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.     

A ‘break with tradition’ in interwar teacher education

British teacher education in the interwar years was a contested field, dominated numerically by women but regulated by the Board of Education. The traditional perception of women’s residential training colleges was that they were autocratic and socially isolated. By focusing on Gipsy Hill Training College (GHTC), the first specialist training college for nursery school teachers, and its foundation principal, Lillian de Lissa, I challenge this perception. I explore the relationships between young women students’ social worlds, teacher educators’ understandings, teacher education curriculum and GHTC’s institutional culture. The main argument is that under de Lissa’s leadership GHTC was a socially and educationally progressive and democratic institution that focused on shaping students’ identities as women, teachers and citizens.     

ePedagogy as a threshold concept: a reflection on a programme for Science Teaching Assistants

Abstract

A Science Teaching Assistant (TA) Programme, at the University of the Western Cape (UWC), focused on preparing promising lecturers. A key component of this programme was the contribution by the Centre for Innovative Education and Communication Technologies (CIECT), which promoted the pedagogical adoption of eTools to assist development of Science TAs. A questionnaire enabled TAs to reflect on the eTools and CIECT’s sessions. The authors reflect on academic developer roles in higher education. Within CIECT’s contribution, ePedagogy was identified as a threshold concept that the TAs found challenging, but that could lead to transformed and improved teaching and learning.     

Participation and Popular Control on School Governing Bodies: the case of the Taylor Report and its aftermath

This paper argues that in making sense of events leading up to and following the Taylor Report which recommended changes in school management in England and Wales, a number of principles should be borne in mind. First, that instances of policy‐change such as this can not be fully understood except in the context of contemporary economic events and social circumstances. Secondly, that it is useful to view policy‐change as the outcome of ideological struggle entered into by classes and class fractions in relative accord with one another. Thirdly, that the effects of changes in education policy are not pre‐given, but depend upon the intentions and practices of those associated with their implementation.