Papers by thomas popkewitz
In an important book about numbers and social affairs, Theodore Porter (1995) begins by asking: “... more In an important book about numbers and social affairs, Theodore Porter (1995) begins by asking: “How are we to account for the prestige and power of quantitative methods in the modern world? How is it that what was used for studying stars, molecules and cells would have attraction for human societies?” To consider these questions, Porter continues that only a small proportion of numbers or quantitative expressions have any pretence of describing laws of nature or “even of providing complete and accurate descriptions of the eternal world” (Porter 1995: viii–ix). Numbers, he argues, are parts of systems of communication whose technologies create distances from phenomena by appearing to summarize complex events and transactions. The objectivity of numbers appears as mechanical, following a priori rules that project fairness and impartiality, numbers are seen as excluding judgment and mitigating subjectivity.
Espacio, Tiempo y Educación, 2016
Sociology of education: Emerging perspectives, 1998
... Jana Sawicki (1988), for example, reviewing feminist research, argues that feminine forms ofe... more ... Jana Sawicki (1988), for example, reviewing feminist research, argues that feminine forms ofembodiment in di-etary and fitness regimes ... school reform discourses in the forms of disciplining and governing of the" child." School didactics and teacher education reforms, for ex ...
There is a “commonsense” in the contemporary policy that moves across Europe and North America. T... more There is a “commonsense” in the contemporary policy that moves across Europe and North America. That commonsense is the use of benchmarks in welfare state reform to assure the proper articulation of goals that enable their measurement and attainment. The corollary of the benchmark statements is that research identifies the empirical evidence that testifies about what works to secure the desired changes. The putting together of benchmarks and the call for “scientific evident” entails the faith that the correct mixture of research and policy will provide the pathways for effective social and educational improvement.
Springer International Handbooks of Education
Critical Analyses of Educational Reforms in an Era of Transnational Governance
The chapter considers the globalization and transnational through examining reform as embodying s... more The chapter considers the globalization and transnational through examining reform as embodying standards. My use of standards is not in the publically stated goals of policy. They are in the principles generated in the making of the objects of reflection and administration of children. These standards relate historically to the rules and standards about who the child is and should be and who is “different,” abjected, and thus excluded. The chapter begins with interviews of American urban teachers, with urban as a phrase used to talk about teachers of children of the poor, racialized, and ethnic groups that are marginalized in educational settings. This child is called “the child left behind” in American legislation designed to improve schools for a category in education that refers to children considered socially disadvantaged, marginalized, and associated with problems of low achievement in school. The chapter proceeds to historicize how differences and divisions are established to make “the urban” teacher and child as different in American social and education sciences at the turn of the twentieth century. It argues that the sciences of teaching and learning embody cultural theses about kinds of people. These cultural theses involve double gestures: the hope of schooling in making kinds of people whose modes of living embody collective moral values and with this hope of inclusion are simultaneous fears of the dangers and dangerous populations. The thinking about reform is a historical method to study what schools do, how reforms function, and educational research. My concern with the double gestures of reform is to explore the limits of contemporary frameworks that define the subject of school reform and its research programs.
Teacher Education and Teaching as Struggling for the Soul
Historia Cultural Y Educacion Ensayos Criticos Sobre Conocimiento Y Escolarizacion 2003 Isbn 84 87682 44 8 Pags 146 184, 2003
Formacion Del Profesorado Tradicion Teoria Y Practica 1990 Isbn 84 370 0632 5 Pags 6 34, 1990
Choice Reviews Online, 2015
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Papers by thomas popkewitz