A time for learning: representations of time and the temporal dimensions of learning through the lifecourse

Based on findings from a large-scale longitudinal study into the learning biographies of adults, this paper focuses on the different representations of time in the interview data. The paper discusses three such representations: chronological time, narrative time, and generational time. The authors show how different notions of time operate within the construction of life stories. They also analyse the ways in which different representations of time impact upon and serve as resources for reflection on and learning from life, thus contributing to understanding the complex relationships between biography, life and time. (DIPF/Orig.)

Ensino e formação de professores na era da evidência: O caso da arte : Uma entrevista com Gert Biesta por Philip Winter

In July 2022 Gert Biesta gave an invited keynote lecture at the 2022 EDULOG International Conference on Teacher Education: Building an Agenda for the 21st Century in Porto, Portugal[1]. In the following interview Gert Biesta shares key ideas from his lecture, particularly highlighting that any discussion about the future of teacher education needs to start from a meaningful understanding of education and the important role of the teacher. In his lecture Biesta made a case for understanding teaching as an art rather than an applied science, and made the interesting suggestion that we should see teaching as a double art. This suggests that teacher education that understands that teaching is an art, and not the application of rules and recipes, needs to work with students to develop their teacherly artistry. Such a future for teacher education is quite different from the idea that teaching should be a profession based upon or informed by scientific evidence about what works. The main problem with that idea, so Biesta makes clear in this interview, is that looking for evidence about what works misunderstands what education is and what the work of the teacher entails. [1] For more information about this event see here: https://www.2022.edulog.ptEm julho de 2022, Gert Biesta proferiu uma palestra a convite na conferência internacional EDULOG 2022 sobre Formação de Professores: Construir uma Agenda para o Século XXI, no Porto, Portugal[1]. Na entrevista que se segue, Gert Biesta partilha as ideias-chave da sua conferência, sublinhando, em particular, que qualquer debate sobre o futuro da formação de professores deve partir de uma compreensão clara da educação e do importante papel do/a professor/a. Na sua conferência, Gert Biesta defendeu uma visão do ensino como uma arte e não como uma ciência aplicada, e fez a interessante sugestão de que o ensino deve ser visto como uma arte dupla. Isto sugere que a formação de professores que compreende que o ensino é uma arte e não a aplicação de regras e receitas precisa de trabalhar com os/as estudantes para desenvolver a sua arte de ensinar. Este futuro para a formação de professores é muito diferente da ideia de que o ensino deve ser uma profissão baseada ou informada por provas científicas do que funciona. O principal problema com esta ideia, que Biesta deixa claro nesta entrevista, é que a procura de provas do que funciona não permite compreender o que é a educação e o que envolve o trabalho do/a professor/a. [1] Para mais informações sobre este evento, ver aqui: https://www.2022.edulog.p

The RAE/REF have engendered evaluation selectivity and strategic behaviour, reinforced scientific norms, and further stratified UK higher education

The UK's periodic research assessment exercise has grown larger and more formalised since its first iteration in 1986. Marcelo Marques, Justin J.W. Powell, Mike Zapp and Gert Biesta have examined what effects it has had on the submitting behaviour of institutions, considering the intended and unintended consequences in the field of education research. Findings reveal growing strategic behaviour, including high selectivity of submitted staff, the reinforcement of scientific norms with respect to the format and methodological orientation of submitted research outputs, and an explicit concentration of funding

The three gifts of teaching:Towards a non-egological future for moral education

The centrality of learners and their learning in contemporary educational discourse and practice, seems to suggest that the self of the student should be at the heart of the educational endeavour. This is not just an educational programme, but actually an expression of a particular way of thinking about human beings and their position in the world; a way of thinking which, after Levinas, I characterise as egological. In this paper I explore an alternative approach that centres on the suggestion that everything begins with what is given to us, rather than what is claimed, constructed or interpreted by us. I explore this philosophically through a discussion of ideas from Jean-Luc Marion around the phenomenon and phenomenology of ‘giveness’. I connect this to a critical discussion of the role of learning in education and explore three ways in which teaching manifests itself as a gift that occurs beyond learning

What constitutes the good of education? Reflections on the possibility of educational critique

I am grateful to Michael Peters for stepping in at the last minute when I was unable to make it to Beijing. And I am grateful for the opportunity to respond to his reflections on the educational good, which he formulated with reference to ideas from my book Good Education in an Age of Measurement: Ethics, Politics, Democracy (Biesta 2010), marking the occasion of the publication of the Chinese translation of this book. Michael makes a strong case for a contextual answer to the question of good education and the good of education, which he contrasts with what he characterises as my ethical, non-contextual and, in a sense, even foundational approach. I fully agree that questions about what makes education good, what counts as good education, and what constitutes educational goods, cannot be determined in abstracto, and cannot and should not be decided ex cathedra, that is, from some authoritarian position. On that point I think that we fully agre

Can the prevailing description of educational reality be considered complete? On the Parks-Eichmann paradox, spooky action at a distance, and a missing dimension in the theory of education

The question I address in this paper is to what extent the prevailing description of educational reality that can be found in contemporary research, policy and practice can be considered complete. The motivation for asking this question stems from an educational paradox to which I refer as the Parks-Eichmann paradox. This paradox has to do with the fact that what appears as educational success from one perspective is problematic when viewed differently, whereas what appears as educational failure may actually reveal something that is of crucial importance educationally. The paradox thus leads to the suggestion that the prevailing description of educational reality – to which I will refer as the ‘paradigm’ of education as cultivation – is insufficient or incomplete. I use the work of John Dewey to highlight key characteristics and key shortcomings of this ‘paradigm’ and argue that it needs to be supplemented by what I will refer to as an existential educational ‘paradigm’. I highlight the distinction between the two paradigms through the question whether it is possible to educate ‘directly’ – an option which Dewey explicitly denies. I turn to the German notions of Bildung and Erziehung in order to explore to what extent they provide us with a set of concepts for articulating the distinction between the two educational paradigms. I will show that this is not as straightforward as it may seem, as there is no agreement about the exact definitions of the terms. However, having two terms rather than just the word ‘education’ is important in order to be able to make the distinction I am after, and here the terms Bildung and Erziehung are helpful. I conclude the paper with a brief sketch of the ‘existential work’ of education in order to outline what the existential paradigm implies for educational practic