Play in the house of order: The Necessary Stage's BrainStorm

Abstract

This article opens up the question of modernity in relation to Yan’an woodcuts by recounting the Matisse debate among artists in Yan’an circa 1942, during the War of Resistance against Japanese occupation. Yan’an woodcuts did not move in a direction akin to the stylistic reform engaged by Western modernism; instead they pushed modern Chinese woodcuts to develop according to the requirements of ‘national form.’ Yan’an woodcut artists’ exploration of ‘national form’ involved a synthesis of folk aesthetics and woodcut techniques with the creation of modern‐style woodcuts, and a synthesis of revolutionary content with the artistic expression of national form. In this way a new kind of artistic ideal was realized. Compared with contemporary artistic questions in the West, the formal questions of Chinese revolutionary art surpassed the artistic as such to support rich social content and revolutionary discourse. The establishment of national language in art accords with the desire and imagination to construct of a new kind of modern nation‐state.     

Developing a Reform-Minded Science Teaching Identity: The Role of Informal Science Environments

Recommendations for reform in science education around the world set high goals for beginning elementary teachers. Concurrently, existing literature indicates a number of challenges that beginning elementary teachers face. In this paper an argument is put forward about the integration of informal science environments in elementary teacher preparation, as a means for supporting beginning elementary teachers develop reform-minded science teaching identities. Essentially, the purpose of this paper is to explore the links between teacher identity, reform recommendations, and informal science environments. In doing so, a discussion of the theoretical construct of teacher identity in conjunction with reform recommendations is offered, followed by a summary of existing literature about the challenges that beginning elementary teachers face. Subsequently, the advantages and unique opportunities that informal science environments offer for teacher learning and development are discussed through a review of related literature. Following this review, a set of theoretical and methodological limitations of existing literature are identified. Based on these limitations, a research agenda is framed to address the theoretical, methodological and research implications that the idea of integrating informal science environments and approaches to elementary teacher preparation holds.     

Art School Building: the Old/New Chelsea

In the wake of the recent demolition of the 1965 Chelsea School of Art building on Manresa Road in London, this article seeks to explore the relationship between art school architecture and art school pedagogy. Research on art school buildings, both national and international, and British art school education of the 1960s, is brought to bear, on the former ‘New School of Art in Chelsea’ building. In addition to an account of how this building came about, drawn from archival records and interviews with architects and former Chelsea students and staff, the correlation of utopianist values in post‐war British society, modernist architecture and higher education in art is examined. The reports of the National Advisory Council on Art Education (NACAE), which, in the 1960s, ushered in fundamental changes to British art education, are touched upon, and an account of the building design developed between art educationalists (including Chelsea Principal Lawrence Gowing and Chairman of the NACAE William Coldstream) and architects of the London County Council, is given. Photographs of the building, in the 1960s and during its demolition in 2010, are included. In addition to a historical account and case‐study, and despite the difficulties inherent, art school building is approached as an imaginative and socio‐political gesture, as a utopian act; ‘art school building’ in both senses (‘building’ as a verb and as a noun).     

Practice-Based Design of Information Systems: Notes from the Hyperdeveloped World

This paper offers reflections on information systems design based in everyday practices. Drawing on experience in what I name the hyperdeveloped world of industrial research and development in the United States, I outline a series of concerns, organized under the themes of information flows, local improvisations and work practices. I then offer a set of alternative understandings of change and innovation that underwrite a practice-based design approach. These include a view of innovation as indigenous to technologiesin-use, an emphasis on the investments needed to create sustainable change, and an orientation to artful integration as an objective for information systems design.     

The effect of Braille orthography on blind children’s phonological awareness

Little is known about the phonological awareness and literacy skills of children who are blind. Fifteen 7–12 year old blind children were assessed on standardised measures of intelligence, spelling and reading. They performed poorer when reading than their chronological age would predict. Their phonological awareness skills were compared with a sighted group matched for chronological age (CA). The blind children performed poorer than the CA matched group. In a second experiment, the effect of Braille orthography on phonological awareness was investigated by comparing blind and CA matched children’s ability to segment heard words, which are written in Braille with and without contractions. Words with Braille contractions were less well segmented by the blind children. The results suggest that the nature of the orthography learned affects phonological awareness.