Showing papers in "Journal of Education Policy in 2009"
TL;DR: In this article, the authors examined the impact of the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) on national education systems in Europe and beyond, and concluded that PISA has become an indirect but nonetheless influential tool of the new political technology of governing the European education space by numbers.
Abstract: This paper examines the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA), which has become a major and influential component of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development’s (OECD) educational work. This measure of comparative performance of educational systems of member and other nations is based on tests commissioned by the OECD. The paper discusses the role of the OECD in establishing the ‘comparative’ turn and also describes PISA, its management and effects. It provides three examples of the impact of PISA in Finland, Germany and the UK before moving the focus to its impacts at the transnational level, through an examination of how key European policy actors see PISA and its effects. The paper concludes that PISA, through its direct impact on national education systems in Europe and beyond, has become an indirect, but nonetheless influential tool of the new political technology of governing the European education space by numbers.
871 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the authors explore the relationship between changing forms of the governance of education and the growth and uses of data in the context of England and suggest that the massive growth of data has unbalanced the relations of governing and created highly centralised system steering.
Abstract: This paper explores the relationship between changing forms of the governance of education and the growth and uses of data in the context of England – a context that can be described as the most ‘advanced’ in Europe in terms of data production and use. The paper links the shifting relations between the central department of education (variously known between the 1980s and the time of writing as the Department of Education and Science [DES], Department for Education and Skills [DfES] and the Department for Children, Schools and Families [DCSF]), the local education authorities and the schools to the growth and development of data‐based systems of inspection and performance management, and suggests that the massive growth of data has unbalanced the relations of governing and created highly centralised system steering. Recent attempts to ‘rebalance’ steering through ‘intelligent accountability’ invoke network principles and self‐regulation through self‐evaluation, and thus give the appearance of deregulation...
527 citations
TL;DR: This paper explored some particular aspects of the privatisation of public sector education, mapping and analysing the participation of education businesses in a whole range of public-sector education services both in the UK and overseas.
Abstract: This paper explores some particular aspects of the privatisation of public sector education, mapping and analysing the participation of education businesses in a whole range of public sector education services both in the UK and overseas. It addresses some of the types of privatisation(s) which are taking place ‘of’, ‘in’ and ‘through’ education and education policy, ‘in’ and ‘through’ the work of education businesses. This entails a traversal of some of the multi‐level and multi‐layered fields of policy: institutional, national and international. Such an approach is important in demonstrating the increasing diversity and reach of some of the education businesses and their different kinds of involvements with different institutions and sectors of education. It also makes it possible to set local rhetorics, such as ‘partnership’, within the context of corporate logics of expansion, diversification, integration and profit.
435 citations
TL;DR: The authors argues that the global war for talent represents a new phase in neoliberalism, as it seeks to liberalise the global movement not just of capital and commodities, but of high skill labour as well.
Abstract: Talk of the rise of a global war for talent and emergence of a new global meritocracy has spread from the literature on human resource management to shape nation‐state discourse on managed migration and immigration reform. This article examines the implications that the global war for talent have for education policy. Given that this talent war is a product of neoliberalism, it raises many of the same concerns for educators as neoliberalism in general: the embrace and promotion of social, economic and educational inequality; and a narrow, market‐based conception of education, skill and talent. This article argues, however, that the global war for talent represents a new phase in neoliberalism, as it seeks to liberalise the global movement not just of capital and commodities, but of high skill labour as well. In this, it threatens to undercut some of the founding assumptions and goals that have shaped national education policy in OECD countries throughout the post‐World War II period, and raises serious concerns for how we are to think about and pursue equality, inclusion and fairness in and through education in the future.
259 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors draw on empirical data to explore these assumptions and to illustrate the ways in which they are flawed, concluding that Black pupils will automatically see Black teachers as role models for Black pupils and make a connection between the behaviour modelled by Black teachers and their own behaviour, aspirations or achievement.
Abstract: Growing concerns about the experience and achievement of Black pupils (especially Black males) underpin calls for more Black people to serve as teacher and lay mentor role models in schools. Calls for increased numbers of Black teacher role models assume firstly, that Black teachers regard themselves as role models and want to perform such a role in school. Secondly, that Black pupils will automatically see Black teachers as role models for Black pupils and make a connection between the behaviour modelled by Black teachers and their own behaviour, aspirations or achievement. Thirdly, that Black teachers are the most appropriate role models for Black pupils. This article draws on empirical data to explore these assumptions and to illustrate the ways in which they are flawed.
122 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the authors discuss the idea that during an inspection the school becomes focussed around performing for inspection, and discuss performance theory here as well as notions of performativity.
Abstract: This paper is about the issue of the performance of inspection. Based on research conducted in an English secondary school in the years following its time under Special Measures, I discuss the idea that during an inspection the school becomes focussed around performing for inspection. I discuss performance theory here as well as notions of performativity. I set the scene with middle and senior managers' recollections of life under Special Measures, in effect the time in which they learnt to perform. I then use data from time spent in the school before and during the school's OfSTED inspection, and discuss inspection as performance.
121 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the authors explore the ways in which nursery workers are constructed through government discourse in England and offer a deconstruction of key policy texts to understand how nursery workers have become fabricated through texts as more or less professional at particular political moments and to what effect.
Abstract: This paper aims to explore the ways in which nursery workers are constructed through government discourse in England. This is done by offering a deconstruction of key policy texts. The discursive construction of ‘the nursery worker’ within government discourses has shifted over time but currently occupies a highly politicised position. It is argued that following a decade of unprecedented policy attention and reform, the cultivation and continued promotion of a discursive ‘crisis in childcare’, has laid the ground for Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) to be refashioned in particular ways. Policy claims to a perpetual ‘crisis in childcare’ are dismantled and explored in order to better understand how nursery workers have become fabricated through texts as more or less professional at particular political moments and to what effect. Attention is drawn to the recent introduction of ‘Early Years Professional Status’ and claims to evidence‐based policy formation are problematised. The paper concludes b...
118 citations
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TL;DR: The articles in this issue of the journal call for some comment as mentioned in this paper, and they were not assembled as an edited collection but have a remarkable coherence that could be indicative of what might be called "th...
Abstract: The articles in this issue of the journal call for some comment. They were not assembled as an edited collection but have a remarkable coherence that could be indicative of what might be called ‘th...
102 citations
TL;DR: In this article, a review of the literature on teacher identities and analysis of the responses of 20 primary teachers, from a range of backgrounds, to the question "Has your gender had any impact on your experiences and/or career as a teacher?" revealed that teacher recruitment campaigns that focus on aspects of personal identity fail to resonate with the motivations of those who are attracted to teaching.
Abstract: For several years now a number of countries have been attempting to increase their numbers of male primary teachers, yet have met with little success. Feminists/pro‐feminists have challenged the intentions of these male teacher recruitment drives but failed to offer any interventions that might contribute to a broadening of the primary teacher population. This article seeks to redress this by identifying specific reasons why policy initiatives have failed. Through a review of the literature on teacher identities and analysis of the responses of 20 primary teachers, from a range of backgrounds, to the question ‘Has your gender had any impact on your experiences and/or career as a teacher?’, it emerged that teacher recruitment campaigns that focus on aspects of personal identity fail to resonate with the motivations of those who are attracted to teaching. Gender is not regarded by primary teachers as of having any particular significance to their careers, whilst minority ethnic and sexuality status are both...
80 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the management of flows of information through quality assurance can be examined as a new form of governance, not just at the national level but within the broad policyscape of the European Union.
Abstract: Governing processes in Europe and within Europeanization are often opaque and appearances can deceive. The normative practices of improvement in education, and the connected growth in performance measurement, have been largely understood in their own terms. However, the management of flows of information through quality assurance can be examined as a new form of governance, not just at the national level but within the broad policyscape of the European Union. The shaping of policy through data and the constant comparison for improvement against competition has come to be the standard by which public systems are judged. Indeed, public systems of education are recreated, and Europe is formed. The mediation of travelling policies and policy discourses across Europe constitute a polymorphic policyscape in which quality assurance and evaluation (QAE) has become a major instrument.
78 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors considered each of the annual cohorts of new Academies in England, from 2002 to 2006, and showed that their level of success in comparison to their predecessors, national averages, their changing compositions, and their changing exam entry practices, are insubstantial.
Abstract: This paper builds upon an earlier analysis presented in this journal. Using official figures for school compositions and for outcomes at KS4 from 1997 to 2007, this paper considers each of the annual cohorts of new Academies in England, from 2002 to 2006. It shows that their level of success in comparison to their predecessors, national averages, their changing compositions, and their changing exam entry practices, are insubstantial. Of course some schools are gaining higher scores since Academisation, but others are gaining lower scores. Using the most recent results available there is no clear evidence that Academies produce better results than local authority schools with equivalent intakes. The Academies programme therefore presents an opportunity cost for no apparent gain.
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors analyse how OECD knowledge production is integrated with the process in which Finnish education policy takes shape by analysing the uses of the OECD PISA Study by Finnish central government officials.
Abstract: In this article we attempt to analyse how OECD knowledge production is integrated with the process in which Finnish education policy takes shape. This is done by analysing the uses of the OECD PISA Study by Finnish central government officials. The main question posed is: How do these officials interpret the PISA results so as to justify the decisions made in Finnish education policy in the past or to point out new areas of development concerning basic education? The analysis shows that the interpretations of the PISA results tend to favour those responsible for actions within the central government. In the texts analysed, the scientificity of the PISA programme is presented as beyond question, while the direct usefulness of the research results for the further development of national education is also proclaimed. As to the specific results of PISA, the excellent learning outcomes of Finnish students are claimed to be due to educational reforms conducted and decisions made by the central government, where...
TL;DR: The authors argue that underlying the OECD's promotion of inclusion in, for and through lifelong learning is the notion of an "active citizen" who establishes their worth through learning and, ultimately, competence.
Abstract: This paper argues that underlying the OECD’s promotion of inclusion in, for and through lifelong learning is the notion of an ‘active citizen’ who establishes their worth through learning and, ultimately, competence. Through the critical examination of recent OECD policy documents on adult and lifelong learning, the paper also calls for a re‐examination of the purported goals of inclusion and participation, essential elements of ‘inclusive liberalism’.
TL;DR: In this article, the authors trace quality assurance and evaluation (QAE) developments in Finnish compulsory schooling and conclude that it may be a rhetorical overstatement to speak about a specific Finnish "Model" of QAE in a strong sense.
Abstract: This article traces quality assurance and evaluation (QAE) developments in Finnish compulsory schooling The central question is this: Is there a Finnish model of QAE? We conclude that it may be a rhetorical overstatement to speak about a specific Finnish ‘Model’ of QAE in a strong sense However, neither is it valid to conclude that what happens in Finnish QAE merely reflects the unintended effects of radical decentralisation The Finnish consensus on certain issues in QAE could be characterised as silent, and based on antipathy rather than on conscious and articulated principles Finnish hostility towards ranking, combined with a bureaucratic tradition and a developmental approach to QAE strengthened by radical municipal autonomy, has constructed two national and local embedded policies that have been rather effective in resisting a trans‐national policy of testing and ranking It is significant, however, that both represent a combination of conscious, unintended and contingent factors
TL;DR: Personalisation is an emerging "movement" within education as mentioned in this paper, which can refer either to a new mode of governance for the public services, or it qualifies the noun 'learning' as in 'personalised learning'.
Abstract: Personalisation is an emerging ‘movement’ within education. Its roots reside in marketing theory, not in educational theory. As a concept it admits a good deal of confusion. It can refer either to a new mode of governance for the public services, or it qualifies the noun ‘learning’, as in ‘personalised learning’. The concern here is with its intellectual affinity to child‐centred education, one which the government in England has strongly denied. On balance, the government’s view of personalisation is not of a piece with what may commonly be regarded as child‐centred education. But the strong semantic accord between the terms ‘personalisation’ and ‘child‐centred education’ provokes a question: why does the government not provide a term which unequivocally distinguishes its current ‘vision’ for education from child‐centred education? By retaining the term personalisation, the government purports to do two things: first, because of its focus on personalised ‘tailored’ needs and co‐produced solutions, it ada...
TL;DR: In this paper, the influence of personal, family, geographic, motivational and educational policy factors are all considered in the context of deciding whether to attend a public or private school in Spain.
Abstract: In Spain as in other European countries, policies on school choice have been implemented in tandem with the channelling of public resources into private education. Given the application of public money to private schooling, the primary objective of this paper is to analyse the extent to which Spanish families enjoy equality in their ability to exercise school choice. To do so, the analysis focuses on the factors that affect school choice in Spain using data from the 2003 and 2006 PISA evaluations. Specifically, the influence of personal, family, geographic, motivational and educational policy factors are all considered in the context of deciding whether to attend a public or private school. The results reveal a broad similarity across the factors driving the selection of private schools which either receive some public funding (known as ‘concerted’) or independent, showing a greater proportion of families from better socioeconomic, educational and cultural backgrounds in these types of schools. In additio...
TL;DR: The development of QAE in Sweden has been related to a shift in governing policies and practices towards governing by objectives and results; and national QAE policies have successively strengthened this governing doctrine.
Abstract: The paper analyses quality assurance and evaluation (QAE) policy and activities in mandatory schooling at national level in Sweden. Two studies are reported: a textual analysis of national policy d ...
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors examine Australian policy on quality for early childhood education and care (ECEC) and investigate the existing national quality assurance system, Quality Improvement and Accreditation System (QIAS) and its application in childcare centres.
Abstract: This paper examines Australian policy on quality for early childhood education and care (ECEC). It investigates the existing national quality assurance system, Quality Improvement and Accreditation System (QIAS) and its application in childcare centres. However, Australia's recently elected federal government has shown enormous interest in improving quality in ECEC with implications for policy change. While international research emphasises the importance of process quality Australian policy and practice has focused on structural quality. Further, ambiguity exists in defining quality in ECEC exacerbated by a dearth of Australian research. Five limitations of the current structural-based QIAS were identified based on international and national research. The paper argues for an urgent need to address the limitations of policy on quality childcare which should be driven by evidence-based process quality.
TL;DR: The authors argue that school managers' inclination to emphasise the exclusive and high quality profile of their internationalised streams and their propensity to celebrate the abilities of their pupils stem from their competitive engagement with local education markets.
Abstract: The past decades saw a rise in internationalised education in Europe. Based on case studies at Dutch schools, I argue that the introduction of this type of education can be understood by the increased need for schools to adapt to the social reproduction strategies of privileged social classes. School managers regard internationalised streams as a way to counter a decline of pupils or as a strategy to improve an already secure position. In both cases, they resisted protesting staff in their efforts to establish an exclusive image of their internationalised stream. I argue that school managers’ inclination to emphasise the exclusive and ‘high‐quality’ profile of their internationalised streams and their propensity to celebrate the abilities of their pupils stem from their competitive engagement with local education markets.
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors take the example of Junior Achievement Worldwide, one of the world's oldest, largest, and fastest growing organizations promoting corporate interests in schools in the USA and beyond, to illustrate the need to address school commercialism in a broad historical, curricular, and global context.
Abstract: The literature on school commercialism, despite a number of successes in battling advertising and marketing in schools, has often seemed to only scratch the surface of corporatization of K‐12 education. While condemning corporations who seek to sell brand‐name products to kids in schools is a relatively straightforward matter, critiquing corporate efforts to promote ideologies, identities, values and agendas to children and youth is far more complicated and yet, essential. In this paper, we take the example of Junior Achievement Worldwide, one of the world’s oldest, largest, and fastest growing organizations promoting corporate interests in schools in the USA and beyond to illustrate the need to address school commercialism in a broad historical, curricular, and global context. We review the long history of Junior Achievement in the USA, its vast set of curriculum offerings in enterprise, financial literacy, economics, work readiness and life skills, and its dramatic expansion, since the late 1980s, to no...
TL;DR: The authors explored the changing forms of governance currently being applied to the English further education sector, which emphasise the importance of locality, and examined current policy changes that intend to alter the way in which the sector is managed.
Abstract: The paper explores the changing forms of governance currently being applied to the English further education sector – changes that emphasise the importance of locality. The paper sets the sector within its socio‐economic and policy context, examining current policy changes that intend to alter the way in which the sector is managed. It relates these changes to their contextual location and to a set of conceptual notions that derive from a particular understanding of systems theory and what has been described as the new localism. It concludes that whilst these changing forms of governance are in continuity with earlier policies that had a regional dimension, they remain set on the terrain of performativity and new public sector management. Nevertheless, there remains a residual potential to develop more democratic forms of engagement in these changes.
TL;DR: In this article, the authors investigate how Australian universities are being disciplined to behave as commercial enterprises by the Australian Universities Quality Agency (AUQA), and find that universities are constructed as localised businesses appearing to be independent of direct government control but nevertheless constrained in the scope of their operation.
Abstract: This paper investigates how Australian universities are being disciplined to behave as commercial enterprises by the Australian Universities Quality Agency (AUQA). The manual produced by AUQA, for the purpose of conducting audits of Australian universities, is analysed. I use an analytical framework that provides a means by which a text from the ‘manual’ genre can be analysed with respect to social and political contexts, using Critical Discourse Analysis. I analyse changes in the language used in subsequent editions of the manual, drawing inferences about how the AUQA manual constructs universities to behave as particular kinds of business entities. Depictions of the globalised and virtualised university are silenced in the texts. Contrary to the rhetoric of the university being a flexible, globalised enterprise, I find that universities are constructed as localised businesses appearing to be independent of direct government control but nevertheless constrained in the scope of their operation.
TL;DR: In this paper, a qualitative study analyzes interviews with school leaders in their role in creating educational policies that encourage students and their families to make health a priority, and the analysis reveals the ways in which notions of good health and how this should be achieved became, at this school, a basis for social evaluation and control.
Abstract: In an era of curricular accountability where everything from reading and math scores to body fat are events to be assembled, scrutinized, and standardized, the health‐conscious school plays an ever‐important role in community and the nation (or so we are told). This qualitative study analyzes interviews with school leaders in their role in creating educational policies that encourage students and their families to make health a priority. Theoretically, the work draws on the work of Foucault, specifically his writings on the governance of society and the self. The analysis reveals the ways in which notions of good health and how this should be achieved became, at this school, a basis for social evaluation and control. In performing this analysis I seek to problematize the enactment of school health policy as ideologically neutral, necessarily liberating, and inherently benevolent.
TL;DR: In this article, the authors explore how the UK performativity culture relates to the multiple identities of leaders at various levels of hierarchy within the organisation, and conclude that while previous commentaries may have correctly discerned a bias, the mechanisms by which performativity may impact on the inclusion or exclusion of diverse staff in leadership have not been widely explored empirically.
Abstract: National policy discourses imply rational and positive pathways to greater equality and inclusion for public sector workers, including those in education However, radical feminist and critical race theory suggests that whatever measures are undertaken to disassemble systems which impact negatively on those who are minority or excluded, systems which sustain current inequalities are likely to be synchronously constructed Analysis of the UK performativity environment has variously identified a range of intended and unintended effects The mechanisms by which performativity may impact on the inclusion or exclusion of diverse staff in leadership have not been widely explored empirically This paper draws on data from five case studies of further education colleges It interrogates the data to explore how the performativity culture relates to the multiple identities of leaders at various levels of hierarchy within the organisation It concludes that while previous commentaries may have correctly discerned a
TL;DR: In this article, the authors analyse the long-term consequences of the uses of the concept of partnership in Swedish education policy, focusing particularly on issues of inclusion/exclusion and democratic regeneration.
Abstract: In recent years, governing through partnerships has become more and more common and is today reflected in a range of policy areas. In the following article, governing through partnerships is analysed in Swedish education policy around the turn of the millennium, where the notion of partnership has had a large impact. Using as its point of departure a theoretical perspective inspired by Michel Foucault, the article analyzes the calls for partnership in Swedish education policy as part of a set of governmental rationalities forming individuals into partnering, i.e. active and responsible, citizens. In the article, some of the long-term consequences of the uses of the concept of partnership in Swedish education policy are discussed, focusing particularly on issues of inclusion/exclusion and democratic regeneration. With the idea of governing through partnerships, it is argued that the political landscape is redrawn. The role of the State, for instance, is increasingly to leave room for various voluntary and independent actors and associations, to co-ordinate and interact, as a partner, among others, rather than directing society ‘from above’.
TL;DR: The authors investigates the conditions of possibility for resistance by exploring how resistance is struggled over in everyday academic work practices and presents an ethno-drama, based on materials collected through participant observation in several Australian universities, and offers a reading of the drama which focuses on what in Actor-Network Theory is called "enrolment".
Abstract: We are now at a point in higher education policy studies where we know that neoliberal discursive rationalities and practices are prevalent in the contemporary enterprise university, and we are beginning to get a sense of their impact on academic work and subjectivities. The article asserts that a more pressing question is how to powerfully and effectively resist neoliberalisation. The article investigates the conditions of possibility for resistance by exploring how resistance is struggled over in everyday academic work practices. The article presents an ethno‐drama, based on materials collected through participant observation in several Australian universities, and offers a reading of the drama which focuses on what in Actor–Network Theory is called ‘enrolment’. It is argued that a better understanding of how academics, collectively and as individuals, are vulnerable to the enrolment practices in the enterprise university is necessary for the enactment of effective resistance.
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors examine the Singapore-MIT Alliance and highlight the resistances, tensions and contradictions arising from leveraging off foreign expertise to build an education hub in Singapore, concluding with a discussion of the changing regimes of value arising from aspiring knowledge economies.
Abstract: To maintain their global positioning, some of the world's most prominent institutions are pursuing strategic transnational alliances. In this paper I examine one such transnational alliance – that between the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the government of Singapore. Using governmentality as a framework of analysis, the paper locates the Singapore‐MIT Alliance within the broader policy architecture that underpins Singapore's knowledge economy aspirations. The Alliance demonstrates some of the practical complexities involved in ‘leap‐frogging’ into the ‘value‐added’ realms of knowledge and service‐related production. It highlights the resistances, tensions and contradictions arising from leveraging off foreign expertise to build an education hub. The paper concludes with a discussion of the changing regimes of value arising from aspiring knowledge economies.
TL;DR: In this article, the authors examine the history of the concept, its constituent elements and the role of the Inspectorate in establishing it, and discuss the Scottish self-evaluation model as a means of promoting the country's distinctive identity in education within a European frame.
Abstract: This article looks at policy for quality assurance and evaluation in Scotland, its history and more recent developments, and in particular, at the emphasis on school self-evaluation. It examines the history of the concept, its constituent elements and the role of the Inspectorate in establishing it. Further, the article discusses the Scottish self-evaluation model as a means of promoting the country’s distinctive identity in education within a European frame. It discusses the role of the Standing International Conference of Inspectorates as a major forum for the transmission of ideas about self-evaluation that illuminates the role of networks in promoting Europeanisation.
TL;DR: In this article, a study based on locally produced planning and evaluation texts from 10 preschool settings in a Swedish middle-sized town was conducted to investigate and describe the meaning of content and formulations in the texts in relation to the teachers' professionalism in this era of performativity.
Abstract: This article contains results from a study based on locally produced planning and evaluation texts from 10 preschool settings in a Swedish middle‐sized town. The texts were mainly from 1999 to 2005, a period during which Swedish preschools were implementing their first curriculum and were subject to several changes including decentralisation, marketisation and competition which taken together brought new demands on visibility. The overarching aim is to investigate and describe the meaning of content and formulations in the texts in relation to the teachers’ professionalism in this era of performativity. The texts were analysed as institutional narratives that underline what the preschool is and ought to be and we thereby regard the texts as governing. Analyses based on the theoretical concepts of technologies and positioning not only show how the teachers are simultaneously controlled and control themselves by the descriptions in the texts, but also how they position themselves as highly professional and ...
TL;DR: The authors argue that English higher education institutions are on ethically dubious grounds in terms of their relations with international students, and that these flawed relations are reflected in pedagogical practices in the classroom.
Abstract: This article will start with a description of a small, pedagogic event: a snippet of conversation recorded in a classroom as part of a research project on working in groups with postgraduate students. I will use these few minutes of data to illustrate several of the arguments I wish to make about the policy of increased international student recruitment in English higher education. More specifically, the recorded conversation will act as a springboard into some reflections on the ways in which international students are positioned within the higher education system in England, in terms of policies, pedagogic practices and the research literature on international students. The argument will centre on the idea that English higher education institutions are on ethically dubious grounds in terms of their relations with international students, and that these flawed relations are reflected in pedagogical practices in the classroom. These reflections will draw from the writings of Levinas to explore the current ...