Read the world to write the future: An interview with professors E Wayne Ross and Xosé Manuel Souto, experts in critical social studies

E Wayne Ross is professor at the University of British Columbia (Canada). He is interested in the influence of social and institutional contexts on teachers’ practice as well as the role of curriculum and teaching in building a democratic society in the face of antidemocratic impulses of greed, individualism, and intolerance. Xosé Manuel Souto is professor at the University of Valencia (Spain), in the department of social and experimental sciences education. He directs the Gea-Clío educational innovation group that has developed, for the past thirty years, its work in the fields of teacher training, creation of curricular material and educational research.

The Use of the Internet in School Libraries: An International Comparative Survey

This research sought to gain an impression of the use of the Internet by school librarians in the United Kingdom and South Africa. The research questions addressed the issues of access to the Internet by school librarians, the purposes for which school librarians used email and the Web, the demand from teachers for access to the Web, the key issues identified by school librarians in relation to the use of the Internet in schools in the next five years, and any differences between the responses of librarians from the two countries. The key findings were that there was limited access to the Internet in the respondents' schools; school librarians used the Web mainly for curricular material; science and geography departments were the heaviest users of the Web; and the key future issues identified included information skills, cost, inservice training, and the role of the school librarian. There were no significant differences between the two countries studied.

There Has Been No Remorse over It: A Narrative Inquiry Exploring Enslaved Ancestral Roots through a Critical Family History Project

This paper explores the benefits and value of college students’ conducting critical family history (CFH) projects, which may serve as curricular material to expand students’ understanding of complex aspects of history and immigration. This article unpacks how one student came to see herself and others from a deeper perspective, particularly through the lens of someone who chose to continue digging into her enslaved ancestors’ roots. Using narrative inquiry, a college instructor and former student collaboratively reflect on the lessons learned from using a CFH project in a college-level class primarily for preservice teachers. A unique aspect of this paper is that it gives voice to a former student in the class, which provides a way of seeing the complexities and dehumanizing components of the lives of enslaved Africans in the U.S.—often sanitized out of history books. In addition, a university librarian suggests approaches to genealogical research, by focusing more on the lived experiences of ancestors that go beyond dates and locations. The perspectives from both a former student and the college instructor add multiple dimensions on lessons learned from a critical family history project, which uses students’ family histories as funds of knowledge as the primary curriculum.

A recontextualização de textos na produção de um material curricular para os jogos de linguagem da matemática escolarThe recontextualization of texts in the production of a curricular material for the language games of school mathematics

Nosso objetivo foi identificar e descrever de que forma alguns conceitos matemáticos são recontextualizados por uma comunidade de professores que ensinam matemáticas tendo em vista os jogos de linguagem da matemática escolar. Para tanto, analisamos – por meio de uma abordagem qualitativa e inspirados nas noções wittgensteinianas de jogos de linguagem – as discussões de professores que ensinam matemáticas no que tange a produção de materiais curriculares, levando em consideração a noção de recontextualização pedagógica de Basil Bernstein. Como resultado, apontamos que os professores tendem a recontextualizar textos que regulam não somente o comportamento dos símbolos e palavras a partir da literatura em Educação Matemática, mas as ações dos estudantes a partir da matemática acadêmica, instituindo controles sobre os textos legítimos e seus usos. Percebemos, inclusive, que o processo de recontextualização operado pelos professores implicam, muitas vezes, numa reorganização nas regras que permeiam os jogos de linguagem da matemática escolar.

Pre-Victorian Colonial Education

Chapter 2 is a retelling of nearly two hundred years of pre-Victorian Indian colonial education, presented to aid interpretations of American missionary action in the Victorian period. The chapter shows how, despite their “universal” Christian intent, mission schools were closely allied with colonial authority and deeply racialized in their functioning. Extensive archival data (1708–1849) is used to describe the typical composition of the student body, syllabi, classroom techniques, and examination methods in mission-run schools. Missionaries used the very “heathen” curricular material and pedagogical practices they denounced. And they deliberated over the advantages of establishing schools that would further the interests of the East India Company. In the other direction, British parliamentary papers show official colonial thinking on how Western education could serve the colonial cause, and on whether a part of the teaching endeavor could be delegated to Christian missionaries. The chapter summarizes the decline of indigenous education under colonial rule as reported by Company officials just as evangelicals, chiefly, educated and ambitious middle-class people in Britain and America, began to express interest in Indian education. Between 1833 and 1854, mission schools were widely established, filling the void in indigenous education. The chapter considers the problematic of the language of education, recounting the Anglicist/Orientalist debate. It then discusses the “Woods Despatch” of 1854, the new education law, which called for a secular curriculum and for inspections to be instituted in private schools seeking government grants-in-aid. The chapter ends with a discussion of American missionary thought and practice of exploring new ways of attracting student audiences to the evangelical cause.

Content- and Language-Integrated Learning

Content- and language-integrated learning (CLIL) has been considered from the perspective of communicative competence development in the context of teaching professionally oriented English language in a technical university. The chapter outlines the main aspects underlying CLIL and describes the experience of teaching English to students majoring in Photonics in the format of “binary” classes involving two teachers: of English and of physics of lasers. Classes have been designed for 3rd- to 4th-year students who had mastered basic linguistic-cultural communicative competences and went on to continue using English in professionally oriented situations. This way of team teaching contributes to the development of communication skills in the students' professional area and facilitates the assimilation of curricular material by students.

THE USE OF «VIRTUAL TOURS» TECHNOLOGY IN THE TRAINING OF LAW ENFORCEMENT OFFICERS

The aim of the study is to analyse the process of using «Virtual tours» technology in the educational process. This technology allows you to transfer the lesson from the passive into the interactive forms, to activate the cadets’ cognitive activity and to involve them into the educational process. The use of visualization techniques develops broad-minded thinking and enhances a better learning of the curricular material. The main tasks of the research are to analyse the process of using «Virtual tours» technology in the educational process of law enforcement officers; to estimate the functional practice of «Virtual tours» technology. The study is fundamentally based on the dialectical-philosophical method alongside with the general scientific and specific scientific methods.

Los videojuegos como materiales curriculares: una aproximación a su uso en Educación Física (Video games as curriculum materials: an approach to their use in Physical Education)

Los materiales curriculares son herramientas del profesorado para el desarrollo de sus clases que actúan como mediadores en el proceso de enseñanza-aprendizaje. Desde inicios del siglo XXI se ha desarrollado un cuerpo teórico sobre el uso de videojuegos como material curricular, pero su uso presenta beneficios e inconvenientes por lo que se han generado importantes lagunas en cómo deben usarse como material educativo. El presente trabajo pretende analizar el potencial de los videojuegos como material curricular para la asignatura de Educación Física. Para ello, se profundiza en los tipos de usos que pueden derivarse de los videojuegos en el desarrollo del currículum. Se ofrecen ejemplos de uso de videojuegos como material curricular tanto desde una racionalidad técnica como desde una racionalidad práctica. Por último, se bosquejan usos posibles de los videojuegos y se señalan las perspectivas de futuro del uso de los videojuegos para la asignatura de Educación Física.Abstract. Curricular materials are teachers’ tools used for their teaching development which mediate the teaching-learning process. At the beginning of the 21st century a theoretical body of knowledge has been developed on the use of video games as curricular material, but its use has benefits and disadvantages, which produce important gaps on how they should be used. This paper analyzes the potentiality of video games as curriculum materials for the Physical Education subject. Therefore, we analyze in depth on the types of use video games offer in curriculum development. Several examples of video games use are presented from a technical and practical rationality. Finally, possible uses are drawn and future perspectives on video games usage for Physical Education are indicated.

AFRICAN UNIVERSITIES’ ETHICAL RESPONSIBILITIES TO THEIR SUPPORTING COMMUNITIES

If universities are supported by the communities in which they are embedded, then solving their communities’ problems must be a critical university ethical goal. The essay’s first part examines philosophy’s roles in directing university research in such disciplines as the natural and social sciences, history, art and mathematics. Of particular interest are the roles that information and communication technology (ICT) might play in the dissemination of research results in universities’ supporting communities. The Pan-African thinker W.E.B. Du Bois believed that virtually all humans are capable of profiting from a university education. ICT must be critical to African universities’ discharge of their ethical responsibilities to their communities. The first part’s conclusion suggests three ways whereby African universities may advance toward Du Bois’s goal. The essay’s second part proposes a curriculum for Fort Hare University in Alice and East London in South Africa’s Eastern Cape Province. As both an urban and rural university, Fort Hare presents a unique opportunity for examining university-community relationships. The essay’s conclusion argues that African universities must play a critical role in constructing African self-knowledge. Critical to university and alumni contributions to re-thinking African identity, will be the inclusion of curricular material specific to the cultures of communities selected for university outreach.