Review Essay: Basil Bernstein (1996). Pedagogy, symbolic control and identity

This paper reviews Basil Bernstein’s (1996) book Pedagogy, symbolic control and identity, focussing specifically on the usefulness of Bernstein’s concepts for an analysis of curricular justice in schooling. The review details five concepts from Bernstein’s model and demonstrates the relevance of these to analyses of equity policies and curricular justice in Queensland schools. These five concepts include: (1) classification and framing; (2) instructional and regulative discourse; (3) recontextualisation; (4) micro-politics of curricular justice and (5) pedagogic models. The paper also links theory to empirical data demonstrating how the Bernsteinian theoretical corpus is illustrative of adaptive theory – simultaneously cumulative and evolving, macro and micro, deductive and inductive

Local and official forms of symbolic control: An Australian case study of the pedagogic work of para-educational personnel

In this paper an analysis is undertaken of the accounts of pedagogic work provided by para-educational personnel working in two government-funded schools situated in a low socio-economic area of an Australian city. Specifically, the paper examines the accounts of two para-educational personnel who identified as Samoan/Pacific Islander and worked to improve the educational outcomes of students from the local Samoan/Pacific Islander community. It is argued that the pedagogic work of para-educational personnel may play an important role in redistributing discursive (informational) resources transmitted through schooling institutions. However, the positioning of para-educational personnel in the field of the local community and the field of education regulates the form/modality of pedagogic work, that is, what is taught and how it is taught. Moreover, the content and form of pedagogic work has the potential for realising inclusive and/or exclusive relations for students from disadvantaged backgrounds

Reading The Silences Within Critical Feminist Theory

This paper reviews the literature produced on gender and critical literacy, particularly research which has drawn on Kristeva's (1986) three tier model of women's work to inform critical feminist literacy curriculum. It examines the strengths and limitations (silences) in this literature, and then proposes an alternative reading of Kristeva which draws on the work of postcolonial theorists. A postcolonial interpretation of Kristeva's (1986) theory of how the sign or representation of `woman' is constructed enables an analysis of the `difference' within the category `woman' not only the relational `difference' symbolically constructed between `man' and `woman'. Kristeva (1986) proposes that in the space of the postmodern nation, such as Australia, symbolic representation in the form of the sign of `woman' is constituted in and through three temporal relations. Kristeva's three temporal relations can be described as: (1) Monumental time (eternity), (2) Cyclic time, and (3) Linear or cursive time. From this perspective, the present of women's time (monumental, cyclical and linear) is a zone of representational instability. That is, the representation of women in and through the sign `woman' becomes the site of continual challenge and reconstruction. It is from this instability of cultural signification that the literary canon comes to be articulated as a dialectic of various temporalities - modern, colonial, postcolonial, feminist, post feminist, poststructural feminism(s), `native', traditional - that cannot be a knowledge that is stablized in enunciation. In this time, `woman' does not signify the female body as an a priori historical presence, a discursive object; but a discursive subject constructed in the performance of the narrative

Diversity, Disadvantage and Differential Outcomes: An analysis of Samoan students narratives of schooling

Social justice discourses, particularly those attentive to the politics of difference, suggest that the perspectives of least-advantaged groups need to be taken into account when endeavouring to realise social justice in education for these groups. In this paper, we analyse narratives on schooling produced by one cohort of least-advantaged students, namely Samoan students attending state-designated disadvantaged secondary schools in Queensland, Australia. Specifically, the narratives of educational disadvantage provided by Samoan students are analysed. The focus is on 'the what' (the knowledge to be transmitted) and 'the how' (the teacher-student relations) of pedagogy in state-designated disadvantaged schools. Attention is paid to the contradictory and ambivalent discourses inherent in these narratives, particularly in terms of realising socially just pedagogic practices

Designing postgraduate pedagogies: connecting internal and external leaders

Learning is the new resource driving the knowledge economy. Now everyone is expected to make themselves available to learn : un-learn : re-learn. Much has been written about new modes of learning, as well the new technologies that promise to deliver information 24/7. Paradoxically, however, in the field of educational sociology there has been little systematic theorisation of the pedagogies designed to facilitate learning in the knowledge economy. Nor have there been systematic efforts to connect macro economic, technological and social changes to state official policies and institutional pedagogic practices. The Bernsteinian theoretical corpus models the power and control relations generating pedagogic discourses, practices and identities from the macro level of policy formation to the micro level of pedagogic interactions. It is therefore useful in examining the new pedagogies designed to generate the learning resources of the knowledge economy. In this paper, we draw on and extend Bernstein's theory of pedagogic discourse and identities to analyse the design and implementation of a postgraduate unit in educational research. This unit aimed to be: rigorous in disciplinary knowledge, technologically innovative, cost efficient; and responsive to diverse student needs and market contingencies

International student subjectivities: biographical investments for liquid times

The international student as an object of study has typically been understood through the frame of cultural identity, mapped back to notions of fixed, static notions of cultural difference. In contrast, this study seeks to understand how the practice of international study has emerged as an increasingly popular ‘biographical solution’ (Beck 1992, Bauman 2002) in order to pursue imagined career trajectories in a globalised and competitive world. Informed by recent studies of middle class strategy in Asia (Pinches, 1999) and the transnational Chinese diaspora (Ong 1999, Ang 2001) that challenge essentialist accounts of timeless Asian values and East-West binaries, the paper analyses interview data collected from ‘Asian’ international students attending preparatory programs at an Australian university. Specifically, the paper discusses the disciplinary formation of the ‘international student’ – the take-up of self-Orientalizing discourses (Ong, 1999), and engagement in practices of auto-ethnography (Pratt, 1998). In addition, the paper explores students’ critiques of, and resistances to Orientalist discourses, and pragmatic willingness to submit to local demands to further their longer term goals. Preparatory programs emerge not so much as life-changing locations but rather necessary transit lounges, for the acquisition of cultural distinctions along their life routes

The challenges of participatory research with 'tech-savvy' youth

This paper focuses on participatory research and how it can be understood and employed when researching children and youth. The aim of this paper is to provide a theoretically and empirically grounded discussion of participatory research methodologies with respect to investigating the dynamic and evolving phenomenon of young people growing up in networked societies. Initially, we review the nature of participatory research and how other researchers have endeavoured to involve young people (children and youth) in their research projects. Our review of these approaches aims to elucidate what we see as recurring and emerging issues with respect to the methodological design of involving young people as co-researchers. In the light of these issues and in keeping with our aim, we offer a case study of our own research project that seeks to understand the ways in which high school students use new media and network ICT systems (Internet, mobile phone applications, social networking sites) to construct identities, form social relations, and engage in creative practices as part of their everyday lives. The article concludes by offering an assessment of our tripartite model of participatory research that may benefit other researchers who share a similar interest in youth and new media

Native speaker TESOL teacher's talk: Examining the unexamined

In this paper we provide a critical analysis of “native–speaker”TESOL teachers’ classroom talk and interview data collected from English for Academic Purposes (EAP) programs in an Australianuniversity to move beyond commonsense ideas of how their talkmight resource the language classroom. Using the sociolinguisticconcept of “frame”, we analyse episodes of talk from the classroompractices of two teachers. We examine the complexity of layered meanings produced as the teachers teach and simultaneously provide linguistic instruction on the language that is vicariouslyproduced in their talk or the activity. We propose that unexamined,native speaker teacher talk, although well-intentioned, can also carry risks that might make it problematic for the language learner.The two extracts reveal two potential problems—the nativespeaker’s agility in con/textual shifts, and the native-speaker’s capacity to cumulatively rephrase classroom questions and addunnecessary syntactic complexity that was not in the initial question

The Logic of Equity Practice in Queensland State Education - 2010

This paper reports on an interview based study which explored the implementation of a major policy initiative in Queensland, Australia, with particular attention to social justice issues. Interviews were conducted with key policy actors in three sections of the bureaucracy: strategic directions, performance and measurement; curriculum and assessment; and workforce and professional development. We were interested in the ways in which the tensions between redistributive and recognitive approaches to social justice were being managed in the bureaucracy. We drew on Bourdieu’s concepts of field, logic of practice, political discourse, habitus, capital, and symbolic power struggles to theorise the politics of discourse associated with such policy implementation processes within bureaucracies. The interview data revealed differences in approaches to equity issues and in the language used in the three sections of the bureaucracy. We argue that these differences, associated with the different priorities of the three sections and their differing roles in the implementation processes, reflect the different logics of practice operating within the different sections. The final section of the paper discusses the implications of the analysis for theorising equity and difference in education policy in new times, and considers the value of Bourdieu’s concepts for theorising policy implementation processes

Teacher Quality and Teacher Education: A Critical Policy Analysis of International and Australian Policies.

This article examines how the ‘teacher quality’ agenda, evident in the globalised discourse on education policy, constructs changes to teachers’ work and teacher education. We undertake a critical policy analysis of two reports from the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), addressing three issues. First, we discuss the global and national context in which ‘teacher quality’ policies have emerged. We examine implications of policy enactment in Australia and analyse how the OECD documents construct understandings of teacher quality. We link our analysis to a recent government inquiry into the teaching profession in Australia, looking specifically at the impact of the teacher quality discourse on teacher education. The OECD documents constrain what is perceived as acceptable curriculum, pedagogy and evaluation in teacher education. We argue, with others, that changes in response to the teacher quality discourse are narrowing what it means to undertake quality teaching work, especially in contexts of disadvantage