Liquid subjects: news media and public political pedagogy

The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship between news media and political education within consumer society. We argue that political education today needs to be understood as part of consumerism and media culture, in which individuals selectively expose themselves to and scrutinize various media representations not only of political issues, but also of political subjectivity and action. Individuals learn about how they might become political and act politically through their engagements with the news, in the context of the characteristics of liquid modernity, namely consumer culture, individualization, and choice. When examined through a lens of public pedagogy, political education becomes intertwined with consumer culture and the role of media in the education and socialization of political subjectivity. In this paper, we look at one example of the relationship between news and the education of political subjectivity by drawing from a larger research study, which examined the role of mainstream and alternative media in citizens’ political mobilization on climate change. We argue that news consumption is part of a public political pedagogy through which individuals negotiate becoming liquid subjects, that is, citizens who take a critical, monitorial, and individualistic consumer approach to becoming political and taking part in social change.     

Public education and the post-fordist accumulation regime: A case study of Australia

This paper discusses the current radical changes in the Australian education policy. Central to the argument is the claim that the radical restructuring of the public sector hastened the loss of the possibility of any critical evaluation of national policy.The paper argues that this shift has been forced on the Australian state by the objective conditions expressed in a new realignment of the dominant transnational capital with the subordinate domestic capital, and in the shifts in a global capacity for consumption. The argument is underpinned by the claim that a new, post-Fordist (or flexible specialization) regime of capital accumulation is at present replacing the Fordist regime of mass production and consumption.The paper further argues that in order to achieve the system-preferred changes in the Australian education policy, the Australian government introduced radical changes in the production rules of policy formation. This involved a narrowing of policy making context and, crucially, an exclusion of voices critical of the shift towards economic reductionism.This loss of a critical sensibility constitutes the central concern of this paper. To advance the argument, in Part One, the paper discusses the relationship between the Australian state and the post-Fordist objective conditions of capital accumulation. Part Two argues that the lack of intellectual tradition in Australian public life was at least partially responsible for the easy passage given to neoclassical economics perspective in becoming a dominant public policy paradigm. Part Three locates the role of education within the context of the European philosophical tradition. It provides the link between critical sensibility, the project of Western civilization (which clearly extends beyond the modern vs. postmodern dichotomy), and the role of public discourse. Finally, the paper argues that education policy needs to take the issue of critical sensibility seriously. For this reason, it needs to be informed by a desire to go beyond the mere technical fit between graduates and the workplace, and allow itself to be inspired by new ideas, and new ways of seeing.     

“文学圈”模式与英语专业大学生思辨能力的发展

英语专业大学生缺乏思辨能力是一种普遍现象,因此,培养学生的思辨能力应引起教育界足够的重视。“文学圈”教学模式能从多方面促进英语专业大学生思辨能力的发展,使他们的综合能力和综合素质得到全方位提高。     

打破常规,积极寻求与“巨人”同行——以青岛职业技术学院为例探讨校企合作深化

现时的校企合作要求院校要创新思路打破常规,在双方合作过程中优先考虑企业利益,在这一前提下努力寻求共赢。大胆革新,实行春夏秋冬四学期制,使学生实习实训适应企业实际生产需要;与企业开展深入的、多层面的合作;依托行业协会,充分利用行业优势。只有解放思想打破常规才能使校企合作双方都得益,从而使双方合作深入进行。     

Teaching Critical Reading in Chinese EFL Classrooms

This paper aims at proposing some instructional suggestions for incorporating critical reading strategy into Chinese EFL class rooms. It analyzes the current situation of college English reading instruction and points out the possibilities and significance of teaching crit ical reading to L2 learners. It attempts to raise both English language teachers’and students’awareness in using critical reading strategy and to provide them with some feasible suggestions for applying this strategy into the real classroom practice.     

Critical Discourse Analysis of Spoken Business Negotiations

Critical discourse analysis is mainly used to analyse institutional discourses. The author tries to use this theory to analyse spoken business negotioaions, which is rarely done.This kind of analysis will surely give readers some insight into the negotiations from the critical aspect, and also give some inspiration to the teaching of business negotiations.     

Supervising the Teacher Education Practicum: A Self-Study with a Critical Friend

ABSTRACT

If the practicum is the most valued element of a teacher education program, how good is each teacher candidate’s learning and how well is it supported by the university supervisor? While most self-studies of teacher education practices focus on practices in the university classroom, this article reports an analysis of a supervisor’s practices, with special attention to underlying assumptions of the supervisor. Data permitted identification of patterns in the supervisor’s pedagogy and in teacher candidates’ responses to that pedagogy. The supervisor’s underlying assumptions and the contribution of conversations with a critical friend were identified. A table was constructed to contrast the assumptions in two stances toward supervision, one characterized as transmission and the other as interpretation. Conclusions emphasize the importance of listening to each candidate’s voice and including a metacognitive element in a supervisory conversation after a lesson observation.     

Toward College Success: Internalizing Active and Dynamic Strategies

Abstract. This article describes a university course, Methods of Inquiry, that teaches strategies and techniques for students to become self-regulated learners and thereby enhance their active and dynamic approach to school. The purpose of this study was to examine if this course was successful in increasing the students' learning strategies. Pre- and post-tests were administered to 680 students over four semesters, and results verify that the course did significantly increase the students' learning strategies. Demographic variables were shown not to have a significant impact on student learning strategies. This article concludes with a discussion of the transferability of this skill and the benefits it has to high education retention rates.     

Ratings of Professional Journals by Teachers of Management

Teachers are encouraged to critically evaluate their philosophy of teaching and to help students recognize and examine their implicit ideas about education as well. This critical evaluation entails examining assumptions about teaching and learning, investigating the implications that follow from those assumptions, and considering alternative ideas about teaching and learning that might better fit educational objectives and practices. A four-step process is suggested that may help facilitate this form of critical analysis, attenuate any clashes of teaching philosophies that might take place between teachers and students, and reduce the unwanted compromises that often ensue.     

Numinous Moments in the Classroom

Abstract

Service learning combines community service with academic learning. Students learn and develop critical thinking through active participation in organized service experiences. The purpose of this study was to describe the growth of 94 nursing students' critical thinking through service-learning experiences. Results revealed two major themes: development of both professional and community perspectives. Outcomes of the study provide a framework for developing service-learning experiences across the curriculum.