Dustin Hosseini
My undergraduate and postgraduate focused on Russian language and linguistics and also Spanish language and linguistics. My doctoral studies is taking me towards decolonizing education, what it means and why it's important.
I've dabbled in second language learning and teaching English as a foreign language and for academic purposes, learning development and learning technologies and digital education and technology enhanced learning and teaching.
More recently I have become interested in understanding what decolonizing education is, why it is important and why it matters for anyone who works in and alongside education.
Oh, and I love photography.
I've dabbled in second language learning and teaching English as a foreign language and for academic purposes, learning development and learning technologies and digital education and technology enhanced learning and teaching.
More recently I have become interested in understanding what decolonizing education is, why it is important and why it matters for anyone who works in and alongside education.
Oh, and I love photography.
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Neoliberalism enacts a globalization that ‘economizes’ all human and non-human activities (Brown, 2015; Mbembe, 2016). This represents a particular form of (neo)colonialism (Mbembe, 2016) and, therefore, an extension of modernity that continues to atomize humanity while separating it from nature (Alexander, 2005; Stein et al., 2020). Current values within higher education are influenced by neoliberal logics manifesting through specific curricular practices including (but not exclusively) assessment practices. Through my professional viewpoint within the social sciences, where I have studied, taught students and staff, collaborated on teaching and designing courses, I have witnessed the primacy of individual assessment as a manifestation of neoliberal logics. A high focus on individualizing responsibility and accountability characterizes such assessments while managerialism controls their design and delivery. These together reflect a neoliberal ideology.
The values above represent a few that underpin contemporary curricular practices in the social sciences. I draw attention to these practices as I believe educators should resist them as they dehumanize students and educators by reducing learning and teaching to acts that measure, rank and categorize individuals according to so-called universalized standards of quality. I argue that neoliberalism values the efficiency of knowledge production, and a preferable alternative can draw upon decolonial thinking to achieve recognition beyond the mere value of what is produced. Such characteristics would rehumanize students and educators alike through taking a holistic view pluralistic in nature, that teaches the whole human through dialogue rather than solely focusing upon individual intellectual objectivity as it is framed within contemporary Western epistemology.
To this end, I first theorize how contemporary neoliberal values influence curricular practices before moving on to imagine one future informed by decolonial thinking.
The UK Department for Education’s ‘Higher education: free speech and academic freedom command paper CP 394’ (henceforth HEFSAF and referenced in-text as (DfE, 2021) was initially published in February 2021 and is under consideration before Parliament. The HEFSAF proposes to strengthen academic freedom and freedom of speech within the context of English higher education. As a member of the higher education community, I feel that, in time, the implications of such a proposed policy can reach further than England.
This paper attempts to illuminate how the HEFSAF furthers cultural hegemony. Specifically, this paper argues that the policy represents an expansion of neoliberal and neoconservative cultural hegemony within the context of UK higher education by inflaming pre-existing culture wars that focus on the conflation of the ideas ‘academic freedom’ and ‘free speech’.
I choose the lens of hegemony and more specifically cultural hegemony in part due to the notion of repressive tolerance. In discussing radical teaching, Brookfield and Holst (2011:109) make reference to Marcuse (1965) and repressive tolerance, arguing that a person’s upbringing is steeped within a particular ideology that manifests itself in the choices that they make when presented with a range of perspectives on a particular topic. As a result, such a person may choose a perspective that most aligns with their ‘ideological conditioning’ (ibid) which to them might appear as common sense and/or ‘normal’. Consequently, an educator’s role is to ensure all ideas are considered critically and fully, and this can extend to the awareness, studies and understanding of education policy by educators.
Discourse used within policy can represent the political nature of the day; specifically, the language used within policy can help educators to understand how ideas and identities are constructed to then understand how cultural hegemony ‘is secured and contested, and of the prospects for emancipatory social change’ (Olssen, Todd & O’Neil, 2004:36).
I do not define Vygotsky's zone of proximal development (the ZPD) as being related to Krashen's 'i+1' theory. I would refute that and even go so far as to say that these are two completely different theories, with Vygotsky's being the original of the two.
Prabhu's 'effort to comprehend' deals with motivation on the part of the learners to actually work with and understand better the tasks in the classroom, because they, perhaps, know that their success will lead to further progression and success for themselves.
Comments, critiques, and questions are welcomed.
I wrote this paper for the Cambridge Delta Module 2 in late 2009.
Comments, critiques, and questions are welcomed.
I briefly describe these areas and their differences and attempt to present some strategies that can be employed in the classroom to help highlight the distinction of the present perfect progressive.
Comments, critiques, and questions are welcomed.
In theory, the discussion in this paper could even be applied to native speakers of English who lack strong writing skills, which are needed for college/university level studies.
Comments, critiques, and questions are welcomed.
The focus of the essay is why word families and derivational affixation should be considered and merit instruction in the context of teaching English as a foreign/second language.
Derivational affixation deals with how words are modified when affixes are added to words.
Comments, critiques, and questions are welcomed.
NB: Be careful, I was referred on this assignment because the assessor considered it to "academic" in nature. I think she failed it because she wanted me to do a more PPP type of lesson.
This assignment touches on what academic writing involves, includes a brief needs analysis conducted on learners, and a suggested academic course of study for a group of students whose needs include learning to write academic papers for the undergraduate/postgraduate levels of study.
This was especially important for me as it evidences my first attempt at creating a course for a group of learners.
Please see the the other paper entitled "Appendices for Module 3 Assignment" for further details on the actual layout of the course, and the materials suggested for use.
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Neoliberalism enacts a globalization that ‘economizes’ all human and non-human activities (Brown, 2015; Mbembe, 2016). This represents a particular form of (neo)colonialism (Mbembe, 2016) and, therefore, an extension of modernity that continues to atomize humanity while separating it from nature (Alexander, 2005; Stein et al., 2020). Current values within higher education are influenced by neoliberal logics manifesting through specific curricular practices including (but not exclusively) assessment practices. Through my professional viewpoint within the social sciences, where I have studied, taught students and staff, collaborated on teaching and designing courses, I have witnessed the primacy of individual assessment as a manifestation of neoliberal logics. A high focus on individualizing responsibility and accountability characterizes such assessments while managerialism controls their design and delivery. These together reflect a neoliberal ideology.
The values above represent a few that underpin contemporary curricular practices in the social sciences. I draw attention to these practices as I believe educators should resist them as they dehumanize students and educators by reducing learning and teaching to acts that measure, rank and categorize individuals according to so-called universalized standards of quality. I argue that neoliberalism values the efficiency of knowledge production, and a preferable alternative can draw upon decolonial thinking to achieve recognition beyond the mere value of what is produced. Such characteristics would rehumanize students and educators alike through taking a holistic view pluralistic in nature, that teaches the whole human through dialogue rather than solely focusing upon individual intellectual objectivity as it is framed within contemporary Western epistemology.
To this end, I first theorize how contemporary neoliberal values influence curricular practices before moving on to imagine one future informed by decolonial thinking.
The UK Department for Education’s ‘Higher education: free speech and academic freedom command paper CP 394’ (henceforth HEFSAF and referenced in-text as (DfE, 2021) was initially published in February 2021 and is under consideration before Parliament. The HEFSAF proposes to strengthen academic freedom and freedom of speech within the context of English higher education. As a member of the higher education community, I feel that, in time, the implications of such a proposed policy can reach further than England.
This paper attempts to illuminate how the HEFSAF furthers cultural hegemony. Specifically, this paper argues that the policy represents an expansion of neoliberal and neoconservative cultural hegemony within the context of UK higher education by inflaming pre-existing culture wars that focus on the conflation of the ideas ‘academic freedom’ and ‘free speech’.
I choose the lens of hegemony and more specifically cultural hegemony in part due to the notion of repressive tolerance. In discussing radical teaching, Brookfield and Holst (2011:109) make reference to Marcuse (1965) and repressive tolerance, arguing that a person’s upbringing is steeped within a particular ideology that manifests itself in the choices that they make when presented with a range of perspectives on a particular topic. As a result, such a person may choose a perspective that most aligns with their ‘ideological conditioning’ (ibid) which to them might appear as common sense and/or ‘normal’. Consequently, an educator’s role is to ensure all ideas are considered critically and fully, and this can extend to the awareness, studies and understanding of education policy by educators.
Discourse used within policy can represent the political nature of the day; specifically, the language used within policy can help educators to understand how ideas and identities are constructed to then understand how cultural hegemony ‘is secured and contested, and of the prospects for emancipatory social change’ (Olssen, Todd & O’Neil, 2004:36).
I do not define Vygotsky's zone of proximal development (the ZPD) as being related to Krashen's 'i+1' theory. I would refute that and even go so far as to say that these are two completely different theories, with Vygotsky's being the original of the two.
Prabhu's 'effort to comprehend' deals with motivation on the part of the learners to actually work with and understand better the tasks in the classroom, because they, perhaps, know that their success will lead to further progression and success for themselves.
Comments, critiques, and questions are welcomed.
I wrote this paper for the Cambridge Delta Module 2 in late 2009.
Comments, critiques, and questions are welcomed.
I briefly describe these areas and their differences and attempt to present some strategies that can be employed in the classroom to help highlight the distinction of the present perfect progressive.
Comments, critiques, and questions are welcomed.
In theory, the discussion in this paper could even be applied to native speakers of English who lack strong writing skills, which are needed for college/university level studies.
Comments, critiques, and questions are welcomed.
The focus of the essay is why word families and derivational affixation should be considered and merit instruction in the context of teaching English as a foreign/second language.
Derivational affixation deals with how words are modified when affixes are added to words.
Comments, critiques, and questions are welcomed.
NB: Be careful, I was referred on this assignment because the assessor considered it to "academic" in nature. I think she failed it because she wanted me to do a more PPP type of lesson.
This assignment touches on what academic writing involves, includes a brief needs analysis conducted on learners, and a suggested academic course of study for a group of students whose needs include learning to write academic papers for the undergraduate/postgraduate levels of study.
This was especially important for me as it evidences my first attempt at creating a course for a group of learners.
Please see the the other paper entitled "Appendices for Module 3 Assignment" for further details on the actual layout of the course, and the materials suggested for use.
EAP programmes tend to generate large amounts of paper-based information within a high stakes, high intensity environment. Anecdotal evidence suggests that students merely bin these resources upon course completion. ePortfolios, however, can be used to engage and assess student learning in a diverse manner while equipping them with reflective practices which they use in their further course of study, and beyond in their professional career. An ePortfolio can be defined as a virtual space that includes content such as a learning journal, learner-created video and written works and redrafts thereof. A learner’s own personal content (e.g. a mini-blog, photos, etc.) can also be included. An ePortfolio can be created within the Mahara ePortfolio system or even by using Google Sites or WordPress – all free, open-source tools.
To this end, significant research indicates that ePortfolios can equip students with a variety of key graduate attributes and skills by helping them become more self-regulated, reflective learners (Chau & Cheng, 2012; Cheng & Chau, 2012). This research, underpinned by educational philosophy and research (cf. Dewey 1938, 1960) also indicates that using ePortfolios to develop reflection, and specifically reflective second language learning skills, can foster reflective practice in a multi-modal fashion. This method of reflection might entail a learner-constructed e-portfolio that consists of a reflective journal, learner-created videos, and learner-authored writing samples.
Therefore, this session aims to share best practice by discussing the prospects of including ePortfolios as an assessed component of an EAP by exploring some examples of ePortfolios and subsequent learners’ comments, and therefore by demonstrating that, bit by bit, it all adds up to a greater, more effective learning experience for learners who can take away potentially, invaluable skills for both their education and professional careers. In sum, the session will demonstrate how ePortfolios can work as an assessment tool by looking at examples and a sample ePortfolio assessment rubric.
• the knowledge and understanding of electronic media and modes [of assessment](p4);
• the knowledge and understanding of new technologies that can support independent learning (p7);
• and the ability to implement IT into the delivery [of teaching] (p8).
However, the CFTEAP does not appear to directly address the competencies specific to ICT and digital literacies that EAP practitioners require to actively and successfully achieve the aforementioned points. EAP practitioners must receive appropriate knowledge and training in order to take full advantage of technologies integrated into the learning and teaching process. Failure to implement and support knowledge exchanges and relevant training can lead to a static ‘electronic document repository’ and ‘poor pedagogical development’ when integrating e-learning activities on VLEs (Badge, Cann and Scott 2005).One solution to this issue is to digitise and dynamise learning and teaching materials by using virtual learning environments (VLEs) to integrate technology into learning and teaching. This will ultimately help EAP practitioners save time and monitor student participation while actively engaging learners (Jisc infoNet 2012). Therefore, this presentation aims to outline concisely what knowledge and training EAP tutors and programme directors should obtain in order to effectively integrate technology into the classroom.
This workshop aims to involve delegates through discussion and practice in the applications of Google Drive as a collaborative, dynamic, engaging, free and real-time writing tool that educators and students can employ for a variety of purposes. Educators can use Google Drive as a tool to engage students in a relatively non-intrusive manner that scaffolds and supports the acquisition of good practice in writing through the use of the comments and chat features among others. Learners can also scaffold each other’s writing by using the same tools, which can be used for group work or in peer review/marking type activities.
Delegates will have the opportunity to discover and use Google Drive's collaborative components related to: chat; authoring and organizing documents; commenting; researching and defining; exploring the revision history; and sharing.
References & further reading
Burr, V. (2003). Social constructionism. Routledge.
Calvo, R. A., O'Rourke, S. T., Jones, J., Yacef, K., & Reimann, P. (2011). Collaborative writing support tools on the cloud. Learning Technologies, IEEE Transactions on, 4(1), 88-97.
Hargis, J., & Wilcox, S. M. (2008). Ubiquitous, free, and efficient online collaboration tools for teaching and learning. Turkish Online Journal of Distance Education, 9(4), 9-17.
Hedin, B. (2012). Peer feedback in Academic Writing Using Google Docs. Proceedings of LTHs 7:e Pedagogiska Inspirationskonferens. Lund.
Hosseini, D. (2013). ‘“Facts, insight and humour”: Using TED Talks for authentic listening’. Talk presented at Materials for Thought Workshop: moving best practice in EAP forward, University of St Andrews, 2 March. Available online at http://goo.gl/C1C40b
Hosseini, D. (2013). ‘Implementing learning through real-time collaboration: Google Drive as an all-round vehicle for feedback.' BALEAP Professional Issues Meeting: Feedback in EAP, Oxford Brookes University, 23 November 2013. http://goo.gl/hECe17
Pargman, D., Hedin, B., & Hrastinski, S. (2013). Using group supervision and social annotation systems to support students’ academic writing. Högre utbildning, 3(2), 129-134.
Phadtare, A., Bahmani, A., Shah, A., & Pietrobon, R. (2009). Scientific writing: a randomized controlled trial comparing standard and on-line instruction. BMC medical education, 9(1), 27.
Robertson, R. (2012). Using knowledge networks to teach online writing skills in the professional writing classroom. Engaging students with learning technologies, 167.
Sultan, N. (2010). Cloud computing for education: A new dawn?. International Journal of Information Management, 30(2), 109-116.
Vygotsky, L. S. (1978). Mind in society: The development of higher mental process. (M. Cole, V. John-Steiner, S. Scribner, & E. Souberman, Eds.). Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press.
For students, this effective learning tool allows groups to collaborate simultaneously from virtually any place. In addition to typing up ideas or tasks for sessions focused on lexis, grammar, presentations, research and writing, students can collaborate on authoring texts through the chat and comments functions.
Chat is useful when peers are physically apart or if silence is required. The comments function is highly versatile in that it can be used for peer feedback marking and social annotation activities. Educators can join in at any stage, or monitor and provide feedback as needed through either of these methods.
Finally, use of Google Docs for collaborative purposes will equip today’s generation of learners for the work environment of today and the very near future.
To close, Google Docs equips students and teachers with the means to collaborate on written tasks, assignments and course work in real-time while empowering users to become both more independent and collaborative, and more at ease with cloud technologies.
Participants in the session will have the opportunity to discuss how the use of Google Docs can work in their own context. In addition, if participants bring a laptop –or– tablet (e.g. an iPad or similar) they will likely be able to greatly benefit through being able to engage with Google Docs directly.
Keywords:
Google Docs; instantaneous/synchronous feedback; peer collaboration; peer feedback; peer marking; e-learning; m-learning; social annotation.
In particular, the paper seeks to analyse the ways in which engagement with skills in areas such as research question development; resource analysis and interpretation; development, and defence, of a sustained argument through advanced writing techniques can be promoted by linked approaches from the EAP and student learning perspectives
Authentic listening materials are not always readily available; those that are available online are not always appropriate for learners due to (for example) a lack of L2 content knowledge. Moreover, students often voice concerns regarding their listening: they express a lack of confidence in understanding ‘native speakers’ and worry about being able to understand lecturers in their future studies.
To this end, regular, scaffolded use of authentic materials (or authentic as possible) can help alleviate these student concerns while addressing the needs of tuning their ears to rapid ‘academic’ English speech. Authentic listening activities can be created by using TED Talks, which provide a range of topics that vary in length from 4 minutes to 40 minutes. Teachers can exploit TED Talks for use with a range of levels (e.g. IELTS 4 and up).
Furthermore, TED Talks are an open educational resource that allows free use by all stakeholders. TED itself welcomes educational usage of its materials; issues of copyright are effective non-issues due to creative commons licensing. Use of ‘authentic’ sources such as TED can encourage students to self-access other materials available on iTunes U, BBC iPlayer, and others. This presentation will discuss the ways in which the success of the use of these materials have enhanced student skills (e.g. listening) required for EAP and future academic studies.
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