AGENCY, 2008 5th International Conference of the Architectural Humanities Res...Andrea Wheeler
Andrea Wheeler (2008) Architectural and educational perspectives on Cmmunity and Individual Agency in Creating Sustainable Human Society. AGENCY 5th International COnference of the Architectural Humanities Research Association, The University of Sheffield
【平成25年度 環境人材育成コンソーシアム(EcoLeaD)事業】
日付:平成25年12月14日
イベント:第3回アジア環境人材育成研究交流大会-国際シンポジウム2部
タイトル:高等教育におけるサステイナビリティの実現に向けて:オーストラリアにおける模範例の紹介 / Leading for sustainability in higher education: Exemplars from Australian contexts
発表者:スー・エリオット 氏(ニューイングランド大学教育学部教授、オーストラリア環境教育学会副会長) / Dr. Sue Elliott(Senior Lecturer, School of Education, University of New England, Vice President, Australian Association for Environmental Education Inc.)
詳細:http://www.eco-lead.jp/active/seminar/2013-2/
Chapter 1 of "Open Learning Cultures. A Guide to Quality, Evaluation and Asse...Ulf-Daniel Ehlers
THis book aims to provide three things:
- Details the influence of collaborative web-based technology on learning environments and learning behavior
- Provides educators, teachers, lecturers and students with a practical guide to developing customized quality concepts in open learning environments
- Includes guidelines, templates and use cases to facilitate the practical implementation of the methods presentedPresents a concept of quality control and assessments as an integral part of learning processes
AGENCY, 2008 5th International Conference of the Architectural Humanities Res...Andrea Wheeler
Andrea Wheeler (2008) Architectural and educational perspectives on Cmmunity and Individual Agency in Creating Sustainable Human Society. AGENCY 5th International COnference of the Architectural Humanities Research Association, The University of Sheffield
【平成25年度 環境人材育成コンソーシアム(EcoLeaD)事業】
日付:平成25年12月14日
イベント:第3回アジア環境人材育成研究交流大会-国際シンポジウム2部
タイトル:高等教育におけるサステイナビリティの実現に向けて:オーストラリアにおける模範例の紹介 / Leading for sustainability in higher education: Exemplars from Australian contexts
発表者:スー・エリオット 氏(ニューイングランド大学教育学部教授、オーストラリア環境教育学会副会長) / Dr. Sue Elliott(Senior Lecturer, School of Education, University of New England, Vice President, Australian Association for Environmental Education Inc.)
詳細:http://www.eco-lead.jp/active/seminar/2013-2/
Chapter 1 of "Open Learning Cultures. A Guide to Quality, Evaluation and Asse...Ulf-Daniel Ehlers
THis book aims to provide three things:
- Details the influence of collaborative web-based technology on learning environments and learning behavior
- Provides educators, teachers, lecturers and students with a practical guide to developing customized quality concepts in open learning environments
- Includes guidelines, templates and use cases to facilitate the practical implementation of the methods presentedPresents a concept of quality control and assessments as an integral part of learning processes
In a position paper released by The McGraw-Hill Research Foundation, “Reimagining the Classroom: Opportunities to Link Recent Advances in Pedagogy to Physical Settings,” Alessandro De Gregori, a research architect and consultant for the Center for Building Knowledge at the New Jersey Institute of Technology, contends that in order to effectively optimize teaching and learning, the physical design of the classroom should and can be manipulated to meet the growing needs of teachers and students.
Dr. Fred C. Lunenburg, Sam Houston State University - Published in NATIONAL F...William Kritsonis
Dr. Fred C. Lunenburg, Sam Houston State University - Published in NATIONAL FORUM JOURNALS - www.nationalforum.com - Dr. William Allan Kritsonis, Editor-in-Chief (Founded 1982)
Alison Young, Logan Muller, Samuel Mann and Lesley Smith (2009) Computing Education for Sustainability: Madrid and
beyond. Proceedings of the 22nd NACCQ 141-145
A curated conversation collaboratively answering the question How Do We Green Our Learning with 5 themes; Ecosystem, Planet & Lifestyles, Movement & Natural Curiosity, Context & Place, Science & Technology
Can you afford not to do this? Framing the pressing need for Universal Design...Frederic Fovet
Slides of my presentation as part of a panel run with Anna Santucci hosted by UCC and organized by CIRTL and James Northridge of UCC Inclusive
While Universal Design for Learning (UDL) had gained in momentum across Canadian post-secondary institutions over the last decade, it has been mostly framed in terms of pedagogical best practices. This has inherently meant that it has attracted and been appealing to instructors already very focused on transformative pedagogies and accessibility. Few other strategic approaches to UDL advocacy and strategic growth have to date been explored. Yet, many efforts to deploy UDL in the further and higher education sectors have stalled or not gained full momentum on the global scale. The time has perhaps come to conceptualize the need for UDL from powerful new and innovative stances, for optimal impact and growth outcomes.
An argument which is less often used to frame UDL but that carries perhaps more persuasive weight with faculty, staff, and administration is that of sustainable development. When examining current post-secondary practices with regards to accessibility, learner diversity, and inclusion, it becomes immediately and pressingly tangible that campuses can rarely afford to continue functioning efficiently with their existing models.
There are three distinct ways, this session will argue, in which sustainability can and should be used as a lens to examine the need for change in relation to inclusion and accessibility: (i) first the notion of sustainable teaching practices pushes us to question how long we can continue to design for the mythical mainstream classroom, without burning out while retrofitting constantly for the diverse student population that is in fact in our lecture halls; (ii) the sustainable development lens also pushes to examine out current model of service provision in relation to accessibility and to question how long this delivery model can last without imploding; (iii) lastly, considering the hyper neo-liberal mindset that currently characterizes the neo-liberal sector, it is reasonable to wonder if institutions have a genuine likelihood of surviving and thriving if they do not respond to the ever more eloquent needs of a diverse clientele.
This session will seek to examine and showcase how UDL addresses these three areas of concern related to sustainable development. The session will be followed by a 30-minute panel during which these themes will continue to be explored in a fully interactive manner with the audience. The outcomes include:
- Acknowledge the impact of sustainability as a lens to promote UDL within campuses;
- Explore arguments and examples that may be useful to showcase UDL within a sustainability approach in the participants’ own institutions;
- Identify stakeholder relationship which must be developed and strengthened to grow UDL implementation within the sustainable development lens.
In a position paper released by The McGraw-Hill Research Foundation, “Reimagining the Classroom: Opportunities to Link Recent Advances in Pedagogy to Physical Settings,” Alessandro De Gregori, a research architect and consultant for the Center for Building Knowledge at the New Jersey Institute of Technology, contends that in order to effectively optimize teaching and learning, the physical design of the classroom should and can be manipulated to meet the growing needs of teachers and students.
Dr. Fred C. Lunenburg, Sam Houston State University - Published in NATIONAL F...William Kritsonis
Dr. Fred C. Lunenburg, Sam Houston State University - Published in NATIONAL FORUM JOURNALS - www.nationalforum.com - Dr. William Allan Kritsonis, Editor-in-Chief (Founded 1982)
Alison Young, Logan Muller, Samuel Mann and Lesley Smith (2009) Computing Education for Sustainability: Madrid and
beyond. Proceedings of the 22nd NACCQ 141-145
A curated conversation collaboratively answering the question How Do We Green Our Learning with 5 themes; Ecosystem, Planet & Lifestyles, Movement & Natural Curiosity, Context & Place, Science & Technology
Can you afford not to do this? Framing the pressing need for Universal Design...Frederic Fovet
Slides of my presentation as part of a panel run with Anna Santucci hosted by UCC and organized by CIRTL and James Northridge of UCC Inclusive
While Universal Design for Learning (UDL) had gained in momentum across Canadian post-secondary institutions over the last decade, it has been mostly framed in terms of pedagogical best practices. This has inherently meant that it has attracted and been appealing to instructors already very focused on transformative pedagogies and accessibility. Few other strategic approaches to UDL advocacy and strategic growth have to date been explored. Yet, many efforts to deploy UDL in the further and higher education sectors have stalled or not gained full momentum on the global scale. The time has perhaps come to conceptualize the need for UDL from powerful new and innovative stances, for optimal impact and growth outcomes.
An argument which is less often used to frame UDL but that carries perhaps more persuasive weight with faculty, staff, and administration is that of sustainable development. When examining current post-secondary practices with regards to accessibility, learner diversity, and inclusion, it becomes immediately and pressingly tangible that campuses can rarely afford to continue functioning efficiently with their existing models.
There are three distinct ways, this session will argue, in which sustainability can and should be used as a lens to examine the need for change in relation to inclusion and accessibility: (i) first the notion of sustainable teaching practices pushes us to question how long we can continue to design for the mythical mainstream classroom, without burning out while retrofitting constantly for the diverse student population that is in fact in our lecture halls; (ii) the sustainable development lens also pushes to examine out current model of service provision in relation to accessibility and to question how long this delivery model can last without imploding; (iii) lastly, considering the hyper neo-liberal mindset that currently characterizes the neo-liberal sector, it is reasonable to wonder if institutions have a genuine likelihood of surviving and thriving if they do not respond to the ever more eloquent needs of a diverse clientele.
This session will seek to examine and showcase how UDL addresses these three areas of concern related to sustainable development. The session will be followed by a 30-minute panel during which these themes will continue to be explored in a fully interactive manner with the audience. The outcomes include:
- Acknowledge the impact of sustainability as a lens to promote UDL within campuses;
- Explore arguments and examples that may be useful to showcase UDL within a sustainability approach in the participants’ own institutions;
- Identify stakeholder relationship which must be developed and strengthened to grow UDL implementation within the sustainable development lens.
Critical Thinking and Collaborative Problem-Solving for Improving Education P...IEREK Press
The global ecological crisis is an indispensable issue that needs to be solved. The importance of developing critical thinking and communication skills in teaching-learning methods will help to enhance education performance; as well, the students would become informed participants in environmental decision-making. Lebanon is suffering from multiple ecological problems due to the environmental mismanagement, particularly energy problems. For this reason, training the Lebanese students mainly in architecture schools should to think critically about environmental issues, and using collaborative problem-solving as one of teaching-learning methods and techniques, which will be directly reflected in finding solutions to the problem under investigation. The researcher aims to experiment and apply this method in a history of architecture class at faculty of architecture, to improve the environmental quality of health and wellbeing in historical built environment. This will increase the awareness for conservation aspects of architectural heritage in students, on the one hand. In addition to spread the spirit of teamwork, to facilitate the concept of integrated design process between the different disciplines when practicing professional life, on the other hand. Therefore, the study aims to produce a new methodology for integrating teaching-learning method in architecture, presenting various international attempts of thermal retrofit in historical built environment, guiding the architectural students to follow the same approach of such projects, which will save energy in a country that has a major problem in electricity. The case study is based on a real problem in a realistic situation in Tripoli old Souks at north Lebanon, in which the instructor and the students will analyze and propose some solutions of building thermal retrofit within this historical context, using collaborative problem-solving strategy that could clarifying its reversal extent on the validity of health and wellbeing with the continuity of conserving the architectural heritage.
My presentation 2-3 March 2023 on Innovation education for blended learning for improving Media literacy, at the INTERNATIONAL SCIENTIFIC CONFERENCE
Media Literacy and Information Technology: Challenges and Solutions for the 21st Century, Vytautas Magnus University, Lithuania
Blended collaborative constructive participation (bccp) a model for teaching...eLearning Papers
Authors: Maria Beatrice Ligorio, Stefania Cucchiara
The Blended Collaborative Constructive Participation (BCCP) model is a university teaching model built upon six years of experimentation.
Understanding Challenges of Curriculum Innovation and the Implementation_John...John Yeo
Singapore’s education system has remained consistently near the top of most education ranking systems over the past decade. OECD (2010) attributes the success to a systemic focus on curriculum innovation by Singapore schools. However, the challenges that emerge from the various initiatives are complex and multifaceted. Using the lens of Schwab’s (1973) four commonplaces- milieu, learner, subject matter and teacher, the experienced curriculum is unpacked to reveal the discourse of the challenges of curriculum translation. While I examine the similarities and differences in curriculum translation under two different educational philosophies- curriculum vs didatik, I attend to the educational outcomes of teaching practices using the Appreciative Inquiry approach. The challenges than unmask the inherent tensions between socio-economical ideologies with the curriculum implementation at the programmatic and institutional level. Exploring from Engestrom's Activity Theory, I will examine the issues of ideology and control surrounding what gets eventually translated in the classroom curriculum.
A snapshot of changes in the meaning and definition of curriculum from the past to the present as well as five significant trends that will impact on the curriculum of the future.
Synergising sustainability initiatives across a tertiay institution - worksh...Liz Sidiropoulos
This is a one hour workshop presented at the ACTS2011 conference in Adelaide. A variety of models and frameworks are used generate understanding of the barriers and drivers to build momentum for system (organisational) transformation towards sustainability. The workshop begins by encouraging participants to envision a sustainable campus. Current actions for sustainability across the key functional areas of research, teaching and learning, campus operations and community outreach are acknowledged and opportunities to build further momentum are identified. Finally, strategies are offered to synergise across these initiatives to achieve organisational transformation to sustainability. A case study of Harvard University is also provided to demonstrate how such a transformation can be achieved.
Students Voice: Continuum of Choice for the future of educationAlana James
How much and to what extent should we consider trust and student voice as we redesign education? This is the first year report of findings from the Future(s) of Education project (www.futureofeducationproject.net)
Week 2 Discussion Learning Contract· Analyze two learning gaps .docxjessiehampson
Week 2 Discussion: Learning Contract
· Analyze two learning gaps that you have with the concepts of this course.
. Post a brief analysis of your 2 learning gaps to the discussion board.
. Write a brief learning contract addressing how you will address these learning gaps by the end of the course.
Read: Self-Directed Learning: Learning Contracts: https://uwaterloo.ca/centre-for-teaching-excellence/teaching-resources/teaching-tips/tips-students/self-directed-learning/self-directed-learning-learning-contracts
23
Chapter 4
The Andragogical Process Model for Learning
Introduction
The andragogical model is a process model, in contrast to the content models employed by most traditional educators. The difference is this: in traditional education the instructor (teacher or trainer or curriculum committee) decides in advance what knowledge or skill needs to be transmitted, arranges this body of content into logical units, selects the most efficient means for transmitting this content (lectures, readings, laboratory exercises, films, tapes, etc.), and then develops a plan for presenting these content units in some sort of sequence. This is a content model (or design). The andragogical instructor (teacher, facilitator, consultant, change agent) prepares in advance a set of procedures for involving the learners and other relevant parties in a process involving these elements: (1) preparing the learner; (2) establishing a climate conducive to learning; (3) creating a mechanism for mutual planning; (4) diagnosing the needs for learning; (5) formulating program objectives (which is content) that will satisfy these needs; (6) designing a pattern of learning experiences; (7) conducting these learning experiences with suitable techniques and materials; and (8) evaluating the learning outcomes and rediagnosing learning needs. This is a process model. The difference is not that one deals with content and the other does not; the difference is that the content model is concerned with transmitting information and skills, whereas the process model is concerned with providing procedures and resources for helping learners acquire information and skills. A comparison of these two models and their underlying assumptions is presented in Table 4.1 in which the content model is conceived as being pedagogical and the process model as being andragogical.
Table 4.1 Process elements of andragogy
Preparing the Learner
It was not until 1995 (Knowles, 1995) that it became apparent that the preparation of the learner step needed to be added as a separate step to the process model. Previously the process model had consisted of only seven steps, all of which will be discussed in this chapter. It became apparent that an important aspect of program design flowed from the adult educational models that assumed a high degree of responsibility for learning to be taken by the learner. Especially in the andragogical and learning projects models, the entire systems are built around ...
Keynote –4th Pedagogy for Higher Education Large Classes (PHELC) Symposium, D...Frederic Fovet
Including learner diversity in large class teaching: Using Universal Design for Learning to sustain a systematic proactive reflection on social justice and accessibility
Lifelong Learning and Vocational Education and Training: towards Understandin...Jaakko Hyytiä
Natasha Kersh and Karen Evans (UCL Institute of Education ) presented on : “Lifelong learning and VET: Towards Understanding the Influence of Societal Eco-Systems on Learning Across the Lifespan”
The presentation has considered a range of complex interdependencies between lifelong learning (LLL) and vocational education and training (VET) and reflected on some emerging findings of the ongoing H2020 project EduMAP.
The presentation has discussed fresh trends in economic and social development and the ways they have contributed to the changes in perception of learning though life, the skills required by contemporary learning spaces and the ways that adults engage with a range of networks, contexts and spaces.
Reflections by Martin Culkin, School Principal, and Julia Atkin, Education an...EduSkills OECD
Martin Culkin and Julia Atkins present their 5-year journey – its challenges, change drivers and processes - to undertake a major regeneration project at Dandenong High School in which three existing schools with over 2 000 students were amalgamated, representing 66 nationalities (www.oecd.org/edu/facilities/compendiumlaunch).
Exploring the Potential of Visual Art in Negotiating Social Transformation at...Jakob Pedersen
This is a presentation given by Dr. Elmarie Costandius, Stellenbosch University. This presentation was given for the NRF Posthumanist Project based at the University of the Western Cape. All work herein is owned by Dr. Elmarie Costandius
The paper analyzes the architecture of two regions in South-East Asia namely Kashmir, a state in Northern India, and Bhutan, a country located on the southern slopes of the Eastern Himalayas to challenge the uncritical adoption of values and building techniques associated with Western architecture, often inappropriate for climate and local labor, to question the notion of benefit from the perspective of sustainability. In doing so it seeks to support the cause of vernacular Architecture and also further its incorporation in contemporary sustainable building design.
Students, digital devices and success - Andreas Schleicher - 27 May 2024..pptxEduSkills OECD
Andreas Schleicher presents at the OECD webinar ‘Digital devices in schools: detrimental distraction or secret to success?’ on 27 May 2024. The presentation was based on findings from PISA 2022 results and the webinar helped launch the PISA in Focus ‘Managing screen time: How to protect and equip students against distraction’ https://www.oecd-ilibrary.org/education/managing-screen-time_7c225af4-en and the OECD Education Policy Perspective ‘Students, digital devices and success’ can be found here - https://oe.cd/il/5yV
Welcome to TechSoup New Member Orientation and Q&A (May 2024).pdfTechSoup
In this webinar you will learn how your organization can access TechSoup's wide variety of product discount and donation programs. From hardware to software, we'll give you a tour of the tools available to help your nonprofit with productivity, collaboration, financial management, donor tracking, security, and more.
Instructions for Submissions thorugh G- Classroom.pptxJheel Barad
This presentation provides a briefing on how to upload submissions and documents in Google Classroom. It was prepared as part of an orientation for new Sainik School in-service teacher trainees. As a training officer, my goal is to ensure that you are comfortable and proficient with this essential tool for managing assignments and fostering student engagement.
The Roman Empire A Historical Colossus.pdfkaushalkr1407
The Roman Empire, a vast and enduring power, stands as one of history's most remarkable civilizations, leaving an indelible imprint on the world. It emerged from the Roman Republic, transitioning into an imperial powerhouse under the leadership of Augustus Caesar in 27 BCE. This transformation marked the beginning of an era defined by unprecedented territorial expansion, architectural marvels, and profound cultural influence.
The empire's roots lie in the city of Rome, founded, according to legend, by Romulus in 753 BCE. Over centuries, Rome evolved from a small settlement to a formidable republic, characterized by a complex political system with elected officials and checks on power. However, internal strife, class conflicts, and military ambitions paved the way for the end of the Republic. Julius Caesar’s dictatorship and subsequent assassination in 44 BCE created a power vacuum, leading to a civil war. Octavian, later Augustus, emerged victorious, heralding the Roman Empire’s birth.
Under Augustus, the empire experienced the Pax Romana, a 200-year period of relative peace and stability. Augustus reformed the military, established efficient administrative systems, and initiated grand construction projects. The empire's borders expanded, encompassing territories from Britain to Egypt and from Spain to the Euphrates. Roman legions, renowned for their discipline and engineering prowess, secured and maintained these vast territories, building roads, fortifications, and cities that facilitated control and integration.
The Roman Empire’s society was hierarchical, with a rigid class system. At the top were the patricians, wealthy elites who held significant political power. Below them were the plebeians, free citizens with limited political influence, and the vast numbers of slaves who formed the backbone of the economy. The family unit was central, governed by the paterfamilias, the male head who held absolute authority.
Culturally, the Romans were eclectic, absorbing and adapting elements from the civilizations they encountered, particularly the Greeks. Roman art, literature, and philosophy reflected this synthesis, creating a rich cultural tapestry. Latin, the Roman language, became the lingua franca of the Western world, influencing numerous modern languages.
Roman architecture and engineering achievements were monumental. They perfected the arch, vault, and dome, constructing enduring structures like the Colosseum, Pantheon, and aqueducts. These engineering marvels not only showcased Roman ingenuity but also served practical purposes, from public entertainment to water supply.
Model Attribute Check Company Auto PropertyCeline George
In Odoo, the multi-company feature allows you to manage multiple companies within a single Odoo database instance. Each company can have its own configurations while still sharing common resources such as products, customers, and suppliers.
The French Revolution, which began in 1789, was a period of radical social and political upheaval in France. It marked the decline of absolute monarchies, the rise of secular and democratic republics, and the eventual rise of Napoleon Bonaparte. This revolutionary period is crucial in understanding the transition from feudalism to modernity in Europe.
For more information, visit-www.vavaclasses.com
Unit 8 - Information and Communication Technology (Paper I).pdfThiyagu K
This slides describes the basic concepts of ICT, basics of Email, Emerging Technology and Digital Initiatives in Education. This presentations aligns with the UGC Paper I syllabus.
Palestine last event orientationfvgnh .pptxRaedMohamed3
An EFL lesson about the current events in Palestine. It is intended to be for intermediate students who wish to increase their listening skills through a short lesson in power point.
UK ITE Network for Education for Sustainable Development
1. ‘Sustainable Schools’ and Initial
Teacher Education: Thinking in
complexity about education
Roger Firth and Andrea Wheeler, The University of Nottingham,
School of Education/School of the Built Environment
UK ITE Network for Education for Sustainable
Development/Global Citizenship Annual Conference
London South Bank University, 9 July 2009 1
2. Starting points and questions
We can all adopt sustainable development, respecting both man
and nature - and alter our production and consumption habits.
Everyone can make a difference, starting right now. (Sustainable
Schools National Framework, Teachernet, 2009)
If traditional Western schooling is on the verge of becoming an
anachronism (if it has not already become so) ‘How do we
understand and approach education?’
1. What are the implications of recent education philosophy that
takes inspiration from the phenomenological tradition and from
complexity theory for initial teacher education and ESD?
2. Why is it important to include such critiques in our conversations
about future education and school building?
2
3. Problematising and connecting complexity thinking,
phenomenology, nature and sustainability
• For those forging the new territory of eco-phenomenology and
complexity thinking, sustainability concerns how we can develop
new ways of being-in-the-world (Brown and Toadvine, 2003). And
to extend these discussions to a context of sustainable schools, it
also concerns how we can build different sorts of community
(Lingis, 1994)
• Educators pay too little attention to the key issue for
environmental education: our understanding of nature and our
relationship to it (Bonnett, 2007: 707). Invitations to raise our
appreciation of relatedness and interdependence between
ourselves and nature offer an important perspective on addressing
our current environmental predicament (Bonnet, 2009). As Bonnet
argues, ‘we need thoroughly to understand this and to shape our
actions in ways that truly reflect this understanding – in my view
not now simply bio-physically, but also metaphysically’ (ibid)
3
4. ESD
• Every aspect of our
education system is being
urged to declare its
support for ESD
• ‘There now seems to be
widespread agreement
that ESD is an important
and timely educational
policy response if we are
to be able to face up to
the social and
environmental challenges
that lie ahead’ (Scott,
2005, p. 1)
4
5. Sustainable Schools: The Sustainable
Schools Framework and the 3 C’s
• The connection between
action and learning, between
what the school does, as a
community, and what the
people in it, its students,
teachers and governors can
learn; and
• The way that schools can
model sustainable ways of
working for the wider
community
• However, policy discourses
are replete with
deterministic and
instrumental outcomes-
based rhetoric 5
6. Building and learning for change
The Building Schools for the
Future programme, launched
in 2004, is described as being
set up to improve the fabric
of school buildings, either
through refurbishment or new
buildings, and at the same
time transforming learning and
embedding sustainability into
the educational experience
(Blair, 2004)
6
7. • New school buildings are required to have a minimum BREEAM
(Building Research Establishment Environmental Assessment
Method) for Schools rating of ‘very good’.
• The Government has detailed an ambition to build Zero-Carbon
Schools and that all new school buildings be zero carbon by 2016.
• The Government has set up a Zero Carbon Schools Taskforce, to
explore the technical issues involved in how to achieve this aim
(DCSF, 2007, p. 107).
• However, there is little to suggest that 'low-carbon schools' will
address the question of encouraging pro-environmental lifestyle
change in any wholistic way. Behavioural change, has been
translated into a discussion of the technology of user-friendliness
of devises for measuring and thereby lowering energy
consumption.
• Current research avoids discussion of how we can really engage
with young people to increase awareness of the consequences of
excessive consumption. It avoids a conversation of architects with
educationalists, philosophers, political and economic theorists.
7
8. Where and how do children and young people best
learn? What do young people think about school
buildings? How can we find out? Ask them? Design
workshops? Participation exercises?
8
10. ITE and Sustainability
• Over the last 15 years, there has been a
strong emphasis about the need to
reorient teacher education towards
sustainability (UNESCO–UNEP, 1990;
UNESCO, 1997, 2004, 2005), and
accordingly, ITE has been given a
significant role in the United Nations
Decade of Education for Sustainable
Development (UNDESD 2005-2014)
• However, at the same time, ITE in
England has been established as a
national system, closely controlled by the
government, where policy priorities reach
down into the finest detail of provision
(Furlong et al, 2008: 307). ‘It is also
important to recognise, for all its formal
achievements, ITE in England, at least in
terms of its formal requirements, is now
almost entirely practically based 10
11. Complexity Theory/thinking
• The theoretical interest in the local and the concrete is now
evident in many areas of the social sciences, drawing
attention to difficult issues not only of difference, but also
of process, multifactoriality and dynamic flow through time
• Though these issues are implied, and sometimes integral
to, many constructivist, sociocultural and
postmodern/poststructural approaches, each of these
groups of perspectives offers a unit of analysis or framing
which focuses on only some of these aspects, from their
particular position
11
12. • Davis and Sumara (2006: 30)
suggest that ‘complexity thinking
takes the discussion to realms
that these other discourses often
ignore or evade’
• They argue that such thinking
moves beyond the oppositional
extremes of individual concerns
and society’s needs, introducing
‘the biological across all
phenomena’
• Complexity insists that the
physical and the biological be
brought into discussion of the
‘social’, which otherwise tend to
ignore the impulses of bodies and
physical elements 12
13. • Complexity thinking emphasises an attitude of openness
• For the complexivist truth is more about interobjectivity. It
is not just about the object, not just about the subject, and
not just about social arrangement (intersubjectivity). ‘It is
about holding all of these in dynamic, co-specifying,
conversational relationships, while locating them in a
grander, more-than-human context (Davis and Sumara,
2006: 15)
• Bonnet (2009) Invitations to raise our appreciation of
relatedness and interdependence between ourselves and
nature offer an important perspective on addressing our
current environmental predicament
13
14. • As Bonnet argues, ‘we need thoroughly to understand this
and to shape our actions in ways that truly reflect this
understanding – in my view not now simply bio-physically,
but also metaphysically’ (ibid)
• It is suggested that complexity theory and the ‘logic of
emergence’ may be helpful in rearticulating the project of
critical education in the light of current tensions between
modern (Marxist, neo-Marxist) and postmodern/
poststructural versions of criticality (Osberg, 2007)
14
15. Architecture, phenomenology
and postmodernism
• Heidegger argues that our continuous questioning of our
way of being in the world, motivates life itself (Heidegger,
1954). The human, he writes, is in the world in a way that
this question is an issue for it. It is fundamental to the
human. It is the manner by which he or she is.
• For Heidegger, man is not in the world as an object in
space or as substance. Man does not stand in the world as
a thing: '[man] stands "in" the world insofar as it stands
outside of itself, disclosing the world, clearing things within
it, inhabiting it' (De Bestegui, 2003, 16).
• The human being is in the world in a critical, questioning
relationship, in relation of ‘care’ and where that care (which
also includes cherishing, protecting, cultivating and
building) discloses a more authentic relationship. But this
mode of being has been forgotten.
15
16. Architecture, phenomenology
and postmodernism
• The problem with much of Heidegger’s thinking for architects is
that it is now more than fifty years old, for current architects
working in more socially and culturally complex, and diverse
environments, and with trends towards technological innovation in
all aspects of culture, his philosophy may not appear immediately
attractive. His philosophy is, however, fundamental to more
contemporary thinkers that are being accepted by architects.
• Furthermore, architects generally tend toward the notion that for
a philosophy to be useful it needs to be able to be applied – in this
sense architects like plans, objectives and guidelines that can
easily be put into practice. Nevertheless, in this way, architecture,
and the architect, remain within the subject-object relations of
'scientific thinking' or ‘rationality’ that Heidegger’s thought (and
broadly also the phenomenological tradition) challenges.
16
17. Architecture, phenomenology
and postmodernism
Luce Irigaray, French feminist philosopher, critical of this
phenomenological tradition questions her experience as a woman
trying to find a way of living not shaped by a Western tradition or
by ‘scientific thinking’. Her work explores sexual difference in terms
of relationally different being-in-the-world.
17
18. From humanism to qualitative
complexity
• The political and ecological crises that we are
witnessing today are an indication that the
worldview that underlies the way we think
about and understand education might have
reached its exhaustion
• Humanism: ‘privileges, isolates, makes central
and unique human being’ (Smith and Jenks,
2006: 25)
• Humanism assumes ‘…that it is possible to
know and articulate the essence and nature of
the human being and to use this knowledge as
a foundation for our educational and political
efforts’ (Biesta, 2006:5) 18
19. • What might follow if we try to overcome the humanist
foundations of modern education; ‘if we no longer assume
that we can know the essence and nature of the human
being
• or, to put it differently, if we treat the
question of what it means to be human as
a radically open question, a question that
can only be answered by engaging in
education rather than as a question that needs to be
answered before we can engage in education’ (Biesta,
2006: 4-5)
19
20. The emergent curriculum
• The notion of an ‘emergent curriculum’ as a central
organisng concept
• Moving from an ends-orientated/pre-defined understanding
of the curriculum: education to be educational has to be for
something and that something must be defined beforehand
• Which underpins every form of education (traditional,
liberal, radical/critical): education as a process of
socialisation/enculturation
• Which is made possible by a linear/deterministic
understanding of process 20
21. • 3 things education does: qualification, socialisation,
subjectification
• Subjectifcation: how you become a human being/coming
into presence - the real purpose of education
• Coming into presence (Levinas) expresses an educational
interest in the human subject in a more open way a more
open
• We start form the assumption of a radical difference
between us: one where each of us is unique and
irreplaceable 21
22. Ideas to think with
• Emergent curriculum: a space of complex relationally,
where we take seriously our mutuality with students and
the world and pay close attention tot eh subtle ways in
which we all too readily perpetuate the division between
teacher from student, curriculum from lifeworld and our
relationships from their context (social and material)
• Learning: not the acquisition of something ‘external’,
something that existed before the act of learning, and as a
result of learning, becomes the possession of the learner.
Pursuit of the known
• Learning as a response: to what is other and different.
Concerned with ‘coming into the world’ which is not
something individuals can do on their own. Attentiveness
to the unknown
22
23. • Teaching: an act of responsibility towards an other, rather
than an instrumental act identified through epistemology.
Taking response-ability for the singularity and uniqueness
of the student
• Subjectivity: 3rd way to think about subjectivity – beyond
identity and universality. Subjectivity as response-ability,
how we are coming into the world, the centrality of a
subjective being in the world. We cannot know what it is to
be human in advance
• Sustainable development: the logic of emergence offers a
theoretical framework for the long term agenda/education
as sustainable development (Bonnett, 2007; Vare and
Scott, 2007)
23
Editor's Notes
Andrea Wheeler
Andrea Wheeler What are the implications of current education philosophy that takes inspiration from a phenomenological tradition, and from complexity theory, whether for teacher education, Education for Sustainable Development (ESD), for teachers’ practice, for a critique of the current programme of educational building and refurbishment; or for an aim to transform education? And why is it important to include philosophical critiques in our discussions around such themes? We begin to consider these questions in the realisation that as colleagues we have similar theoretical interests. We engage with complexity and phenomenological theory as part of our concern for an analysis of culture interactive with the biosphere/nature. The ‘logic of emergence’ (Biesta and Osberg, 2009, 2007a and b; Osberg, 2007; Osberg and Biesta, 2008) is used to help rethink the practice and purposes of modern Western schooling and initial teacher education. We advance Biesta and Osberg’s notion of an ‘emergent curriculum’ as a central organising concept in the current context of environmental change. Many children entering school in 2009 will live until the end of the century, possibly into the 22nd century – at least on current projections of life expectancy (ref). Other projections are perhaps less optimistic, forecasting possible catastrophic climate change, enormous population pressures on food, water and energy security, the depletion of natural resources and environmental disaster in the oceans and tropical rainforests (refs). In this context, educating young people now for life in the 21st century faces some profound questions. Whilst schools have always needed to address the balance between learning from the past and preparing for the future (refs), the contemporary sense of ‘epochal’ societal transformation (Best and Kellner, 1999) and approaching global crisis, gives fresh urgency to the question of determining the most appropriate education for our times. Indeed the idea that traditional Western schooling may be on the verge of becoming an anachronism (if it has not already become so) has prompted educators to rethink the question, ‘How do we understand and approach education?’ The question is as relevant for initial teacher educators as it is for teachers. Some of the older rationales for education seem less and less appropriate today. We wish to contribute to this debate.
Andrea Wheeler For those forging the new territory of eco-phenomenology and complexity thinking, sustainability concerns how we can develop new ways of being-in-the-world (Brown and Toadvine, 2003). And to extend these discussions to a context of sustainable schools, it also concerns how we can build different sorts of community (Lingis, 1994). Such concerns are not guided by a logic of determinism, which is a fundamentally ‘object-based’ logic which understands causality and process in a linear way in terms of a series of individual stages or states that are logically derivable form each other. An alternative to this form of thinking can be derived from complexity theory and the notion of emergent processes. It seems to us that the concept of emergence has a contribution to make to ESD and at the very least deserves further attention in relation to a critical education. If Kant’s notion of ‘rational autonomy’ can be understood as the educational answer that was given to the political question about citizenship in an emerging modern civil society’ what educational response would be appropriate in our time (p. 343)? Like Biesta we emphasise that ‘our time is one in which the idea of a universal or total perspective has become problematic’ (ibid.). We live in a world of difference in which the rational autonomous life is only one of the possible ways to live; and where ‘it is difficult to think of a set of issues more important now to the welfare of us as human beings than those concerning the environment’ (Bonnett, 2007: 707). The problems listed above ‘are now only too familiar – as is the putative remedy of sustainable development’ (ibid.). The need to address the burgeoning concerns about the environment and to reorient education to address sustainability (UNESCO, 2006) has certainly grabbed international attention. In the UK, the DCSF would like all schools to be sustainable by 2020 and to prepare young people for a lifetime of sustainable living (Teachernet, 2009). However, as Jickling (2005) argues, there is a need to be mindful of any uncritical construal of education as an instrument for the implementation of sustainable development. Within the sphere of environmental debate critical questions are being raised about the orthodoxy of sustainable development ‘on the grounds that it can incline educators to pay too little attention to the key issue for environmental education: our understanding of nature and our relationship to it (Bonnett, 2007: 707). Invitations to raise our appreciation of ideas of being in the world (Heidegger, 1954), of relatedness and interdependence between ourselves and nature offer an important perspective on addressing our current environmental predicament (Bonnet, 2009). As Bonnet argues, ‘we need thoroughly to understand this and to shape our actions in ways that truly reflect this understanding – in my view not now simply bio-physically, but also meta physically’ (ibid).
Andrea Wheeler Building and learning for change Every aspect of our education system is being urged to declare its support for ESD. The Building Schools for the Future (BSF) programme, launched in 2004, is described as being set up to improve the fabric of school buildings, either through refurbishment or new buildings, and at the same time, to transform learning and embed sustainability into the educational experience (Blair, 2004). The UK government has created a unique educational opportunity with this programme, and significantly one not restricted to building. However, the policy aim to transform education through new schools has also been criticised as empty of content (Biesta, 2009). Both architects and Head teachers are calling for more guidance from Government, and delays to the programme and a time consuming and costly procurement process has caused suspicion that the Government will not meet its aims ( Building , January, 2009).
Andrea Wheeler Since 2005, it has been a requirement that major school building projects achieve a minimum BREEAM (Building Research Establishment Environmental Assessment Method) for Schools rating of ‘very good’. More recently, however, the Government has detailed an ambition to build Zero-Carbon Schools and that all new school buildings will be zero carbon by 2016. It has even set up a Zero Carbon Schools Taskforce, headed by the architect and CABE commissioner Robin Nicolson, to explore the technical issues involved in how to achieve this aim (DCSF, 2007, p. 107). However, there is little to suggest that zero or low-carbon schools will address the question of encouraging pro-environmental lifestyle change in any coherent way. Limiting the conversation to technical issues avoids a discussion about how we can really engage with young people to increase their awareness of the consequences of excessive consumption. It also avoids a trans-disciplinary dialogue between educationalists, philosophers and architects. Encouraging people to live pro-environmental and sustainable lifestyles is far more profound an issue than that of energy efficient buildings, providing more smart meters in homes, or indeed, in schools.
Andrea Wheeler Some of the suggestions of how schools can be transformed include more participation of children in the design process, and in other decisions that affect their lives (this is in fact a law) leading to more democratic school structures. Other ways that schools may be transformed include through the greater use of technology, and ICT in the classroom. Better links with the community, extended school opening to include adult education or the inclusion of social facilities (churches for example) in schools – bring the school in more contact with the community in general. Asking young people about their school experience has a high potential priority, but consultation practices still drift towards highly managed activities … the danger expressed that children otherwise produce highly unrealistic designs ….(as you might want to suggest is the case in this activity) e.g. pink football pitches and rollercoasters [move on a slide]
Andrea Wheeler … its about drama, rest and free time (to play and relax) in school
Andrea Wheeler Over the last 15 years, there has been a strong emphasis about the need to reorient teacher education towards sustainability (UNESCO–UNEP, 1990; UNESCO, 1997, 2004, 2005), and accordingly, ITE has been given a significant role in the United Nations Decade of Education for Sustainable Development (UNDESD 2005-2014). However, at the same time, ITE in England has been established as a national system, closely controlled by the government, where policy priorities reach down into the finest detail of provision (Furlong et al, 2008: 307). ‘It is also important to recognise, for all its formal achievements, ITE in England, at least in terms of its formal requirements, is now almost entirely practically based. The essential contributions of higher education to professional formation – the consideration of research, of theory and of critique – all of these have been expunged as important components of professional education’ (ibid, 317). While they do remain in some university-based courses, it is difficult to give them the time they require and increasingly beginning teachers are now entering the profession with little engagement with these more complex and challenging forms of professional development. The complexities involved in the professional education of teachers have been simplified. Arguably a more rapid educational transformation to more sustainable lifestyles might occur if ITT programmes used to educate our future teachers are reoriented towards sustainability. There are, however, no statutory requirements to address sustainability and teacher certification guidelines rarely mention it. In addition, it is widely recognised, that as in schools, efforts to mainstream ESD within teacher education have tended to involve educators already interested in or committed to this area of learning. We are all aware, however, of the limitations imposed by the current policy context of initial teacher education.
Andrea Wheeler Complexity theory ‘ Complexity and its precursors have been influential in science, technology and mathematics for some time (Smith and Jenks, 2006: 3). Complexity theory models complex, turbulent systems[1] which demonstrate the possibility of order emerging from disorder through processes of spontaneous self-organisation in the absence of any blueprint. A complex system can be defined as any system comprising a large number of interacting components (participants, ) whose aggregate activity is nonlinear (not derivable from the summations of the activity of individual components) and which is characterised by self-organisation (Rocha, 1999 and where the system, the individual components and the phenomena are interrelated or ‘structurally coupled’ (Maturana and Valera, 1987). In other words systems and components ‘are bringing forth and brought into being because of their relationships to one another’ (Park, 2007: 48). One way of approaching this emergentist shift in thinking is to appreciate the nature of ‘complex systems’, these being systems that show an increasing level of order over time, as is the case with certain physical as well as living systems (e.g. ecosystems, economic systems, knowledge systems etc). The notion of the self , for example, can only emerge in relation to the other . [t1] The development of these new sciences is widespread and has been popularised in books by Gleick (1988), Waldorp (1992) and Lewin (1992) amongst others, who all talk about a ‘new science’, even a new worldview. The origins of complexity are themselves complex but this is not the place for that discussion. [t2] The shift in sensibility prompts very different attitudes towards causality and process. The increasing visibility of complexity in the social sciences raises questions about the ability of complexity theories to address educational concerns. Complexity science draws upon themes of emergence, non-linearity and self organisation as common features across physical, biological and social systems. This emergentist understanding is a critique of determinism. Determinism is a fundamentally object-based[2] logic which understands causality and process in terms of a series of individual stages or states that are logically derivable from each other. Each stage of the process is in principle logically determinable, with a distinct beginning and end point and a fixed (determined) trajectory. The situation is quite different with a relational or emergentist understanding of causality and process. The point here is that we should not try to understand complex processes as if they are objects each with their own discrete origin, end point and trajectory. We want to examine the ways in which emergentist logic might be useful in critical thought about education. There are differences within the natural sciences on what these ‘new’ sciences of complexity mean. Some talk of a new dialogue with nature and the end of certainty, or they call for a science of qualities and point to the importance of a participative approach to understanding nature. Others make claims for a new ordering principle in the evolution of life. This is one reason for this paper. We are interested in trying to make sense of these diverse views and in doing so develop our own perspective on the way in which notions from the complexity sciences may be of use in education. In taking up these ‘new sciences’ educational writers mostly claim that they challenge current ways of thinking about the way that we understand and approach education. The way in which complexity can address issues of education is from the perspective of process. Here, we put forward arguments for understanding teaching ‘as an act of responsibility towards an other, rather than as an instrumental act identified through epistemology’ (Safstrom, 2003; 19). It should be pointed out here that the notion of complexity thinking and complex systems does not imply commitment to any conception of ‘systemic wisdom’ or what Bonnett (2009) describes as notions of the ‘greater whole’ that feature in some strands of environmental discourse. Nor do we view complexity ‘as a superior naturalistic metaphysics of ‘life’ which comes complete with a set of metaphors that can be sued to legitmate certain soial arrangements’ (Osberg, 2007: 1). [1] It should be mentioned that the term ‘system’ is misleading as it implies the existence of a discrete entity when in fact none exists. Complex systems have no distinct boundaries, they exist only because of the fluxes that feed them and disappear in the absence of such fluxes. A complex system exists only in the interaction between things and is therefore not itself a thing. The issue of boundaries is a real problem for the concept of complexity. This boundary problem leads us to a different understanding of causality and process (Osberg, 2007). [2] It is an object- based understanding because, for this understanding to hold, the various states that a system can be in must be understood as discrete, separated not only from other things in space, but also each other in time (Osberg, 2007).
Andrea Wheeler Architecture, phenomenology and postmodernism Architectural debates within academia which have been influenced by phenomenology have in the past, been keen to take up Martin Heidegger’s approach to architecture. Heidegger argues that our continuous questioning of our way of being in the world, motivates life itself (Heidegger, 1954). The human, he writes, is in the world in a way that this question is an issue for it. It is fundamental to the human. It is the manner by which he or she is . For Heidegger, man is not in the world as an object in space or as substance. Man does not stand in the world as a thing: '[man] stands "in" the world insofar as it stands outside of itself, disclosing the world, clearing things within it, inhabiting it' (De Bestegui, 2003, 16). The human being is in the world in a critical, questioning relationship, in relation of ‘care’ and where that care (which also includes cherishing, protecting, cultivating and building ) discloses a more authentic relationship. But this mode of being has been forgotten. In addition to this perspective on building, Heidegger’s philosophy of place has also been influential to architects. For Heidegger, things are not in space, a model that characterises ‘scientific thinking’, things themselves are places. He writes that we must think 'to place' in the sense of thesis (in the Greek sense), bringing forth what is present, which relates to truth. Place is thought in terms of truth and: 'Truth is the unconcealment of beings as being. Truth is the truth of Being. Beauty does not occur apart from this truth. When truth sets itself to work it appears' (Heidegger, 1993, 207). Building, which is also a mode of place making and care , Heidegger argues, can reveal a more authentic relationship with the environment. As architects, he thus proposes, we first need to understand how we are in the world, and only then can we build (Heidegger, 1971 , 160). This mode of building includes that of more authentic relationships to the world and others as well as schools. However, the problem with much of Heidegger’s thinking for architects is that it is now more than fifty years old and whilst it has inspired many architects in its own right, an often cited and perceived difficultly is that of converting it into practice. Moreover, for current architects working in more socially and culturally complex, and diverse environments, and with trends towards technological innovation in all aspects of culture, his philosophy may not appear immediately attractive. His philosophy is, however, fundamental to more contemporary thinkers that are being accepted by architects. Furthermore, architects generally tend toward the notion that for a philosophy to be useful it needs to be able to be applied – in this sense architects like plans, objectives and guidelines that can easily be put into practice. Nevertheless, in this way, architecture, and the architect, remain within the subject-object relations of 'scientific thinking' or ‘rationality’ that Heidegger’s thought challenges. [IS1]I have moved this forward to go immediately after the Complexity section – so both aspects of the theory are dealt with sequentially. Hope you agree. How does this relate to complexity or not. Ca you create the links – very briefly.
Andrea Wheeler There are many criticisms of Heidegger and architects have now, for example, also adopted the philosophies of Maurice Merleau-Ponty, Emmanuel Levinas, Jacques Derrida and French feminist philosopher, Luce Irigaray. Like Heidegger’s philosophy of building and of place, there are direct references to architecture in the work of Irigaray (Irigaray, 2004). There are also books and papers about her significance to architects (Wheeler, 2008a, 2008b). In an early paper 'Où et comment habiter?' (1983), and with reference to Heidegger, she questions her experience as a woman trying to find a way of living not shaped by a Western tradition or by ‘scientific thinking’. In I Love To You, she explores how as men and women, '...belonging to a sexed nature to which it is proper to be faithful', we may be able to change our understanding of what it means to be in the world, so that we can properly co-exist (Irigaray, 1996 , 11). Irigaray’s criticism of Heidegger that he universalises the human subject (this is a criticism she also makes more generally to the whole philosophical tradition). He makes it gender neutral (or more specifically a gender neutral based on a male mode of relationality). Whilst Heidegger argues that all scientific and psychological models of the human subject must be abandoned in favour of an entirely different understanding, Irigaray questions whether this basic constitution of the human subject as relational in Heidegger’s work, in fact avoids the difference between male and female being-in-the-world. Her work thus explores sexual difference in terms of relationally different being-in-the-world.
Andrea Wheeler From humanism to qualitative complexity The political and ecological crises that we are witnessing today are an indication that the worldview that underlies the way we think about and understand education might have reached its exhaustion. The most common rationale is of course humanism . ‘Humanism’ comprises a truly complex and immense set of ideas; indeed, it may be said to represent much of Europe’s intellectual history. It stands for an educational ideal that emerged in Greek society and that was adopted during the Enlightenment and has become one of the central notions of the modern Western educational tradition. As Smith and Jenks state: ‘What we understand as ‘humanism’ privileges, isolates, makes central and unique human being’ (Smith and Jenks, 2006: 25). Furthermore, humanism assumes ‘…that it is possible to know and articulate the essence and nature of the human being and to use this knowledge as a foundation for our educational and political efforts’ (Biesta, 2006:5). As Emmanuel Levinas (1990) has put it, in his criticism, this entails ‘the recognition of an invariable essence named ‘Man’, the affirmation of his central place in the economy of the Real and of his value which [engenders] all values’ (p. 277). Such forms of humanism, which claim to know the real essence of the human being, clearly impede different ways of being human. Modern education became based upon a particular truth about the nature and destiny of the human being, and where the connection between rationality, autonomy and education became the ‘Holy Trinity of the Enlightenment project. The most important aspect of this call for rational autonomy (Kant, 1992 [1784]) was that Kant did not conceive of this capacity as a contingent historical possibility, but instead, saw it as something that was an inherent part of human nature. ‘Although for Kant the idea of rational autonomy was a central educational aim and ideal, it was also - and perhaps even primarily - an answer to the question about the role of the subject in the emerging civil society’ (Biesta, 2002: 345). In doing so, Kant provided a conception of citizenship, which remains with a strong presence today, and at the same time provided a programme and a legitimation for citizenship education. The idea(l) of rational autonomy became the cornerstone of not only traditional approaches to education, but of critical approaches that to begin with took their inspiration from Marx and Hegel. Along both lines education became understood as a linear process that helps people to develop their rational potential so that they can become an autonomous and self-directing individual, while rationality became the modern marker of what it means to be human Biesta, 2006: 4). Educational policy, theory and practice are formed within the general discourse of modernity which carries with it such ideas of humanity. What might follow if we try to overcome the humanist foundations of modern education; ‘if we no longer assume that we can know the essence and nature of the human being – or, to put it differently, if we treat the question of what it means to be human as a radically open question, a question that can only be answered by engaging in education rather than as a question that needs to be answered before we can engage in education’ (Biesta, 2006: 4-5). For both modern (humanist) and postmodern (anti-humanist) critics, the educational process is one which necessarily guides the curriculum and learning towards a pre-determined end. ‘Indeed it is the presence of an end point that makes it possible to distinguish education from unguided learning’ (Osberg, 2007: 17).
Andrea Wheeler The emergent curriculum ‘ This ends–orientated understanding of the curriculum (made possible by a linear understanding of process) underpins every form of education where the end or intention of the educational intervention is pre-defined . While forms of education (liberal, radical, progressive) may differ from each other they are all founded on the idea that for education to be educational , it has to be for something and that something must be defined before education can take place (ibid, p. 17). In this way educational practices are always configured as practices of socialisation/ enculturation. .
Andrea Wheeler Biesta argues that there are three things education can do, only one of which is socialisation (Biesta, 2009). These dimensions of education he defines as: qualification, socialisation and subjectification. Education can give qualification as knowledge, skills and values. It can socialise, helping people to become part of exisiting social, cultural and political orders; and, for example, it can allow children to feel part of family or religious traditions. Education can also contribute to how children become human beings. Whilst good education combines all three, the third dimension is what he argues can really be called education (the others are just ‘schooling’). For Biesta this also clarifies some of the problems with the new school building programmes. The BSF programme uses the language of learning, and specifically the aim of transforming learning, but it does not ask learning for what? For Biesta, it is this dimension of subjectification that is now important for education, both for education (including Education for Sustainable Development) and for the new school building programmes. This third dimension of education, subjectification, is influenced by his reading of the Modern philosophical tradition starting with Kant and where Kant argues that the human being can only become a free thinker through education. There is a problem with this definition of what it is to be human (as many subsequent philosophers have suggested) in that it leads to the question of our relationship to those that are not, or not yet, ‘rational beings’ and the question of difference. Biesta’s educational philosophy thus also draws on the work of Levinas and his notion of uniqueness, and to Alphonso Lingis and his notion of community, to address difference (but not to similarly contemporary French feminist philosophers). We do not argue against the importance of practices of socialisation, or the need to raise questions about and rethink the purposes of socialising curricula, since they equip students with the cultural tools needed for participation in particular forms of life. However, such concern does obscure another kind of curriculum question, whether a linear understanding of the educational process and hence an ends-orientated understanding of education, that is education as socialisation/ enculturation, is the only understanding of education that is possible. The idea of an alternative understanding of the educational process, embodied in the logic of emergence, and in new notions of school community is another possibility.