Andrew Stables

Perspectives on Subject Choice: The Case for a Humane Liberalism in Curriculum Planning.

The degree to which students in schools should be free to choose subjects and courses has long been a matter of debate. In England and Wales, for example, a period of constriction in subject choice at 14 following the introduction of the National Curriculum has now been succeeded by a return to greater choice from 1995. Much of the literature has discussed the degree to which students exercise individual freedom in their choices, as opposed to the degree to which their choices are constrained by external factors. The outcome of such discussion remains unclear because different conclusions are reached by virtue of the adoption of different research paradigms and the differing value systems of the researchers. We are left, therefore, not with a solution to the problem of freedom of choice, but with a series of different perspectives on the processes. These perspectives are all useful in operational terms in that they allow school and college managers to develop and refine their curriculum and guidance syste...

Sign(al)s: living and learning as semiotic engagement

Cartesian mind‐body dualism, while often explicitly denied, has left a legacy of conceptions that remain highly influential in education. I argue that trends in both analytic and continental philosophy of language point towards a post‐Cartesian settlement in which the distinction between ‘signs’ and ‘signals’ is collapsed, and which thus construes all living (and learning) as semiotic engagement. I begin to explore the implications of such a view for learning theory, teaching and the curriculum, educational and social research, and broader social policy.

Educating for Significant Events: The Application of Harre's Social Reality Matrix across the Lower Secondary-School Curriculum.

A model based on the conceptual framework defining identity projects devised by Rom Harre has become a basis for assessing creative arts activity in schools. According to this model, the social reality matrix, individual identity is dependent on social context. The workof transformation and publication serves toconfirm the individual as moral agent within a moral and social order, resulting in stronger social identities for the marginalized and in greater self-expression for the socially established. Thus the creative process is key both to personal growth and to social order and progress. Socio-constructivist and experiential theories of learning emphasize that all learning is brought about through the involvement of personal and social activity in aprocess of personal growth. Thus there would seem tobe acase for applying Harre s insights to curriculum planning beyond the creative arts in order to increase student satisfaction from a range of discourses. We explore the curricular implications of...

Continuity and conflict in school design: a case study from Building Schools for the Future

In a bid to understand the relationship between school design and pedagogic practices, this article – which forms part of a larger project aimed at exploring students, teachers and parents perceptions of school spaces – focuses on how the design of a school funded as part of the Labour Governments Building Schools for the Future Programme (DfES 2003, 2004) came to fruition. We focus on how the strategic educational vision for this particular school was developed and how this vision was embedded in the final design. The analysis conducted allowed us to explore the process of design across different time periods. We found that motives can change depending on the aims and objectives at a particular point in time and that when the motives of different professional groupings differ at particular stages, this can cause tensions. This analysis has provided us with a stage model which we will use for analysing how educational visions were developed and how these were translated into material spaces in four other newly designed schools. The purpose of this is to provide a holistic understanding of how design processes impact on end-users experiences of schooling.

Conceptions of Effort among Students, Teachers and Parents within an English Secondary School.

‘Effort’ and ‘ability’ (understood as potential, intelligence or achievement) are concepts widely used in the everyday language of schooling in Britain but each term lacks clear definition of its use in the school context. Meanwhile, the assessment of effort, alongside that of achievement, remains widespread. This article reports on an exploratory case study of conceptions of effort among three major actors in an English secondary school. Qualitative and quantitative data from questionnaires and interviews with teachers, students and parents at an English comprehensive school were collected. Analysis reveals that understandings of ‘effort’ are not uniform. Rather, ‘effort’ is a shorthand term, which can be used variably, therefore can be construed as a tool of negotiation, or a form of investment in a set of aims distinctive to each group or individual case. There is a strong case for more sustained research into the operationalizing of such key concepts in schools and other professional and workplace settings.

Schools and Schooling as Semiotic Engagement

In this chapter, empirical data from the AHRC funded Design Matters? research project are subjected to semiotic analysis according to a framework drawn from biosemiotics, Tarasti’s existential semiotics and Stables’ taxonomy of environmental literacies as functional, cultural and critical.

Design as a social practice: the design of new build schools

Abstract In this paper we present the findings of an investigation into the ways in which the discourses and practices of school design produce educational spaces which influence the discourses and practices of teaching and learning when the building is occupied. It expands notions of post occupancy evaluation (POE) research by exploring how the objects/motives of an educational vision which informed an initial school design, those of the final build, and those of the people who occupy that building interact in a way which influences experiences of the end users. Crucially we looked at the social interactions that arose within a building as it was used over time. The focus is on the changing relationships between design and practice through time.

Teachers’ conceptions of students’ ‘ability’: creating the space for professional judgment

ABSTRACT Primary and secondary school teachers in the London area discuss their understanding and operationalising of the concept of ability as applied to their students. Combining elements of achievement and potential, ‘ability’ is not clearly and consistently defined by teachers and is, strictly speaking, not a necessary concept since other terms account for all its apparent dimensions. Nevertheless, teachers, with some exceptions, employ ‘ability’ as a central working concept. Teachers’ working conceptions of ‘ability’ and ‘effort’ seem to be key to understanding the within-school semiotic code, whereby messages are largely passed from teachers to students. It is this semiotic code, rather than the policy or academic discourses about schooling, that has most effect on the student experience. Within this context, teachers employ ‘ability’ in part to keep open a space for their professional judgment that remains protected from the external influences acting on them.

Design as a Social Practice: the Experience of New Build Schools

Este artigo explora as maneiras pelas quais o design influencia as percecoes e acoes de estudantes e professores em cinco escolas secundarias do Reino Unido. O entendimento das diferentes praticas desenvolvidas nessas escolas vai alem das tipicas Avaliacoes Pos Ocupacao (Post Occupancy Evaluations) que enfocam aspectos ambientais, como a austica, a iluminacao e a temperatura, usam metodos quantitativos e frequentemente deixam de explorar a forma como os diferentes fatores ambientais interagem com os usuarios, ao longo do tempo time (HYGGE, 2003; GALASIU e VEITCH, 2006; SHAUGHNESSY et al., 2006; WINTERBOTTOM e WILKINS, 2009). Tambem ocorre uma falta de atencao em relacao as maneiras como os processos de ocupacao podem modelar as experiencias em tais espacos (STABLES, LEAROYD-SMITH, DANIELS e TSE, 2014). A investigacao envolveu estudos de casos que objetivavam documentar uma serie de assuntos chave discutidos pelos professores e estudantes em cada uma dessas escolas. Os achados contribuem para o desenvolvimento de um entendimento mais holistico sobre as formas como o design pode contribuir para o processo de transformacao pedagogica. Argumentamos que os espacos que sao projetados para formas especificas de abordagem de ensino e aprendizagem podem ser transformados quando tais espacos sao usados na pratica (DANIELS et al., 2017 no prelo). Temos evidencias de que mudancas subsequentes em termos de lideranca frequentemente envolvem modificacoes adicionais dos espacos e das praticas de ensino e aprendizagem. Neste artigo, acrescentamos a ideia de que essas mudancas tem consequencias para a experiencia cotidiana de escolarizacao, como foi evidenciado nos comentarios e nas acoes dos professors e alunos. Esses aspectos sao de particular importância neste momento. O Gabinete Nacional de Auditoria (The National Audit Office) (2017) chamou a atencao para o estado lamentavel das construcoes que abrigam as escolas publicas. Apontou tres preocupacoes: a condicao dos predios, a demanda crescente de vagas e os problemas relativos a entrega de projetos capitais. Fica claro que necessitamos aprender com as experiencias e os resultados de abordagens recentes relativas ao design e a construcao de novas escolas. Como o Departamento reconhece, desafios significativos permanecem. Espera-se que a condicao das escolas piore na medida em que construcoes em estado ruim, mas nao o pior possivel, se deteriorem ainda mais. O numero de estudantes continua a crecer e as demandas por vagas esta voltada para as escolas secundarias, onde tais vagas sao de provisao mais complexa e dispendiosa. O Departamento, as autoridades locais e as escolas necessitarao attender essas demandas em um momento em que sua capacidade de realizar programas capitais sofre pressao crescente decorrente da escassez de receita orcamentaria.

Maximal preference utilitarianism as an educational aspiration

Abstract This paper attempts to square libertarian principles with the reality of formal education by asking how far we should and can allow people to do as they wish in educational settings. The major focus is on children in schools, as the concept ‘childhood’ ipso facto implies restrictions on doing as one wishes, and schools as institutions entail inevitable constraints. Children by definition (however contested) tend to enjoy stronger protection rights but weaker liberty rights than adults. A local preferential calculus (after Bentham’s felicific calculus) is developed as a guide for teachers, suggesting wishes should be granted where feasible and at least welfare neutral. In the case of teachers, employers set the parameters for the feasibility criterion but should also ensure at least welfare neutrality, while students in adult and higher education should be responsible for the feasibility and welfare outcomes of their own choices.