Download Micro realizations in Danish science education in the light

Aalborg Universitet
Micro realizations in Danish
science education in the light of
macro-political trends
A preliminary annotated outline for my
thesis. The disposition must be read in
conjunction with a powerpoint
presentation at the SMERG-meeting on 4 th
of June.
JRS
June 2010
Micro realizations in Danish science education in the light of macro political trends
Explanation for SMERG participants at the meeting on
4th June 2010
The paper is structured as an annotated outline of what I at the moment expect will be included in my final
thesis. The TOC refers both to the individual articles and the rest of the text in the thesis.
I have also included a timetable for each article and a description of the suspected substance in them.
Presumed numbers of pages are included.
When I have chosen to be very concrete, it is because I am convinced that it will be of interest to many of us
to discuss how we theoretically and methodologically argue for the texts in the articles and how we in our
papers make a coherent context out of the different articles.
I've only got time to pick up broad issues and introductions to the final dissertation, but hopefully it can help
to open up serious discussions on the SMERG meeting
Two things for discussion at the meeting:
1):
• The articles theoretical and methodological bases.
• The use of methods in relation to the chosen theory and methodology. For simplicity, I have in this context
chosen to focus only on article No 3
2)
• How does one make an coherent context out of the different articles?
• Article Writing - out of focus and back to a focus that has shifted
• Selection of journals relevant to focus
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Micro realizations in Danish science education in the light of macro political trends
TOC (Draft for the final dissertation):
Presention the problem………………………………………………………………………………………… 2 pages
What is the use of this ph-d project?............ ……………………………………………..………………. 5 Critical theory behind a critical methodology……………………………………………………………. 5 Critical methodology behind the methods being used in this…………………………………….. 5 Discussion of the subjects epistemology, archeology, genealogy, ontology and power… 5 Discussion of the subjects macro, meso and micro……………………………………………………. 5 Connexions between the 5 articles and the feature article……………………………………… .. 5 Article 1 (The Neoliberal utopia and science education in Denmark)……………………….. 25 Article 2 (Sustainable reformprocesses in science education) ………………………………… 20 Article 3 (The mixture of research-based and evidence-based teacher education in
Denmark)………………………………………………………………………………………………. 20 Article 4 (Research based / evidence based teacher education- why and how? )
25 -
Article 5 (Research based teacher education – how could it be?)………………………………. 30 The feature article (Title ?)……………………………………………………………………………………. 5 Gathering of knowledge from the articles……………. …………………………………………………. 5
-
Conclusion…………………………………………………………………………………………………………….
5 -
Meta reflections about writing articles instead of a monography…. ..……….…………….. .
2 -
Besides of this, there will for each article be an amplification containing syntheses of the
analysis from the different articles. I suspect that this will fill approx. 30 pages in total
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Micro realizations in Danish science education in the light of macro political trends
Presentation of the problem
In international contexts, reforms in education have in the recent decades referred to globalization
requiring knowledge-based education. This has led to a uniformity in national education systems
(Henv. Mundy, Robertson and others), but there are still missing analysis of how these macro-political
trends actually affect the expression of national policy. (Robertson, Mundy, Lundahl)
The main part of my thesis is devoted to analysis of how macro political movements have been
imbedded in Danish science education at different levels.
I therefore will try to uncover related forms, correlations and domination that underlie the current
situation in the Danish science education. This will primarily have a focus on how international
education policy trends have influenced the transformation of the research knowledge and evidence of
knowledge in relation to science teacher education (in particular Article 3, 4 and 5) but in both article
1 and 2 the focus will also be on science education In The Primary School. All articles will be focused
on the time from 1993 until 2011. This occurs partly as part of a historic boundary and a recognition
that in an analysis it is not possible to reach point zero. The analyses should, however, from time to
time be understood in the light of historical insight - for example in connection with awareness of the
OECD `s and the World Bank's influence on education policy.
In the overall thesis there will be synthesis between individual assessments of the articles and
opinions on how it could be. Thus Article 2 "Sustainable reform processes in science education" contains
an analysis- model as a basis for assessing the sustainability of reform process and Article 5, "Research
based teacher education - How could it be?" Includes knowledge of teacher education in science from
another part of the world. This is intended as an opportunity to return to the Danish education system
with a stronger critic.
The analysis will mainly be based on texts from parliamentary debates, OECD reports, reports from
the Danish Evaluation Institute, writings from various organizations, Local Government Association,
prominent national and international researchers in the field, concrete texts, etc., but in Article 4
"Research based / evidence based teacher education why and how? " there will also be included written
statements and interviews by teachers at teacher education in Northern Jutland. The reason for this is
to get an insight into teachers' understanding of and reactions to the new accreditation requirements.
The thesis is operating with three levels: macro, meso and micro. Macro contains education policy
(national and international), meso contains implementation and institutionalization, while micro-level
includes realization (Henv. Dolin). In scholarly contexts the macro, meso and micro are not unique
concepts and often omitted meso level (Miscellaneous references follows). For the purpose of Danish
science education I will try to get a deeper understanding of the three levels coupled with an
understanding of the relationship between research, policy and practice (Biesta).
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Micro realizations in Danish science education in the light of macro political trends
Overview of the five articles from the thesis titled “Micro
realizations in Danish science education in the light of
macropolitical trends”
1:The neoliberal
utopia and science
education in Denmark
3: The mixture of
research based and
evidence based science
education in Denmark
2: Sustainable reform
processes in science
education
5:Research based
teacher education how could it be?
4: Research based /
evidence based science
education why and
how?
The numbers of the articles indicate the chronological order. The arrows show how the articles relate to each
other. Double arrows indicate that the articles will be written about the same time and therefore may be related
reciprocally. It is presumed that results of the other articles will be included in Article 5. Besides these articles
the thesis will contain a feature article. All articles and the feature article will be related to science education in
Denmark and will be within the period 1993-2011
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Micro realizations in Danish science education in the light of macro political trends
Overview of the deadlines for the articles:
Title
The neoliberal utopia
and science education
in Denmark
Sustainable reform
processes in science
education
The mixture of
research based and
evidence based science
education in Denmark
Research based
/evidence based
teacher education why
and how?
Research based teacher
education – How could
it be?
Deadline
June 2010
Language
English
Journal
Nordina or ???
May 2010
Danish
MONA
Late autumn 2010
?
?
Spring 2011
Danish
?
Spring 2012
?
?
What is the use of this ph-d project?
From Danish and international researchers hand, it is often clarified that there is a need to
understand the precise relationship between macro-political trends and national responses
on this. In this connection, I get no time to go in depth with this, but must merely inserting a
few references that clarify it.
”Several researchers have pointed to the need for scientifically investigating how globalization of
education is realized in the specifik national and local contexts” (ref. Lundahl s. 147)
In education, we have witnessed the emergence of global flows of educational ideas around
issues of educational governance and purposes. But how these ideas become embedded within
the policy agendas of nation states is neither well researched nor well secribed (Lundahl) .
Globalization may be referred to as a process through which national economies become
increasingly open to supranational influence. However, globalization is also to a great extent a
political and ideological phenomenon (Mishra, 1999, Lundahl m.fl.)
More information on research, policy and practice is demanded in many contexts, but the
cause and the goal is very different (Henv. Karen Seashore Louis)
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Micro realizations in Danish science education in the light of macro political trends
Motivation factors behind theph-d project as seen from the Danish
conditions:
Motivational factor 1
The Danish government has recommended that science teaching is strengthened at all
educational levels, as the competitiveness of Denmark is increased in a world where
innovation seems more important than ever. With regard to globalization there has been a lot
of political change processes at school level as well as in teacher education in recent years.
Motivational factor 2
Denmark has partially followed the international trend in which teacher education moves
toward research-based education. However this is just partly the case because teacher
education in Denmark is not subject to university legislation requiring research, but subject to
legislation of teacher training centers, which requires development but not research.
Denmark is the only country in Scandinavia, where the teacher training is not supposed to be
research based, and in a report commissioned by Nordic Council of Ministers it is therefore
recommended that the knowledge of teacher education is examined ”to determine what the
trained teacher´s knowledge must consist of and also to determine how this knowledge can be
strengthened.
Motivational factor 3.
Jens Dolin points out that most of science didactic deals with micro level, but that the meso
level should be strengthened and developed. The argument for strengthening the meso level
is that this level is an important intermediaries which can bring the two remaining in touch
with each other – to be explained.
Critical theory behind a critical methodology
The Ph-d study will mainly rely on the critical theory and theory of discourses and thus it
takes momentum into a critical research, especially Foucault's theory of knowledge problem,
archeology, geneaologi, ontology, and power will be central
To follow Foucault my errand is to use his idea of genealogical analysis of power as a way to
understand how power is exercised in practice in relation to science education in Denmark. I
will thus not primarily analyze what is being thought, but rather analyze what is being done.
This means that the dissertation will not be based on epistemological analysis, however,
Article 3 "The mixture of research-based and evidence-based teacher education" will include an
analysis of the epistemological assumptions included in the requirements for evidence that
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Micro realizations in Danish science education in the light of macro political trends
underlie what teacher education should be based upon. There will be an ontological study of
how particular epistemologies can be part of power related to education (G. Biesta)
Foucault is critical of anything that seems obvious (Henv.: history and historical awareness in
Michael Foucault analyzes Name?). Also in this project there will be a critique of what seems
to be obvious, and this will be done from a critical cultural perspective. I have found it
necessary to build on recent writings on education. These are within a critical theoretical
framework and is written by researchers, each of whom deals with power in the education
system, but with different approaches. Ex. Susan Robertson (Critical, cultural political
economy of education), Darling Hammond (In particular, critical discourse analysis with
philosophical reflections) Carlsen (Educational and national policy), G. Biesta (Philosophical
contributions), Wells, Holme and Mundy (Educational policy), Wilfred Carr (epistemological
assumptions)
In connection with the description of each article, I would say more about the theories that
will be used. Based on the researchers' theories, analysis and results, my contribution will be
to show how macro-political trends are realized in the micro levels of the Danish education.
This is will done to uncover archeology and the power of education as a background for
making recommendations on how it could be (Especially in article 5)
In the context of the overall thesis, I explain how I differ archeology from epistemology or
written in another way, how I distinguish knowledge from not knowledge and this will be
related to the articles. In some cases however (Article 3 and 4) this would be more relevant
than in others.
Critical methodologies behind the methods being used
in this ph-d project
The philosophical framework behind the methodology varies from article to article, but as an
example, I here use Article 3 ”The mixture of research based and evidence based science
education in Denmark” in which the filosophy of G. Biesta will play an importent roll.
”On the research side, evidence-based education seems to favor a tecnocratic model in which it is assumed
that the only relevant research questions are questions about the effectiveness of educational means and
techniques, among other things, that what counts as ”effective” crucially depends on justments about
what educationally desirable. On the practice side, evidence-based education seems to limit severely the
opportunities for educational practitioners to make such judgements in a way that is sensitive to and
relevant for there own contextualized settings. The focus on “What works” makes it difficult if not
impossible to ask the questions of what it should work for and who should have a say in determining the
latter” (Biesta s. 5)
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Micro realizations in Danish science education in the light of macro political trends
The theory behind the analysis in the article will also be within the framework of ”a critical,
cultural political economy of education approach (CCPEE) (Susan Robertson)
Furthermore, in Article 3 I have cue from Foucault's interest in the linguistic sequences which
actually are being expressed in different contexts and the historical conditions that underlie
their emergence (archeology) - This I find extremely interesting in relation to the concepts of
research based, evidence based, evidens informed education (cf. Biesta) and the Danish term
research relations and development based teacher education.
Norman Fairclough has particular dealt with:




The relationship between language, ideology and power
The relationship between discourse and sociocultural shange
The centrality of textual analysis to social research
The principles and practice of critical language awareness
Furthermore, in Fairclough's research there are three key elements of critical discourse
analysis:



Text and the study of ”texture”
Discoursal practices and the concept “orders of discourse”
Sociocultural practices and the concept og “culture”
(Fairclough s ix)
In this context, the analytical work will not be concentrated on a discourse analysis of
language as such but rather on a more contextual understanding of parliamentary debates,
OECD reports, reports from the Danish Evaluation Institute, writings from various
organizations, Local Government Association, prominent researchers in the field mm, thus
there will hopefully appear an understanding of the historicity behind the Discursive Events
in connection with the situation in the Danish teacher education with a special emphasis on
the natural sciences.
Text will be understood as:
”A text is traditionally understood to be a piece of written language – a whole ”work” such as a poem or a
novel, or a relatively discrete part of a work such as a chapter. A rather broader conception has become
common within discourse analysis, where a text may be either written or spoken discourse, so that, for
example, the words used in a conversation (or their written transcription) constitute a text.)
(Kilde: Fairclough s. 4)
The discourse analysis will therefore include at least three essential elements:
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Micro realizations in Danish science education in the light of macro political trends
a) An insight into the overarching theoretical framework for discourse
b) Critical text analysis
c) Specific descriptions of the current situation of Danish teacher education with special
emphasis on the importance of research in science teaching
Metodological design for a critical analysis of the discourse underlying the researchbased/ evidence based teacher education.
The critical discourse analysis, as the term suggests, take its momentum into a critical
research, not least, Foucault's theory of knowledge, archeology, technology and power will be
central.
As written before I will try to uncover related forms, correlations and dominances which
underlies the research-based and evidence based teacher education.
Especially, I have been inspired by Foucault's interest in the linguistic sequences that are
actually formulated in different contexts and the historical conditions that underlie their
emergence.
To get detailed text analysis I have chosen to build on Norman Fairclough's method of critical
text analysis (13)
Norman Fairclough has particular dealt with the relationship between language, ideology and
power, and the relationship between discourse and socio cultural change.
The idea behind the inclusion of Fairclougs critical discourse analysis are his thoughts about a
deeper understanding of the link between micro and macro level. At the macro level we
attempts to understand the policy changes and implementations, while micro-level consists of
individual texts and their interpretation.
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Micro realizations in Danish science education in the light of macro political trends
Metodologica design behind the analyses in
Article 3
Ex. OECD’s
National Review
on Education
Ex. Politiske taler
Artikler fra
avisartikler
Squares illustrate the selected text. For simplicity, it only includes three squares, but in the
Ph.D. - the project a number of texts will be analyzed (ex. Reports, laws, newspaper articles,
etc.) The text must be understood not only as written texts, but also political speeches.
Ovals illustrate selected discourses(Ex. neoliberal discourse, critical / socialist discourse,
welfare discourse, evidence-discourse) influence on the texts.
Arrows illustrate intertextual connections.
The model is a simplified expression of the methodology in the first part of Article 3.
After 10-15 years of debate about evidence-based teaching, this increased to a theoretical and a
methodological higher level.
As one of the Recent Contributors Gert Biesta can be mentioned as he with the article "Why 'What works"
won`t work: Evidence-based practice and the democratic deficit in educational research” has contributed with
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Micro realizations in Danish science education in the light of macro political trends
a critical analysis of the idea of evidence-based practice and the way the idea has been implemented in
education.
The relationships of the model to newer theories:
Gert Biesta has studied that he believes are "key issues" in evidence-based teaching:
1st: A belief in a transfer value of evidence-concept from medicine to education
2nd: The meaning of knowledge relevant to professions with particular reference to the type
of epistemology which is appropriate in terms of what research may demand in the various
professional contexts
3rd: Expectations for the role research has on practice within the idea of evidence-based
teaching
(Biesta s. 1)
This will here lead too far to dwell on Gert Biestas criticism of the three key topics, but for
him it is important to focus on the tension between science and democratic control over
educational practice and educational research, and in the above mentioned article he
argues, that we should seek a deeper understanding of the link between research, policy
and practice in relation to education, because education requires continued discussion and
democratic considerations
Gert Biesta believes that a part of the explanation of why evidence-concept has played a
large role in the debate in recent years that is some critical reports commissioned by the
British Ministry of Education, which questioned whether education research provides
answers to the questions the Government needs in developing education policy. The
reports also highlights a number of other problems in education research about quality
and relevance.
Gert Biesta is also pointing at the importance of interaction between these policy reports
and some scientists critical opinions about education research quality - And here is David
Hargreaves `s lecture very important.
The article Gert Biesta uses the term "double transformation”, since he finds that the evidence concept is
introduced to transform both education research and practice. This thinking is also found in the script
defense, "Professional knowledge - how can it be better?” - The script was commissioned by the Danish
Ministry of Education and issued by The MVU-coulcil,2007
This will be an essential part of the theory basis of both Article 3 and 4.
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Micro realizations in Danish science education in the light of macro political trends
Epistemology, archeology, ontology, geneaologi and
power
Here will follow a closer definition of the concepts above and the link between them.
Afterwards will follow a detailed explanation of how and why the concepts will be applied in
the individual articles and in my thesis as a whole
A major focal point will in the thesis as a whole and within the individual articles have the
methodological requires of epistemological and ontological considerations combined with
philosophical reflection.
Discussion of levels of macro, meso, and micro:
In various ways analysis of levels macro, meso and micro help to tie the articles together.
What in one article is regarded as a micro level may in another be regarded as a meso level
(the correlation between teacher training and primary school is central in this context)
In this section of the thesis I will discuss different understandings of micro, meso and macro
(Ex. Dolin, Fairclough, Robertson, Carlsen ..) and argue why this can be usefully combined
with the concepts of research, policy and practice.
As mentioned earlier Jens Dolin points out that most of schience didactic deals with micro
level, and that the meso level should be strengthened and developed. The argument for
strengthening the meso level is that this level is an important intermediaries that can bring
the two remaining in contact with each other. A detailed explanation of this will be in this
theoretical part of my thesis
The 5 articles and the feature article
Article 1 “The neoliberal utopia and science education in Denmark”:
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Micro realizations in Danish science education in the light of macro political trends
The Danish government (with a solid majority) has since 2001 ensured educational reforms driven by
economic logic, and – policy where globalization and the free market have been steering. The public
school system has been considered to be inadequate, ineffective and too expensive. Therefore it has been
recommended that schools try to emulate the “competitive, efficient and accountable private sector” so
that education can help to ensure Denmark in the global market. We see a picture of how neoliberalism
has played an increasing role in science education with key concepts such as individualization,
competence and accountability.
The educational system has now a more utilized view on education that focus on educational output
preparing the individual for working life.
By comparing the predominantly neoliberal changes at a macroscopic level with specific education
policies at a microscopic level it can be shown how neoliberalism has influenced the primary science
education in Denmark.
In this article we are using a critical discoursanalyse inspired by Wodak, who has a
discoursive historical approach, where the analysis of texts have targets to achieve
understanding of the context.
Article 2: ”Sustaineble development in science education”
A model for the analysis of sustainable reforms in education is developed. The model consists of
three dimensions: Resources, Actions and Actors. These dimensions allow for the identification of
characteristics of reforms in education. The validity of the model is tested through analysis of
recent science education reform initiatives in Denmark: more detailed aims in science curriculum,
new teacher education and an in-service science education program. The model opens for more
sophisticated analysis of reforms showing their different strengths and weaknesses. The three
reform initiatives share a common weakness, they all lack due involvement and participation of
teachers and school leaders in the formulation of the reform initiatives themselves.
article 3: ”The mixture of research based and evidence
based science education in Denmark”
In this article it will showen how the concepts of research based and evidence based
education internationally have been linked to each other within a timeframe of 20-30 years
and what special impack this have had for Danish teacher education.
The goal is to find intertextualiy and interdiscursivity between evidence based and research
based education hold it up against the situation in the Danish teacher education in subjects of
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Micro realizations in Danish science education in the light of macro political trends
science.
The choice of texts will be explained more specifically, but some of the elements will be:
• How often are there refered to individual texts? (Ex. Texts by Hargreaves, Hammersley,
OECD, EU)
• In which texts appear concepts or interpretations for the first time?
• Various political texts that show how international trends are imbedded in Danish Science
education.
article 4: Research based/ evidence based teacher
education – why and how?
The analysis behind this article will follow the analysis of Article 3, but here the special focus
will be on the changing of teacher education from "evaluation of teacher education" (2003) to
"Accreditation of teacher education (2010).
Besides various political text the empire will be based on written statements and interviews
by teachers at teacher education in Northern Jutland. In this way I want to to get an insight
into teachers' understanding of and responses to the new accreditation requirements.
The idea is to get the political why to meet with the practical How
The starting point will be the same as in Article 1: Globalization and understanding of the
knowledge society's impact on education in Denmark.
article 5: “Research based teacher education – How could
it be?”
This article will particularly be focused on science didactics.
As my Ph-d project will be build upon a critical point of view (Foucault, Fairclough, Habermas etc),I
don`t expect to find one right answer, but I am expecting that my Ph-d study will contribute with
knowledge of important discourses on research –based teacher education and to help with visions un
”how it could be”, and that this vision may be part of the wider discussion of research knowledge
relevant to science education in Danish teacher education
In this context, there is preliminary focus on the following definition:
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Micro realizations in Danish science education in the light of macro political trends
Research based will be understood as: “The fact that teachers has themselves research commitment,
and that the students learn to work in research” and to make a focus I will choose foreign institutions,
where science teachers are researchers in science didatics.
To get a deeper understanding of the impact of research on science education I asked the members of
my group (at a course in Göteborg in november 2008) on whether the following issues would
make sense if I asked teachers from their institutions about whether it is intended that the
student shall:




Carry out independent investigations of relevance to science teaching
Learn to evaluate and understand research results relevant to the teaching of science
Learn independently basic scientific questions
Learn to make informed assessments of existing material in the science teaching area
It will in this connection go too far to go into all responses from group members and
supervisors, but it became subsequently apparent that the chosen definition of research could
provide an opinion-forming framework for issues to individual institutions but that the
subordinate questions were only relevant for someone (ex. Gothenburg), while for other
institutions as Leeds it was not. The explanation from Leeds was that the answers to the four
questions would be "No" every time, because this simply is not part of the teaching and
research behind teacher education in Leeds, where research is directed more against the
theory of practice.
This means that the choice of location of a longer stay abroad, may have important
implications for the article presentation.,
The feature article: There is not yet set any title of a feature article. The idea is to
explain parts of the postgraduate project in plain intelligible language. (Rumor says that the
Danish teacher education is about to be changed again and that could be a good opportunity
to write a feature article)
Gathering of knowledge from the articles
I this section the analyzes of the various articles will be connected and intermediate
syntheses become linked.
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Micro realizations in Danish science education in the light of macro political trends
The articles will be written (and hopefully published) in a chronological order. In the final
article I suppose however that it will be interesting to discuss the analysis / conclusions from
the first articles with the conclusions from the final articles.
Conclusion
Meta reflections about writing articles instead of a
monography
In this section I will finally explain how article writing has helped to change the focus of my
Ph-D project. This will include reflections on how and when changes occurred.
References:
I expect to insert references after each article and collect all end the end of the thesis
17