Thomas S. Popkewitz

Bio: Thomas S. Popkewitz is an academic researcher from University of Wisconsin-Madison. The author has contributed to research in topics: Educational research & Curriculum. The author has an hindex of 45, co-authored 228 publications receiving 8209 citations. Previous affiliations of Thomas S. Popkewitz include University of Luxembourg & Uppsala University.

Paradigm and Ideology in Educational Research: Social Functions of the Intellectual

Abstract: I accept much that Popkewitz says in his impressive book. I wish I didn't! He writes with great elegance and power on many issues of current interest: the social and cultural location of research activities; the relationship between theory, research and practice; the social role of the intellectual and the epistemological and social assumptions inherent in professional practice. I read the book with a degree of elation, inwardly nodding and saying to myself: Yes, yes, yes. And yet after finishing it I experienced a certain post-reading tristesse. The analysis of the nature of educational research, strategies of educational change, the process of evaluation and problems of educational consultancy is trenchant but the question with which one is left is not: What is the future for these activities? but: Have these activities any future? Popkewitz's discussion of different research paradigms will be familiar to most readers who are already university teachers or members of the research community, but it constitutes a very clear and sophisticated introduction for students coming fresh to the discussion of conflicting methodologies. He is fair to all perspectives, but his own position is quite clear. In stating that the purpose of this book is to probe 'how social assumptions, cultural location and political interests become inextricably tied to conceptual procedures and design questions' it is clear that the idea of rational, objective, value-free educational science isn't going to come out on top. And so it proves. However, though a critique of Western liberal-bourgeois objectivist social science will be familiar to many, Popkewitz's chapter on Soviet pedagogical sciences may well cover unfamiliar ground. The point which he elaborates is that the Western emphasis on schooling as a psychological problem and the Soviet emphasis on schooling as a pedagogical problem have to be seen not simply as differing in their utilitarian purposes but as rooted in the different historical and social circumstances in which educational goals are decided. Soviet research is based on Marxist analysis underpinned by the philosophical assumptions of dialectical materialism, but Popkewitz explores various contradictions and the challenges made by a number of Soviet educationists.

The Denial of Change in Educational Change: Systems of Ideas in the Construction of National Policy and Evaluation:

Abstract: Our conventional assumptions about school policy and evaluation are that schools are known and stable entities, and that the objectives and purposes of evaluation are relatively straight-forward. Drawing initially on a Norwegian evaluation of Norway's educational system, this essay views the problems of policy studies and evaluation as related to social and cultural changes that produce ambiguity and uncertainty in the practices of education. Further, the object of inquiry in this essay is the structuring of educational knowledge. Central to this examination are the sociology of knowledge and postmodern political theories, asking about the categories, distinctions, and differentiations of schooling that govern problem-solving efforts to improve education. My concern is with a method of inquiry that examines the historical circumstances through which "reason" and "reasonable people" of schooling are constructed. I proceed in this manner to frame the study of policy research and evaluation in a problematic ...

经验与教育 = Experience and education

Abstract: Experience and Educationis the best concise statement on education ever published by John Dewey, the man acknowledged to be the pre-eminent educational theorist of the twentieth century. Written more than two decades after Democracy and Education(Dewey's most comprehensive statement of his position in educational philosophy), this book demonstrates how Dewey reformulated his ideas as a result of his intervening experience with the progressive schools and in the light of the criticisms his theories had received. Analysing both "traditional" and "progressive" education, Dr. Dewey here insists that neither the old nor the new education is adequate and that each is miseducative because neither of them applies the principles of a carefully developed philosophy of experience. Many pages of this volume illustrate Dr. Dewey's ideas for a philosophy of experience and its relation to education. He particularly urges that all teachers and educators looking for a new movement in education should think in terms of the deeped and larger issues of education rather than in terms of some divisive "ism" about education, even such an "ism" as "progressivism." His philosophy, here expressed in its most essential, most readable form, predicates an American educational system that respects all sources of experience, on that offers a true learning situation that is both historical and social, both orderly and dynamic.

Teachers’ Beliefs and Educational Research: Cleaning Up a Messy Construct:

Abstract: Attention to the beliefs of teachers and teacher candidates should be a focus of educational research and can inform educational practice in ways that prevailing research agendas have not and cannot. The difficulty in studying teachers’ beliefs has been caused by definitional problems, poor conceptualizations, and differing understandings of beliefs and belief structures. This article examines the meaning prominent researchers give to beliefs and how this meaning differs from that of knowledge, provides a definition of belief consistent with the best work in this area, explores the nature of belief structures as outlined by key researchers, and offers a synthesis of findings about the nature of beliefs. The article argues that teachers’ beliefs can and should become an important focus of educational inquiry but that this will require clear conceptualizations, careful examination of key assumptions, consistent understandings and adherence to precise meanings, and proper assessment and investigation of spec...

In a Different Voice. Psychological Theory and Women’s Development. Cambridge, MA (Harvard University Press) 1982.

Abstract: Introduction 1. Woman's Place in Man's Life Cycle 2. Images of Relationship 3. Concepts of Self and Morality 4. Crisis and Transition 5. Women's Rights and Women's Judgment 6. Visions of Maturity References Index of Study Participants General Index

Experience and Education.

Abstract: Preparing the books to read every day is enjoyable for many people. However, there are still many people who also don't like reading. This is a problem. But, when you can support others to start reading, it will be better. One of the books that can be recommended for new readers is experience and education. This book is not kind of difficult book to read. It can be read and understand by the new readers.