School Debate Research Articles

Antisemitism and Jewish Children and Youth in Australia’s Capital Territory Schools

Issues pertaining to religion and Australian schools have generated a significant amount of controversy and scholarly attention in recent years, and much of the attention in the religion and schools debate has focused on Muslim and non-religious children’s experiences (Erebus International, 2006; Halafoff, 2013). This article, by contrast, explores the manifestations of antisemitism as experienced by Jewish children and youth in Canberra schools. It considers the characteristics of antisemitism; when and why it occurs; its impact on the Jewish children and young people; and also the responses to it by them, the schools and the Jewish community. Based on focus groups with the Jewish students and their parents, the study reveals that antisemitism is common in Canberra schools, as almost all Jewish children and youth in this study have experienced it. The findings from this study suggest that there is a need for more anti-racism education. Specifically there is an urgent need for educational intervention about antisemitism, alongside education about religions and beliefs in general, to counter antisemitism more effectively and religious discrimination more broadly in Australian schools.

The question of inheritance in mid-nineteenth century French liberal thought

In this paper, we explore a French debate in the nineteenth century Liberal School: the question of inheritance. We first present the opposition among liberal economists between the advocates of the liberty of bequest and the defenders of its limitations. We then try to show that these contrasted positions cannot be reduced to the confrontation between the doctrine of natural rights and the principle of social utility. Finally, we propose another explanation for the divergences of the Liberal School through different conceptions of the State.

The continued existence of state-funded Catholics schools in Scotland

Catholic schools in Scotland have been fully state-funded since the 1918 Education (Scotland) Act. Under this Act, 369 contemporary Catholic schools are able to retain their distinctive identity and religious education and the teachers have to be approved by the Catholic hierarchy. Similar to the position of other forms of state-funded and partially state-funded faith schools in Europe, the position of state-funded Catholic schools in Scotland has been contested. This paper initially locates the debate and discussion about Catholic schools in Scotland in the history and development of the wider faith schools debate in the UK, particularly England and Wales. The paper outlines the key themes in the debate on faith schooling in England and Wales identifying the similarities between the debate in Scotland and England and Wales and the distinctive features of the debate in Scotland. The paper will then focus on a critical examination and analysis of two key themes concerning state-funded Catholic schools in the Scottish context. The first theme is the debate over the continuation of government funding of Catholic schooling as it is effectively government funding of religious beliefs and practices for a particular Christian denomination. The second theme is more unique to Scotland and has some tenuous links to the debate on faith schools in Northern Ireland: the claims that Catholic schools are the root cause of sectarianism or contribute to sectarianism.

A genealogy of the religious versus secular schooling debate in New South Wales (Part II): populism and patriotism

In Part I, I canvassed the geopolitical and domestic political context surrounding the debate over religious schooling in Australia, with particular attention to the legislative response to the spectacular Islamist terror attacks, its divisive effects on Australian society and its focalisation in the 2007–2009 controversy over a proposed Islamic school in Camden. I also considered the proposal of the secular principle in schooling as a solution to such disputes. Adopting a genealogical approach, I sought to historicise the meanings of ‘secular’ contra ‘religious’ education via a detour to 19th century NSW politics, which was marked by sectarian tension and British Protestant prejudice against the Irish Catholic minority in the context of spectacular Fenian terrorism. In Part II, I will specifically foreground the political contestation in NSW surrounding the institution of the 1880 Public Instruction Act and its persistent effects on the religious versus secular education debate today. The point advanced here is that the very terms ‘secular’ or ‘religious’ cannot be defined except as contingent outcomes of historical political battles and power relations.

A genealogy of the secular versus religious schooling debate in New South Wales (part I): terror and suspicion

Since the mid-1990s, there has been a sustained growth in religious schooling in Australia with an accompanying debate over its merits. In turn, these debates in the realm of education are framed by broader questions in ostensibly secular-liberal nations like Australia over the ‘new visibility of religion’, most prominently in the spectacle of religiously-framed terrorist acts. The conjunction of this geopolitical context and the local debate over religious schooling focalised in the 2007–09 protests against a proposed Islamic school in the Sydney suburb of Camden, which have triggered a renewed emphasis on the importance of the secular principle in schooling. In this two part paper, I posit that the notion of ‘the secular’ is not a principle per se, but a strategic term deployed within particular political situations. I approach this through a genealogy of how religious and secular schooling have come to be understood as they are in New South Wales. Part I considers how the geopolitical and domestic political context of the present debate compares to that in the lead up to the formal separation of religious from secular schooling in 1880.

To No Avail: A Critical Look at the Charter School Debate

Most discussions about charter schools involve a tangle of differing histories, theories, values, and facts. If proponents and opponents looked at the facts instead of relying on their philosophies, we might make progress at improving schools.

Winning to Learn, Learning to Win: Evaluative Frames and Practices in Urban Debate

Sociologists of (e)valuation have devoted considerable attention to understanding differences in evaluative practices across a number of fields. Yet, little is understood about how individuals learn about and navigate multivalent valid group styles within a single setting. As a social phenomenon, many accept how central processes of evaluation are to everyday life. Accordingly, scholars have attempted to link research on evaluation to processes of inequality. Nevertheless, the sociology of evaluation only has tenuous, often implicit connections to literature on inequality and disadvantage. This article addresses these two gaps. Drawing on over two-hundred hours of ethnographic fieldwork in an urban high school debate league, twenty-seven semi-structured interviews with league judges, and archival data, we illustrate how high school policy debate judges employ evaluative frames and link them to the implementation of evaluative practices in a disadvantaged setting. We show that the cultural meanings that emerge within the evaluation process—in this case, urban uplift and competition—stem from the conflicted context in which evaluation is occurring. We also make a first step toward applying the conceptual tools within the sociology of evaluation to a disadvantaged setting, and more broadly, suggest that micro-processes of evaluation are important to the study of urban inequality.

Schools essay competition: What does ‘sustainable living’ mean to you?

The Living Rainforest, a UK-based charity, has announced its 2014 global essay competition for schoolchildren. The initiative invites schoolchildren in two entry categories – primary (age 7-11) and secondary (age 11-17) – to outline their ideas for ‘sustainable living’ and the steps needed for societies to achieve them. The winning students will be awarded trophies at the International Schools Debate and their essays will be published on the competition website. The deadline for submissions is February 10. For full details visit: http://www.livingrainforest.org/explore/schools-debate/

Education about Religions and Beliefs in Victoria

While the role of religion in Australian schools has been vigorously debated since the 1870s, it has recently generated considerable controversy, particularly in the state of Victoria. This article provides a historical analysis of religious instruction (RI) in Victorian schools, particularly drawing on the 1974 Russell Report’s review of RI programs. It then focusses on more recent developments, notably the 2010 Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal (VCAT) case, Aitken and Others vs. Department of Education and Early Childhood Development, which has reignited the ‘religion in schools debate’. Based on recommendations of the Russell Report and a number of recent Australian studies in this field, this article argues that a more inclusive model of education about religions and beliefs (ERB) is required for Australia’s Government schools to meet the needs of its increasingly multifaith and secular society. This research also suggests that ERB programs can be effective strategies for countering prejudices and building socially inclusive societies.

Plebiscite Deliberations: Self-Determination & Deliberative Democracy in Guam

In 2015, Guåhan (Guam), an unincorporated territory of the United States, could hold a plebiscite to determine its political status. This self-determination plebiscite will give the electorate the opportunity to deliberate on one of three internationally recognized political plans for the future: Statehood, Independence or Free Association. This monumental event has received little attention in the United States, with little media coverage appearing despite the recent self-determination plebiscites held around the world (e.g., Puerto Rico and the Falkland Islands). Nonetheless, the U.S. has a large stake in this election process. The people of Guåhan are U.S. citizens, yet are simultaneously denied full voting rights in U.S. presidential elections. Thus, the opportunities for political participation on Guåhan are based upon a dependent relationship with the U.S. Moments of political participation in Guåhan occur primarily through actions that both depend upon and reinforce communicative channels directed against the U.S. nation-state. The phenomenon of political dependency creates a complex situation for public deliberation amongst the Guåhan electorate. Even in Guåhan there is much confusion, contradiction, and deliberation concerning plebiscite eligibility and the ballot initiatives on the political status options. Thus, we propose a process of public deliberation, facilitated through educational programming, to analyze the arguments for each plebiscite plan and encourage even wider public deliberation. Drawing from a rich international tradition of school debate and deliberative voting guide reforms, we develop a detailed proposal aimed at both increasing voter education and turnout in the Pacific. Our proposal also stresses the pressing need for more communication scholarship on the political connections between the U.S. and Guåhan.

“All methods—and wedded to none”1: The deaf education methods debate and progressive educational reform in Toronto, Canada, 1922–1945

This article is about the deaf education methods debate in the public schools of Toronto, Canada. The author demonstrates how pure oralism (lip-reading and speech instruction to the complete exclusion of sign language) and day school classes for deaf schoolchildren were introduced as a progressive school reform in 1922. Plans for further oralist reforms in 1945 brought significant opposition from a deaf political organisation – the Ontario Association of the Deaf (OAD).The author situates the Toronto battle over methods between progressive educators and deaf people in the longer historical and larger transnational context of debates over oral and manual methods. The author’s examination of the Toronto methods debate raises and answers crucial critical questions about the contested nature of progressive school reforms by examining grassroots responses to reform. The author also places significant emphasis on the effects of reforms on deaf young people who received instruction. The pure oralist method was never as successful for deaf young people as oralists claimed it could be. Yet deaf youngsters felt more ambivalent about the methods than hearing school officials and parents, and deaf adults, did. Historical issues in deaf education that the author examines continue to be controversial today.

When Parallel Worlds Converge

He was 26 years old and was my first patient. I was a 23 year old medical student on my surgical clerkship. He never knew his father. At age 16, he dropped out of school, left home and tried to “make it on the streets”. At age 16, I was taking Driver’s Ed and was preparing for a high school debate tournament on the topic: “Resolved: The American criminal justice system should be significantly reformed.” At age 17, he had his first run-in with the criminal justice system for a shoplifting infraction at a convenience market. The charges were ultimately dropped. Over the next several years, he was in and out of jail, detention centers and the like, until at age 21, he was incarcerated in the State Penitentiary for “Assault with a deadly weapon”. At age 17, I had my first run-in with the criminal justice system for a shoplifting infraction at the college bookstore. The charges were ultimately dropped. Over the next several years, I was in and out of different career choices until, at the age of 21, I graduated pre-med with a degree in Human Biology. Earlier that year in the spring, he began having some pain in his mid-abdomen. He had “used” a similar “ploy” in the past to try to get out of doing undesirable tasks in the prison and so no one paid him much attention—until one day in late June he passed a bowel movement entirely comprised of blood. Earlier that year in the spring, I began having some pain in my mid-abdomen, possibly related to stress during my preparation for Step 1 of the National Board examination. The pain ultimately passed one day in late June after the examination was over. He was sent to the surgical ward at the University Hospital where a colonoscopy revealed a 12-cm fungating mass located near the splenic flexure of his transverse colon. The biopsy revealed mucinocystic adenocarcinoma and the abdominal CT scan demonstrated extensive metastatic spread. He was admitted to the surgical service where he underwent subtotal colectomy to relieve his impending bowel obstruction. I was sent to the surgical ward at the University Hospital for my surgical clerkship rotation. From him, I learned about colostomy wounds, colostomy bags and skin-breakdown. I learned how to put in a central line and how to write TPN orders. I learned about liver failure, ascites, chronic pain, morphine drips, and palliation. I learned how important it is to really talk with your patient, to try to offer comfort, and to try to explain the limits of medical science. I learned to care. I also learned that life can be unfair. Two days before the rotation ended, he fell into a coma. Two days before the rotation ended, I took the surgical clerkship examination. Two days later, we both left the service.

The ‘Wigforss Connection’: the Stockholm School vs. Keynes debate revisited

Drawing on archival material and previously unexplored texts, this article attempts to revise our understanding of the emergence of a new macroeconomic discourse in the Swedish 1930s. Firstly, it is argued that the Stockholm School played a secondary role in shaping Sweden's counter-cyclical policies during the depression. The Minister of Finance, Ernst Wigforss, possessed all the theoretical tools he needed before the academic economists had made their views on the crisis publicly known. Secondly, it will be argued that Wigforss was the one closest to anticipate the General Theory, and that he had his theoretical system for a counter-cyclical fiscal policy worked out in 1931 already. He provides an important link in one of the most debated topics in the history of macroeconomic thought. In an allusion to Axel Leijonhufvud, this link is named the ‘Wigforss Connection’.

Quintilian in New Orleans

This article presents the curricular and service-learning realities of a program that launches middle school debate teams in New Orleans public schools. By leaning on classical rhetoric in the writing classroom, McBride’s classes learn fundamentals of debate and rhetoric that prepare undergraduates to coach debate teams in middle schools where more than 95 percent of the students qualify for free or assisted lunches. Class conversations about Quintilian, Plato, and Aristotle prepare undergraduates to meet the middle school debaters “where they are” in the sense that they can evaluate where they are as orators and push them to greater heights. This service-learning course gives his Tulane students a new reason to care about what they read and write about, while simultaneously advancing Tulane’s dedication to service-learning and community outreach.

The Teaching Method of Debate in Primary School

The Teaching Method of Debate in Primary School

Participating in a policy debate program and academic achievement among at-risk adolescents in an urban public school district: 1997–2007

This study investigates the relationship between participating in a high school debate program on college-readiness in the Chicago Public School district over a 10-year period. At-risk school students were identified using an index including 8th grade achievement, poverty status, and enrollment in special education. Regression analyses were used to assess the association between debate participation and graduation and ACT performance. Overall, debaters were 3.1 times more likely to graduate from high school (95% confidence interval: 2.7–3.5) than non-debaters, and more likely to reach the college-readiness benchmarks on the English, Reading, and Science portions of the ACT. This association was similar for both low-risk and at-risk students. Debate intensity was positively related to higher scores on all sections of the ACT. Findings indicate that debate participation is associated with improved academic performance for at-risk adolescents.

Faith Schools and the Plural Society: Exploring Notions of Diversity in School Provision in England

Around thirty per cent of all schools in England have a religious character. The author argues that the current ‘faith schools debate’ is more about the nature of its ‘plural society’ than about the place of such schools within the state-maintained sector. He suggests that to assume we are, in fact, living within a determinedly plural society is not as clear-cut as one might suppose, and that the very existence of the current ‘faith school debate’ in England is an indication that we are not as committed to pluralism as we might like to think. First he sets out two differing conceptions of the plural society - one strong, one weak. Then he sketches the historical and legislative backdrop to the present English state-maintained educational system. His third objective is to chart, briefly, the development of the educational system since the 1980s and to describe how it corresponds to changes from a strong to a weak concept of a plural society in which societal attitudes which once championed legislation supporting minority communities now seem to be leaning towards marginalising or even suppressing the contribution of such groups to the common good. Finally, he argues that the continuing existence of a distinctive dual system of educational provision in England, of which the Catholic sector is a paradigm, provides a bulwark against a creeping tide of weak pluralism, which has been likened to a form of damaging totalitarianism.

An Analysis of Gender Disparities in Lincoln-Douglas Debate

The debate community has, in recent years, championed the concept of inclusion. With the rise of Urban Debate Leagues on the collegiate level and the creation of the CEDA (Cross Examination Debate Association) Commission on Women and Minorities, the collegiate debate community has made clear attempts to foster an atmosphere of diversity and equal opportunity in the realm of academic debate. However, literature focused on female participation in debate at the high school level is lacking. Significant disparities between female and male participation in debate are still points of concern in high school debate. Despite the guise of equal opportunity, we hypothesize that certain elements in debate structurally disadvantage female debaters. In this analysis, we will use recent data from Lincoln-Douglas Debate tournaments to isolate and examine elements that may be causing disproportionate gender representation. Moreover, we will suggest plans of action to remedy these factors.

A pilot project to encourage scientific debate in schools. Comics written and peer reviewed by young learners

Comprehension of the nature and practice of science and its social context are important aspects of communicating and learning science. However there is still very little understanding amongt the non-scientific community of the need for debate in driving scientific knowledge forward and the role of critical scrutiny in quality control. Peer review is an essential part of this process. We initiated and developed a pilot project to provide an opportunity for students to explore the idea that science is a dynamic process rather than a static body of facts. Students from two different schools experienced the process of peer-review by producing and reviewing comics related to the science done at Rothamsted Research. As authors, students showed a large degree of creativity and understanding of the science while as referees they showed good critical skills. Students had at first hand an insight into how science works.

Book review: Basics in medical education

Book review: Basics in medical education