Silencing and institutional racism in settler-colonial education

<p>Twenty years ago, Charles Mills argued that a Racial Contract underwrites and guides the social contract and assigns political, economic, and social privileges based on race. This thesis argues that a settler manifestation of the Racial Contract operates through processes and structures of silencing in the New Zealand education system. Silencing is a racial discourse aligned with state ideologies about biculturalism that supports ignorance and denial of the structuring force of colonisation. Within schools, a state narrative of biculturalism advances the notion of harmonious settler-colonial race relations by marginalising or denying violent colonial histories and their consequences in the present. Silencing in the education system is examined through the lived experiences of Māori teachers of English language as they teach New Zealand literature in secondary school classrooms. Interviews with nineteen teachers and observations of four teachers' classroom practices (with follow up interviews from the teachers and some of their students) reveal that everyday classroom interactions perpetuate silencing through a hidden curriculum. This hidden curriculum appeals to settler sensibilities by: drawing on teaching pedagogies that soften or mute historical harm, validating “lovely” knowledge about Māori society and assessment approaches that privilege settler-colonial imperatives. This thesis identifies that harmonious notions of biculturalism circulate through the spatial and temporal dimensions of secondary schools because epistemological structures (policy, curriculum, and pedagogy) silence the meanings and effects of colonisation. In this way, a Settler Contract operates to sustain institutional racism in the New Zealand education system and white supremacy in settler-colonial societies.</p>

Silencing and institutional racism in settler-colonial education

<p>Twenty years ago, Charles Mills argued that a Racial Contract underwrites and guides the social contract and assigns political, economic, and social privileges based on race. This thesis argues that a settler manifestation of the Racial Contract operates through processes and structures of silencing in the New Zealand education system. Silencing is a racial discourse aligned with state ideologies about biculturalism that supports ignorance and denial of the structuring force of colonisation. Within schools, a state narrative of biculturalism advances the notion of harmonious settler-colonial race relations by marginalising or denying violent colonial histories and their consequences in the present. Silencing in the education system is examined through the lived experiences of Māori teachers of English language as they teach New Zealand literature in secondary school classrooms. Interviews with nineteen teachers and observations of four teachers' classroom practices (with follow up interviews from the teachers and some of their students) reveal that everyday classroom interactions perpetuate silencing through a hidden curriculum. This hidden curriculum appeals to settler sensibilities by: drawing on teaching pedagogies that soften or mute historical harm, validating “lovely” knowledge about Māori society and assessment approaches that privilege settler-colonial imperatives. This thesis identifies that harmonious notions of biculturalism circulate through the spatial and temporal dimensions of secondary schools because epistemological structures (policy, curriculum, and pedagogy) silence the meanings and effects of colonisation. In this way, a Settler Contract operates to sustain institutional racism in the New Zealand education system and white supremacy in settler-colonial societies.</p>

Methods to Motivate School Teachers in Afghanistan

Teaching as a profession has gained nobility and respect for its service to society. The application, dedication and selfless devotion of school teachers in Afghanistan to their line of work has received accolades from all quarters. Even so, it is an undeniable fact that the tedious and repetitious everyday classroom activity, lack of positive initiatives from the government and low salaries are responsible for the adverse impact on teacher’s mental health, decreasing job satisfaction levels, burnout and a major cause for their regular absenteeism. Additionally, stress due to immense work pressure affects their performance in the classroom and raises doubts about their professionalism. This also impacts the enthusiasm and interest of the students in a negative manner. It is, therefore, an immensely important issue that needs to be addressed by taking a holistic approach by analysing the cause and effect of the various factors that lead to teacher’s feeling uninspired and demotivated, be it professional or personal. It is the need of the hour to chart out programs that get educators - primary to high school - acquainted with modern pedagogies through proper training and get them enthused with policies that keep their flame of motivation burning.

Teacher Agency Through Collaborative Expertise-building

Drawing on teacher agentive acts in the process of collaborative expertise-building in selects tertiary institutions in Southeast Asia, this paper maps out the conceptual configurations of teacher agency. In doing so, it avoids both the overly deterministic and individualistic views of agency by locating it within structuring conditions where individual acts are also mobilized. However, while most socially constructive views of agency focus on situated and institutional constraints of agency, this paper conceptualizes teacher agency in its broadest possible sense as historical, cultural and ideological phenomenon, arguing that agentive acts cannot merely be seen as either working for or against educational reform and transformation; rather teachers must take control of the process of knowledge production because it is by doing so that teachers can take ownership over their everyday classroom tactics and practices. Teacher agency in this sense is not simply a capacity to act but, in fact, an accomplishment of acts of producing knowledge for one’s professional practice.

Short Teacher Responses in the EFL Classroom: A Corpus-Approach Assessment

Teacher’s positive feedback in the form of immediate succinct response is an indispensable motivational factor crucial to students’ oral production and classroom participation. The present study was intended to assess the range and authenticity of teacher responses used by a number of Russian teachers of English in everyday classroom interactions. The study adopted theCorpus Approachas a reference tool to verify the research data against a Corpus-driven evidence that isto examine and assess the authenticity of the most frequent responses given by the study participants (21 practising EFL teachers working in Orel, Russia, most of whom are graduates of Orel State University, andwhose teaching experience ranges from 11 to 25 years). The results indicated that the phrases the teachers used in the classroom differed from those native speakers use in similar authentic environment. The analysis revealed that the teachers did not resort to clear and concise positive reinforcement often enough to stimulate the students’ engagement. In addition, a finite list of highly authentic TRs was recommended for more frequent use in ordinary EFL classrooms and among would-be English teachers. Overall, both teachers in the field and trainee teachers need to be more informed on how and in what particular way to encourage their students’ classroom participation.

Patterns in Mathematics Classroom Interaction

Classroom interaction has a significant influence on teaching and learning mathematics. It is through interaction that we solve problems, build ideas, make connections, and develop our understanding. This book aims to describe, exemplify, and consider the implications of patterns and structures of mathematics classroom interaction. Drawing on a Conversation Analytic approach, the book examines how the structures of interactions between teachers and students influence, enable, and constrain the mathematics that students are experiencing and learning in school. In particular, the book considers the handling of difficulties or errors and the consequences on both the mathematics students are learning, and the learning of this mathematics. The various roles of silence and the treatment of knowledge and understanding within everyday classroom interactions also reveal the nature of mathematics as it is taught in different classrooms. The book also draws on examples of students explaining, reasoning, and justifying as they interact to examine how the structures of classroom interaction support students to develop these discursive practices. Understanding how these patterns and structures affect students’ experiences in the classroom enables us to use and develop practices that can support students’ learning. This reflexive relationship between these structures of interactions and student actions and learning is central to the issues explored in this book, alongside the implications these may have for teachers’ practice, and students’ learning.

“Language not just as words”: Supporting new literacies through a design project in disadvantaged schools in Chile

Young people are increasingly connected in a digital and globalized world, but technology-mediated interactions alone do not necessarily lead to a culture of meaningful participation and meaning making processes. Students from disadvantaged contexts are especially vulnerable to this. Drawing on the Activity-Centred Analysis and Design framework this paper discusses a case study situated in disadvantaged schools in Chile. Phase 1 of the study revealed that high school students’ literacy practices in the everyday classroom mostly reflected low conceptual and procedural understanding of new literacies, confirming that these young learners enacted passive forms of technological use in and out-of-school spaces. Phase 2 of the study involved the development and implementation of a digital project at a Chilean school. Results offer insights on how alterations in tools, learning tasks, and social arrangements, led to reconfigured literacy practices. Findings also show that the relationship between access, use and outcomes is not straightforward, and students’ cultural capital varies, even in disadvantaged schools. Implications of the study stress the pivotal role of schools and the potential of well-orchestrated educational designs, for introducing and encouraging meaningful literacy practices, and for leveling up the access to the digital world.

Students’ Perception on E-Learning in Punakha Dzongkhag in Bhutan

This study aims to determine students' perspectives on E-Learning and also to explore other contributing factors that affect student learning outcomes. This research uses quantitative methods. This research was conducted in Punakha Dzongkhag (district) in Bhutan in 2020. The research subjects were secondary school students consisting of 165 students with 57 boys and 108 girls who were selected as random samples. The technique of collecting data uses telephone interviews, online Google forms and direct survey questionnaires. The findings reveal that students consider E-learning to be useful and interactive, if it is supported by teachers and parents. However, some students (82%) reported that E-learning would help them achieve individual learning goals if lessons were taught in individual classes rather than multigrade classes. It can be concluded that E-learning is useful and interactive, some students feel that being a first timer and without experience using E-learning media, it hinders the achievement of individual learning goals. Therefore, it is suggested that E-learning be applied further in everyday classroom learning as mixed learning.

Teaching as invasion: emotions, boundaries and entanglements

Purpose This paper aims to engage nine women English teachers in exploring their personal memories centered around the perception of their raced, classed and gendered teacher bodies, and led them to conceptualize teaching as invasion. Design/methodology/approach The process of collective memory work (CMW), a qualitative feminist research method, was used to structure collaborative sessions for the nine women English teachers. In these sessions, the group took up the CMW process as the memories were written, read, analyzed and theorized together. Findings The analyses of two memories from our group's work builds understanding of how the use of new materialism and a conceptualization of emotions as social, collective and agentic, can expand the understanding of the teacher bodies and disrupt normalizing narratives of teaching and learning. The post-humanist concept of intra-action leads one to better understand the boundaries in the teacher – student relationships that is built/invaded, and to see the ways materials, humans, emotions and discourses are entangled in the teaching encounters. Originality/value This study demonstrates how sustained and collective research methodologies like CMW can open space for teachers to more fully explore their identities, encounters and relationships. Further, unpacking everyday classroom moments (through the framework of literacy-as-event) can yield deep and critical understanding of how bodies, emotions and non-human objects all become entangled when teaching becomes an act of invasion.