Investigating agentive urban learning: an assembly of situated experiences for sustainable futures

ABSTRACT

In this article we explore the dynamic between the pedagogical and the urban, attending to ‘agentive urban learning’. By this we mean processes by which young people build agency in the urban context, in using the resources of the city to develop their own agency, and of developing agency to act within the city. By agency, we refer to the capacity to imagine and act to create individual and collective futures. Our interest is how young people develop such agentive urban learning themselves and how it might be enhanced pedagogically at school and university. Three case studies explore different facets—the first how young people themselves develop this agency in situated settings and the tools that they use to reflect upon the future; the second how digital tools might be used to enhance students’ understanding of the city as a site of change, in this instance, climate change; and the third how such agency might be developed collectively in partnership with other city dwellers. We conclude that a diversity of students’ engagement in urban contexts of learning offers ways from which to further investigate how identity, setting, and stakeholder relationships matter as part of potentially sustainable agentive learning futures.     

Sporting knowledge and the problem of knowing how

In the Concept of Mind from 1949 Gilbert Ryle (1949/1963) distinguished between knowing how and knowing that. What was Ryle’s basic idea and how is the discussion going on in philosophy today? How can sport philosophy use the idea of knowing how? My goal in this paper is first to bring Ryle and the post-Rylean discussion to light and then show how phenomenology can give some input to the discussion. The article focuses especially on the two main interpretations of knowing how, intellectualism and anti-intellectualism. In the second part of the article I discuss how views from phenomenology and philosophy of mind can enrich and widen our understanding of what knowing how means in relation to sport practices. It is argued that knowing how is not limited to athletic abilities but includes knowledge of how the environing world operates in relation to athletic action.     

From ‘philosophy of sport’ to ‘philosophies of sports’? History,identity and diversification of sport philosophy

My goal in this article is to give a portrait of how modern sport philosophy, which started in 1972, developed from relatively narrow paradigmatic borders to become a diverse and multi-paradigmatic international discipline. This development has included several changes but also some continuity. I identify three main tenets that may be viable in the future. One is to focus on the traditional sport philosophical paradigm, which had an ambition to identify the essence of sport. A second option is to develop more specific approaches, focusing on single sports or types of sport, like football or climbing. A third alternative is to develop a philosophy, not only of sport but of ‘homo movens’, studying the moving human being in different environmental and socio-cultural contexts. All three options are viable and should be welcomed.     

Does Self-image Matter? Client’s Self-image, Behaviour and Evaluation of a Career Counselling Session: An Exploratory Study

This exploratory study addresses differences in self-image as a client characteristic in career counselling by using the Structural Analysis of Social Behaviour (Benjamin, L., Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 64(6), 1203–1212, 1996; Benjamin, L., Journal of Personality Assessment, 66(2), 248–266, 1996) and an adaptation (Andersson, W.P, and Niles, S.P., The Career Development Quarterly, 48(3), 251–263, 2000) of the Therapist Intention List (Hill C. E and O’Grady K. E., Journal of Counseling Psychology, 32(1), 3–22, 1985; Hill et al., Journal of Counseling Psychology, 35(3), 222–233, 1988). Expected and experienced behaviour of self and other, recalled helpful and non-helpful events during sessions, and evaluation of sessions were compared between two clients with identified positive self-image and two clients with identified negative self-image. The results indicated that the clients with a positive self-image compared to clients with a negative self-image expected more positive behaviours and experienced more positive in-session behaviours from both themselves and from the counsellor; they recalled more positive and fewer negative events in-session and they evaluated their session more positively. Implications for career counselling are discussed.