Assessment policy reform has led to the adoption of a “participatory” framework of assessment in South African higher education. Using a Foucauldian theoretical lens, this article explores the relation between participatory assessment practices in higher education and social control. Empirical evidence is drawn from assessment practices observed in certain lectures in a South African university and interviews with lecturers. Data is analysed through a Foucauldian lens that forges a connection between disciplinary power, control and regulation. The article then describes the technologies of disciplinary power that play out within the participatory assessment practices and demonstrates what these technologies of power do to assessors and students when they become involved in them. The article argues that participatory assessment in some respects epitomises progressive educational themes, yet, when studied with an eye towards power, it reveals deep contradictions and paradoxes.
{"title":"Applying Foucault to Participatory Assessment in Higher Education: A Case Study in South Africa","authors":"C. Ramhurry","doi":"10.25159/1947-9417/9453","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.25159/1947-9417/9453","url":null,"abstract":"Assessment policy reform has led to the adoption of a “participatory” framework of assessment in South African higher education. Using a Foucauldian theoretical lens, this article explores the relation between participatory assessment practices in higher education and social control. Empirical evidence is drawn from assessment practices observed in certain lectures in a South African university and interviews with lecturers. Data is analysed through a Foucauldian lens that forges a connection between disciplinary power, control and regulation. The article then describes the technologies of disciplinary power that play out within the participatory assessment practices and demonstrates what these technologies of power do to assessors and students when they become involved in them. The article argues that participatory assessment in some respects epitomises progressive educational themes, yet, when studied with an eye towards power, it reveals deep contradictions and paradoxes.","PeriodicalId":44983,"journal":{"name":"Education As Change","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.5,"publicationDate":"2022-09-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46620649","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"教育学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-08-31DOI: 10.25159/1947-9417/10232
L. Govender
This article foregrounds the value of using “critical policy historiography” as an analytical/methodological tool in undertaking policy formulation research, highlighting the importance of taking a long-term historical perspective. Using school-funding policies in South Africa as a case study, it argues that while there was wide consultation with stakeholders, power dynamics within the policymaking process underscore the influence of policy elites, such as experts and powerful lobby groups, in shaping policy outcomes. In particular, it critiques the foundational moment of school-funding policymaking in the democratic era, that is, the South African Schools Act of 1996, focusing on key actors that shaped the Act, and whose interests were ultimately served. The article then reviews changes made to school-funding policies to date, and, building on the work of Salim Vally and others, argues for a policymaking framework that strengthens the influence of poor and marginalised communities on policy outcomes if the education social justice project in South Africa is to be advanced.
{"title":"Using Critical Policy Historiography in Education Policy Analysis: A South African Case Study","authors":"L. Govender","doi":"10.25159/1947-9417/10232","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.25159/1947-9417/10232","url":null,"abstract":"This article foregrounds the value of using “critical policy historiography” as an analytical/methodological tool in undertaking policy formulation research, highlighting the importance of taking a long-term historical perspective. Using school-funding policies in South Africa as a case study, it argues that while there was wide consultation with stakeholders, power dynamics within the policymaking process underscore the influence of policy elites, such as experts and powerful lobby groups, in shaping policy outcomes. In particular, it critiques the foundational moment of school-funding policymaking in the democratic era, that is, the South African Schools Act of 1996, focusing on key actors that shaped the Act, and whose interests were ultimately served. The article then reviews changes made to school-funding policies to date, and, building on the work of Salim Vally and others, argues for a policymaking framework that strengthens the influence of poor and marginalised communities on policy outcomes if the education social justice project in South Africa is to be advanced.","PeriodicalId":44983,"journal":{"name":"Education As Change","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.5,"publicationDate":"2022-08-31","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45842503","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"教育学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Social movements are at the forefront of fighting for another world as conceptualised through Arundhati Roy’s portal. COVID-19 and state measures imposed to contend with it have severely impacted not only the activism of movements, but also their capacity to learn. Translocal social movement learning offers one way in which such learning can continue. This article shares reflections from participants involved in a translocal learning engagement between movement members and activist-scholars from Ghana, South Africa and Canada. It provides an important example of the kind of non-hierarchal social movement learning that can happen at a distance, when movements share, learn and support one another.
{"title":"Translocal Social Movement Learning in the Face of COVID-19: Building Online Solidarity During Lockdowns","authors":"Jonathan Langdon","doi":"10.25159/1947-9417/8883","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.25159/1947-9417/8883","url":null,"abstract":"Social movements are at the forefront of fighting for another world as conceptualised through Arundhati Roy’s portal. COVID-19 and state measures imposed to contend with it have severely impacted not only the activism of movements, but also their capacity to learn. Translocal social movement learning offers one way in which such learning can continue. This article shares reflections from participants involved in a translocal learning engagement between movement members and activist-scholars from Ghana, South Africa and Canada. It provides an important example of the kind of non-hierarchal social movement learning that can happen at a distance, when movements share, learn and support one another.","PeriodicalId":44983,"journal":{"name":"Education As Change","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.5,"publicationDate":"2022-08-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48541345","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"教育学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-07-28DOI: 10.25159/1947-9417/10024
Xuyan Wang, Xiaoya Sun
The COVID-19 outbreak has had a significant influence on all aspects of society, and it is necessary to comprehend the responses of various stakeholders as well as the challenges that higher education has encountered in the aftermath of the outbreak. This study systematically analyses the measures taken by higher education stakeholders in response to the COVID-19 pandemic and the challenges faced by higher education in the post-COVID-19 era. To analyse the actions taken by higher education stakeholders and the challenges that remain, this study critically analyses government policy documents, reports from international organisations and perspectives of experts in the field of higher education, studies from Chinese journals, and international scientific literature. While stakeholders responded quickly during the outbreak, providing financial and material assistance, developing online learning, and facilitating international student mobility, the study finds that these measures are insufficient when compared to those in other sectors, and higher education stakeholders’ responses to COVID-19 have been fragmented, uncoordinated, and fraught with conflict and ambivalence. The study finds that higher education during the COVID-19 pandemic faces multiple challenges, with COVID-19 exacerbating inequities in educational access and educational achievement due to uneven educational infrastructure and resource allocation. The availability of infrastructure and the lack of preparedness of faculty and students have dimmed large-scale experiments in online education. Future international student mobility patterns may need to be restructured.
{"title":"Higher Education During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Responses and Challenges","authors":"Xuyan Wang, Xiaoya Sun","doi":"10.25159/1947-9417/10024","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.25159/1947-9417/10024","url":null,"abstract":"The COVID-19 outbreak has had a significant influence on all aspects of society, and it is necessary to comprehend the responses of various stakeholders as well as the challenges that higher education has encountered in the aftermath of the outbreak. This study systematically analyses the measures taken by higher education stakeholders in response to the COVID-19 pandemic and the challenges faced by higher education in the post-COVID-19 era. To analyse the actions taken by higher education stakeholders and the challenges that remain, this study critically analyses government policy documents, reports from international organisations and perspectives of experts in the field of higher education, studies from Chinese journals, and international scientific literature. While stakeholders responded quickly during the outbreak, providing financial and material assistance, developing online learning, and facilitating international student mobility, the study finds that these measures are insufficient when compared to those in other sectors, and higher education stakeholders’ responses to COVID-19 have been fragmented, uncoordinated, and fraught with conflict and ambivalence. The study finds that higher education during the COVID-19 pandemic faces multiple challenges, with COVID-19 exacerbating inequities in educational access and educational achievement due to uneven educational infrastructure and resource allocation. The availability of infrastructure and the lack of preparedness of faculty and students have dimmed large-scale experiments in online education. Future international student mobility patterns may need to be restructured.","PeriodicalId":44983,"journal":{"name":"Education As Change","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.5,"publicationDate":"2022-07-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"42628443","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"教育学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-07-28DOI: 10.25159/1947-9417/11705
L. Sinwell
Johns Hopkins University Press. 2021. pp. 336.ISBN: 978-1-42144269-3
约翰霍普金斯大学出版社,2021。336页。ISBN: 978-1-42144269-3
{"title":"What Universities Owe Democracy, by Ronald J. Daniels, with Grant Shreve and Phillip Spector","authors":"L. Sinwell","doi":"10.25159/1947-9417/11705","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.25159/1947-9417/11705","url":null,"abstract":"Johns Hopkins University Press. 2021. pp. 336.ISBN: 978-1-42144269-3","PeriodicalId":44983,"journal":{"name":"Education As Change","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.5,"publicationDate":"2022-07-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45081680","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"教育学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-06-23DOI: 10.25159/1947-9417/10592
B. Reynolds, Jin-Jy Shieh, Xuan Van Ha
This qualitative case study explores a language teacher educator’s beliefs and practices regarding pre-primary English teacher education in Macau. The focal participant was an experienced English language teacher (20 years) and teacher educator who is a native speaker of American English. The data were collected over five years, and include written reflections, classroom observations, course syllabi, and interviews. The findings reveal that the teacher educator held six main beliefs regarding various aspects of language teacher education for the pre-primary level, namely, beliefs about (1) the purpose of pre-primary English teacher education, (2) being a teacher educator, (3) the nature of the teaching methodology course, (4) the students, (5) pre-school learners and learning, and (6) the development of the teaching methodology course. The educator’s beliefs were largely reflected in practice, as revealed in the course design, material selection, teaching, and the design of student assignments and other forms of assessment. The educator adjusted his/her practice over time in response to students’ needs, self-awareness, and the university policies. The teacher educator’s beliefs and practices were shown to be mutually informing.
{"title":"Pre-Primary English Teacher Education in Macau: Investigating a Teacher Educator’s Beliefs and Practices","authors":"B. Reynolds, Jin-Jy Shieh, Xuan Van Ha","doi":"10.25159/1947-9417/10592","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.25159/1947-9417/10592","url":null,"abstract":"This qualitative case study explores a language teacher educator’s beliefs and practices regarding pre-primary English teacher education in Macau. The focal participant was an experienced English language teacher (20 years) and teacher educator who is a native speaker of American English. The data were collected over five years, and include written reflections, classroom observations, course syllabi, and interviews. The findings reveal that the teacher educator held six main beliefs regarding various aspects of language teacher education for the pre-primary level, namely, beliefs about (1) the purpose of pre-primary English teacher education, (2) being a teacher educator, (3) the nature of the teaching methodology course, (4) the students, (5) pre-school learners and learning, and (6) the development of the teaching methodology course. The educator’s beliefs were largely reflected in practice, as revealed in the course design, material selection, teaching, and the design of student assignments and other forms of assessment. The educator adjusted his/her practice over time in response to students’ needs, self-awareness, and the university policies. The teacher educator’s beliefs and practices were shown to be mutually informing.","PeriodicalId":44983,"journal":{"name":"Education As Change","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.5,"publicationDate":"2022-06-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"41620459","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"教育学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-06-23DOI: 10.25159/1947-9417/10813
Shanshan Feng, Yiping Dai
Johns Hopkins University Press. 2021. pp. 336. ISBN: 978-1-42144269-3
约翰霍普金斯大学出版社,2021。336页。ISBN: 978-1-42144269-3
{"title":"What Universities Owe Democracy, by Ronald J. Daniels, with Grant Shreve and Phillip Spector","authors":"Shanshan Feng, Yiping Dai","doi":"10.25159/1947-9417/10813","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.25159/1947-9417/10813","url":null,"abstract":"Johns Hopkins University Press. 2021. pp. 336.\u0000ISBN: 978-1-42144269-3","PeriodicalId":44983,"journal":{"name":"Education As Change","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.5,"publicationDate":"2022-06-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"42352270","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"教育学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-06-14DOI: 10.25159/1947-9417/10013
L. Rusznyak
During teacher preparation programmes, pre-service teachers need to reflect meaningfully on their classroom experiences. However, some pre-service teachers tend to provide narrative accounts of classroom events and interactions. Mentors and assessors urge them to “probe more deeply” but give little guidance about what this entails. This study reports on an intervention in which reflection guidelines were changed after noticing how guidelines asked questions that limited professional learning. The revised set of guidelines prompted pre-service teachers to make iterative links between the theoretical insights gleaned from coursework and their experiential learning in classroom settings. The Semantics dimension from Legitimation Code Theory is used to compare the reflections written in response to the original and revised guidelines. Using the revised guidelines, two thirds of participants drew more intentionally on theoretical insights to interpret and explain their classroom experiences. The article concludes by suggesting several conditions for enabling pre-service teachers to write “deeper” reflections that are both theoretically informed and contextually responsive. These conditions include access to relevant concepts, guidelines that make expectations visible and access to a language of practice for providing feedback about what “probing more deeply” looks like. I argue that the concepts from Legitimation Code Theory offer such a language.
{"title":"Using Semantic Pathways to Reveal the “Depth” of Pre-Service Teachers’ Reflections","authors":"L. Rusznyak","doi":"10.25159/1947-9417/10013","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.25159/1947-9417/10013","url":null,"abstract":"During teacher preparation programmes, pre-service teachers need to reflect meaningfully on their classroom experiences. However, some pre-service teachers tend to provide narrative accounts of classroom events and interactions. Mentors and assessors urge them to “probe more deeply” but give little guidance about what this entails. This study reports on an intervention in which reflection guidelines were changed after noticing how guidelines asked questions that limited professional learning. The revised set of guidelines prompted pre-service teachers to make iterative links between the theoretical insights gleaned from coursework and their experiential learning in classroom settings. The Semantics dimension from Legitimation Code Theory is used to compare the reflections written in response to the original and revised guidelines. Using the revised guidelines, two thirds of participants drew more intentionally on theoretical insights to interpret and explain their classroom experiences. The article concludes by suggesting several conditions for enabling pre-service teachers to write “deeper” reflections that are both theoretically informed and contextually responsive. These conditions include access to relevant concepts, guidelines that make expectations visible and access to a language of practice for providing feedback about what “probing more deeply” looks like. I argue that the concepts from Legitimation Code Theory offer such a language.","PeriodicalId":44983,"journal":{"name":"Education As Change","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.5,"publicationDate":"2022-06-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43821872","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"教育学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
This article highlights both the internal educative practices of social movements and how these practices can effectively link to building Freirean pedagogies within higher education institutions. At the heart of this possibility lies the democratic transformation of relations between students and teachers on the one hand and researchers and activists on the other. I draw from two case studies of my own research on community-based organisations and workers’ movements in post-apartheid South Africa, which point to the possibilities and challenges of developing Freirean approaches within the neoliberal higher education context. The article suggests that if the goal of education is to challenge systems of oppression, then social justice and the democratisation of the knowledge project must be the guiding principles we employ to navigate our everyday teaching and learning practices both inside and outside the academy.
{"title":"Teaching and Learning Paulo Freire: South Africa’s Communities of Struggle","authors":"L. Sinwell","doi":"10.25159/1947-9417/9368","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.25159/1947-9417/9368","url":null,"abstract":"This article highlights both the internal educative practices of social movements and how these practices can effectively link to building Freirean pedagogies within higher education institutions. At the heart of this possibility lies the democratic transformation of relations between students and teachers on the one hand and researchers and activists on the other. I draw from two case studies of my own research on community-based organisations and workers’ movements in post-apartheid South Africa, which point to the possibilities and challenges of developing Freirean approaches within the neoliberal higher education context. The article suggests that if the goal of education is to challenge systems of oppression, then social justice and the democratisation of the knowledge project must be the guiding principles we employ to navigate our everyday teaching and learning practices both inside and outside the academy.","PeriodicalId":44983,"journal":{"name":"Education As Change","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.5,"publicationDate":"2022-05-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43070049","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"教育学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
In neoliberal contexts, schools are accountable for educational quality, and effectiveness is measured by objective indicators, such as examination scores. Schools tend to become committed to preparing students for examinations rather than all-round and complete personal development, making it difficult for students to identify the meaningful connections between themselves and learning activities, and, in turn, resulting in negative learning experiences. Marxist theorists refer to this condition as alienated learning, that is, the internal contradiction between the learner’s self and learning labour. In contrast, curricular reforms across the globe have promoted a progressive pedagogy that values engaging students in the full range of life experiences in education, enabling them to overcome alienated learning. Yet the effects of curricular reforms are still unclear. The present study sheds light on the extent to which reforms permit students to confront alienated learning. To achieve this aim, the study investigated 44 Hong Kong secondary and undergraduate students with photovoice methods. Its findings suggest that the effects of these curricular reforms are minimal, though they offer opportunities for students to explore their interests. Many students will still experience alienated learning; their interests continue to be subordinated to examinations and even devalued by their schools and teachers.
{"title":"Alienated Learning in the Context of Curricular Reforms","authors":"Yi Lian, K. Tsang, J. L. Wong, G. Li","doi":"10.25159/1947-9417/9680","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.25159/1947-9417/9680","url":null,"abstract":"In neoliberal contexts, schools are accountable for educational quality, and effectiveness is measured by objective indicators, such as examination scores. Schools tend to become committed to preparing students for examinations rather than all-round and complete personal development, making it difficult for students to identify the meaningful connections between themselves and learning activities, and, in turn, resulting in negative learning experiences. Marxist theorists refer to this condition as alienated learning, that is, the internal contradiction between the learner’s self and learning labour. In contrast, curricular reforms across the globe have promoted a progressive pedagogy that values engaging students in the full range of life experiences in education, enabling them to overcome alienated learning. Yet the effects of curricular reforms are still unclear. The present study sheds light on the extent to which reforms permit students to confront alienated learning. To achieve this aim, the study investigated 44 Hong Kong secondary and undergraduate students with photovoice methods. Its findings suggest that the effects of these curricular reforms are minimal, though they offer opportunities for students to explore their interests. Many students will still experience alienated learning; their interests continue to be subordinated to examinations and even devalued by their schools and teachers.","PeriodicalId":44983,"journal":{"name":"Education As Change","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.5,"publicationDate":"2022-05-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45179454","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"教育学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}