SIMONE DE BEAUVOIR: THE PHILOSOPHY OF LIVED EXPERIENCE

Abstract Simone de Beauvoir, best known outside France as a leading modern feminist theorist, is also recognized as a writer of literature, philosophy, and drama. In this essay, James D. Marshall aims to present Beauvoir, not as a mere entry in the history of French philosophy, nor as an under‐laborer to Jean‐Paul Sartre, but as someone who has important philosophical insights to contribute to ongoing debates on the human condition, including those concerned with education. Central to these debates are issues such as what does it mean to be an individual human being and what characterizes the relations between individuals and others and between individuals and society. Marshall argues that Beauvoir can participate in such philosophical and educational debates, for philosophy of education has major interests in such questions as who or what is this “person” whom we profess to be educating, what kind of person or outcome of education is desirable, and in what kind of society should these individuals take part?     

Local partnerships: blowing in the wind of national policy changes

Drawing on data from a three‐year study (2008–2011) of partnerships of schools and colleges delivering the 14–19 Diplomas in England, this article examines how the dynamics of local partnerships were shaped by a contradictory policy landscape in which some policies strongly promoted collaborative working whilst others reinforced competition between institutions. Semi‐structured interviews with 136 Diploma consortium leads and case studies of 30 Diploma consortia were undertaken. Most partnerships founded in direct response to government demands for collaboration were strategically and operationally less effective than those that had been formed earlier as a positive, dynamic response to locally identified interests/needs and had evolved over time. When key levers towards collaboration were removed by the new UK Coalition government (2010) and new policies restated the arguments for institutional autonomy and competition between institutions, the fragility of the ‘enacted’ partnerships became immediately apparent. Although members of Diploma consortia with a history of effective partnership working remained committed to the principle of collaboration, other policy developments such as the introduction of the English Baccalaureate and the recommendations of the Wolf Review on vocational education contributed to uncertainty about whether partnership working could, or indeed should, be sustained.     

“Maybe he's on the toy train”: empathising and systemising in an encounter with David Macaulay's Black and White

This study explores the responses of Abby, a young person with autism, to David Macaulay's 1990 picturebook Black and White. Although both picturebook researchers and autism practitioners focus on the importance of encouraging empathetic responses to fictional characters, I build on Louise Collins' argument that Macaulay's work offers an opportunity to develop a different kind of " moral literacy" (2002, p.31). Different ways of practising and understanding perspective‐taking in relation to fiction are considered in light of Abby's responses to Black and White and to fiction more generally. This study, in considering its own weaknesses, also offers a critique of the typical approaches to picturebook research whereby taking the perspective of fictional characters is sometimes seen as indicative of reading competence.     

Generational influences on contemporary curriculum thought

Using generational theory, this paper explores the genealogical and ideational evolution of the contemporary curriculum field. The authors use dramatis personae to explore the clashes that occurred preceding, during, and after the 'renaissance' of the curriculum field, concluding with a discussion of the next generation of curriculum workers who are coming to prominence during the millennium.