Does the Supreme Court Follow the Economic Returns? A Response to A Macrotheory of the Court

Today, there is a widespread idea that parents need to learn how to carry out their roles as parents. Practices of parental learning operate throughout society. This article deals with one particular practice of parental learning, namely nanny TV, and the way in which ideal parents are constructed through such programmes. The point of departure is SOS family, a series broadcast on Swedish television in 2008. Proceeding from the theorising of governmentality developed in the wake of the work of Michel Foucault, we analyse the parental ideals conveyed in the series, as an example of the way parents are constituted as subjects in the ‘advanced liberal society’ of today. The ideal parent is a subject who, guided by the coach, is constantly endeavouring to achieve a makeover. The objective of this endeavour, however, is self-control, whereby the parents will in the end become their own coaches.

‘Push on through’:Children’s perspectives on the narratives of resilience in schools identified for intensive mental health promotion

Child mental health is a growing concern for policymakers across the global north. Schools have become a key site for mental health interventions, with new programmes aimed at promoting ‘resilience’, through which children may maintain or regain mental health during adversity. As one of the first studies to explore the early impact of intensive mental health promotion in schools from children’s perspectives, we adopt a governmentality approach to consider the logic and techniques of such programmes with a specific focus on England. An innovative visual methodology was used to focus on student perspectives of mental health interventions in school. Young peoples’ photo representations of mental health were collected and used to stimulate focus group discussions with 65 students aged 12–14, across seven schools. ‘Resilience’ was seen to be the key organising concept for mental health interventions in schools. The concept was viewed as narrowly focused on attitude towards—and performance in—school work, with individuals being encouraged to ‘push on through’ difficulties to achieve success. Young people were critical of this approach, suggesting several alternatives. These included increased access to independent mental health professionals, safe spaces within schools and mental health education that addressed the social and affective dimensions of mental health difficulties

Education for Sustainable Development and retention: unravelling a research agenda

This paper considers the question of what education for sustainable development (ESD) research might signify when linked to the concept of “retention”, and how this relation (ESD and retention) might be researched. It considers two different perspectives on retention, as revealed through educational research trajectories, drawing on existing research and case studies. Firstly, it discusses an ESD research agenda that documents retention by focusing on the issue of keeping children in schools. This research agenda is typical of the existing discourses surrounding Education for All (EFA). It then discusses a related ESD research agenda that focuses more on the pedagogical and curricular aspects of retention, as this provides for a deeper understanding of how ESD can contribute to improving the quality of teaching and learning within a wider EFA retention agenda

(un)Doing standards in education with actor-network theory

Recent critiques have drawn important attention to the depoliticized consensus and empty promises embedded in network discourses of educational policy. While acceding this critique, this discussion argues that some forms of network analysis – specifically those adopting actor-network theory (ANT) approaches - actually offer useful theoretical resources for policy studies. Drawing from ANT-inspired studies of policy processes associated with educational standards, the article shows the ambivalences and contradictions as well as the possibilities that can be illuminated by ANT analysis of standards as networks. The discussion outlines the diverse network conceptions, considerations and sensibilities afforded by ANT approaches. Then it shows four phenomena that have been highlighted by ANT studies of educational standards: ordering (and rupturing) practice through ‘immutable mobiles’, local universality, tensions among networks of prescription and networks of negotiation, and different co-existing ontological forms of the same standards. The conclusion suggests starting points, drawing from these ANT-inspired network analyses, for examining policy processes associated with educational standards

Soft Openings: The psycho-technological expertise of third sector curriculum reform

Since the late 1990s the "third sector" has become active in generating new curriculum programmes in England. Based on tracing third sector participation in public education during the New Labour years, the article explores a documentary archive of third sector curriculum texts and argues that the programmes, strategies and techniques of the third sector have sought to pursue a new form of governmentality. The type of governmentality pursued by the third sector takes form as a "soft" style of curriculum reform derived from assembling together cybernetic and psychological forms of expertise, interactionist and constructivist pedagogies, and an emerging "psycho-technology" of subjectivity. The third sector fabricates reform proposals for a curriculum of the future in which governance is done by cross-sectoral networking, epistemological categories are blurred, and student subjectivities are made up to be malleable, soft-skilled and psychologically self-shaping. The article examines how third sector texts have assembled this new psycho-technological expertise of curriculum reform through both cybernetic and psychological styles of thinking

Ruffling the calm of the ocean floor: merging practice, policy and researching assessment in Scotland

The formative Assessment for Learning proposals outlined by Black and Wiliam (e.g. Black et al, 2002) have been well publicised. Since 2002, in its Assessment is for Learning programme, the Scottish Executive Education Department (SEED) has been exploring ways of bringing research, policy and practice in assessment into closer alignment using research on both assessment and transformational change. This paper focuses on one project within Assessment is for Learning, in which pilot primary and secondary schools across Scotland were encouraged to develop formative assessment approaches in classrooms. They were supported in this by researchers, curriculum developers and local and national policy makers. The paper examines the rationale and methods behind the enactment of formative assessment in these schools. It draws upon evidence provided by the interim and final reports of participating schools to draw conclusions about areas of success within the project and potential barriers to the project’s future in its evolution from pilot to national programme

Curriculum is - or should be - at the heart of educational practice

First paragraph: We write our first Editorial as Lead Editors of The Curriculum Journal against the political backdrop of turbulent scenes in the UK Parliament. On 12 March 2019, Members of Parliament voted (for a second time) to categorically reject the Prime Minister’s ‘deal’ for exiting the European Union. The following day, they voted almost as decisively to reject a ‘no deal’ exit from the EU. Despite this, at the time of writing it is still quite possible that the UK is spiralling inexorably towards a chaotic (some would say catastrophic) no deal Brexit, with long term effects on the prosperity and wellbeing of its citizens, on its future trading relations with the rest of the world, and ultimately upon its international standing and reputation.Editoria

Математична модель маршрутизації в ТКМ

In this paper, drawing on the work of Michel Foucault, I argue that academics are enmeshed in power relations in which confession operates, both on and through academics. Drawing on Foucault’s genealogy of confession, I illustrate how academics are not only invited to reflect on performance, faults, temptations and desires in their work and private life, but as teachers they mobilise the same kind of technology in relation to students. These power relations are connected to wider changes in society, where discourses on New Public Management have become all pervasive in organising and governing public institutions. The examples of the use of appraisal interviews and logbooks as governing techniques illustrate how government currently operates through the freedom of the individual. The paper ends with a discussion on how books of life could introduce a different relation of the self to the self in academia, and thus provide opportunities to live the present otherwise.