Writing Up and Down: The Language of Educational Research

There is a marked tendency in educational research to marginalise the written word, and to be wary of what I here call its ‘writerliness’: its capacity to go beyond the prosaic and the utilitarian, where meaning is understood largely in terms of the success of language in reflecting reality. I note various symptoms of this in the world of educational research, but especially in standard textbooks of educational research method, where the ambition to eliminate writing is particularly evident. In its second half the paper turns to educational research as the investigation less of causes than of meaning. Here writing—finding the right words—is itself research, rather than a process that is first performed according to various protocols of method and then ‘written up’. I draw on an illuminating discussion of this in Raimond Gaita's Introduction to recent editions of Peter Winch's The Idea of a Social Science and apply it to current debate over discipline in UK schools.     

An Information Scanning Approach for Learning to Work on the Internet

Access to global information fundamentally alters the information scanning function of decision-makers. The flattening of the management pyramid means information scanning of external sources is being performed by personnel in middle and lower levels of management, not only in the traditional senior management level. Both graduate and undergraduate classes in information systems can effectively address the use of external information scanning through the teaching of Internet skills. This paper presents the course outline for a class in Global Communication Networks where a project-oriented approach was used to teach web-based skills. The importance of global information systems in decision-making and the use of the Internet as an information resource were emphasized in this class. A survey of students in the class found that this approach was successful in improving the perceived value of Internet-related tools for information scanning and professional decision-making.     

On Diffidence: the Moral Psychology of Self-Belief

The language of self-belief, including terms like shyness and diffidence, is complex and puzzling. The idea of self-esteem in particular, which has been given fresh currency by recent interest in 'personalised learning', continues to create problems. I argue first that we need a 'thicker' and more subtle moral psychology of self-belief; and, secondly, that there is a radical instability in the ideas and concepts in this area, an instability to which justice needs to be done. I suggest that aspects of deconstruction are helpful here, and offer a deconstructive reading of Kipling's poem, If —, in order to illustrate the power of literature and a certain kind of philosophy to destabilise and resist closure.     

Integrating DSM-III-R Training Into School,Marriage and Family,and Mental Health Counselor Preparation

The authors discuss integrating Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (3rd edition, revised; DSM-III-R; American Psychiatric Association, 1987) training into the school, marriage and family, and mental health counseling tracks of a master's level program that was designed according to Council for Accreditation of Counseling and Related Educational Programs standards.     

International Aid Agencies,Learner-centred Pedagogy and Political Democratisation: A critique

Recent pronouncements by international aid agencies on their interest in and preference for a learner-centred pedagogy so far appear not to have attracted much scholarly attention. This paper attempts to explain this interest. It argues that although the efficacy of the pedagogy is often couched in cognitive/educational terms, in essence, its efficacy lies in its political and ideological nature. The fact that the aid agencies' interest in the pedagogy became explicit soon after the fall of the Berlin Wall is in itself significant. The paper argues that aid agencies' apparent lack of interest in pedagogical issues before 1989 lay partially in the very central hypothesis of the modernisation theory of development which became enshrined in policies of aid agencies soon after the latter were created. The hypothesis, coupled with human capital theory, viewed education in technicist terms. However, the ascendancy of neo-liberalism as a development paradigm in the 1980s and 1990s elevated political democratisation as a prerequisite for economic development. Education, then, assumed a central role in the democratisation project. Given its democratic tendencies, learner-centred pedagogy was a natural choice for the development of democratic social relations in the schools of aid-receiving countries. Aid agencies, therefore, had to be explicit about their preference for the pedagogy. Thus, the pedagogy is an ideological outlook, a worldview intended to develop a preferred kind of society and people. It is in this sense that it should be seen as representing a process of Westernisation disguised as quality and effective teaching.