Higher education and social change

An agenda for future higher education research is proposed which incorporates four interconnected elements: changing social contexts; their implications for higher education; mechanisms of interaction between higher education and society; higher education’s impact on society. The role of comparative research in investigating these topics is discussed and a set of priorities for future research questions is proposed. This final article draws heavily on the HELF final report published by the European Science Foundation entitled Higher Education Looking Forward: an agenda for future research and written by the author together with Jurgen Enders, Christine Musselin, Ulrich Teichler and Jussi Valimaa. The author acknowledges the contributions of his co-authors of the HELF report to the ideas and words contained in the present article.     

Leadership for social change

We have long viewed leadership as a solitary activity, the province of the individual. Now Helen Astin and a working ensemble of student affairs faculty and practitioners have created a new model of leadership for social change—one that celebrates both individuality and collaboration.     

构建和谐社会与中国社会阶层结构的变迁

现代和谐社会结构的根本特征在于各利益群体自觉维持的利益均衡格局以及中间阶层的兴起.中国社会阶层结构变迁表现出明显的路径依赖和封闭性特征,其根本原因在于各阶层占有的社会资本的不同导致了获取资源的机会的不平等.创新体制,弱化社会资本的作用,建立交易成本更低的市场经济体制,在利益群体的博弈过程中形成利益均衡格局和利益协调机制,促进阶层流动,是构建和谐社会的一个重要方面.     

Education for social change and pragmatist theory: five features of educative environments designed for social change

This paper establishes the basis for a pragmatist-inspired theory of human action to predominant ideas about knowledge, learning and education. As a necessary prelude to an examination of pragmatist theory’s position on human action and its specific focus on habits and creativity, pragmatism is defined and then related to inquiry. Next, the fields of adult education and social movement learning are explored for their continued resonance with the main educational tenets of pragmatism. Following this, a separate section on habits and creativity is offered to highlight a key relationship for the design of educative environments. Knowledge is addressed in a section that explains it as a carrier of routine and a bridge in the individual-collective nexus. The paper ends with five features of an educative environment designed for social change, each of which is identified in relation to the tenets of pragmatist theory.     

Possibility thinking and social change in primary schools

This paper reviews the nature of possibility thinking (PT) (transformation from what is to what might be, in everyday contexts for children and teachers) and reports on how PT manifested in two English primary schools engaged in social change. It identifies shared characteristics across the schools as well as unique ways in which PT manifested. With a focus on uniquely positioned professional wisdom, each school was engaged in change which rejected some assumptions while integrating new ideas relevant to their community, leading to quiet revolutions. Implications for primary schools that generate their own practices and narratives regarding educational futures are discussed.     

刍议变化中的社会阅读与图书馆

社会阅读正处于转变之中,本文对如何顺应新时期读者的阅读需求以及如何推动社会阅读,提出行之有效的对策。     

Subjectivity,social change and the reform problematic

The theme of ‘new directions for research in relation to social justice and teacher education’ raises questions about not only the broad economic and cultural shifts which now frame education (what types of exclusions and unfairnesses are being created?), and not only about the changing construction of inequalities in education in the reshaped education institutions (what is social justice?). It also raises the very difficult issue of how older research and reform agendas meet, or fail to meet, the subjectivity of students today; and the problem of how adequately the (human) subject, subject formation and the historical specificity of human subjects is now considered in the reform agendas. This paper will illustrate some of these questions by drawing on a seven-year longitudinal, qualitative study, now nearing completion, of students going through school. It will argue for the continued utility of this form of more traditional academic research, in addition to the types of action-directed and ‘partnership’ research that are commonly seen as the task of ‘teacher education’ now. From this study of the current generation of students at school, the paper will point to some continuities and some shifts regarding how winners and losers are being created through schooling today. It will also revisit the old issue for researchers and reformers in education, about who is speaking to whom and with what effects.     

The Responsible Anarchist: Postmodernism and social change

In recent years, the adoption of postmodern theoretical perspectives within educational research has prompted strong critical reaction. For some critics (particularly Marxist researchers), the greatest fault of postmodernism is that it lacks an agenda for social change. This paper takes issue with this argument, and with four associated arguments: (1) that postmodernism disempowers those to whom it claims to give voice; (2) that it appeals only to intellectuals and has no practical value; (3) that it denies the possibility of the construction of a new social order; and (4) that it colludes with the status quo in its refusal to act. Addressing each of these points in turn, the author suggests that, contrary to the view of these critics, postmodernism offers a powerful force for social change, through the acceptance of uncertainty, the acknowledgement of diversity and the refusal to see concepts such as 'justice' or 'society' as fixed, or as governed by unassailable 'truths'.     

Chaos and cosmos: Educational discourse and social change

School textbooks are assumed to be important socializers. However, because of the complexity and methodological stumbling blocks involved in the subject matter, the impact of specific textbooks and the interaction between pupils and textbooks have seldom been studied. I discuss the methodological problems in explorations of the role of school textbooks as agents of socialization, and suggest methods for exploring and understanding the dynamic interaction between textbooks and their readers.     

Tools of inaction: the impasse between teaching social issues and creating social change

Within the field of teacher education, increased emphasis has been placed on social justice education (SJE). This qualitative study examined a group of beginning teachers who voluntarily participated in a social justice critical inquiry project (CIP). The findings indicate that while many of them were successful at teaching social issues, they provided few to no opportunities for their students to engage in social action and they themselves did not participate in activism. To explain this, the participants used the following four tools of inaction: tools of substitution, postponement, displacement, and dismissal. These tools relieved the tension of not taking action and allowed the participants to postpone, justify, or redirect the responsibility of becoming active in struggling for sustainable social change. Understanding the use of these tools can help teacher educators to understand the process of development of social justice educators.     

Education and social selection in ancient China: semantics,conceptual transformation and social change

This paper investigates the transformation in the Zhou dynasty China (1046–256 BC) of the concept of education in relation to the process of social selection, which concerns the distribution both of knowledge and of social ranks. An approach in terms of historical semantics, mainly influenced by Luhmannian sociological theory with some reference to Koselleck, will place the focus on social change and the changing meaning of concepts. The analysed sources include archaeological evidence and passages from traditional classics. The paper will show how the semantics of education were closely tied to the changing principles of social selection and the changing Chinese cultural concept of Tian (Heaven).