Pedagogical Space Research Articles

The Jam: Speculative-Mutant Pedagogies, Aesthetic Education Theory, and Becoming Joy with Children in a What If World

Designing pedagogical spaces that affirm and embody the aesthetic theories that guide practitioners in art education (and education broadly speaking) isn’t always easy. Those theories call for experimentation, creative expression, protest, rejection of repetition, and a collective creation of newness and difference. In other words, these theories call for pedagogues to be comfortable with the unpredictable and emerging ways of being and becoming within specific entanglements of place, children, materiality, discourses, bodies, sound, affect, and so much more. In this graphica piece, the authors illuminate an enduring pedagogical event that was designed for and unfolded at an informal, no-fee, community-based education center for youth [second author] directed for six years. Affectionately called “The Clubhouse,” this neighborhood-embedded space centered critical aesthetic, relational ways of being that we have conceived of as a what if world. While James (first author) was aware that their carefully planned sessions with the youth were being carried away by the animated entanglement of children, music instruments, and an affirming space, and was uneasy that the “noise” produced by those participants might be bothering others or distracting from James’ own presumed learning objectives, they carried on and lived through theories of aesthetic education joyfully. The piece suggests that constraining forces that push toward compliance keep living theory and living theory joyfully at bay. Maxine Greene, Felix Guattari, Herbert Marcuse, and Jacques Ranciére make guest appearances in this graphica, like wise and brilliant mentors offering affirmative and ethical ways of thinking, being, and doing with these young music-makers who have faced so much institutional rigidity and educational repetition. We also hope readers will enjoy and make new and different meanings with the inclusion of the Grateful Dead as a long-enduring band-event that has always been about creating newness and difference through experimentation far beyond conventions of art. Researchers and practitioners can hopefully glean powerful glances into critical feminist posthumanist arts-infused research. They might also recognize the theoretical and practical promises of being with children in the noisy, unpredictable, and sometimes – maybe oftentimes or always – unsettling spaces created when we follow the courage and hope it takes to live out theories of justice and equity through aesthetic theories. Maybe, just maybe, in doing so, we can lean into our own mutant-speculative pedagogies and experience a little more justice and joy where we are.

The Olfactor Therapy Method in the Field of Pedagogical Sciences: in Neurodidactics, Special Pedagogy and Speech Therapy

Introduction: The pedagogical field in this article refers to neurodidactics, special pedagogy, and speech therapy. In this fields there are searches for newer and newer methods of therapy aimed at supporting development, searching for new methods of teaching, leveling disorders or meeting the special educational needs of people with disabilities. Research Aim: The characteristics of Agnieszka Hamerlińska’s proprietary Olfactor Therapy Method, which originated at the base of neurodidactics and can be used in the pedagogical space, will be described. Evidence-based Facts: To date, the use of the sense of smell in ongoing therapeutic-compensatory activities has received fairly little attention. Summary: The Olfactor Therapy Method is a proprietary, innovative method that can be used in the pedagogical field: in special education and speech therapy as well as in other social sciences, such as psychology. The method primarily uses the sense of smell to enhance cognitive functions (memory, verbal fluency, speech), improve physical, emotional and social functioning of a person. Fundamental to the method is a novel olfactory stimulation device, the Olfactor, which is an essential invention for making diagnoses and therapeutic techniques. The Olfactor Therapy Method includes its three main components: educational, diagnostic and therapeutic. The method is aimed at people at any stage of life and with various disabilities (e.g. for children with intellectual disabilities; children with delayed speech development; children with special educational needs; for people with memory disorders – with Alzheimer’s disease).

English language and employability in locally produced ELT textbooks: Clashes between neoliberal ideals and social class structures in the pedagogical space

Abstract While a growing body of literature has illustrated how neoliberal discourses of English and employment have come to shape English language teaching (ELT) textbooks in a globalized world, little is known about how the translation of these discourses into pedagogical practices is mediated by the social class structures in postcolonial societies. In this article, we draw on a larger qualitative case study to address this gap in the Bangladesh secondary schooling context. We utilize Bourdieu’s conceptual resources and analyze interview and classroom observation data to illustrate how discourses of English and employment introduced into the secondary education-level ELT textbook are enacted in a high socio-economic status school. As our findings illustrate, the students from this school rejected how English was linked to low-profile jobs in the textbook, as this representation contradicted their social class and career aspirations. These findings contribute to the political economy in applied linguistics literature by illustrating how the enactment of the neoliberal discourses of English and employment constructed in the locally produced ELT textbooks is mediated by social class.

Transformation of Teaching through Co-Teaching and Innovative Methods

Abstract Introduction: The integration of digital technologies and virtual co-teaching has become a common practice in education. This was accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic. These innovations play a key role in addressing global challenges and are a response to digital advances to which primary and secondary schools need to adaptively respond. Methods: The study used thematic analysis and a scoping review to investigate the effectiveness of virtual co-teaching in primary and secondary schools, with a focus on new digital technologies and artificial intelligence. Results: The results show that virtual co-teaching supported by the use of artificial intelligence is an effective alternative to traditional teaching methods that increases both the efficiency and flexibility of the learning process. Further research is necessary to show new possibilities and optimize the use of this method in formal education. Discussion: Pupils should be divided into smaller groups, respecting their individual needs, abilities, and speed of learning. Artificial Intelligence assistants should be involved to support teachers and pupils. Limitations: Experiments should be implemented in other subjects in primary and secondary schools. Conclusions: Virtual co-teaching has a strong potential to contribute to future innovations in education, especially when combined with artificial intelligence to enable more personalized learning. It extends the pedagogical space with a virtual component – a virtual teacher or subject matter expert.

Teoría Sociológica en la trama curricular de la formación en Psicopedagogía

The purpose of this work is to describe and interpret the pedagogical experience that, from the curricular space of Sociological Theory, as a social science, epistemological, methodological, theoretical, and ethical perspectives are deployed to address the object of study of Psychopedagogy, and to intervene regarding the social subject in a learning situation. Sociology, as a teaching space, together with other pedagogical spaces, enriches the career of professionals in Psychopedagogy, and it recognizes a set of tensions that accompany the interaction processes between various disciplines of the Social Sciences. An attempt is made to provide lenses from which to look dialectically at the learning subjects and all those who intervene in this process, with possible readings of the multiple, diverse, and complex social reality. A search is recognized to define the intersection of disciplinary fields of the Social Sciences, where many come into relationship, such as educational, sociological, historical, and psychopedagogical fields, among others.

Reclaiming Social Justice

Abstract: A central tenet of the social work profession is its commitment to social justice. This commitment is outlined by the major governing bodies across social work education and practice, intra- and internationally. However, clinical social work has historically been influenced by the evidence-based movement and broadly adopted medicalized models of practice by focusing on treatment model adherence and symptom reduction. Consequently, clinical practitioners have been criticized for not adequately addressing systemic oppression and social injustices affecting vulnerable and historically marginalized populations. The absence of a social justice orientation to clinical practice not only lacks alignment with social work's core values but, in the current socio-political environment, may further perpetuate oppression. Clinical supervision, a staple in developing professional skills for graduate students and novice clinicians, offers an ideal pedagogical space for developing the cognitive, emotional, and behavioral skills and competencies needed to engage in social justice-focused practice. The aim of this article is to offer a supervisory framework, the Critical Relational Model (CRM), grounded in a metatheory that integrates principles from critical theory, critical pedagogy, and anti-oppressive and decolonizing frameworks, applied through a relational lens. A second aim is to demonstrate how the CRM can be immediately applied to practice with novice clinicians, graduate students, and any other clinical practitioner wishing to enhance their effectiveness and participation in creating a more equitable and just society for all.

Rethinking Pedagogy in Higher Education Amid Turbulent Times

Global challenges (labour market expectations, digital technology, the massing of higher education) are constantly changing the way higher education is managed. Responses to change can be planned. Responses from higher education stakeholders can be interesting and instructive for other institutions, as these examples can be incorporated into their own responses. The purpose of the study is to present the top-down ped- agogical reform process that started in 2019 at the University of Public Service in Budapest. Although initiated by the university’s educational strategy, its implementation depends on the teachers who have actively created innovative pedagogical spaces that ensure sustainability. These innovative spaces include training sessions for teachers, workshops, thematic discussions on teaching methodology, methodological publications, research and the annual Innovative Department Award. The stages of the process and the results and challenges of each stage were documented using a case study method. The description helps to illustrate how a process of pedagogical reform, with which the university leadership’s goal is rapid, systemic change affecting the work of hundreds of teachers, can be developed and sustained on the basis of commitment from teachers and institutional determination.

Educational environment and Pedagogical space and their importance the formation of ecological awareness

The formation of students' ecological awareness in an educational environment organized by means of pedagogical methodology in the pedagogical space of a technical university determined the directions of the research search.

Staging interactivity: platform logics at the participatory museum

ABSTRACT In an effort to remain relevant as meaningful civic institutions under the dynamic socio-technical conditions of contemporary capitalism, participatory museums have adopted commercial technologies, embraced novel organizational models, and deployed interactive pedagogical environments to encourage innovative habits of behavior and thought as governmental imperatives. The historical formation and transformation of the Exploratorium, widely considered to be the birthplace of participatory science and technology education, lends perspective on these institutional developments as well as the politics of interactivity more broadly. What had been conceived of and built as a pedagogical space to promote a scientifically literate and politically engaged citizenry in the aftermath of the Manhattan Project and McCarthyism – the interactive technological environment – has since been taken up as a means to forge self-investing subjects on behalf of political projects of market rule. In the context of austerity politics and the rise of the digital economy, the managerial logics that animated the museum as well as the pedagogical stage of interactivity that underwrote it provided amenable grounds for market rationalities to take root and disseminate. While profit-driven digital platforms are rightfully seen today as mechanisms for the remaking of relations, activities, and subjectivities, the pedagogical stage created at the museum – the embodiment of both historical continuities and innovations in the realm of interactive exhibition – itself became reconfigured along market lines. A focus on the processes by which this reconfiguration took hold highlights how the material conditions of socio-spatial inequality continue to constitute a domain of urgent contest in the digital age.

“Our advice is to break up”: Douban’s intimate public and the rise of girlfriend culture

To date, insufficient attention has been given to the role of social media in navigating romantic relationships in China. This article analyzes the Douban Breakup Advice Group (豆瓣劝分小组), a popular digital platform, particularly among young women, for sharing failed love stories and seeking relationship guidance. Based on netnography and interviews, this study investigates how the group navigates the intricacies of romantic relationships and fosters distinct feminist sensibilities. The findings reveal that this group creates an intimate public, offering solace for love experiences in a therapeutic manner. It also functions as a feminist pedagogic space, promoting the reconstruction of gender relations based on egalitarian norms. These practices nurture a girlfriend culture where participants cultivate a commonality toward heterosexual romance within a feminist framework. This article contributes to the scholarship of mediated intimacy by examining the mutual influence of digital practices and popular feminism.

English academic writing for academic purposes and beyond: the experiences of undergraduate students in Hong Kong

ABSTRACT Drawing on an academic literacies approach to understand writing as a social practice, this paper explores the experiences of how undergraduate students make sense of and engage with English academic writing conventions in relation to their writing purposes. We traced the writing process of 12 undergraduate students in Hong Kong over the course of two semesters and invited them to talk over their texts at three different stages of their writing process. Our findings reveal the existence of a language-content dichotomy in which language courses tend to value English standardisation and academic style conventions while subject courses value argumentation in the assignments. A majority of students accommodated writing conventions for the achievement of good grades. This form of purpose, however, limits student agency. Designing academic assignments without the acknowledgment of wider non-academic relevance to students’ lives only reinforces a performance-oriented culture and alienates students from agentive learning. We suggest a pedagogical space for academic writing that can extend beyond academic conventions, allowing students to reflect on its social relevance. Creating a space for this exploration would foster an inclusive and empowering learning environment that facilitates student agency in academic language development and meaningful engagement with real-life issues.

Intersektionales Handeln zwischen Fremderwartungen und pädagogischer Selbstermächtigung

Young imams are confronted with intersectional inequalities in their pedagogical actions. In these relations, the action-guiding and structuring power of socially constructed categories of difference such as language and generation becomes apparent. Against this background, the article focuses on the question of how these relations can be analysed from an intersectional perspective and which self-empowerment strategies professionals use in their pedagogical actions. For this purpose, mosques are considered as pedagogical spaces and imams as pedagogical leaders, which have so far been insufficiently considered in the educa-tional studies. Using intersectionality as an analytical perspective together with the documentary method, the empirical material can be reconstructed and intersectional fields of tension can be described. Based on these insights, the question is discussed how intersectional action can be understood as a specific form of pedagogical action in the sense of a pedagogical self-empowerment strategy.

Can We Talk about Degrowth, Yet?

Degrowth entails the downscaling of material and energy throughput of high-income societies in order to mitigate the metabolic rift between geographies of capital accumulation and the vast territories and populations whose resources they unsustainably consume. It calls for a convergence between “imperial modes of living” and regimes of structural scarcity, and for the need to lower total global energy consumption while reducing gradients of inequality. This article posits the architectural design studio as a significant pedagogical space for exercising a close accountability of energy and material flows as a practice of resource management that demands negotiating the physical limits to growth with distributional social justice.

MYSTIC, SUPERSTITIONS AND SOCIETY: AN EXPLORATION OF THE BELIEF NARRATIVES OF KAKCHING

In the modern age, where science and rational thinking have taken the reign over everyday life, it may seem like the world of superstitions is a chronicle of the past. However, it is still embedded into the present society as it is a habitual behavior which has been ingrained by the older generation of society. So, where does these superstitious beliefs come from and in what form do they exist in this day and age where science has become the solution for every question? The answer lies in folklore and its narratives, which have stemmed from the society. The paper will focus on the belief narratives which have been used to create an avenue for the superstitions within the belief system as well as validate such beliefs. The creation of the belief system is as old as the society itself. Traditionally, they are transmitted orally through generations, amalgamating into the pedagogical space of the society. In the old days, circumstances or situations caused either by nature or supernatural forces were explained through these narratives, which made it easier for the members of society to accept them. Belief narratives take the form of independent narratives or are integrated into other folk narratives, especially myths and legends. Generally, since myths and legends are believed to be factual and historical, they are rarely questioned by the people, thereby assimilating into the identity and belief system of the society. As such, the paper will bring forth the belief narratives of Kakching and question their position within contemporary society. Furthermore, by analyzing the socio-cultural elements embedded within these narratives, it will help the readers understand how these narratives have helped in shaping the social, cultural and behavioral patterns of the people of Kakching.

Memorialising Violence amid Transition: Pedagogical Expectations in Colombia’s Memory Sites

ABSTRACT In contexts of post-conflict transition, memory sites such as museums and memorials have the dual role of symbolising redress and serving as pedagogical spaces aimed at non-recurrence. Through field interviews with individuals working with state-sponsored memory sites in Colombia, I explore how memory agents navigate these dual roles. Findings suggest that the pedagogical role of memory sites is a source of dispute framed by interactions among individuals. Debates over pedagogy illustrate broader tensions over the institutionalisation of memories in state spaces and their potential contribution to transitional justice. This article contributes empirical insight into the interactional aspects of memory work.

(Mis)Archiving the Archive

Abstract (MIS)ARCHIVE is an ongoing project to question and explore the potential of archives, collections, and museums as meaningful artistic and pedagogical spaces. Sometimes it appears that institutions like archives are perceived as being mundane and innocuous, resulting in them being overlooked. Those who do pay attention to them seem to offer two conflicting narratives regarding archives: on the one hand, they are seen as public places where objective truths and collective histories can be found, while on the other hand, they are considered exclusive spaces that are used to shape a view of the past that reflects position and power. The lack of questioning and attention given to spaces like archives is one way that injustices and inequities can be perpetuated over time. The author, an artist and educator, takes up the topic of the archive through a series of artistic and pedagogical gestures. Centering on the actions of (mis)interpretation, (mis)representation, and (mis)use, the author provokes others to engage with archives as sites of knowledge and learning, to question and examine the practices of collecting and preserving, and consider what these sites offer educationally, artistically, and politically.

HUMANE APPROACH IN TEACHING ENGLISH

At present, the process of integration is rapidly intensifying, states are closely interacting with each other, thus the process of integration in the business and cultural world is taking place. The global problems of all mankind are solved through the unification of nations. These are such problems as the protection of peace and ensuring the stability of each state, the solution of global environmental and economic problems, as well as the development of the country inside and outside its borders. And a tool to solve such problems is a well-established interethnic and intercultural communication. Historically, Kazakhstan has been called a "bridge between East and West" and a "crossroads of civilizations." Kazakhstan is home to representatives of 130 nationalities and 46 religions. Therefore, the ideas of humane pedagogy, based on eternal universal values, are embedded in the national consciousness of Kazakhstanis. As the great Abai said: "Love all people as brothers." Therefore, it is necessary to study the world and national heritage of humane pedagogy and introduce the spiritual and moral ideas of humanism into the theory and practice of the modern pedagogical space of Kazakhstan. [1]. This article examines the main possibilities of applying a humane approach to the study of foreign languages in secondary schools and presents the results of a study to identify ways to humanize educational activities.

Educative Spaces Full of Potential: Kairos Moments and Quantum Leaps

In this paper I share stories about beautifully complex and novel pathways for learners on the margins within my under-resourced Grade 2 community school classroom. I challenged practices of schooling that produced static understanding of children, and ones in which they were compared to the average, by embracing kairos moments. Kairos moments are distinct spaces full of potential that ebb and flow in unexpected ways and may lead to unanticipated outcomes. Inspired by new materialist scholarship, I worked at the intersection of theory and practice to go beyond common inclusive and self-regulatory educational strategies, to focus on the complex relationships involving children and their material contexts. Through the story of the magic pencil and the story of the invisible string, I illuminate the infinite potential within pedagogical spaces.

Database as method: Exposing ‘data’ about educational technology through a design intervention

Ubiquitous datafication of children and families in educational and everyday settings is both a result of and catalyst for power asymmetries between digital platforms and their users. These platforms seek to know their users by extracting and analysing various streams of personal information, often discreetly. However, the users are rarely equipped to do the same to the platforms as information about these platforms is often obscured, convoluted, or simply unavailable. This article explores the possibilities of reversing such power imbalance via the design intervention of an Australia-focused educational technology (EdTech) database developed by the authors of this article. Employing a design intervention method, the database is a collection of publicly available information about EdTech companies and products that target young children and their parents or educators in Australia. This alternate commentary article presents and discusses the ongoing processes of developing the database to reflect on what it says about the power relations between EdTech providers and their users. It demonstrates how the database works as a pedagogical space where people learn how to critically unpack and think about contemporary EdTech platforms. The database is positioned as a point of convergence for different actors involved in children's digital learning to collectively understand what needs to be done to enact and protect children's digital rights in education.

The Construction of the Pedagogical Space from the Narratives of the Early Childhood Education Teachers

Environments or learning spaces in school classrooms contribute to the improvement of educational processes. Specifically, in the Early Childhood Education, teachers can design learning spaces, which fosters an environment of safety and autonomy for the students of the Early Childhood Education. This study explores the teachers' narratives concerning the meanings they assign to the school space, the criteria by which they design and transform it, and its connection to model of educational. We have collected 34 stories of pre-primary education teachers through a semi-structured interview in which they had to reflect on this pedagogical design. As most relevant result we identify a model sustained under constructivist or cognitive criteria, rather than a dialogical one. We conclude that this epistemological perspective of the construction of the school environment should be oriented towards a more participatory and co-constructed model of the educational space.