Showing papers in "Foro de Educación in 2020"
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors develop the concept of operational media to think through the deployment of utility/useful cinema in the context of cybernetically informed educational policy, and argue that cybernetic concepts of communication, feedback loops and homeostasis were central to the pragmatic installation of media at the center of postwar mass education.
Abstract: This article develops the concept of «operational media» to think through the deployment of utility/useful cinema in the context of cybernetically informed educational policy. The paper argues that cybernetic concepts of communication, feedback loops and homeostasis were central to the pragmatic installation of media at the center of postwar mass education. Links are made to the dominance of cybernetic ideas in postwar social science, including social psychology, sociobiology and behaviourism. A consideration of the UN’s operational media allows for a reconsideration of the agency’s communicative mandate as biopolitical and governmental. Educational policies influenced by the UN were doubly concerned with technologized classrooms: cybernetic ideas presented themselves as politically neutral, while offering efficiencies in the delivery of content. Cold war citizenship was thus conceived as a form of training that would pragmatically lead to the rebalancing of a volatile international situation. Carrefour de la vie (1949), made by Belgian filmmaker Henri Storck for the United Nations, is presented as an example of the centrality of mental health for citizenship training in postwar biopolitical regimes. In particular, the tension between the film’s humanist and cybernetic strands are considered. Au Carrefour de la vie is considered as a transitional text, presenting a humanist story of childhood in postwar life that simultaneously prefigures the operation of a controlled society.
12 citations
TL;DR: In the early 1970s, the General Education Law of 1970 as discussed by the authors was proposed to integrate the economic and social dimensions of change to mitigate the political conflicts that were eroding the dictatorship.
Abstract: During the 1960s, the OECD, through its Mediterranean Regional Program, worked cooperatively with authorities in Spain to promote changes in the country’s educational system that would strengthen economic growth The objective was to integrate Spain into the «global architecture of education», which conceived investments in the cultivation of human capital as an essential factor to ensure the development and modernization of its productive sector UNESCO, the World Bank, and other international organizations cooperated in a similar fashion, providing outside assistance in the dissemination of methods and knowledge to influence the education reforms being undertaken in Spain The approaches included in the PRM became a guide for the Spanish authorities and found their way into the Planes de Desarrollo (plans for development), though more as ideals than as realities due to a systematic failure to comply with the measures prescribed In spite of everything, that international influence occasioned an opening up to pedagogical methods that altered teaching practices and were a shock to a stagnant, reactionary, and class-based system, thus contributing to its gradual transformation At the start of the following decade, a more all-encompassing reform was attempted with the General Education Law of 1970, integrating the economic and the social dimensions of change to mitigate the political conflicts that were eroding the dictatorship Again, the results were mediocre, this time due to the combined effects of detractors from inside and outside the Franco regime
10 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the authors present a theoretical proposal about the basic educational aspects that the emotional co-education programs should incorporate, clarifying the differences in primary education and secondary education.
Abstract: The current education theories pleads for a formation centred on the acquisition of competitions, skills and capacities. Inside these they would find the components of the Emotional Intelligence. The importance of investigating and gender the differences visible in the Emotional Competitions man and women it’s transcendental in the educational area since this allows to carry out an education that compensates the inequality whom the educational system and the not formal education have submitted to the different gender. The following document presents a theoretical proposal about the basic educational aspects that the Emotional Coeducation programs should incorporated, clarifying the differences in Primary Education and Secondary Education. The curricular aspects proposed are developed starting from investigations of emotional intelligence and emotional competencies whihc includes gender.
8 citations
TL;DR: The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) is often associated with its prestigious world heritage list, and for good reason: the list is undeniable the most popular initiative in the organization's entire history as mentioned in this paper.
Abstract: UNESCO – the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization – is often associated with its prestigious world heritage list. For a good reason. The list is undeniable the most popular initiative in the organization’s entire history. But UNESCO is of course more than world heritage. It has over the years been preoccupied with a series of what appears to be extremely diverse topics, such as education for global citizenship, literary translation programs, copyright rules, nuclear power research and technical assistance to developing countries. But how exactly are the many different activities related to peace-making and mentality construction and what exact role does education play besides constituting the «e» in the organization’s name? In order to answer that, I will bring the reader back to three unpretentious but rather important seminars that took place simultaneously in Paris at the beginning of the organization’s existence, because I believe the subsequent projects they initiated embody what the employees at UNESCO initially defined as the organization’s core tasks.
7 citations
TL;DR: In this article, an interesting overlap between some Indian epistemologies and postcolonial theories can be observed with regards to the central role of the contextualization of knowledge production and the socially embodied nature of scientific knowledge in general.
Abstract: The call for the decolonization of knowledge refers to both its colonization and contingency and puts the focus on the multiplicity of knowledge. This contradicts European-North-American thinking and definitions of knowledge. Consequently, to advance an epistemological decolonization of knowledge, the actual process of defining knowledge will be analysed and the multiplicity of perspectives stressed at the epistemological level. Using Indian epistemology as an example, I will work out differences in definitions of knowledge and therefore basic diversifications in describing and explaining the emergence of knowledge. Truth-value-neutral forms of knowledge in particular challenge dominant European-North-American philosophical definitions, which incontrovertibly include assumptions of true or false knowledge. An interesting overlap between some Indian epistemologies and postcolonial theories can be observed with regards to the central role of the contextualization of knowledge production and the socially embodied nature of scientific knowledge in general. If the incentives gained are to be taken seriously, the consequences for educational science in general as well as educational practices must be discussed. According to the findings of organizational theory, emphasis on diversification and complication is also seen as an opportunity for the emergence of fresh meaning. Referring to Helen Verran’s concept of generative tension as a sign of collective creativity, encounters between diverse forms of knowledge and epistemological principles are seen as sources of creative processes and prerequisite for the emergence of new positions, perspectives etc., and thus as incubators for innovations.
7 citations
TL;DR: The International Environmental Education Program (IEEP) as mentioned in this paper was the primary United Nations program assigned the task of creating and implementing environmental education globally and thus offers a particularly useful lens through which to analyze changes in the international community's understanding of the environment over time.
Abstract: In 1975, the United Nations, under the auspices of its Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) and Environment Program (UNEP), established the International Environmental Education Program (IEEP). For two decades, IEEP aimed to accomplish goals ascribed to it by UNESCO member states and fostered communication across the international community through Connect , the UNESCO-UNEP environmental education newsletter. After reviewing UNESCO’s early involvement with the environment, this study examines IEEP’s development, beginning with its conceptual grounding in the 1968 UNESCO Biosphere Conference. It examines the 1972 United Nations Conference on the Human Environment held in Stockholm, moves on to the UNESCO-UNEP 1975 Belgrade Workshop, and continues with the world’s first intergovernmental conference dedicated to environmental education held in Tbilisi in 1977. The paper then uses Connect to trace changes in the form and content of environmental education. Across two decades, environmental education shifted from providing instruction about nature protection and natural resource conservation to fostering an environmental ethic through a problems-based, interdisciplinary study of the ecology of the total environment to adopting the concept of sustainable development. IEEP ultimately met with mixed success. Yet it was the primary United Nations program assigned the task of creating and implementing environmental education globally and thus offers a particularly useful lens through which to analyze changes in the international community’s understanding of the concept of the environment over time.
7 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, a historical analysis of educational psychology is presented, showing how this discipline, conditioned by the situation that allowed its origin in the late nineteenth century, participated strategically in the emergence of knowledge that legitimized school practice and established new government circuits for childhood.
Abstract: From the beginning, Educational Psychology had the objective of procuring tools to enhance the development of the educational practice. In this way, it offered knowledge to improve the students’ learning but also to discriminate those who presented difficulties of accommodation to the rhythms established by the school institution. From a historical analysis, this work will demonstrate how this discipline, conditioned by the situation that allowed its origin in the late nineteenth century, participated strategically in the emergence of a knowledge that legitimized school practice and established new government circuits for childhood. Following this, the perspectives that began to criticize the original paradigm of the discipline from the middle of the 20th century will be examined, exposing a certain naturalized pattern of psychological knowledge production in the school environment and thus promoting a contextual model that will take into account the broad characteristics of the teaching and learning process. Finally, it will be concluded that, in spite of the theoretical strength that these orientations have managed to distribute, the proliferation of psychological diagnosis in the school classrooms during the last decades, although protected under the argument of smoothing the borders between normal education and special education, would seem not only to eclipse and diminish the possibilities of the contextual model, but also to shake the traditional school structure and bear consequences of extreme importance for the current configuration of educational practice.
6 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the authors discuss how the New Math in Sweden reform boosted national governance and changed power relations between the teachers, textbook producers, and the national school administration, and suggest that OECD continued to support this power structure through the testing enterprises associated with PISA.
Abstract: New Math was an international reform movement aimed at thorough changes in school mathematics with respect to both content and teaching methods. This movement started to gain influence in the 1950s, and in the 1960s several countries prepared and implemented their own New Math reforms. This movement not only attracted prominent mathematicians and psychologists but also garnered support from the Organization of Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). The New Math reforms are examples of how OECD supported thorough and broad changes in national systems of education. In most countries, however, the influence of New Math on syllabi began to fade by the 1970s. In this paper, I discuss how the New Math in Sweden reform boosted national governance and changed power relations between the teachers, textbook producers, and the national school administration. I also suggest that OECD continued to support this power structure through the testing enterprises associated with PISA.
5 citations
TL;DR: This paper found that pre-service teachers are less idealistic about the incremental nature of intelligence and reported higher resilience and a more pragmatic approach to teaching than their post-practicum peers.
Abstract: The mindset and motivation that teachers demonstrate are likely to influence their students’ mindset and motivation. While mindset and motivation of in-service teachers have been investigated thoroughly, the same cannot be said of pre-service teachers. Pre-service teachers’ mindset and motivation are likely developed during in-class experiences or practicum, the latter seen as the defining experience of pre-service teachers’ preparation. Understanding the changes that pre-service teachers undergo during their practicum experiences in terms of theories of intelligence, teaching efficacy, resilience, and grit is therefore crucial. This study used these constructs as examples of mindsets, self-beliefs, capacities, and personality traits. A cross-sectional design compared American and Canadian pre-practicum versus post-practicum pre-service teachers’ growth mindset and motivation and illustrated that similar effects occur across national contexts through a primarily quantitative questionnaire with open-ended questions. Triangulated statistical and thematic analyses illustrated that post-practicum students were less idealistic about the incremental nature of intelligence and reported higher resilience and a more pragmatic approach to teaching than their pre-practicum peers. The study’s findings extended other studies’ findings illustrating that changes occur specifically in teacher mindset as well as their strategies. Teacher education programs informed by these specific changes can capitalize on the pragmatic shift of teachers’ strategy selection while also coaching them to retain an incremental view of intelligence for their students’ benefit.
4 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors focus on how these practices have evolved, and their networks of connection and exchange, in order to better understand educational and curricular policies in their historical development.
Abstract: Research focused on the concept of the international or, rather, of international influences and interdependencies, has become a highly recurrent line of work that has been acquiring a notable presence in the field of the History of Education. The objective of this approach to historiographical work is justified as it attempts to explain with a better precision and accuracy what has happened within national borders, or even within more defined perimeters such as regional and local ones. The transfer of ideas and projects, the importation or imitation of pedagogical models, the transfer and influence of educational and school practices, the links and connections between different cultural scenarios and knowledge, the dependencies and interdependencies of international organizations, among other aspects, have led to new and more plausible analyses of educational processes and the political and social will that fostered them. The present work focuses on researching how these practices have evolved, and their networks of connection and exchange, in order to better understand educational and curricular policies in their historical development.
4 citations
TL;DR: The decolonial education movement as mentioned in this paper is a movement of critical thinking that starts from the history of Latin America in order to reconstruct, criticize and deconstruct the globally powerful connection between modernity and coloniality.
Abstract: It is increasingly argued that European colonialism has left its mark not only in the political and economic structures of the current world system, but also in the fields of culture, science and education. Against this background, the demand for a comprehensive epistemic or epistemological decolonization is raised. This issue follows on from this demand to clarify to what extent the phenomena of cultural colonization and coloniality also affect the fields of pedagogy and educational science. In particular, the meaning of the demand for epistemic or epistemological decolonization in the field of education will be discussed. In the introduction to this volume, the main features of decolonial thinking are presented. This is a movement of critical thinking that starts from the history of Latin America in order to reconstruct, criticize and deconstruct the globally powerful connection between modernity and coloniality. After this short introduction, the individual contributions from this issue on decoloniality will be briefly presented. Finally, the differences and similarities of the individual articles are briefly referred to. In the end, the question is raised, whether decolonial education should distinguish itself more strongly within the discipline.
TL;DR: In this article, the decolonial sociology has been a project of a considerable group of thinkers, who contribute to a critique of the colonial and imperial roots of sociology, its questionable institutionalization, its inherent power structures, or its persistent Eurocentrism.
Abstract: The decolonial sociology has been a project of a considerable group of thinkers. There are many texts that contribute to a critique of the colonial and imperial roots of sociology, its questionable institutionalization, its inherent power structures, or its persistent Eurocentrism. However, generally, these texts leave aside the teaching of sociology, especially if it occurs in the Global South. The present text tries to remedy that. It parts from the concrete experience of the formation of a department of social sciences and the reform of the curriculum of sociology in a university of the Global South. This experience and the material related to it form the basis for a theoretical reflection that seeks to bring the decolonial debate into dialogue with a particular local reality. Emphasizing the importance of the local, this text is developed in a scheme that leads to the formulation of three principles for a decolonial sociology: the double contextualization, comparison and self-criticism.
TL;DR: Huang et al. as discussed by the authors conducted a qualitative research based on an interview conducted with Huang Wan-Yun, a protegee of Monica Liu who had a very close relationship with the latter during the last ten years of her life.
Abstract: The purpose of this paper is to emphasize the importance of «inculturation» in the religious images drawn by Monica Liu (Ho-Pei), a unique artist who promoted Religious Art and Education in Taiwan. Monica Liu adopted Western Christianity into Chinese art to create paintings that reflect her love for nature as well as Our Lady who is deeply venerated in the Catholic Church and regarded as the mother of humanity. This paper is a qualitative research based on an interview conducted with Huang Wan-Yun, a protegee of Monica Liu who had a very close relationship with the latter during the last ten years of her life. This research is also based on some writings that Monica left behind and several articles written about her by acquaintances. The culture and faith expressed by Monica Liu through Our Lady’s images help us to deeply understand the value and relationship between religious art and faith. In addressing the needs of the secular world, religious art has encountered difficulties in terms of contemporary aesthetics. Monica’s distinct aesthetic considered «moral virtues» important to modern or contemporary art and their absence could result in distorted values. Therefore, true mission work in the field of religious art has to be close to everyone’s heart, as well as emphasize the importance of inculturation through natural representations and create awareness of taboo in art, which involves «additional and supplementary» elements in original artworks.
TL;DR: The ecoalfabetización is un iniciativa pedagogica that foments el contact directo con la naturaleza as discussed by the authors, incluso antes de desplegarse la industria litica and antes of apareciera la competencia linguistica.
Abstract: Objetivo: Proponer y justificar una iniciativa pedagogica que fomenta el contacto directo con la naturaleza. Metodo: Rastrear en la bibliografia los argumentos que demuestran como la cultura tomo inicio en el contacto directo con el ecosistema, incluso antes de desplegarse la industria litica y antes de que apareciera la competencia linguistica. Demostrar que el inicio del movimiento ecologico implico la denuncia de la degradacion de la biosfera y la propuesta del sentido del asombro como eje de la Educacion Ambiental. Fuentes: las de caracter cientifico que justifiquen el objetivo seran interdisciplinares; y documentos internacionales que convergen en el mismo punto de vista. Conclusion: El huerto escolar puede ser un instrumento pedagogico, para recuperar la familiaridad con el mundo de la vida y contexto para profundizar en las tramas que nos vinculan con los demas seres vivos. La ecoalfabetizacion es un movimiento cultural que recomienda y valora el huerto escolar como instrumento para motivar el conocimiento y la sensibilidad para con los seres vivos.
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors analyse the reasons behind the most critical arguments against the university option and also consider some ideas related to some supposed advances due to recent educational laws, and defend that the integration in the university is the best option to develop the potential of such studies, the most suitable for the challenges they have to face and the one that best pursues the public weal.
Abstract: At the end of the 20th century, the process of integration of higher education in the university was completed in Spain. However, the schools of artistic education were kept out of the university, due to diverse reasons among which the most recurrent seems to be a supposed singularity that would ask for their own ecosystem. With this article, written after a review of laws and rules and pertinent literature in the field of the History of Education, we analyse the reasons behind the most critical arguments against the university option and we also consider some ideas related to some supposed advances due to recent educational laws. As a result, we defend that the integration in the university is the best option to develop the potential of such studies, the most suitable for the challenges they have to face and the one that best pursues the public weal.
TL;DR: In this article, the authors conducted semi-structured interviews with 18 teachers from different instrumental specialties, who taught at state-funded conservatories within the autonomous Community of Madrid, to compare the ideas that instrumental music teachers have on the functions and purposes of assessment, comparing them with the ideas outlined in the current music curriculum.
Abstract: Most research on teachers’ ideas about assessment comes from studies conducted with general education teachers (e.g., primary, secondary, university). In contrast, there are only a few studies focused on teachers of art-related disciplines, specifically those who teach instrumental performance in music conservatories. The aim of this study was to describe the ideas that instrumental music teachers have on the functions and purposes of assessment, comparing them with the ideas outlined in the current music curriculum. Participants were 18 teachers from different instrumental specialties, who taught at state-funded conservatories within the autonomous Community of Madrid. We conducted semistructured interviews in which we asked teachers about the purposes that they had in mind when assessing students. Responses were analyzed using content analysis. Findings showed that the most frequently mentioned primary purposes of assessment were summative, formative and selfassessment, while grading students appeared most frequently as a secondary purpose. Few teachers refereed to the formative purpose. In addition, we found that the teachers’ responses alluded to both social and educational functions of assessment. We conclude that the ideas of the interviewed teachers reflected what is prescribed in the current music curriculum only partially, given the marginal role of the formative purpose as compared with curriculum guidelines. Limitations of the study are discussed. We suggest that researchers should conduct future research addressing the tensions between educational and social functions of assessment throughout each educational cycle.
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors analyze the role of education supervisors in the context of national and district reform policies, taking the province of Buenos Aires as a case of analysis, since it is the biggest district in Argentina in terms of territory, demographics and education.
Abstract: The aim of this paper is to analyze the modifications in the role of education supervisors in the frame of the national and district reform policies, taking the province of Buenos Aires as a case of analysis, since it is the biggest district in Argentina in terms of territory, demographics and education. In the period chosen, the provincial government has made changes in the academic structure, and in the administration of the education, in order to adapt to the successive cycles of reform passed by the National Congress. As the province made changes on the academic structure, which included reforming institutions, subjects, curriculum designs, specializations, among other issues; it also modified the structure of supervision, which is a link between the central level and the educational institutions. Our purpose is to describe these changes and their impact on the shaping of the teaching supervisors’ job, based on the analysis of documentaries and official regulation sources.
TL;DR: The Nuffield Physics curriculum project was the first national curriculum project held in the UK as mentioned in this paper, which had many transnational features with influences of ideas and practices running across national borders, as well as national characteristics.
Abstract: The Nuffield Physics curriculum project was the first national curriculum project held in the UK. The Ordinary-level Nuffield physics project, developed between 1962 and 1966 for academic pupils in grammar schools, was one of the most interesting and innovative projects of the 1960s. It had many transnational features, with influences of ideas and practices running across national borders, as well as national characteristics. It owed many of its distinctive ideas around physics for the inquiring mind to Eric Rogers, and ultimately to the progressive school Bedales in the 1920s and 1930s, as well as American reform under the banner of the Physical Science Study Committee. These were played out at a local level, for example in Worcester, led by Ted Wenham and John Lewis. During and after the project, although there was some resistance to sharing these ideas as they developed, key figures began to engage with other national systems and projects in spreading the word about Nuffield physics. Transnationalism was at the heart of the significance and achievements of Nuffield O-level physics, no less than of its problems and limitations.