The Politics of Student Voice: The Power and Potential of Students as Policy Actors

Historically and contemporarily students have been critical to bringing issues of justice in education policy to the fore. Yet, there have been limited formal spaces that elevate student voice scholarship in educational policy. In response, this Politics of Education Association (PEA) Yearbook Issue of Educational Policy aims to serve as a platform for opening up new areas for investigation, especially connections between theory to practice specific to student voice in educational policy and the politics of education. This collection of feature articles and research briefs offer diverse examples of how students are influencing change in education policy and practice, while also presenting the political realities and tensions that emerge when students participate in policy leadership activities.

Einaudi and Cooperative Education Association (MCE). Traces of a project for the elementary school (1966-67)

The aim of this paper is to show the editorial relationship between the Einaudi publishing house and the Cooperative Education Association (MCE) during the second half of the Sixties. The members of the Association were looking for an editor willing to spread their pedagogical instances for the renewal of the Italian school and they found it in Einaudi. Thanks to the study of the correspondence and the documentation preserved in the Giulio Einaudi Editore Historical Archive, it has been possible to analyze a project of textbooks for the elementary school, made in collaboration with relevant members of the Association such as Gianni Rodari, Mario Lodi, Giuseppe Tamagnini and Bruno Ciari. The collections were never published, in part for financial reasons, but also because of the rising debate around the textbooks. The opinion of the Association in the late Sixties was changed: the point was not to renew the textbooks but to abolish them. Understanding the reasons of the end of this project might help to clarify the pedagogical impact of the cultural and social changes of that period, the relationship between education and politics. Moreover, it is not by chance that from the ashes of this project took shape The wrong country (Il paese sbagliato), a masterpiece written by Mario Lodi destined to become a classic for the history of education.

Turkish EFL Teachers’ Perspectives on WEB 2.0 Applications: Benefits and Potential Challenges

Web 2.0 applications such as Wikis, Blogs, Podcasts, and social networking including Myspace, Facebook, YouTube and Instagram are important sources for Information and Communication Technology (ICT). in foreign language classrooms. This study investigates Web 2.0 tools used by English as a Foreign Language (EFL) teachers, and the teachers’ perspectives of such tools in terms of their benefits and potential challenges. A mixed-method research design was adopted, and data was collected using The Web 2.0 Application Questionnaire and written interviews. English teachers (n:56) working in TED (Turkish Education Association, Türk Eğitim Derneği) colleges completed the questionnaire, and interviews were held with 12 volunteer teachers. Descriptive statistics was used to analyze the data from the demographic information of the participants, as well as the mean and standard deviation scores of the Likert-scale questionnaire items. Qualitative data from the interview questions were analyzed through content analysis. The findings suggest that teachers are aware of the potential uses of ICT technology, and they use various Web 2.0 applications for instructional purposes. In addition, teachers consider using Web 2.0 tools beneficial in enhancing student motivation, collaboration, and communication skills, keeping students engaged with classroom tasks, and enabling teachers to adjust their instructional practices to students’ varied needs, hence creating an effective learning environment. Not much challenge is reported in using Web 2.0 tools, except technology-related difficulties.

Criação musical e renovação escolar nas décadas de 1920, 1930 e 1940

O presente artigo trata do tema das práticas criativas no contexto da Progressive Education Association. Para tanto, as fontes investigadas foram a revista homônima produzida pela associação, bem como outros documentos ligados ao grupo, datados das décadas de 1920, 1930 e 1940. Parto de uma reflexão sobre as fontes focalizadas e, em seguida, desenvolvo o tema de maneira a evidenciar que as práticas criativas gozavam de importância destacada tanto nas atividades de escolas experimentais quanto nos escritos em imprensa, movimentando debates e inovação pedagógica.

Fórmula e utopia: o movimento internacional da educação nova

Partindo da interrogação sobre a pregnância de ideias e práticas associadas ao repertório da Educação Nova em discursos pedagógicos atuais e operando com as noções de utopia e fórmula, o artigo se debruça sobre três iniciativas, consideradas como hubs, ou seja, como pontos de conexão, encontro e passagem de educadores. São elas: a New Education Fellowship (NEF), que nos países latinos ficou conhecida como Ligue Internationale pour l´Éducation Nouvelle (LIEN), e a ação sistemática de formação de, ao menos, dois institutos internacionais, ligados ao Teachers College e ao Institute Jean-Jacques Rousseau. Outras ações, como a Progressive Education Association (PEA), o Bureau International d’Éducation (BIE) e o Bureau International des Ecoles Nouvelles (BIEN) emergem também compondo a argumentação. O objetivo é explorar redes que, ao mesmo tempo, consolidaram propostas associadas à Educação Nova em vários países, constituídas como uma utopia pedagógica, e alargaram os significados a ela atribuídos, evidenciados pelo mosaico terminológico que cerca o movimento.

The possibility of change: The Caroline Benn Memorial Lecture 2020

This is an edited transcript of the Caroline Benn Memorial Lecture, given by Ken Jones, at the request of the Socialist Education Association, in November 2020. The lecture situates Caroline's work in the context of the 'Long Revolution' of twentieth-century Britain. The lecture discusses the meaning of that revolution for education; it charts the course of the right-wing reaction to it from 1976 onwards, and the growth of managerial cultures at the level of the school which have blocked its further development. The effects within education of the Black Lives Matter and the Covid pandemic have revived, in both practical and ideational ways, some of the themes of the Long Revolution. The lecture argues that this is a change of historical significance. The possibility of change as a collective democratic project has been reawakened.