Power and Education 

About: Power and Education is an academic journal published by SAGE Publishing. The journal publishes majorly in the area(s): Politics & Higher education. It has an ISSN identifier of 1757-7438. Over the lifetime, 368 publications have been published receiving 3193 citations. The journal is also known as: Power & education.

Interrupting the Politics of Learning

Abstract: In this article, the author raises critical questions about the notion of ‘learning’, the language of ‘learning’ and the discourse of ‘learning’. The analytical and critical device used is the idea...

Migration and Education

Abstract: This Special Edition of Power and Education on the subject of Migration and Education could not come at a more critical time. There is no ‘agreed’ definition for migration (International Organisation for Migration, 2005); however, it is commonly held that migration is the physical movement from one place to another. This may be in small or large groups. Education, which has been used synonymously to schooling, is similarly problematic to define, and has been suggested by Gregory (2002) to be concerned primarily with equipping minds to makes sense of the physical, social and cultural worlds. From these definitions, a close relationship between migration and education can be seen, which is being bolstered by the increased pace of globalisation. The relationship between these two concepts – education and migration – one can deduce, is as interrelated as they are dynamic. Nevertheless, interrelatedness is perhaps most noticeable in terms of world trade, although less noticeable forms of interrelatedness such as government policies and written and spoken communication skills are at play. The resulting interplay is a plethora of opportunities and challenges, often premised on a shifting borderland narrative and manifested in discourses around curricula and qualifications comparability, educational accreditation, social justice and identity trajectories. Concomitantly, notions of ‘North’ and ‘South’ are being replaced by a new social international order in which a ‘world citizen’ is constructed as possessing a developed understanding of the world and making the world their home through travel. But education, making sense of physical, social and cultural worlds, makes the process and act of migration easier to understand by offering a range of models (Ravenstein, 1878; Stouffer, 1960) and discourses (Todaro, 1969; International Organisation for Migration, 2005) through which the movement of individuals can be debated, if not explained. Conversely, migration presents education with opportunities for the production and dissemination of knowledge and the sharing of skills and expertise. That is, migration presents opportunities for culture sharing and for cultural literacy to develop and to be embedded in lifestyle and practice among individuals, communities and even societies. Additionally, the challenges migration brings to education systems and to different actors within such systems cannot be ignored. Fundamentally, education can be thought of as a vehicle which aids our understanding of these issues. The intricate relationship between migration and education can therefore be explained by this metaphor: if migration is a seed, then education is the soil which gives effect to this seed both in terms of its development and in terms of our understanding of the process of its development. The migratory experience is inexorably fraught (Lee, 1966). Individuals, communities and countries alike can expect possibilities and challenges. Sending countries lose skilled labour and some have even experienced a brain drain (Ochs, 2003); receiving countries face challenges in terms of population growth, the results of which have been further challenges to social security, medical

Power, Emancipation, and Complexity: Employing Critical Theory:

Abstract: Critical theory, if nothing else, is a moral construct designed to reduce human suffering in the world. In the critical theoretical context, every individual is granted dignity regardless of his or her location in the web of reality. Thus, the continuation of human suffering by conscious human decision is a morally unacceptable behavior that must be analyzed, interpreted and changed. In this context the genesis of this type of decision-making process is uncovered and new ways of thinking that would negate such activity are sought. As critical theorists have engaged in this process, they have come to describe a set of practices that contribute to forms of decision making that perpetuate human suffering. This article focuses on a few of these dynamics in order to situate the moral dimensions of a twenty-first-century reconceptualized critical theory. The authors' notion of critical theory is described as ‘reconceptualized’ in that it is more sensitive to modes of domination that involve race and gender and ...

Education in the Liquid-Modern Setting

Abstract: The powerful flow from solid modernity to liquid modernity – presaged by and presaging further social changes hitherto unknown in scope and speed – is creating new and unprecedented conditions in which individuals must pursue their fragmentary goals. Liquid-modern culture is the here-and-now and its heady temporality demands adaptability and flexibility whilst rendering them enticing and even exciting. The world is full of seductive and promising chances but, like the will o' the wisp, its promises of empowerment are fleeting. Grasp them and they are gone, leaving only danger and disempowerment under foot. Education has, in the past, been able to adjust itself to changing circumstances and so provide some foundation; but the present change is not like past changes and the art of living in a world over-saturated with information has yet to be learned. This article sets out to capture the uncertainty, even if only momentarily, of liquid-modern culture to give some purchase to the questions education and edu...

The Place of Emotion in Teacher Reflection: Elias, Foucault and ‘Critical Emotional Reflexivity’

Abstract: This article argues that recognizing the emotional aspects of reflexivity offers insights into the mechanisms with which teacher reflection occurs and becomes a disciplinary or subversive strategy. Particularly, the notion of ‘critical emotional reflexivity’ is theorized as a concept and praxis that not only acknowledges how reflexive processes are deeply emotional, but also interrogates how emotions are entangled with power relations and reflexive processes to legitimize or delegitimize certain teaching practices. A theoretical framework to ground the concept of critical emotional reflexivity in teaching is proposed; this framework is based on the theories of Norbert Elias and Michel Foucault, and involves a more complex understanding of emotion as an integral part of professional experience constituted in the interplay of personal, cultural, social and political aspects. The article concludes with a discussion about the potential contribution of critical emotional reflexivity as a theoretical and pedago...