Session Information
28 SES 11, School Rethinking: Regime of Enunciation, Educational Technology and Ethno-Racial Challenges
Paper Session
Contribution
Following Foucault´s theory of the epistemological frameworks (Renaissance Episteme; Classical Episteme and Contemporary Episteme, the authors explore the question already placed by other sociologists and educationalists of whether the education system is stuck in the contemporary episteme, still responding to the demands of a long gone Industrial Revolution, not having adapted to the needs of the society of information.
Dewey at the beginning of XX century already theorized and alerted against the danger of an educational system that limited the learning capacities of children by standardizing contents, fragmenting knowledge and limiting the ability of children to make choices about their learning. The issues raised by Dewey have remained in the education system throughout the past one hundred years but only certain initiatives from the private sector have tried to address them by using alternative pedagogical methodologies. Western governments have persisted in the implementation of educational systems based on the fragmentation of knowledge, the separation of students in age groups and the isolation of children in classrooms under the control of one teacher who is responsible of the transmission of knowledge designed at Governmental Departments for Education, as part of a process that is outside the control of those who are a the receiving end of it, the students.
The development of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) brings hope to educational reformers as they are seem as an ideal tool for holistic project based learning, where objectives focused on the acquisition of competencies and skills and not just in transferring knowledge.
We can also observe a growing tendency within certain sectors of middle class and aspirational working class parents that question the mainstream system and wish for a return to the promised land described in Dewey´s work. From the point of view of the demand, we can observe a growing number of people who choose alternatives to the mainstream school that range from home schooling to flexi-schooling with various options in between. From the point of view of the offer, different private initiatives have arisen either in the form of co-operatives, community groups, community interest companies or charities. They are often the result of groups of parents working together to build an educational alternative that meets their values, ethos and aspirations by using alternative pedagogies and relying on ICT to support networking and a learning process that expands beyond the classroom wall (if they exist at all).
The authors will present empirical research that builds a profile of this emerging sector of parents and the type of provisions that have been created to meet their needs. The focus of the research is a comparative study of the situation in Spain and the United Kingdom. A case study will be presented, an alternative provision in Manchester created to support homeschoolers and flexi-schoolers under the initiative of a group of parents.
The objectives of the research are the following:
To gather realistic numbers of people who opt out the mainstream school system to either home educate or take alternative options such as flexi-schooling.
To understand the values, aspirations and demands of this sector as well as their socio-economic background.
To identify alternative methods and pedagogies that try to offer an alternative to the current schooling system with the aim of providing possible answers to the weaknesses identified on the education system.
To analyse the uses of ICT in providing an infrastructure and effective learning environments to facilitate alternative learning journeys outside of school.
Method
Expected Outcomes
References
Balanskat, A., Blamire, R. & Kefala, S. (2006). The ICT Impact Report. A review of studies of ICT impact on schools in Europe. (http://ec.europa.eu/education/doc/reports/doc/ictimpact.pdf). Bigum, C. & Kenway, J. (1998). New information technologies and the ambiguous future of schooling – some possible scenarios. In A. Hargreaves, A. Lieberman, M. Fullan & al. (Eds), International handbook of educational change. (pp. 95-115). Dordrecht: Sptimger. Callahan, R. (1962). Education and the Cult of Efficiency. University of Chicago Press. Carstens, A. & Beck, J. (2005). Get ready for the gamer generation. Washington, D.C.: TechTrends. Dewey, J. (1990). The School and Society and the Child and the Curriculum. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press. Foucault, M. (2008). Las palabras y las cosas. Madrid: Siglo XXI. Fullan, M. (1991). The new meaning of Educational Change. London: Cassell. Kapp, K. (2012) The Gamification of Learnin and Instruction: Game-based Methods and Strategies for Training and Education. Pfeiffer. Peters, O. (2000). Digital learning environments: new possibilities. International Review of Research in Open and Distance Learning, 1, 1. (http://www.irrodl.org/index.php/irrodl/article/view/3/336). Robinson, K. (2009). The Element. London: Penguin. Scheuermann, F. & Pedró, F. (2009). Assessing the effects of ICT in Education. European Commission Joint Research Centre. Salen, K. (2010) On Learning Through Games. Video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xV_VlhV99EA Veen, W. & Vrakking, B. (2006). Homo Zappiens: growing up in a digital age. London: Continuum International Publishing Group.
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