Pulled Up Short: Challenging Self-Understanding as a Focus of Teaching and Learning

Much light has been shed on important features of teaching and learning by Alasdair MacIntyre's writings. Yet there are experiences that are crucial to teaching and learning that are unaddressed in MacIntyre's arguments; experiences that reveal education as a distinctive kind of practice. This paper examines one kind of such experience: an experience I call 'being pulled up short'. Drawing on the work of Hans-Georg Gadamer and Gerald L. Bruns, I analyse an example of teaching King Lear to argue that being pulled up short is a unique experience of disorientation that cannot be taught merely by pedagogical skill, including the modern tools and approaches provided by constructivist learning theory and meta-cognition. The paper concludes by identifying challenges that being pulled up short poses for the education of disposition, and for the aims and activities of teaching.     

Cyborg and autism: exploring new social articulations via posthuman connections

This paper explores the connections a young man with autism spectrum (AS) made using cyborg imagery having attended school in Nova Scotia, Canada. Cyborg is applied as a conceptual approach to explore the young man’s connections to human and nonhuman elements. We also make use of rhizomes as a methodological framework to support the exploration of the young man’s multiplicity of experiences with cyborg configurations. Data are drawn from a semi-structured interview with the young man where he demonstrated his capacity to employ cyborg imagery as a means to rearticulate his social identity when experiencing school on the periphery. A diffractive reading of the data produced alternative understandings outside contemporary thought on his schooling experiences. Findings challenge educators in applying cyborg to cut across static social categories and theorize new social knowledge on the experiences of students with AS.     

Early Childhood Education in Societal Context: Teachers in Three Countries Speak About Early Childhood Education

Building on the cross-cultural patterns and systems research as well as social constructivism, in-depth interviews were conducted with key informant early childhood teachers in three regions with similar characteristics in Sweden, Russia, and in the United States. Inductive analyses revealed differences in responses among Swedish, Russian and American informants related to the macro-, meso-, and micro-levels of societal system. United States teacher informants had a great number of separate topic comments and distributed them more evenly across all levels than did Russian and Swedish teacher informants who had more emphasis at the meso level. United States and Russian teacher informants discussed the lack of societal support for young children and their families, while Swedish teacher informants seemed to almost take this support for ranted. United States teacher informants suggested that early childhood programs were important in developing support networks among parents, while Russian teacher informants often gave information to parents and Swedish teachers spoke about mutually sharing information. United States teacher informants desired both strict rules with strong academic content and extension of the child's initiations through play; they emphasized activities and materials. Swedish teachers discussed a child- centered approach to social learning and creativity and desired to be with children rather than do activities with them. Russian teacher informants emphasized the importance of obedience, aesthetic education, and preparation for school and the labor of the larger society. These study outcomes deepen understanding about the multidemensional relationships between early childhood programs and societal contexts in which they are embedded, and they suggest alternative approaches to working with young children and their families.     

Directed forgetting in pigeons: Analysis of cue functions

In delayed matching-to-sample with pigeons, brief postsample cues signaled different trial outcomes. The normal comparison stimuli followed the cue to remember (R cue). In the comparison-omission procedure, comparison stimuli and reinforcement were omitted following the cue to forget (F cue). In the comparison-substitution procedure, comparison stimuli were replaced by a single stimulus and reinforcement for a single response following the F cue. Infrequent probe trials revealed that F cues disrupted matching, with the amount of accuracy loss dependent on the length of the cue-comparison delay. These results, however, were found only with the comparison-omission procedure (Experiment 1). Replacing the comparison stimuli with another simultaneous (unconditional) discrimination revealed no accuracy loss in F-cue probes (Experiment 2), even though choice latencies were again lengthened by F cues. These results suggest that, while the F cue interferes with performance at the time of a retention test by slowing choices, it also interferes with sample retention. Alternative models of the cuing effect and its apparent dependence on end-of-trial reward are outlined.     

Making Science Teaching and Learning Visible Through Web-Based “Snapshots of Practice”

Documentary websites known as “snapshots of practice” provide vivid examples of teachers’ inquiries into issues they have formulated in the context of their own teaching practices and students’ learning. Designed with assistance from Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, snapshots of practice can be accessed in the K–12 section of the Gallery of Teaching and Learning (). Analysis of prospective teachers’ reflections on science-related snapshots of practice indicate that this use of technology enhanced their understanding of inquiry-based approaches to instruction. The paper also illustrates how prospective teachers used an electronic toolkit, , to construct their own snapshots of practice in order to represent what they had learned in a course on methods of teaching science in elementary school.     

Defining Quality Child Care: Multiple Stakeholder Perspectives

Multiple perspectives regarding the definition of quality child care, and how child care quality can be improved, were examined using a focus group methodology. Participants were representatives from stakeholder groups in the child care profession, including child care center owners and directors (3 groups), parents (3 groups), child caregivers (3 groups), policy makers (1 group), and social service providers (1 group). Qualitative analysis revealed 6 components of quality that were consistently discussed across all participant groups: (a) communication and rapport, (b) caregiver practices, (c) staff characteristics, (d) finances and resources, (e) visibility and involvement, and (f) professionalism. Analyses highlighted differences among stakeholder groups and the complex interplay among quality components. Findings are compared to previously documented perspectives on child care quality, and a conceptual model is presented that (a) summarizes findings about how proximity to child impacts definitions of quality and (b) highlights the central role played by child care center directors. Implications for child care practice and policy are discussed.     

The nationalised and gendered citizen in a global world – examples from textbooks,policy and steering documents in Turkey and Sweden

This article analyses the construction of the gendered and nationalised citizen in education in Turkey and Sweden. We draw on a narrative approach identifying narratives linked to educational discourses. Our empirical data consist of textbooks (in the later years of mandatory schooling), steering documents and interviews. In both our cases, we encounter continuities in these narratives; the citizen is defined with ethno-cultural references along with civic ones, and differentiated according to gender. In the Turkish case, a meta-narrative is constructed around the narratives of enemy and defence related to masculinity, and the feminine as the object of protection. The gender regime is an important part of the processes of normalisation of nationalism. In Sweden, nationalism is formulated around the ‘Swedish miracle’, a social-welfare state, among the best democracies, and with a story of ‘gender success’. In both cases, we also found new narratives in line with Europeanisation processes.     

Understanding teacher instructional change: the case of integrating NGSS and stewardship in professional development

The environmental education (EE) field has encountered persistent challenges in fostering the integration of EE practices in public schools, a challenge that may be addressed through integration of EE with the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) in the United States. In addition to the potential for fostering EE, the integration of EE and NGSS may provide a unique set of conditions for understanding how and why teachers shift their practice to incorporate more EE in their classrooms. Using a mixed methodology research design, this study examines the outcomes and processes of a professional development institute that integrated NGSS and student-driven environmental stewardship. This study provides evidence that integrating NGSS Science and Engineering Practices with stewardship may help infuse EE into classrooms. The research also contributes to theoretical understanding of the processes by which professional development shapes teacher change within an organizational context. Specifically, teacher instructional change was predicated on a shift in their beliefs that stewardship was possible in a standards and accountability-based educational context. The requisite shift in beliefs came about through the expectations and supportive resources provided by the professional development, teacher observation of student engagement, and the justification NGSS integration provided for stewardship activities.