human beings whose primal impressions come from a machine — it's the first time in history this has occurred ... a cloud settles over the country from coast to coast, a cloud of visual and aural symbols creating the new kind of thought‐environment in which Americans now live. ^{1 1}Ruth Goldsen, The Show and Tell Machine, (New York: Delta Pub. Col, 1975), pp. ix, l.

The ubiquitous box influences what we squirt, squeeze, smear. It has become the predominant inculcator of values. It has changed the long standing institutions of government, religion, and family. ^{2 2}Gail West, “The Effects of T‐V: A Bibliography,” The Living Light, 17 (Fall ‘80), p. 220.

     

‘Even far distant Japan’ is ‘showing an interest’: the English Froebel movement's turn to Sloyd

Accumulation of capitalised wealth, vast mineral resources, a splendid geographical position ‐‐ these advantages avail less and less as the advances of science place all nations on one footing. We shall hold our own in the world as people if our teachers are determined that children shall be trained in the discipline that leads to wisdom, the discipline that leads to health, and the discipline that leads to strength, and such disciplines, I am convinced, will be found in Swedish Sloyd. ^{1 1}Rooper, T. G. School and Home Life (London, 1896), 479.      

THE BLURRING OF CHILDHOOD AND THE MEDIA

Time is not lost, I deem, in bewailing and mourning our fate when answering tears stand ready in the listener's eye.

Prometheus Bound ^{1 1} Lynch's 1970 work, Christ and Prometheus: A New Image of the Secular, explores in three “acts” two pivotal questions that run throughout most of his works: “What is the place of the secular in a totally religious world?” and “What is the place of the sacred in an overwhelmingly secular world?” (p. 15). On page 49 he refers particularly to Images of Hope with these words: “In an earlier book, on hope, I tried to sketch a path of approximation to innocence for the mentally ill. There it was a matter of taking away from the sick the burden of finding a one, nonexistent right way in all situations, an inscrutable way of the will of God, that would come from outside our own wishes and would condition all of these wishes. There is no greater torment than this kind of endless, external search for innocence. We must restore the primacy of man as a wishing being who, as long as he is within reality, creates the right thing by the absolute unconditionality of his own wishing. This wish does not have to go out of itself.” Ironically, he wanted Christ and Prometheus entitled “In Search of Innocence” (p. 36). Presumably, the editors prevailed.

     

Aging and Concurrent Task Performance: Cognitive Demand and Motor Control

A motor task that requires fine control of upper limb movements and a cognitive task that requires executive processing—first performing them separately and then concurrently—was performed by 18 young and 18 older adults. The motor task required participants to tap alternatively on two targets, the sizes of which varied systematically. The cognitive task required participants to generate a series of random numbers at fixed production rates. Participants' performance on the motor task decreased slightly from single- to concurrent-task condition, and the dual-task cost was age-independent. Older adults showed large cognitive dual-task costs as motor-control demands increased. Younger adults' cognitive performance was not affected by concurrent task demands. These results are discussed in light of the permeation model developed by Baltes and Lindenberger (1997 Baltes , P. B. & Lindenberger , U. ( 1997 ). Emergence of a powerful connection between sensory and cognitive functions across the adult life span: A new window to the study of cognitive aging? Psychology and Aging , 12 ( 1 ), 12 – 21 . [INFOTRIEVE] [CSA] [CROSSREF] [Crossref], [PubMed], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]). Practical implications and educational recommendations are presented.     

Severed Heads and Compliant Bodies? A speculation about principal identities

When I had to reapply for my own position as principal I felt as if I was facing the prospect of losing a part of myself. Conversations with other women colleagues confirmed that I was not alone in this response. Taking this as my cue, I explore the notion of principal “identification” practices—that is the continuing process of forming a “principal identity”—through personal narrative, a Cartesian metaphor and emerging research evidence. In particular, I focus on how conditions of entrepreneurial governance change a continuing policy commitment to heroic leadership, and how principal and school identities are conflated through accountability regimes, marketing requirements and work intensification. I propose that a study of changing principal identities might fruitfully add to critical leadership and management scholarship, complementing the emergent corpus on emotions in leadership.

I am telling you stories. Trust me. (Winterson, 1988 Winterson J (1988) Passion London: Vintage  [Google Scholar], p. 160)     

Motivation and Transfer: The Role of Mastery-Approach Goals in Preparation for Future Learning

The study of knowledge transfer rarely draws upon motivational constructs in empirical work. We investigated how students' achievement goals interact with different forms of instruction to promote transfer, defined as preparation for future learning (Bransford & Schwartz, 1999 Bransford, J. D. and Schwartz, D. L. 1999. Rethinking transfer: A simple proposal with multiple implications. Review of Research in Education, 24: 61–100. [Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]) Students were given either invention or tell-and-practice activities when learning statistics concepts and their achievement goal orientations were measured at the beginning of the experiment. We also assessed students' goals during the learning activity. We predicted that students who entered the experiment with a high mastery-approach goal orientation would be more likely to transfer, regardless of instruction. We also hypothesized that invention activities would lead to higher mastery-approach goal adoption for the task and more attention to important conceptual features, as students would focus on trying to understand the material. Finally, because we expected that invention activities would promote mastery goal adoption during the task, we predicted a moderating effect of invention activities, such that there would be a smaller effect for students' initial mastery-approach goal orientation on transfer for those who invented compared to those who received tell-and-practice instruction. All three hypotheses were supported. Results are discussed in terms of contributions to research on knowledge transfer, achievement goals, and educational practice.     

Ambiguities in the Lives of Children: Postmodern Views on the History and Historiography of Childhood in English Canada

Ambiguity is certainly instructive in that it reveals‐ that the problem itself persists at the heart of the solution presumably given to it.’ ^{1 1}’George Canguilhem, The Normal and the Pathological (New York. Zone Books, 1391) p. 76.      

Investigating a case of hidden misinterpretations of an additive word problem: structural substitution

According to numerous studies (Barrouillet & Camos 2002; Brousseau 1988; Chevallard 1988; Riley et al. 1984; Schubauer-Leoni & Ntamakiliro, Revue Des Sciences de L’éducation, 20(1): 87–113, 1994; Vergnaud 1982; Xin, The Journal of Educational Research, 100(6):347–360, 2007), a combination of many factors, including curriculum, didactic contract and task design, can potentially lead to students experiencing difficulties in developing of a full understanding of addition and subtraction and their relationship in problem solving. Few studies (Conne, Recheche En Didactique Des Mathématiques, 5, 269–332, 1985; DeBlois, Éducation et Francophonie, 25(1), 102–120, 1997; Giroux & Ste-Marie, European Jornal of Psychology of Education, 16(2), 141–161, 2001) describe the misinterpretations of problems as a factor related to learning difficulties. We have studied how and why elementary school students misinterpret the mathematical structure of a simple additive word problem and what kind of possible (hidden) misinterpretation may occur. We analysed possible mechanisms of misinterpretations in word problem solving, discussing various examples of correct and incorrect solutions resulting from the misinterpretation of a problem. We gave the elementary school students a word problem, which could potentially be misinterpreted, and observed their solving strategies. Our results show how the particular form of mathematical misinterpretation—structure substitution—may help students obtain a correct answer and thereby hinder the development of their mathematical reasoning. We further discuss different ways of addressing this phenomenon in teaching practice.     

Measuring Children's Age Stereotyping Using a Modified Piagetian Conservation Task

We examined five-year-old-children's age stereotyping using a modified Piagetian conservation task. Children were asked if two lines of objects were the “same” after one line had been made longer (transformed). A conversational account posits that children's answers reflect assumptions about the asker's motivation for the question (Schwarz, 1996 Schwarz , N. ( 1996 ). Cognition and communication: Judgmental biases, research methods, and the logic of conversation . Mahwah , NJ : Lawrence Erlbaum . [Google Scholar]). We reasoned that when asked by a young adult (puppet Experiment 1, experimenter Experiment 2) children would assume the question is to ascertain if they have noted a perceptual change and would provide answers focused on the change (length). If older adults are assumed to be in decline because of negative age stereotyping, however, children may assume an older adult (puppet, experimenter) is seeking clarification about line equality and would, therefore, give responses focused on the similarity of the lines (number). The expectation that a focus on length or number should differ across puppet/experimenter conditions was supported in both experiments and provides behavioral evidence for children's old age stereotyping.     

Seeing for ourselves: when teachers make documentary films. Rebel Goulash and Over the Rainbow

To begin … a moral tale for anthropologists, a fantasy in which an anthropological cinema exists—not documentaries about ‘anthropological’ subjects but films designated by anthropologists to communicate anthropological insights. It is a well‐articulated genre distinct from the conceptual limitations of realist documentary and broadcast journalism. It borrows conventions and techniques from the whole of cinema—fiction, documentary, animation and experimental … this fantasy is more like science fiction than anything else. It is not remotely close to being realized. But it is an ideal worth pursuing (Ruby, 2000 Ruby J 2000 Picturing culture: explorations of film and anthropology (Chicago and London, University of Chicago Press)  [Google Scholar], pp. 1–2).     

Literature for Swedish Lutherans in Colonial America, 1696–1730

In bis dissertation on the Augustana Synod and its significance for the construction of nineteenth‐century Swedish—American identity, DagBlanck examined the literature issued by the Augustana Book Concern. ^{1 1} Dag Blanck, Becoming Swedish‐American. The Construction of an Ethnic Identity in the Augustana Synod, 1860‐1917(Uppsala, 1997). One of the most important types of literature was the textbooks, intended for use in the Swedish—American schools. Blanck's analysis of their contents provides evidence that these textbooks served the purpose of constructing and implanting a certain Swedish—American identity by providing space not only for the Swedish cultural heritage, but also the American immigrant experience. Applying a similar perspective, this article discusses the significance of Swedish literature to the descendants of the New Sweden colonists at the turn of the seventeenth century. From the early 1690s and through the 1720s, the book supply comprised a major line of communication between Sweden and America. While previous research has emphasized the religious point of view and the missionary efforts conducted by Swedish authorities, the article analyses the book supply from the perspective of Swedish—American ethnic formation. Defending their rights to religious freedom and land possession, the old settlers mobilized along ethnic lines. In order to discuss what purpose this literature might have served in promoting Swedishness, the article presents an assessment of the extent and composition of the five major book deliveries to America prior to 1720. Particular attention will be paid to the construction of a special Swedish‐American literature.

     

The Role of External Examinations in the Making of Secondary Modern Schools in England 1945–65

Secondary modern schools form the focus for this paper, which explores an aspect of this topic that has received comparatively little attention: the role of external examinations in determining the character and fate of these schools during the 20‐year period when they educated the ‘large majority’ ^{1 1} McCulloch, G. Failing the Ordinary Child? The Theory and Practice of Working‐class Secondary Education. Buckingham: Open University Press, 1998: 6. of pupils in the 11 to 15 age range. Particular attention is paid to the pivotal role played by external examinations in secondary modern schools’ quest for parity of esteem with grammar schools. Various functions performed by external examinations are considered and it is shown that, while some worked against the interests of secondary modern schools, individual schools were able to turn others to their own advantage. The paper ends by considering a darker side to examining, which was asserting itself as this brief period of history drew to a close.     

Moving From Artifact to Action: A Grounded Investigation of Visual Displays of Evidence during Medical Deliberations

This article builds on scholarship in technical communication, medical rhetoric, and visual communication and represents a portion of a grounded study of one medical workplace setting's visualization practices. Specifically, the author explores how medical images—as technologically and rhetorically rendered artifacts—make “present” (Perelman & Olbrechts-Tyteca, 1969 Perelman , C. , & Olbrechts-Tyteca , L. ( 1969 ). The new rhetoric . Notre Dame , IN : University of Notre Dame Press . [Google Scholar]) the material characteristics of disease and thereby perceptually and argumentatively afford the construction of knowledge about future cancer-care action.     

For Love of the Word: English Teaching,Affect and Writing1

Research in the UK, USA and Australia confirms that secondary English practising and pre‐service teachers are typically characterised as great readers. Indeed the subject position of English teacher entails a ‘love’ of reading (Peel, R., Patterson, A. & Gerlach (Eds), 2000 Peel, R. 2000. “Beliefs about ‘English’, in England,”. In Questions of English: Ethics, Aesthetics, Rhetoric and the Formation of the Subject in England, Australia and the United States, Edited by: Peel, R, Patterson, A and Gerlach. 116–188. London: Routledge/Falmer.  [Google Scholar]). However there is no corollary with writing. Few English teachers are simultaneously ‘writers’ in any sustained, pleasurable or publicly successful ways. This paper examines data gathered from pre‐service secondary English teachers and from experienced teachers who are also writers about their own writing practices and experiences and looks at the relationship between these issues of affect and pedagogy. Embodied and positive affects—characterised as ‘love’, ‘passion’ and ‘immersion’ in writing—are prominent features of the stories told by accomplished writers. Love of ‘the word’, including a love of reading, and a productive tension between form and freedom, are further threads in the discursive textures of their stories of coming to writing.