The curriculum in and for a democratic society 1

The purpose of this article is to offer an analysis of the political and social role of the curriculum in a modern democratic society. It seeks to show how the assumptions embedded in inherited curriculum ideologies are impeding the potential of the curriculum in modern democratic societies from becoming a curriculum 'for democracy', that is a curriculum which would be constitutive of a more democratic form of social life.     

Reflexivity, community and education for the learning society

In this article it is argued that the idea of a learning society is consonant with developments in the social world conceived as part of the ongoing project of reflexive modernity. This project is characterised by a dynamic process of individualisation which on the one hand results in widening opportunities for self-creation and the construction of democratic, flexible communities, but on the other is associated with new kinds of structures and cultural processes which continue to reproduce inequality whilst failing to counter the tendency to fragmentation. The idea of a learning society is a response to the dilemmas of these 'new times'. The New Right idea of such a society is reviewed and found wanting; the particular mix of neo-liberal free market ideas and neo-conservative authoritarianism just cannot deliver the flexibility, diversity and scope for reflexivity required at the level of the self or the community. It is then argued that the most appropriate conception of the learning society is that which grasps the nettle of individualism whilst at the same time deploying an understanding of the self as constituted in practices - a model which avoids the conceptual split between the individual and society and captures the duality of persons as individuals and as members of communities. An attempt is then made to outline a curricular and pedagogical strategy appropriate for a democratic version of the learning society. This involves two aspects: first a teaching approach which focuses on the nature of commitment to and participation in reflexive communities and second, one that fosters the kind of self-reflexivity and self-knowledge required for individuals to sustain and develop their self identities in the circumstances of reflexive modernity.     

New Zealand School Uniforms in the Era of Democracy: 1965 to 1975

Abstract

School uniforms are dynamic cultural forms and as such have meanings specific to the cultures in which they are worn. In New Zealand the history of their development is also a history of changing meanings specific to the New Zealand culture, connected to the status of children and the changing educational and social objectives of the education system. After a relatively slow development in New Zealand, school uniforms came into their own during the 1950s only to undergo radical change and diversification in the 1960s. During the 1970s school uniform as a practice reached a new extreme, allowing expressions of individualism and pluralism, values associated with a democratic ideal. Although such expressions threatened to overturn the sustaining principles of uniforms and uniformity, instead they reinforced uniforms as carriers and protectors of a powerful democratic ideal embedded in the New Zealand education system.     

Citizenship Education: problems and possibilities

The paper suggests three major reasons why the definition and development of citizenship education in British schools has proved problematic. First, guidance from official sources, and notably Curriculum Guidance 8 'Education for Citizenship', has been seriously inadequate; secondly, the political and educational significance of the fact that citizenship is a prime example of an 'essentially contested concept' has not been sufficiently examined; thirdly, the objective of educating for citizenship (as distinct, for example, from educating about citizenship) involves complex educational and practical difficulties which cannot be easily resolved, especially in present political circumstances in the United Kingdom.     

Democracy, Teachers and the Struggle for Education: an essay in the political economy of teacher education

Teachers, and their educational opportunities, have been under sustained attack from the New Right in England since the late 1970s. An adequate democratic theory of teacher development (which could challenge the New Right agenda) needs to connect with social and political theories; to be located within particular historical, political and educational traditions; and has to develop political support for its ideas and proposals. Such a theory has to see teachers at three interconnected levels: as citizens, as workers and professionals, and as persons. The task is then to find those who are able to reinterpret and redefine traditional values of democracy and equality in a way that relates to the complexity and variety of societies at the end of the twentieth century.     

The Presence of Different Cultures in Schools: possibilities of dialogue and action

This article reflects on schools as spaces for the reconstruction of reality. If the school is an important part of the strategy to prepare for critical solidarity and active democratic citizens in society, it is obvious that it may or may not be successful in so far as the classrooms are converted into a space where this same society can be submitted to revision and criticism and where the necessary skills are developed to perfect and participate in the community. It is not a place to convert the societal groups and cultures without power into extras of the curriculum or additional themes to ease our conscience as happens in many of our classrooms when they develop what I call the “tourist curricula”. On the contrary, an anti-marginal education must revise and reconstruct the knowledge of each group and culture of the world. It is necessary to construct educational practices to teach students to unmask the political, historical and semiotic dynamics that condition their interpretations and expectations and their possibilities for participating in reality.     

Current Curriculum Changes in Poland: a national report

The article discusses the Polish system of education, which faces several major challenges. One of them is the necessity of curriculum development in all types of schools in line with changes in the socio-political and economic system of the country, which is in transition from Communism to parliamentary democracy and a free market economy. The school under the previous system was primarily designed to produce loyal and obedient servants. Now these qualities are neither significant nor relevant. A range of key issues of the current school reform are identified and some suggestions are made towards a strategy for change. The paper is critical of the official strategy of introducing national core requirements as a major step in educational change. It is proposed that there is a risk that, without the careful preparation of teachers, the pace of change will be too great, thereby inviting disruption to the whole system of education.     

The constitutive values of Swedish schooling: a challenge to the inner life of schools

Schooling has always been a tool for transferring values to future generations. Despite social changes such as globalisation, information technology and the retreat of national capital, schools are still institutions where a civic identity is promoted. In a multicultural society, the challenge is to advocate constitutive values without excluding citizens. The Swedish curriculum identifies educational goods by emphasizing constitutive values such as democracy, solidarity and equality in accordance with ethics linked to Western Christian humanism. In addition, these values have to be interpreted and concretised in local contexts. This article examines these aspects of curriculum and the national question. It has three sections. It discusses constitutive values in Swedish schooling; it links deliberation to the localisation and concretisation of these national values, and it reflects on the implementation of these values in a Swedish school. Overall, the article focuses on possibilities for deliberative practice in a multicultural school.     

Higher education and critical citizenship: a survey of academics' views in Scotland and England

The views of academics in England and Scotland on developing critical citizenship among their students were investigated using a combination of survey data and interviews. Academics in Scotland and England had different views about the role of critical citizenship. In Scotland, the most civic interpretation of these capacities tended to be held by those who were most distanced from a British identity. These views in Scotland were held also by academics who had come from outside the United Kingdom, in contrast to academics of similar origin in England. In England, those who would encourage a civic commitment among their students saw this as coming about through the kinds of careers on which they would embark, rather than through their role as citizens. Despite this contrast, none of the interviewees in Scotland chose to link their civic views to the new Scottish parliament or to any project of renewing Scottish democracy.     

Citizenship: pupil involvement in Scottish schools

'Citizenship' is currently an area receiving considerable attention in schools. It has been argued that citizenship is best learned through experiencing democratic decision-making rather than through learning about it in the classroom. The article examines the background to moves towards greater pupil involvement in decision-making in schools, then investigates pupil involvement in decision-making in a sample of eight Scottish secondary schools drawn from three local authority areas. The focus is on pupil participation outside the formal curriculum in these schools. The characteristic forms and extent of pupil involvement in decision-making in these schools are examined, and both staff and pupil perceptions are looked at. Differences in staff and pupil perception are scrutinised. Suggestions for ways to increase the level and quality of pupil participation are also put forward.     

Democracy, human rights and the role of teachers

This paper focuses on the historical review of neo-liberalism in Korean education with relevance to human rights education and teachers movement. In transition to post-colonial society, Korea confronts polarization of education. From the first stage just after the independence from Japanese Colonization in 1945 to the fifth present stage, Korean education has expanded so quickly and the gap between the haves and the have-nots has widened. Thus stakeholders of educational reform have been divided according to the political stance of neo-liberalism. One of the strongest stakeholders, Korean Teachers Union (KTU) has to redefine its historical role as transforming agent for the educational reform, because KTU had impacted on the educational solidarity for the peace, human rights and democracy education in terms of Chamkyoyook since its inauguration in the 1990s.     

Pupil Culture, Education and the Metacognitive Curriculum

In this article an attempt is made to evaluate pupils' cultural practices with reference to assumptions about the interrelationship between autonomy, democracy and education. Conceptions of education implicit in pupil culture are described and analysed using illustrations and concepts from ethnographic studies. It is suggested that pupil culture can be understood as an aspect of common-sense knowledge consisting of a mix of contradictory elements some more consonant with educational ideals than others and that this knowledge might usefully be conceived as an aspect of metacognitive knowledge, that is, knowledge about self, others and the learning process in school. The nature of this knowledge and its implication for a teaching intervention are then discussed. The approach advocated suggests a new curriculum synthesis which would hopefully maximise the scope for pupils' critical evaluation of schooling.     

韦君宜人民文学出版社时期编辑思想探索

韦君宜兼具革命者、作家和编辑出版家的身份,角色意识贯穿其人生始终,影响韦君宜的言说与行动,也深刻影响其编辑思想与编辑实践。她的编辑实践很大程度上是其现实主义编辑思想的自然延续,充分体现了她对五四精神的继承。正如她自己所言"我并没有放弃一切信仰的民主思想,仍想走自由的路。"韦君宜主持人民文学出版社时期以中长篇小说为突破口,注重当代作品的出版,倾心竭力发现、扶持青年作家,推动出版了一系列有影响的作品,呼吁出版发行改革,为新时期文艺的繁荣、出版事业的发展奠定了基础,在一定意义上推动了思想解放。     

Making teaching relevant: toward an understanding of students' experiences in a culturally 'different' Sweden

This article is based on the author's experience facilitating a course with a group of recent teacher graduates in Sweden. Coming from a different cultural context, a pedagogical approach was used that enabled the author to engage participants in dialogues with participants through which they would come to develop an understanding of the interrelationships between education, and the political, cultural and social context of the society. The author draws upon participants' personal narratives of their experiences in relation to race, ethnicity, nationality, racism and discrimination noting the correlations they make between their own experiences, and those of immigrants and minorities in Sweden. The narratives reveal a paradox between these new teachers' stated desires to accommodate the diversity and differences among their students and their ideology of integration. This ideology reflects a preference for maintaining a culturally homogenous Sweden, so that they might avoid the ethical dilemmas, problems and conflicts of diversity.     

Mainstreaming and marginalization: two national strategies in the circumscription of difference

This article explores the social and historical contexts of recent curricular initiatives in multicultural education in the USA and Canada, giving special attention to the formative narratives that propelled multicultural education to the center of debates on public schooling. In the USA, debate about cultural diversity has been framed and interpreted within the framework of a larger discussion of goals associated with a set of efforts, begun in the 1980s, to reform American elementary and secondary education; multicultural education developed as a curricular response to the advocacy of groups on the fringes of the school reform movement. In Canada, multicultural education is a part of the official fabric of Canadian society, and extension of the state ideology concerning multiculturalism.     

The Cardinal Principles Report as Archeological Deposit

Interpretations of the significance of the Cardinal Principles report (1918) are frequently based on a contrast with the Committee of Ten report (1893) issued 25 years earlier. For the most part, the Committee of Ten report is interpreted as attempting to preserve an elitist form of secondary education dominated by the college-entrance function. By contrast, the Cardinal Principles report is seen as helping to usher in an era of democratic secondary education. In fact, much of the development of secondary education in the USA has been consistent with that report's recommendations. In retrospect, however, the Cardinal Principles report's recommendations for a differentiated curriculum along with the license to expand secondary school course offerings almost indefinitely may not have been so democratic after all.     

Deformed citizenship: a critique of the junior secondary economic and public affairs syllabus and textbooks in Hong Kong

This article analyses the junior secondary Economic and Public Affairs (EPA) syllabus and two most popular series of textbooks in Hong Kong on the eve of 1997. The objective is to real their very nature of citizenship in four dimensions: (1) civil rights and duties; (2) image of the Hong Kong government; (3) relationships between people and government; and (4) political ideas and political actors. Content and textual analysis found that in line with the official syllabuses, most textbooks were characterised by a rather partial, passive and parochial conception of citizenship, misrepresenting the social and political realities. The textbooks justified and legitimised the status quo, and served to enhance the students' faith and trust in government. Finally, their implications for citizenship education and changes in the formal curriculum are discussed.     

人类对印刷传播的乐观期待与现实悖论

历史上人类总是寄望于新媒介能够带来民主与平等,但是传播实践中媒介却不时走向民主的反面.以印刷传播的历史发展为例,并结合美国二百余年的报业发展史,分析了媒介民主悖论产生的原因.认为应从精神生产资料占有方式对媒介制约和影响的角度,对待媒介的社会历史功效.回顾印刷传媒的过去,则有利于认清互联网的未来.     

Food ethics: a decision making tool for the food industry?

The modern food industry is able to exercise great power and influence over society. It acts as an agent of social change and, consequently, functions as a form of moral agent. Although the industry as a whole may be thought of as `the' moral agent, the moral and ethical standing of the industry is a reflection of the moral and ethical values of the executives who lead the businesses that constitute the industry. With increasing competitiveness in the food marketplace, the use of developments in science and technology to create new food products, and the distancing of consumers from practical involvement with food, other than eating, many issues arise which must be managed sensitively if the food industry's conduct and place in society is to be seen as morally acceptable and ethically supportable. These issues are issues of food ethics. Some issues in food ethics are considered and food ethics is proposed as a tool for decision making within the food industry, for the benefit of people and society, and the food industry itself.