The Objectives and Organisation of Educational and Day Care Services for Young Children

ABSTRACT

Within the changed political discourse of the last few years there has been serious consideration of whether a publicly provided education system is. either necessary or desirable. The case is made for allowing the ‘social market’ to provide. The changeover to such a system could be effected in many ways, from a new national policy enshrined in statute, to the gradual extension of the private sector and greater ‘privatisation’ of the maintained sector through more and more dependence on parental and other private contributions. The role of the public, maintained sector could thus at one extreme disappear altogether and at other points on the spectrum become residuary (providing those services the market will not provide) or subsidiary. In any of these cases I believe there would be a loss to our democracy, to our ways of living and working together and to our view of the worth of the individual. The purpose of this paper is to examine what might be the justification for a public system of education, that is, one designed to give all citizens access to education through arrangements made by publicly accountable bodies.

     

The endorsement of evasive leaders: An exploratory study

This study explored the question: When can a politician evasively respond to a request for his commitments without losing endorsement? The results suggested that high issue involvement on the part of an audience, and high language intensity on the part of a politician provide two opportunities for evasion without losing endorsement.     

RTI models as alternatives to traditional views of learning disabilities: Response to the commentaries

Two commentaries in this issue, one by Torgesen and one by Fuchs and Fuchs, are largely supportive of our views of the value of implementing response to intervention (RTI) models in schools. In contrast, Reynolds and Shaywitz's criticisms of RTI represent traditional and often nonempirical views of learning disabilities (LDs). The evidence base on RTI is not empty, and Reynolds and Shaywitz fail to provide research support for their views of either LDs or RTI.     

How are action researchers contributing to knowledge democracy? A global perspective

ABSTRACT

Although action research has been widely recognized as an appropriate methodology for promoting the democratization of knowledge, it is not always conducted from an emancipatory and transformative paradigm. Using AR in a technical way, renders it no more than a researcher-driven, problem-solving heuristic that perpetuates the intellectual colonization of local knowledge. This begs the question: how can action researchers work in ways that are contextually and culturally relevant, and generate knowledge that enables people to take control of improving their own lives as they see fit? This paper presents a thematic analysis of the narrative reports from seven participatory workshops held around the world for the purpose of dialoging around this and related questions. Findings indicate that, generally, action researchers are indeed facing challenges on many personal, institutional and epistemic levels as they endeavor to promote knowledge derived from the principles of authentic participation and dialogue with those whom it is intended to benefit. However, the analysis also reveals creative responses of practitioners to these challenges. In keeping with the special issue theme, we offer this analysis as a starting point for further discussion around how we can mobilize knowledge for equitable social progress.