Practical reason and positioning

This paper argues that an emerging framework for studying social episodes known as ‘positioning theory’ is a rich tool for practical reasoning. After giving an outline of the Aristotelian conception of practical reason, recently developed by Alasdair MacIntyre, it is argued that positioning theory should be seen not as a detached, scientific theory, but rather as an important resource for learning to think and act in relation to practical and moral matters. I try to demonstrate a number of significant points of resemblance between MacIntyre's analysis of practical reason and Rom Harré's positioning theory. Following a pragmatist view of social theories, I suggest that positioning theory can be seen as explicating an understanding of social episodes that we need to acquire in order to learn to act as capable practical reasoners, but which quite often is left implicit in our everyday lives. Finally, I consider how positioning theory could be used to train the capacity for practical reasoning in moral education.     

高校应用写作教学现状原因分析与对策思考

主要从教材问题、教师问题以及教学手段、方法问题入手对导致学生学习兴趣不高,应用写作教学效果不佳的主要原因进行分析,并提出相应的对策,应用写作教学应从引入网络资源,开发适用教材、聘请兼职教师,打造专业教师队伍、引入多媒体教学手段,灵活运用多种教学方法等方面入手,把应用写作教学工作落到实处。     

Reconciliation through dialogical nostalgia in post-conflict societies: a curriculum to intersect

The curriculum has been proposed as a powerful means with the potential to initiate social transformation. It reflects the dominant social, economical and political discourses and for this reason it seems reasonable to situate reconciliatory discourses in relation to the curriculum. Whilst curriculum scholars mostly agree that we need to seek new directions and ways of understanding curriculum, there is little consensus about the direction the field should take. Two particular issues that this article addresses are the tendency of curriculum practitioners to tackle social issues at a symptomatic level instead of considering the roots of the problems, and the over-emphasis on the political dimension with little or no attention given to the ethical dimensions of the curriculum. In an attempt to develop new ways of understanding curriculum and enabling social change, I explore nostalgia as a way to stimulate dialogue over competing narratives. To facilitate this exploration, I draw on the notion of the ethical turn in the study of curriculum and the theory of intersectionality. Examples from South Africa are used to develop the argument. I conclude by situating the discussion in the context of other post-conflict societies where reconciliation is needed.     

Go your own way: lifelong learning and reflexive autobiographies in postmodernity

This article provides an autobiographical account of two adult educators engaged in what may be seen as an identity crisis for contemporary adult education. Through our autobiographical analysis, we address the question of what it means to be an adult educator or to practice adult education in circumstances where dedifferentiation has taken hold under the sign of lifelong learning. First, we outline the challenges that are taking place to many of the practices and institutional structures of adult education. At the heart of these, we argue that there is an intensification of reflexivity wherein the identity crisis with which we are working is both a condition for and a response to increasing individualization and reflexivity. Second, we illustrate the link between reflexivity and identity by drawing on our own autobiographies. Here we exemplify the processes we argue to be operating under the sign of lifelong learning through the exploration of our own autobiographical bricolages. Third, we explore the cultural conditions which give rise to the similarities and differences in these bricolages, in particular the rise of the new middle classes, the increased significance of popular culture and the development of postmodern positions.     

Freire and dialogical pedagogy: a means for interrogating opportunities and challenges in Australian postgraduate supervision

Discussions between new postgraduate students and potential supervisors prior to the formalisation of supervisor–student partnerships serve several useful purposes. One purpose is to explore the expectations that each partner has of the other and of themselves and the anticipated nature of the partnership. This article employs Freire’s perspective on dialogical pedagogy as a framework to identify and interrogate opportunities and challenges in postgraduate supervision. Theorising and clarifying the postgraduate supervisory process in these terms at the outset of candidature and at strategic points along the way can save time and effort that might otherwise be devoted to misunderstandings and less than optimum progress. It also has implications for lifelong education for both supervisors and students that can be realised beyond the period of candidature and the substantive and methodological gains normally associated with successful completion of a thesis.     

Moral development,transformative learning,and the dialogical self

Attempts to find positive new directions for moral education now face a number of well‐recognized challenges, including those relating to the rise of commodification and the virtualization of experience. It is argued that there is now a need for innovative approaches that move beyond the traditional frameworks of critical thinking and ethical reasoning, and that encourage the development of moral dispositions and personal conscience. One crucial limitation of traditional approaches lies in their reliance on a monological interpretation of self‐reflection that emphasizes objective impressions of the self. It is proposed that only a dialogical model of self‐reflection that recognizes the presence of competing self‐impressions is fully consistent with the kinds of authentic self‐reflection and critical questioning that are required for the develc pment of moral conscience. The emerging dialogical model of the self is also compatible with an approach to moral conduct grounded in the idea of an ‘ethics without ethics’ in which dispositions to act for the good of the community become the focal goals. It is argued that the dialogical model of the self supports a dynamic view of selfhood and identity through which the subject is encouraged to recognize its own complexity and vulnerability, rather than external principles, as the basis for moral responsibility and action. In practical terms, the dialogical model supports the idea of engaging students in activities in which they are encouraged to monitor their own thoughts, feelings, and actions, rather than in activities which perpetuate objective, monological modes of self‐thematization.     

An exploration for a critical practicum pedagogy: dialogical relationships and reflections among a group of student teachers

Student teachers’ potential to change and reflect on their activities can be positively influenced by the opportunities created in teacher education programs. This paper explores an educative opportunity with the researcher and his practicum advisees by facilitating a continuum of reflective school‐based activities through a dialogical relationship. The opportunities were sought through the researcher’s personal action research project during a practicum assignment at Haramaya University, Ethiopia, in the 2005/06 academic year. The action research was an exploratory practicum pedagogy in which the researcher, as a teacher educator practitioner, and eight student teachers as pedagogical and research participants, seized opportunities of collaboration and dialogical relationships. In the process, the participants examined pedagogical issues which emerged out of continuous and intimate discussions. Furthermore, the process affirmed the possibility of engaging educatively in contexts where resources are inadequately provided.     

Reconceptualising engineering education: Creating spaces for outcomes and dialogical agape

Most of the current theoretical perspectives espousedby many South African engineering educators arecommensurate with some radical internationaldevelopments in the engineering realm. Thesedevelopments are aimed at getting students to think,or go beyond the information given with theintegrative skill of bringing knowledge, skills,understanding and experience together in problemsolving activities and environment, which providesstudents with the best kind of preparation forlifelong independent learning. The rationale of thispaper is determined by an understanding thatengineering education at most higher educationinstitutions in South Africa is dominated by theacquisition of content, that is, ``knowing-that'.Limited epistemological and pragmatic space are beingallowed for students to engage critically withengineering knowledge, as well as to apply suchknowledge skillfully. This idea of engineering education isincommensurate with a general principle that ought toshape any form of education whereby students ought toengage not to do ``this or that', but to learn how tothink, understand and imagine themselves.In the first part of the paper a critical reflectionon the literature aims to establish connectionsbetween an understanding of engineering education andpatterns of meaning which make the concept what it is.Secondly, it is argued that an eclectic approach toengineering education is necessary in order that bothfacts (``knowing-that') and skills (``knowing-how')acquisition and application become the rationale whichwould enhance and expand engineering teaching andlearning beyond its present reduction to factual,technical content. Finally, it is shown that an eclecticapproach to engineering education has its limitationsand needs to be supplemented by the notion ofdialogical agape (love) which allows space fortransformatory learning, respect for persons and``imaginative reconstructions' of learning that canmove beyond the boundaries of socially negotiatedoutcomes.     

Critical thinking, education, and postmodernity: Possibilities and limitations for moral education

The contemporary educational discourse on critical thinking, as one of the primary aims of education. has been divided into the spheres of modernist defense and post-modernist criticism. Critical of both positions, this paper attempts to find a new way of employing critical thinking, especially for the purposes of moral education, by drawing on Bernard William’s concept of “ethical reflection.” It will be shown that employing critical thinking for the fostering of ethical reflection in our young students can lead them into an “understanding” of ethical, rather than “ethical knowledge,” which enables them to properly deal with moral relativism in a culturally pluralistic society. This paper then explores the educational possibilities presented by Socrates’ teaching method as an example of this employment, though not without consideration of the attendant educational limitations and dangers.     

Revisiting the Analects for a modern reading of the Confucian dialogical spirit in education

Abstract

This study investigates the educational thought of Confucius with focus on the educational relationship in the Analects, which is a historical text that defines the foundations of Confucianism. The first part of the investigation examines Confucius’ concept of the educational relationship and how it is characterized with a dialogical spirit, which consists of worldly and secular human-orientedness, co-existentiality as a fundamental principle for educational practice, and dialogue to become an ideal ruler through self-discipline. The second stage of this study further examines the spirit of dialogue in the Analects with consideration of its historical–cultural context. Through this process, the study unravels the historical and cultural limitations of original Confucian educational thought for modern society and proposes a possible way to reengage Confucius’ educational value in today’s modern educational context.     

高血压脑出血术后再出血原因分析及护理

目的:对高血压脑出血术后再出血的原因进行分析寻找规律以提高护理质量;方法:回顾性分析12例再出血病例并参考有关文献,提出护理的重点;结果:术后血压的波动、颅内压急剧改变是再出血的主要原因,加强对病人血压护理,可避免再出血的发生。     

CHE Principles: facilitating authentic and dialogical semi-structured interviews in educational research

This paper examines the values of the CHE principles of Connectivity, Humanness and Empathy as a guiding framework for maximizing the ethical and methodological advantages of semi-structured interview research practices. The authors draw from two separate educational studies and apply the CHE principles to analyse and evaluate the effectiveness of decision-making in facilitating sustainable relationships with the participants in each study. Findings highlight that dialogical relations with participants were evident in both studies, and identify significant junctures where decision-making and actions influenced effective rapport-building and respectful and reciprocal relationships with participants in the research. The CHE principles emerge as providing a robust framework for educational researchers to employ when auditing their decision-making prior to and during their engagement in qualitative interviews.     

刑事附带民讼判后调解原因初探

刑事附带民事诉讼的判后调解现象时有发生,看似并不违法,却实际涉嫌违背一系列基本诉讼价值理念问题。这一现象存在深刻的文化意识形态根源,既有相对善意的发生原因,即民间"惩恶扬善"的传统正义观、朴素因果报应论以及百姓对刑事政策的非恶意误读,也存在相对恶意的滋生原因,即部分诉讼主体抓住法律漏洞,采取暗中欺诈方式,追求最大诉讼利益的狭隘目的。刑事附带民诉判后调解实质违背程序正义理念,而并不值得我们提倡,我国应逐步完善相关制度,遏止这一带有诉讼欺诈性质的行为继续产生负面影响。     

Argumentation as/in/for dialogical relation: a case study from elementary school science

Argumentation as a form of introducing children to science has received increasing attention over the past decade. Argumentation tends to be studied and theorized through the lens of individual speakers, who contribute to a conversation by means of opposing statements. M.M. Bakhtin and L.S. Vygotsky independently proposed a very different approach by suggesting that dialogical relations inherently and irreducibly embody argumentation. From this position, dialogical relations allow children to individualize argumentation. In this study, we show how the dialogical framework provides a very different, collective perspective on children’s argumentation in problem-solving processes in elementary science classrooms.