Nicki Hedge

Travelling towards change in assessment: Policy, practice and research in education

Whilst there is evidence of significant investment in policy-led initiatives to raise attainment in schools, there is rather less evidence of the positive impact of such initiatives. In this paper we explore stakeholder views of recent initiatives in assessment in Scotland in an attempt to discern the relationships between assessment policy, research and practice in schools. Against a background of major assessment initiatives and by drawing on data from two national consultations, the paper illustrates the complexities inherent in following advice for policy developments to begin from where people are now. Finally, the paper explores the possibility of a new assessment journey for researchers, teachers and policy-makers, one which acknowledges the complex process of community-based transformational change.

International students, export earnings and the demands of global justice

Is it just to charge international students fees that are generally much higher than those paid by home and European Union students at UK universities? Exploring the ethical tension between universities’ avowed commitment to social justice on the one hand and selling education to foreign students at a premium on the other, we argue that increased global association and the reduced salience of the sovereign state make the education of international students an issue of global justice. If we view education as a global public good, the ethics of higher education provision call for reconsideration of both the current fee regime and of universities’ role in a competitive global economy.

Putting Nussbaum’s Capability Approach to work: re-visiting inclusion

The Capabilities Approach places dignity at its core, emphasising people as ends not means who should be enabled to achieve the plans and goals they have reason to value. Focussed on the entitlement of all people to flourish and to be treated with equal respect, we argue here that this approach lends itself to a consideration of ethical issues around the nature of inclusion in education. We consider the lives of children and young people unable to flourish because of a disability, impairment or a label that assigns them to a ‘special’ or ‘additional support needs’ category, framing our discussion around Nussbaum’s Capability Approach. We suggest this approach provides a useful addition to the theoretical repertoire required to progress inclusion and inclusive education with particular respect to issues such as justice, equality, respect and dignity and, critically, to what people are able to do and to be.

Redefining Roles: university e-learning contributing to lifelong learning in a networked world?

Distance education enabled by e-learning is at the forefront of university participation in an increasingly connected world. Physical, temporal, cultural and educational borders are becoming both less rigid and less predictable than ever before. The authors suggest, in this article, that university distance e-learning could and should allow universities to make a major contribution to lifelong learning in this networked world. However, just as lifelong learning and distance e-learning are subject to multiple interpretations and realisations, the role that universities might play in contributing to global lifelong learning is currently far from clear. Both distance education, as a mode of learning and teaching, and lifelong learning, as an aspiration and a policy, bring issues pertaining to the roles and values of universities into sharp focus. On the fluid, unpredictable landscape of global higher education are traced the imperatives driving distance e-learning and lifelong learning in order to discern the redrawing of borders that appears to be emerging. The parallels between unsettled territories and unresolved tensions in distance e-learning and lifelong learning will be highlighted. The authors suggest that distance e-learning could enable lifelong learning and that lifelong learning, broadly interpreted, should be a cornerstone of university strategy and activity in a world that is increasingly networked.

Sex Education: Challenges and Choices.

ABSTRACT Noting public concern about sexual exploitation, abuse and sexualisation, we argue that sex education in the UK needs revision. Choice is a feature of current sex education policy and, acknowledging that choice can be problematic, we defend its place in an approach to sex education premised on informed deliberation, relational autonomy, a particular view of personhood and moral literacy. We argue, however, that choice and the approach outlined must be located in the realities of young people’s lives.

Scotland’s Curriculum for Excellence: a defence of autonomy and personhood.

Abstract Curriculum for Excellence, Scotland’s 3–18 curriculum, has been described as ‘the most significant curricular change in Scotland for a generation’ (McAra, Broadley & McLauchlan, 2013, p. 223). The purpose of the curriculum is ‘encapsulated’ in four capacities in order that learners become i) successful learners, ii) confident individuals, iii) responsible citizens, and iv) effective contributors. With particular reference to these capacities, we explore the principle of autonomy as it pertains to both individual and collective flourishing. In so doing we seek to disarm commonplace criticisms of autonomy by proposing it might be put to work in CfE as a multi-dimensional, context-sensitive concept that is relational as well as individual. We conclude that the four capacities lend themselves to re-consideration and re-mapping in pursuit of autonomy and flourishing premised on the principles of personhood.

Riots and Reactions: Hypocrisy and Disaffiliation?

The August 2011 riots in England occasioned widespread condemnation from government and the media. Here, we apply the concepts of hypocrisy and affiliation to explore reactions to these riots. Initially acknowledging that politics necessitates a degree of hypocrisy, we note that some forms of hypocrisy are indefensible: they compromise integrity. With rioters condemned as thugs and members of a feral underclass, some reactions exemplified forms of corrosive hypocrisy that deflected attention away from economic, social and cultural problems. Moreover, such reactions omitted to attend to the concept of [dis]affiliation amongst young rioters. Accordingly, we look to the role that education might play in re-affiliating those who do not feel they belong to, or have a sufficient stake in, society. Whilst our focus is on the riots in England, the exploration of hypocrisy and affiliation, and discussion of education for re-affiliation, transcends that national context.