María José García Ruiz

Implications of the New Social Characteristics of Knowledge Production

In July 2002, the CESE Conference was organised at the Institute of Education, University of London. The themes of the working groups that were dealt with in this conference touched upon some key questions that still remain of crucial interest today and which have yet to find definitive answers. One of these working groups, to give an example, dealt with the new pedagogies and sites of learning. One of the questions posed then and yet not fully resolved was, How do new modes of learning and teaching affect traditional modes of professional control? (CESE 2002). Another working group dealt with the issue of the changing notions of knowledge and educational systems. In this respect, one of the questions posed, also of great interest currently, was, Is the balance of information, data, learning, school knowledge, scholarship and research as concepts of being educated changing and in what directions?

Comparative education in Spain in the 21st century

ABSTRACTThe current process of globalisation has led to a convergence of international and Spanish concerns regarding teaching and research issues in the area of comparative education. Both in their teaching and their research work, the academics within the Spanish comparative community display a notable – and typically Hispanic – heterogeneity. This includes their use of epistemologically diverse frameworks and paradigms as well as their penchant for intellectual and teaching traditions built upon a wide-ranging, diverse gnoseological foundation. Along with research agendas focused on topics well within the orthodoxy and tradition of the field, Spanish comparative work has also tackled subjects long advocated by the late-modern agenda such as post-colonialism, the world ‘disorder’ and refugees and hospitality pedagogy. The communitys engagement with and analysis of the cultural reality of Latin America stands out as a specific feature of Spanish comparative studies. While the works published in the Revi...ABSTRACT The current process of globalisation has led to a convergence of international and Spanish concerns regarding teaching and research issues in the area of comparative education. Both in their teaching and their research work, the academics within the Spanish comparative community display a notable – and typically Hispanic – heterogeneity. This includes their use of epistemologically diverse frameworks and paradigms as well as their penchant for intellectual and teaching traditions built upon a wide-ranging, diverse gnoseological foundation. Along with research agendas focused on topics well within the orthodoxy and tradition of the field, Spanish comparative work has also tackled subjects long advocated by the late-modern agenda such as post-colonialism, the world ‘disorder’ and refugees and hospitality pedagogy. The communitys engagement with and analysis of the cultural reality of Latin America stands out as a specific feature of Spanish comparative studies. While the works published in the Revista Española de Educación Comparada (REEC) (Spanish Journal of Comparative Education) attest to the theorisation and markedly interdisciplinary nature of the analyses carried out by many of our academics, the authors of this essay argue for the inclusion of teleological perspectives. Only by incorporating the viewpoints offered by these teleological disciplines will we be able to stand up to the sterile, eminently relativist tendencies of post-modern epistemology.

Un elemento de prolongado consenso en la política educativa española: la acción educativa de España en el exterior

The theoretical approaches of Postmodernism and Postcolonialism are indeed very critical with the actions of linguistic and cultural projection undertaken by emblematic institutions such as l´Alliance Francaise, the Goethe Institut, the British Council and the Instituto Cervantes. In spite of these criticisms, it can be stated that those institutions, not only develop an academically excellent task, but also indeed develop an extremely laudable and irreplaceable action in respect of the construction of the global multicultural and plurilingual societies. Spanish foreign educational policy stands as one of the most solid and stable elements of the precaurious consensus of the Spanish society in educational policy. Such policy is articulated by a coherent and stable legislative frame which has been constructed by the two main Spanish political parties. Spanish foreign educational policy is vertebrated by a collection of institutions of diverse kind which hold the common feature of developing an excellent education. The contents of the teachings in those institutions disseminate the excellence of the Spanish cultural and linguistic heritage. The Spanish teachers that teach abroad hold certain knowledge, aptitudes and motivation and readiness which are not equally present in the Spanish teaching forece that does not participate in those programmes. It can be stated that, if PISA assessements had been undertaken on the basis of our pupils abroad, the ranking of Spain in PISA would have been very different. The excellence of the task and performance of the Spanish teaching abroad requires a diffusion and a presence in the educational debate of Spanish society far much higher than the one it has in the present.

Pedagogical and Epistemological Paradigms in the University in the Era of Globalisation

In academic circles there is a great deal of debate regarding the nature and the meaning of globalisation. There are writers who claim that globalisation ”constitutes a new and specific relationship between Nation States and the global economy” (Dale, 2007, p. 48) through which “national governments are forced to seek the modernisation of their national economies […] and to strengthen their national welfare systems’ capacity for international competition“ (Ibid., p. 49). Whichever definition is preferred for globalisation and the geographical-temporal coordinates of its origin, there seems to be no consensus regarding whether the globalisation process has a unifying and homogeneous impact on the different countries subjected to its influence or whether, to the contrary, the effect tends to result in the diversification of national politics.