Constructivist Interpretations Research Articles

The geopolitics of the Irish-Catholic parish in nineteenth-century Montreal

Irish Catholics in nineteenth-century Montreal, as a minority within a larger French-Catholic population, encountered a cultural environment very different from that experienced by their compatriots in most cities of eastern North America. In contrast with the more typical situation in which the majority position of Irish Catholics enabled them to exercise leadership in local Catholic affairs, in Montreal they had to overcome numerous obstacles in order to obtain churches and parishes they could call their own. Diocesan and parish records demonstrate that these struggles, in particular the controversy created by the subdivision of the extensive parish of Notre Dame in the late 1860s were defining events in the formulation of Irish-Catholic ethnic consciousness in Montreal. Constructivist interpretations of ethnicity have drawn attention to the way in which conflictual (and less frequently accommodative) relations among groups contribute to the formation and preservation of ethnicities. Drawing on this approach, it is argued that religious institutions acted as catalysts for debates that encouraged Montreal's Irish Catholics to define themselves in relation to the French-Catholic majority. These debates had an important territorial dimension and ultimately led to the entrenchment of ethnic boundaries in the urban landscape through the creation of separate parishes for the two groups.

American neutral rights reappraised: identity or interest in the foreign policy of the early Republic?

This article analyses the early American commitment to maintaining its neutral rights from several theoretical perspectives. Rejecting recent constructivist interpretations as unsubstantiated by the empirical evidence, it concludes that early American leaders largely mirrored traditional eighteenth century mercantilist practices to suit the interests of the United States. In particular, Jefferson's ‘two-tiered’ approach to the international system was based on astringent calculations of power rather than prevailing notions of ‘republicanism’. This ideology, while manifest in partisan rhetoric, had little measurable impact on the conduct of early American neutral rights policy. By focusing on the relationship of theory and practice in this context, this article offers a case study of the role of norms and ideology in the shaping of foreign policy in a republican state.

Influences on Young Children's Knowledge: The case of road safety education

Recent commentators on early education have noted a need to combine the strengths of constructivist and sociocultural theoretical perspectives in the early childhood curriculum. Road safety education in the early childhood years rarely reflects a coherent theoretical base. This article argues that effective road safety education for young children needs to incorporate both constructivist and sociocultural perspectives on learning. Interviews with preschool children highlight the variety of influences that affect children's road safety knowledge and illustrate the interface of constructivist and sociocultural interpretations of learning about road safety. The value of a dual perspective is explored further with reference to a road safety curriculum intervention, which used reflective dialogue procedures, derived from Pramling's (1990) phenomenographic perspective on learning. The curriculum project demonstrates that adult interactions that clarify and make explicit children's informal learning about road safety are an important part of road safety education in the early years.

Learners as information processors: Legacies and limitations of educational psychology's second..

This essay examines the role of information-processing theories in the historical search for a guiding metaphor of educational psychology. First, I show how information processing can be viewed as the second in a series of three metaphors that developed during this century and, more specifically, as a bridge from associationist to constructivist visions of learning. Second, I provide a definition of information processing based on the premise that humans are processors of information. Third, I distinguish between literal and constructivist interpretations of two key elements in information-processing; theory, namely, the nature of information and the nature of processing. Then, I summarize the contributions and limitations of the information-processing approach. Finally, I examine possible future directions for the search for educational psychology's guiding metaphor.

Referential skill or construct system development: Testing alternative explanations for role category questionnaire‐based measures

While constructivists assert that RCQ‐based indicators reflect differences in construct system development, this essay tests the claim that these indicators reflect variation in referential communication skill instead. Study one compared the constructivist claim that RCQ responses are spontaneous and natural with the contrasting claim that these responses are intentional and other‐directed referential messages. After completing the RCQ participants answered questions about their behavior. Results confirmed the expectation that participants would view their responses as intentional, referential communication directed towards a particular type of recipient. Study two compared the constructivist claim that there should be no relationship between the number of abstract descriptors and a measure of verbal efficiency (words per descriptor) with the expectation derived from referential communication research that greater skill should be reflected by more appropriate descriptors and more verbal efficiency. The correlation of ‐.56 between number of abstract descriptors and words per descriptor was only compatible with the referential skill‐interpretation. Together these studies further challenge constructivist interpretations of RCQ‐based scores and provide support for the alternative claim that these scores reflect differences in referential communication skill instead.

Discovery Versus Constructivist Interpretations of Identity Formation: Consideration of Additional Implications

The discovery and creation metaphors of identity formation respectively, are considered within the broader contexts of vitalistic and organismic philosophic assumptions about human development. Individual responsibility and accountability, it is argued, tends to be minimal according to the discovery view. Since one's true self or daimon is predetermined, the individual's role is limited to understanding and realizing that inner essence. From a constructivist view, however, individuals are more responsible for actively determining who they think they "really" are; one fixed answer does not preexist. The philosophic underpinnings of the discovery metaphor imply a dualistic conception of human nature that precludes the scientific investigation of potentially falsifiable hypotheses. The possibility is considered that individuals may have direct introspective access to their true selves, and that verbal reports can serve as the basis for operationalizing their identities.