Authenticity in Education

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lauren Bialystok
Keyword(s):  
Personal Identity ◽  
Educational Practice ◽  
Theory And Practice ◽  
Assessment Practices ◽  
External Reality ◽  
Philosophical Inquiry ◽  
Western Modernity ◽  
Construction Of Knowledge ◽  
Levels Of Reality ◽  
Authentic Curriculum

Authenticity is a concept with an impressive history in Western philosophy and a significant hold on the modern imagination. Inseparable from conceptions of truth and individual fulfillment, authenticity remains a powerful ideal, even as it eludes precise definition. Recently it has also become an organizing principle for many educational initiatives. Education, like authenticity, is opposed to dissimulation, ignorance, manipulation, and related states of misalignment between truth and experience. There is widespread enthusiasm for the promotion of authenticity across different types of education and in the personal identity of educators and students. Most of the scholarly literature pertaining to authenticity in education falls outside the scope of philosophical inquiry. But in all cases, the pursuit of authenticity in education rests on various philosophical assumptions about the nature of truth, reality, ethics, and, ultimately, the aims of education. With the influence of Dewey and 20th-century progressive movements in education, authenticity entered the vernacular of educational theory and practice. Attention to the relationship between learning environments and the “real” world has generated pervasive commitments to authentic learning, authentic pedagogies, authentic curriculum, and authentic assessment practices. Here, “authenticity” is used to track the verisimilitude of an educational practice with respect to some external reality. It constitutes an ontological claim about levels of “reality,” as well as an epistemological attitude toward learning as the construction of knowledge. In this respect, authenticity intersects debates about constructivism and relativism in education. Likewise, teachers are exhorted to be authentic qua teachers, elevating their true selves above institutional anonymity as a key part of effective teaching. This phenomenon trades on the values of truthfulness and autonomy that are prized in Western modernity but also problematized in the personal identity and ethics literature. The authenticity of students has also been championed as an educational aim, even as the methods for eliciting authenticity in others have been criticized as self-defeating or culturally limiting. Personal authenticity stands in a contested relationship to autonomy, which has been promoted as the key aim of liberal education. The project of creating authentic people through education remains an intense site of research and debate, with important implications for educational ethics and liberal values.

scholarly journals Philosophical inquiry and the advancement of democratic praxis

2013 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 111-125 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eugenio Echeverria ◽  
Patricia Hannam
Keyword(s):  
World Wide ◽  
Educational Practice ◽  
Theory And Practice ◽  
Moral Judgments ◽  
Philosophical Inquiry ◽  
Educational Environments ◽  
Matthew Lipman ◽  
Action Taking ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
The Uk

Abstract In a time of advancing neoliberal educational practice globally (e.g. Roxborough, 1997, McCafferty, 2010), in the provision of public sector education as well as in assumptions regarding public educational purposes and curriculum development; this paper looks to a broader definition of education (e.g. Biesta, 2009). The authors argue that pedagogical proposal of the Community of Philosophical Inquiry as in the work of Matthew Lipman (e.g. 2002) and Ann Sharp, a model of educational praxis existent in over 60 countries world wide, can enable the advancement of a vision for deliberative democracy (Lipman, 1998) and social justice and contribute to educational theory and practice in ways which develop communicative rather than individualistic notions of autonomy (Code, 2006, p.170.). Philosophical inquiry, especially as discussed in this paper with adolescents, equips students with the tools to become more critical, to develop a more social and global awareness and consequently enable them to make more reflected moral judgments (Hannam & Echeverria, 2009, p.114). Drawing on practical examples from the direct experience of the authors in the UK and Mexico, as well as building on 40 years of research world wide, an argument is developed for embedding philosophical thinking into all educational environments as a means of forming transformative intellectuals (Giroux, 1988) and enabling a raising of awareness with regard to the consequences of the tacit acceptance of neoliberal educational policies. Furthermore, drawing on the writing of Hannah Arendt (1998) a view is advanced which suggests that deliberative and participatory democratic structures can be developed in our societies where the opportunity for careful thinking as well as conscious action taking can take place.

Could There Be Deleuzian Assessment in Music Education?

2019 ◽  
pp. 121-136
Author(s):  
Lauren Kapalka Richerme
Keyword(s):  
Music Education ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
Music Educators ◽  
Assessment Practices ◽  
Continuous Assessment ◽  
Education Policies ◽  
Philosophical Inquiry ◽  
Music Making ◽  
Musical Practices ◽  
Contemporary Education

Authors of contemporary education and arts education policies tend to emphasize the adoption of formal, summative assessment practices. Poststructuralist philosopher Gilles Deleuze’s emphasis on ongoing differing and imaginative possibilities may at first glance appear incompatible with these overarching, codified assessments. While Deleuze criticizes the increasing use of ongoing assessments as a form of control, he posits a more nuanced explanation of measurement. This philosophical inquiry examines four measurement-related themes from Deleuze’s writings and explores how they might inform concepts and practices of assessment in various music teaching and learning contexts. The first theme suggests that each group of connective relations, what Deleuze terms a “plane of immanence,” demands its own forms of measurement. Second, Deleuze emphasizes varieties of measurement. Third, those with power, what Deleuze terms the “majority,” always set the standard for measurement. Fourth, Deleuze derides continuous assessment. His writings suggest that music educators might consider that assessments created for one musical practice or style should not transcend their own “plane of immanence,” that a variety of nonstandardized assessments is desirable, that the effect of measurement on “minoritarian” musical practices must be examined carefully, and that it is essential to ponder the potentials of unmeasured music making.

scholarly journals EDUCATION FOR SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT: PRINCIPLES, TECHNOLOGIES, PRACTICES

2017 ◽  
Vol 2017 (4) ◽  
pp. 60-63
Author(s):  
София Горбунова ◽  
Sofia Gorbunova
Keyword(s):  
Sustainable Development ◽  
Environmental Education ◽  
Educational Practice ◽  
Education For Sustainable Development ◽  
Theory And Practice ◽  
Comparative Approach ◽  
Practical Implementation ◽  
Development Programs ◽  
The Sustainable Development ◽  
Ecological Culture

<span>The article discusses the principles of education for sustainable development and examples of their implementation in the context of the ecological culture formation. The subject of the study is environmental education for sustainable development. The aim of this research is to formulate the principles of education for sustainable development and to show the ways of their practical implementation. The research uses the comparative approach with elements of hypothetical-deductive analysis. As a result of the study, a set of interrelated principles determining education for sustainable development was defined: continuity, inclusiveness, interdisciplinarity, integration, unity of theory and practice. The results of this study can be used in educational practice in the creation and implementation of curricula and courses, as methodological recommendations for the work of volunteer organizations and educational environmental activities. The results can be used in the sustainable development programs designed by the administrative authorities. Environmental education is an important tool for implementing the concept of sustainable development. Thus, the outlined educational principles should become the basis of educational practices and technologies aimed at the formation of ecological culture and the ecologization of consciousness.</span>

scholarly journals Social constructivism in the field of education and learning

2011 ◽  
Vol 43 (2) ◽  
pp. 177-194
Author(s):  
Jovana Milutinovic
Keyword(s):  
Social Constructivism ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
School Context ◽  
Deep Understanding ◽  
Educational Practice ◽  
Theory And Practice ◽  
Educational Values ◽  
The Social ◽  
Constructivist Perspective ◽  
Context Of Learning

Social constructivism is, first and foremost, the theory of knowledge focused on the role of social processes in knowledge creation. Its proponents are interested in interactions among people which are observed as the ways through which shared versions of knowledge are constructed. Starting from the widely acknowledged need for learning with deep understanding and increased interest in the social context of learning, the paper theoretically analyses social constructivism and its influence on educational practice. The goal is to critically re-examine the social constructivist perspective as a theory of teaching and learning and point out to its educational values based on certain conclusions mentioned in the literature. The paper also explores and highlights the basic starting points of social constructivism as well as its different interpretations. In addition, the paper studies relevant issues for education and learning suitable for applying social constructivism, both at the institutional and interpersonal level. It is concluded that social constructivism, applied in practice as a culture rather than as a set of isolated activities, is highly significant for understanding the complexity of the phenomenon of teaching and learning in school context, as well as for providing concrete guiding ideas (learning through cooperation, discovering and solving problems, joint exploration of knowledge and world reinterpretation) for enhancing educational theory and practice.

scholarly journals Investigating the ‘integration of theory and practice’ in examination physical education

2018 ◽  
Vol 25 (4) ◽  
pp. 1036-1055 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrew Jones ◽  
Dawn Penney
Keyword(s):  
Physical Education ◽  
Teacher Educators ◽  
Learning Opportunities ◽  
Curriculum Planning ◽  
Theory And Practice ◽  
Pedagogical Practices ◽  
Assessment Practices ◽  
Integrated Theory ◽  
Conceptual Clarity ◽  
Official Curriculum

This paper presents theoretical insights and empirical findings from research in Western Australia (WA) that explored the concept of ‘integrated theory and practice’ in the context of the introduction of a new examination physical education course. The lack of conceptual clarity associated with attempts to embed ‘integration’ into curriculum developments in examination physical education internationally provided a stimulus for this research. Focusing on a new Physical Education Studies course in WA, the research foregrounded the concept of policy enactment and used Arnold’s framework of learning in, through and about movement as a critical frame to investigate the specific notions of integration that were embedded in the official curriculum text and expressed in pedagogical practices in schools implementing the new course. The paper reports findings from the investigation of the pedagogic meanings that four teachers gave to ‘integrated theory and practice’. The data illustrate the varied meanings teachers gave to ‘integration’ and the differences consequently arising in their curriculum planning, teaching and assessment practices associated with the new Physical Education Studies course. Analysis of the data identified opportunistic, structured and investigative ‘integrated’ pedagogies. Data associated with each approach are presented and the expression of Arnold’s dimensions within each approach explored. Discussion pursues the conditions enabling different pedagogical practices to emerge from the new Physical Education Studies course and the learning opportunities provided to students by the different pedagogical approaches. The paper presents a case for further engagement with the pedagogical expression of Arnold’s framework by curriculum developers, researchers, teacher educators and teachers.

Reconsidering the concept of difference: A proposal to connect education and neuroscience in new ways

2019 ◽  
Vol 18 (2) ◽  
pp. 275-293 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lena Aronsson
Keyword(s):  
Knowledge Production ◽  
Educational Practice ◽  
Theory And Practice ◽  
Mutual Transformation ◽  
Educational Neuroscience ◽  
Mutual Knowledge ◽  
Communication Problems ◽  
Neuroscience Research ◽  
Interdisciplinary Knowledge ◽  
Scientific Fields

Connecting neuroscience and education is a desire in contemporary society, related to the recurring calls for education to become more evidence-based. Research in educational neuroscience strives towards such interdisciplinary knowledge production and to an enhanced interaction between neuroscience research and educational practice. However, various problems and difficulties in achieving these collaborations are often reported. Discrepancies, hierarchies, misconceptions and communication problems can be described as creating a ‘discourse of difficulty’. The aim of this paper is to trace the specific difficulties that have created this discourse, and to problematize these difficulties in ways that enable new conceptions of what might be entailed by interaction and mutual knowledge development between the fields of neuroscience and education, and between academic theory and educational practice. The most significant difficulty is caused by a binary understanding of the concept of difference in relation to understanding the fields. Instead of understanding the fields in opposition to each other, I will suggest an understanding that implies difference emerging in each of the collaborating fields as the self-differing effects of the encounter. In the concluding discussion, I will argue that an understanding of the concept of difference as a process of mutual transformation can be essential for reciprocity and bi-directionality in collaborations. Instead of producing contradictions and hierarchies between scientific fields and between theory and practice, such an understanding of difference might facilitate an investigation of the polarizations that always position something as of lesser value, and ultimately, creates the gaps that collaborations want to bridge.

scholarly journals Psychological and pedagogical competence of parents raising children included in joint education: theory and practice of research

2019 ◽  
Vol 70 ◽  
pp. 10010 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elena Slusareva ◽  
Anna Kabushko ◽  
Aleksej Dontsov
Keyword(s):  
Empirical Study ◽  
Inclusive Education ◽  
Educational Practice ◽  
Theory And Practice ◽  
Raising Children ◽  
Theoretical Approaches ◽  
Education Theory ◽  
Pedagogical Competence ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
Primary School Age

The article presents theoretical approaches and an empirical study of the problem of psychological and pedagogical competence of parents of children included in joint education as conditions for the effective implementation of inclusive educational practice. Theoretical approaches to the definition of «psychological and pedagogical competence of parents», its structural components and their content, due to the specifics of joint education of children with different psychophysiological status, are considered. The results of an empirical study of the psychological and pedagogical competence of parents of two groups are presented: parents of children of primary school age with normal psychophysical development and parents of children with disabilities included in joint (inclusive) education. The reliability of the research results is due to the use of a complex of methods of theoretical and empirical research, the representativeness of the sample: 354 parents raising children included in joint education.

Federal Education Policy and Practice: Building Organizational Capacity Through Chapter 1

1994 ◽  
Vol 16 (1) ◽  
pp. 51-66 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas Timar
Keyword(s):  
Student Achievement ◽  
School Improvement ◽  
Education Policy ◽  
Organizational Capacity ◽  
Educational Practice ◽  
Individual Student ◽  
Assessment Practices ◽  
Policy And Practice

This article analyzes the effects of federal compensatory education policy on the capacity of schools to deliver high-quality services to poor children who have benefited only marginally from schooling. A major focus is federal assessment of Chapter 1 programs and how such assessment practices shape the organizational capacity of schools. Current assessment practices focus on student outcomes, thereby ignoring the inchoate mass of organizational variables that shapes the quality of instructional practices and student achievement. This article examines the policy history of Chapter 1 evaluation, particularly as evaluation relates to school improvement. It then proposes alternatives to current practice that focus on efforts to move evaluation from instantaneous and often misleading snapshots of performance to evaluation that informs federal policymakers of their ability to shape institutional competence and organizational capacity. While, as a practical and political matter, Chapter 1 assessment will continue to focus on individual student achievement, that assessment should be supplemented by evaluation that focuses on the capacity of Chapter 1 to shape the quality of educational practice in schools. Finally, the article proposes several conceptual models of organizational assessment that foster practices aligned with institutional capacity building.

scholarly journals Alzheimer’s and the Dementia of God

2010 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 237-253
Author(s):  
Peter Kevern
Keyword(s):  
Personal Identity ◽  
Social Recognition ◽  
Theory And Practice ◽  
Western Society ◽  
Public Theology ◽  
Secular World ◽  
Recent Developments ◽  
Dialectical Relationship ◽  
New Perspective ◽  
Contemporary Western Society

AbstractRecent developments in the theory and practice of care for persons with dementia have reopened questions, traditionally explored by theologians, to do with the nature of personal identity and its dialectical relationship to social recognition. This new perspective on classical theological questions serves as a potential theological resource in contemporary western society, where God appears to have withdrawn from the prevailing public discourses. In this article, I explore the analogical potential of imagery of a ‘dementing God’, as a way to describe the contemporary experience of western Christians, to develop appropriate responses to the current climate in public theology and to continue to talk of God in public, while respecting Bonhoeffer’s desire to celebrate a secular world in which humanity may ‘come of age’.

language teaching

2007 ◽  
Vol 40 (1) ◽  
pp. i-i ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Language Learning ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
Language Teaching ◽  
Educational Practice ◽  
Theory And Practice ◽  
Learning And Teaching ◽  
Replication Research ◽  
Timely Response ◽  
New Research ◽  
Teaching Learning

Phil Benson's state-of-the-art review of autonomy in L2 learning and teaching is a timely response to an ever-growing interest in autonomous language learning. Focusing his attention on the recent literature, he explores how this interest in autonomy is influencing theory and practice, leading to the emergence of new research agendas in the field. He focuses particularly on the ways in which conceptions of autonomy have evolved and continue to change, and how these new conceptions fit in with broader developments in language teaching and learning theory, educational practice, and social thought.This issue includes also a call for papers on Replication Research Studies, two features marking the publication of this fortieth volume of the journal, and reports on a series of research seminars.Richard Johnstone's article in which he reviews research published in 2004 and 2005 on language teaching, learning and policy is available online at <http://journals.cambridge.org/jidLTA&volumeId=39&issueId=04>.

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