EBOOK: Reflective Teaching in the Postmodern World

EBOOK: Reflective Teaching in the Postmodern World
Author: Stuart Parker
Publisher: McGraw-Hill Education (UK)
Total Pages: 194
Release: 1997-03-16
Genre: Education
ISBN: 0335231152

"A well written and stimulating excursion into postmodern education. Parker's challenge to critical educational theory can, in the long run, only help the left rethink and deepen its political project." - Peter McLaren, University of California, Los Angeles. This is a book about two stories of education. In one story there is a vocabulary of means, efficiency, bureaucracy, inspection and science; in the other, one of autonomy, democracy, emancipation and action research. One is the story of positivist managerialist approaches to education, the other is the story of reflective teaching. This book displaces both of these stories. By applying the techniques of deconstruction, Stuart Parker overturns the assumptions common to both of these positions and, in doing so, jettisons some widely cherished beliefs about education, autonomy and rationality. Moving beyond current debates, this book articulates a new manifesto for education in postmodernity and highlights the implications for educational practices and institutions.

EBOOK: Educational Development

EBOOK: Educational Development
Author: Ray Land
Publisher: McGraw-Hill Education (UK)
Total Pages: 232
Release: 2004-11-16
Genre: Education
ISBN: 0335226086

·What do educational developers see as the main issues to be tackled within their work? · How does the educational context and culture in which they work affect the practice of educational developers? ·How do educational developers perceive change occurring within higher education organisations? In higher education institutions worldwide, issues relating to quality in teaching and learning have gained prominence over the last two decades as student numbers, and the need to be publicly accountable, have increased. During this time a sizeable community of educational developers has emerged whose work and research focuses on the enhancement of the student experience in higher education. A significant issue for these developers is how change can be effected in organisations with well-established academic cultures and practices, beset by many other priorities and pressures. This first book-length analysis of developers as a community of practice illustrates in their own words the issues they face, their differing orientations to development (given their differing organisational cultures), and how they see their institutional role. What emerges is the contested notion of ‘development’ itself, and a tribe of developers who, though fragmented, offer a rich variation in their discourse, identity and practice. Drawing upon developers’ own voices, the book offers a lively and accessible narrative approach to this rapidly evolving area. It is a useful guide to help individual developers compare their own practice with that of others, and development teams to map the effectiveness of their own centre’s provision. Educational Development is essential reading for educational developers, teaching and learning co-ordinators and teaching fellows, as well as senior managers with remits for academic development, and directors of quality assurance. It is also of interest to those in higher education who are concerned with bringing about organisational or cultural change.

EBOOK: Doing Early Childhood Research

EBOOK: Doing Early Childhood Research
Author: Glenda Mac Naughton
Publisher: McGraw-Hill Education (UK)
Total Pages: 401
Release: 2010-06-16
Genre: Education
ISBN: 0335242634

"It is rare for any research methodology book to cover so much ground, and contain so many different kinds of resources between two covers." Journal of Education for Teaching "As a guide for new and inexperienced researchers, it is second to none." British Journal of Educational Studies Doing Early Childhood Research demystifies the research process. An international team of experienced researchers shows how to select methods which are appropriate for working with young children in early childhood settings or at home. They provide a thorough introduction to the most common research methods used in the early childhood context. Reflecting the multidisciplinary nature of much early childhood research, they cover a wide range of conventional and newer methods including observation, small surveys, interviews with adults and children, action research, ethnography and quasi-experimental approaches. They explain clearly how to set up research projects which are theoretically grounded, well-designed, rigorously analysed, feasible and ethically based. Each chapter is illustrated with examples. Widely used by early childhood researchers in many countries, this second edition of Doing Early Childhood Research has been fully revised. It includes new chapters on beginning research, mixed methods research, interviewing children, and working with Indigenous children, and also new case study chapters. It is essential reading for novice, initial career and experienced researchers. Contributors Maria Assunção Folque, Sue Atkinson-Lopez, Mindy Blaise, Liane Brow, Margaret Coady, Audrey D’Souza Juma, Anne Edwards, Sue Emmett, Susan Grieshaber, Linda Harrison, Alan Hayes, Patrick Hughes, Glenda Mac Naughton, Karen Martin, Sharne A. Rolfe, Iram Siraj-Blatchford, John Siraj-Blatchford, Louise Taylor, Teresa Vasconcelos

Becoming a Researcher

Becoming a Researcher
Author: Mairead Dunne
Publisher: McGraw-Hill Education (UK)
Total Pages: 208
Release: 2005-07-16
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 0335224911

This innovative book combines what most books separate: research as practical activity and research as intellectual engagement. It clarifies and makes explicit the methodological issues that underlie the journey from initial research idea to the finished report and beyond. The text moves the researcher logically through the research process and provides insights into methodology through an in-depth discussion of methods. It presents the research process as an engagement with text. This theme moves through the construction of text in the form of data and the deconstruction of text in analysis. Finally the focus moves to the reconstruction of text through the re-presentation of the research in the report. Following through each of these stages in turn, the chapters consider either a practical issue or a group of methods and interrogate the associated methodological concerns. In addition, the book also addresses the rarely explored issues of the researcher as writer and researcher identity as core elements of the research process. The book provides a range of insights and original perspectives. These successfully combine practical guidance with the invitation to consider the problematic nature of research as social practice. It is an ideal reference for those embarking on research for the first time and provides a new methodological agenda for established researchers.

EBOOK: Early Childhood Studies: A Multiprofessional Perspective

EBOOK: Early Childhood Studies: A Multiprofessional Perspective
Author: Liz Jones
Publisher: McGraw-Hill Education (UK)
Total Pages: 238
Release: 2005-11-16
Genre: Education
ISBN: 0335225985

“A celebration of the tremendous strides made towards the achievement of a multiprofessional early years workforce, and a challenge to those responsible for training the next generation of professionals… Students and trainers, policy makers and practitioners have a duty to be knowledgeable, to be able to reflect on their beliefs and practice and to articulate concerns, share their views, convey their enthusiasm and act as advocates for young children. This book will help them do just that.”Lesley Abbott OBE, Mancester Metropolitan University Early Childhood Studies critically engages the reader in issues that relate to young children and their lives from a multiprofessional perspective. Whilst offering a theoretically rigorous treatment of issues relating to early childhood studies, the book also provides practical discussion of strategies that could inform multiprofessional practice. It draws upon case studies to help the reader make practical sense of theoretical ideas and develop a critical and reflective attitude. Hard and pressing questions are asked so that beliefs, ideas, views and assumptions about notions of the child and childhood are constantly critiqued and reframed for the post-modern world. The first part of the book explores the early years, power and politics by looking at child rights, the politics of play, families, and working with parents and carers. The second part explores facts and fantasies about childhood experiences, such as anti-discriminatory practice, the law, child protection, and health issues. The final section encourages the reader to explore what childhood means from historical, ideological and cultural perspectives, and looks at how popular assumptions arise. This is a key critical text for early childhood students, academics and researchers, as well as practitioners who want to develop their reflective practice.

EBOOK: Being A Teacher In Higher Education

EBOOK: Being A Teacher In Higher Education
Author: Peter Knight
Publisher: McGraw-Hill Education (UK)
Total Pages: 257
Release: 2002-07-16
Genre: Education
ISBN: 0335232043

Being A Teacher in Higher Education draws extensively on research literatures to give detailed advice about the core business of teaching: instruction, learning activities, assessment, planning and getting good evaluations. It offers hundreds of practical suggestions in a collegial rather than didactic style. This is not, however, another book of tips or heroic success stories. For one thing Peter Knight appreciates the different circumstances that new, part-time and established teachers are in. For another, he insists that teaching well (and enjoying it) is as much about how teachers feel about themselves as it is about how many slick teaching techniques they can string together. He argues that it is important to develop a sense of oneself as a good teacher (particularly in increasingly difficult working conditions); and it is for this reason that the final part of this work is about career management and handling change. This is a book about doing teaching and being a teacher: about reducing the likelihood of burn-out and improving the chances of getting the psychic rewards that make teaching fulfilling. It is an optimistic book for teachers in universities, many of whom feel that opportunities for professional fulfilment are becoming frozen.

Epistemologies and Ethics in Adult Education and Lifelong Learning

Epistemologies and Ethics in Adult Education and Lifelong Learning
Author: Richard G. Bagnall
Publisher: Springer Nature
Total Pages: 346
Release: 2022-02-17
Genre: Education
ISBN: 303094980X

This book presents and advocates for a framework of competing epistemologies and conceptions of ethics as a way of understanding modernist lifelong learning. These epistemologies are grounded in a recognition of the normative nature of knowledge that informs lifelong learning; each being framed by a different account of the sort of knowledge that is most valued and therefore foregrounded in lifelong learning policy, provision and engagement informed by the epistemology. Each epistemology is also characterised by its constituent conception of ethics. Four such epistemologies and conceptions of ethics are here recognised as having been important in the lifelong learning movement to date: disciplinary, developmental, emancipatory, and design. The authors argue that assumptions about knowledge and moral positions constitute a powerful but not well-understood feature of such arguments: awareness of these assumptions and positions could serve to powerfully advance the overall understanding of what is at stake in lifelong learning and adult education at all levels.

EBOOK: Improving Teaching and Learning in Higher Education: A Whole Institution Approach

EBOOK: Improving Teaching and Learning in Higher Education: A Whole Institution Approach
Author: Vaneeta D'Andrea
Publisher: McGraw-Hill Education (UK)
Total Pages: 263
Release: 2005-08-16
Genre: Education
ISBN: 0335224725

What are the aims of higher education? What are the strategies necessary for institutional improvement? How might the student experience be improved? The emergence of the discourse around learning and teaching is one of the more remarkable phenomena of the last decade in higher education. Increasingly, universities are being required to pay greater attention to improving teaching and enhancing student learning. This book will help universities and colleges achieve these goals through an approach to institutional change that is well founded on both research and practical experience. By placing learning at the centre of organizational change, this book challenges many of the current assumptions about management of teaching, supporting students, the separation of research and teaching, the use of information technology and quality systems. It demonstrates how trust can be restored within higher education while advancing the need for change based on principles of equity and academic values for students and teachers alike. Improving Teaching and Learning in Higher Education is key reading for anyone interested in the development of teaching and learning in higher education, as well as policy makers.

EBOOK: Reshaping the University: New Relationships between Research, Scholarship and Teaching

EBOOK: Reshaping the University: New Relationships between Research, Scholarship and Teaching
Author: Ronald Barnett
Publisher: McGraw-Hill Education (UK)
Total Pages: 233
Release: 2005-09-16
Genre: Education
ISBN: 033522413X

What is the emerging shape of the University? Are there spaces for present activities to be practised anew or even for new activities? If these questions have force, they show that the metaphors of shapes and spaces can be helpful in understanding the contemporary university.Research, teaching and scholarship remain the dominant activities in universities and so it is their relationships that form the main concerns of this volume. Are these activities pulling apart from each other? Or might these activities be brought more together in illuminating ways? Is there space to redesign these activities so that they shed light on each other? Is there room for yet other purposes? In this volume, a distinguished set of scholars engage with these pertinent but challenging issues. Ideas are offered, and evidence is marshalled, of practices that suggest a re-shaping of the University may be possible. Reshaping the University appeals to those who are interested in the future of universities, including students, researchers, managers and policy makers. It also addresses global issues and it will, therefore, interest the higher education community worldwide. Contributors: Ronald Barnett, David Dill, Carol Bond, Lewis Elton, Mick Healey, Mark Hughes, Rajani Naidoo, Mark Olssen, Bruce Macfarlane, Kathleen Nolan, Jan Parker, Michael Peters, Alison Phipps, Jane Robertson, Peter Scott, Stephen Rowland.

Postmodern Social Work

Postmodern Social Work
Author: Ken Moffatt
Publisher: Columbia University Press
Total Pages: 170
Release: 2019-09-24
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 0231549393

How should social workers adapt to a time of widespread instability and uncertainty? How can social work practice account for the ever-increasing infiltration of technology and media images into our daily lives and mental states? In this book, Ken Moffatt turns to postmodern philosophy’s grappling with late capitalism and the omnipresence of technology in order to develop a new approach to reflective social work practice and critical pedagogy. Postmodern Social Work attempts to reconcile postmodern thinkers with the realities of teaching social work to diverse student populations in a precarious era. Moffatt advocates an ideal of reflective practice that allows social workers to combine direct experience, social welfare, and social justice. Through a series of interlocking essays focused on the theoretical underpinnings of reflective practice in the context of social work education, he explores the implications of postmodern theory for social work practice. Drawing on thinkers such as Michel Foucault, Judith Butler, Julia Kristeva, Gilles Deleuze, and Félix Guattari, Moffatt lays out a path forward for reflective social work, providing new ways of thinking that collapse old categories and integrate direct practice with community engagement and social analysis. Postmodern Social Work offers an approach to practice and teaching that considers the shifting landscape of social change while remaining true to social work’s primary concerns of inclusion and justice.