Assessment feedback in examiner reports on master’s dissertations in translation studies

Assessment is a crucial part of degree programmes in higher education. While previous research has been primarily concerned with PhD thesis assessment practice in western countries, this article considers the focus and assessment criteria of 40 examiner reports on master’s dissertations in translation studies at a Chinese university. The results indicate that these examiners structured their reports in four rhetorical moves: ‘preparing the candidate for a decision’, ‘expressing an evaluation’, ‘conveying the decision’, and ‘making recommendations’. These examiners appeared to place more emphasis on the expression of ideas, rather than on the accuracy and originality of those ideas. They apparently adopted flexible working criteria, assessing the dissertations based on institutional requirements and on their own experience. This article concludes with a discussion of implications for dissertation writing.     

Multiculturalism and moral education: individual positioning,dialogue and cultural practice

Multicultural education can be seen as generally premised on two assumptions. The first is often made explicit: that children should learn not to discriminate unfairly on grounds of ethnicity or culture. To this degree, multiculturalism is clearly morally educative, encouraging children to see others in terms of their common humanity rather than their cultural differences. The second is more implicit and diffuse: that sensitivity to cultural and ethnic difference ipso facto promotes social justice and/or harmony between people(s) and thus is morally educative. Further implicit in this is that persons with different cultural practices are ipso facto ‘more different’ than those in similar relationships (such as neighbour, friend, customer, employee or whatever) but belonging to the same cultural groups, in terms of their lived experience. The concept ‘more different’ implies that ‘difference’ can be measured, and as a basis for policy, it further implies that such measurement can be objective. This article challenges this latter set of assumptions, drawing on ideas from nihilism, existentialism, poststructuralism and discursive psychology. If degrees of difference in lived experience cannot be objectively (or even intersubjectively) measured, then assumptions about how culture ‘fixes’ life experience may have undesirable, rather than desirable effects, and may counter, rather than reinforce, the explicit aim of multicultural education to reduce ethnic and cultural discrimination. Individual positioning may be as important as cultural heritage in determining differences in life experience, and thus possibilities for moral action, yet learners may not be able to respond to persons as individuals on the basis of an understanding of collective cultural differences.     

Freire’s philosophical contribution for a theory of intercultural ethics: A deductive analysis of his work

This article claims that Freire’s work offers an important ground for a potential theory of intercultural ethics and, for that purpose, examines his ideas at different levels: (1) the ontological; (2) the ideological; (3) the political; (4) languages and languaging; and (5) cultural identity and diversity. Freire never used the word ‘intercultural’, although it is suggested here that this is due to the fact that terminology related to cultural diversity has changed over time and in his day this term was not yet common currency. Moreover, Freire uses more often the term ‘multiculturalidade’ rather than ‘multiculturalismo’ (multiculturalism) since the former suffix ‘-dad(e)’ has a different meaning which refers to the ontological nature of the condition and is more usual in both Portuguese and Spanish. This article also argues for the relevance of a theory of intercultural ethics in the contemporary world that imprints (inter)cultural flexibility on the current hermeneutics of ethics while preventing excessive abuses on behalf of relativism, dogmatism, essentialism and fundamentalism.     

Sociocultural concept of high ability and heart-mind epistemology in Confucian societies

This theoretical paper begins with a reflection on the dominant conceptions of ‘high ability’, based on psychometrics, and examines claims that the ethos of a particular cultural heritage is essential to what ‘high ability’ signifies. The article semantically distinguishes ‘giftedness’ from ‘ability’, using research on Confucian heritage culture with its thick and thin dimensions. ‘Giftedness’ here means an inherited quality or endowment. ‘Ability’, on the other hand, signifies an active process open to nurture through education and – what could account for the main contribution of this paper – the role played by an ‘epistemology of heart-mind’ in Confucian heritage. The article argues that this epistemology of heart-mind constitutes a generational collective programming of mind. Such a definition could lead to a sociocultural conception of intelligence and giftedness open to development, adding a new perspective to the conceptualisation of giftedness and high ability.     

Researching hybrid learning communities in the digital age through educational ethnography

This paper discusses the complexities of investigating the experiences of participants in hybrid (online/offline) learning communities through educational ethnography. In these communities, people construct small cultures in the liminal spaces or ‘border crossings’ between the virtually real and ‘actually’ real, using computer-mediated and face-to-face communications to be simultaneously here and there, intensely local but incorporating global influences of the ‘others’ time and space. Drawing on studies in educational ethnography, this paper shows that researchers can investigate participants' experiences in hybrid communities using a range of multimodal research tools to collect data. However, this can give rise to ethical issues in research since the dispersions and constructions of engagement /disengagement within those communities' communications is bearers of asymmetrical power, rather than egalitarian. Researchers need to recognise the complex nature of the relationship between online and offline processes in their participants lives.     

In loco parentis? Public‐school authority,cricket and manly character, 1855–62

This article considers the responsibility for schoolboys’ behaviour and character when in liminal spaces between home and school, in an historical account of the annual cricket matches in London between Eton, Harrow and Winchester in the late 1850s. The episode is situated in the context of the Clarendon Commission’s discussions on school sports, parental and school authority, and ‘muscular Christianity’ in the early 1860s. Set in the conceptual framework of late‐nineteenth‐century manliness and masculinity, the article suggests an enduring attachment to pursuits of the mind rather than the body amongst masters, and points to a greater role for parents (particularly fathers) and boys themselves in the rise of athleticism in schools than is usually granted by historians. The article outlines the limits of school authority in loco parentis, and calls for a reinterpretation of the history of muscular Christianity and its relationship with the public schools.     

The making of a moral British Bangladeshi

This article traces changing notions of a moral upbringing among British Bangladesh families in London. It reviews ideas of the making of a moral person (manush corano) in Bangladesh and contrasts those with contemporary practices and ideas about the good child in London. It argues that in London, British Bangladeshis have embraced a form of Islam that for them represents progress on the ‘Bengali culture’ that they have left behind and the ‘Western modernity’ that they live amongst, it is a third way. For British Bangladeshi children this involves socialisation into a global Muslim community (umma) and an Islamist interpretation of Islam. Learning to recite the Qur’an correctly (tajweed) is an important manifestation of the third way.     

Language,culture and border lives: mestizaje as positionality / Lengua,cultura y vidas de frontera: el mestizaje como posicionalidad

Recent scholarly work has focused on borders, both geopolitical and cultural, giving attention to border lives and identities. This article, which focuses on sociocultural practices, addresses what can be called border languaculture. With attention on the Texas-Mexico border in North America, the authors discuss three key features of hybrid practices on the US ‘side’: (1) code-mixing that has a strong rhetorical component; (2) cross-border continuation but transformation of ‘traditional’ forms and conventions associated historically with Spain and Mexico; and (3) creation of ‘new’ hybrid forms and cultural products that establish social affiliations and distinctions. These languacultural features support the central point of the article: that self-positioning in this borderland is characterized by the multiplicity, contradictions and syncretism now being labeled mestizaje. Although cultural change has often been explained through acculturation, the syncretic nature of these border practices is better explained through transculturation, which emphasizes mutual influences and shifting power relations.     

Middle-class parents’ educational work in an academically selective public high school

This article reports the findings of a study on the nature of parent–school engagement at an academically selective public high school in New South Wales, Australia. Such research is pertinent given recent policies of ‘choice’ and decentralization, making a study of local stakeholders timely. The research comprised a set of interviews with parents and teachers (n = 15), through which parents – all members of the school’s Parents’ and Citizens’ group – theorized and explained their involvement with the school, and teachers spoke about their views on this involvement. Results are organized around three themes: ‘how parents worked to nurture their children’s schooling’, ‘reasons behind parents’ involvement with the school’, and ‘communication and use of parental resources by the school’. Overall it was found that while parents were making significant efforts to involve themselves in the education of their children and with the school more broadly, the reasons for their involvement were not always consistent, but instead revealed a range of motivations for and conceptions of parents’ roles within schools, which at times were at odds with the teachers’. Through this, the study contributes to our understanding of middle-class parent engagement at an unusual and particular type of school.     

Bazon Brock's Visitors’ School on Documenta in Kassel: Training for Reception of Contemporary Art

This article analyses the problem of reception and interpretation of contemporary art exhibition in the context of Besucherschule (Visitors’ School) invented by Bazon Brock: German philosopher, art historian and a follower of Theodor Adorno. He implemented this practice for the first time on documenta 4 in Kassel (1968) and organised such schools of reception until documenta 9 (1992). The aim of the Visitors’ School was to explain works of contemporary art on display to the public. Brock understood this process as ‘mediation’ in aesthetic education, arguing that dependence on theory was no less problematic for contemporary art perception than the lack of traditional art form. The main symbolic task of art – ‘claim for reality’, was demonstrated by Brock in two ideas: ‘new image‐war’ and ‘speaking image’.     

Making agency matter: rethinking infant and toddler agency in educational discourse

This article engages critically with the concept of agency in infant and toddler educational discourse. It is argued that agency, when conceptualised with emphasis on individuality and the autonomous self, poses a conceptual ‘dead end’ for those who are not-yet-in-language, such as babies and toddlers. In considering agency as an aspect of becoming that is inherent in all matter, the article seeks to explore new pathways for conceptualising agency in infant and toddler education. Methodologically, the article aims to generate complex questions and, following Nigel Thrift's call, ‘wild ideas’, rather than solutions by addressing the relationship between discourse and matter to open up new spaces for thinking and doing ‘agency’ in education, for babies and toddlers and beyond.     

Towards a biologically informed primary school practice

The various ways ‘nature’ and ‘nurture’ interact to shape school pupils' lives are examined from the perspective of recent biologically informed studies. The idea of a highly predictive, genetically based inheritance is strikingly upheld by research in infancy and early childhood. Research evidence also shows how pupil individuality develops within non-shared as well as shared environments (non-shared environments being those where unique experiences rather than shared norms, values and so on affect individual development). Asset-based (rather than deficit-based) pedagogy, within a partnership paradigm, would respect the diverse ways in which school pupils learn.     

Britney,Beyoncé, and me – primary school girls’ role models and constructions of the ‘popular’ girl

This paper looks at the ways in which the gendered social construction of the ‘popular girl’ infuses girls’ ideas as to their role models: those representing who they would like to be when they ‘grow up’. It will look at the ways in which the gendered characteristics that are seen to be of most value to girls (often embodied by ‘celebrities’ such as Britney and Beyoncé) often reflect socially dominant constructions of femininity. These characteristics can in some ways be seen to emphasise passivity rather than agency and power – for an example in an emphasis on attractiveness and appearance rather than activity and accomplishments. However, such desired characteristics are also those considered to characterise the ‘popular’ girl at school – a position of power and influence amongst girls’ peers. Therefore such desires are complexly located within both the constraints of hegemonic femininities and the dynamics of power relations between girls themselves.     

Transformative approaches to student voice: theoretical underpinnings,recalcitrant realities

This article explores some of the theoretical underpinnings of radical approaches to student voice and examines a number of practical issues we need to address if we wish to move towards a more transformative future. The framework within which the notion of voice is explored and critiqued falls primarily into two categories. The first, Deconstructing the presumptions of the present, explores the largely ignored problematic of much student voice work. (1) ‘Problems of speaking about others’, (2) ‘Problems of speaking for others’, and problems of (3) ‘Getting heard’ reveal a range of issues that need to be better understood and acknowledged. The second, On the necessity of dialogue, attempts a resolution, exploring the possibility of (4) ‘Speaking about/for others in supportive ways’ before offering the preferred (5) ‘Dialogic alternative: speaking with rather than for’ and further developing that line of enquiry through (6) ‘Students as co/researchers’. Finally, (7) ‘Recalcitrant realities, new opportunities’ offers some ambivalent, but still hopeful thoughts about current realities and future possibilities.     

Whose confession? Which tradition? (A preliminary critique of Penny Thompson, 2004)

What does Penny Thompson really want? Reading her article in BJRE 26 (1) proved a baffling experience: it clearly wanted to say something, and to say it passionately, yet signally failed to do so. It fails largely because it lacks an argument; there seems also to be conceptual muddle at its heart. A fuller critique will need to attend to Thompson’s reading of religious education’s history, particularly to her use of evidence—but that is a story for another night. Consequently, this brief critique has at its core four questions to elicit clarity where at present there is none: First, does Penny Thompson want so to revision religious education in community schools that she and other aspirants to ‘Christian confessional religious education’ may freely work to convert young people to ‘Christianity’ and to nurture them in a Christian tradition? Second, in what sense, or senses, does Thompson want readers to understand her phrase, ‘the truth of the Christian faith?’ Third, in whose confession and in which tradition does Thompson want this Christian confessional religious education to be rooted? Fourth, is Penny Thompson willing to allow Christian teachers to present alternative understandings of Christianity, critical of her (implied) view? These questions are preceded by reflection on the form of her article’s argument and on its use of ‘confess’ and its cognates.     

Rethinking silence in the classroom: Chinese students’ experiences of sharing indigenous knowledge

Recent research has documented silence/reticence among East‐Asian international students, including Chinese students, in Western/English classrooms. Students’ communication competence and cultural differences from the mainstream Euro‐American society have been identified as two primary barriers to participation. Placing emphasis on individual characteristics of Chinese students, however, without considering aspects of the educational context with which those characteristics interact, may over‐simplify and distort the mechanism underlying their silence in the classroom. Based on a qualitative study of Chinese students’ experience of sharing indigenous knowledge in classroom settings of Canadian academic institutions, it is argued that the pursuit of diversity in the classroom may be compromised by classroom interactions, through which, for instance, the dynamics and quality of the knowledge exchange of students from different socio‐cultural backgrounds may be adversely affected. Within this conceptual framework, the concepts ‘silence’, ‘culture difference’ and ‘indigenous knowledge’ are re‐examined; the concepts ‘reciprocal cultural familiarity’ and ‘inclusive knowledge sharing’ are advocated.

… [W]hen I did participate, mostly because I was required to. … Students took turns to present something and that is your topic. You have to say something but even then I didn’t feel that good because it seems … they didn’t feel that interested, … like they couldn’t follow my ideas, follow my perspective. And so it seems difficult to communicate. I think that is not just because of the language, it seems we see the same thing in different ways.

(Chinese student in this study)     

[Re]considering queer theories and science education

We take Mattias Lundin’s Inviting queer ideas into the science classroom: studying sexual education from a queer perspective as a point of departure to explore some enduring issues related to the use of queer theories to interrogate science education and its practices. We consider the uneasy, polygamous relationship between gay and lesbian studies and queer theories; the border surveillance that characterizes so much of science [education]; the alluring call of binaries and binary thinking; the ‘all’ within the catchcry ‘science for all’; and the need to better engage the fullness of science and the curriculum, in addition to noting silences around diverse sexes, sexualities, and desires. We catalogue some of the challenges that persist in this work, and offer thoughts about how to work with and against them to enact a more just and compelling science education.     

Plural public schooling: religion,worldviews and moral education

Educators seek to nurture in the hearts and minds of students a sense of moral thinking, action and behaviour. What these constitute is dependent on one’s perspective, or worldview. Moral thinking and action emerge from worldviews or visions of life—religious or secular. In the history of common or public schools educators have linked moral education to traditional religion, severed those ties in favour of secular perspectives, and of late have shifted focus to educating for citizenship. In each case concern regarding whose values, morals and perspectives dominate surfaces. In a society with plural perspectives, no one worldview should dominate public schools that should be ‘open to all’. A plural public school grounds moral decision‐making in worldviews, and encourages students to increase their understanding of worldviews in general, while deepening their own in particular. Hence, perspectives that ground moral convictions come to attain particular importance and significance, and it behooves us to explore rather than ignore them.     

Body pedagogies,P/policy,health and gender

Schools within a ‘knowledge economy’ nurture and endorse particular ‘corporeal orientations’, that is to say, ascribe value, meaning and potential to ‘the body’ (particular bodies) in time, place and space. Such processes reflect wider (national and global) socio‐economic trends. In contemporary culture, these processes increasingly celebrate particular virtues—‘flexible identities’, the manifest aspects of ‘performance’ and ‘corporeal perfection’ (usually defined as ‘the slender ideal’). Calling on the voices of a number of young women (aged 11–18) the article illustrates how these processes can intersect to seriously damage some people's health, perhaps especially those of young women and girls. The analyses suggest that the expectations of a ‘knowledge economy’ relating to the body and health enter the school system through two forms of P/policy: ‘formal’, state‐sanctioned, usually legislated education Policy; and ‘informal’, mainly medical and health institution‐based, state ‘approved’ but non‐legislated, pseudo policy initiatives often merely reflecting expectations and pressures laundered through the popular media. Together, these P/policies define not only formal education but increasingly encode other aspects of school life, in effect, making ‘pedagogy’ everyone's concern, everywhere. The article highlights the relentless and inescapable nature of pedagogical activity in the Totally Pedagogised Micro Societies (TPMS) which schools have become.