40 research outputs found
Beyond compliance: teacher education practice in a performative framework
publication-status: Publishe
Learning democracy in social work
In this contribution, we discuss the role of social work in processes of democracy. A key question in this discussion concerns the meaning of âthe socialâ in social work. This question has often been answered in a self-referential way, referring to a methodological identity of social work. This defines the educational role of social work as socialisation (be it socialisation into obedience or into an empowered citizen). However, the idea of democracy as âongoing experimentâ and âbeyond orderâ challenges this methodological identity of social work. From the perspective of democracy as an âongoing experimentâ, the social is to be regarded as a platform for dissensus, for ongoing discussions on the relation between private and public issues in the light of human rights and social justice. Hence, the identity of social work cannot be defined in a methodological way; social work is a complex of (institutionalized) welfare practices, to be studied on their underlying views on the âsocialâ as a political and educational concept, and on the way they influence the situation of children, young people and adults in society
Mentoring and Individual Learning Plans: Issues of practice in a period of transition.
publication-status: Acceptedtypes: ArticleThis article draws upon research undertaken with 28 teacher education mentors,
managers and trainee teachers within the SW Centre for Excellence in Teacher
Training (CETT) in 2008, following the introduction of the new revised Lifelong
Learning UK (LLUK) standards. The first part of the article locates and contextualises
the policy context in relation to the school and further education (FE) sectors.
Two separate and distinctive models of mentoring practice are delineated, the first
model as a source of formative support for trainee teachers, and the second model
as a tool for the assessment of competence. The article concludes by suggesting
that the danger and indeed unintended consequence of separating out these functions
of mentoring is that an unnecessary dichotomy is created that dislocates
coherent teacher practices from one another. It argues that what is needed is a sustained
period of stability in the sector. This would leave a space for CETT professionals
and others to promote those practices that will make a difference not only
to the work of teacher educators but to the work of staff and students
Understanding young people's citizenship learning in everyday life: The role of contexts, relationships and dispositions
In this article we present insights from research which has sought to deepen understanding of the ways in which young people (13-21) learn democratic citizenship through their participation in a range of different formal and informal practices and communities. Based on the research, we suggest that such understanding should focus on the interplay between contexts for action, relationships within and across contexts, and the dispositions that young people bring to such contexts and relationships. In the first part of the paper we show how and why we have broadened the narrow parameters of the existing citizenship discourse with its focus on political socialisation to encompass a more wide-ranging conception of citizenship learning which is not just focused on school or the curriculum. In the second part of the paper we describe our research and present two exemplar case studies of young people who formed part of the project. In the third part we present our insights about the nature and character of citizenship learning that we have been able to draw from our research. In the concluding section we highlight those dimensions of citizenship learning that would have remained invisible had we focused exclusively on schools and the curriculum. In this way we demonstrate the potential of the approach to understanding citizenship learning that we have adopted
Action research and democracy
This contribution explores the relationship between research and learning democracy. Action research is seen as being compatible with the orientation of educational and social work research towards social justice and democracy. Nevertheless, the history of action research is characterized by a tension between democracy and social engineering. In the social-engineering approach, action research is conceptualized as a process of innovation aimed at a specific Bildungsideal. In a democratic approach action research is seen as research based on cooperation between research and practice. However, the notion of democratic action research as opposed to social engineering action research needs to be theorized. So called democratic action research involving the implementation by the researcher of democracy as a model and as a preset goal, reduces cooperation and participation into instruments to reach this goal, and becomes a type of social engineering in itself. We argue that the relationship between action research and democracy is in the acknowledgment of the political dimension of participation: âa democratic relationship in which both sides exercise power and shared control over decision-making as well as interpretationâ. This implies an open research design and methodology able to understand democracy as a learning process and an ongoing experiment
Mapping children's presence in the neighbourhood
Within the work of Gert Biesta, public spaces are considered as the main fields where processes of civic learning can take place. Learning is always âin place and timeâ. Place matters, not only as a spatial background or set of conditions , but as a pedagogical process in itself. So in order to facilitate processes of civic learning we need to understand how spaces function as a co-educator in its own right.. In my PhD I studied how the neighbourhood can be understood as a co-educator. The processes through which children are socialised into a given order are not universal, nor neutral. One might state that children grow up into very different orders. The neighbourhood is an important factor into these diversified socialisation processes, but the neighbourhood is also made by its residents and users themselves, including children. This emphasises that socialisation is a relational process and not a functional oneway introduction of children into a prescribed social ordeIn this contribution, a methodological framework will be developed for understanding and studying the neighbourhood of children as a co-educator. The basis of this framework is formed by the synergy between spatial, social and personal dimensions of the neighbourhood
The myth of meeting needs revisited: the case of Educational research
publication-status: Publishedtypes: ArticleOur primary objective in this paper is revisit a debate that was articulated 25 years ago in this
journal in which it was argued that the idea of meeting needs in adult and continuing education
is a myth. We extend the original analysis of need and apply it to the case of educational
research. We look at the policy context, which has, in the intervening period, increasingly
reflected the neo-liberal emphasis upon accountability and measurement. Taking into
account the discussion stimulated by Hargreaves and followed through by Tooley on the
supposed âpovertyâ of educational research in the UK, we show how the discourse of need has
been sustained. Using the Transforming Learning Cultures (TLC) project in the Teaching
and Learning Research Programme (TLRP) as an exemplar, we show that, despite the
constraints that are imposed upon researchers by the funding and accountability frameworks
of the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC), the researchers on that project have
nonetheless made significant and important contributions in the field that they have
researched. By way of outcomes, we argue for an approach to the commissioning of educational
research from bodies such as the ESRC that will allow researchers to frame their
projects in ways that do not meet current prescriptions. In conclusion, we suggest that what is
needed is a greater level of trust which will allow researchers to set the research agenda themselves,
rather than be driven by the needs identified and specified by policymakers.
Introduction
In this paper we revisit a debate that was first articulated 25 years ago in this journal,
where it was argued that the idea of meeting needs in adult and continuing education
was a myth (Armstrong 1982). Intending to challenge the liberal ideologies that
subscribed to, and supported the idea that needs have an objective reality of their
own, the claim of the original paper was that needs are manufactured political
constructions. Whilst there appeared to be some considerable support for the
critique at the time, it did not have the effect on the academy that initial indications
had suggested. Writing about recent 14â19 education policy in the UK, Lumby and
Wilson (2003) suggest:
Robert Law
Underserved âDeep Endâ populations: a critical analysis addressing the power imbalance in research
Is a posthumanist bildung possible? Reclaiming the promise of bildung for contemporary higher education
My central argument in this article is that the notion of Bildung may offer conceptual sustenance to those who wish to develop educative practices to supplement or contest the prevalence and privileging of market and economic imperatives in higher education, which configure teaching and learning as an object available to measurement. I pursue this argument by making the case for an ethical posthuman Bildung which recognises the inseparability of knowing and being, the materiality of educative relations, and the need to install an ecology of ethical relations at the centre of educational practice in higher education. Such a re-conceptualisation situates Bildung not purely as an individual goal but as a process of ecologies and relationships. The article explores Bildung as a flexible concept, via three theoretical lenses, and notes that it has always been subject to continuing revision in response to changing social and educational contexts. In proposing the possibility of, and need for, a posthuman Bildung, the articles offers a critical review of the promise of Bildung and outlines some of the radical ways that a posthuman Bildung might reinvigorate conceptualisations of contemporary higher education.
Keywords : Bildung; posthumanism; higher education; ethics; ecology