# Understanding and Using Challenging Educational Theories  ## Metadata - Author: [[Karl Aubrey and Alison Riley]] - Full Title: Understanding and Using Challenging Educational Theories - Category: #books ## Highlights - Rogers himself mused: ‘it seems to me that anything that can be taught to another is relatively inconsequential and has little or no significant influence on behaviour’ (Kirschenbaum and Henderson, 1989: 302), and in his own personal reflections he suggests that even where teaching appears to succeed, it leads to the individual distrusting his own experience and stifling significant learning (Patterson, 1977). ([Location 1232](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0895XSGR9&location=1232)) - The first theme in his earlier work was mainly concerned with language codes; the second theme focused on classification and framing and the construction of the curriculum; the third theme explored pedagogic practice (Goodson, 2001). All three of these themes were, for Bernstein, connected with issues of social class. It is arguably the first theme of language and social class that Bernstein is most noted for. He contended that social class and family socialisation produce characteristic types of speech. For him, working-class students learn and use ‘restricted’ language codes, while middle-class children learn and use ‘elaborated’ language codes. ([Location 2491](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0895XSGR9&location=2491)) - These networks, or learning webs, should not start with the question ‘“What should someone learn?” but with “What kinds of things and people might learners want to be in contact with in order to learn?”’ (Illich, 1971: 78). ([Location 3368](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0895XSGR9&location=3368)) - Note: Ms viva experiential learning platform on spo web of expertise - For Bourdieu, habitus related to the ‘structured and structuring mental structure through which individuals acquire their views and behaviour as a second nature’ (Johannesson and Popkewitz, 2001: ([Location 3591](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0895XSGR9&location=3591)) - Bourdieu identified three forms of cultural capital: embodied, objectified and institutionalised. Embodied culture he saw as an accent or dialogue, while objectified culture related to the material goods people possessed such as cars or property. Institutionalised culture Bourdieu referred to as the qualification and credentials a person held, which he suggested symbolised cultural competence and authority. ([Location 3704](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0895XSGR9&location=3704)) - From a practitioner and educational researcher’s point of view, there are two major aspects that are highly significant. First, his ideas regarding discourse, which usually involve matters such as assessment, achievement, standards and qualifications. Second, his notion of surveillance, which includes the physical ways in which we observe and are observed, but also the ways in which we self-monitor and self-regulate ourselves. ([Location 4498](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0895XSGR9&location=4498)) - However, ironically Moss (2016) goes on to observe that one role he did not fit comfortably in was that of leader, since throughout his life Malaguzzi sought to empower individuals to be in control of their own destiny. A fundamental aspect of the Reggio Emilia school was the distinct lack of a hierarchy, with each individual in the school encouraged to participate in their own way, through the sharing of knowledge and ongoing dialogue. ([Location 5081](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0895XSGR9&location=5081)) - Noddings believes that caring is learned and observes that the memory of being cared for is strong, and most often learned as a result of being cared for. She quotes Bronfenbrenner, saying, ‘if we are lucky someone will have been “crazy about that kid”’ (1984: 61; 2002: 25). ([Location 5409](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0895XSGR9&location=5409)) - Noddings recommends that moral education should be promoted through the application of four key components: modelling, dialogue, practice and confirmation. ([Location 5479](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0895XSGR9&location=5479)) - Through confirmation, Noddings suggests that the aim should be to ‘recognise something admirable, or at least acceptable, struggling to emerge in each person we encounter’ (2012: 239). ([Location 5520](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0895XSGR9&location=5520)) - Noddings has been accused of perpetuating the gender stereotype of caring as being a predominantly feminine role. It could also be considered that Noddings’s ethic of caring encourages unequal relationships, in which the cared-for becomes dependent upon the carer, and the carer sacrifices their own true self in favour of carrying out the role of carer. ([Location 5572](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0895XSGR9&location=5572)) - According to Apple, ideology is ‘a form of false consciousness which distorts one’s picture of social reality and serves the interests of the dominant classes in society’ (Apple, 1979: 20). ([Location 6287](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0895XSGR9&location=6287)) ## New highlights added May 31, 2022 at 7:30 AM - Apple considered that economic, social and cultural reproduction were linked to the neoliberal influence on schooling, especially in relation to the form and content of the curriculum. He thought that the curriculum was not a neutral phenomenon, but was biased in favour of the dominant middle-classes to the detriment of the issues of gender, race and the working-classes. The curriculum, he argued, was bolstered by what he termed official knowledge – knowledge included in textbooks created, approved and marketed by the dominant right-wing ideology. What was important, Apple contended, was that to counter this ideology educators needed to foster an environment that encouraged students to be critical in their analysis of the curriculum and sceptical of official knowledge. ([Location 6659](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0895XSGR9&location=6659)) ## New highlights added June 8, 2022 at 7:02 PM - Giroux’s radical stance, together with his visions of humanitarianism and social justice, are evident throughout his writing: ‘Education is not only about issues of work and economics, but also about questions of justice, social freedom, and the capacity for democratic agency, action, and change as well as the related issues of power, exclusion, and citizenship’ (2011: 121). ([Location 6860](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0895XSGR9&location=6860)) - The postmodernist ideas which are the basis for critical pedagogy value the notion that there are no right or wrong answers to problems. Indeed, ‘there are many sides to a problem, and often these sides are linked to certain class, race and gender interests’ (McLaren, 2003: ([Location 6940](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0895XSGR9&location=6940)) - he maintains that teachers should cultivate a critical pedagogy that connects classroom practice with society as a whole: teachers need to become ‘transformative intellectuals’ (Morrison, 2001). Transformative intellectuals make learning and teaching political acts by fostering students’ own life experiences and their consciousness about subjects of contention, hence enabling students themselves to become critics; in doing so the aim is to expose oppression, inequality and the constrictions of social identities within asymmetrical relations of power of different groups in society, with a view to transforming students’ ways of looking at their lives, life situations and life chances, so that they experience empowerment and emancipation as members of diverse cultures and communities. They develop their ‘voice’ within participatory democracies. (Morrison, 2001: 282–3) ([Location 7087](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0895XSGR9&location=7087)) - Holt expressed that it was unnatural for learners to learn things in a particular way as decided by policy-makers, and postulated that learners would learn what they need to learn when it made sense to them. ([Location 8085](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0895XSGR9&location=8085)) - Note: Order control - What is most important and valuable about the home as a base for children’s growth into the world is not that it is a better school than the schools but that it isn’t a school at all. It is not an artificial place, set up to make ‘learning’ happen and in which nothing except ‘learning’ ever happens. (Holt and Farenga, 2003: 279) Holt believed that children should be educated at home, following their own needs and interests. In this way he believed they would learn what they needed to learn when they needed to learn it. ([Location 8262](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0895XSGR9&location=8262)) - Note: Natural state, neuronal always on but especially at home and other spaces outside of school culturally - hooks concedes that engaged pedagogy is a demanding practice that involves both teachers and students taking risks, and stresses that ‘teachers must be actively committed to a process of self-actualization that promotes their own well-being’ in order to empower students (hooks, 1994: 15). For hooks, engaged pedagogy involves ‘a flexible agenda, spontaneity, interaction and critical reflection’ (Collins et al., 2002: 106). ([Location 8520](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0895XSGR9&location=8520)) - ‘imagination is one of the most powerful modes of resistance that oppressed and exploited folks can and do use’ (hooks, 2010: 61). ([Location 8610](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0895XSGR9&location=8610)) - Her particular contributions to teaching are the notions of engaged pedagogy, critical thinking, creating learning communities and practical wisdom. Throughout all these ideas are the threads of active student learning through participation and the recognition of student voice and experience. Furthermore, she promotes aspects of love, spirituality and imagination, which are quite radical and innovative strategies in higher education teaching. ([Location 8790](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0895XSGR9&location=8790)) - a disorientating dilemma; self-examination with feelings of fear, anger, guilt or shame; a critical assessment of assumptions; recognition that one’s discontent and the process of transformation is shared; exploration of options for new roles, relationships and action; planning a course of action; acquiring knowledge and skills for implementing one’s plans; provisional trying of new roles; building competence and self-confidence in new roles and relationships; a reintegration into one’s life on the basis of conditions dictated by one’s new perspective. ([Location 9093](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0895XSGR9&location=9093)) - The idea that effective learning relies on effective teaching is an accepted concept, and educational thinkers such as Mezirow have ‘argued that effective learning is self-actualising, self-directed, self-planned and transformative’ (Griffin, 2006: 83). According to Moon, there are five progressive phases, with transformative learning being the most valuable; these five phases are: noticing; making sense; making meaning; working with meaning; transformative learning. (1999 [2000]: 16) ([Location 9236](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0895XSGR9&location=9236)) - One of the attributes that Mezirow argues is crucial for students to acquire in the transformative learning process is the ability to ‘imagine how things could be different’ (Mezirow, 2009: 103). Cooper (n.d.) outlines the characteristics and roles that teachers and students need to facilitate successful transformative learning as follows: Teacher characteristics and roles which facilitate transformative learning Encourage students to reflect on and share their feelings and thoughts in class. Be holistically oriented, aware of body, mind, and spirit in the learning process. Become transcendent of his [or her] beliefs and accepting of others’ beliefs. Cultivate awareness of alternate ways of learning. Establish an environment characterised by trust and care. Facilitate sensitive relationships among the participants. Demonstrate ability to serve as an experienced mentor reflecting on his [or her] own journey. Help students question reality in ways that promote shifts in their worldview. Student characteristics and roles which facilitate transformative learning Students must be free to determine their own reality, as opposed to social realities defined by others or by cultural institutions. Students must be ready for and open to change. Those with a wider variety of life experiences, including prior stressful life events, are likely to experience more transformation. Cultivate the ability to transcend past contexts of learning and experience. Students must be willing and able to integrate critical reflection into their school work and personal life. Students must be able to access both rational and affective mental functioning. Have sufficient maturity to deal with paradigm shifts and material which differs from their current beliefs. (Cooper, n.d.) ([Location 9286](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0895XSGR9&location=9286)) - Communities of discovery means that students and teachers work collectively and democratically to enhance their creativity (Coffield and Williamson, 2012). ([Location 9643](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0895XSGR9&location=9643)) - Moreover, the teacher education curriculum had changed little in decades. Many of the programmes appeared to be training for skills acquisition, rather than being an education in the sense of an induction into the teaching profession. What appears to be missing in these programmes are the notions of ‘teachers as critical inquirers, of schools as centres of reflective practice, as educators as moral agents, and of schools as places for both equitable and excellent education’ (Sirotnik, 1990: 318). ([Location 9708](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0895XSGR9&location=9708)) - Darling-Hammond’s notion of performance assessment is based on the concept of Benjamin Bloom’s taxonomy where learners pass through the mastery stages of knowledge, understanding and application, then on to the more developmental stages of analysis, synthesis and evaluation. ([Location 9791](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0895XSGR9&location=9791))