Acceleration Nation: An Investigation into the Violence of Speed and the Uses of Accidents in Iceland

Abstract

There are two starting points from which this paper is constructed: first, Virilio’s observation that the wealth of societies is founded on their dromocratic condition, that the faster societies accelerate their citizens, commercial goods and communication the more political and economic power they have and, second, the links that he traces between technologies of speed and acceleration and the accident. We suggest that Virilio’s ideas on this invite and deserve a closer ethnographic scrutiny than they have so far received, scrutiny that highlights the varied ways in which speed, acceleration and the accident are articulated in different cultural contexts. To this end we offer an investigation into the dromocratic condition, the violence of speed and the uses of accidents in Iceland.     

Tres pies al gato: significado,sentido y cultura cotidiana en la educación

Resumen

Se pasa revista en este artículo a los tres ejes que conforman la línea de investigación de los autores en psicología de la educación, a saber, considerar la arquitectura, no sólo cognitiva, sino instrumental y cultural, del significado; la necesidad de unir en la investigación y en el diseño educativo las vertientes de significado y de sentido que caracterizan el funcionamiento psicológico de los individuos, y que solo se articulan sobre la base de sistemas de actividad; por último, la necesidad de contemplar las formas de representación humanas menos formalizadas y desdeñadas hasta hace muy poco por la psicología de la educación: las denominadas bajo el epígrafe de conocimiento informal. En torno a estos tres ejes, se exponen ejemplos de investigación y de intervención que conforman lo que hemos denominado diseño cultural.     

Intersections of race and sexuality in a teacher education course

This paper examines the ways that one group of US pre‐service teachers, enrolled in an alternate route teacher education class, expressed and challenged each other’s contradictory discourses about teaching for social justice. Particularly significant are the many ways that this group of students enacted subject positions around race and sexuality as various combinations of African American, White, gay, straight, lesbian, Christian, and as members of this class. Epiphanic moments about race and sexual orientation are examined to illuminate the ways that subject positions were contested, reified, or renegotiated in order to preserve a sense of community within the class. This research demonstrates the ways that social justice teacher education differentially positions people who have been historically marginalized and how it can at times reify a hierarchy of marginality.     

Orthographic learning in dyslexic Spanish children

Reading fluency is one of the basic processes of learning to read. Children begin to develop fluency when they are able to form orthographic representations of words, which provide direct, smooth, and fast reading. Dyslexic children of transparent orthographic systems are mainly characterized by poor reading fluency (Cuetos & Suárez-Coalla 2009; Spinelli, De Luca, Di Filippo, Mancini, Martelli, & Zoccolotti, 2005; Wimmer, 1993). Therefore, the main problem for these children could be the difficulty in developing orthographic representations of the words they read. The aim of this study was to test the ability of dyslexic Spanish-speaking children (whose native language is Spanish) to develop orthographic representations and determine if the context helps them. For this, two experiments were conducted with a group of 100 children, 7–12 years of age. The groups were comprised of 20 dyslexics, 40 chronological age-matched controls and 40 reading level-matched controls. In the first experiment, eight unfamiliar words (four short and four long) were presented six times within the context of a story. In the second experiment, eight pseudowords were presented on a computer and the children had to read them aloud. In both experiments, the reading and articulation times of experimental and control stimuli were compared, before and after the training. Children without dyslexia showed a decrease of the influence of length of word on reading speed, indicating a lexical reading, while for dyslexic children, the influence of length remained unchanged. These results appeared when the stimuli were presented in the context of a story as well as when presented in isolation. In short, our results describe that dyslexic children of transparent orthographic systems have problems in developing orthographic representations of words.     

The use (and misuse) of PISA in guiding policy reform: the case of Spain

In 2013 Spain introduced a series of educational reforms explicitly inspired by the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) 2012 results. These reforms were mainly implemented in secondary education – based upon the assumption that this is where Spain's educational problems lie. This paper questions this assumption by attempting to identify the point where Spanish children fall behind young people in other developed countries. Specifically, by drawing data from multiple international assessments, we are able to explore how cross-national differences in reading skills change as children age. Consideration is given to both the average level of achievement and the evolution of educational inequalities. Our conclusion is that policy-makers have focused their efforts on the wrong part of the education system; educational achievement is low in Spain (and educational inequalities large) long before children enter secondary school. This study therefore serves as a note of caution against simplistic interpretation of the PISA rankings.     

Silk Purses and Sows’ Ears: NVQs,GNVQs and experiential learning

Although criticism of the competence‐based education (CBE) strategy which underpins National Vocational Qualifications (NVQs) has grown in recent years, this still receives considerably less emphasis than the general approval and public endorsement of the National Council for Vocational Qualifications (NCVQ) framework at all levels of the system. An aspect of the implementation of NVQs which merits closer attention is the apparent mismatch between the behaviourist‐inspired NVQ system and the dominant modes of learning and teaching in post‐school education derived from the experiential tradition. This relationship is explored in theoretical terms, by examining the concept of CBE against the background of experiential learning theory, and also in terms of empirical research in the field, including an on‐going Warwick University study of the implementation of NVQs in local FE colleges in the areas of catering, business studies and hairdressing. It is suggested that, in spite of the fact that many FE lecturers have managed to accommodate competence outcomes within their preferred approaches to learning, the tensions are such that an exclusive concern with performance outcomes must inevitably thwart and frustrate the objectives and project of experiential learning. The NVQ framework is ill‐equipped to provide the necessary foundation for post‐16 curriculum reform along the lines currently being proposed by almost all relevant agencies. The recently introduced general NVQs (GNVQs), however, can be seen as a means of remedying some of the key problems of NVQs and may help to establish a more solid basis for the desired reforms in vocational education and training.     

Outreach initiatives operated by universities for increasing interest in science and technology

ABSTRACT

Since the 1990s, the low number of students choosing to study science and technology in higher education has been on the societal agenda and many initiatives have been launched to promote awareness regarding career options. The initiatives particularly focus on increasing enrolment in the engineering programmes. This article describes and compares eight European initiatives that have been established and operated by universities (and in some cases through collaboration with other actors in society). Each initiative is summarised in a short essay that discusses motivation, organisation, pedagogical approach, and activities. The initiatives are characterised by comparing the driving forces behind their creation, how the initiative activities relate to the activities at the university, size based on the number of participants and cost per participant and pedagogical framework. There seem to be two main tracks for building outreach activities, one where outreach activities are based on the university's normal activities, and one where outreach activities are designed specifically for the visiting students.     

Comprehensiveness and diversity in secondary compulsory education in andalusia: an unresolved challenge

This article outlines the contradictions and challenges of introducing comprehensive, compulsory education in Andalusia for students up to the age of 16. Following a documenting of the developments, it is argued that while the intention was for a significant, planned reform, it is better characterised as one that is, at best, an improvisation. The article discusses the continuing difficulties that may be attributed to a number of policies of the Conservative government of the day, which allowed the development of two systems of education that were not grounded in concepts of equity and social justice to evolve. The work of John Elliott has been acknowledged as an important influence upon the inquiry that was undertaken and the subsequent analysis of its results. Thus, not only are the results of an action-orientated study reported here, but also there is an extensive set of guiding principles that could enable the reform to be truly actualised.     

Language teacher education for intercultural understanding

Over recent decades language teaching and learning has undergone a redefinition of the subject and a rapid change in its methodology. Language programmes can now be delivered in technology‐based environments and communication at an international level can be a daily occurrence. This paper on the one hand analyses how these developments have extended and challenged the traditional roles and responsibilities of language teachers. On the other, it examines to what extent established models of language teacher education acknowledge and address the needs of language teachers today, in particular in relation to the integration of the intercultural dimension into language teaching and learning.

Au cours des récentes décennies l'enseignement–apprentissage des langues s'est vu redéfini et a connu une rapide évolution en matière de méthodologie. On peut aujourd'hui délivrer les cursus de langue par le moyen d'environnements technologiques, et il est devenu banal de communiquer internationalement de cette façon. Dans la présente étude nous cherchons d'une part à cerner les défis que présente cette évolution pour les rôles et responsabilités traditionnels des enseignants de langue. D'autre part nous demandons dans quelle mesure les modèles en vigueur en matière de formation des enseignants reconnaissent les nouveaux besoins de ceux‐ci, notamment en ce qui concerne l'intégration de la dimension interculturelle dans leur pratique.

Im Bereich Sprachenlehren und lernen haben sich in den letzten Jahrzehnten grundlegende Veränderungen ergeben, vor allem im Hinblick auf Methodologie. Sprachkurse können jetzt per Computer zu den Adressaten gebracht werden und Kommunikation über Grenzen hinweg wird potentiell zum alltäglichen Ereignis. Hier soll untersucht werden inwieweit diese Entwicklungen die traditionelle Rolle und den Verantwortungsbereich von Sprachenlehrer/innen erweitert und verändert haben. Darüberhinaus wird überprüft inwieweit die herkömmliche Ausbildung der Sprachenlehrer/innen den heutigen Anforderungen gerecht wird, vor allem im Hinblick auf die interkulturelle Dimension des Lehren und Lernens von Fremd‐ und Zweitsprachen.

En las últimas décadas la enseñanza y el aprendizaje de las lenguas ha pasado por una redefinición de su contenido y un rápido cambio en su metodología. Los programas de estudios se pueden realizar en entornos basados en las nuevas tecnologías y la comunicación a nivel internacional puede darse a diario. Este artículo de una parte analiza de qué manera estos cambios han ampliado y desafiado los papeles y las responsabilidades que los profesores de lenguas han tenido tradicionalmente. De otra parte, examina hasta qué punto los modelos que se han venido utilizando para la formación de profesores de idiomas reconocen y suplen sus necesidades en la actualidad, en particular en lo que se refiere a la integración de la dimensión intercultural en la enseñanza y el aprendizaje de las lenguas.