The paradoxes of practical research: The good intentions of inclusion that exclude and abject

2020 ◽  
Vol 19 (4) ◽  
pp. 271-288
Author(s):  
Thomas S Popkewitz

There is an alluring, daunting, and haunting desire for practical knowledge in the contemporary social and education sciences about school change. This desire is not new: it haunts the turn of 20th century social sciences to change urban conditions and populations, and appears today in international school assessments and professional education. The article explores the paradoxes of practical research through a history of the present. Different historical lines activated in contemporary research are discussed: (a) the object of practical knowledge is making kinds of people; (b) the sciences about changing the present embody desires about the potentialities of society and people that research is to actualize; and (c) the “useful, practical knowledge” paradoxically embodies comparative styles of reasoning that inscribe inequality in the search for equality. The argument focuses on science as “an actor” in governing. It argues that governing in modernity occurs less through brute force (although it is still present) and more through the principles that order and classify conduct. The sciences of the modern school are central in this governing. The article methodologically draws on social and cultural histories, science and technology studies, and studies of the politics of knowledge.

2019 ◽  
pp. 52-56
Author(s):  
V. V. Tarapata

The article describes the prerequisites for the use of educational robotics in the school course of informatics, the history of the development of its directions and the normative basis for its use in modern school education. A typical model of an educational robotic project for the organization of research and project activities of students has been proposed. The technological chart of the lesson as an example of the implementation of a robotic project in the framework of the research activities on informatics is considered. Approaches to the organization of educational activities, teaching tools and ways of evaluation in informatics class on the theme “Information processes. Information transmission” when using the project approach are described.


2020 ◽  
Vol 63 (10) ◽  
pp. 7-24
Author(s):  
Anatoly A. Lazarevich

The article considers the formation and development of philosophy in Belarus in the context of historical conditions and modern opportunities. Discussing the national context of the philosophical process, the author reveals the four aspects of the phenomenon of “national philosophy.” Firstly, there are national institutional and disciplinary structures, which are responsible for an organized scientific, methodological, research and educational activity, which at the level of the nation-state is formalized by certain institutions, system of professional education, norms of professional ethos, standards of behavior within the community and in the wider social environment. Secondly, in the light of philosophical culture, national philosophy is interpreted as a set of value and cognitive orientations passed down from generation to generation. Thirdly, national philosophy can be viewed in the aspect of the tradition of studying the philosophical thought of the nation in the context of its historical development. Fourthly, national philosophy appears in the aspect of the philosophical foundations of the national idea and national-cultural identity. The author examines the main stages of the development of the Belarusian philosophical culture, it is shown that the features of this culture were formed under the condition of a complex combination of the worldview and values of Latin civilization, Christianity, modern European science, rationalism of social projects of the Enlightenment, ideological and worldview attitudes of Western Russian culture, formalized Soviet philosophical disciplines. The article reviews the circle of theoretical, ideological, and practical problems that the modern philosophical process in Belarus faces, the author emphasizes the unfading value of philosophical knowledge as a source of heuristic means for finding effective local answers to global problems of cultural and civilizational development. The author argues that there are two conditions that make national philosophy possible: this is, first of all, a connection with the history of thought in the area of national genesis and also the expression of thought in a national language.


Author(s):  
Harold D. Morales

The conclusion provides a summary of key developments in the history of Latino Muslim communities and also critically explores future possibilities. While weaving a trail among the history of Islamic Spain, the Alianza Islamica, and subsequent Latino Muslim organizations, the struggle for recognition through solidarity groups emerges as a prominent theme throughout the book. However, this approach to liberation raises complex issues regarding the efficacy and logics of identity politics. Drawing on various sources, I argue that practical knowledge of how to know and how to be in relation with one another may circumvent identity politics premised on static propositional knowledge of groups like Latino Muslims.


Author(s):  
Paola Bertucci

This chapter talks about early attempts to constitute associations dedicated to the improvement of the mechanical arts, casting light in particular on the earlier, little-known Société des Arts founded in Paris during the Regency (1718). It frames such associations within the broader economic history of France, with special attention to the history of artisans' migrations between France and England, and the demands deriving from France's colonial expansion. Artistes involved in these associations advocated a clear distinction between theoretical and practical knowledge, which aimed to discredit the expertise of academic institutions in technical matters. Appropriating Francis Bacon's distinction between operative and speculative knowledge, artistes contrasted the philosophers' search for truth to their expertise on practical matters and their concern with public good.


2018 ◽  
Vol 4 ◽  
pp. 179 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fadhila Mazanderani ◽  
Isabel Fletcher ◽  
Pablo Schyfter

Talking STS is a collection of interviews and accompanying reflections on the origins, the present and the future of the field referred to as Science and Technology Studies or Science, Technology and Society (STS). The volume assembles the thoughts and recollections of some of the leading figures in the making of this field. The occasion for producing the collection has been the fiftieth anniversary of the founding of the University of Edinburgh’s Science Studies Unit (SSU). The Unit’s place in the history of STS is consequently a recurring theme of the volume. However, the interviews assembled here have a broader purpose – to present interviewees’ situated and idiosyncratic experiences and perspectives on STS, going beyond the contributions made to it by any one individual, department or institution. Both individually and collectively, these conversations provide autobiographically informed insights on STS. Together with the reflections, they prompt further discussion, reflection and questioning about this constantly evolving field.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Clare Grall ◽  
Emily S. Finn

So-called “naturalistic” stimuli have risen in popularity in cognitive, social, and affective psychology and neuroscience over the last 15 years. However, a critical property of these stimuli is frequently overlooked: Media—like film, television, books, and podcasts—are fundamentally not natural. They are deliberately crafted products meant to elicit particular human thought, emotion, and behavior. Given the rich history of scholarship on media as an art and science, subsuming media stimuli under the term “naturalistic” in psychological and brain sciences is inaccurate and obfuscates the advantages that media stimuli offer because they are artificial. Here, we argue for a more informed approach to adopting media stimuli in naturalistic paradigms. We empirically review how researchers currently describe and justify their choice of stimuli for a given experiment and present strategies to improve rigor in the stimulus selection process. We assert that experiencing media should be considered a task akin to any other experimental task(s), and explain how this shift in perspective will compel more nuanced and generalizable research using these stimuli. Throughout, we offer theoretical and practical knowledge from multidisciplinary media research to raise the standard for the treatment of media stimuli in psychological and neuroscientific research.


Author(s):  
Elena A. Pogorelaya

The article offers a variant of updating the modern school literature program by including modern texts aimed at “young adult literature”. In contrast to the foreign practice of publishing and discussing literature for teenagers and “young adults”, in which new children’s literature has long been working with the established taboos of the adult world (themes of death, sex, bullying in the collective, domestic violence, etc.), in Russia the value of such literature is a debatable issue, although a number of popular texts (P. Sanaev, N. Abgaryan, D. Sabitova et al.), obviously, correspond to this trend. Based on an experiment with grade 8 students, who were offered modern works of three thematic blocks (texts dedicated to unknown and tragic pages of the history of the XX century, family themes and topical issues of relations between peers), the potential of modern domestic and foreign literature young adult to encourage interested reading and dialogue with the student is shown. The article presents comments on excerpts from school essays, in which they tell about the texts they read and offer to include in the school course works that are understandable and close to the modern teenager.


2021 ◽  
pp. 42-83
Author(s):  
Andrea Mariani

The article presents the social role of Jesuit pharmacies in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth based on the sources of religious provenance and inventories of Jesuit colleges drawn up as a result of the dissolution of the Society of Jesus in 1773. In the first part, the author analyzes the ecclesiastical and secular legislation and its impact on the activities of Jesuit pharmacies. Canon law did not forbid clergymen to deal with medicine, but only limited the possibility of obtaining academic education in this field and conducting surgical procedures. By adopting these rules, Jesuit legislation placed the main emphasis on superiors’ control over the finances of pharmacies and limited the sale of drugs to protect the order from being accused of unfair competition by the townspeople. In the context of state pharmaceutical law, the privilege of June 30, 1662, which allowed for the liberation of journeymen by Jesuit pharmacists, was of great importance. In this way, a path of professional education in the field of pharmacy under the management of the Society, an alternative to the guild system, was created. The second part of the article discusses the social factors that favoured the establishment of monastic pharmacies. Particularly noteworthy is the uneven distribution of Jesuit pharmacies in the former Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. While in Royal Prussia the Jesuits did not run pharmacies to avoid conflicts with the Protestant bourgeoisie, in the eastern borderlands of the Polish-Lithuanian state, Jesuit pharmacies were often the only institutions of this type. The third part of the work presents the financial situation of Jesuit pharmacies. They had significant income, but also required considerable investments related to the purchase of raw materials and equipment in the Baltic ports. The fourth part of the article concerns the social scope of the activity of Jesuit pharmacists, who not only provided medicines to the poor, but also treated nobles, magnates and high church dignitaries. Not being obliged by guild regulations, apart from preparing medicines, they also diagnosed them, performed minor surgical procedures and assisted women during childbirth. The last part of the article discusses drugs and raw materials in terms of their availability to the broadly understood clientele. The offer of Jesuit pharmacies included both cheap products derived from the local flora, intended for the treatment of the poor, and expensive raw materials from abroad. Moreover, among the medical matter there were preparations for women and infants, as well as for people suffering from syphilis. In the end, the author emphasizes the centrality of pharmacies in the Jesuit pastoral strategy. Thanks to their high level, pharmacies not only corresponded to the ideal of mercy, but also contributed to gaining the favour and trust of representatives of social elites. In this context, the dissolution of the Society is an important turning point not only in cultural and religious life, but also in the history of medicine and pharmacy in the former Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth.


Author(s):  
Christopher White

Michael Vincent Levey (1927–2008), a Fellow of the British Academy, devoted his professional career to the National Gallery, becoming one of its most distinguished and effective directors. During his time in office (1973–1987), he was substantially responsible for modernising the Gallery in both its attitudes and services to the public. New programmes were introduced and new galleries were built, and, most important of all, a number of masterpieces were added to the collection. At a New Year's Eve party in 1953, Levey met Brigid Brophy, an up-and-coming novelist, the daughter of the writer John Brophy. Love was instantaneous and in six months they were married. His most wide-ranging innovation in the administration of the National Gallery was the creation of a fully professional Education Department. At his death, Levey was engaged in writing a biography of Ellen Terry, which met both his great interest in the history of the theatre and his fascination with a magnetic personality who had long intrigued him.


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