T his essay starts with a personal example of some recent international politics surrounding educ... more T his essay starts with a personal example of some recent international politics surrounding educational reforms. It is an example that illuminates the damaging effects of some of the radically undemocratic policies that are being put in place by conservative governments in all too many countries..
Policy implications of research in education, 2023
Questions of structures and agency are significant in any serious considerations of the possibili... more Questions of structures and agency are significant in any serious considerations of the possibilities, limits, and effects of educational reforms. But the interrelations between educational policy and practice cannot be answered unless we deal directly with a number of issues: Who are the agents and what are the structures, movements, and identities that might lead to actions that support or resist dominant educational policies and practices. In this chapter, I critically examine three examples of agentic work. Each has its basis in successful struggles over knowledge, over what are considered to be "legitimate" or official understandings, and over the educational mechanisms that make these understandings available. The first two examples direct our attention to a set of agents who are not talked about enough-students as political/epistemological actors. The third asks whether tactical "hybrid" alliances between ideologically different movements can successfully challenge dominant structures and policies. All of them demonstrate the importance of our understanding the nature of collective alliance building and the creation of activist identities. Each of them contributes to the larger questions that I raised above.
The views or opinions presented in book reviews are solely those of the author(s) and do not nece... more The views or opinions presented in book reviews are solely those of the author(s) and do not necessarily represent those of Education Review.
The growth of critical analyses of the relationship between knowledge and power in education over... more The growth of critical analyses of the relationship between knowledge and power in education over the last three-four decades has its roots not only in the United States, with the centuries' long struggles by oppressed groups to have their cultures, histories, and knowledge represented in " official knowledge. " It also owes a debt to specific people outside our borders. This is not an insignificant point. In a time of nativist impulses and a " go it alone " set of national and international policies, it actually is rather salutary for educators in the United States to recognize their intellectual debts to the efforts of people outside our borders. In critical education, there are clear examples of this in the ways the work of Paulo Freire is drawn upon—although unfortunately he is often used by the wielders of Paulo's name for legitimacy and as a set of political slogans that sometimes masks the lack of overt organic connections both with the realities o...
El profesor Apple cuenta la experiencia que vivió hace unos años en Corea del Sur, para destacar ... more El profesor Apple cuenta la experiencia que vivió hace unos años en Corea del Sur, para destacar la importancia y los riesgos de tomar en serio el ser educador crítico, y para señalar que si la teoría y la práctica de la educación crítica se entienden simplemente como un área académica especializada, ampliamente utilizada para efectos de conversión, para ganar movilidad en el campo social del poder académico (Bordieu, 1984), pierden su valor y su poder, pues ellas crecen cuando están íntimamente conectadas con los movimientos sociales y las luchas que les dan vida.
In recent decades, nations across Asia have gone throughindeed are going throughmassive social, e... more In recent decades, nations across Asia have gone throughindeed are going throughmassive social, economic, and political transitions (Bell & Li, 2013; Chua, 2010; Lim & Apple, 2016). Governed until recently by either staunchly authoritarian and/or military governments, themselves often backed by colonial powers, many of these nations have since moved towards at least nominal forms of democracy and are embarking on "modernization" projects in response to the globalizing pressures of neoliberalism (
In recent decades, nations across Asia have gone throughindeed are going throughmassive social, e... more In recent decades, nations across Asia have gone throughindeed are going throughmassive social, economic, and political transitions (Bell & Li, 2013; Chua, 2010; Lim & Apple, 2016). Governed until recently by either staunchly authoritarian and/or military governments, themselves often backed by colonial powers, many of these nations have since moved towards at least nominal forms of democracy and are embarking on "modernization" projects in response to the globalizing pressures of neoliberalism (
... New states, new governance and new education policy 155 Stephen J. Ball 15 Towards a sociolog... more ... New states, new governance and new education policy 155 Stephen J. Ball 15 Towards a sociology of pedagogies 167 Bob Lingard 16 Families ... of education 190 Greg Dimitriadis 18 Schooling the body in a performative culture 200 John Evans, Brian Davies and Emma Rich 19 ...
1.Acknowledgements 2.List of Contributors 3.Chapter 1: Introducing the Strong State and Curriculu... more 1.Acknowledgements 2.List of Contributors 3.Chapter 1: Introducing the Strong State and Curriculum Reform in Asia (Leonel Lim and Michael W. Apple) Section One: Ideology and the Strong State: The Tensions and Limits of State Curricular Control 4. Chapter 2: Global City, Illiberal Ideology: Curriculum Control and the Politics of Pedagogy in Singapore (Leonel Lim) 5. Chapter 3: Strong State Politics of the National History Curriculum and Struggles for Knowledge, Ideology, and Power in South Korea (Mi Ok Kang) 6. Chapter 4: Unintended Hegemonic Effects: Institutional Incorporation of Chinese Schools in Postwar Hong Kong (Ting-Hong Wong) Section Two: Praxis and Change: Teachers, Social Movements and Pedagogic Agents 7. Chapter 5: National Education in Hong Kong: Curriculum as a site of struggle between "One Country" and "Two Systems" (Sara G. Lam) 8. Chapter 6: Social Movements and Educational Change in China: The Case of Migrant Children Schools (Min Yu) 9. Chapter 7: The Struggles of Teachers Unions in South Korea and the Politics of Educational Change (Hee-Ryong Kang) Section Three: Globalizing Hegemony: Resisting and Recontextualizing International Reforms 10. Chapter 8: Teach For/Future China and the Politics of Alternative Teacher Certification Programs in China (Christopher B. Crowley) 11. Chapter 9: The Politics of Neoliberal Loanwords in South Korean Cross-National Policy Borrowing (Youl-Kwan Sung) 12. Chapter 10: Provincializing and Globalizing Critical Studies of School Knowledge: Insights from the Japanese History Textbook Controversy over "Comfort Women" (Keita Takayama) 13. Chapter 11: Afterword (Michael W. Apple & Leonel Lim)
T his essay starts with a personal example of some recent international politics surrounding educ... more T his essay starts with a personal example of some recent international politics surrounding educational reforms. It is an example that illuminates the damaging effects of some of the radically undemocratic policies that are being put in place by conservative governments in all too many countries..
Policy implications of research in education, 2023
Questions of structures and agency are significant in any serious considerations of the possibili... more Questions of structures and agency are significant in any serious considerations of the possibilities, limits, and effects of educational reforms. But the interrelations between educational policy and practice cannot be answered unless we deal directly with a number of issues: Who are the agents and what are the structures, movements, and identities that might lead to actions that support or resist dominant educational policies and practices. In this chapter, I critically examine three examples of agentic work. Each has its basis in successful struggles over knowledge, over what are considered to be "legitimate" or official understandings, and over the educational mechanisms that make these understandings available. The first two examples direct our attention to a set of agents who are not talked about enough-students as political/epistemological actors. The third asks whether tactical "hybrid" alliances between ideologically different movements can successfully challenge dominant structures and policies. All of them demonstrate the importance of our understanding the nature of collective alliance building and the creation of activist identities. Each of them contributes to the larger questions that I raised above.
The views or opinions presented in book reviews are solely those of the author(s) and do not nece... more The views or opinions presented in book reviews are solely those of the author(s) and do not necessarily represent those of Education Review.
The growth of critical analyses of the relationship between knowledge and power in education over... more The growth of critical analyses of the relationship between knowledge and power in education over the last three-four decades has its roots not only in the United States, with the centuries' long struggles by oppressed groups to have their cultures, histories, and knowledge represented in " official knowledge. " It also owes a debt to specific people outside our borders. This is not an insignificant point. In a time of nativist impulses and a " go it alone " set of national and international policies, it actually is rather salutary for educators in the United States to recognize their intellectual debts to the efforts of people outside our borders. In critical education, there are clear examples of this in the ways the work of Paulo Freire is drawn upon—although unfortunately he is often used by the wielders of Paulo's name for legitimacy and as a set of political slogans that sometimes masks the lack of overt organic connections both with the realities o...
El profesor Apple cuenta la experiencia que vivió hace unos años en Corea del Sur, para destacar ... more El profesor Apple cuenta la experiencia que vivió hace unos años en Corea del Sur, para destacar la importancia y los riesgos de tomar en serio el ser educador crítico, y para señalar que si la teoría y la práctica de la educación crítica se entienden simplemente como un área académica especializada, ampliamente utilizada para efectos de conversión, para ganar movilidad en el campo social del poder académico (Bordieu, 1984), pierden su valor y su poder, pues ellas crecen cuando están íntimamente conectadas con los movimientos sociales y las luchas que les dan vida.
In recent decades, nations across Asia have gone throughindeed are going throughmassive social, e... more In recent decades, nations across Asia have gone throughindeed are going throughmassive social, economic, and political transitions (Bell & Li, 2013; Chua, 2010; Lim & Apple, 2016). Governed until recently by either staunchly authoritarian and/or military governments, themselves often backed by colonial powers, many of these nations have since moved towards at least nominal forms of democracy and are embarking on "modernization" projects in response to the globalizing pressures of neoliberalism (
In recent decades, nations across Asia have gone throughindeed are going throughmassive social, e... more In recent decades, nations across Asia have gone throughindeed are going throughmassive social, economic, and political transitions (Bell & Li, 2013; Chua, 2010; Lim & Apple, 2016). Governed until recently by either staunchly authoritarian and/or military governments, themselves often backed by colonial powers, many of these nations have since moved towards at least nominal forms of democracy and are embarking on "modernization" projects in response to the globalizing pressures of neoliberalism (
... New states, new governance and new education policy 155 Stephen J. Ball 15 Towards a sociolog... more ... New states, new governance and new education policy 155 Stephen J. Ball 15 Towards a sociology of pedagogies 167 Bob Lingard 16 Families ... of education 190 Greg Dimitriadis 18 Schooling the body in a performative culture 200 John Evans, Brian Davies and Emma Rich 19 ...
1.Acknowledgements 2.List of Contributors 3.Chapter 1: Introducing the Strong State and Curriculu... more 1.Acknowledgements 2.List of Contributors 3.Chapter 1: Introducing the Strong State and Curriculum Reform in Asia (Leonel Lim and Michael W. Apple) Section One: Ideology and the Strong State: The Tensions and Limits of State Curricular Control 4. Chapter 2: Global City, Illiberal Ideology: Curriculum Control and the Politics of Pedagogy in Singapore (Leonel Lim) 5. Chapter 3: Strong State Politics of the National History Curriculum and Struggles for Knowledge, Ideology, and Power in South Korea (Mi Ok Kang) 6. Chapter 4: Unintended Hegemonic Effects: Institutional Incorporation of Chinese Schools in Postwar Hong Kong (Ting-Hong Wong) Section Two: Praxis and Change: Teachers, Social Movements and Pedagogic Agents 7. Chapter 5: National Education in Hong Kong: Curriculum as a site of struggle between "One Country" and "Two Systems" (Sara G. Lam) 8. Chapter 6: Social Movements and Educational Change in China: The Case of Migrant Children Schools (Min Yu) 9. Chapter 7: The Struggles of Teachers Unions in South Korea and the Politics of Educational Change (Hee-Ryong Kang) Section Three: Globalizing Hegemony: Resisting and Recontextualizing International Reforms 10. Chapter 8: Teach For/Future China and the Politics of Alternative Teacher Certification Programs in China (Christopher B. Crowley) 11. Chapter 9: The Politics of Neoliberal Loanwords in South Korean Cross-National Policy Borrowing (Youl-Kwan Sung) 12. Chapter 10: Provincializing and Globalizing Critical Studies of School Knowledge: Insights from the Japanese History Textbook Controversy over "Comfort Women" (Keita Takayama) 13. Chapter 11: Afterword (Michael W. Apple & Leonel Lim)
This introductory chapter develops an account of the relations between curriculum, ideology and “... more This introductory chapter develops an account of the relations between curriculum, ideology and “official” knowledge, and problematizes these in light of the politics of the strong state in Asia. Given the unique state-society relations in many nations in Asia, the chapter makes the case for a turn to “Asia as method” in order to develop critical theoretical approaches that take seriously the social and political dynamics of the research contexts. The chapter concludes with an overview of the volume’s three sections and an outline of its subsequent chapters.
In this final chapter the authors recount the major themes and emphases of the volume, tracing ou... more In this final chapter the authors recount the major themes and emphases of the volume, tracing out their significance in terms of the unfolding political landscape in Asia. The discussion centers on the role of critical scholars/activists as public and organic intellectuals, with the authors outlining the nine tasks involved in such political work and scholarship and unpacking their relevance for scholars working in the region.
Practice Theory and Education challenges how we think about ‘practice’, examining what it means a... more Practice Theory and Education challenges how we think about ‘practice’, examining what it means across different fields and sites. It is organised into four themes: discursive practices; practice, change and organisations; practising subjectivity; and professional practice, public policy and education.
Contributors to the collection engage and extend practice theory by drawing on the legacies of diverse social and cultural theorists, including Bourdieu, de Certeau, Deleuze and Guattari, Dewey, Latour, Marx, and Vygotsky, and by building on the theoretical trajectories of contemporary authors such as Karen Barad, Yrjo Engestrom, Andreas Reckwitz, Theodore Schatzki, Dorothy Smith, and Charles Taylor. The proximity of ideas from different fields and theoretical traditions in the book highlight key matters of concern in contemporary practice thinking, including the historicity of practice; the nature of change in professional practices; the place of discursive material in practice; the efficacy of refiguring conventional understandings of subjectivity and agency; and the capacity for theories of practice to disrupt conventional understandings of asymmetries of power and resources. Their juxtaposition also points to areas of contestation and raises important questions for future research.
Practice Theory and Education will appeal to postgraduate students, academics and researchers in professional practice and education, and scholars working with social theory. It will be of particular interest to those who wish to move beyond the limiting configurations of practice found in contemporary neoliberal, new managerialist and narrow representationalist discourses.
TOC Chapter 1. Introduction: Diffractive readings in practice theory by Julianne Lynch, Julie Rowlands, Trevor Gale & Andrew Skourdoumbis
SECTION 1 – Discursive practices: Practising words, writing and theory
Chapter 2. Exploring words as people’s practices by Dorothy E Smith
Chapter 3. Accounting for practice in an age of theory: Charles Taylor’s theory of social imaginaries by Steven Hodge and Stephen Parker
Chapter 4. Michel de Certeau: Research writing as an everyday practice by Julianne Lynch and Kristoffer Greaves
Chapter 5. ‘Gestures towards’: Conceptualising literary practices for Crises of Ecologies by David Harris
SECTION 2 – Practice, change and organisations
Chapter 6. Shaping and being shaped: extending the relationship between habitus and practice by Julie Rowlands and Trevor Gale
Chapter 7. Practicing policy networks: Using organisational field theory to examine philanthropic involvement in education policy by Joseph J. Ferrare and Michael W. Apple
Chapter 8. A Cultural-Historical Approach to Practice: working within and across practices by Anne Edwards
Chapter 9. The development of a text counselling practice: An actor-network theory account by Ailsa Haxell
SECTION 3 – Practising subjectivity
Chapter 10. Parsing and Re-Constituting Human Practice as Mind-in-Activity by Peter H. Sawchuk
Chapter 11. Boobs and Barbie: Feminist posthuman perspectives on gender, bodies and practice by Julia Coffey and Jessica Ringrose
Chapter 12. The practice of survival: reflexivity and transformation of contract-employed beginning teachers’ professional practice by Michelle Ludecke
Chapter 13. Classroom activity systems and practices of care by Catherine Smith and Russell Cross
SECTION 4 – Professional practice, public policy and education
Chapter 14. Bad research, bad education: The contested evidence for evidence-based research, policy and practice in education by Michael A Peters and Marek Tesar
Chapter 15. Deliberations on the deliberative professional: Thought-action provocations by Trevor Gale and Tebeje Molla
Chapter 16. The temptations and failings of teacher effectiveness research: Provocations of a ‘practice perspective’ by Andrew Skourdoumbis and Julianne Lynch
Uploads
Papers by Michael Apple
Contributors to the collection engage and extend practice theory by drawing on the legacies of diverse social and cultural theorists, including Bourdieu, de Certeau, Deleuze and Guattari, Dewey, Latour, Marx, and Vygotsky, and by building on the theoretical trajectories of contemporary authors such as Karen Barad, Yrjo Engestrom, Andreas Reckwitz, Theodore Schatzki, Dorothy Smith, and Charles Taylor. The proximity of ideas from different fields and theoretical traditions in the book highlight key matters of concern in contemporary practice thinking, including the historicity of practice; the nature of change in professional practices; the place of discursive material in practice; the efficacy of refiguring conventional understandings of subjectivity and agency; and the capacity for theories of practice to disrupt conventional understandings of asymmetries of power and resources. Their juxtaposition also points to areas of contestation and raises important questions for future research.
Practice Theory and Education will appeal to postgraduate students, academics and researchers in professional practice and education, and scholars working with social theory. It will be of particular interest to those who wish to move beyond the limiting configurations of practice found in contemporary neoliberal, new managerialist and narrow representationalist discourses.
TOC
Chapter 1. Introduction: Diffractive readings in practice theory by Julianne Lynch, Julie Rowlands, Trevor Gale & Andrew Skourdoumbis
SECTION 1 – Discursive practices: Practising words, writing and theory
Chapter 2. Exploring words as people’s practices by Dorothy E Smith
Chapter 3. Accounting for practice in an age of theory: Charles Taylor’s theory of social imaginaries by Steven Hodge and Stephen Parker
Chapter 4. Michel de Certeau: Research writing as an everyday practice by Julianne Lynch and Kristoffer Greaves
Chapter 5. ‘Gestures towards’: Conceptualising literary practices for Crises of Ecologies by David Harris
SECTION 2 – Practice, change and organisations
Chapter 6. Shaping and being shaped: extending the relationship between habitus and practice by Julie Rowlands and Trevor Gale
Chapter 7. Practicing policy networks: Using organisational field theory to examine philanthropic involvement in education policy by Joseph J. Ferrare and Michael W. Apple
Chapter 8. A Cultural-Historical Approach to Practice: working within and across practices by Anne Edwards
Chapter 9. The development of a text counselling practice: An actor-network theory account by Ailsa Haxell
SECTION 3 – Practising subjectivity
Chapter 10. Parsing and Re-Constituting Human Practice as Mind-in-Activity by Peter H. Sawchuk
Chapter 11. Boobs and Barbie: Feminist posthuman perspectives on gender, bodies and practice by Julia Coffey and Jessica Ringrose
Chapter 12. The practice of survival: reflexivity and transformation of contract-employed beginning teachers’ professional practice by Michelle Ludecke
Chapter 13. Classroom activity systems and practices of care by Catherine Smith and Russell Cross
SECTION 4 – Professional practice, public policy and education
Chapter 14. Bad research, bad education: The contested evidence for evidence-based research, policy and practice in education by Michael A Peters and Marek Tesar
Chapter 15. Deliberations on the deliberative professional: Thought-action provocations by Trevor Gale and Tebeje Molla
Chapter 16. The temptations and failings of teacher effectiveness research: Provocations of a ‘practice perspective’ by Andrew Skourdoumbis and Julianne Lynch