Towards an integrative Philosophy of Education: The contemplative case of Economic Education

Acquiring a basic a knowledge of philosophy is usually a matter of deprioritized choice for students in undergraduate programmes across the world. Seldom is even a basic philosophy course mandatory in the hard sciences. It may however be an option in social sciences degrees. While many undergraduate teacher education programmes do have standalone courses in the philosophy of education or some variant thereof in general educational studies courses, of note is that philosophical inspiration is largely drawn from continental philosophy, often critiqued for its efficacy at understanding the Southern Other. The problematic then is twofold. Firstly, there is uncertainty as to the extent to which preservice teachers are able to see philosophy of education’s wider relevance and application to disciplinary fields (school subjects) they choose to teach.  Secondly, contemporary philosophy of education courses especially in the (South) African context, may still be paying homage to western, Eurocentric philosophical canons despite recent calls by the broader student collective in South Africa for (African) contextual relevance.  In this paper, I present an account of a curriculum initiative in a teacher education course that attempts a disruption of traditional western canons that underpin economics and economic education. I argue that the disciplines (such as economics) are fertile spaces for engaging teacher trainees in a philosophical exposé with the view to contesting the universality of the philosophies of (economic) sciences to explain contemporary societal crises.  The paper concludes with insights for how philosophy (of education) might be conceptualised as an ‘across the curriculum’ competence as opposed to an insular packaging as standalone offering.      &nbsp

Transactional ethics and ‘damage-centred’ research: Of banality and oblivion

The recent article by Nieuwoudt, Dickie, Coetsee, Engelbrecht and Terblanche (2019) entitled “Age- and education-related effects on cognitive functioning in Colored South African women” published in the journal Aging, Neuropsychology, and Cognition, attracted considerable negative attention, leading to its official withdrawal from circulation. While it may be argued that this unfortunate piece of “scholarship” had “slipped through the cracks”, there is certainly a need for a more nuanced analysis of what constitutes ethical social research practice. In this article, the issue of intentionality and (un)witting Othering is contemplated by invoking Tuck’s notion of “damage-centred” research, an approach that continues to frame contemporary investigations in the name of social justice. It is argued that there is a need to reconsider the practice of transactional ethics. Arendt’s concept of the banality (of evil) has resonance, as it speaks to the notion of “blissful oblivion of complicity”, even in the context of a widespread contemporary discourse of social transformation and decolonisation in South African higher education

(Re)counting the high cost of predatory publishing and the effect of a neoliberal performativity culture

In this self-critical account, I engage the concepts of ‘critique’ and ‘judgement’ and why they are crucial for protecting and maintaining the integrity of academia and scholarship. I argue that a naive or ignorant academic is a somewhat paradoxical position to assume, as academia is necessarily a critical space, which demands astuteness and constant vigilance. I contend that blissful ignorance is a fragile justification for the neglect of due diligence, as it relates to the selection of locales for knowledge dissemination. I engage the tenets of self-study and critical autoethnography to reflect on my practice as an academic and the consequences of my own poor judgement, not as an act of arrogant disclosure, but with a view to embracing this ‘elephant in the national academic room’ and also bringing to the fore, other ‘frail’ current knowledge vetting processes. The article draws on a Žižekian notion of perverse analysis with the view to evoke a primal confrontation of a particularly sensitive issue. I exploit the metaphor in the title to draw attention to the gravity of the act of predatory publishing and its almost irrevocable consequences. I also reflect on my grief, trauma, guilt and shame, of this self-inflicted academic reputational mutilation, and the arduous task ahead of ‘rebuilding’ one’s academic integrity. I hope that this paper might serve to intensify our alertness to the potential new perils that present, in the neoliberal research productivity-driven higher education space, where online publishing and open access has become common place, and where ‘opportunities’ to transgress and expose oneself to risk, present themselves on a daily basis, often with well-disguised ‘authenticity’. Finally, I reflect on my public exposé of personal flaw and its restorative effect of a necessary humility in the academic space

About vicarious blame, containers, and contents: Rejoinder to le Grange

In this article, I reflect on le Grange’s (2019) response to my article (Maistry, 2019) on predatory publishing. I engage with his critique on various levels. While I agree with the notion of embracing positive action, I analyse the usefulness of the dichotomisation of ethics and morality in understanding how this phenomenon should play itself out in academia. I contemplate the “container” versus “contents” debate, and its implications for the South African scholarship context. I also draw attention to the workings of two neoliberal markets at play in the academic publishing space: the neoliberal market for publishing services, and the market for published scholarship and offer some tentative implications for academics who have to inhabit this space. Finally, I argue that for debate to reach a high level of robustness, it has to start somewhere. For a phenomenon like predatory publishing, it might mean accommodating multiple perspectives, be they moralising, engaging an immanent ethics, even defensiveness. In fact, immanent critique urges the need to resist the temptation to “moralise” right or wrong approaches to debating this phenomenon. I reflect on how le Grange has extended the debate to include predation for publishing, an issue I argue is complexly connected to the historicity of containers (journals) serving as conduits for the propagation of racist ideology. Keywords: predatory publishing, ethics, neoliberal publishing market&nbsp

Aligning with feminism: Critical autoethnographic reflections of a profeminist heterosexual male teacher educator

AbstractIn the last two decades, education scholarship has made significant progress in advancing the feminist social justice agenda and female scholars have almost entirely been the drivers of this impetus. Female scholars in teacher education have been successful in establishing and consolidating this disciplinary field of study quite firmly in the teacher education curriculum. Despite this, multiple forms of gender oppression including gender-based violence continue to plague South African universities and society in general. There is a distinct concern that men have been relatively silent and inactive in this social justice project. There is also limited extant scholarship that speaks to the role that profeminist men might play in this social justice enterprise. There is also a dearth of understanding of the level of sophistication with which men understand feminism, which feminisms men might align themselves with and the accountability and responsibility that might come with assuming certain positions. In this critical, autoethnographic piece, I engage the questions as to how critical pedagogical encounters might serve as disruptive device in an attempt to trouble reified gendered socialisations. I draw on my experiences as teacher educator as I struggle to locate and identify my own profeminist positionality and the tensions that present. I contemplate the poststructuralist caution about the tension of writing (my)self into text given that the writing self is an evolving/changing self. I reflect on my attempt to disrupt banality and oblivion as I contemplate the prospect of self-disclosure as point of entry for profeminist men’s praxis in a teacher education programme subscribed to by young men (and women) steeply socialised in a patriarchal history and culture

Case studies of economics teaching in secondary schools.

Thesis (M.Ed.)-University of Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 1998.The purpose of this research study was to establish the perceptions of economics teaching of two teachers of economics who were functioning in two contrasting contexts. The intention was to examine their practice and to ascertain the extent to which the relationship between their beliefs and their practice was constrained or facilitated by the context in which they taught. The study made use of interviews and classroom observations to address these issues. The research confirmed that there was a disjunction between the teachers' theories of economics teaching and their actual practice and that their practice was mediated by the context in which they functioned. Both teachers shared very similar epistemologies. They concurred on assessment techniques and teaching methodology in economics. They also agreed that the goal of economics teaching was to engender a love of the subject. However, the vastly different contexts in which they taught spawned unique coping strategies to deal with their peculiar teaching environments. The 'macro' c~nstraints which they faced emanated from external institutions that imposed overt and hidden rules and expectations upon them. Internal constraints were derived from the peculiar context of each school. The study revealed that the teacher operating in the more repressive context displayed a greater degree of dissonance between beliefs and practice as compared to the teacher in the more favourable context. The teacher in the favourable context was better able to implement her beliefs about economics teaching. However, she was faced with new challenges created by the information explosion as a result of the school's access to the Internet. Though the nature of the discipline urges a problem-solving approach to economics teaching and even though both teachers concurred with this view, the constraints of the context were compelling factors that hindered teachers' educational ideals. Of note , was the fact that the more repressive the context, the greater were the constraints facing the teacher, and the more complex were the strategies employed by the teacher in order to cope. The more complex the coping strategy, the greater was the disjunction between teachers' theories about economics teaching and their practice

Teacher learning in a community of practice : case study of teachers of economic and management sciences.

Theses (Ph.D.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, 2005.Conceptualising teacher learning in terms of participation in a teacher learning community is a relatively new phenomenon in South Africa. This study explores the usefulness of applying a social practice theory of learning to a community of novice Economic and Management Sciences teacher learners involved in the Teaching Economics and Management Sciences (TEMS) teacher development project. It examines the influence of contextual constraints, teachers' biographies and professional career trajectories on teachers' ability to participate in a learning community. By drawing on Wenger's theory of learning in a community of practice and Wenger et al's stages of community development framework, it also illuminates and theorises the potential that a community of practice framework has for teacher development. Wenger's framework offered important insights that informed and shaped the development of the TEMS programme. It also provided a useful tool for analysing teacher learning as constituting four components, namely, meaning, practice, identity and community. The complex relationship that exists between these different components of learning is examined. The study offers a critique of the feasibility and appropriateness of using Wenger's framework for analysing a teacher learning community. Methodologically, the tenets of symbolic interactionist ethnography were employed in the collection of data for this study. An exposition of the complexity and challenge of adopting the dual role of researcher as observer and participant is presented. An analysis is also provided of the methodological challenge of gaining access and acceptance in a South African education research context. The study examines how the essential tension in teacher professional development, namely, that of curriculum development and deepening subject matter knowledge is managed in a teacher learning community of novice Economic and Management Sciences teachers. It reveals the potential that a learning community framework has for teacher learning through different levels of participation, and points to the importance of the input of an outside expert, particularly during the early stages of development of a community of teacher learners who lack subject content knowledge. It argues that teacher learning communities present a fruitful and viable alternative to the current 'deficit' models of teacher development that typify the present South African teacher development scenario, as teacher learning communities suggest a conceptual reorientation of the discourse on teacher development

The school economics textbook as programmatic curriculum: An exploited conduit for neoliberal globalisation discourses

In the South African school context, the textbook serves as an indispensable, trustworthy source of disciplinary content knowledge. While the constitution and vetting of such knowledge is subject to the state’s textbook publication protocols as it relates to screening for race, gender and other overt prejudices, there is a dearth of understanding of covert ideological hegemony embedded in the textbook as revered artefact. This programmatic curriculum, the school textbook, has received minimal attention from local curriculum theorists and researchers. As such, it is likely to masquerade as innocent purveyor of selected (or subversive) ideology. In an attempt to unveil the subtext, this paper reports on a study that set out to examine the discourses of globalisation that manifest in selected contemporary high school economics textbooks. The study draws on the tenets of Fairclough’s Critical Discourse Analysis, to reveal how particular knowledge selections romanticise globalisation through discourses of ideoscapes, financescapes and ethnoscapes, presenting and perpetuating a neoliberal discourse as normal and acceptable. Reflections on how critical curriculum theory might offer insights for classroom pedagogy, especially as it relates to re-embracing the critical pedagogy project in the South African school context, is presented for contemplation

Pre-service accounting teachers’ attitudes to mathematics

Mathematics proficiency has an acknowledged impact on students’ accounting grades. Success in this core business subject is dependent on students’ mathematical aptitude, attitude and type of secondary schooling. Our study investigated accounting students’ attitudes to mathematics on domains of the Fennema-Sherman Mathematics Attitudes Scales (F-SMAS) and identified demographic variables in overall attitudes to mathematics, which are pertinent to higher education pedagogy for accountancy. Eight of nine F-SMAS with established reliability and validity were used for the study. A cross-sectional data set containing demographic details and attitudes to mathematics were collected, and quantitative responses of 255 first-, second- and third-year pre-service teachers were analysed. The F-SMAS scores were strongly positive, except for mathematics anxiety, where the score was slightly above neutral. The distribution of scores showed that there are first- and second-year students who experience mathematics anxiety, and have low scores in other domains, while third-year students are less anxious. The results also revealed more positive overall attitude to mathematics from specific categories of students, who also more frequently indicated parents and teachers as sources of support and encouragement for mathematics studies.Keywords: accounting; attitudes; mathematics; pre-service accounting teachers; teachin

Neoliberal stratification: The confounding effect of the school poverty quintile ranking system in South Africa

The South African school education landscape is distinctly uneven as it relates to school financing. The state’s attempt at differentiated funding via the quintile system is vaunted as an initiative to address the needs of poor schools. It parades as a commitment to a redress agenda. Since implementation, the socioeconomic demography has changed significantly for many schools. Some have experienced an exodus of fee-paying learners and an increase in poor learners residing in newly established informal settlements. There is limited understanding of the extent of the financial crises that these schools face. In this article we examine the financial management struggles of schools from low socioeconomic contexts. Eight schools in the Greater Durban area were purposively sampled and a series of in-depth interviews were conducted with school principals. The study revealed that principals were involved in constant struggles to manage their schools in the context of dire financial constraints. The advent of outsourcing of procurement is a distinct neoliberal move that relegates previously state functions to the ambit of the market. Profit-driven procurement agents systematically drain the public purse as they wilfully render services and supplies incommensurate with the charges they levy. Keywords: neoliberalism; procurement practices; quintile system; school financial managemen