Investigating the Neoliberal Educational Agenda: The Effect of Reform Contexts on Teacher Agency

During the transition to democratic society a neoliberal educational agenda was introduced to guide the reform process in Estonia. Documentary analysis was conducted for this research and six periods emerged, which showed that expectations were placed on teachers that assumed the existence of teacher agency, while the reform context didn’t support its emergence. Evidence of change can be seen in the last periods, when also a significant dichotomy arises.

On Moral Education in Poland against the Background of Anglo-Saxon Experiences and Tendencies

The author’s text addresses the issue of the place of moral education in the educational agenda in Poland, including in the scientific literature. He describes the dynamics of the debate around this issue, the meanings given to it, the continuity vs. the discontinuity in how it is approached. The author proposes the hypothesis that the issue of upbringing/moral education has not been a priority in the educational agenda after 1990. This is due to at least two factors: (1) the lack of historical continuity in the presence of this dimension of upbringing/education in the school system as well as in public life, as it has been in Western countries, and (2) the non-standard shaping of moral issues in the school system (strong permeation of religious and national-independence issues).

Revisiting Peronist Education in Argentina (1946–1955)

The first two presidential periods of Juan Domingo Perón were characterized by an intense educational agenda. Between 1946 and 1955, Perón prioritized three strategies in the education field. The first was the implementation of different policies in order to promote an enrollment expansion. The second strategy involved a structural reorganization of the education system in order to favor a reorientation of students toward technical education. The third strategy targeted school content. In this aspect, the Peronism government introduce two types of modifications: first, an updating of school content; second, the insertion of material related to Peronist ideology in the curriculum. The effectiveness of these policies can be considered by using statistical data and revisiting a study of school notebooks of the period of interest that provides evidence on how teachers react toward the incorporation of content related to the Peronist doctrine.

Transforming Paradigms of Sustainable Transcultural Adult Education

Transcultural adult education combines different cultures by emphasizing different generations, milieus, and interests, and, thus, facilitates a sustainable, integrated, ethical and programmatic framework for the future, following the global and European educational agenda (UNESCO, GRUNDVIG). In this regard, biographical learning offers, as a particular transcultural coping strategy, opportunities for transformation, remembrance and experiences. The study, therefore, focuses on such kinds of adult education as a core element, particularly of transcultural adult education, which facilitates interpreting meanings within social interactions. It also facilitates in the confrontation with a plural environment according to the situation, whereby past, present and future form a dynamic unity through the direct interest in the opposite.

Mentoring for Newly Qualified Teachers in Sweden: Reforms and Challenges

This article focuses on the mentoring of newly qualified teachers (NQT) in Sweden and gives a brief historical overview of how mentoring has appeared on the educational agenda in Sweden and how its focus has changed over time. The research questions that guide this study are: (a) what major key events and reforms can be identified in relation to implementing mentoring of NQTs in Sweden, and how have these efforts turned out; (b) what is the state at present; (c) how is the issue of education and training dealt with; and (d) what key players and initiatives for the future can be identified? The methodological approach is a systematic review of policy documents and research on mentoring in Sweden from 1970–2019, as well as analyses of key actors web pages. Two important reforms are identified: (1) the national agreement (ÖLA, 2000) in 1995 between the Swedish Association of Local Authorities (SALAR), the National Union of Teachers in Sweden (Lärarnas Riksförbund) and the Swedish Teachers’ Union (Lärarförbundet), giving NQTs the right to be supported by a mentor and to participate in an induction programme; and (2) the parliamentary decision in 2011 to introduce a reform package which included teacher registration with a probationary year, evaluations of NQTs and a mentoring system. The probationary year and principals’ evaluations of NQTs were discontinued in 2014. A side effect of this was that mentoring became downplayed, which led to new initiatives to get mentoring back on the educational agenda. A professional programme with four levels of proficiency has been identified as a key reform that, if implemented, could put mentoring and the professional development of NQTs back on the educational agenda. The current situation in Sweden is that some legislation and regulations related to the mentoring of NQTs are in place, although recent data shows that induction and mentoring are not as widespread as might be expected. Major stakeholders such as the two teacher unions, the Swedish National Agency for Education and the Swedish Educational Broadcasting Company (UR) are identified as providers of web-based materials supporting NQTs.

Queering School Literacy Practices: Interventionist Approaches

This chapter reviews research into school literacy practices that suggest a way of discursively destabilizing frozen notions of sexuality. The review explores questions such as: How can school literacies collaborate with the reconfiguration of crystalized meanings about gender and sexuality performances? What kind of queer experiences can classroom talk promote? What are some of the meaning-effects produced by the circulation of gender and sexuality discourses in the classroom? The answers to these questions are organized in three groups: interventionist projects observed by a researcher; interventionist projects carried out and evaluated by a teacher-researcher; and projects involving teacher-researcher collaboration. The last group is explored by analyzing empirical data generated in a high school in Brazil. The underlying argument is that education may contribute to interrupting an essentialized order that defines and legitimates gender and sexuality. By putting sexuality issues at the front of the educational agenda, the interventionist research in literacy contexts reviewed in this chapter destabilizes both the gender divide and the so-called heteronormative matrix that play crucial roles in the ways we have historically learned to (1) understand ourselves and others; and (2) construct patterns of normalcy and deviance.

Coda

This brief coda positions Edwards’s insights into mentoring as valuable contributions to the pursuit of integrative learning in a postmodern and fragmented world. Given the value of the medium and message being mutually reinforcing, a Christian educational agenda should no less conform to this pedagogical assumption. This is supported theologically by appeal to Christ’s incarnation and to the expectation of meeting him face-to-face in the coming age, and calls us to resist pragmatic pressures which prize efficiency over embodiment. The long-term pursuit of wisdom, best acquired through direct encounter, personal negotiation, and contextually driven decision-making, becomes more pressing than ever in an age which encourages rage and unreflective reaction through social media.