Edward Miner Gallaudet's “remarks on the combined system”: An analysis of the “preservative” function of rhetoric of education

1984

Critical Quarterly, 1997

In a speech last summer a former ally of the Tory Party, Professor Alexander, who, along with Chris Woodhead, contributed to the`Three Wise Men' report on primary education in 1992, claimed,`What we are currently witnessing is ± the lowest level of buck-passing and scapegoating, as the government and opposition compete for a quick electoral advantage in the run up to the general election.' He went on to add that, A rather bizarre consensus has emerged as the political right and left jockey for control of ideological territory hitherto held uncontested by the right'. His frustration, along with that of the vast majority of those who work in education, is evident but it is important to understand where this`bizarre consensus' has come from. As the election approaches, there is a sense in which schools have become the loci of a moral panic. They symbolise both an apparent descent into chaos, as violent pupils and failing institutions hit the headlines, and, at the same time, the only hope of salvation, through the introduction of a moral curriculum, lessons in parenting and home±school contracts. But while these concerns appear to have wider social implications, for many they are intimately connected with the way in which we discuss the notion of standards in educational terms and in particular with the teaching of English. It was Norman Tebbit who remarked in an interview on the Today programme, in 1985, * These quotations are all found in Cox on the Battle for the English Curriculum, pp. 37±8.

2005

Educational Philosophy and Theory, 2019

Over the past two decades, two heavily funded initiatives of the Federal government of Australia have been founded on two very different and seemingly conflicting (if not antithetical) visions of education. The first, the Australian Values Education Program (AVEP, 2003-2010) enshrines what may be called an 'embedded values' vision of education; the second, the National Assessments Program-Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN, 2008-present) enshrines a 'performative' vision. The purpose of this paper is to unpack these two seemingly conflicting visions and to argue instead for their possible consilience, bringing together apparently incompatible phenomena to coalesce into a single, more expansive vision of schooling. Against the historical context that gave rise to AVEP and NAPLAN in Australia, the paper argues that the visions of education rendered in these abrupt policy shifts are vestiges of a history of dichotomous and dualistic thinking in western educational philosophy. Underpinning this dualism is a fundamental schism between cognition and emotion and a Cartesian separation of mind from body that can no longer be sustained. Our increased understanding of the neural substrates of cognition, the 'intertwined' nature of cognition and emotion, combined with a philosophy of mind that does not dissociate propositional knowledge from the disposition of the learner, points to an alternative vision of education. A vision that is thoroughly values embedded, concerned with the educational wellbeing of each child, while also giving value to and prioritising educational performance and achievement, and the intellectual liberation these can offer each and every child.

Studies in Philosophy and Education, 1996

1995

Theme After a dinner full of good food and drink among friends and colleagues, t is not inappropriate to continue our symposium with some informal talk and with "eine kleine nachtmusic." The allusions to Plato and Mozart are intended o suggest that I want to take you on a journey to the Graeco-Austrian Empire, a)lace that exists in spirit, if not in history, one that I have come to realize I nhabit almost continuously, if sometimes impractically and even, at times, to rty own detriment. Rather late in life I have come to see that, despite a rigorous ;lassical training on the one hand and daily circumstances unceasingly pragmatic)t) the other, I am a romantic at heart. At first I was somehow ashamed of that tiscovery: it seemed so out of character for the age, for someone with my mckground and for that person so many others see me to be. After reflecting on t, however, I think I have begun to accept it as my fate.

JPSE: Journal for the Philosophical Study of Education, 2018

JPSE III--Contents TABLE OF CONTENTS Introduction Guillemette Johnston and Allan Johnston Spirit and Grace, Letters and Voice Babette Babich Two Concepts of Educational Freedom Emily Wenneborg Teaching as Entertainment: An Examination of Effects Ross M. Miller and Steven J. Bourgeois Enantiodromia and Integrality: The Rhythm of the Cultural Continuum Robert Mitchell Humanity in the Womb of History Thomas M. Falk Elaborating Environmental Communication within “Posthuman” Theory Maria Kristina Börebäck and Elias Schwieler Epistemologies and the Formation of Modern Democratic Individuality Nathalie Bulle Politics, Education, and Understanding: Anglo-American Readings and Misreadings of Rousseau in the 19th to 21st Centuries Guillemette Johnston Teaching Magical Thinking: Notes towards a Burroughsian Pedagogy Allan Johnston

eJournal of Education Policy, 2009

Educational reformers have revived the notion of managing schools like businesses. By borrowing the rhetoric of the industrialization era, the current reform agenda not only presupposes that learning and maximum financial efficiency are synonymous, but also equates students and consumers. In the following paper, we argue that history has shown that its unproductive to talk about or even worse to treat schools as businesses; instead, we argue that it is time to learn from history’s lessons and reframe the way we talk about and therefore think about education.

History of Education Quarterly, 2012

Educational Philosophy and Theory, 2007

This paper argues that many philosophical arguments within the education discourse are too little embedded in their own historical contexts. Starting out from the obvious fact that philosophers of education use sources from the past, the paper asks how we can deal with the arguments that these sources contain. The general attitude within philosophy of education, which views arguments as timeless, is being challenged by the insight that arguments always depend upon their own contexts. For this reason, citing past authors, heroes, or enemies without respecting the context says more about our interest at the present time than it does about the times of the authors examined. Conversely, the contextual approach helps us to avoid believing that 'timeless truths' are to be found in different texts of different ages. However, the present contribution in no way advocates a total relativization of statements. Quite the contrary; it claims that the contextual approach helps us to understand the traditions and contexts within which we ourselves, as researchers, are positioned. And this self-awareness is believed to be the proper starting position for theoretical statements about education.