What lies beneath? Framing the principles for post-16 education in Scotland

This article explores the guiding principles from an informal education /youth work perspective. If the proposals include, even marginally, some of the work carried out under the auspices of CLD, then we argue it is valid that these principles are explored from such perspectives. As the CLD configuration also includes ‘achievement through learning for adults and ‘achievements through building community capacity’, perspectives will also be included from these traditions. The way that the document uses various concepts from a wider range of theory, both formal and informal education, we argue that the frame being used is intended to speak to a wide range of professionals and interested parties but at the same time narrow the focus to mirror a political ethos

Psychosocial Influences on Young Australian University Students Decisions to Ride with a Drink Driver

Drink driving is a well established road safety risk factor, targeted through legislation, education, and an increasing array of technology-based initiatives in an effort to reduce the incidence and impact on Australian roads. However, evidence suggests that most drink drivers do not drive alone. This study examined the incidence of drink riding behaviour in a sample of 294 young Australian drivers (average age 20 years), as well as a number of social and psychological influences associated with the behaviour. Results indicated that 56% of participants reported ever having ridden as a passenger of a drink driver, with just over 36% having done so within the previous twelve months. With respect to the previous twelve month period, attitudes toward drink riding was moderately correlated with actual behaviour (r = .43), whereas subjective norms (r = .19), perceived behavioural control (r = -.27) and the personality construct of sensation seeking (r = .23) were weakly correlated. Drink riding was moderately correlated with self-reported drinking behaviour, including frequency of drinking occasions (r = .38) and particularly occasions where two or more drinks were consumed (r = .44). Drink riders were significantly more likely than non-drink riders to report having engaged in other drug and alcohol related driving and riding behaviours, yet were less likely to have reported risky driving practices generally, such as driving through a red light. These results suggest that alcohol consumption and attitudes play an important role in drink riding behaviour, whereas risky driving history appears to be less important. The implications and future directions are discussed

Justice Expectations and Applicant Perceptions

Expectations, which are beliefs about a future state of affairs, constitute a basic psychological mechanism that underlies virtually all human behavior. Although expectations serve as a central component in many theories of organizational behavior, they have received limited attention in the organizational justice literature. The goal of this paper is to introduce the concept of justice expectations and explore its implications for understanding applicant perceptions. To conceptualize justice expectations, we draw on research on expectations conducted in multiple disciplines. We discuss the three sources of expectations – direct experience, indirect influences, and other beliefs - and use this typology to identify the likely antecedents of justice expectations in selection contexts. We also discuss the impact of expectations on attitudes, cognitions, and behaviors, focusing specifically on outcomes tied to selection environments. Finally, we explore the theoretical implications of incorporating expectations into research on applicant perceptions and discuss the practical significance of justice expectations in selection contexts

Development and the uniform school

Development is, in the Foucauldian sense, a particular discourse which does not reflect but actually constructs reality. In doing so, it closes off alternative ways of thinking and so constitutes a form of power (Kiely 1999: 31). What do schools and McDonalds have in common? Both are powerful symbols of modernity… Each has a global profile… You will recognise them no matter where in the world you find them because they each follow a set format… Both are defined more by this formulaic sameness than by their geographic location… Should we be reassured by this sameness or alarmed? This chapter has nothing to say about hamburgers but raises serious concerns about the tendency to reproduce the same school design irrespective of the prevailing local conditions. This chapter case studies the educational initiative of a large indigenous NGO in Bangladesh (BRAC1) that breaks the mould by making the school fit the children rather than the children fit the school. The initiative is noteworthy in its own right but perhaps of most significance here is the lukewarm response it has generated among those whose business is development. The chapter argues that in line with the quotation above, the dominant discourse on education within the development arena is such that initiatives of this nature are not welcome because they do not fit the constructed reality embedded in an unquestioning allegiance to conventional schooling. By neglecting to harness the fundamental principles that inform this initiative the western donors and the government of Bangladesh are exercising their power to effectively silence an alternative way of approaching primary education. In global terms every silencing makes the McDonalds/school analogy more real

Finishing Your Thesis

This chapter looks at the tasks to be undertaken in order to finish your thesis. Three pieces of work remain at this stage. The first of these is to construct the closing chapter; the second is to edit and proof read the entire text; and the third is to compose or finalise the pages that go both before and after the main body of text. The chapter also considers the possibilities for publication of some or all of the material contained in your thesis

Circling the Wagons: Disability and Access to Education

This chapter proposes a conceptual framework in which to reflect on the phenomenon of exclusion with particular reference to disability. As a reflective practitioner I want to open a dialogue where I can seek to make sense of the world where the history of disability is littered with discrimination and oppression that has hidden the humanity, individuality and ordinariness of people with disabilities. The term ‘disability’ appears to be a residual category, used to encapsulate a wide range of people who may or may not have anything in common in terms of their everyday experience of the world but who are lumped together because of who they are not. Everyday language is important because it reveals what is valued, what is defined as ‘normal’, who is categorised as ‘different’ and how ‘outsiders’ are positioned. What people with disabilities have in common is a label of ‘otherness’ which relies for its meaning on not being able-bodied or able-minded. At the same time ideologies of able bodied-ness and able minded-ness go largely unchallenged. The chapter argues that unless initiatives to promote inclusiveness are grounded in principles of equality and entitlement they do little to counter discrimination, oppression and injustice, and may in fact entrench them. In this chapter I want to explore whether the current dominant approaches to broadening access to education for people with disabilities are consolidating or dismantling existing exclusionary practices and attitudes. This is important because factors that alienate or disconnect people from each other result in silencing those who are excluded and impoverishing the community as a whole. I call the chapter ‘Circling the Wagons’– a regular defense strategy in the old cowboys’ movies and a fitting metaphor to evoke a number of themes I want to explore. The first of these is exclusion – keeping out one group and defending the interests of another. When countering exclusion it is important not only to look at ways of getting or improving access but also to look at what is being guarded, how it is guarded and why it is guarded. The second theme is that of stereotyping. ‘Circling the Wagons’ usually takes place among a cast of clearly defined heroes, villains and victims. Who occupies each role is dependent on who is telling the story. In tackling exclusion, knowing whose perspective is privileged is key to understanding the values and beliefs that inform decisions on how to promote inclusiveness. The third theme is that of insider/outsider. Those who attacked the wagons were interested in more than these specific wagons; they knew that these wagons represented a much bigger happening yet at the same time those in the wagons knew little of their adversaries or the land they traveled through, other than the myths and legends that left them in fear of their lives

Enough: a worldview for positive futures

How can we live in harmony with nature? How do we stop global warming, associated climate change and the destruction of ecosystems? How can we eliminate poverty, provide security and create sufficiency for all the people of the earth? How do we restore an ethic of care for people and for the earth? In short, how can we put human and planetary well being at the centre of all our decision-making? Enough – philosophy and practice -- applies insights from flourishing ecosystems and from moral thinking to these big philosophical questions about how we should live. Given the crises of ecology and social justice that we currently face, the need for a new worldview is as crucial as new technology. We are all born with the capacity for enough; everybody has a part to play in the creation of a culture of enough, as a way to understand the world and live in it

Sources for a politicised practice of women's personal development education

In this chapter I argue that, in the drive to subvert the gender status quo and bring about gender justice, women's personal development education should not be abandoned. It should, however, be reconstituted and radically politicised, by taking on board feminist poststructuralist insights about the human subject and the social world. Such insights challenge the liberal humanist models of the person which dominate most approaches to adult education, including women's personal development education In turn, these models have much in common with mainstream psychology. In attending to the personal, we need to recognise the restrictive nature of the dominant frameworks which shape our thinking about the personal and the emotional

Discourse: some considerations for the reflective practitioner

In this chapter, I use the term discourse in a very specific way. My usage concerns meaning repertoires, through which we filter our experiences. When people talk about something or when we act, we draw on or activate certain meaning-resources or discourses.2 We often do so within dominant discourses, which characterise ways of talking, writing, thinking, behaving and theorising that prevail at certain times in certain arenas of life. How do these taken-for-granted ways of being define or position people in particular ways? How do they act to legitimise particular kinds of behaviour? What assumptions does a particular discourse contain about what is normal or desirable? Whose position is strengthened or weakened by what is focused upon or what is ignored within a particular discourse? What discourses are muted or unacknowledged? What discourses might one expect to find concerning a theme, but which are noticeable by their absence? Such questions are a necessary concern for the reflective practitioner

Cultivating resilient and ethical prosperity with basic income

This paper examines the role of basic income in constructing a dynamic, diverse and democratic social economy. ‘Basic income’ or BI is shorthand for a regular, sufficient and unconditional income, administered by the state and issued to every member of society. BI replaces social welfare payments, child benefit and the state pension as we currently know them. It also extends to all those who currently receive no income from the state. Ideally, a BI would be sufficient for each person to have a frugal but decent lifestyle without supplementary income from paid work. Basic income is a measure that could be implemented during the current crisis in Ireland. It is a step that is possible within the tax and money regime that prevails at the moment, even in the EU‐ECB‐IMF troika programme. By itself, it will not achieve all that we need, but it has a crucial role to play in the transition to an economy and society based on the well being of all and the sharing of resources for the prosperity of all. The paper begins by calling for ecological and economic literacy, so that the concept of basic income can be understood in a wider framework of knowledge about: • managing the resources of the world (the commons) for the benefit of all members of society • basic securities as a pre‐requisite for sustainability and resilience • work in its broadest sense, as any engagement with the world – paid or unpaid ‐‐ designed to change something or to add value to society or economy • the wealth inherent in sufficiency. The paper then examines the immediate benefits of basic income and the longer‐term possibilities for all kinds of work and workers. It also examines how basic income can support pioneers and seed projects that are already working towards a transformed economic and social regime characterised by greater equality, economic resilience and social solidarity. The paper treats basic income as an essential and do‐able step in such a transformation. As a stand‐alone measure it would have beneficial effects. But it would have maximum effects if accompanied by democratic reform in tax and money systems