WHITE COMPLICITY AND SOCIAL JUSTICE EDUCATION: CAN ONE BE CULPABLE WITHOUT BEING LIABLE?

A bstract .  In part of an ongoing study of white complicity, moral responsibility, and moral agency in social justice education, Barbara Applebaum asks in this essay what model or models of moral responsibility can help white students recognize their white complicity and which models of moral responsibility obscure such acknowledgment. To address this question, she explores the concept of white complicity and its relation to racism and raises some compelling conceptual and pedagogical questions. Then she reviews a recent analysis of the concept of "complicity" and shows it to be inadequate as a foundation for white complicity. Finally, Applebaum describes Iris Marion Young's conception of a Social Connection Model of Responsibility and shows it to be capable not only of elucidating white complicity but also, when incorporated in social justice pedagogy, of diminishing denials of white complicity by white students.     

Gender and attitudes to work and family roles: the views of young people at the millennium

The last century, in particular the latter half, saw radical shifts in the roles and expectations of women in society. This article investigates the views of 14‐ to 16‐year‐olds in the year 2000 on work and family roles, exploring both their general views on gender roles and their own personal aspirations for the future. In general the young people believed that it was equally important for males and females to get good qualifications at school, to have worthwhile careers and that childcare should be a joint responsibility. They also believed that males and females could do any job they wanted to these days. Their views were tempered, however, by the inequalities that they saw around them in the workplace and in their own families. While young people’s attitudes may have changed, they are still choosing fairly gender‐typical subjects at school and aspiring to different types of occupation. The article concludes that while great strides have been made in changing attitudes towards gender equality, there is still a long way to go before equal opportunities are really achieved.     

Access to higher education in the Federal Republic of Germany and the United States

Despite some important differences between the higher education systems of the Federal Republic of Germany and the United States, they share a number of comparable problems, especially in the field of access. The competitiveness of admission in certain faculties and disciplines in both countries and at the more prestigious and selective institutions in the U.S. raise serious questions about the proper balance between meritocratic and egalitarian policies. It is emphasized that access policies cannot be determined in a vacuum because of their close relationship to other factors in higher education institutions and systems.

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Zusammenfassung Trotz einiger wichtiger Unterschiede in den höheren Bildungssystemen der Bundesrepublik Deutschland und den Vereinigten Staaten teilen sie einige vergleichbare Probleme, insbesondere auf dem Gebiet des Zugangs. Die Konkurrenz bei der Zulassung zu gewissen Fakultäten und Institutionen in beiden Ländern, und zu prestigeträchtigen und selektiven Institutionen in den U.S.A. wirft ernste Fragen auf über das richtige Gleichgewicht zwischen bildungspolitischen Entscheidungen nach dem Prinzip des Verdiensts und solchen nach dem Prinzip der Chàncengleichheit. Es wird betont, dass Zulassungsfragen wegen ihres engen Zusammenhangs mit anderen Faktoren in höheren Bildungsinstitutionen nicht im luftleeren Raum entschieden werden können.

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Résumé Malgré certaines différences importantes entre les systèmes d'éducation supérieure de la République fédérale d'Allemagne et des Etats-Unis, ces deux pays présentent un certain nombre de problèmes comparables, surtout en ce qui concerne l'admission. Le caractère compétitif de l'admission dans certaines facultés et disciplines des deux pays susmentionnés, et dans les institutions plus célèbres et plus sélectives des Etats-Unis, soulèvent d'importantes questions sur l'équilibre approprié entre les politiques méritocratiques et égalitaires. On souligne que les politiques d'admission ne peuvent pas être déterminées dans le vide, à cause de leurs rapports étroits avec d'autres facteurs dans les institutions et systèmes d'enseignement supérieur.

     

Text as Body,Body as Text

... there are ways that the sexuality and corporeality of the subject leave their traces in the texts produced, just as ... the processes of textual production also leave their trace or residue on the body ...

(Grosz, 1995, p. 21)

     

Exploring the context of strengths – a new approach to strength-based assessment

Since the 1990s many strength-based assessments (for example, inventories, checklists, interview schedules) have been developed for use with children and young people, but these have offered a limited appraisal of the contexts in which strengths are present. In this study a new form of contextualised strength-based assessment was used within the routine practice of an educational psychologist. A multiple case study explored how this approach worked with eight children and young people referred to a local authority educational psychology team, ranging in age from 6.9 to 19.2 years. Qualitative data were analysed holistically using a story-board method. In all cases, participants identified situations or contexts which they associated with the presence of specific strengths. In some cases they highlighted aspects of a situation which might be hypothesised to have pedagogical value. There is discussion of the tensions that can arise in using this approach in schools when a more negative view of a pupil has already emerged. Nevertheless, the introduction of fresh information, about the type of contexts which suited specific children and young people, was helpful in providing ideas and recommendations which may have otherwise been missed.     

Enhancing parent-child relationship through dialogic reading

Dialogic reading (DR) has been identified as an effective strategy for enhancing children’s literacy skills in Western and Asian contexts. Given that storytelling is a shared experience between adults and children, parent–child relationships is hypothesised to be enhanced by DR. Despite this possibility, there has been no systematic attempt to examine the possible impacts of DR on the parent–child relationship. This study bridges this gap in the literature by studying the relationship between adults and children before and after training in the practice of dialogic reading techniques. Forty-eight Cantonese-speaking parents with children aged between 3 and 12 were recruited from schools. They were assessed prior to and after undergoing a four-hour dialogic reading training programme with a two-hour follow-up session using the Parent–Child Relationship Inventory. The results of this study suggest that DR has considerable potential for improving parent–child relationships. The findings are discussed in relation to the situation of Chinese learners in the Hong Kong context.     

Assessment of Science Teaching Efficacy of Preservice Teachers in an Australian University

Research investigating science teaching efficacy was conducted in 1 Australian university. A sample of 314 elementary preservice teachers responded to the Science Teaching Efficacy Belief Instrument (STEBI; L. G. Enochs & I. M. Riggs, 1990), which assesses 2 teaching efficacy dimensions: Personal Science Teaching Efficacy Beliefs (PSTEB) and Science Teaching Outcome Expectancy (STOE). Confirmatory factor analysis substantiated this 2-factor structure. The use of this instrument revealed that the completion of 2 science teaching subjects within the preservice program had a significant effect on the PSTEB, but not the STOE. Similarly, the number of high school science subjects studied by these elementary preservice teachers had a significant effect on PSTEB, but not STOE. However, neither gender nor the particular high school science subjects studied by these elementary preservice teachers had a significant effect on either the PSTEB or the STOE.     

A qualitative study of middle school students' perceptions of factors facilitating the learning of science: Grounded theory and existing theory

The purpose of this study was to explore middle school students' perceptions of what factors facilitated their learning of science. Florida's Educational Reform Act of 1983 funded programs providing the state's precollege students with summer learning opportunities in science. mathematics, and computers. The programs were intended to encourage the development of creative approaches to the teaching of these disciplines. Under this program, between 50 and 60 high-achieving middle school students were in residence on the University of South Florida campus for 12 consecutive days of study in the World of Water (WOW) program. There were two sessions per summer involving a total of 572 participants. Eighi specially trained teachers were in residence with the students. Between 50 and 70 experts from the university, government. business, and industry interacted with the students each year in an innovative science/technology/society (STS) program. An assignment toward the close of the program asked students to reflect on their experiences in residence at the university and write an essay comparing learning in the WOW program to learning in their schools. Those essays were the base for this study. This was a qualitative study using a discursive approach to emergent design to generate grounded theory. Document review, participant observation, and open-ended interviews were used to gather and triangulate data in five phases. Some of the factors that middle school students perceived as helpful to learning science were (a) experiencing the situations about which they were learning; (b) having live presentations by professional experts; (c) doing hands-on activities: (d) being active learners; (e) using inductive reasoning to generate new knowledge; (f) exploring transdisciplinary approaches to problem solving; (g) having adult mentors; (h) interacting with peers and adults; (i) establishing networks; (j) having close personal friends who shared their interest in learning; (k) trusting the individuals in their learning environment, including adults and students; and (1) experiencing a sense of self-reliance. The preceding information was used to generate a series of hypotheses which were woven into a theoretical model. This model suggests that middle school science teacher education would be enhanced by helping prospective and in-service teachers develop and implement strategies that build trust, provide immersion in learning, and use inductive reasoning. This model is currently being used as the theoretical base to convert a traditional junior high school in the South to a middle school.     

Mutual Benefits or Managerial Control? The Role of Appraisal in Performance Related Pay for Teachers

In its proposals for a Performance Related Pay (PRP) scheme for teachers the Labour Government has presented appraisal as having a dual role. It is to be used to determine the pay of teachers making reference to quantitative targets; and to facilitate teachers'professional development. This article examines the tensions between these two functions of appraisal.