Thinking globally in environmental education : implications for internationalizing curriculum inquiry

This chapter revises and expands the following paper: Gough, Noel (2002). Thinking/acting locally/globally: Western science and environmental education in a global knowledge economy. International Journal of Science Education, 24(11), 1217-1237. The author hereby acknowledges the prior publication of substantial portions of this chapter by Taylor & Francis Ltd.

`I feel enlightened now, but...`: the limits to the pedagogic translation of critical social discourses in physical education

The emancipatory goal that underpins critical theories of teaching and learning is built on a theory of rational self-determination. In the context of physical education, critical educators believe that through a process of enlightenment teachers can recognize and transform elements of injustice and inequality that exist, albeit unwittingly, in their practice. However, despite the broad appeal of this orientation there are relatively few empirical accounts of how theories of enlightenment manifest themselves in the practice of emancipation. Propelled by the lacuna that clearly exists between critical theory and critical practice, this paper reports on the introduction of critical social discourses to a preservice PE program. It uses a case study methodology to report on two student-teachers' engagement with a range of critical social discourses during a year-long PE unit. The paper discusses some of the ways these students engaged with the theory and practice of a critical orientation for teaching and learning in physical education. Aspects of their experiences are then interpreted through Fay's (1987) critical but postmodern "limits to change" thesis. The paper concludes with tempered optimism about the potential for critical social discourses to guide preservice teachers in practical ways.

Engineering flexible teaching and learning in engineering education

The key challenges for achieving flexibility in flexible mode programmes in engineering and technology include: the integration of the explicit and implicit content in potentially disparate and isolated study modules across the whole programme curriculum; ensuring the validity and consistency of policies for granting students advanced standing based on recognition for prior learning and workplace experience; developing learning materials and experiences that cater for a wide and diverse audience, while at the same time offering relevance to the individual student in their own context; creating innovative communication environments that bring remote students into both the directed and the discursive discussion that are an important part of the learning process; and the financial and resourcing sustainability of the development, maintenance and delivery of high quality flexible mode  engineering and technology study programmes.

Change and stasis in schoolmusic education in Victoria: the past informing the future

This article reviews the current state of music education in Victoria in terms of both past and present issues. It is argued that many of these issues are the result of change and stasis that have occurred over the past 150 years of school music in Victoria. The principal issues that confront the present generation of music educators and policy makers are the role and place of music in school education and the provision of music teachers for government schools. Both of these issues are discussed in terms of the historical development of music in Victorian schools and it is demonstrated that many of the problems associated with these issues are either cyclical in nature, or have been endemic and simply never adequately addressed. It is suggested that one of the principal challenges to be faced in the government school sector at present is to retain the integrity of music as a discrete subject area in face of the current trend towards a generically-based arts curriculum. There is often a tendency in education to adopt an overly critical and even pessimistic approach to what are perceived as long-standing and seemingly insolvable problems. However, a counter-balancing factor is the rich heritage of Victorian music education which provides the basis for a more optimistic outlook. An important aspect of this heritage is the example of many outstanding music educators in Victoria and elsewhere. It is argued that a knowledge of such past achievements as well as a fuller appreciation of the historical development of music education policies and practices should provide a more informed and rational basis from which to decide the future course of music education in Victoria.

Ignorance in environmental education research

In this essay, the author suggests that the practice of environmental education research might be improved by efforts to identify what Jon Wagner calls the 'blank spots' and 'blind spots' that configure the collective ignorance of environmental education researchers. In Wagner's terms, what we know enough to question but not answer are our blank spots; what we do not know well enough even to ask about or care about are our blind spots - areas in which existing theories, methods, and perceptions actually keep us from seeing phenomena as clearly as we might. By way of example, the author argues that much research on significant life experiences does little to reduce ignorance in environmental education. He concludes by briefly appraising some strategies that might help environmental education researchers to recognise ways in which the field's dominant research traditions and models produce partialities and distortions.

Kivy on justifying music in liberal education

Within analytical aesthetic circles, Peter Kivy is best known for re-igniting the debate inaugurated by Eduard Hanslick over the issue of whether or not music of the purely instrumental or absolute kind can be said to express a content, and, if so, whether or not listeners' emotional responses to it bear any relation to that content. Kivy's particular contribution countenances the possibility of interpreting the appearance of a musical work as expressive - be it the percussive Allegro barbara [1911] by Bela Bartok or the lyrical Adagio for Strings {1936] by Samuel Barber - without having to presume that music itself, being non-sentient by nature, possesses any emotional, subjective state.  This short essay, however, will critically examine a rather neglected facet of Kivy's prolific writings. In a relatively recent attempt to justify the place of purely instrumental music in liberal education without drawing upon the above-mentioned notion of expressiveness, Kivy reconceptualizes the matter in a manner that significantly shifts us from the dominant epistemological arena of debate. No longer are we to dispute the place of music within the terms set by the highly influential forms-of-knowledge approach revived by P.H. Hirst a generation ago and currently under revision by Jim McKenzie in terms of forms of argumentative discourse. But before first surveying and then critically assessing Kivy's proposal, perhaps we should briefly remind ourselves of the contrasting frame of reference associated with Hirst.

Reflecting on participatory research in environmental education : some issues for methodology

We reflect on methodological issues arising in two of our own research projects as a form of practice, as a way of engaging in a praxis of project research. The projects chosen for this purpose are themselves concerned with teacher education and curriculum development in environmental education: they include participatory “reflective practice” processes in exploring issues relating to formal education in schools and informal education in communities and are grounded in the specific contexts of developing countries.
We discuss issues in participatory research such as:
• Whose research agenda gets to be explored?
• The importance of project partnerships
• Participants’ preconceptions about the nature of research
• What is “rigor” in participatory research in environmental education?
• The Colonialist Dilemma: Avoiding the “package or perish” mentality
• The Bigger Picture: Technocratic Rationality and Participatory Research.

Media/ting change: the print media's role in mediating education policy in a period of radical reform in Victoria, Australia

This paper draws upon critical discourse analysis, cultural studies and communication theory, studies on media and educational reform, and the work of Bernstein, Bourdieu and Luhmann in particular, to explore how the print and media 'mediated' a period of educational change marked by moves to self-management in schools in Victoria, Australia. It considers how the media was mobilized by various education stakeholders, and in turn informed relations between schools and government, through policy discourses and texts. It considers why and how particular themes became media 'issues', how schools and teachers responded to these issues, and how the media was used by various stakeholders in education to shape policy debates. It is based on a year-long qualitative study that explored critical incidents and representations about education in the print media over a year in the daily press. It illustrates the ways in which a neo-liberal Victorian government mobilized the media to gain strategic advantage to promote radical education reform policies, considers the media effects of this media/tion process on schools and teachers, and conceptualizes how school and system performance is fed from and into media representations, public perceptions and community understandings of schools and teachers' work.

Regulation and autonomy in teacher education: government, community or democracy?

Current attempts in industrialised countries to regulate teacher education in increasingly prescriptive ways raise profound social, ethical and pedagogical issues. This paper looks at the challenge such prescriptions pose and suggests that such regulation serves the democratic state less well than a more autonomous form of education. The implications of this alternative for teacher education are explored.