Education(al) Research,Educational Policy‐Making and Practice

Professor Whitty has endorsed the consensus that research into education is empirical social science, distinguishing ‘educational research’ which seeks directly to influence practice, and ‘education research’ that has substantive value but no necessary practical application. The status of the science here is problematic. The positivist approach is incoherent and so supports neither option. Critical educational science is virtually policy‐inert. The interpretive approach is empirically sound but, because of the value component in education, does not support education research either, or account for this component. A solution to the latter problem is sought in the debate between Carr and Hirst on the relationship between philosophy and education. This shows Carr making claims that rely on a conception of philosophy that he rejects, while Hirst insists on this conception, uses it to justify practical claims, but denies that this is possible. To achieve a practically relevant analysis of educational research, both need to include second‐order, normative, conceptual enquiry into the philosophies that drive educational policy‐making and partly regulate teaching methodology. Deweyan, first‐order, ‘reflective practice’ needs, then, to be supplemented with second‐order reflection. Educational research is philosophy‐ not science‐driven, and is value‐led. Consequently, it has the status not of scientific discovery but of practical recommendation.     

Boys into Modern Languages: An investigation of the discrepancy in attitudes and performance between boys and girls in modern languages

It is widely acknowledged that girls outperform boys across the curriculum in the GCSE examinations which are taken at the end of five years' compulsory secondary education. However, the gap in performance between boys and girls in modern languages is very marked and may suggest a need to reassess patterns of teaching and learning. This paper examines the differences in attitudes between boys and girls in modern languages after five years' study in an attempt to give some explanation for the considerable discrepancy in performance. Although previous research findings relating to boys' and girls' attitudes to their studies were confirmed, the significance of teacher personality and classroom practices emerged clearly from pupil interviews with both sexes. The article recognises the changes in the nature of the modern languages curriculum brought about by the introduction of GCSE and the on-going implementation of the National Curriculum, but points to the limitations and frustrations posed by these new agendas. Drawing extensively on pupil interviews, factors are highlighted which significantly affect pupils' perspectives and attitudes towards modern languages, and tentative suggestions are made which could help to improve the performance of both boys and girls in this traditionally 'female' subject.     

Competing Conceptions of the Educated Public

Alasdair MacIntyre's paper ‘The idea of an educated public’ followed on his frontal attack in After Virtue on the ‘failed’ intellectual project of the Enlightenment and on its liberal heritage. His argument, in the paper, was that the only way we can save ourselves from that failure is by restoring the idea of an educated public modelled on the type found in eighteenth century Scotland. This article takes up the issue of the ‘crisis’ of modernity, and argues that MacIntyre's ‘public’ is just one possible one and not necessarily the best. Other, competing conceptions of an educated public have been proposed, among others by Dewey and Habermas, that do not necessitate the conservative solution of going back to the past.