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The Critical Turn in Education: From Marxist Critique to Poststructuralist Feminism to Critical Theories of Race (Critical Social Thought)
by Isaac GottesmanThe Critical Turn in Education traces the historical emergence and development of critical theories in the field of education, from the introduction of Marxist and other radical social theories in the 1960s to the contemporary critical landscape. The book begins by tracing the first waves of critical scholarship in the field through a close, contextual study of the intellectual and political projects of several core figures including, Paulo Freire, Samuel Bowles and Herbert Gintis, Michael Apple, and Henry Giroux. Later chapters offer a discussion of feminist critiques, the influx of postmodernist and poststructuralist ideas in education, and critical theories of race. While grounded in U.S. scholarship, The Critical Turn in Education contextualizes the development of critical ideas and political projects within a larger international history, and charts the ongoing theoretical debates that seek to explain the relationship between school and society. Today, much of the language of this critical turn has now become commonplace—words such as "hegemony," "ideology," and the term "critical" itself—but by providing a historical analysis, The Critical Turn in Education illuminates the complexity and nuance of these theoretical tools, which offer ways of understanding the intersections between individual identities and structural forces in an attempt to engage and overturn social injustice.
The Critical Turn in Education: From Marxist Critique to Poststructuralist Feminism to Critical Theories of Race (Critical Social Thought)
by Isaac GottesmanThe Critical Turn in Education traces the historical emergence and development of critical theories in the field of education, from the introduction of Marxist and other radical social theories in the 1960s to the contemporary critical landscape. The book begins by tracing the first waves of critical scholarship in the field through a close, contextual study of the intellectual and political projects of several core figures including, Paulo Freire, Samuel Bowles and Herbert Gintis, Michael Apple, and Henry Giroux. Later chapters offer a discussion of feminist critiques, the influx of postmodernist and poststructuralist ideas in education, and critical theories of race. While grounded in U.S. scholarship, The Critical Turn in Education contextualizes the development of critical ideas and political projects within a larger international history, and charts the ongoing theoretical debates that seek to explain the relationship between school and society. Today, much of the language of this critical turn has now become commonplace—words such as "hegemony," "ideology," and the term "critical" itself—but by providing a historical analysis, The Critical Turn in Education illuminates the complexity and nuance of these theoretical tools, which offer ways of understanding the intersections between individual identities and structural forces in an attempt to engage and overturn social injustice.
The Critical Turn in Language and Intercultural Communication Pedagogy: Theory, Research and Practice (Routledge Studies in Language and Intercultural Communication)
by Maria Dasli Adriana Raquel DíazThis edited research volume explores the development of what can be described as the ‘critical turn’ in intercultural communication pedagogy, with a particular focus on modern/foreign language education. The main aim is to trace the realisations of this critical turn against a background of unequal power relations, and to illuminate the role that radical culture educators can play in the making of a more democratic and egalitarian social order. The volume takes as a starting point the idea that criticality draws on a number of intellectual traditions, which do not always focus on social and political critique, and argues that because ideological hegemony impacts on the meanings that people create and share, intercultural communication pedagogy ought to locate itself within wider socio-political contexts. With reference points drawn from critical and transnational social theory, critical pedagogy and intercultural theory, contributors to this volume provide readers with powerful ways that show how this can be achieved, and together assess the impact that their understanding of criticality can make on modern/foreign language education. The volume is divided into three major parts, namely: ‘theorising critically’, ‘researching critically’ and ‘teaching critically’.
The Critical Turn in Language and Intercultural Communication Pedagogy: Theory, Research and Practice (Routledge Studies in Language and Intercultural Communication)
by Maria Dasli Adriana Raquel DíazThis edited research volume explores the development of what can be described as the ‘critical turn’ in intercultural communication pedagogy, with a particular focus on modern/foreign language education. The main aim is to trace the realisations of this critical turn against a background of unequal power relations, and to illuminate the role that radical culture educators can play in the making of a more democratic and egalitarian social order. The volume takes as a starting point the idea that criticality draws on a number of intellectual traditions, which do not always focus on social and political critique, and argues that because ideological hegemony impacts on the meanings that people create and share, intercultural communication pedagogy ought to locate itself within wider socio-political contexts. With reference points drawn from critical and transnational social theory, critical pedagogy and intercultural theory, contributors to this volume provide readers with powerful ways that show how this can be achieved, and together assess the impact that their understanding of criticality can make on modern/foreign language education. The volume is divided into three major parts, namely: ‘theorising critically’, ‘researching critically’ and ‘teaching critically’.
Critical Understandings of Digital Technology in Education: Meta-Connective Pedagogy
by Neal DreamsonThis book explores the underlying assumptions, beliefs, and values of prevailing theories, frameworks, models, and principles in digital technology education through the metaphysical lenses of ontology, epistemology, axiology, and methodology. By proposing meta-connective pedagogy that reflects the ecological, transformative nature of the digitally networked world, Dreamson repositions learners in the networked world for their authentic engagement. Covering key domains of digital technology education, this volume explores topics such as meta-connective learning; digital identity formation; emergent communities and co-laboured learning; interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary knowledge production; teacher attitudes towards the relationship between learning and technology; learner engagement and online interaction; transformative digital literacy; meta-analysis of technology integration frameworks; methodology for authentic digital engagement; and meta-connective ethics. Critical Understandings of Digital Technology in Education is the perfect resource for in-service and preservice teachers, as well as researchers and specialist teachers in technology and information and communication technology education fields who are looking to enhance their pedagogical understandings of digital technology.
Critical Understandings of Digital Technology in Education: Meta-Connective Pedagogy
by Neal DreamsonThis book explores the underlying assumptions, beliefs, and values of prevailing theories, frameworks, models, and principles in digital technology education through the metaphysical lenses of ontology, epistemology, axiology, and methodology. By proposing meta-connective pedagogy that reflects the ecological, transformative nature of the digitally networked world, Dreamson repositions learners in the networked world for their authentic engagement. Covering key domains of digital technology education, this volume explores topics such as meta-connective learning; digital identity formation; emergent communities and co-laboured learning; interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary knowledge production; teacher attitudes towards the relationship between learning and technology; learner engagement and online interaction; transformative digital literacy; meta-analysis of technology integration frameworks; methodology for authentic digital engagement; and meta-connective ethics. Critical Understandings of Digital Technology in Education is the perfect resource for in-service and preservice teachers, as well as researchers and specialist teachers in technology and information and communication technology education fields who are looking to enhance their pedagogical understandings of digital technology.
Critical Voices in School Reform: Students Living through Change
by Beth C. Rubin Elena M. SilvaSchool reform of one kind or another is a priority for education systems the world over. Yet the voices of students - those most affected by, and most pivotal to, the success or failure of any program of school reform - are rarely heard on this topic. This is the first book to look at school reform from the perspective of the students. The studies included in this collection focus on reform initiatives aimed at overcoming persistent patterns of racial, class and gender inequality. The authors combine the theoretical aspects of research with its practical applications, making this an invaluable resource for teacher educators, classroom practitioners, researchers and policymakers.Critical Voices in School Reform: Students Living Through Change is divided into two parts. Part one describes and analyses programs of reform that turned out contrary to the intentions of adult reformers, illustrating the - often unspoken - tension between adult and student perspectives on school change. Part two looks at reform initiatives that were able to harness student energies and thereby improve pupils' engagement with school life. These reforms, which are finely attuned to the needs and interests of students, offer clear, valuable guidance to those trying to create more equitable school experiences. A concluding chapter draws together the themes and insights gained from looking at school reform through a student-centred lens and offers suggestions for more relevant and lasting reform.
Critical Voices in School Reform: Students Living through Change
by Beth Rubin Elena SilvaSchool reform of one kind or another is a priority for education systems the world over. Yet the voices of students - those most affected by, and most pivotal to, the success or failure of any program of school reform - are rarely heard on this topic. This is the first book to look at school reform from the perspective of the students. The studies included in this collection focus on reform initiatives aimed at overcoming persistent patterns of racial, class and gender inequality. The authors combine the theoretical aspects of research with its practical applications, making this an invaluable resource for teacher educators, classroom practitioners, researchers and policymakers.Critical Voices in School Reform: Students Living Through Change is divided into two parts. Part one describes and analyses programs of reform that turned out contrary to the intentions of adult reformers, illustrating the - often unspoken - tension between adult and student perspectives on school change. Part two looks at reform initiatives that were able to harness student energies and thereby improve pupils' engagement with school life. These reforms, which are finely attuned to the needs and interests of students, offer clear, valuable guidance to those trying to create more equitable school experiences. A concluding chapter draws together the themes and insights gained from looking at school reform through a student-centred lens and offers suggestions for more relevant and lasting reform.
Critical Voices in Science Education Research: Narratives of Hope and Struggle (Cultural Studies of Science Education #17)
by Jesse Bazzul Christina SiryThis book is a collection of narratives from a diverse array of science education researchers that elucidate some of the difficulties of becoming a science education researcher and/or science teacher educator, with the hope that through solidarity, commonality, and “telling the story”, justice-oriented science education researchers will feel more supported in their own journeys. Being a scholar and teacher that sees science education as a space for justice, and thinking/being different, entry into this disciplinary field often comes with tense moments and personal difficulties. The chapter authors of this book break into many painful, awkward, and seemingly nebulous topics, including the intersectional nuances of what it means to be a researcher in the contexts of epistemic rigidness, white supremacy, and neoliberal restructuring. Of course these contexts become different depending on how teachers, students, and researchers are constituted within them (as racialized/sexed/gendered/disposable/valued subjects). We hope that within these narratives readers will identify with similar struggles in terms of what it means to desire to “do good in the world”, while facing subtle and not-so-subtle institutional, personal cultural, and political challenges.
Critical Voices in Teacher Education: Teaching for Social Justice in Conservative Times (Explorations of Educational Purpose #22)
by Barry Down and John SmythWe live in dangerous times when educational policies and practices are debated largely in terms of how they fit with the needs of the free market. This volume is a collection of writing by teacher-educators that draws on their unique biographies, experiences and perspectives to denounce these misguided norms. It explores what it means—practically and intellectually—to teach for social justice in conservative times. In a globalised world where the power of capital holds sway, the purposes of social institutions such as universities and schools is being refashioned in ways that are markedly instrumental and technicist in nature. The consequence is that teachers’ work is increasingly constrained by regimes of control such as standardised testing, accountability, transparency, and national curricula. In the meantime, large numbers of students and teachers are disengaging physically, emotionally and intellectually from learning.The contributors to this edited volume present both a powerful critique of these developments and a counter-hegemonic vision of teacher education founded on the principles and values of social justice, democracy and critical inquiry. Teacher education, they argue, involves a commitment to critical intellectual work that subjects some deeply entrenched assumptions, beliefs, habits, routines and practices to closer scrutiny. The contributing authors expose how ideology and power operate in seemingly blameless, rational ways to perpetuate social hierarchies based on class, gender, sexuality, race and culture.
Critical Whiteness Praxis in Higher Education: Considerations for the Pursuit of Racial Justice on Campus
by Zak Foste Tenisha L. Tevis Tracy DavisCollege and university administrators are increasingly called to confront the deeply entrenched racial inequities in higher education. To do so, corresponding attention must be given to historical and contemporary manifestations of whiteness in higher education and student affairs.This book bridges theoretical and practical considerations regarding the ways whiteness functions to underwrite racially hostile and unwelcoming campus communities for People of Color, all the while upholding the interests and values of white students, faculty, and staff.While higher education scholars and practitioners have long explored the role of race and racism in college and university contexts, rarely have they done so through a lens of Critical Whiteness Studies (CWS). Exploring such topics through the lens of CWS offers new opportunities to both examine white identities, attitudes, and ways of being, and to explicitly name how whiteness is embedded in environments that marginalize and oppress students, faculty, and staff of color. This book is especially concerned with naming the material consequences of whiteness in the lives of People of Color on college and university campuses in the United States.Part one of the book introduces theoretical ideas and concepts administrators, scholars, and activists might use to interrogate how whiteness functions on campus. Part two of the book explores practical considerations for how whiteness functions across campus spaces, including student leadership programs, fraternity and sorority life, faculty tenure and promotion, LGBTQ support services, and so forth.
Critical Whiteness Praxis in Higher Education: Considerations for the Pursuit of Racial Justice on Campus
College and university administrators are increasingly called to confront the deeply entrenched racial inequities in higher education. To do so, corresponding attention must be given to historical and contemporary manifestations of whiteness in higher education and student affairs.This book bridges theoretical and practical considerations regarding the ways whiteness functions to underwrite racially hostile and unwelcoming campus communities for People of Color, all the while upholding the interests and values of white students, faculty, and staff.While higher education scholars and practitioners have long explored the role of race and racism in college and university contexts, rarely have they done so through a lens of Critical Whiteness Studies (CWS). Exploring such topics through the lens of CWS offers new opportunities to both examine white identities, attitudes, and ways of being, and to explicitly name how whiteness is embedded in environments that marginalize and oppress students, faculty, and staff of color. This book is especially concerned with naming the material consequences of whiteness in the lives of People of Color on college and university campuses in the United States.Part one of the book introduces theoretical ideas and concepts administrators, scholars, and activists might use to interrogate how whiteness functions on campus. Part two of the book explores practical considerations for how whiteness functions across campus spaces, including student leadership programs, fraternity and sorority life, faculty tenure and promotion, LGBTQ support services, and so forth.
Critical Writing for Embodied Approaches: Autoethnography, Feminism and Decoloniality
by Elizabeth MackinlayAutoethnography is a unique discipline which steps inside and outside the self to experience, embody and express social and cultural meaning. At once a performative, political and poetic genre of research writing, it holds the potential to uncover the ‘heart of the world’, if only for a moment. The author uses theory as story and story as theory to explore her place in the world through painstaking and intimate self and social narratives to lay bare the unique challenges and rewards of autoethnography. Framed around the metaphor of ‘heartlines’, the author explores autoethnographic practice as critical feminist and decolonial work and the power it holds for not only imagining a wise, ethical and loving world, but for making such a kind place possible. Through a performative journey of the heart, we travel with the author as she unearths the power of words, of writing and not-writing, evoking in particular the work of Hélène Cixous and Virginia Woolf. This reflective, passionate and pioneering volume will be of interest and value to all those interested in autoethnography and the ways in which it can be applied as critical, ethical and political work in the social sciences.
Critical Youth Research in Education: Methodologies of Praxis and Care
by Teresa L. McCarty Arshad Imtiaz AliCritical studies of youth play an increasingly important role in educational research. This volume adds to that ongoing conversation by addressing the methodological lessons learned from key scholars in the field. With a focus on “the doing” of critical youth studies in ways that center praxis and relational care in work with youth and their communities, the volume showcases scholars discussing their research and reflecting on the practical strategies they have used to operationalize their conceptions of knowledge in youth-centered research projects. Each chapter addresses the research features, challenges, tensions, and debates of the project; engagement with communities; and relationality, reciprocity, and responsibility to participants. The focus throughout is on qualitative approaches that are humanizing, anti-colonial, and transformative.
Critical Youth Research in Education: Methodologies of Praxis and Care
by Teresa L. McCarty Arshad Imtiaz AliCritical studies of youth play an increasingly important role in educational research. This volume adds to that ongoing conversation by addressing the methodological lessons learned from key scholars in the field. With a focus on “the doing” of critical youth studies in ways that center praxis and relational care in work with youth and their communities, the volume showcases scholars discussing their research and reflecting on the practical strategies they have used to operationalize their conceptions of knowledge in youth-centered research projects. Each chapter addresses the research features, challenges, tensions, and debates of the project; engagement with communities; and relationality, reciprocity, and responsibility to participants. The focus throughout is on qualitative approaches that are humanizing, anti-colonial, and transformative.
Criticality, Teacher Identity, and: Issues and Implications (Educational Linguistics #35)
by Bedrettin Yazan Nathanael RudolphThis edited volume, envisioned through a postmodern and poststructural lens, represents an effort to destabilize the normalized “assumption” in the discursive field of English language teaching (ELT) (Pennycook, 2007), critically-oriented and otherwise, that identity, experience, privilege-marginalization, (in)equity, and interaction, can and should be apprehended and attended to via categories embedded within binaries (e.g., NS/NNS; NEST/NNEST). The volume provides space for authors and readers alike to explore fluidly critical-practical approaches to identity, experience, (in)equity, and interaction envisioned through and beyond binaries, and to examine the implications such approaches hold for attending to the contextual complexity of identity and interaction, in and beyond the classroom. The volume additionally serves to prompt criticality in ELT towards reflexivity, conceptual clarity and congruence, and dialogue.
Critically Assessing the Reputation of Waldorf Education in Academia and the Public: Early Endeavours of Expansion, 1919–1955 (Routledge Research in International and Comparative Education)
by Ann-Kathrin Hoffmann Marc Fabian BuckThe first of two volumes dedicated to this little-explored topic, this volume gathers international perspectives to critically assess how Waldorf education has been perceived and discussed in both public and academic arenas. The book thereby challenges the historical concept of Waldorf education as an international movement championing “progressive education.”Spanning the period 1919–1955, this first volume looks at countries with a longstanding tradition of Waldorf schools: Germany, The Netherlands, Norway, Switzerland, Austria, and Finland. The second volume, which covers the period 1987–2004, focuses on more recent developments in Japan, Israel, Spain, Poland, Kenya, France, Slovenia, and China. Throughout both books, over 25 leading scholars present 16 case studies spanning 14 countries to discuss the history and perception of Waldorf education in the context of respective school systems and societies. By exploring the ramifications of these case studies against the background of existing research, the books offer cutting-edge perspectives and prompts for scholarly debates for this as-yet under-researched field.This book will be of interest to researchers, scholars, and postgraduate students in international and comparative education, the theory of education, and the philosophy of education. Policy makers interested in the history of education, as well as practicing teachers and school staff at Waldorf education institutions, may also benefit from the volume.
Critically Assessing the Reputation of Waldorf Education in Academia and the Public: Early Endeavours of Expansion, 1919–1955 (Routledge Research in International and Comparative Education)
The first of two volumes dedicated to this little-explored topic, this volume gathers international perspectives to critically assess how Waldorf education has been perceived and discussed in both public and academic arenas. The book thereby challenges the historical concept of Waldorf education as an international movement championing “progressive education.”Spanning the period 1919–1955, this first volume looks at countries with a longstanding tradition of Waldorf schools: Germany, The Netherlands, Norway, Switzerland, Austria, and Finland. The second volume, which covers the period 1987–2004, focuses on more recent developments in Japan, Israel, Spain, Poland, Kenya, France, Slovenia, and China. Throughout both books, over 25 leading scholars present 16 case studies spanning 14 countries to discuss the history and perception of Waldorf education in the context of respective school systems and societies. By exploring the ramifications of these case studies against the background of existing research, the books offer cutting-edge perspectives and prompts for scholarly debates for this as-yet under-researched field.This book will be of interest to researchers, scholars, and postgraduate students in international and comparative education, the theory of education, and the philosophy of education. Policy makers interested in the history of education, as well as practicing teachers and school staff at Waldorf education institutions, may also benefit from the volume.
Critically Assessing the Reputation of Waldorf Education in Academia and the Public: Recent Developments the World Over, 1987–2004 (Routledge Research in International and Comparative Education)
by Ann-Kathrin Hoffmann Marc Fabian BuckThe second of two volumes dedicated to this little-explored topic continues to gather international perspectives to critically assess how Waldorf education has been perceived and discussed in both public and academic arenas. Both books thereby challenge the historic concept of Waldorf education as an international movement championing “progressive education.”Spanning the period 1987–2004, this second volume focuses on more recent developments in Waldorf education in Japan, Israel, Spain, Poland, Kenya, France, Slovenia, and China. Throughout both books, over 25 leading scholars present 16 case studies spanning 14 countries to discuss the history and perception of Waldorf education in the context of respective school systems and societies. By exploring the ramifi cations of these case studies against the background of existing research, the books offer cutting-edge perspectives and prompts for scholarly debates for this as yet underresearched field.This book will be of interest to researchers, scholars, and postgraduate students in international and comparative education, the theory of education, and the philosophy of education. Policy makers interested in the history of education as well as practicing teachers and school staff at Waldorf education institutions may also benefi t from the volume.
Critically Assessing the Reputation of Waldorf Education in Academia and the Public: Recent Developments the World Over, 1987–2004 (Routledge Research in International and Comparative Education)
The second of two volumes dedicated to this little-explored topic continues to gather international perspectives to critically assess how Waldorf education has been perceived and discussed in both public and academic arenas. Both books thereby challenge the historic concept of Waldorf education as an international movement championing “progressive education.”Spanning the period 1987–2004, this second volume focuses on more recent developments in Waldorf education in Japan, Israel, Spain, Poland, Kenya, France, Slovenia, and China. Throughout both books, over 25 leading scholars present 16 case studies spanning 14 countries to discuss the history and perception of Waldorf education in the context of respective school systems and societies. By exploring the ramifi cations of these case studies against the background of existing research, the books offer cutting-edge perspectives and prompts for scholarly debates for this as yet underresearched field.This book will be of interest to researchers, scholars, and postgraduate students in international and comparative education, the theory of education, and the philosophy of education. Policy makers interested in the history of education as well as practicing teachers and school staff at Waldorf education institutions may also benefi t from the volume.
A Critically Compassionate Approach to Financial Literacy
by Thomas A. Lucey Mary Frances Agnello James Duke LaneyA Critically Compassionate Approachto Financial Literacy offers a unique approach to conceptualizing financial literacy. Differentiating between notions of financial worth and personal self-worth, the authors present a description of financial literacy tenets founded in principles of self-awareness and cooperative community that are rooted in principles of compassion. Basing their work on principles of psychological and archeological research that associates personal wellness with self-security based on principles of trust, the authors posit that personal fulfillment occurs independently of accumulated financial resources. Featuring standards for Grades 4 and 8, offering stimulating questions for discussion, and ideas for classroom activities, ACritically Compassionate Approach to Financial Literacy represents an engaging classroom resource for elementary and middle level social studies methods courses as well as those that concern topics that relate to culturally responsive teaching and social justice. Regardless of your financial background and awareness, this text will challenge your thinking about the meaning of being financially literate and the consequences for society.
Critique in Design and Technology Education (Contemporary Issues in Technology Education)
by P John Williams Kay StablesThis book addresses notions of critique in Design and Technology Education, facilitating a conceptual and practical understanding of critique, and enabling both a personal and pedagogical application to practice.Critique can be a frame of mind, and may be related to a technology, product, process or material. In a holistic sense, critique is an element of a person’s technological literacy, a fundamentally critical disposition brought to bear on all things technological. This book provides a reasoned conceptual framework within which to develop critique, and examples of applying the framework to Design and Technology Education. The book builds on The Future of Technology Education published by Springer as the first in the series Contemporary Issues in Technology Education.In the 21st century, an ‘age of knowledge’, students are called upon to access, analyse and evaluate constantly changing information to support personal and workplace decision making and on-going innovation. A critical Design and Technology Education has an important role to play, providing students with opportunities to integrate economic, environmental, social and technological worlds as they develop and refine their technological literacy. Through the design and development of technology, they collaborate, evaluate and critically apply information, developing cognitive and manipulative skills appropriate to the 21st century. Critique goes beyond review or analysis, addressing positive and negative technological development. This book discusses and applies this deeper perspective, identifying a clear role for critique in the context of Design and Technology Education.
A Critique of Creativity and Complexity: Deconstructing Clichés (Advances in Creativity and Giftedness #25)
by Don Ambrose Bharath Sriraman Kathleen M. PierceIn an increasingly complex world the natural human inclination is to oversimplify issues and problems to make them seem more comprehensible and less threatening. This tendency usually generates forms of dogmatism that diminish our ability to think creatively and to develop worthy talents. Fortunately, complexity theory is giving us ways to make sense of intricate, evolving phenomena. This book represents a broad, interdisciplinary application of complexity theory to a wide variety of phenomena in general education, STEM education, learner diversity and special education, social-emotional development, organizational leadership, urban planning, and the history of philosophy. The contributors provide nuanced analyses of the structures and dynamics of complex adaptive systems in these academic and professional fields.
A Critique of Pure Teaching Methods and the Case of Synthetic Phonics (Bloomsbury Philosophy of Education)
by Andrew DavisA Critique of Pure Teaching Methods and the Case of Synthetic Phonics examines how research into the effectiveness of teaching methods can and should relate to what takes place in the classroom. The discussion brings to light some important features of the way we classify teaching activities. The classifications are unlike those we use in natural science – for instance, how we classify drug dosages. This point has very important implications for what should be considered the appropriate relationships between educational research and classroom practice.Andrew Davis applies the results of this discussion to the teaching of early reading, focussing in particular on the approach known as synthetic phonics. He provides a philosophical investigation into the nature of reading, and into the concepts that feature in approaches to teaching it, such as the idea of building words from letter sounds, the nature of words themselves and reading for meaning. He concludes with a discussion of why this matters so much, reflecting on how stories and books can be part of a child's emerging identity within the family. He explores how values of family life should be weighed against the importance of achievements in school, and argues for the claim that school reading policies of certain kinds may have a destructive impact if they are felt to trump the private interests of children and their families.
A Critique of Pure Teaching Methods and the Case of Synthetic Phonics (Bloomsbury Philosophy of Education)
by Andrew DavisA Critique of Pure Teaching Methods and the Case of Synthetic Phonics examines how research into the effectiveness of teaching methods can and should relate to what takes place in the classroom. The discussion brings to light some important features of the way we classify teaching activities. The classifications are unlike those we use in natural science – for instance, how we classify drug dosages. This point has very important implications for what should be considered the appropriate relationships between educational research and classroom practice.Andrew Davis applies the results of this discussion to the teaching of early reading, focussing in particular on the approach known as synthetic phonics. He provides a philosophical investigation into the nature of reading, and into the concepts that feature in approaches to teaching it, such as the idea of building words from letter sounds, the nature of words themselves and reading for meaning. He concludes with a discussion of why this matters so much, reflecting on how stories and books can be part of a child's emerging identity within the family. He explores how values of family life should be weighed against the importance of achievements in school, and argues for the claim that school reading policies of certain kinds may have a destructive impact if they are felt to trump the private interests of children and their families.