Public education unbounded: Reflection on the publicness of Green School New Zealand

Green School New Zealand is a private school whose school fees confirm for critics the inequity of private education, but the school may contribute to an alternative vision of public education if its commitment to sustainability is recognised as a public good. Conventional understanding of public education is challenged by contemporary political and democratic theory on the nature of publics. While public education generally refers to education funded by the state, if public education is limited to education provided by the state it restricts the good that it can do because the state is not equitable in whose interests it serves. Concepts of public education need updating to reflect understandings of varied publics and the individuals of which they are comprised (pluralist publics); the freedom of publics in subjectivity and sovereignty (unbounded publics); and the mutuality and equality of relations within publics (publicness). Green School New Zealand undoubtedly works against public interests in some respects; however, its focused concern for the environment represents an emergent publicness that is not apparent in schools that are more closely bound to the priorities of the state. When we recognise their public dimensions, schools like Green School New Zealand may help with rethinking public education and how we develop new systems of education that act for the good of pluralist, unbounded but connected publics

Public education unbounded: Reflection on the publicness of Green School New Zealand

Green School New Zealand is a private school whose school fees confirm for critics the inequity of private education, but the school may contribute to an alternative vision of public education if its commitment to sustainability is recognised as a public good. Conventional understanding of public education is challenged by contemporary political and democratic theory on the nature of publics. While public education generally refers to education funded by the state, if public education is limited to education provided by the state it restricts the good that it can do because the state is not equitable in whose interests it serves. Concepts of public education need updating to reflect understandings of varied publics and the individuals of which they are comprised (pluralist publics); the freedom of publics in subjectivity and sovereignty (unbounded publics); and the mutuality and equality of relations within publics (publicness). Green School New Zealand undoubtedly works against public interests in some respects; however, its focused concern for the environment represents an emergent publicness that is not apparent in schools that are more closely bound to the priorities of the state. When we recognise their public dimensions, schools like Green School New Zealand may help with rethinking public education and how we develop new systems of education that act for the good of pluralist, unbounded but connected publics

Developing a methodology for public engagement with critical research.

n this article we argue that a refined understanding of ‘public’ and ‘public engagement’ can help researchers who produce critical research make better decisions towards achieving policy influence. We acknowledge the challenges critical researchers face in putting their research to work within the public domain. Critical research struggles to gain influence in bounded public spheres where research is valued as a consumable commodity rather than for its integrity or capacity for informing change. A starting point for developing a method of engagement is to understand better ‘publics’ and the different ways they may be conceptualised. We draw on a framework of three conceptualisations of the public in public engagement: bounded, normative and emergent. We use this framework to analyse our own experience of public engagement and attempts at policy influence in the Respecting Children and Young People Project. Through this analysis we recognise alternative ways to conceive of publics that may direct us away from some courses of action, and open new possibilities for public engagement with critical research.N/

Constructing the knowing-woman-artist-teacher.

Within art education and general education theory, various accounts have been made of the relationships between effective teaching and artistic practice. In this dissertation I have forged the identity 'artist teacher' to represent the relationships between art making and teaching. The text represents my quest to construct the artist teacher from the conversations of a group of five women secondary art teachers. On the way I align myself with poststructural and feminist theories of knowing and aesthetics, I contest universalising paradigms of patriarchy and Modernism and form opportune alliances with scientific rationalism. The artist teacher who is the sum of her experiences (art making, teaching) proves to be elusive and I reconstruct her as the knowing-woman-artist-teacher (to represent her multiple identities). As I explore notions of subjectivity I locate the knowingwoman- artist-teacher in a site of struggle between being knowing and being known. Sitting in tension between collusion and critique of the existing orders of art education she (I) seeks spaces for the agency of her and her students

Developing a methodology for public engagement with critical research.

In this article we argue that a refined understanding of ‘public’ and ‘public engagement’ can help researchers who produce critical research make better decisions towards achieving policy influence. We acknowledge the challenges critical researchers face in putting their research to work within the public domain. Critical research struggles to gain influence in bounded public spheres where research is valued as a consumable commodity rather than for its integrity or capacity for informing change. A starting point for developing a method of engagement is to understand better ‘publics’ and the different ways they may be conceptualised. We draw on a framework of three conceptualisations of the public in public engagement: bounded, normative and emergent. We use this framework to analyse our own experience of public engagement and attempts at policy influence in the Respecting Children and Young People Project. Through this analysis we recognise alternative ways to conceive of publics that may direct us away from some courses of action, and open new possibilities for public engagement with critical research

What needs to happen for school autonomy to be mobilised to create more equitable public schools and systems of education?

The series of responses in this article were gathered as part of an online mini conference held in September 2021 that sought to explore different ideas and articulations of school autonomy reform across the world (Australia, Canada, England, Ireland, the USA, Norway, Sweden and New Zealand). It centred upon an important question: what needs to happen for school autonomy to be mobilised to create more equitable public schools and systems of education? There was consensus across the group that school autonomy reform creates further inequities at school and system levels when driven by the logics of marketisation, competition, economic efficiency and public accountability. Against the backdrop of these themes, the conference generated discussion and debate where provocations and points of agreement and disagreement about issues of social justice and the mobilisation of school autonomy reform were raised. As an important output of this discussion, we asked participants to write a short response to the guiding conference question. The following are these responses which range from philosophical considerations, systems and governance perspectives, national particularities and teacher and principal perspectives

Salvaging practice from the remnants of twentieth century art education in New Zealand.

As the title of this thesis suggests, this is a project of salvaging practice from the site of 20th century art education in New Zealand, engaged in through research practice and its materialisation into text. Through exploring this site I ask what makes art useful to educational practice, using the voice of an embodied artist/researcher? The 20th century answers to this question range from developing a visual literacy that can be applied to the image-saturated world of mass media to the liberation of human potential through arts-based inquiries. My project includes the critical interrogation of these positions, contextualised within an argument that value in the practices of art comes from the contextual and contingent disciplinary understandings of art. Whilst the predominant logic of the research is founded in a theoretical hybridism of art and education, using the methodologies of art practice and narrative inquiry, each chapter represents a different way of thinking about the initial proposition on the value of art practice, using representational forms that are integral to their epistemologies. In the pursuit of the value of art practice, I have explored a number of rich art educational contexts. These have included investigating multiple depictions of the phenomenology of teaching and learning art as well as piecing together constructions of historical art education practice and the representation of both of these in academic discourse throughout the 20th century. The complexity of these contexts demands complex and multidimensional analyses. The significant findings of this text are the recommendations for recognition of the embodied nature of art learning, whereby art meanings are actively constructed within thinking and working, albeit contingent, bodies. This is a position that is undermined by a textualisation of culture that positions bodies entirely as discursive abstractions, removed from their phenomenological existence. I find that the re-examination of the significance of material effects to individual subject bodies re-inserts positions f!om which to speak on the value and ethics of art education, however, contingent subjectivities mean that an ethical art pedagogy needs careful consideration. Examining critical and emancipatory practices in art provides a guide for how this may be achieved

† Cardiff University,

Abstract- Context- An increase in managerialism and a decrease in trust of the professions have challenged traditional concepts of professionalism. The market model of professionalism espoused by some critics also poses problems for professions, professionals and recipients of professional services. Professional development is now an important component of medical curricula. We believe professionalism is evolving and suggest a concept of involved professionalism as a framework for understanding the complex relationships between professional practice, community and responsibility. Purpose- The purpose of this article is to unpack and compare varying concepts of professionalism, and examine how these concepts can impact on the health care professions and on professional acculturation of new recruits on entry to their medical work environment. Summary- In a changing socio-political climate, traditional notions of professionalism have met criticism in that the autonomy of a profession can disempower the consumers of its service. In New Zealand and elsewhere, market reformers have introduced business oriented decision making structures accompanied by the rhetoric of consumer choice. This shift has constrained the professional decision making ability of medical professionals. Conclusion- We suggest that a further model of professionalism is required to address the challenges o

Construction of difference and diversity within policy and classroom practice in England

publication-status: Publishedtypes: ArticlePolicy and practice responses to diversity and difference in pupil populations continue to challenge education systems around the world. This paper considers how teachers’ understandings of diversity and difference and their pedagogical responses at the local level are influenced by, and can be reconciled with, policy at the general level with its impulse for categorisation, normalcy and ‘ableness’. Two frameworks around orientations to diversity and types of pedagogic need are combined in order to examine this tension and develop possible responses. This is illustrated through the example of special educational needs as a type of difference. The paper argues that for critical, ethical and socially just pedagogies, policy needs to support teachers in acknowledging and troubling difference at the classroom level

Aligning person-centred research methods and young people’s subjective conceptualisations to study diversity within schooling

publication-status: Publishedtypes: ArticleMany existing studies of diversity are concerned with social groups identified by externally determined factors, for example, ethnicity, gender, or educational attainment, and examine, either quantitatively or qualitatively, issues delineated by these. In evaluating methods used in previous research, we consider ways in which the adoption of ‘person-centred approaches’ in our research might better explore subjective perceptions of difference as experienced in young people’s schooling. We critically examine our initial findings in seeking to define the language and scope of difference expressed by young people aged 18–20 years with a variety of educational outcomes, including higher and further education, training, employment, and unemployment. We then propose some appropriate methodologies for further exploration of how difference is embodied and enacted during young people’s schooling years