The Modular Condition: Technocracy,Art and Cultural Politics

Modularisation can be examined as a process of organisational change informed by particular discursive structures and conceptual problematics, both of which are related to questions of cultural politics and of power. Drawing on the work of Habermas and other critical social theorists, the paper argues that modularisation is dominantly informed by a ‘technocratic rationalist’ mode of thought, derived from the logics of science, technology and industry rather than contemporary art or other cultural practices. This is especially evident in the way modularisation prioritises a quantitative systems logic, relegates and de-realises educational content, and. contrary to its own rhetoric of diversity and choice, exercises a universalising drive through strategies of assimilation and extension. Crucially for art education, this identification suggests an intensified contradiction between the prevalent discourses and values of contemporary art, and those of educational organisation. The paper explores some of the implications of this contradiction for art education in the 1990s.     

The Absence of Knowledge in Australian Curriculum Reforms

This article draws on a study of Australian curriculum shifts between 1975 and 2005 to take up two themes of this special issue: the question about what conceptions of knowledge are now at work; and the consideration of global influences and national specificities in the reformulations of curriculum. It discusses two important approaches to curriculum in Australia in recent times, the 'Statements and Profiles' activity of the early 1990s, and the 'Essential Learnings' formulations of the past decade. The global tendencies we see at work in these two major approaches are, first, an increasing emphasis on externally managing and auditing student progress as a key driver of how curriculum policies are being constructed; and, secondly, a growing emphasis on approaching curriculum aims in terms of what students should be able to do rather than what they should know. We argue that in the contexts we discuss here, these approaches offered a way of marrying 1970s progressive views on child development and knowledge-as-process (views widely held by influential curriculum professionals in Australia) with late 20^th century technologies of micro-management and instrumental agendas favoured by politicians — but that many questions about knowledge were left off the agenda.     

Moments of Inclusion and Exclusion: pupils negotiating classroom contexts

This paper uses evidence from a small-scale study of two English primary school classrooms to examine school inclusion in its political contexts. We argue that ‘inclusion’ and ‘exclusion’ are complex processes, enacted moment-by-moment by pupils and teachers. Our focus is on the pupils' negotiation of these moments, and we examine how their negotiations are contingent on (although not determined by) a web of intersecting indices of ‘difference’, including differences of social class, ethnicity, gender/sexuality, perceived academic ability and physical appearance. We take a post-structuralist approach, well-known in feminist educational research but less often used in research and thinking about ‘inclusive’ schooling, to foreground children's active role in making sense of social conditions that are not of their own making or choice. We conclude that a politically literate understanding of the processes of inclusion and exclusion is necessary both to highlight the continuing reproduction of educational inequality, and to produce the necessary conditions for egalitarian change.     

Involving Users in Social Science Research — A New European Paradigm?

Recent EU social science research programmes have stressed the importance of the 'user'. Using a study of EU funded social science projects, the article develops a typology of the different forms of user involvement. A case study of a 'cluster' of research projects shows that user involvement within projects has significant national variations. This new user involvement could be taken as exemplifying a shift from 'Mode 1' to 'Mode 2' knowledge production, but this would be exaggerated. Users remain distinct from researchers, the pressure for involvement came from the European Commission and not the users. User involvement can best be understood as an attempt to strengthen the relationship between academic research and civil society through networks rather than through market relations — a move that is now being rolled back by new developments in EU research policy.     

Engineering and Europe: Insight for young women. The SEFI Insight '89 Event Staged at Humberside College,UK

This article describes the SEFI Insight '89 Event, staged in July 1989 at Humberside College, UK. The features of the event and its organisation are described. The outcome during the various activities are recorded and the event as a whole is evaluated.