Formative Justice: The Regulative Principle of Education

2016 ◽  
Vol 118 (10) ◽  
pp. 1-38
Author(s):  
Robbie McClintock

Background/Context Concepts of justice relevant to making personal and public decisions about education. Purpose To clarify a concept of formative justice that persons and the public often ignore in making decisions about educational effort. Setting “The windmills of your mind.” Research Design Reflective essay. Conclusions/Recommendations • Problems of justice arise whenever persons and polities cannot have it all, whenever they must choose between competing “goods,” positive or negative. • Different types of justice arise because persons and polities have to make constrained choices between different types of goods—with distributive justice, they allocate scarce material goods and benefits among many claimants; with social justice, they reconcile conflicting rights and responsibilities; with retributive justice, they determine sanctions and punishments; and with formative justice, they channel effort to pursuing particular possibilities out of the many open to them. • Problems of formative justice arise because persons and polities always face the future and find more potentialities unfolding before them than they have the energy, time, ability, and wherewithal to fulfill. They must choose among their purposes and allocate effort and attention to pursuing their potentials. In doing so, they form their unfolding lives. • Conceptions of formative justice concern principles with which persons and polities choose their controlling aspirations and allocate effort towards their fulfillment. • Formative justice is difficult because persons and polities always face an indeterminate future, one fraught with uncertainties. In the face of indeterminacy, they must irrevocably make their formative choices, hoping these will prove both successful and sustainable. • Formative justice is important because persons and polities will suffer or enjoy, as the case may be, the capacities for feeling, thought, and action by which they live.

2017 ◽  
Vol 16 (05) ◽  
pp. A02
Author(s):  
Lisa Smith ◽  
Kimberly Arcand ◽  
Randall Smith ◽  
Jay Bookbinder ◽  
Jeffrey Smith

This study explored how different presentations of an object in deep space affect understanding, engagement, and aesthetic appreciation. A total of n = 2,502 respondents to an online survey were randomly assigned to one of 11 versions of Cassiopeia A, comprising 6 images and 5 videos ranging from 3s to approximately 1min. Participants responded to intial items regarding what the image looked like, the aesthetic appeal of the image, perceptions of understanding, and how much the participant wanted to learn more. After the image was identified, participants indicated the extent to which the label increased understanding and how well the image represented the object. A final item asked for questions about the image for an atronomer. Results suggest that alternative types of images can and should be used, provided they are accompanied by explanations. Qualitative data indicated that explanations should include information about colors used, size, scale, and location of the object. The results are discussed in terms of science communication to the public in the face of increasing use of technology.


BJPsych Open ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
John Drury ◽  
Holly Carter ◽  
Evangelos Ntontis ◽  
Selin Tekin Guven

Background In the absence of a vaccine, behaviour by the public is key to the response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Yet, as with other types of crises and emergencies, there have been doubts about the extent to which the public are able to engage effectively with the required behaviour. These doubts are based on outdated models of group psychology. Aims and argument We analyse the role of group processes in the COVID-19 pandemic in three domains: recognition of threat, adherence by the public to the required public health behaviours (and the factors that increase such adherence) and actions of the many community mutual aid groups that arose during lockdown. In each case, we draw upon the accumulated research on behaviour in emergencies and disasters, as well as the latest findings in relation to the COVID-19 pandemic, to show that explanations in terms of social identity processes make better sense of the patterns of evidence than alternative explanations. Conclusions If behaviour in the pandemic is a function of mutable group processes rather than fixed tendencies, then behavioural change is possible. There was evidence of significant change in behaviour from the public, particularly in the early days of the pandemic. Understanding the role of group processes means we can help design more effective interventions to support collective resilience in the public in the face of the pandemic and other threats. We draw out from the evidence a set of recommendations on facilitating the public response to COVID-19 by harnessing group processes.


Author(s):  
B. B. North

Philosophy as the love of wisdom is informative and can be inspiring and generative to students; it opens up possibilities for philosophical thinking to be more relevant for everyday life. Highlighting philosophy as the love of wisdom emphasizes the ancient and deep-rooted value of philosophy and does not restrict philosophy to the use of specific methodologies or to a specific subject matter, but rather expands it to encompassing a way of life. In this way, philosophy is meant to help promote valuable human lives and the public good at large. Philosophy as the love of wisdom is a call to remember that philosophy is not only a discipline to be studied in academia. Plato’s Socrates can be interpreted as a paragon of philosophy as a way of life and as exemplifying a love of wisdom. Contrary to philosophy as the love of wisdom, the popular conception of philosophy—as the paramount use of logic and argumentation—can be alienating. The scholastic or instrumental view of education promotes this popular conception and conceptually segregates the different academic disciplines. When this occurs, education is not seen as continuous with life. To move beyond the narrow and popular conception of philosophy, it is helpful to look at how explicitly connects philosophy and education: when considering the many different types of education, one should not forget the ethical value of the given intellectual pursuits. This opens up space for the peripheries of philosophy to be more centralized. Emotion, art, and practical considerations of everyday life are illuminated as the material of philosophic thinking. Philosophy is the lived love of wisdom.


Kybernetes ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 46 (9) ◽  
pp. 1564-1577 ◽  
Author(s):  
Philip Baron

Purpose The legacy of colonisation and apartheid in South Africa has resulted in a radical challenge to the public universities. The successful #FeesMustFall campaign that took place in 2015 accentuated several aspects of post-apartheid transformation that have not been adequately attended to. The public universities are now faced with meeting the needs of students and interested parties who would like to see transformation at various levels, in particular, the decolonisation of knowledge. This paper aims to present an approach to address the decolonisation of knowledge. Design/methodology/approach Shifting universities’ approach to teaching and learning is a challenging endeavour, especially as it entails an embrace of previously ignored worldviews. Taking a metaphoric approach, an analysis of this problem is presented in systemic terms from a family therapy approach adhering to second-order cybernetics. A solution to bridging the disconnect between the participants in the decolonisation of knowledge in a South African context is presented. Findings Early successes were attained on the back of a therapeutic approach to meeting the needs of students who took part in curriculum and policy changes. The findings suggest that for a transformation to take place, all the participants in the university should acknowledge that the problem (which may have different forms) is a shared one and that decolonisation requires the participants to learn about other participants in the system. Reflecting on historical narratives and its present status quo from the epistemology of the directly affected parties is suggested as an indispensable step that should occur prior to the implementation of any solutions. Without the reflection process, the other members of the system may not understand the context and reasoning for the decolonisation, resulting in friction and fear, in turn mitigating the decolonisation process. Research limitations/implications Methods of empathetically engaging people who have been discriminated against is important in the goal of restoring equality and social justice. Family therapy is presented as a vehicle for communal dialogue in a therapeutic empathetic context. This approach has value in many settings other than in the education arena. Social implications Legacies of apartheid are still in effect in the South African public university system. Decolonising knowledge is one topic that may address social justice which helps to diffuse social tension and subsequent protest action. Originality/value Family therapy as an approach to decolonisation of knowledge and as an approach to appeasing social tension in the educational context is unique.


2021 ◽  
pp. 68-86
Author(s):  
Augustin Loada

Like elsewhere in Africa, civil society in its current forms re-emerged in the Sahelian countries with political liberalization and the transition from authoritarian rule to democratic systems. This chapter surveys the emergence and the forms of civil society, and analyzes its roles and practices in relation to the efforts to create and maintain political order. Sahelian civil societies in each country have struggled to develop, to maintain their autonomy, and to participate in the construction of new political orders, in the face of the authoritarian impulses of powerholders to domesticate and control them. Civil society is called on to play an important role in promoting, defending, and protecting the principles and values of democracy and social justice in the face of states’ efforts to establish stable political order. The chapter explores the many factors shaping its ability to do so in the Sahel.


Author(s):  
Florence Myrick

When discussing the education of nurses for the knowledge economy it must be assumed that nursing is influenced by multiple factors reflective of the broader society in which it exists. These factors include civil society, social justice, and the public sector, all of which converge to shape nursing education and ultimately nursing practice. Over the past decade in particular, these factors have been greatly affected by what may be described as the hegemonic influences of the knowledge economy and the philosophical assumptions on which it is based, influences that are impacting directly on how the health system is evolving. The author posits, therefore, that it is incumbent on faculty to educate future nurses for the knowledge economy and to provide them with appropriate tools with which to meet the many challenges that confront them today and will invariably continue to confront them in the coming decades.


2018 ◽  
pp. 64-68
Author(s):  
George V. Boos ◽  
Elena Yu. Matveeva

The problematic aspects related to the implementation of energy saving policy in the budget sphere are examined in the article. The factors hindering the mass and effective implementation of energysaving measures are highlighted in the article. Among these factors, there is the technical complexity of energysaving projects, the presence of innovative and investment risks, problems with the financial provision of costs in the face of increasing debt burden in most public budgets. The article concludes that in these circumstances only the energy service contract is a tool that allows implementing energy­saving measures without the first participation of budgetary funds in financing and allows transferring the risks of making technically inefficient decisions directly to the investor. In the article, the authors substantiate the importance of the institutional development of energy services directly in the public sector and analyze the measures of the comprehensive plan to improve the energy efficiency of the economy of the Russian Federation aimed at expanding the scope of energy service contracts in the public sector.


2019 ◽  
Vol 26 (2) ◽  
pp. 227-252
Author(s):  
Deborah Solomon

This essay draws attention to the surprising lack of scholarship on the staging of garden scenes in Shakespeare's oeuvre. In particular, it explores how garden scenes promote collaborative acts of audience agency and present new renditions of the familiar early modern contrast between the public and the private. Too often the mention of Shakespeare's gardens calls to mind literal rather than literary interpretations: the work of garden enthusiasts like Henry Ellacombe, Eleanour Sinclair Rohde, and Caroline Spurgeon, who present their copious gatherings of plant and flower references as proof that Shakespeare was a garden lover, or the many “Shakespeare Gardens” around the world, bringing to life such lists of plant references. This essay instead seeks to locate Shakespeare's garden imagery within a literary tradition more complex than these literalizations of Shakespeare's “flowers” would suggest. To stage a garden during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries signified much more than a personal affinity for the green world; it served as a way of engaging time-honored literary comparisons between poetic forms, methods of audience interaction, and types of media. Through its metaphoric evocation of the commonplace tradition, in which flowers double as textual cuttings to be picked, revised, judged, and displayed, the staged garden offered a way to dramatize the tensions produced by creative practices involving collaborative composition and audience agency.


2019 ◽  
Vol 35 (2) ◽  
pp. 255-281
Author(s):  
Sylvia Dümmer Scheel

El artículo analiza la diplomacia pública del gobierno de Lázaro Cárdenas centrándose en su opción por publicitar la pobreza nacional en el extranjero, especialmente en Estados Unidos. Se plantea que se trató de una estrategia inédita, que accedió a poner en riesgo el “prestigio nacional” con el fin de justificar ante la opinión pública estadounidense la necesidad de implementar las reformas contenidas en el Plan Sexenal. Aprovechando la inusual empatía hacia los pobres en tiempos del New Deal, se construyó una imagen específica de pobreza que fuera higiénica y redimible. Ésta, sin embargo, no generó consenso entre los mexicanos. This article analyzes the public diplomacy of the government of Lázaro Cárdenas, focusing on the administration’s decision to publicize the nation’s poverty internationally, especially in the United States. This study suggests that this was an unprecedented strategy, putting “national prestige” at risk in order to explain the importance of implementing the reforms contained in the Six Year Plan, in the face of public opinion in the United States. Taking advantage of the increased empathy felt towards the poor during the New Deal, a specific image of hygienic and redeemable poverty was constructed. However, this strategy did not generate agreement among Mexicans.


Author(s):  
Mary Cavanagh

The face to face interactions of reference librarians and reference assistants are studied from a theoretical practice perspective. Rather than reinforcing professional boundaries, the results of this analysis support reference practice in public libraries as a highly relational activity where reference “expertise” retains a significant subjectivist, relational dimension.Les interventions en personne des bibliothèques de référence et des adjoints à la référence sont étudiées du point de vue de la pratique théorique. Plutôt que de renforcer les frontières interprofessionnelles, les résultats de cette analyse appuient l'idée que les pratiques de référence en milieu public sont des activités hautement relationnelles où l'expertise de la référence conserve une dimension subjectiviste et relationnelle. 


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