People,process, and paradox: qualitative research as journey 1

Qualitative researchers have made some provocative assertions about ethnography: [a] in research on dynamic processes, questions change, and therefore research tools change; [b] in ethnography, the researcher is the instrument; and [c] ethographic research is characterized by researcher “self‐doubt.” This article reflects on the nature of ethnographic research in light of experiences I gained while investigating the role of literacy in the lives of Hmong refugees in Philadelphia. By discussing three people that I came to know, I explore each of the assertions and examine my own shifts in perspective during the research process. Finally, I reflect on the idea of self‐doubt and suggest that it may characterize not only the research process but also the lasting consequences of inquiry. The paper illustrates the paradox that the dangers and discomforts contribute to the power of the ethnographic enterprise.

     

逻辑悖论、高阶认知与逻辑行动主义方法论--张建军教授学术访谈录

张建军教授的学术研究呈现“整体推进”的特征,明确指认逻辑悖论之语用学性质,构成其研究过程中一个重要的转折点,推动了逻辑悖论研究的语用学转向,促进了长期处于薄弱环节的关于悖论的一般方法论研究之深入展开,加深了对位于“高阶认知”致思层面的逻辑悖论研究之认识。在逻辑悖论与其他逻辑哲学难题长期探索的基础上,张建军教授近期致力于系统建构辅之以“情境实在论”和“悖境辩证法”的“逻辑行动主义方法论”,并已初步呈现其多方面解题功能。     

论美的客观性——兼与曾簇林、潘必新教授商榷

美的客观性问题,也是一种思维方式的问题。我们的研究如果仅仅局限在“客观论”、“主观论”、“主客观统一论”等对象性研究上,是不可能真正解决美的客观性问题的。只有在马克思主义唯物辩证法“客观性原则”的指导下;在诸如“老庄哲学”、“佛掸哲学”以及西方现代主义哲学各流派所隐含的各种不同的思维方式、追问方式的辅助下,方能得到逐步“澄明”。所谓“美的规律”或者美的客观性,若从对象客体方面来讲,那就是指对象客体所“固有”的审美属性在恰当的审美关系、审美实践中“呈现”出来。若从主体方面来看,那就是指主体所“固有”的审美的“本质力量”在恰当的审美关系、审美实践中被“呈现”出来。     

Can we escape the program? Inventing possible∼impossible futures in/for Australian educational research

This essay brings together two lines of inquiry. Firstly, I revisit research on futures in education conducted during the 1980s and re-examine some of the propositions and principles that this research generated about “the future” as an object of inquiry in education. Secondly, I argue that the language of complexity invites us to rethink education in terms of emergence, and potentially destabilises the instrumentalist rationality that “programs” educational systems to privilege orderly and predictable processes culminating in stable output, a potentiality that may be undermined by a pervasive politics of complexity reduction. I conclude by drawing upon these two lines of inquiry to outline some strategies that might resist complexity reduction and catalyse emergence in Australian educational research as preconditions for inventing possible～impossible futures.     

新时代何以育智：作为一种方法的“学习对质”

“对质”一词来源于法学学科,但巧妙地回答了教育科学中对学生“要我学”至“我要学”转变后关于“我该如何学”的持续追问。“学习对质”是深化学生思考的重要方法,能够达成学生以思考为核心目的之学习,可回应新时代育智问题,助力新时代学生学习。通过系统阐述“学习对质”的概念、内容、形式和结果,可进一步厘清“学习对质”的独特内涵。而梳理当前学习理论和实践变革发展需要,可肯定“学习对质”作为学习方法存在的意义。此外,要实现“学习对质”,应发挥教师“学习对质”的引导作用和发展学生的“学习对质”精神、能力,使学生在教师的引导下更好地掌握学习方法,有效开展“学习对质”,“解构”并“重构”广义知识,积极扩展思维界限,不断提升终身学习能力,不断实现自我发展、自我成就、自我超越。     

Silence as borderland: a semiotic approach to the “silent” pupil in nineteenth-century vocal education

Abstract

At the heart of the nineteenth-century educational soundscape lies a paradox. Whilst “modern” classrooms generally strived for orderly silence, the goal of its educational practices was the production of competent “citizens”. Middle-class boys in particular were expected to acquire a voice fit for business, the professions, or even (political) public speech whilst quietly listening to a teacher. This silence within the educational institution has generally been understood as an element of discipline. In this paper I want to examine the paradox of the silent classroom and the speaking citizen. I will focus specifically on those instances where the clear goal of education was vocal sound (i.e. fluent speech, civilised pronunciation, and song) and look at how silence was mobilised by educators. I will argue that the silences employed in these educational practices were not (only) tools of order and discipline, but rather means to create a “borderland” where the leap between childhood and its uncivilised noises, and adulthood and its rational speech, could be made.

I will draw upon the interpretations of silence as “in between” signs as it has been developed by semioticians to analyse a corpus of sources consisting mainly of French, German, and English pedagogical literature focusing on the development of children’s voices. Reframing the place of silence in “institutionalised” education allows us to delve deeper into the specific ways in which “discipline” (re)produced and articulated dichotomies of power.     

“三要素”：逻辑悖论研究的历史性界标--张建军教授逻辑悖论研究思想探赜

张建军教授析出的逻辑悖论“三要素”,即“公认正确的背景知识”“严密无误的逻辑推导”和“可以建立矛盾等价式”,为澄清逻辑悖论的本质认识及其基本结构奠定了基础。“三要素”内在地包含了分析逻辑悖论的基本方法,解决逻辑悖论的基本路向,以及解决逻辑悖论的一般评准,为充分发挥逻辑悖论研究的方法论功能与认识论价值奠定了基础。“三要素”在逻辑悖论研究的历程中具有历史性界标意义。     

A Race to the Top From the Bottom of the Well? The Paradox of Race and U.S. Education Reform

Abstract

This article explores the paradox of “race” and U.S. education reform in the 21st century. I consider how the invisible ontology of race and its entangled relationship with class divert our attention from economic inequality and undermine policies intended to redress racial inequality in schools. I conclude that the education research community must unpack its use of “race” and focus on the role of racism in the maintenance of racial caste in America's schools.     

A critique of neo-Hahnian outdoor education theory. Part two: “The fundamental attribution error” in contemporary outdoor education discourse

Abstract

In the first of a two part series of articles I argued that “character building” in outdoor adventure education (OAE) is a flawed concept. This, the second article, examines the persistence of the idea of character building in OAE in the face of strong evidence that outdoor experiences cannot change personal traits. I examine how the “fundamental attribution error” can explain the paradox of (a) a shortage of evidence that adventure education “works” and (b) a widespread belief that it does “work”. I review the place of character building in research, and develop a critical reading of a representative adventure education text. I show how unchallenged dispositionist assumptions emerge in neo-Hahnian discourse. I explain how discarding the intuitively appealing but fallacious foundations of neo-Hahnism can clear the way for situationist approaches to outdoor education that bring much needed sensitivity to cultural, regional, historical, and social contexts.     

Gender differences in national assessment of educational progress science items: What does “i don't know” really mean?

The National Assessment of Educational Progress Science Assessment has consistently revealed small gender differences on science content items but not on science inquiry items. This assessment differs from others in that respondents can choose “I don't know” rather than guessing. This paper examines explanations for the gender differences including (a) differential prior instruction, (b) differential response to uncertainty and use of the “I don't know” response, (c) differential response to figurally presented items, and (d) different attitudes towards science. Of these possible explanations, the first two received support. Females are more likely to use the “I don't know” response, especially for items with physical science content or masculine themes such as football. To ameliorate this situation we need more effective science instruction and more gender-neutral assessment items.     

Criteria of excellence for geological inquiry: The necessity of ambiguity

According to Gowin, a curriculum properly derives its authority by representing the “criteria of excellence” for evaluating the claims produced within a field of inquiry. GowinÕs epistemology applied to examples from geological inquiry yields criteria of excellence responsive to the demands characteristic of geological problems. Student efforts to learn these criteria hold the promise of making progress toward independence in accessing, using, and evaluating knowledge. This understanding contributes to the reformation of the concept of inquiry as a “step beyond science as process” called for in the National Science Education Standards and reinforces the need to consider the diversity as well as unity of styles of scientific reasoning. Geological inquiries differ from those of other sciences because they refer to objects with histories. These histories create a demand for concepts that necessarily contain an irreducible element of ambiguity, thus permitting comparison and contrast of geological objects. A case study of how geologists apply analogies, impose boundaries on categories of thought, and constrain the ambiguity of key concepts in reasoning about the accumulation of sediments at a continental margin is used to support this argument. Such examples of geological reasoning support a skeptical attitude toward interdisciplinary curricula that omit or oversimplify criteria of excellence. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 35: 189–212, 1998.     

生活视域下的物理科学探究活动设计策略

科学探究是物理学科重要的核心素养之一,探究活动兼具知识教学与能力教学功能。目前,物理教学中的探究活动存在“伪探究”与“试卷型知识理解”等现实问题。据此提出探究活动设计策略:在生活视域下创设问题情境,以知识为目标、生活为问题载体,打破知识与生活间的界限,将知识与生活相联系构建情境性问题;丰富证据来源,提供多样实验工具,激发多种探究方案;提供多种形式的学习“脚手架”,激发学生自主性知识建构,促进探究活动结论的解释与交流;以问题为核心,问题、证据、解释与交流四者联动,相互支撑与反馈。     

The development of dynamic inquiry performances within an open inquiry setting: A comparison to guided inquiry setting

Dynamic inquiry learning emphasizes aspects of change, intellectual flexibility, and critical thinking. Dynamic inquiry learning is characterized by the following criteria: learning as a process, changes during the inquiry, procedural understanding, and affective points of view. This study compared the influence of open versus guided inquiry learning approaches on dynamic inquiry performances among high‐school biology students. We hypothesized that open inquiry students who engage in the inquiry process from its initial stage, participating in the decision making process of asking inquiry questions and planning all aspects of the inquiry, will outperform students who experienced guided inquiry, in terms of developing dynamic inquiry performances. Students were divided into two groups: guided and open inquiry learning approaches. Both groups were followed throughout their 2‐year inquiry learning process. The data sources included interviews, students' inquiry summary papers, logbooks, and reflections. A quantitative content analysis of the two groups, using a dynamic inquiry performances index, revealed that open inquiry students used significantly higher levels of performances in the criteria “changes during inquiry” and “procedural understanding.” However, the study's results indicated no significant differences in the criteria “learning as a process” and “affective points of view.” The implementation of dynamic inquiry performances during inquiry learning may shed light on the procedural and epistemological scientific understanding of students conducting inquiries. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 46: 1137–1160, 2009     

Nothing Human

In this essay C. C. Wharram argues that Terence's concept of translation as a form of “contamination” anticipates recent developments in philosophy, ecology, and translation studies. Placing these divergent fields of inquiry into dialogue enables us read Terence's well‐known statement “I am a human being — I deem nothing human alien to me” as a recognition of the significance of the “nothing human” for contemporary humanism. By recasting Terence's human/foreign pairing through Freud's concept of the uncanny, Wharram draws a parallel between a “nothing human” that is radically interior to the human subject and an exterior agency of “nothing human” described by actor‐network theory and object‐oriented ontology. Only through an “alien phenomenology” (a concept borrowed from Ian Bogost) dependent on metaphors and translations that are necessarily approximate (or “contaminated”) can we begin to approach this “nothing human.”     

Jewish Creative Sensibilities: Framing a New Aspiration for Jewish Education

ABSTRACT

Proponents of building a “creative society” through educational innovation are calling for engaging learners in new modes of collaboration, problem solving, and original thinking. How might the enterprise of Jewish education contribute to this evolution in creative thinking and action? This article explores how “the Jewish sensibilities” can be adapted into a framework infusing Jewish “ways of seeing and being” into a vision of “Jewish education for a creative society.” The proposed conceptual framework aims to spark conversation, experimentation, research, and inquiry within the broader discourse of rethinking the aims of Jewish education for the future.     

“We Are Not Free”: The Meaning of <Freedom> in American Indian Resistance to President Johnson's War on Poverty

This essay examines how the ideograph <freedom> was crafted through dialectical struggles between Euro-Americans and American Indians over federal Indian policy between 1964 and 1968. For policymakers, <freedom> was historically sutured to the belief that assimilation was the only pathway to American Indian liberation. I explore the American Indian youth movement's response to President Johnson's War on Poverty to demonstrate how activists rhetorically realigned <freedom> in Indian policy with the Great Society's rhetoric of “community empowerment.” I illustrate how American Indians orchestrated counterhegemonic resistance by reframing the “Great Society” as an argument for a “Greater Indian American.” This analysis evinces the rhetorical significance of ideographic transformation in affecting policy change.     

A Sticky Business? Exploring the “and” in Teaching and Learning

This article takes as its focus the “and” in discourses of teaching and learning. Drawing upon the work of Deleuze and Guattari, I argue that the “and” signifies a complex, sticky relationship between teaching and learning, and that we can radicalise our conception of “and” to bring forward a range of different discourses. The argument suggests that those critiques of discourses of teaching and learning which argue for an alternative discourse of pedagogy can be supplemented by the radicalising of the “and”. I am therefore proposing the possibility for different forms of immanent and transcendental critique in relation to contemporary debates about teaching and learning. And that there is significance in the apparently insignificant?…

In real life people fumble their words and stare blankly off into space and don't listen properly to what people say. I find that kind of speech fascinating but it seems writers never write dialogue like that because it doesn't look good on the page. (Christopher Guest, Theatre Director)     

Inquiry identity and science teacher professional development

An effective inquiry-oriented science teacher possesses more than the skills of teaching through investigation. They must address philosophies, and ways of interacting as a member of a group of educators who value and practice science through inquiry. Professional development opportunities can support inquiry identity development, but most often they address teaching practices from limited cognitive perspectives, leaving unexplored the shifts in identity that may accompany teachers along their journey in becoming skilled in inquiry-oriented instruction. In this forum article, we envision Victoria Deneroff’s argument that “professional development could be designed to facilitate reflexive transformation of identity within professional learning environments” (2013, p. 33). Instructional coaching, cogenerative dialogues, and online professional communities are discussed as ways to promote inquiry identity formation and collaboration in ways that empower and deepen science teachers’ conversations related to personal and professional efficacy in the service of improved science teaching and learning.     

Forming shared inquiry structures to support knowledge building in a grade 5 community

This study explores the reflective processes by which a grade 5 science community co-constructed shared inquiry structures to focus and guide its inquiry about human body systems over a school year supported by a collaborative online environment. The co-constructed structures included a list of collective wondering areas as the shared focus of inquiry and models of the inquiry process in the form of “research cycle.” Qualitative analyses of field notes, classroom videos, student notebooks and interviews elaborate the evolution of the inquiry areas and the “research cycle” model as well as students’ adaptive use of the structures to guide deeper inquiry. Content analyses of students’ individual research questions and collaborative online discourse indicate that students used the structures to develop more advanced inquiry and make productive contributions. The results contribute to elaborating a reflective structuration approach to co-organizing and sustaining long-term, open-ended inquiry in knowledge building communities.     

Disinterested,disengaged, useless: Conservative or progressive idea of the university?

There is evidence aplenty of academics' increasing incorporation into the life and fate of their university's brand, just as it is clear that university structures and incentives generally are dependent upon increasingly competitive resource capture under tightened managerial ideologies of institutional commitment (albeit by way of innumerable “consultation” and “responsibilisation” mechanisms). In that context, it becomes important to re‐think and re‐imagine the very “idea of the university”, especially now that images and imperatives around the Engaged University are a) omnipresent and b) convene a whole range of entirely disparate activities, governed by very different intellectual rationales. While hardly wishing to be “against” university involvement in the “wider world”, this article critically questions the new metaphysic of Engagement, and the discursive framings and traps that sustain it. In an age when perhaps only paradox and counter‐intuitive gesturing seem to work as prompts towards thinking otherwise, I make the case that some “traditionalist” ideas of higher education can be part of a reasserted “progressivist” social ethics.