This book illuminates contemporary educational reform discussions regarding teacher education programs and pre-K-12 schools by providing a clear analysis and application of John Dewey's relevant educational writings and ideas. The volume addresses issues of how future teachers should be liberally educated as well as prepared to be professional educators. Pre-K-12 education is evaluated through a Deweyan lens, involving a discussion of such topics as the teacher's responsibilities, charter schools, a common curriculum, professional development schools, new curricula, school (...) administration, and cooperative learning. In the concluding chapter, the authors point out many of the questions and concerns that those who are interested in educational reform are well-advised to ask and discuss. (shrink)

This chapter contains sections titled: Introduction ANT, After‐ANT, and Educational Reform Network Readings and Educational Reform A First Reading of Reform: Extending the Network Re‐thinking the Reading: Centrality and Otherness A Second Reading: Mobilizing and Sustaining Reform Re‐reading Reform: Fluid Spaces and Ambivalent Belongings Conclusion Notes References.

In an effort to address the problems confronting the American education system, the Obama administration has issued structural and systematic reforms such as _Race to the Top_. These initiatives introduce new statistics and accountability systems to gauge what constitutes "good" teaching, both from an administrative standpoint and the perspective of teacher training programs. This volume offers a direct critique of this approach, concluding that it does not respond adequately to the issues of education reform but rather raises new problems (...) and actively stymies progress. The author argues that at the heart of the confusion lies a misguided and rationalistic view of teaching and learning. He draws on the philosophical strategies of Ludwig Wittgenstein to break down the guiding assumptions of _Race to the Top_, allowing both the positive and the negative aspects of the policies to be heard. The author then proposes a different view of teaching and learning which considers how to effectively address the problems _Race to the Top_ seeks to confront. (shrink)

There is constant pressure on governments and policy makers to raise the standard of education, and to develop appropriate curriculum and pedagogies for students. It is no easy task. This book presents eight specific case studies of education reform implementation which capture how the design and implementation choices of policy makers are shaped by national and historical contexts. They offer real examples of the choices and constraints faced by policymakers and practitioners. The cases are a mix of nationally and (...) locally mandated reforms with five examples from nations where the state initiated and guided reforms. The concluding synthesis chapter highlights commonalities and differences across the cases and disparate responses to shared concerns. Providing a breadth of real-world research, it will assist policy makers, practitioners and other stakeholders interested in system change. (shrink)

This paper takes the vigorous political debate unleashed in Germany by the results of the PISA study as a stimulus to take a closer look at the strategic aims and effects of the current education reforms, of which the PISA study is only one example. It shows that the reform measures underpin a powerful process of normalisation. In this context, the PISA study, along with other reform measures, can be seen as a ‘power stabiliser’. The paper indicates how (...) techniques of political domination are linked with ‘technologies of the self’ and how the ‘discourse of self organization’ can be seen as the core of a governmental strategy to assimilate education more thoroughly than ever before into a network of disciplinary procedures and ‘voluntary self‐control’. (shrink)

Discourses of public education reform, like that exemplified within the Queensland Government's future vision document, Queensland State Education‐2010 , position schooling as a panacea to pervasive social instability and a means to achieve a new consensus. However, in unravelling the many conflicting statements that conjoin to form education policy and inform related literature , it becomes clear that education reform discourse is polyvalent . Alongside visionary statements that speak of public education as a vehicle for social justice are (...) the visionary or those reflecting neoliberal individualism and a conservative politics. In this paper, it is argued that the latter coagulate to form strategic discursive practices which work to secure dominant relations of power. Further, discussion of the characteristics needed by the ‘ideal’ future citizen of Queensland reflect efforts to ‘tame change through the making of the child’ . The casualties of this vision and the refusal to investigate the pathologies of ‘traditional’ schooling are the children who, for whatever reason, do not conform to the norm of the desired school child as an ‘ideal’ citizen‐in‐the‐making and who become relegated to alternative educational settings. (shrink)

The central focus of this monograph is the concept of higher education reform in the light of an international and global comparative perspective. This volume takes a close look at these changes, the drivers of change, their effects and possible future scenarios.

Vicious Circles traces the history of development of public education and the near simultaneous advent of educational reform from its very beginning. Drawing on history, politics, law, sociology, and educational research, all aspects of public schooling are brought to light using a non-partisan analytical approach. Critically examining areas such as institutional racism, sexism, ableism, ethnocentrism, and xenophobia, as well as the corporatization and privatization of public schooling, Shyman extracts the fundamental problems that have ever plagued, and continue (...) to plague, successful education reform. (shrink)

Serving as an introduction to the special issue of Studies in Philosophy and Education, “Philosophical Transgressions: Performativity and Performance for Education,” this paper situates the papers that follow in its own performative analysis, especially utilizing the insights of Jean-François Lyotard. From him two ideas are salient, one his conception of knowledge as performance and the other the aesthetic that is a reformist response.

School leaders must navigate multiple education reform issues while remaining focused on the daily commitment of providing a quality education to all students. In many cases, the education reforms enacted by policy makers lack empirical support and/or result in potentially unwelcome or unethical practices, yet they are cloaked in rhetoric that makes it difficult for school leaders to accurately decipher the potential impacts on students and teachers. The lack of a practical framework from which to critique reforms such as (...) using standardized test score to make important decisions about students and teachers, merit pay, and standardized curricula products can leave some school leaders in the position of supporting reforms that have long-term negative effects on students or educators. This book fills a void in the literature through a practical approach to (a) provide school leaders with methods they can use to interpret and critique education reforms within an action-oriented framework grounded in ethics and empirical evidence; (b) offer strategies school leaders can use to creatively comply with reforms that lack an evidence base or violate basic principles of ethics, in ways that lessen the negative aspects of education reforms at the point of contact with students; and (c) model the use of a critique framework through example cases of four empirically and ethically dubious education reforms commonly faced by K-12 school leaders. We will ask Yong Zhao to write a Foreword. (shrink)

(2008). Introduction Interdisciplinary Approaches to Educational Reform Within a Foucaultian Framework. Educational Studies: Vol. 44, SPECIAL ISSUE: INTERDISCIPLINARY APPROACHES TO EDUCATIONAL REFORM WITHIN A FOUCAULTIAN FRAMEWORK, pp. 3-6.

The article presents the results of an analysis of the academic dispute about the scholarly ethos, conducted at the time of intense higher education reforms in Poland. Previous analyses of the academic debate on the change of the traditional university towards its entrepreneurial organization emphasize the polarization, that is, the criticism or affirmation of neoliberal reforms. The presented research proves that this discourse loses its dichotomous power when it focuses on ethical issues. The analysis shows the ‘polyvalence’ and ‘strategic integration’ (...) of discourse in the Foucauldian sense of the terms. Firstly, the issue of the traditional scholarly ethos is clearly present both among the opponents and supporters of the current changes in higher education. Secondly, both critical and affirmative discourses refer to the traditional ethos, i.e. they do not attempt to develop any new ethopoiesis, which may be surprising especially in the case of the latter. Instead, they use a ‘peculiar reversal’, pointing to factors located outside the university and yet affecting academic standards. Thirdly, individual attributes of the traditional ethos are taken over by neoliberal discourse, which modifies them and adjusts them to its own purposes. The term ‘ethicalization’ of higher education reform describes ethical problematizations of the contemporary university transformation. (shrink)

Originally published in 1913, this text was written in anticipation of the King's Speech for that year, which was due to include a Bill for the development of a National System of Education. The text puts forward the view that 'unless the Bill succeeds in making the most of the movement for reform springing from the schools themselves, it can but grant opportunities which will be incompletely utilised'. This book will be of value to anyone with an interest in (...) the history of education and educational reform. (shrink)

본 논문은 소크라테스의 독특한 교수법(敎授法)을 탐구함으로써 그의 무지 고백 및 교사 부인과 관련된 직접적이고 명백한 진술들 간의 상충 관계를 해명할 뿐만 아니라 기존의 교육 체제를 변화시키려는 플라톤의 교육 개혁을 천착하려는 데에 목적이 있다. 이를 위해 무엇보다도 ‘소크라테스적 아이러니’를 둘러싼 오랜 편견과 오해를 불식시키는 선행적 분석 작업이 긴 호흡으로 논의될 것이다. 이에 덧붙여서 소크라테스가 “소크라테스적 방법”의 최고의 실천가이자 유일한 참된 교사라는 플라톤의 선언에는 ‘선물 경제’에 토대를 둔 새로운 “철학”의 발명에 교육 개혁 프로그램이 내재되어 있다는 것을 논증할 것이다. 이를 위해 아이러니의 어원적 (...) 뿌리인 그리스어 ‘에이로네이아’(eirōneia)에 대한 전통적인 표준적 해석을 비판적으로 고찰함으로써 소크라테스의 eirōneia의 몇 가지 독특한 형태를 규명하고, 이 과정에서 ‘소크라테스적 아이러니’에 똬리를 틀고 있는 선행하는 중대한 오해를 제거한다. 먼저 관련 텍스트 분석을 통해 고대 그리스에서 eirōneia의 표준적 형태에 ‘의도적 기만’이나 ‘부정직성’이 포함되어 있다는 것과 eirōneia의 화신으로 평가받는 ‘소크라테스적 아이러니’를 그렇게 해석할 경우 그에 대한 올바른 이해가 원천적으로 봉쇄된다는 문제점이 제기된다. 후속 분석 작업을 통해 ‘소크라테스적 아이러니’는 의도적 기만이 전혀 없는 ‘조롱 아이러니’와 ‘복합 아이러니’로 세분하여 논증된다. 다음에서 이러한 예비적 고찰에서 얻은 ‘복합 아이러니’를 통해 소크라테스의 지혜 및 교사 부인 문제가 구체적으로 검토된다. 우선 그의 무지 고백이 다른 사람의 지식에 대한 인정이나 자신의 지식에 대한 간헐적인 승인 주장 그리고 그가 지혜로운 자라는 진술들과 어떻게 양립이 가능한지가 논의된다. 또한 같은 맥락에서 소크라테스의 교사 부인 논변에도 불구하고 그가 훌륭한 스승이라고 칭송받는 이유가 탐구된다. 플라톤의 새로운 “철학” 관념의 발명과 이를 “소크라테스적 방법”을 통해 실천하는 소크라테스의 모습은, 교육비를 거절하여 철학함의 자유를 향유하면서 스스로를 ‘신의 선물’로 주장하는 데에 착안하여 선물 경제에 입각한 소크라테스의 교육관과 시장 경제에 기초한 소피스테스의 교육의 상업화가 대비되어 논의된다. 소크라테스의 철학함의 자유정신은 “철학”을 선물로 간주했던 지적 태도의 산물인데, 선물 경제에 입각한 소크라테스적 교육의 현재적 의미와 한계는 자본으로 환원되지 않은 교육 영역의 확보와 자본의 논리에 포섭된 교육 문제를 풀기 위한 플라톤의 원리적인 교육 개혁의 해법으로 각각 설명된다. (shrink)

This volume assesses how far the ideas and achievements of the 19th century British Idealist philosophical reformers are still important for us today when considering fundamental questions about the structure and objectives of the education system in England and Wales. Part 1 examines those ideas of the Idealists, especially T. H. Green, which had most bearing on the educational reforms carried out between 1870 and the 1920s and traces their connection with the philosophy and educational theory of Hegel (...) and other post-Kantians. Part 2 is an historical survey, concentrating on the innovations in the organization and contents of education in England and Wales brought about by the administrators and educationists educated in philosophical idealism. Part 3 considers what relevance the philosophical and practical ideas of this interconnected group of reformers have to education today. (shrink)

Ten years of educational reform have not brought dramatic improvements. In Ideology and Educational Reform, David Paris traces the underlying ideological problems that make genuine reform difficult. These include different and often conflicting beliefs concerning the proper role of public education as well as the public's natural ambivalence about schools as government agencies.Paris describes three major themes in public education—common school, human capital, and clientelism. He critically evaluates current policies and proposed reforms associated with each (...) of these topics, including moral education, the school-economy relationship, school choice, and the delivery of social services. Paris proposes better ways for dealing with ideological problems in school practice, and he suggests appropriate directions for policy reform. (shrink)

The key objective of this study is to revisit selected education reforms and interventions by central government during the period c.1918–1950 in order to evaluate their impact on the development o...

From Technicians to Teachers provides theoretical and practical reasons for suggesting that widespread, international curriculum reform of the post-1990 period need not deprofessionalise teaching. The widely held deprofessionalisation thesis is both compelling and fatalistic, leading to a despairing sense that teachers are either no more than technicians, or that they can be reprofessionalised through definitions of 'effective teachers' promoted by the reforms. However, there are many teachers who do not see their work in either of these ways. The book (...) is structured around an in-depth case study detailing the implementation of The New Zealand Curriculum in that nation - one of the best international examples of neoliberal reform. Benade argues that curriculum policy can and should be analysed critically, while pointing out the dangers for ethical teachers that can exist in national or state curricula. Energising and inspiring, this book reminds teachers and teacher educators that although they work in a globalised context, their own role is fundamental and has a profoundly ethical basis, despite the negative impacts of three decades of education reform. (shrink)

The paper explores the work of four contemporary theorists of educational reform, following deep currents in epistemology and the theory of rationality. An examination of the positions yields a controversial epistemological conclusion which promotes the examination of philosophical issues relevant to education and the modernist/postmodernist debate.

STS represents a significant reform effort in science/technology education in grades kindergarten through the undergraduate collegiate years. It focuses on use of constructivism as a way of learning and a broader view of science, and as a way of assessing learning for real understanding. Basic to STS is teaching and the assessment of learning in multiple domains, namely, concepts, processes, the application of both to new situations, the nature and history of science, creativity skills, and attitude. When education occurs (...) in STS classrooms, students grow significantly in all domains and more so than in traditional classrooms. (shrink)

Over a decade after publication of Thinking Again: Education After Postmodernism (1998) contention still emerges among Foucaultians over whether discursively made‐up things really exist, and whether removal of the constituent subject leaves room for agency within techniques of caring for the self. That these questions are kept alive shows that some readers have not rethought Foucault, finding what possibly comes after postmodernism. Using Wittgenstein to ‘reciprocally illuminate’ Foucault (after Tully and Marshall), I open teacher inspection and reforms to problematization, as (...) relations to bedrock rules governing games of truth. ‘How, upon entering classrooms, do inspectors know “teaching” is taking place and not crazy and fuzzy things in its name?’ Taking up Hirst's vexing question, I move beyond liberal‐analytic concept‐mapping and neo‐liberal individualism to more fully assay the political ground for judging teaching practices through genealogy. Epistemological, political and ethical concerns intersect as we approach the problem through Foucault's three axes of an historical‐ontology of the present: knowledge(s), power relations, and arts of the self. Drawing on recent Governmentality Studies in Education (Peters., 2009), we aver the impasses of postmodern relativism while finding limited ranges of agency along each axis, as teachers practice freedoms by critiquing and renegotiating rules. (shrink)

This book covers a crucial period for the development of state education in Britain; the advent of the comprehensive debate before and during the Second World War; the War years themselves and the 1944 Education Act; the post-War Labour Government; and Churchill's last government in a time of education expansion. From the 1960s, the focus shifted to questions of social deprivation and educational opportunities, secondary school selection, the debate on standards, Robbins and higher education, and the continuing theme of (...) the dominance of public schools. The book is divided into four sections, which are then divided into chapters. Each chapter takes as its main reference point a key issue within the chronological framework of the book, e.g. resistance to secondary education for all, politics and textbooks, multilateral and technical schools, pressure groups and the 1944 Education Act, Churchill and the Conservatives. Much new light is thrown on the topics by the author's use of new material and he has made a valuable contribution to the politics of education. (shrink)

Over the course of only a few decades during the late nineteenth to early twentieth centuries, part of mainstream Buddhist education underwent a striking shift in China. From being a secluded practice within monastery walls taught by monastics for monastics with a strict focus on Buddhist scripture, it became one where monastics and laypeople study together, guided by teachers, both monastic and lay, studying a curriculum of both Buddhist and secular subjects. Although general reforms within the Buddhist community of the (...) times received considerable scholarly attention, the topic of education development was discussed in only a few instances. Therefore, the present article sets out to explore why this radical methodological shift happened, and more concretely, how the individual learning trajectories of the reforms’ leading actors, and their involvement in specific communities, influenced the way the reforms unfolded. The author analyses the work and life of three generations of Buddhist reformers, namely the layman Yang Wenhui, and the monastic masters Taixu, Hsing Yun and Cheng Yen, employing Étienne Wenger’s social theory of learning. The theory’s main assertion that communities of practice provide the main fora of learning for individuals, and its description of the concrete ways in which this learning takes place can provide new insights regarding the specific unfolding of late-nineteenth to early-twentieth-century Buddhist education reforms in China. (shrink)

This volume assesses how far the ideas and achievements of the 19th century British Idealist philosophical reformers are still important for us today when considering fundamental questions about the structure and objectives of the education system in England and Wales. Part 1 examines those ideas of the Idealists, especially T. H. Green, which had most bearing on the educational reforms carried out between 1870 and the 1920s and traces their connection with the philosophy and educational theory of Hegel (...) and other post-Kantians. Part 2 is an historical survey, concentrating on the innovations in the organization and contents of education in England and Wales brought about by the administrators and educationists educated in philosophical idealism. Part 3 considers what relevance the philosophical and practical ideas of this interconnected group of reformers have to education today. (shrink)

This book addresses an often-ignored theme in the mission of the current Chinese education reform: cultivating students’ individuality as a foundation of learning. Moreover, it tries to revive the Confucian tradition of self-cultivation while building a connection with the western idea of individuality to provide a meaningful resource for the current reform of Chinese education.