Beyond Personalization: Embracing Democratic Learning Within Artificially Intelligent Systems

This essay explains how, from the theoretical perspective of Basil Bernstein's three “conditions for democracy,” the current pedagogy of artificially intelligent personalized learning seems inadequate. Building on Bernstein's comprehensive work and more recent research concerned with personalized education, Natalia Kucirkova and Sandra Leaton Gray suggest three principles for advancing personalized education and artificial intelligence (AI). They argue that if AI is to reach its full potential in terms of promoting children's identity as democratic citizens, its pedagogy must go beyond monitoring the technological progression of personalized provision of knowledge. It needs to pay more careful attention to the democratic impact of data‐driven systems. Kucirkova and Leaton Gray propose a framework to distinguish the value of personalized learning in relation to pluralization and to guide educational researchers and practitioners in its application to socially just classrooms

Social trajectories or disrupted identities? : Changing and competing models of teacher professionalism under New Labour

Since the 1988 Education Reform Act, the teacher’s role in England has changed in many ways, a process which intensified under New Labour after 1997. Conceptions of teacher professionalism have become more structured and formalized, often heavily influenced by government policy objectives. Career paths have become more diverse and specialised. In this article, three post-1997 professional roles are given consideration as examples of these new specialised career paths: Higher Level Teaching Assistants, Teach First trainees and Advanced Skills Teachers. The article goes on to examine such developments within teaching, using Bourdieu’s concept of habitus to inform the analysis, as well as Bernstein’s theories of knowledge and identity. The article concludes that there has been considerable specialization and subsequent fragmentation of roles within the teaching profession, as part of workforce remodelling initiatives. However, there is still further scope for developing a greater sense of professional cohesion through social activism initiatives, such as the children's agenda. This may produce more stable professional identities in the future as the role of teachers within the wider children’s workforce is clarified

The European Schools system: State of Play, Challenges and Perspectives

This study examines the progress that the European Schools System has made during the past decade and overviews its state of affairs as of 2022. The educational dimension of the study focuses on questions related to teaching and learning, while the operational one concentrates on the administrative and managerial sides of the system. The study pinpoints the key challenges that the system currently faces and provides tailored recommendations on how to overcome them

The Big Society, education and power

The UK Conservative Party’s adoption of The Big Society idea with its advocacy of less centralised and more distributed power has provoked discussion about power in education. Most of these discussions have focused on generalities without pinning down either how the power of particular groups of educational stakeholders might change under the reforms proposed or what they mean by power. Accordingly, a detailed examination was carried out of proposed changes for stakeholders’ power in the Conservative Party’s major policy documents and speeches. A complex set of changes in power was noted. In contrast to the claims that power will be more distributed and less centralized as a result of ‘Big Society’ policies, it is argued that educational reforms may lead to increasing centralisation of particular sorts of power. This may be of relevance to other countries experimenting with new types of politicised education reform

Beyond Personalization: Embracing Democratic Learning Within Artificially Intelligent Systems

This essay explains how, from the theoretical perspective of Basil Bernstein's three “conditions for democracy,” the current pedagogy of artificially intelligent personalized learning seems inadequate. Building on Bernstein's comprehensive work and more recent research concerned with personalized education, Natalia Kucirkova and Sandra Leaton Gray suggest three principles for advancing personalized education and artificial intelligence (AI). They argue that if AI is to reach its full potential in terms of promoting children's identity as democratic citizens, its pedagogy must go beyond monitoring the technological progression of personalized provision of knowledge. It needs to pay more careful attention to the democratic impact of data-driven systems. Kucirkova and Leaton Gray propose a framework to distinguish the value of personalized learning in relation to pluralization and to guide educational researchers and practitioners in its application to socially just classrooms

Comprehensive schooling and social inequality in London: past, present and possible future

This chapter assesses the impact of new forms of schooling in London. It debates whether London education is currently in an unsettled phase which may be an early indication of a future post-competition era for education in England. The chapter opens by outlining the social and political history of comprehensive secondary education in the capital. The chapter goes on to consider recent Select Committee evidence on social and academic segregation in the context of school choice, selection and achievement in London. The tension between the standards/inclusion agenda and tackling disadvantage is explored. The chapter concludes with an examination of trusts, federations and extended schools, followed by an assessment of the impact which new governance arrangements might have on social inequalities among London schools

Women Curriculum Theorists Power, Knowledge and Subjectivity

Most published bodies of work relating to curriculum theory focus exclusively, or almost exclusively, on the contributions of men. This is not representative of influences on educational practices as a whole, and it is certainly not representative of educational theory generally, as women have played a significant role in framing the theory and practice of education in the past. Their contribution is at least equal to that of men, even though it may not immediately appear as visible on library shelves or lecture lists. This book addresses this egregious deficit by asking readers to engage in an intellectual conversation about the nature of women’s curriculum theory, as well as its impact on society and thought in general. It does this by examining the work of twelve women curriculum theorists:　Maxine Greene, Susan Haack, Julia Kristeva, Martha Nussbaum, Nel Noddings, Jane Roland Martin, Marie Battiste, Dorothea Beale, Susan Isaacs, Maria Montessori, Mary Warnock and Lucy Diggs Slowe. The book is not an encyclopaedia, nor is it a history book. It aims to bring to the reader’s attention, through a semantic rendition of the world, those seminal relationships that exist between the three meta-concepts that are addressed in the work, feminism, learning and curriculum. It will appeal to scholars and researchers with interests in curriculum, and the philosophy and sociology of education