Feminist pedagogy and social change: the impact of the caribbean institute in gender and development

This paper examines the utility of a feminist pedagogical framework in establishing and organising the Caribbean Institute in Gender and Development (CIGAD), which is a biennial intensive gender and development training programme that has taken place in Barbados since 1993. To highlight the major impact that CIGAD has had in educating and empowering Caribbean men and women, the authors will first discuss the importance of feminist pedagogies in teaching, learning and activism in this programme by locating them within an intersectional postcolonial/transnational framework. Secondly, the authors consider the ways in which feminist pedagogy and praxis have been central in training women and men in the Caribbean region in gender analysis, helping them recognise the important role gender plays in development planning and policy as well as how it can be integrated into their work to improve their communities. Finally, through a feminist dialogic, participatory and experiential approach, the authors assess the impact that the CIGAD has had on participants, and community development training will be discussed based on the monitoring and evaluation of the exercise completed in 2014.     

Learning about social movements through news media: deconstructing New York Times and Fox News representations of Standing Rock

ABSTRACT

This article critically examines how news media, as a form of public pedagogy, functioned to ‘educate’ the public about the Standing Rock pipeline protests in North Dakota, USA. Drawing on literature in public pedagogy, social movement learning and communication studies, we employed ethnographic content analysis to identify emergent patterns, emphases and themes in all online media coverage by the New York Times and Fox News of the Standing Rock protests from April 2016 to March 2017. We analysed representations of Standing Rock in 164 NYT articles, and 96 Fox News articles, respectively. This ethnographic methodology allowed us to understand how the Standing Rock movement, its actors and meaning were constructed through the use of imagery, metaphors and emphasis on particular voices, narratives and perspectives. Our findings showed how both Fox and NYT were able to effectively frame the protest as a fundamentally human story focusing on Indigenous people, celebrities and US war veterans, and address broad-based public concerns about global climate change, water pollution and land rights. These results point to the importance of mainstream media as public pedagogue shaping social movement learning, and to the need for further research on this topic in adult education.     

Power,pedagogy and the personal: feminist ethics in facilitating a doctoral writing group

The paper explores questions of power arising from feminist facilitators running a doctoral writing group at a UK university. Butler’s [2014. Re-thinking Vulnerability and Resistance. [Online]. Accessed September 12, 2017. http://www.institutofranklin.net/sites/default/files/files/Rethinking%20Vulnerability%20and%20Resistance%20Judith%20Butler.pdf] theorisation of precarity and vulnerability inspired us to re-think normative constructions of research writing and the academic identities and subjectivities this presupposed. Our doctoral writing group was imagined as a space to think collectively and reflexively about the thesis, the multi-faceted power-dynamics at work in its production, and our relations to the text as both writer and audience. This paper antagonises some of the pedagogic consequences of inviting seemingly ‘personal’ matters into the space of the writing space and, subsequently, the doctoral text itself. We speak back to discourses that position doctoral writing as always and only an individual, and individualising endeavour, that eschews encounters with the personal and relational. Indeed, we recognise that configurations and spaces for research writing are always ‘political’.     

Developing social competence and other generic skills in teacher education: applying the model of integrative pedagogy

The purpose of the study was to examine how social competence and other generic skills can be developed in teacher education using a pedagogical model called Integrative Pedagogy. This model is based on the idea of integrating the four basic components of expertise: Theoretical knowledge, practical knowledge, self-regulative knowledge, and sociocultural knowledge. The subjects of the study were 95 student-teachers. The data were collected with questionnaires. In addition to social skills, the student-teachers reported learning of domain-specific skills, generic academic skills, skills for acting creatively in different situations and development of independence. We conclude that the model of Integrative Pedagogy is feasible in teacher education.     

Insights into user engagement on social media. Case study of a higher education institution

ABSTRACT

The interactions of users in social networks have been analyzed in the literature as sources of information on their ability to generate engagement among stakeholders in higher education institutes, which make more tactical than strategic use of social networks. This study helps identify which variables generate greater participation in Instagram users, providing strategic proposals for digital marketing. From the codification of all the publications published by a university in a social network site during the period of one year, a comparative analysis was carried out through a multivariate model. The results provide important and timely implications for both universities and higher education professionals. Our findings suggest that higher education marketing specialists should develop stronger and more consistent communication strategies to establish more valuable relationships with stakeholders. The administrators of the social networks of higher education institutions can find patterns in those publications that generate a greater participation in this study.     

Participatory action research as pedagogy: investigating social and ecological justice learning within a teacher education program

A research collective comprised of teacher candidates, graduate students, and faculty set out to investigate the role and impact of social and ecological justice learning in a teacher education program. Amidst the tensions, negotiations, and articulations of the research design, the collective came to recognize the spaces of participatory action research as sites of growth and efficacy toward justice learning. And, each began to perceive themselves as both impacted by educational structures and as agents enacting their own visions of professional practice. These outcomes are discussed in the context of the growing body of participatory action research, emphasizing the dynamic learning precipitated within the intersections of the research collective. The empirical analysis, involving survey and interview data, brought to bear the rarity of events participants (teacher candidates) recognized as invoking meaningful social and ecological justice learning, and goes some way to describe such learning in terms of embodied experience. The paper closes with a selection of testimonials provided by members of the research collective, offering personal accounts of what was gained through participating in the research process.     

Engaging fans and the community in social media: interaction with institutions of higher education on Facebook

Although many universities use social media to interact with stakeholders, little is known about the underlying mechanisms. Drawing on theories of self-presentation and community engagement, we develop a theoretical model to explain these crucial outcome factors. We then test the model based on secondary data from 159 universities. Our findings reveal the double-edged nature of community size: universities with a strong reputation tend to have more Facebook fans, but having many Facebook fans has detrimental effects on individual fan engagement. Furthermore, the frequency of updates is a crucial factor, as too frequent and too infrequent updates lead to lower levels of fan engagement. We discuss theoretical implications for online communities and derive implications for social media managers.     

A typology for a social justice approach to assessment: learning from universal design and culturally sustaining pedagogy

This paper aims to provide a tentative roadmap for ensuring that higher education policy makers and practitioners are apprised of what might be done to advance a concept of socially just assessment praxis. It extends current thinking around the notion of social justice approaches to assessment by further developing the conceptual framework proposed in McArthur's recent work (2016). It does so by extending understandings of how a socially just perspective might be realised. Drawing upon recent conceptual developments within both Universal Design for Learning (UDL) and Culturally Sustaining Pedagogy (CSP), the paper proposes a typology for praxis and organisational change. Crucially, this typology focuses upon enhancing learning outcomes for all learners, but it is particularly concerned with enhancing educational experiences and learning outcomes for students that have been systematically marginalised by the normative procedural practices that have traditionally informed the nature of supposedly objective assessment.     

Integrating a moral reasoning game in a blended learning setting: effects on students' interest and performance

A new approach to moral education using blended learning has been developed. This approach involves 10 scenarios that are designed as a web-based game and serves as a basis for group moral-consequence-based reasoning, which is developed based on a hypothetical-deductive model. The aim of the study was to examine the changes in students' blended learning interest and reasoning ability in a time series experimental design. After playing the game with the 10 initial scenarios during the first week of the study, participants were subjected to five blended learning sessions that required them to discuss the consequences of one of the 10 scenarios using hypothetical-deductive reasoning. After six weeks, the data from the 110 participants were analyzed using time series statistics. The results indicated that players were highly interested in the game, although their interest had a tendency to decrease slightly over time. Repetitive game play (i.e. practice) was positively associated with the players' moral reasoning performance. The study results may lend support to the design of a game with additional or more highly complex content for players to further develop students' consequential reasoning ability.     

Popular pedagogy and the changing political landscape: a case study of a women's housing movement in South Africa

This paper sets out to explore the relationship between popular education and the changing South African political landscape through case study research of the Victoria Mxenge Housing Development Association. The research took place over an extended period of time from 1992–2003 and discusses how popular education was advocated by the South African Homeless People's Federation and its parent NGO (People's Dialogue); how it was implemented, how an increasing disjuncture between teaching and learning occurred, and how pedagogy was shaped by both political and personal factors. The paper discusses the interactions between social movements and NGOs and the limitations of social movements and popular education. It argues for a more nuanced conceptual understanding of learning in social movements within development contexts.     

Becoming a youth activist in the internet age: a case study on social media activism and identity development

This paper draws on a case study of one youth activist, and explores connections between social media activism, identity development, and critical education. Justin Rodriguez, a 17-year-old high school student in Newark, New Jersey, leveraged social media and texting as organizing tools and garnered support for a school walkout to protest education budget cuts. Drawing on the Listening Guide interview method and Justin’s narrative of his experiences, the study explores the question: Does social media activism have implications for how we understand the development of youth activist identities? The findings suggest Justin’s development as a youth activist was mediated, not produced, by social media activism; and Justin developed as a youth activist through various forms of interaction that included social media and face-to-face relationships. The paper also explores the supports provided by adult mentors that were important in Justin’s development as an activist, including education for critical consciousness and opportunities for Justin to participate in civic venues.     

Networked Learning and Learning Analytics: A Study on the Employment of Facebook in a Virtual Training Program

The growing popularity of Social Networking Sites (SNS) that are embedded with networked infrastructures serves as an ideal platform for developing a networked learning environment connecting geographically dispersed learners. Unlike the traditional learning systems which provide only limited sources of data, the learners engaged in virtual networked social environments tend to produce huge volumes of digital footprints that cannot be analyzed using conventional analytical techniques. Two new branches of analytical sciences – Educational Data Mining (EDM) and Learning Analytics (LA) – are being employed for processing digital data derived from online educational platforms in order to obtain meaningful inferences and data-driven insights.

Hence, the present experimental study involving a small group of geographically dispersed learners intend to examine the engagement level and interaction patterns that occur within a feminist networked learning environment created in Facebook using popular EDM and learning analytical techniques such as K-means Clustering, Social network analysis and correlation mining. Upon analysis, it was found that the peer network influence played a vital role in activating passive learners, eventually leading to the development of a closely bound networked learning community over time.     

A Qatari perspective on women in the engineering pipeline: an exploratory study

Under-representation of women in engineering has received a great deal of attention, but remained limited largely to a Western context. Thus, this article aims to unveil the barriers to progress, tracking the performance and the emerging trend of success at the undergraduate level of women in engineering in a different cultural dimension. Secondary research, particularly statistical data of female undergraduate engineering students at Qatar University (QU), is used in this study. Findings show that the booming economic development and access to modern education are the key drivers that change the position of women in Qatari society. A shift away from a masculine-dominated society to a more balance masculine/feminine society was identified as the impetus for better enrolment and achievement of female engineering students in Qatar. Similar to the trend in the USA, recruitment and not retention was the reason behind the under-representation of female undergraduate engineering students at QU.     

Cyberbullying and moral disengagement: an analysis based on a social pedagogy of pastoral care in schools

The practice of cyberbullying in its various forms carried out by pupils has increased substantially. Many pupils, on a daily basis, are now using electronic devices such as mobile phones, smart phones and tablets, to transmit distressing messages and images to their peers. These often include the use of publically accessible social networking sites, such as Facebook, Instagram and YouTube. Given this increase, cyberbullying in schools has been widely investigated by researchers in many countries. A common feature of cyberbullying is the moral disengagement of those who practise it, based on the desensitization of prosocial values and emotional empathy towards another person. A consensus has emerged regarding the importance of establishing anti-cyberbullying policies and practices, and the need to address cyberbullying within the school’s pastoral care system and its personal and social education programme. However, few researchers have justified anti-cyberbullying practices within the framework of a particular educational theory. This paper examines how the theoretical and methodological assumptions underpinning a social pedagogy of pastoral care in schools can enable the education community to better understand and avert the moral disengagement which commonly underpins cyberbullying.     

School mining clubs in Kono,Sierra Leone: the practices and imaginaries of a pedagogy of protest against social injustice in a conflict-affected context

ABSTRACT

This paper takes as a case study the pedagogical practices emergent from the educational interventions of a civil society organisation in the conflict affected region of Kono, Sierra Leone. Using a cultural political economy approach, it highlights the possibilities of pedagogy being leveraged to protest against perceived and experienced social injustices. In so doing it contributes to understanding of a context-specific model of teacher agency, rooted in the local and global challenges faced by pupils and their communities. It thereby illuminates an alternative to the generic and decontextualized framings of pedagogy frequently offered in human rights and peace education curricula.     

Lesson study: A collaborative approach to scholarship for teaching and learning in higher education

The Scholarship of Teaching and Learning has become an important field of inquiry, focusing on the development of new and critical pedagogic approaches in higher education. It is a broad field leading to the emergence of a number of contrasting perspectives concerning the development of insights into teaching and learning. In this article, we explore the potential for Lesson Study to act as a framework for reflecting on and developing pedagogic practice in the university sector. Originating in Japan over a century ago, Lesson Study is a collaborative tool for analysing and developing understanding of student learning. This makes it an ideal tool for capturing and interrogating new and critical insights into teaching and learning. An outline framework is suggested for developing the use of Lesson Study in higher education and we discuss how it can form a positive methodology for extending the work of the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning.     

‘Breaking Ground’ in the use of social media: A case study of a university earthquake response to inform educational design with Facebook

On September 4 2010, a massive 7.1 magnitude earthquake struck the Canterbury region in the South Island of New Zealand. The response from the University of Canterbury was immediate and carefully co-ordinated, with the university's web-based environment and a responsive site developed on the social media platform ‘Facebook’ becoming prominent sources of support for many months. This case study illustrates how the university effectively utilised these environments and their impact within the wider university community. Case study methodology draws upon literature from the fields of social media, social network communities and crisis informatics. The findings propose that social media can effectively support information sharing, communication and collaboration in higher education contexts, in particular in times of crisis, but suggest there needs to be a defined purpose to integrate these within an institution's communications strategy given the resource implications and range of social media already used by students.     

Moving across physical and online spaces: a case study in a blended primary classroom

With the introduction of digital tools and online connectivity in primary schools, the shape of teaching and learning is shifting beyond the physical classroom. Drawing on the architecture of productive learning networks framework, we examine the affordances and limitations of an upper primary learning network and focus on how the digital and physical elements involved in set design shape teachers' pedagogical approaches and students' learning processes. The findings suggest that blended spaces support teachers' distributed orchestration of classroom activities across tools and resources while also leveraging students' engagement in reciprocal teaching and collaborative learning.     

In defence of writing: a social semiotic perspective on digital media,literacy and learning

From a learning perspective, social semiotics researchers tend to focus on the liberation latent in the multimedia options available through the new media. It is true that digital media democratise the possibilities open to the general public of a more varied and comprehensive text production than ever before, both in and outside school. Participating in this text production naturally implies a richer potential for learning. But digital technology also allows us to opt out of, and thus avoid, semiotic work. With this as the starting point, the present article sets out to highlight the pedagogical benefits associated with the written mode, precisely in an age when the digital media are making multimodal forms of expression increasingly available to us all.