A Fall from (Someone Else’s) Certainty: Recovering Practical Wisdom in Teacher Education

Inquiry‐based teacher education promotes an exploration of concrete particulars as the route to wise practice. The case study presented illustrates one teacher candidate’s struggle to let go of a conception of knowledge as generalizable formulae that can be readily applied in practice and to become more open to practice itself as a site of learning. Teacher educators can nurture such openness by helping aspiring teachers to appreciate the fragility of knowledge, the epistemological value of feeling, and the priority of the particular, in teaching. In so doing, educators recover practical wisdom as the beginning and end‐in‐view of teacher education. Key words: practical wisdom, preservice teacher education, inquiry La formation à l’enseignement axée sur la recherche favorise la prise en compte des conditions particulières et, de ce fait, une pratique éclairée. L’étude de cas présentée dans cet article illustre les efforts d’une candidate à l’enseignement en vue de se départir d’une conception de la connaissance définie comme une formule généralisable, facilement applicable dans la pratique, et de mieux accueillir la pratique elle‐même comme un lieu d’apprentissage. Les responsables de la formation à l’enseignement peuvent contribuer à cette ouverture en aidant les futurs enseignants à saisir la fragilité de la connaissance, la valeur épistémologique des sentiments et l’importance des conditions particulières dans l’enseignement. Ce faisant, les éducateurs redécouvrent la sagesse comme le début et l’objectif à atteindre dans la formation à l’enseignement. Mots clés : sagesse pratique, formation à l’enseignement, recherche.

Helping Adult Learners Overcome Alienation: What Can I Do if Most of My Learners/Participants Are Not Pre-literate, Brazilian Peasant Farmers?

This theory-building research paper describes the ideal environmental framework in which to help adult learners overcome alienation. It includes the theoretical background and tools for assessing any participatory group environment for its proximity to this ideal

Riding Fences: Anticipatory Governance, Curriculum Policy, and Teacher Subjectivity

In this article we question the discursive deployment of narrowing conceptions of the future in education in three provincial cases: Alberta, British Columbia, and Ontario. Asserting that educational policy in Canada is grounded in the “future-logics” of educational innovation—reflective of an anticipatory orientation to governance—we critique concepts from each province’s curriculum policy documents: “competence,” “personalized learning,” and “professional teacher.” We ask to what extent anticipatory governance is at work in Canadian policies, and if it is, to what degree does an anticipatory strategy occlude or disrupt the objectification of curriculum and the over-determination of teacher subjectivities?Dans cet article, nous nous interrogeons sur le déploiement discursif de conceptions restrictives de l’avenir en éducation dans le cas de trois provinces : l’Alberta, la Colombie-Britannique, et l’Ontario. En affirmant que la politique de l’éducation au Canada est fondée sur les « logiques futures » de l’innovation en éducation — reflétant une orientation anticipative de la gouvernance —, nous critiquons certains concepts utilisés dans les documents de politiques du curriculum : « compétence », « apprentissage personnalisé », et « enseignant professionnel ». Nous nous demandons dans quelle mesure la gouvernance anticipative est à l’œuvre dans les politiques canadiennes et, si c’est le cas, dans quelle mesure une stratégie anticipative occulte ou perturbe l’objectivation du curriculum et la surdétermination de la subjectivité enseignante

Teacher Education and the Political : the power of negative thinking

Teacher Education and the Political is a striking book which addresses the nature and purpose of teacher education in a global context characterised by economic and political anxieties around declining productivity and social inclusion. These anxieties are manifested in recent policy developments such as the promotion of professional standards, the deregulation and marketisation of teacher education and the imposition of performance-related regimes that tie teachers’ pay to outcomes in high-stakes testing

Caring for the older person with cognitive impairment in hospital: Qualitative analysis of nursing personnel reflections on fall events

Aims and objectives To explore nurse and nursing assistant reflections on the care of older patients with cognitive impairment who have experienced a fall. Background While there are evidence‐based clinical guidelines for the prevention and management of falls and for the care of older people with cognitive impairment, the falls rates for older people with cognitive impairment are three times as high as those without. Design Critical incident technique. Methods Eleven registered and two enrolled nurses and four assistants in nursing working in one subacute and two acute wards within two hospitals of a tertiary level health service in south‐east Queensland. Individual semistructured interviews focused on two past events when a patient with cognitive impairment had fallen in hospital: one when there was minimal harm and the second when there was significant harm. Thematic analysis was undertaken. The COREQ checklist was followed. Results Three themes emerged from 23 reflective accounts of fall events: “direct observation is confounded by multiple observers” and “knowing the person has cognitive impairment is not enough,” and “want to rely on the guideline but unsure how to enact it.” While participants were aware of the falls prevention policy and techniques available to prevent falls, the implementation of these was challenging due to the complexity of care required by the older person with cognitive impairment. Conclusions Falls prevention for older people with cognitive impairment is complex and belies the simple application of policy. Relevance to clinical practice To reduce falls, nurses can involve the family to support “knowing the patient” to enable prediction of impulsive actions; shift the focus of in‐service from lectures to specific case presentations, with collaborative analysis on person‐focused strategies to prevent falls in older people with cognitive impairment; and reconsider the sitter role from simple observer to assistant, focused on ambulation and supporting independence in activities of daily living.Full Tex