Language and learning: History

The development of a conception of critical pedagogy is itself an aspect of the development of critical rationality within late modern societies, closely connected with the role of education in developing critical rationality. The role of critique pervades all aspects of life: for people as citizens, workers and self-determining private individuals. Late modern societies depend on a critically minded population for their viability, for the democratic management of a competing balance of interests and for a capacity for rapid renewal. These requirements put a demand on the education system for the development of critical rationality. However, its development contains within itself the seeds, not just of renewal, but of transformation or even anarchy. This is discussed in relation to three major aspects of education—liberal, civic and vocational—and it is argued that there is a tension within each that arises from the requirement of critique for their successful functioning as educational practices in liberal societies and from the implausibility of developing forms of critique that are inherently self-limiting. Societies that espouse the development of critical rationality as a key educational aim exist in a state of tension and of uncertainty as to the extent to which it can be developed. Attempts to limit critique to consideration only of what is worthwhile are bound to be futile. On the other hand, education must be concerned with preparation for the worthwhile. Critique thus performs the important function of ensuring that our conception of the worthwhile does not remain fixed, but is itself an agent of social change. This paper explores this issue and argues that the problem of reconciling preparation for social participation with preparation for critical engagement exists in all three spheres. The problems may not be resolvable ones but should encourage continual awareness of the scope and limits of educational critique in liberal societies.

This article presents the results of a piece of research that analyzed the views on the nature of science (NOS) among student teachers enrolled in programs of Primary Education at two public universities in Spain. Previous studies have reported that science teachers maintain ‘eclectic’ epistemological perspectives on science; in this article, we test if such a hypothesis holds when teachers’ NOS ideas are ‘anchored’ in specific periods and topics of the philosophy of science. We studied 114 prospective teachers attending an undergraduate teaching course with emphasis on the natural sciences at the Universities of Burgos and Valladolid in the period of 2017-18. A Likert-scale questionnaire with 50 items was applied to determine trends in those teachers’ epistemological views on science. The results showed that teachers’ views are mostly correlated with the philosophical period of Logical Positivism/Received View, and to some extent to the period of Recent and Contemporary Accounts. Regarding the classical epistemological topics of correspondence, methodologies, intervention, evolution and representation, teachers’ views could be related to the period of Logical Positivism/Received View and Critical Rationalism, but also to the New Philosophy of Science. The main conclusion of this study is that teachers’ expressed views on NOS are epistemologically eclectic to a much smaller degree when examined with more detail concerning specific periods and topics of the philosophy of science.

The lack of digital literacy among students leads to a lack of understanding regarding social media ethics, even though social media ethics is very important because students use social media every day, which certainly contains various kinds of hoax information. If this is not handled properly, students will be easily influenced and even spread the hoax news. Therefore, this study aims to describe the role of digital literacy in shaping the social media ethics of vocational high school students to prevent the spread of hoax news. This study is a qualitative study with a descriptive analysis approach. To collect data, observation, interviews, and documentation were used. The results of the study indicate that digital literacy plays a significant role in shaping the social media ethics of vocational high school students, especially in preventing the spread of hoax news. Student perspectives show that understanding of digital literacy is still diverse, but schools play a significant role in increasing their digital awareness and skills through various educational programs. Intensive social media use among students requires the implementation of good media ethics, such as critical attitudes, responsibility, and respect for the truth of information. The spread of hoax news is understood as a form of unethical behavior that can harm oneself and others, so effective prevention strategies are needed, such as improving information verification skills, regular counseling, and strengthening students’ character through education based on digital ethical values.

This article discusses activities to strengthen religious moderation through socialization and education carried out by Group 41 Community Service Program (KKN) students from the Mandailing Natal State Islamic College at the Madrasah Islamiyah in Angin Barat Village, Mandailing Natal. This activity aims to increase students' understanding of the values of religious moderation and prevent the emergence of radicalism from an early age. The research used a qualitative approach with participatory methods through interactive lectures, group discussions, case studies, and role plays. A total of 35 male and female students from grades II, III, and IV were actively involved in the learning process. The results of the study showed a significant increase in cognitive aspects, as seen from the students' increased understanding of the concept of moderation, as well as affective changes in the form of more tolerant, inclusive, and critical attitudes towards digital content with radical potential. In addition, the role of teachers as facilitators and the emergence of peer learning initiatives among students were important factors in strengthening the internalization of moderate values. However, the limited duration of the implementation, which was only one day, and the simple learning tools limited the depth of the intervention. This study concludes that strengthening religious moderation based on participatory practices is effective as a preventive strategy against radicalism in madrasahs and needs to be integrated continuously into education programs.

During the 1960s, higher education in the United States underwent serious quantitative and qualitative changes. The number of students virtually doubled: it reached the 5.5 million mark in 1969 (or 7.5 million, including two-year junior colleges). The rapid rise in enrollment was the result of a number of factors, chief among which were the significant internal changes in the state-monopoly system of U. S. imperialism, the change in the balance of power in the international arena, and the struggle of the progressive elements of society to expand educational opportunity. The fundamental research work The Contemporary University: USA notes that "a more critical attitude towards the college has risen … in response to international events as well as domestic needs — the Cold War, Sputnik, and reports of a more strenuous, practical and successful system of education in the Soviet Union" (The Contemporary University: USA, Robert S. Morison, ed., Boston, 1966, p. 4). In the late fifties, this assessment of education in the USSR was widespread among American politicians and specialists in the field of education. There were more and more frequent appeals for energetic government involvement in the development of higher education; these appeals had an effect, even though the decisive factor was not the subjective desires of some influential leader — in particular, President John Kennedy — but rather the objective processes in world developments. These processes, accelerated by the scientific-technical revolution and by the weakening positions of imperialism, required greater subordination of the university to the state-monopoly system. "The transformation of the state apparatus from simply protecting private property to exploiting the masses requires the development of institutions through which that exploitation is carried out and reinforced," notes the theoretical journal of the Communist Party of the United States (Political Affairs, June 1968, p. 59). It was the consolidation of the ties between higher education, the monopolies, and the government that proved to be one of these "innovations." The "new policy" of U. S. imperialism in the field of education led to very contradictory results. Here are some of the most important results that are in the center of public attention and, particularly, that of the students.

Hablar y escribir con actitud crítica es una necesidad que deben cumplir los estudiantes y profesionales; por esta razón surge la necesidad urgente de desarrollar las habilidades lingüísticas, discursivas y de pensamiento crítico (PC). Este trabajo amplía los datos obtenidos por Tenías, (2006), relacionados con los niveles del discurso de los estudiantes de la Unellez-Barinas. La codificación de datos propuesta por éste, es la base para el análisis del discurso de 836 estudiantes, de los cursos de Gramática I, Gramática II y Morfosintaxis, pertenecientes a semestres medios de la carrera de Educación, mención Castellano y Literatura, del Vicerrectorado de Planificación y Desarrollo Social de la Unellez – Sede Barinas. Se observó que la tendencia a obtener un pensamiento crítico es: Baja (55%), Media (38%) y Alta (7%). El 55% de los estudiantes desarrolló un discurso reproductivo o de ninguna categoría y un 38% elaboró un discurso reproductivo-convergente; sólo el 7% logró un discurso divergente o evaluativo. Esto corroboró que los estudiantes de la mención Castellano y Literatura continúan presentando (al menos hasta el período medio de la carrera), dificultades al expresarse y a ser críticos y productivos, no obstante de cursar subproyectos donde el dominio comunicacional y lingüístico es un requerimiento natural.

El presente trabajo versa sobre la ejecución de la Actividad piloto “Medioambiente, sociedad y barro”, una propuesta de intervención socioeducativa a través del arte. La actividad piloto, de temática medioambiental y transformadora,serealizaatravés del barro,con un grupo de menores pertenecientesa un centro desocialización y adultos aficionados al barro, y en relación a los datos de la fundamentación teórica, que abarcan diversos conceptos como autoestima, tolerancia, transformación individual y social y actitud crítica como aspectos posibles a desarrollar a través de la creatividad. En su desarrollo, se presentan dos tipos de baldosas de arcilla: unas intactas, en las que se representa un tema a partir de láminas ilustrativas sobre la problemática socioambiental; y otras dañadas previamente, que habrán de reconstruir. De este modo, se permite la reflexión sobre los problemas ambientales y la relación entre los problemas naturales y sociales, así como entre el conflicto de inserción y el conflicto medioambiental, pudiendo abarcar temas como la sociedad de consumo o el sistema educativo tradicional y los “deshechos” que generan. El resultado es un mural que muestra la naturaleza dañada en la mitad de sus piezas y la transformación de lo dañado en la otra mitad.

Criticality has recently made its way into the field of English Language Teaching. It has mainly fostered the study of teachers’ individual commitments with their social context. A reflective account is offered here based on my praxis when I adopted a critical pedagogy to teach literature in the English language teacher education program at the National University of La Pampa (UNLPam) in Argentina. Drawing on observations and documents, I give in this paper an autoethnographic account of my practice. The results show that I maintained a constant questioning of my practice and a persistent wariness about the appropriateness of keeping a critical position in my teaching context. All teachers should perform these two reflective actions in view of our role as socially and pedagogically responsible agents of practice.

The curricular unit of Supervised Teaching Practice (STP), of the Master programme in Pre-School Teacher Education and of the Master programme in Pre-school and Primary School Teacher Education, is organized in two main phases: the teaching practice in the adequate education levels, and the development of a final report. The final report is a document each student writes and that reflects the course of the training, the critical and reflexive attitude assumed in response to the challenges that were faced, and the processes and performance of the professional routine experiences. The document should also include a research component concerning the teaching action developed by the student. The final report is, thus, an instrument that allows multiple dimensions of analysis. The work described in this chapter resulted from the study of 62 reports, developed between 2012 and 2015, with the objective of analysing the type of teaching-learning experiences, the content areas and the pedagogical approach developed by students. A quantitative and qualitative approach was followed, using text mining to complement the analysis, due to the large quantity of text. This was complemented with content analysis to interpret the resulting data. The results reveal that students describe and analyse teaching-learning experiences in different content areas, valuing differentiated pedagogical strategies and that the reflective processes are centred in the description of the practicum, without revealing a substantial critical thinking. The final report, regardless of the weaknesses, is a valuable instrument in the training process, because it allows the development of reflection and research tools about the education practice, essential for the professional development of future teachers.

Reflective practice is one of the most popular theories of professional knowledge in the last 20 years and has been widely adopted by nursing, health, and social care professions. The term was coined by Donald Schön in his influential books The Reflective Practitioner, and Educating the Reflective Practitioner, and has garnered the unprecedented attention of theorists and practitioners of professional education and practice. Reflective practice has been integrated into professional preparatory programmes, continuing education programmes, and by the regulatory bodies of a wide range of health and social care professions. Yet, despite its popularity and widespread adoption, a problem frequently raised in the literature concerns the lack of conceptual clarity surrounding the term reflective practice. This paper seeks to respond to this problem by offering an analysis of the epistemology of reflective practice as revealed through a critical examination of philosophical influences within the theory. The aim is to discern philosophical underpinnings of reflective practice in order to advance increasingly coherent interpretations, and to consider the implications for conceptions of professional knowledge in professional life. The paper briefly examines major philosophical underpinnings in reflective practice to explicate central themes that inform the epistemological assumptions of the theory. The study draws on the work of Donald Schön, and on texts from four philosophers: John Dewey, Nelson Goodman, Michael Polanyi, and Gilbert Ryle. Five central epistemological themes in reflective practice are illuminated: (1) a broad critique of technical rationality; (2) professional practice knowledge as artistry; (3) constructivist assumptions in the theory; (4) the significance of tacit knowledge for professional practice knowledge; and (5) overcoming mind body dualism to recognize the knowledge revealed in intelligent action. The paper reveals that the theory of reflective practice is concerned with deep epistemological questions of significance to conceptions of knowledge in health and social care professions.

Instructional technologies have been used extensively after the spread of COVID19. Council of Higher Education in Turkey closed down all the universities and embarked on online education by issuing a statement that all universities were free to choose the platform they wished to use. This study aims at discovering how online language teacher education programmes yielded emerging patterns and how teacher trainees’ perspectives were in relation with these online language teacher education programmes. To reach this aim, 275 teacher trainees at the Department of English Language Teaching participated in the study and semi-structured interviews were held with them. This discussion illuminates critical issues and attitudes of teacher trainees along with the challenges unique to programmes as a future research agenda.

This chapter, per the authors, examines the contributions of Assyrian-Australian professionals across education, music, and healthcare, shaped by histories of displacement and migration. Through four case studies—Mrs Carmen Lazar, Mr Evan Yako, Dr Mariam Joseph, and Mrs June Jacko—it explores how cultural capital, refugee agency, and community innovation reshape institutional norms. Drawing on Bourdieu's theory of cultural capital (Erel, 2010), cultural health capital (Shim, 2010), and social entrepreneurship frameworks, the chapter highlights trauma-informed arts, multilingual health programs, and culturally responsive pedagogy. Ethnographic data and critical practice reviews position migrant expertise as central to reform, challenging deficit-based narratives and advancing inclusive governance. The chapter concludes with implications for embedding diasporic knowledge into policy, education, and trauma-informed systems.

Secondary school teachers occupy the most critical and crucial position in the entire education system (Suleman, et al, 2011a). The purpose of the study was to compare the performance of online and directly selected secondary school teachers regarding teaching proficiency and classroom Management. All the students at secondary school level in Kohat Division, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (Pakistan) constituted the population of the study. Only 600 students studying at secondary school level in Kohat Division were selected as sample randomly. The study was delimited to only male students at secondary school level. The study was descriptive type and questionnaire was used as research instrument. Data was collected through personal visits. After the collection of data, it was organized, tabulated, analyzed and interpreted. The statistical tools i.e. means, standard deviation and differences of means were computed for each variable. Significance of difference between the mean values of the responses of students about online and directlly selected secondary school teachers were tested at 0.05 levels by applying t-test. After statisitcal analysis of the data, the researchers conclduded that the overall performance of the directly selected secondary school teachers was better and satisfactory. They were found to have the knowledge of teaching methods and the ability to control classroom disruptive behaviour. Conversely, the overall performance of the online selected secondary school teachers was poor and unsatisfactory. They have no knowledge of teaching methodologies and subject mastery. They were found unable to manage classroom disruptive behaviour and other related activities. Based on findings, it was strongly recommended that a special professional training programme should be arranged to the existing online selected SSTs in teaching methodologies and classroom management to equip them with the modern teaching methods and techniques of managing classroom behaviour so that they become able to perform their duties effectively.

ABSTRACTGlobal reforming driven by neoliberal ideas is today reshaping educational systems. This study explores how a national policy incentive, aimed at changing teacher education in Sweden, is transformed and realized into educational practice and how pedagogic discourses are operating in and through the primary teachers’ examination practice in Sweden. The aim is also to explore which competencies are legitimized and thus form the knowledge base for primary teachers. The study is conducted through a qualitative and quantitative, theoretically based, analysis of all examination tasks (n = 322) in the primary teacher education at a teacher education department located at one of Sweden’s largest universities. The qualitative software package Nvivo was used for the qualitative analysis and the statistical software SPSS was used for the quantitative analysis. The result shows that most examinations involve the examination of methodological/didactical knowledge related to teachers work in the classroom (out of horizontal knowledge structures) and that students lack opportunities to practice and show analytical skills, with vertical knowledge structures, in their examinations.

The study explored how primary school teachers' Emotional Exhaustion (emotional exhaustion) is implemented in the context of the General Education Curriculum 2018 and what factors it is influenced by. By gathering quantitative data from 310 primary teachers through a questionnaire, the study has given the reality of emotional exhaustion and a number of factors that influence it such as supervisory support, time pressure, relations with parents, relation with colleagues, autonomy. We use descriptive statistical analysis to determine the level of teachers' emotional exhaustion and teachers’ perceptions of factors related to the school context such as support, time pressure, relations with parents, relation with colleagues, autonomy. To explore the relationship between emotional exhaustion and factors related to context of the school, the study used linear regression analysis. Results of the analysis showed that only three of the 11 factors considered had an impact on primary teachers' emotional exhaustion in the context of implementing education programme changes: supervisory support, time pressure and training degree. The regression model showed that time pressure had the strongest impact on emotional exhaustion, while supervitory support had the inverse relationship with emotional exhaustion, whereas time pressures and traning degrees had the most positive effect on emotional exhaustion.