Qualitative Inquiry in an Age of Educationalese

In this introduction we reflect on two key questions that initiated this special issue on qualitative inquiry: What can qualitative researchers do to regain their post-paradigm-wars cache? How do we avoid distracting “science wars” in the future? We suggest that the strong tendency to narrow the research methods accepted as “scientific” – because they adopt quantitative perspectives and are presumed a priori to be more rigorous – has created an educationalese, a narrative of rigid categories that has not necessarily contributed to more effective or persuasive educational research. The article ends by suggesting that the use of “knowledge mobilization” strategies would help to strengthen qualitative research and educational research in general

Editorial: Comparative Education and (De)Colonial Entanglements: Towards More Sustainable and Equitable Learning Futures

The last several decades have seen a global resurgence of academic engagement with decolonial, postcolonial, anti-colonial, and southern scholarship as a way to confront the persisting modern/colonial legacies in education. This special issue brings together a collection of nine articles to critically interrogate (de)colonial entanglements in comparative education by addressing three questions. Who benefits from and who is punished by the colonial legacies of knowledge production in comparative education? How can the professionals and scholars in the field generate more sustainable and just (trans)local and multilingual research practices that act as epistemic disobedience against coloniality? How might we learn from this uncertain time to construct new comparative genres that extend beyond the Western modern/colonial logic? The articles in this special issue challenge the current preoccupation of many researchers, educators, and policy-makers with global education trends – student achievement tests, competitive education league tables, global ranking exercises, and “best practices”– inviting comparative education researchers to articulate decolonial, antisexist, antiracist, and regenerative alternatives that recognize the interdependence of people, place, and planet, as well as the importance of cultural change. Collectively, this special issue aims at creating a space for welcoming critical and creative scholarship to radically reimagine – and ultimately transform – education for more sustainable and equitable global futures.  The last several decades have seen a global resurgence of academic engagement with decolonial, postcolonial, anti-colonial, and southern scholarship as a way to confront the persisting modern/colonial legacies in education. This special issue brings together a collection of nine articles to critically interrogate (de)colonial entanglements in comparative education by addressing three questions. Who benefits from and who is punished by the colonial legacies of knowledge production in comparative education? How can the professionals and scholars in the field generate more sustainable and just (trans)local and multilingual research practices that act as epistemic disobedience against coloniality? How might we learn from this uncertain time to construct new comparative genres that extend beyond the Western modern/colonial logic? The articles in this special issue challenge the current preoccupation of many researchers, educators, and policy-makers with global education trends – student achievement tests, competitive education league tables, global ranking exercises, and “best practices”– inviting comparative education researchers to articulate decolonial, antisexist, antiracist, and regenerative alternatives that recognize the interdependence of people, place, and planet, as well as the importance of cultural change. Collectively, this special issue aims at creating a space for welcoming critical and creative scholarship to radically reimagine – and ultimately transform – education for more sustainable and equitable global futures.

Who Needs Global Citizenship Education? A Review of the Literature on Teacher Education

Given the seemingly ever-increasing scholarly production about the ideas and ideals of global citizenship education (GCE), it is not surprising those discussions started to gain influence in teacher education (TE) debates. In this study, we examine the discourses that tacitly shape the meanings of GCE within the contemporary academic literature on TE. After analyzing the peer-reviewed scholarship published from 2003 to 2018, we identified patterns in how GCE for TE was described and defended, beyond the differences in their conceptual frameworks. The dominant trend found is to frame GCE as a redemptive educational solution to global problems. This framing requires teachers to embrace a redemptive narrative following a model of rationality based on altruistic, hyperrationalized and overly romanticized ideals. Ultimately, TE literature contributes to the configuration of an excessively naïve discourse that tends to ignore the neoliberal context in which both GCE and TE take place today

Las fotos escolares como “analizadores” en la investigación educativa.

Este artículo propone el uso de las fotografías escolares como “analizadores” de instituciones educativas. Después de una breve discusión sobre las limitaciones de los enfoques teóricos que consideran las fotografías como contenedoras transparentes de fácil e inapelable lectura sobre sus significados, este artículo introduce la noción de las fotografías escolares como “analizadores” y discute su relación con los métodos de foto-entrevista e investigación cualitativa. La discusión conceptual se ejemplifica con el análisis de dos fotografías escolares. Para concluir este artículo analiza los aspectos claves necesarios para incorporar las fotografías desde esta perspectiva.This article proposes the use of school photographs as research “analyzers” of educational institutions. After a brief discussion about the limitations of approaches that consider photographs as transparent and always clearly evident containers of meaning and evidence, this article introduces the notion of school photographs as research “analyzers” and discusses its relationship with the photo-elicitation methods and qualitative research. The conceptual discussion is grounded in the analysis of two school-photographs. To conclude this article elaborates on key parameters needed when using this approach

Imagining a Post-COVID-19 Global Citizenship Education

RESUMEN: La pandemia del COVID 19 ha creado condiciones sin precedentes en todas las áreas de la vida. A medida que la suspensión de las actividades escolares se ha convertido en ?la nueva normalidad?, numerosos expertos y formadores de opinión se han apresurado a lanzar sus recomendaciones a gobiernos y organizaciones educativas para normalizar las operaciones escolares. En este contexto novedoso, analizamos las propuestas para expandir el modelo de Educación para la Ciudadanía Global (ECG) que está siendo cada vez más apoyada por organizaciones internacionales, gobiernos y académicos. En este artículo, sostenemos que la orientación redentora que los modelos y propuestas de ECG han desarrollado en las últimas décadas resulta muy limitada para entender y resolver problemas actuales como la restricción de derechos de privacidad de la ciudadanía o el fortalecimiento de los nacionalismos excluyentes. En cambio, se necesitan modelos más realistas de ECG. Este documento concluye con nuevas preguntas para robustecer el debate y las alternativas para imaginar una ECG realista y no redentora.ABSTRACT: The COVID-19 pandemic has created unprecedented conditions in all areas of social life and as the suspension of schooling became "the new normal," numerous experts and opinion-makers rushed to voice their recommendations to governments and educational organizations for normalizing schooling operations. In light of this worldwide crisis, we re-evaluate proposals to expand the model of Global Citizenship Education (GCE) that have received increasing attention and support from both international organizations, governments, and scholars. In this article, we argue that the predominately redemptive nature of GCE models and proposals since the mid-1990s cannot handle global problems associated with the current pandemic such as the restriction of citizen?s privacy rights or the strengthening of exclusionary nationalistic messaging. Instead, more realistic models of GCE are needed. This paper concludes with new questions to strengthen the debate and alternatives for imagining a non-redemptive and more realistic GCE

La “terca” pertinencia de la pedagogía del oprimido

The amount and continuity of publications on and about Paulo Freire provides evidence about his persistence and global relevance. At times where books on pedagogy are forgotten almost as soon as they are printed and considering that Freire’s most important works were published in the decades 1960 and 1970, and the myriad of disputes that accompanied that work, the persistence of a book such as Pedagogy Oppressed, is somehow "estrange." Based on reflections of students in education, this article presents six reasons for why Pedagogy of the Oppressed, the most celebrated book by Freire and his ideas remain stubbornly in place.Tomando como evidencia la cantidad y continuidad de las publicaciones sobre y acerca de Paulo Freire es fácil de constatar su persistencia y relevancia nivel mundial.En momentos donde los libros sobre pedagogía son olvidados casi al mismo tiempo en que son impresos y considerando que los trabajos más importantes de la obra Freireana fueron publicados en las décadas de 1960 y 1970, y el sinnúmero de controversias que acompañaron esos trabajos, la persistencia de un trabajo como Pedagogía del Oprimido, es de alguna manera “extraña”. A partir de reflexiones de estudiantes de pedagogía este artículo presenta seis razones por las cuales Pedagogía del Oprimido, la prinicipal obra pedagógica de Freire y sus ideas siguen tercamente vigentes

Editorial: Educación Comparada y Enredos (De)Coloniales: Hacia un futuro de aprendizajes más sustentables y equitativos

The last several decades have seen a global resurgence of academic engagement with decolonial, postcolonial, anti-colonial, and southern scholarship as a way to confront the persisting modern/colonial legacies in education. This special issue brings together a collection of nine articles to critically interrogate (de)colonial entanglements in comparative education by addressing three questions. Who benefits from and who is punished by the colonial legacies of knowledge production in comparative education? How can the professionals and scholars in the field generate more sustainable and just (trans)local and multilingual research practices that act as epistemic disobedience against coloniality? How might we learn from this uncertain time to construct new comparative genres that extend beyond the Western modern/colonial logic? The articles in this special issue challenge the current preoccupation of many researchers, educators, and policy-makers with global education trends – student achievement tests, competitive education league tables, global ranking exercises, and “best practices”– inviting comparative education researchers to articulate decolonial, antisexist, antiracist, and regenerative alternatives that recognize the interdependence of people, place, and planet, as well as the importance of cultural change. Collectively, this special issue aims at creating a space for welcoming critical and creative scholarship to radically reimagine – and ultimately transform – education for more sustainable and equitable global futures.En las últimas décadas se ha visto un resurgimiento del compromiso académico con la investigación decolonial, poscolonial, anticolonial y perspectivas teóricas del sur global como un recurso intelectual para enfrentar los persistentes legados coloniales en la educación. Este número especial presenta nueve trabajos orientados a contestar dos preguntas: ¿Quiénes se benefician y quiénes son castigados por los enredos coloniales de la producción de conocimiento en educación comparada? ¿Cómo pueden las/los profesionales e investigadoras/es de este campo generar prácticas de investigación (trans)locales, multilingües más sostenibles que actúen como desobediencias epistémicas contra el colonialismo? Los artículos de este número especial  desafían las preocupaciones de muchas/os investigadoras/es, docentes, y formuladores de políticas con exámenes de rendimiento de estudiantes, tablas competitivas de escolaridad, y "buena prácticas pedagógicas” invitando a las/los investigadoras/es del campo a generar proyectos más decoloniales, antisexistas, antirracistas y regenerativas que reconocen la interdependencia de las personas, el lugar y el planeta, así como la importancia del cambio cultural. Este número especial quiere contribuir para crear un espacio abierto a estudios críticos y creativos para reimaginar y transformar radicalmente, la educación para futuros globales más sostenibles y equitativos

NEPC Review: Our Next Assignment: Where Americans Stand on Public K-12 Education (Public Agenda, November 2018)

Public Agenda compiled public opinion surveys to show where the American public stands on education issues. Their report notes the importance of gauging current public understanding of education in the nation, particularly given the three major policy changes in the past 10 years: Race to the Top, the Common Core State Standards, and the Every Student Succeeds Act. While this publication makes a unique contribution in its gathering of many surveys into a single report and its inclusion of interviews with employers, the lack of clarity in its methods makes many of its conclusions questionable. The report is inconsistent in how it addresses disaggregated data and respondents from different demographic groups (e.g., race, class, political affiliation), resulting in an inability to generalize to the population or to any subgroup. Therefore, the conclusions are cursory and incomplete, requiring further study and research.</p