Through a glass darkly: Assessment of a real client, compulsory clinic in an undergraduate law programme

In this article, Cath Sylvester considers Northumbria's Student Law Office in the broader context of an academic legal education, and discusses both its value and the means of assessing the same

Reflective Equilibrium

This article examines the method of reflective equilibrium (RE) and its role in philosophical inquiry. It begins with an overview of RE before discussing some of the subtleties involved in its interpretation, including challenges to the standard assumption that RE is a form of coherentism. It then evaluates some of the main objections to RE, in particular, the criticism that this method generates unreasonable beliefs. It concludes by considering how RE relates to recent debates about the role of intuitions in philosophy

Selection and admission of students for social work education: key issues and debates in relation to practice and policy in England

This project set out to examine the recruitment and selection of students for social work degree programmes in England. Existing publicly available data were drawn from Higher Education Institution (HEI) websites, online prospectuses, UCAS1 databases and GSCC2 statistical records. In addition, a web-based survey tool was used to gather from admissions tutors the details of their selection processes, and to identify examples of good practice. Programmes providing initial qualifications in social work at Masters-level were not included. The research was funded by SWA

Framing children's citizenship: exploring the space of children's claims for social justice using Nancy Fraser's conception of representation

This paper seeks to contribute to a dynamic understanding of the space of children‟s citizenship by exploring perspectives generated by children age 5-13 in two countries in the light of Nancy Fraser‟s (2008) theory of representation. To ensure that understandings of the spaces of children‟s citizenship are guided by the views of children themselves, the paper reports findings from six Children‟s Research Groups who, in a process inspired by Freire (1973), acted and reflected on their understandings of citizenship using participatory methods that they created. The spaces they describe in their data were analysed drawing on Fraser‟s theories for reframing claims to social justice. This synthesis of empirical research and political theory suggests the need to supplement Fraser‟s theory of representation with more diffuse understandings of how influence occurs in relational spaces. The dynamic spaces of children‟s citizenship can then be conceived of as framed by a concern for social justice that children identify and deepened by exploring the way in relationships, institutions and networks influence the achievement of this claim over time, for different social groups. This approach enables children‟s citizenship to be located simultaneously in children‟s lived practices, in local and in global distributions of actions, attitudes and resources

Intellectualism and Testimony

Knowledge-how often appears to be more difficult to transmit by testimony than knowledge-that and knowledge-wh. Some philosophers have argued that this difference provides us with an important objection to intellectualism—the view that knowledge-how is a species of knowledge-that. This article defends intellectualism against these testimony-based objections

Enacting children's citizenship: developing understandings of how children enact themselves as citizens through actions and acts of citizenship

Children have an unsettled relationship with the status of citizenship, being given some rights, responsibilities and opportunities for participation, and being denied others. Yet if citizenship is conceived of as a practice, children can be firmly seen as citizens in the sense that they are social actors, negotiating and contributing to relationships of social interdependence. This article develops understandings of children’s agency in citizenship and some of the different ways in which children’s actions enact them as interdependent citizens. It presents one aspect of the understanding of citizenship generated from research by six groups of marginalised children, aged 5-13, in Wales and France. Synthesising the research groups’ descriptions of activities they associated with the component parts of citizenship with citizenship theory, these children can be seen to engage in actions of citizenship that include making rules of social existence, furthering social good and exercising freedoms to achieve their own rights. Their activities also transgress the boundaries of existing balances of rights, responsibilities and statuses, through their (mis)behaviour, in ways that can be interpreted as Acts of citizenship. In children’s everyday activities, however, the distinction between actions and Acts of citizenship can at times be blurred. This is because recognizing aspects of children’s practices as citizenship is a challenge to dominant definitions of citizenship, and claims a new status for children. Exploring children’s citizenship in these ways has potential for widening understandings of participation and appreciating broader aspects of children’s agency in citizenship

Ngā Whanaketanga: Minimising contradictions and maximising opportunities for teacher learning.

In 2010 the assessment of student progress and achievement against National Standards became mandatory in English medium schooling in Aotearoa New Zealand. In that same year information gathering and revision work was carried out on the then draft Whanaketanga, developed in 2009. The Whanaketanga are deemed to be the equivalent to National Standards for classrooms implementing Te Marautanga o Aotearoa, the curriculum for immersion Māori medium settings. The information gathering and revision work was carried out in readiness for mandatory implementation of the Whanaketanga in 2011. The work also provided important opportunities for Māori medium teacher professional learning and development. The introduction of National Standards has been controversial. The development of Whanaketanga has also been controversial and challenging in nature. The first half of this paper provides an overview of Whanaketanga development and the challenges its developers worked hard to address. The second part discusses implications for Māori medium teacher professional learning and development, drawn from findings from research case studies of the information gathering and revision work