Marxist state theory and state autonomy theory: the case of ‘race’ education in initial teacher education

Abstract

In recent times, there have been a number of critiques of Marxist and neo‐Marxist analyses of the state and education policy. These have drawn on postmodernist, ‘quasi‐postmodernist’ and state autonomy perspectives. While the postmodernist and ‘quasi‐postmodernist’ approaches have attracted critical response, to date, the state autonomy perspective has, to our knowledge, gone unchallenged. To address this theoretical lacuna, this paper analyses one writer's attempt, via an historical case study, to uphold state autonomy theory by detailing the ongoing relationship between one quasi‐state agency and the practice of ‘race’ education in initial teacher education. We argue that there are serious conceptual weaknesses in this latest attempt to apply state autonomy theory to educational policy analysis. The arguments in the case study under consideration are seriously compromised by a basically flawed hypothesis, a misrepresentation of contemporary (neo‐) Marxist education policy analysis and by a failure to look at ‘the big picture’.     

Making Sense in Art Lessons

Meaning in the arts has been explained in terms of the ‘linguistic/cognitive’ metaphor, that is as a product of a framework of conventions, rules and symbols, of shared conceptualisations with a clearly defined ‘conceptual space’. Sense in a work of art is dependent upon this framework and only by conventionalising pupils into it will they be able to communicate meaning. The problem is that the arts take their audience beyond the framework, beyond the boundaries of sense. The question then becomes how the arts continue to have meaning, paradoxically, to continue to make sense even though they have exceeded its boundaries. The solution to this problem, it is argued, lies in the way that the arts appeal directly to our uniquely human ability to reflect on commonly experienced feelings and to consequently transcend particular frameworks of meaning. Rather than meaning being subject to frameworks within which experience and artistic intention are seen to be made possible, I argue that experience has an autonomous presence in art, a presence that enables meaning to be communicated with spontaneity and immediacy.     

The StartwithXML Project: Understand the Point and Path to a Digital Workflow

To pursue emerging revenue opportunities in the most cost-efficient way (or sometimes to be able to pursue them at all), book publishers are going to have to adopt a StartwithXML workflow. That means their content needs to live in an XML-structured document from the earliest possible moment, which could be “inception”, and carry within it metadata about the document structure, the content itself, and the rights to all components. The tools exist to do this, but the organizational challenges of changing workflows and inventing new procedures are daunting. This project explores the business case and the implementation challenges, including case studies of companies who have already begun to work this way.     

Current Status of Research in Teaching and Learning Evolution: I. Philosophical/Epistemological Issues

Scholarship that addresses teaching and learning about evolution has rapidly increased in recent years. This review of that scholarship first addresses the philosophical/epistemological issues that impinge on teaching and learning about evolution, including the proper philosophical goals of evolution instruction; the correlational and possibly causal relationships among knowing, understanding, accepting, and believing; and the factors that affect student understanding, acceptance, and/or belief. Second, I summarize the specific epistemological issues involved, including empiricism, naturalism, philosophical vs methodological materialism, science vs religion as non-overlapping magisteria, and science as a way of knowing. Third, the paper critically reviews the strengths and weaknesses of the research tools available to measure the nature of science, epistemological beliefs, and especially the acceptance of evolution. Based on these findings, further research in these areas, especially study of the factors that cause lack of explanatory coherence as well as replications of studies that promise to explain current confusing findings about the interrelationships among student understanding, acceptance, and belief in evolution, are called for. In addition, this review calls for more longitudinal studies to delineate causal connections as well as improved measurement tools.     

形成性评价（Formative Assessment）的本质及其对教与学的影响

长期以来,很多学者一直倡导指导教学的评价,即通过评估学生需求和监测其学习进展,适当地设计学习顺序,调整教学策略,改良学习计划,以便有效地促进学习目标的完成。本研究调查了形成性评价在美国中学科学课中的实施情况,并分析其对学生学习进步的影响。研究表明,教师都在努力使用形成性评价来指导教学,而学生取得的成绩各不相同。     

Effects of reflection prompts on learning outcomes and learning behaviour in statistics education

Starting from difficulties that students display when they deal with correlation analysis, an e-learning environment (‘Koralle’) was developed. The design was inspired by principles of situated and example-based learning. In order to facilitate reflective processes and thus enhance learning outcomes, reflection prompts were integrated into the learning environment. A total of 57 university students were randomly assigned to two experimental conditions: 28 students were prompted to give reasons for their decisions while working within the learning environment (EG 1); and 29 students dealt with Koralle without being prompted (EG 2). The control group consisted of 67 students who had already attended regular statistics lectures but had no access to the e-learning environment. EG 1 scored significantly higher in the posttest than EG 2, and the effect was practically relevant and sustainable. Reflection prompts did not influence time on task, task choices and motivational outcomes. Both experimental groups clearly outperformed the control group.     

Who is using the .co.uk domain? Professional and media adoption of the web

This paper reports on a survey of 221 web sites chosen at random from a subset of the .co.uk area of the Internet. A breakdown of the types of business represented shows that whilst computing companies continue to have a sizeable presence on the web, certain other types of business now also have a relatively large number of sites. The survey found many media-related businesses and professional-based companies and practices, reflecting the increasing use of Information Technology in these areas but also the increasing knowledge about the Internet that is needed or helpful in many types of job. The results are consistent with general business use of the web in the UK still being in an experimental phase of web site creation by those who can rather than by those who should.     

The Relationship Between Some Psychological Factors and their Effect on the Performance of Grid Questions and Word Association Tests

This paper reports: (i) the relationship between certain psychological factors (i.e. field dependence/field independence, convergence/divergence and working memory capacity); and (ii) the effect of these factors on the performance of the grid-type of questions and of word association tests in biological concepts.