Stefan Collini Everything for Sale? The Marketisation of UK Higher Education by Roger Brown, with Helen Carasso

It’s time for the criticism to stop. Whatever you think about the changes to higher education that have been made in recent years, in particular the decision in the autumn of 2010 largely to replace public funding of teaching with student fees, this is now the system we’ve got. Carping about the principle or sniping at the process is simply unhelpful: it antagonises ministers and officials, thereby jeopardising future negotiations, and it wins little sympathy from the media and wider public. This country is in desperate need of jobs and of economic growth, and in higher education as in every other sphere we are now competing in a global market. So pipe down, and let’s all focus on making this system work as effectively as possible.

List of democratic schools

 

There is no monolithic definition of democratic education or democratic schools. But what we mean here is “education in which young people have the freedom to organize their daily activities, and in which there is equality and democratic decision-making among young people and adults,” as quoted from AERO’s Directory of Democratic Education.

 

These schools and programs take many forms and include public and private alternatives and homeschool resource centers. Please send us any suggestions for additions to this list.

Public Intellectuals Against the Neoliberal University

Tuesday, 29 October 2013 09:16 By Henry A Giroux, Truthout | Op-Ed

«The University is a critical institution or it is nothing.» – Stuart Hall

I want to begin with the words of the late African-American poet, Audre Lourde, who was in her time a formidable writer, educator, feminist, gay rights activist and public intellectual who displayed a relentless courage in addressing the injustices she witnessed all around her.  She writes:

Poetry is not a luxury. It is a vital necessity of our existence. It forms the quality of the light within which we predicate our hopes and dreams toward survival and change, first made into language, then into idea, then into more tangible action. Poetry is the way we help give name to the nameless so it can be thought. The farthest horizons of our hopes and fears are cobbled by our poems, carved from the rock experiences of our daily lives.1

Free schools: our education system has been dismembered in pursuit of choice

 

Our uneven and unclear education provision now allows well-informed, persistent parents to entrench social advantage

Stephen Ball/The Guardian,

Capital City Academy school, Willesden, north-west London, is one of many different types of school that parents can choose from. Photograph: Martin Argles for the Guardian

The English education system is being dismembered. Gradually but purposefully first New Labour and now the coalition government have been unpicking and disarticulating the national system of state schooling. With free schools and academies of various kinds, faith schools, studio schools and university technical colleges, the school system is beginning to resemble the patchwork of uneven and unequal provision that existed prior to the 1870 Education Act.

At the same time, we are moving back to an incoherent and haphazard jigsaw of providers – charities, foundations, social enterprises and faith and community groups – monitored at arm’s length by the central state. Furthermore, private providers are waiting in the wings for the opportunity to profit from running schools.

The Number of Billionaires Is Growing Across the Planet, as Global Inequality Spreads

Gone are the days when U.S. billionaires accounted for over 40 percent of the list.

 

October 28, 2013  |

 With the help of Forbes magazine, we and colleagues at the Institute for Policy Studies have been tracking the world’s billionaires and rising inequality the world over for several decades. Just as a drop of water gives us a clue into the chemical composition of the sea, these billionaires offer fascinating clues into the changing face of global power and inequality.

After our initial gawking at the extravagance of this year’s list of 1,426, we looked closer. This list reveals the major power shift in the world today: the decline of the West and the rise of the rest. Gone are the days when U.S. billionaires accounted for over 40 percent of the list, with Western Europe and Japan making up most of the rest. Today, the Asia-Pacific region hosts 386 billionaires, 20 more than all of Europe and Russia combined.

Γιατί τα σχολεία δεν μορφώνουν;

στις Δευτέρα, 28 Οκτωβρίου 2013 – 11:23 μ.μ.

 

 
Όταν το 1990, για δεύτερη συνεχόμενη χρονιά, απονεμήθηκε στον John Taylor Gatto ο τίτλος του «Δασκάλου της Χρονιάς της Νέας Υόρκης» στην ομιλία αποδοχής του τίτλου που εκφώνησε, δεν αρκέστηκε σε απλές ευχαριστίες, αλλά εξαπέλυσε ένα δριμύ κατηγορώ στην συμβατική λογική που διέπει την εκπαίδευση. Μίλησε για το ρόλο που πρέπει να διαδραματίζει η εκπαίδευση για το άτομο, την οικογένεια και την κοινωνία στην σύγχρονη εποχή. Δεν απευθύνθηκε μόνο στη Νέα Υόρκη και τους μαθητές του.
Τα λόγια του εκφράζουν και τις ανησυχίες των εκπαιδευτικών και των γονιών όπου και αν βρίσκονται. Τα προβλήματα που αντιμετωπίζουμε στη μόρφωση και την δημιουργική απασχόληση των παιδιών μας είναι σοβαρά και πολύπλοκα και δεν αποτελούν αποκλειστική ευθύνη των σχολείων. Κι όμως τα σχολεία μπορούν να δημιουργήσουν τις κατάλληλες συνθήκες για την διαμόρφωση της κοινωνίας και του κόσμου που ονειρευόμαστε. Έτσι έχουμε την ευχαρίστηση να δημοσιεύσουμε αυτή την φλογερή ομιλία ενός από τους πιο ένθερμους οπαδούς της εκπαιδευτικής μεταρρύθμισης.

Chris Hedges The Sparks of Rebellion

Photo by Poster Boy NYC (CC-BY)

Editor’s note: Chris Hedges will be giving a talk titled “The Myth of Human Progress and the Collapse of Complex Societies” on Oct. 13 in the Los Angeles area. Click here for more information.

I am reading and rereading the debates among some of the great radical thinkers of the 19th and 20th centuries about the mechanisms of social change. These debates were not academic. They were frantic searches for the triggers of revolt.

Vladimir Lenin placed his faith in a violent uprising, a professional, disciplined revolutionary vanguard freed from moral constraints and, like Karl Marx, in the inevitable emergence of the worker’s state. Pierre-Joseph Proudhon insisted that gradual change would be accomplished as enlightened workers took over production and educated and converted the rest of the proletariat. Mikhail Bakunin predicted the catastrophic breakdown of the capitalist order, something we are likely to witness in our lifetimes, and new autonomous worker federations rising up out of the chaos. Pyotr Kropotkin, like Proudhon, believed in an evolutionary process that would hammer out the new society. Emma Goldman, along with Kropotkin, came to be very wary of both the efficacy of violence and the revolutionary potential of the masses. “The mass,” Goldman wrote bitterly toward the end of her life in echoing Marx, “clings to its masters, loves the whip, and is the first to cry Crucify!”

How can we desegregate re-segregated public schools? (again)

 

Richards, M., Stroub, K., Vasquez Heilig, J. & Volonnino, M. (2012). Achieving diversity in the Parents Involved era: Evidence for geographic integration plans in metropolitan school districts. Berkeley Journal of African-American Law & Policy, 14(1), 65-94.

Landmark legal victories over de jure segregation in the wake of Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka[1] helped to secure dramatic decreases in the racial and ethnic segregation of schools in subsequent decades, especially in the formerly segregated American South[2].  The promise of the post-Brown era proved ephemeral, however; nearly sixty years after the Supreme Court ruled that segregation was inherently unequal, American schools remain remarkably segregated by race and ethnicity.[3] Since the 1980s, the de facto segregation of schools has rapidly intensified, especially in the South and for Hispanic/Latino populations.[4] Indeed, during the 1990s the proportion of Black students in majority-White schools decreased 13 percentage points, to a level not seen since 1970.[5]

Against Ravitch- Rich Gibson

 

Nothing significant is going to happen if it takes place behind the leadership of the vacillating reactionary Dianne Ravitch and the union bosses who lionize her.

Still a patriot, still a nationalist, still god-blessing everything in sight, still favoring the exploitation that is at the root of capital and its state, as well as the empire’s wars, there is a reason why she is hugged by unionite heads like the presidents of the NEA and AFT who allowed the militarization of schooling, helped create the No Child Left Behind Act and its Democratic inheritor, the Race to the Top, who poured millions of dollars and volunteer hours into electing the easily recognized demagogue, Obama, and who now oversee the wreckage of teachers wages, benefits, and their very jobs.

Χρησιμοποιώντας τον Φουκώ στην εκπαιδευτική έρευνα

09:29, 28 Οκτ 2013 | tvxsteam tvxs.gr/node/142173

Ο Φουκώ έγινε διάσημος στη δεκαετία του 1960 και του 1970 ως ένας ανατρεπτικός και εικονοκλαστικός στοχαστής. Είχε ως στόχο να αποδείξει μέσα από προσεκτική έρευνα ότι όλα έχουν μια ιστορία, ακόμα και η ηθική, όπως είχε κάποτε υποστηρίξει ο Νίτσε. Αν όλα έχουν ιστορία, τα πάντα είναι ενδεχόμενα και ως εκ τούτου, τουλάχιστον κατ ‘αρχήν, είναι ανοικτά στην αλλαγή.

Ο Φουκώ πίστευε ότι η αλλαγή είναι δυνατή σε επίπεδα και σε χώρους που εμείς θεωρούμε δεδομένα. Ο Φουκώ είναι δύσκολο να ταξινομηθεί, τόσο όσον αφορά τη πνευματική εργασία του όσο και τις πολιτικές δεσμεύσεις του. Είναι συζητήσιμο το κατά πόσον ή όχι θα πρέπει να χαρακτηριστεί ως φιλόσοφος, ιστορικός, θεωρητικός ή κριτικός.

 

Το ηθικό θεμέλιο του σοσιαλισμού

Ο Ελληνας αναγνώστης μπορεί να γνωρίσει τη σκέψη του Γάλλου φιλοσόφου Ζαν-Κλοντ Μισεά διαβάζοντας τα τρία βιβλία του που κυκλοφορούν στη γλώσσα μας: «Η εκπαίδευση της αμάθειας» (Βιβλιόραμα, 2002), «Το αδιέξοδο Aνταμ Σμιθ» (Εναλλακτικές εκδόσεις, 2007), «Η αυτοκρατορία του μικρότερου κακού» (Πόλις, 2008). Για να παρουσιάσει τη σκέψη του στο ισπανικό αναγνωστικό κοινό, ο Μισεά έγραψε ένα κείμενο που δημοσιεύτηκε στην εφημερίδα «El Confidantial». Παρουσιάζουμε στη συνέχεια ένα απόσπασμα από το κείμενο αυτό.

Ο επίσημος φιλελευθερισμός υποστηρίζει ότι η ηθική –όπως και η θρησκεία– είναι μια αυστηρά ιδιωτική υπόθεση (καθένας είναι επομένως ελεύθερος να ζει «όπως νομίζει», υπό τον όρο ότι «δεν θα βλάπτει τον άλλον»). Σε αυτήν την οπτική, κάθε άτομο μπορεί να προτιμήσει την αφοσίωση και τη γενναιοδωρία ή, αντίστροφα, τον κυνισμό και την προδοσία. Αυτό δεν αλλάζει τίποτα από το γεγονός ότι οι διάφορες πολιτικές αποφάσεις ενός φιλελεύθερου κράτους δεν πρέπει ποτέ να βασίζονται σε μιαν ιδιαίτερη «ιδεολογία» (είτε αυτή είναι ηθική είτε φιλοσοφική ή θρησκευτική).

Understanding ALEC: How ALEC’s duplicity undermines the American public educational project

By Mona McDermott
October 26, 2013 – 11:21 am CDT

Just three years ago I had never heard of The American Legislative Exchange Council, the uber right wing neoconservative think tank that forges pro corporate policies in secret with their legislative buddies. But for those of us studied in the ways and means of education reform, we have come to learn how deeply entrenched ALEC’s roots are in the rounds of state level and national policies that are laying waste to public education. Mercedes Schneiderexposes this most eloquently.

ALEC’s “model” bills can be seen etched carefully into state level policies that call for:

How much did he get paid to write something like this? «Teaching is like parenting: you don’t need to have a qualification»

Nick Clegg is wrong to say teachers must first be qualified – you learn best on the job. A course may not help at all

• 
• • Anthony Seldon
  • theguardian.com, Monday 28 October 2013 10.05 GMT

‘Those who place pay above caring for the young will never make it. Teaching is a vocation as well as a profession.’ Photograph: Sarah Lee for the Guardian

Schoolteaching is a profession, but it’s not like becoming a doctor or a vet. No one would want to be operated on by an amateur who hadn’t had years of experience. The prospect of going to the dentist and being confronted by somebody with a lifelong passion for teeth but no university background or training would alarm all but the most steely. For that reason, there is no Teeth First, though we do have Teach First, albeit with intensive training.

Nick Clegg and others who argue that teachers must first be qualified are fundamentally misunderstanding the nature of the profession. The teacher’s role is much more akin to that of a parent. It is a great loss that governments worldwide have made teaching much less like being a parent than an impersonal civil servant. No job is more important than parenting, yet no one is suggesting parents go off for a university course to qualify as a parent. Parents pick it up as they go along, and that’s exactly the way great teachers are forged.

Chris Hedge: Our Invisible Revolution Email this item

 

Sha

Shutterstock

 

By Chris Hedges

 

“Did you ever ask yourself how it happens that government and capitalism continue to exist in spite of all the evil and trouble they are causing in the world?” the anarchist Alexander Berkman wrote in his essay “The Idea Is the Thing.” “If you did, then your answer must have been that it is because the people support those institutions, and that they support them because they believe in them.”

 

Berkman was right. As long as most citizens believe in the ideas that justify global capitalism, the private and state institutions that serve our corporate masters are unassailable. When these ideas are shattered, the institutions that buttress the ruling class deflate and collapse. The battle of ideas is percolating below the surface. It is a battle the corporate state is steadily losing. An increasing number of Americans are getting it. They know that we have been stripped of political power. They recognize that we have been shorn of our most basic and cherished civil liberties, and live under the gaze of the most intrusive security and surveillance apparatus in human history. Half the country lives in poverty. Many of the rest of us, if the corporate state is not overthrown, will join them. These truths are no longer hidden.

The real 21st-century problem in public education

• By Valerie Strauss   October 26 at 10:00 am

(By Charles Rex Arbogast/ AP)

There are plenty of problems in public education, but here’s the biggest, from Elaine Weiss, the national coordinator for the Broader Bolder Approach to Education, a project of the nonprofit Economic Policy Institute that recognizes the impact of social and economic disadvantage on many schools and students, and works to better the conditions that limit many children’s readiness to learn.

 

By Elaine Weiss

So much has been said about new “21^st century” skills, standards, and learning requirements, that they have become virtually synonymous with “college and career readiness” (a similarly poorly defined goal). The purportedly new demand for higher-level and different skills has further increased the pressure for more tests and higher stakes attached to them.

A new study showing explosive growth in student poverty suggests, though, that we have misidentified the problem. What if we have actually been teaching the right skills in U.S. schools all along – math and reading, science and civics, along with creativity, perseverance, and team-building? What if these were as important a hundred years ago for nurturing innovative farmers and developers of new automobiles as they are now for creating the next generation of tech innovators? What if these are the very characteristics of U.S. schools that have made us such a strong public education nation, and the current shift toward a narrower agenda just dilutes that strength? What if, rather than raising standards, and testing students more, the biggest change we need to address is that of our student body?