Educationalfutures February 2010

This file contains the title page with list of contents for volume 2(2) of the Educationalfutures journal.

This file contains the editorial for Educationalfutures Volume 2(2).

While relatively unknown in education circles, the work of Axel Honneth, Director of the Institute of Social Research in Frankfurt (site of the famous Frankfurt School), is starting to gain prominence in Sociology, Political Science and Philosophy. The interest in his work revolves primarily around his theory of recognition, and how it situates itself in comparison to other theorists such as Charles Taylor and Nancy Fraser. In summary, these theorists argue that the drive towards personal autonomy can only be achieved intersubjectively – through the process of recognition from significant others.

This shift away from the atomistic tradition in philosophy allows Honneth to explore traditional Frankfurt School themes like individual freedom within a relational context, leading him to develop an elaborate theory of social justice and conflict. Most importantly it provides him with a normative grounding upon which to build a distinctive version of critical theory, one which connects everyday human concerns about identity and respect to broader struggles over exclusion.

The purpose of the current paper is to explore how such an expansive social theory could be applied to the field of education. In particular, the paper will examine the significance for teaching and learning of his core ideas on identity formation - self-confidence, self-respect and self-esteem. The argument will draw on two key works: The struggle for recognition: the moral grammar of social conflicts (1995); and Disrespect: the normative foundations of critical theory (2007).

Over the last decade particularly in the UK, the term NEET (not in education, employment or training) has been used excessively by the New Labour Government to deal with concerns of social and economic exclusion among the youth. This paper explores issues relating to the usage of NEET as a service intervention label and its compatibility with the group of young people to whom it refers. The process involves review of relevant literature on existing research into NEET with the view to assessing its usefulness as a descriptive label. It is
argued that because NEET covers a wide range of circumstances that young people are in, its use as a policy target is problematic. Similarly, it is contended that the use of NEET as a key point of focus for targeting service interventions amounts to fire-fighting tantamount to the concentration of attention on those victims who can relatively be moved easily to EET (education, employment or training) destinations at the expense of others who could benefit from such attention but do not receive it. The paper concludes that since poor experience of education is only one factor of NEETness, a multi-agency approach (rather than an individualized approach) is needed to tackle it.

Keywords: education; employment; training; unemployment; social exclusion; multiagency approach

Creativity is currently a popular, but ill-defined, word in English primary education. The concept of creativity has been a recurring feature of government reports, education acts and advice to teachers but the history of creativity is cycles of promotion followed by a swing away from creativity towards a ‘back to basics’ model. This cyclical nature of educational thought and practice regarding creativity was analyzed. The main threats to creativity seem to be a lack of shared definition; lack of resources; a perception of creativity as antithetical to standards; and teachers seen as technicians rather than professionals. The Hadow Report (1931), which formalised the primary stage of schooling, did not use the word creativity but advocated many approaches that would be considered creative today. Similar approaches were recommended in the Plowden Report (1967) and again in Excellence and Enjoyment (DfES, 2003). In addition to Excellence and Enjoyment, currently creativity is promoted in The Early Years Foundation Stage and the National Curriculum, although they all use the term creativity differently. The result is that the government is promoting creativity without teachers, pupils and the general public sharing a clear understanding of what this means. The danger in this lack of agreement is that creativity becomes a meaningless rallying cry rather than an embedded concept. A common conception of creativity as building on skills and knowledge is needed to prevent another swing away from creativity in education. This needs to be supported by trusted, professional teachers.

Key Words: creativity, primary education, curriculum

Global citizenship plays an important role in today's schools. Many subjects taught in schools have already incorporated such ideas. Science and physics have also followed suit. However, when dealing with astronomy - a topic so seemingly far removed from society - it becomes difficult to imagine any links with global citizenship. At Nottingham Trent University observatory we have developed an activity ideal to transport the idea of global citizenship and deal with common astronomical misconceptions. It incorporates role playing in the
inspiring environment of an astronomical observatory. In this activity stellar constellations with their myths and history pose an ideal opportunity to explore global citizenship. Students not only place themselves in someone else’s situation, but also compare their different reactions when faced with a common situation. This idea is extended to analyse the change in constellation culture throughout time and the affect politics has had on constellations. In this article we outline the details of this activity and how it deals with common astronomical
misconceptions. We also demonstrate its implementation into astronomy taught at schools. First results showing the impact the activity had on the students will also be given.

Key Words: Global citizenship, astronomy, National Curriculum

This paper offers an analysis of our experience of working at a University which is currently developing internationalisation across its programme provision. We examine the role of global education within internationalisation of the curriculum and we offer some examples of learning and teaching strategies to put this approach into practice.

Whilst we examine our experience with reference to modules within Initial Teacher Education and Continuing Professional Development programmes in Education, we argue that the practical strategies drawn on as exemplars of practice are generic and can be transferred across subject disciplines. By incorporating the global dimension in the curriculum we aim to enrich the learning experience. We discuss the rationale for the active and participatory
learning methodology we employ which involves and engages students in learning with and from one another and in questioning beliefs and ideas about issues of meaning and value. We also demonstrate how this methodology provides opportunities for deep learning.

Our aim is not to achieve a ‘quick fix’ in terms of putting a tick in the box to comply with the institutional policy requirements for internationalisation of the curriculum. Instead we advocate an approach which we believe has integrity. It is a holistic approach to planning which starts from our shared human experience and sees global education as an integral and generic dimension across the curriculum rather than something to be added on as an extra.