Counselling, Culture and Conformity: Some Implications for the Education of Counsellors and Others Involved in Pastoral Care

This paper seeks to explore some of the implications that recent critiques of therapeutic language have for counselling and Pastoral Care. Are we in the midst of a creation of a more caring and emotionally intelligent society or in danger of losing individual autonomy and political power by the inadvertent construction of a 'fragile self'? Does this apparent valorization of the emotional become an emotionalism that destroys autonomy and undermines our power to think and act rationally? What are the implications of the increased acceptance of the need for emotional expression: does this in turn become new conformity where the private space of the individual is policed by counsellors in the name of the state? This paper supports the observations that the new cultural trend towards giving primacy to emotional expression can have deleterious political and social effects but seeks to distinguish counselling and psychotherapy from the 'therapism' of popular culture.     

Hannah Arendt and the ‘freedom’ to think

ABSTRACT

Dissatisfied with the Western tradition of political philosophy, Arendt maintained a tension between the political, which she associates primarily with the freedom to act, and the philosophical, which she associates principally with the activity of thinking, throughout her works. Whilst Arendt's work is underpinned by a focus on political action, her work on the thinking/non-thinking dichotomy is of significant educational value. Taking a broadly phenomenological approach, and reading Arendt through an educational lens, this paper seeks to demonstrate how the thinking/non-thinking dichotomy and the perils of ‘non-thinking’ reveal the wider dangers of instrumentalism and the performative models of education that accompanies it. It is suggested here that Arendt's work exposes ‘non-thinking’ as a form of instrumental thinking, which is not only a threat to the development of the capacity for critical thought but also to the development autonomy and the capacity for moral judgement.     

Calling for change: A feminist approach to women in art,politics, philosophy and education

Abstract

Michel Foucault showed by his genealogical method that history is random. It comprises sites of disarray and dispersal. In those sites, Simone de Beauvoir wrote philosophy through lived experience of woman as Other in relation to man as the Absolute. Here lies a fecund site for revisionist analysis of female cultural production and its relevance to a philosophy of education. The paper works with a feminist approach to the politics of knowledge, examining textual and political strategies in the recording of history and the ‘othering’ of women through dominant cultural discourses. Infusing this discussion is a feminist politics of interrogation on cultural change for women. The paper investigates contributions of women to fields of art, politics, education and philosophy, and to the ways their contributions have been considered, received, positioned. Different approaches to feminism become apparent in the different conditions of knowledge under discussion. This leads to a final consideration of feminist challenges in context of the politics of neoliberalism as it seeks to identify a feminist potential for ‘a cleansing fire’. The interventions in this paper trace political strategies and challenges for a philosophy of education to keep the momentum of feminist histories and issues to the forefront of scholarly enquiry and political/social action.     

Peace Process Pedagogy: lessons from the no-vote victory in the Colombian peace referendum

ABSTRACT

Is there a need for a new field within Peace Education that looks at the complex dynamics of transitional societies in the post-truth era? What formal and informal pedagogical strategies might be best suited for transforming ‘emotional anti-peace mindsets’? Drawing on practical examples from the complex political contingencies in Colombia, this article positions the concept of Peace Process Pedagogy within discussions in Critical Peace Education and Critical Contemplative Pedagogy. It encourages critical pedagogues to develop strategies to dismantle misinformation about peace policies, to engage in open conversations about emotions, and to work with embodied action.     

Swedish universities towards self‐regulation: A new look at institutional autonomy

Abstract

Swedish universities are required to change towards more effective self‐regulation as the government has recently reduced state steering and devolved further responsibilities to them. In this paper, ‘self‐regulation’ is related to the concept of ‘autonomy’, a concept which is analysed on the two dimensions of ‘purpose’ and ‘authority’, resulting in four models of state governance and consequently in a different ‘space of action’ for the institutions. However, in order to develop self‐regulation, the space granted must also be used effectively to realise autonomy. Six Swedish higher education institutions are analysed concerning how they have used their new space of action and what restrictions they have met in their efforts for self‐regulation.     

Books also received

Abstract:

The moral and political implications of new forms of organisation and resource allocation in education are explored. Markets, even when heavily regulated and administered, induce effects contrary to the values of individual and social freedom upon which public education is understood to be founded. Their ‘efficiency’ as allocative and distributive mechanisms is questioned and examined specifically in relation to the formative and constitutive role of community life in conferring identity and autonomy upon individuals. Competition, it is claimed, leads to stratification of opportunities and outcomes. Putative efficiency gains may be outweighed by equity losses.     

Students and society in the 2020s. Three future ‘histories’ of education and technology

ABSTRACT

As social science fiction, this paper imagines three possible futures for education and technology. Among the most important technologies emerging today are data-aggregating technologies such as AI, affective computing, adaptive or predictive software, clouds and platforms. The paper is not, however, directed at specific technologies, but at indeterminate sociotechnical configurations. Set in 2040, it offers three ‘histories’ of the 2020s. Might students become (i) ‘smooth users’, improving themselves in the pursuit of frictionless efficiency within a post-democratic frame created by large corporations, (ii) ‘digital nomads’, seeking freedom, individualism and aesthetic joy as solopreneurs exploiting state regulations and algorithmic rules while stepping out of the state and deeply into the capitalist new economy, or (iii) participatory, democratic, ecological humans embedded in ‘collective agency’ that see institutions as spaces for exploring more equitable ways of living? The paper reflects on the future research and the political, educational and technological decisions which would make each of these three fictional future histories more or less likely.     

The appropriation of ‘enlightenment’ in modern Korea and Japan: Competing ideas of the enlightenment and the loss of the individual subject

Abstract

In recent decades in Korea, many significant changes in political, social and cultural dimensions have been held by the citizen’s initiative, where the revitalization of citizenship and strong civic unity have played a role. Yet, in regard to the characteristic of Korean citizenship, it seems that the aspect of individual subject has not been fully matured or issued; that is, there is a dissymmetry between the strong civic unity and a weak individual subject. This paper attempts to explore a possible historical account of why this has been the case by examining the historical development of the concept of enlightenment in modern Korea and Japan. ‘Enlightenment’, as a modern concept in Korea, was imported via Japan in the period from the late nineteenth century to the early twentieth century as in many other new concepts such as ‘democracy’ or ‘nation’. However, by comparison to the Western idea of the Enlightenment, its modern concept, Korean or Japanese, developed a different meaning in each own context, while lacking its original meaning essential to the creation of the ‘modern individual subject’ as a ‘citizen’. Hence, in modern Korea and Japan, the word ‘enlightenment’ is regarded as a historical concept with no contemporary relevance.     

PROBLEMATISING ‘STUDENT CHOICE’ IN CLASSROOMS

ABSTRACT

In recent decades children’s rights to exercise choice in educational settings have slowly gained currency. Children’s rights advocates highlight the role of choice in empowering children to become critical and productive citizens. However, in this paper, the role of choice in interactions between teachers and students is problematised. Using Foucault’s notion of governmentality, the paper explores 15 teachers’ use of choice in classrooms and considers how ‘student choice’ can, far from empowering children, be used as a way of reinforcing extant adult-child power relations. The paper argues that students are often responsibilised to exercise choice wisely in order that they find themselves in a position in which they can enjoy everyday classroom privileges disseminated by the educator. When used this in way, the strategy of affording students ‘choice’ can frame students’ transgressions as individual failings to conform. The paper concludes that practitioners who advocate children’s rights need to reflect on the relationship between notions of choice and institutional power relations in order to ensure choice is used in a way that leaves space for power relations to be challenged by the students being asked to ‘choose’.     

Marxist state theory and state autonomy theory: the case of ‘race’ education in initial teacher education

Abstract

In recent times, there have been a number of critiques of Marxist and neo‐Marxist analyses of the state and education policy. These have drawn on postmodernist, ‘quasi‐postmodernist’ and state autonomy perspectives. While the postmodernist and ‘quasi‐postmodernist’ approaches have attracted critical response, to date, the state autonomy perspective has, to our knowledge, gone unchallenged. To address this theoretical lacuna, this paper analyses one writer's attempt, via an historical case study, to uphold state autonomy theory by detailing the ongoing relationship between one quasi‐state agency and the practice of ‘race’ education in initial teacher education. We argue that there are serious conceptual weaknesses in this latest attempt to apply state autonomy theory to educational policy analysis. The arguments in the case study under consideration are seriously compromised by a basically flawed hypothesis, a misrepresentation of contemporary (neo‐) Marxist education policy analysis and by a failure to look at ‘the big picture’.     

What’s the body got to do with it? Exploring embodied,political readings in the classroom through poetry

ABSTRACT

This essay attempts to explore the links between politics, poetry, and collective, embodied readings and discussion in the classroom. When my Year 12 class were asked ‘What is Poetry?’, their answers suggested something in the Romantic tradition – of poetry as expressive, individual and emotional. My experience studying poetry with my Year 9 class suggests something altogether different – that studying poetry allows students to have an embodied and collective reading. In the sense that politics concerns the control of bodies, poetry allows the class to read in an embodied sense, thus politically, in a way that assessment criteria and the demands of high-stakes testing, with their focus on individual understanding, do not. Thus, I argue for the study of poetry as essential in terms of recognising students’ political agency – not primarily as exam-takers but as citizens of a country and an Earth they will, to put it grandly, inherit.     

How to Conceive of Critical Educational Theory Today?

This paper starts from a brief sketch of the ‘classical’ figure of critical educational theory or science (Kritische Erziehungswissenshaft). ‘Critical educational theory’ presents itself as the privileged guardian of the critical principle of education (Bildung) and its emancipatory promise. It involves the possibility of saying ‘I’ in order to speak and think in one's own name, to be critical, self‐reflective and independent, to determine dependence from the present power relations and existing social order. Actual social and educational reality and relations are approached as a limitation, threat, alienation, re/oppression or negation of ultimate human principles or potential. The task of critical educational theory becomes one of enabling an autonomous, critical, self‐reflective life. While ‘critique’ and ‘autonomy’ have meanwhile become commonplace, and ‘critique’ and ‘autonomy’ are reclaimed and required from everybody, we should also consider the question of the relation between an institutional or ideological framework as that which claims to question this frame and to constitute its opposite. The trivialisation of critique is taken as occasion to recall Michel Foucault's analysis of power relations and especially his thesis according to which the ‘government of individualisation’ is the actual figure of power. Starting from the framework offered by Foucault, it can be made clear that the autonomous, critical, self‐reflective life does not represent an ultimate principle but refers to a very specific form of subjectification operating as a transmission belt for power. The autonomous, critical, self‐reflective person appears as an historical model of self‐conduct whereby power operates precisely through the intensification of reflectiveness and critique rather than through their repression, alienation or negation. This brings us back then to the question of how to conceive of the task of a critical educational theory at a time in which critique, autonomy and self‐determination have become an essential modus operandi of the existing order.     

The emotional background to learning

Abstract

This article makes observations on the emotional and KEYW ORDS behavioural dif?culties of university students. The rapid expansion of student the higher education sector since the 1980s has brought an increased counselling; need for liaison between academics and university counsellors and student EBD; other health professionals. Key tasks confronting students are separ-student support ation from the family, the articulation of a sense of ‘self’, and the internalization of knowledge. Depression and anxiety are the likely side-effects of undertaking these, but peer-group and tutorial support can assist the authentic growth that is the real goal of tertiary education.     

Implementing the National Curriculum at Key Stage 2

Abstract

Since 1989, the Portuguese education system has undergone curricular reform which has introduced deep structural changes to the subject of physical education (PE). PE has become a compulsory and examinable subject within the ‘core curriculum’ of all school years (1 st to 12th grade). National curricular plans for basic and secondary education have also been introduced. This paper provides a view of the political options which have underpinned the present curricular project of PE in Portugal and compares practices in that country with those in Belgium. The analysis first describes the ‘curriculum as text’ before focusing attention on the ‘curriculum as action’. The analysis explores the nature of teachers’, pupils’ and parents’ beliefs, values and attitudes that together mediate the curriculum as text, help define contexts of PE, and influence public and political attitudes towards the subject. The paper points to the importance of both researchers and teachers for the development of effective teaching and learning in PE.     

Scorched Earth: prelude to rebuilding Marxist educational theory

This paper focuses on the internal degeneration of the Marxist educational theory flowing from Bowles & Gintis (1976) and Willis (1977). It explores five interlinked ‘debilitating problematics’ ‐‐ the base/superstructure metaphor, Left functionalism, relative autonomy, resistance theory and the education for autonomy/revolution dilemma ‐‐ which have simultaneously formed the backbone of Marxist educational theory and constituted the roots of its theoretical weaknesses. The general argument is that these weaknesses are so deep‐seated that Marxists interested in theorising capitalist schooling need to start afresh. The paper points towards some possible starting points for new Marxist thinking on capitalist schooling, the preferred option being an analysis of labour‐power. One consequence of taking labour‐power as the starting point for a Marxist analysis of education is that it entails the dissolution of Marxist educational theory’. Instead, educational theory and politics become subordinated to a concern with the social production of labour‐power in capitalism.     

Financial autonomy and challenges to being a regionally responsive higher education institution

Abstract

This paper discusses some current problems and challenges of the Finnish AMKs (polytechnic institutions), and whether financial autonomy could contribute to finding solutions for some of these problems. It provides an overview of the current status of financial autonomy of polytechnics in 6 European countries, and finally attempts to find links from financial autonomy to the AMKs’ role as regional ‘boosters’. The AMKs are still faced with some administrative and cultural traditions related more or less to secondary level vocational institutions. The new Polytechnic Act (2003), 351/2003, guarantees self‐governance for the AMKs as regards with their internal issues. At the same time, the Act stipulates that budget power and strategic steering belongs to their public or private maintainers. This raises the question of to what extent institutions actually are autonomous. The essence of autonomy rests on independent decision‐making processes. The study shows that the Finnish maintenance system reflects strongly on the area of financial autonomy compared with the similar institutions in other European countries. Financial autonomy may be a factor that strengthens a higher education institution in becoming an organisationally uniform, responsive and flexible entity.     

Women,capitalism and education: On the pedagogical implications of postfeminism

Abstract

We examine the emergence of the ‘postfeminist’ sensibility from feminist theory and praxis, and its relation and relevance to education. Analytical frameworks such as postfeminism and intersectionality have given equal weight to recognition-based struggles, such as those based on sexual, racial, class-based, gender-related identities. We follow Nancy Fraser’s argument that these identity-based movements have been co-opted by neoliberal politicians and bureaucratic policy-makers, and become a divide and rule strategy, neglecting the subjugating power of capital. Beginning with third-wave feminism’s emphasis on individual identity, women’s struggles have been become a part of the greater parisitic neoliberal project. We consider the implications of this docile and domesticated feminism for the education of women.     

Looking for their voice: the formation of identity in the new Israeli principals’ organisation

ABSTRACT

Based on an in-depth analysis of newspaper articles and internal documents, in this article I examine the formation of a new collective and glocal identity for the Israeli principals’ organisation, Manhigim, which was established in October 2018. I show how, in the process of establishing the organisation, the leaders formed a collective glocal identity comprised of three distinct identities, namely a labour union identity, a professional identity, and a political identity. These identities respond to the question, ‘Who are we?’ As such, they have relationships to the past, present, and expected future. Each one of the identities is glocally constructed; that is, it is influenced by global norms and values, but also by local problems and concerns. My findings suggest that, by stressing the global values of autonomy, trust, and partnership, the organisation’s leaders facilitated an interesting reformulation of the principals’ professional identities. Moreover, they positioned the organisation as the most knowledgeable and important actor in the Israeli educational field. As such, the glocal identity legitimises the primacy and acceptance of the new principals’ organisation as an integral part of the system of Israeli education policymakers.     

The Objectives and Organisation of Educational and Day Care Services for Young Children

ABSTRACT

Within the changed political discourse of the last few years there has been serious consideration of whether a publicly provided education system is. either necessary or desirable. The case is made for allowing the ‘social market’ to provide. The changeover to such a system could be effected in many ways, from a new national policy enshrined in statute, to the gradual extension of the private sector and greater ‘privatisation’ of the maintained sector through more and more dependence on parental and other private contributions. The role of the public, maintained sector could thus at one extreme disappear altogether and at other points on the spectrum become residuary (providing those services the market will not provide) or subsidiary. In any of these cases I believe there would be a loss to our democracy, to our ways of living and working together and to our view of the worth of the individual. The purpose of this paper is to examine what might be the justification for a public system of education, that is, one designed to give all citizens access to education through arrangements made by publicly accountable bodies.