nature of education_web_2011

Planning & Preparing to TeachSession One

The Nature of Education and the role of the Teacher

Peter Hadfield (with additional confusion added by James Atherton)

Reference

Tummons, J (2010) Becoming a Professional Tutor

in the Lifelong Learning Sector (2nd Ed)

Outcomes

Define what we mean by the term ‘Education’

Appreciate the need to be familiar with the current educational discourse

Identify current policies and practices in Post-Compulsory education that impact upon role

Examine the role of the teacher in a Post-Compulsory context.

Outcomes

Define what we mean by the term ‘Education’

Appreciate the need to be familiar with the current educational discourse

Identify current policies and practices in Post-Compulsory education that impact upon role

Examine the role of the teacher in a Post-Compulsory context.We are of course expected to announce these at the start of the session; does it help?

Education as a ‘Subject’….

History

Philosophy

Education

Psychology

Sociology

Education as a ‘Subject’….

History

Philosophy

Education

Psychology

Sociology

Is education a “subject” like these others?

It can be seen through all these lenses, and looks different through each.

Education as a ‘Subject’….

History

Philosophy

Education

Psychology

Sociology

Is education a “subject” like these others?

10 April 2023

Population S-curveP

op

ula

tio

n

Time

HighPopulationTurnover

Rapid PopulationGrowth

IncipientPopulationDecline

This is the Riesman model: see http://www.doceo.co.uk/background/riesman.htm for explication

10 April 2023

Population and EconomyP

op

ula

tio

n

Time

Primary (subsistence)Economy

Secondary(Production)Economy

Tertiary(Service)Economy

Accelerating Change

<< ><< >

10 April 2023

Riesman’s modelP

op

ula

tio

n

Time

Tradition-directedculture

Inner-directedculture

Other-directedculture

<< ><< >

10 April 2023

Education &Social character

Po

pu

lati

on

Time

Pass on revealedtruth

Charge up to apply

Negotiate

<< ><< >

10 April 2023

Education is…

... in all pre-modern societies, including that of agrarian Europe, education was designed to preserve what had already been achieved and to put a brake on the ingenuity and curiosity of the individual, which could undermine the stability of a community that had no means of integrating or exploiting fresh insights. In the madrasahs, for example, pupils learned old texts and commentaries by heart, and the teaching consisted of a word-by-word explication of a standard textbook. Public disputations between scholars took it for granted that one of the debaters was right and the other wrong. There was no idea, in the question-and-answer style of study, of allowing the clash of two opposing positions to build a new synthesis.

ARMSTRONG K (2001) Islam: a short history London: Phoenix (pp. 87-88).

<< ><< >

10 April 2023

Education is…

... in all pre-modern societies, including that of agrarian Europe, education was designed to preserve what had already been achieved and to put a brake on the ingenuity and curiosity of the individual, which could undermine the stability of a community that had no means of integrating or exploiting fresh insights. In the madrasahs, for example, pupils learned old texts and commentaries by heart, and the teaching consisted of a word-by-word explication of a standard textbook. Public disputations between scholars took it for granted that one of the debaters was right and the other wrong. There was no idea, in the question-and-answer style of study, of allowing the clash of two opposing positions to build a new synthesis.

ARMSTRONG K (2001) Islam: a short history London: Phoenix (pp. 87-88).

<< ><< >

Karen Armstrong is describing education in a tradition-directed culture

10 April 2023

Education is…

“As civilised human beings, we are the inheritors, neither of an enquiry about ourselves and the world, nor of an accumulating body of information, but of a conversation, begun in the primeval forests and extended and made more articulate in the course of centuries. It is a conversation which goes on both in public and within each of ourselves... Education, properly speaking, is an initiation into the skill and partnership of the conversation in which we learn to recognise the voices, to distinguish the proper occasions of utterance, and in which we acquire the intellectual and moral habits appropriate to conversation”

Michael Oakeshott (1962).

10 April 2023

Education is…

“As civilised human beings, we are the inheritors, neither of an enquiry about ourselves and the world, nor of an accumulating body of information, but of a conversation, begun in the primeval forests and extended and made more articulate in the course of centuries. It is a conversation which goes on both in public and within each of ourselves... Education, properly speaking, is an initiation into the skill and partnership of the conversation in which we learn to recognise the voices, to distinguish the proper occasions of utterance, and in which we acquire the intellectual and moral habits appropriate to conversation”

Michael Oakeshott (1962).

Oakeshott’s is the Enlightenment, liberal/humanistic view

10 April 2023

Education is…

Learning is the key to prosperity - for each of us as individuals, as well as for the nation as a whole. Investment in human capital will be the foundation of success in the knowledge-based global economy of the twenty-first century. This is why the Government has put learning at the heart of its ambition. [...]

To achieve stable and sustainable growth, we will need a well-educated, well-equipped and adaptable labour force. To cope with rapid change […] we must ensure that people can return to learning throughout their lives…

BLUNKETT D (1998) Foreword to The Learning Age: a renaissance for a new Britain Department for Education and Employment Green Paper;

London HMSO.

<<<<

10 April 2023

Education is…

Learning is the key to prosperity - for each of us as individuals, as well as for the nation as a whole. Investment in human capital will be the foundation of success in the knowledge-based global economy of the twenty-first century. This is why the Government has put learning at the heart of its ambition. [...]

To achieve stable and sustainable growth, we will need a well-educated, well-equipped and adaptable labour force. To cope with rapid change […] we must ensure that people can return to learning throughout their lives…

BLUNKETT D (1998) Foreword to The Learning Age: a renaissance for a new Britain Department for Education and Employment Green Paper;

London HMSO.

<<<<

And this is the utilitarian, instrumental view of it; it’s not so much a good in itself as a means to an end--prosperity

Dual Professionalism…

Subject Specialist

ProfessionalEducator

Pedagogy

Professional Codes of Practice

Dual Professionalism…

Subject Specialist

ProfessionalEducator

Pedagogy

Professional Codes of Practice

The role of the tutor is therefore to be not only a practitioner of her subject or discipline, but also a teacher; hence “dual professionalism” and what this course is about

The task of the tutor is to induct the learner into a professional identity, represented by this fuzzy green background...

Political

Background

Legal

AspectsResearchmethods

EthicsPhilosophies / models ofPractice

Discipline-SpecificTheory

ProfessionalStudies

Practiceskills

Technology

Values

The task of the tutor is to induct the learner into a professional identity, represented by this fuzzy green background...

Political

Background

Legal

AspectsResearchmethods

EthicsPhilosophies / models ofPractice

Discipline-SpecificTheory

ProfessionalStudies

Practiceskills

Technology

Values

The task of the tutor is to induct the learner into a professional identity, represented by this fuzzy green background...

But because we teach on organised “courses” which have to be arranged and timetabled in neat boxes, we never cover the messy stuff...

PoliticalSocial

TechnologicalProvision

Influences on Adult Education

28/09/2011 - v4

FundingLEA

HEFCE

SFA

Markets

Economics Global

EU

Legislation Acts/Regulation

Accountabilty League tables

Stakeholders

Market Forces Competativeness/Competition

NeedsWants

ValuesDiversity

Widening Participation

Role of the StateExpectationsMulti Cultural

Role Business/Industry & Commenrce

Communities

ComputerisationWWWMediaSpeedExpectation(s)

Education

TrainingSkills

Skills gap

Higher EducationFurther Education

SchemesAdult Education

PoliticalSocial

TechnologicalProvision

Influences on Adult Education

28/09/2011 - v4

FundingLEA

HEFCE

SFA

Markets

Economics Global

EU

Legislation Acts/Regulation

Accountabilty League tables

Stakeholders

Market Forces Competativeness/Competition

NeedsWants

ValuesDiversity

Widening Participation

Role of the StateExpectationsMulti Cultural

Role Business/Industry & Commenrce

Communities

ComputerisationWWWMediaSpeedExpectation(s)

Education

TrainingSkills

Skills gap

Higher EducationFurther Education

SchemesAdult Education

Given that there are so many contested ideas in the field of education, it is not really surprising that it is overrun with regulatory bodies, often with competing and irreconcilable agendas

The post-16 curriculum

The Equal

Opportunities

Ideology

The Vocational

Training

Ideology

The Cultural

Heritage

Ideology

Traditional values of

Education

Education for all

A ‘social good’ Investment in Human Capital

The post-16 curriculum

The Equal

Opportunities

Ideology

The Vocational

Training

Ideology

The Cultural

Heritage

Ideology

Traditional values of

Education

Education for all

a ‘social good’ Investment in Human Capital

Here are three of the competing ideologies, all making claims on you: the red one clearly underpins the official (LLUK) curriculum of this course...