Ideal type

About: Ideal type is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 400 publications have been published within this topic receiving 8012 citations.

Structural dissonance, enacted hope and initial early childhood teacher education in aotearoa/new zealand.

Abstract: This thesis argues that there is structural dissonance in university-based initial early childhood teacher education programmes in Aotearoa/New Zealand, and suggests a pedagogy of enacted hope as a countermeasure. In this thesis, structural dissonance is constructed as a form of structural violence, which is based on the contradiction between socioculturalism in the content of IECTE programmes and individualisation in the context in which they are provided. This theoretical thesis uses Richard Rorty’s (1979, 1982, 1989, 1999) neo-pragmatic assumptions on truth, reality and knowledge to provide a coherent and consistent approach to the argument of structural dissonance and enacted hope. Distinctions between truth and justification, reality and appearance, found and made are rejected, and utility for social justice, language use, and an ironist approach to scholarship are adopted. This thesis uses philosophical hermeneutics as a methodology for interpreting the textual sources that make up the data drawn upon in this thesis. This methodology is linked to interpretive scholarship, research bricolage, and the constructivist paradigm in qualitative research. The methods used in this thesis are an ecological hermeneutic, ideal type method (converted into an interpretive method of textual analysis) and focus groups of student teachers. This thesis constructed two ideal types. The ideal type for socioculturalism is used to argue that the content of IECTE programmes is heavily influenced by socioculturalism. The ideal type for individualisation is used to argue that the context in which IECTE programmes are provided reproduces individualisation. Socioculturalism and individualisation are shown to be dissonant in the structure of a case IECTE programme in Aotearoa/New Zealand resulting in a situation of structural dissonance. A pedagogy of enacted hope is then proposed to counteract structural dissonance in the case study IECTE programme in Aotearoa/New Zealand. This pedagogy is constructed using a theory of hope developed through the integration of Ernst Bloch’s (1986) philosophy of hope, Rortyan philosophical assumptions and enactivist learning theory. Implications of using the pedagogy of enacted hope are then discussed in relation to the problem of structural dissonance.

The Category of Pragmatic Knowledge in Sociological Analysis

Abstract: There have been a number of new developments in the methodology of social science. One of them is the emergence of a new field, vaguely called ‘sociological analysis’. The aim of this chapter is to contribute towards a sharper delineation of this field. The present usage of the term is still very uncertain and therefore difficult to summarise. One could say, however, in general that all discussions of this kind are in one way or another striving towards a closer integration of theory and research. Many attempts have been made to find out how general theory could be made more realistic. The words ‘realistic’, ‘social reality’, ‘real structure’, ‘real type’ are used in such discussions with increasing frequency and also with a sense of urgency. But the boxes thus labelled are as yet rather empty. For example the concept of real-type analysis is used to suggest some sort of contrast to the method of theory building by means of ideal-type constructs. Although there has been much controversy about ideal-type theory2 the one thing that is unquestionable about Weber’s intentions is that an ideal type is not a statistical mode representing a cluster of observable real entities in a given frequency distribution.3 One accepts therefore that real types will turn out to be something in the nature of clustered entities that are observable (statistically or otherwise).

Precollegiate international schools: Leach's ?ideal-type? and today's ?reality?

Abstract: International schools were begun to provide precollegiate education to children whose families lived abroad. In 1969 Robert Leach outlined a conceptual framework that would insure the “formation of a spirit of internationalism” throughout the school. The research described in this paper compared Leach's original model with perceptions held in the 1990s by educators, administrators, and board members working in those schools. The survey involved 185 respondents from 87 international schools in 11 countries. Results indicate that the elements Leach identified continue to be integral to international schools today.

The Purely Possible Political Philosophy of Alfred Schutz

Abstract: This essay explores a possible political philosophy of Alfred Schutz—“possible” because it is derived from Schutz ’s critical understanding of other political thinkers but always based on common assumptions and ideas he shared with them.