Abstracts for posters
Hatice Choli
University of Greenwich, UK
Digital Inclusion: The Challenges
This research study investigated attitudes and behaviours of socially excluded adults as they consider engagement with learning through digital technologies in individually orientated and free informal learning settings. The study specifically explored the impact of socio-personal attitudinal and behavioural factors that impede participation. The research explored these phenomena through the Theory of Planned Behaviour which concentrates on local social determinants that influence an individual's action. In addition, the study also briefly considered the wider social determinants through elements of Bourdieu's concepts of habitus, field and cultural capital which impinge on the decision making process whether implicitly or explicitly.
The statistical analysis and interview data revealed that latent experiences and perception played a vital role in individuals' life choices. These provided the foundation of the socio-personal factors that continued to impact on socially excluded adults and influence their attitudes, behaviour and decision making process. The study exposed that these have a negative impact on attitudes towards any sort of learning/training including IT skills. The combination of poor experiences of school, no/low academic achievement, low self-esteem and confidence, along with a fear of failure has led to lives of worklessness or a continuous cycle of low skilled, low-waged employment vulnerable to economic change.
The challenges of continued resistance toward digital technologies and participation/access to learning and IT skills training has the potential to further exclude and isolate some of the most deprived and vulnerable in our communities both socially and economically.
Alexandra Dehmel
Department of Business and Human Resource Education, University of Paderborn, Germany
Revealing the 'National Perspective': Discourse Analysis as a tool for comparative education
Conducting comparative education is a challenging task. Education systems are deeply embedded in specific, interrelated and complex patterns such as cultural and historical traditions or particular social, economic and political structures. They have been shaped in specific, unique national contexts, which urge for caution whenever comparisons are involved and explanations for certain features are searched for. To Ltake this adequately into account is a main challenge and central aim of the present study which compares teacher education systems and concepts of teacher professionality in England and Germany. In order to achieve this aim and to prevent problems known in comparative education as "self-fulfilling-prophecy" or "nostrification" (cf. Matthes, 1992), special attention has been paid to the development of an analytical framework which takes the 'national perspective' of the respective countries adequately into account. In this framework, discourse analysis based on the field of Foucaultian discourse research is used as an instrument to systematically reveal this 'national perspective', i.e., to reveal the super-individual practices of knowledge production, of concepts behind teacher education etc. Based on an adoption of methods by Keller (2007) and Jäger (2004), the English and German scientific discourse on teacher education for the field of vocational education and training have been analysed and used for the comparison of the two countries. The poster presentation offers an insight into the potential of discourse analysis for comparative studies and summarises some key findings.
Charlie Hackett
IDEAS Gray's School of Art, Robert Gordon University, Aberdeen, UK
"Methadone Blues, Methadone Queues, Pharmaceutical Blues in the Methadone Queues - End of Story" Anon
This poster explores the daily round run for Methadone clients from their home to the pharmacy, drinking their dose from the plastic cup and returning home.
Put the Methadone clients' journey in to slow motion and what can you find out?
It explores the relationship between Methadone clients and the pharmacist.
What is the effect of Methadone, how do the Methadone client and the pharmacist view it?
How does the pharmacist see Methadone treatment and how does the Methadone client see Methadone treatment?
It looks at the privacy or not of the space within the pharmacy and if that has any
impact on the client.
Trust, relationships between all, is considered.
Funding for this research project: Nil.
Robert Harding
Institute of Education, University of Reading, UK
I guess it's cool if you can trust people: Trust, Social Mobility and Social Cohesion from an Educational Context
This paper is based on some of the findings from a large research study carried out in East Birmingham in 2008/9. The area is deprived with the 4th highest unemployment in the UK, gang-related activity and several other social challenges. The project, funded by the Templeton Foundation, investigated the state of individual character and moral values, not only in Birmingham but also in the South-East, London, Bristol and Cambridge. The project covered the age ranges from Early Years to University and Employment. It became clear in the Birmingham project, which worked with the 14-16 age group, that trust was a key feature in their lives and that lack of it would hamper social mobility and slow social cohesion. Trust was a power, a capability that appeared to be either missing or under strain in that community. Without trust, personal development as well as employment potential can be severely compromised and mistrust of key individuals in a community - teachers, council staff and other local contacts - can only lead to the stunting of young people and their latent abilities. Life chances are closed off without good relations of trust.
This presentation explores the condition of trust amongst inner city youth by using some of the data from the Birmingham study, sketching the development of trust and then focusing on the factors that erode trust and measuring the scale of the work still to be done to knit together failing trust relations in some parts of the country.
Kamila Kaminska
Department of Pedagogy and Psychology
University of Wroclaw, Poland
Trust and Resistance to State Power in the context of Community Education
My poster will deal with trust and resistance towards state power in community educational context. I am thinking of the great traditions of resistance actions within informal practices in public spaces that many members of Polish society (especially the young generation) performed in Communist times (dwarfs marches, orange power, for example). After the fall of Communism and the transformation that followed there have been, among others, two significant outcomes: lack of trust towards the state and the assumption that there is no great power to resist, to fight against. The dangers of the totalising power of commercialisation and globalisation (in terms of international corporations) are rarely recognised. The young generation seems to adopt the model of making money and living easy lives to very high extent. The aim of the poster is to present interesting practices from the history and to look at the contemporary issues from the perspective of building the communities for tomorrow. The poster will be supported by the critical pedagogy of Paulo Freire and Pedagogy of Place.
Jennifer Lavia
University of Sheffield, UK
Massa Day Done!?
The poster is entitled: Massa Day Done!? This is the theme of the inaugural DPR- Caribbean conference to be held in Trinidad in August 2010. Simultaneous use of the exclamation and question marks is deliberate and intended to signal the complexity of issues the Caribbean faces in coming to understand itself in light of its experience of colonialism. The theme is also a political statement that was made by Dr Eric Williams who was a Caribbean intellectual and politician from Trinidad to declare that political independence in 1962 marked a new era for the former colony. The theme aims therefore to stimulate discussion about the challenges of decolonising the postcolonial experience.The poster in the first instance draws attention to the beginnings of the collaboration in the Caribbean with the University of Sheffield, highlighting a collage of images of students and settings that foreground teaching and learning experiences. The second part of the poster focuses on our commitments to developing the DPR community in the Caribbean.
Heather Lynch
representing the Centre for Community Practice, a research and learning initiative between Govanhill Baths Community Trust and Strathclyde University, UK
United we will Swim - Trust in the Community
Contemporary political rhetoric increasingly implies that our elected members understand that effective development will be community led. However global and UK evidence indicates that there are significant barriers for communities who wish to take ownership of property and vision in their locality. This presentation/poster demonstrates the ongoing struggle of Govanhill Baths Community Trust. This organisation was born through active resistance to the closure of the Baths by Glasgow City Council in 2001.
Govanhill is the most ethnically diverse area in Scotland. Issues of race equality are therefore interwoven into any policy or action relevant to the area. Its high crime, poor housing and poverty keep it high on the Scottish Indices of Multiple Deprivation and subject to much involvement from statutory services who perceive Govanhill as an area 'in decline'. An analysis of the stories of campaigners and members of the local community demonstrates that despite the above challenges there is a wealth of community resource which is often oppressed by statutory action. The Baths campaign shows that a community of trust between individuals from diverse social, racial and economic backgrounds can expose and challenge political incongruence.
This analysis uses critical theory and the framework of community capitals to show the disparity between political rhetoric and policy actions which have the effect of oppressing as opposed to developing 'communities'. This analysis of the dynamics of 'trust' between 'community' and policy shows how forms of oppression are constituted within the bureaucratic systems which translate policy into action.
The poster presentation will include images, stories and if possible artwork which will allow the audience to engage with some of the issues raised above.
M.G. Mahlomaholo
School of Education Faculty of Education Sciences, North-West University, S Africa
DPR-SOUTH AFRICA: SUSTAINABLE EMPOWERING LEARNING ENVIRONMENTS FOR SOCIAL JUSTICE (SELEN)
The poster describes the history of SELEN as part of the DPR Community located in South Africa from its beginning in 2008 to date. The poster further shows how SELEN has grown nationally and continues to grow in terms of its impact on the education scene in South Africa. To some extent one gets the impression that it has become a national movement encompassing a significant number of universities in South Africa. Though linking up with the DPR community and other national and international role players, SELEN seems to be fulfilling the dream of providing alternative space for educational theorization, research and practice towards enhancement of education.
Ros Ollin
School of education and Professional Development, University of Huddersfield, UK
The impact of Ofsted grading criteria on the discourse and practices of tutors carrying out teaching observations for programmes of Initial Teaching Education in the Lifelong Learning Sector
In inspections carried out by the Office for Standards in Education, Children's Services and Skills (Ofsted) an increasing emphasis is being placed on the observation of trainees' practical teaching as evidence for the inspection grades awarded to educational institutions. In the current inspection round, Ofsted use criteria for key aspects of trainees' performance based on four grades: outstanding, good, satisfactory and inadequate (Ofsted, 2009). These grading criteria now need to be taken into account by Higher Education partnerships offering the Certificate in Education/PGCE for teachers in the Lifelong Learning Sector. But what impact could the introduction of grading have on tutors more familiar with a developmental observation process? Previous research on teaching observation has indicated that a significant proportion of trainees are in favour of grading (Burrows, 2008), but has also indicated tensions between different models and purposes of observation (Hardman, 2007, Ewens and Orr, 2002). Although some writings have tried to indicate the nature of excellent or 'outstanding' teaching (Hattie, 2009), other writings indicate the problems inherent in absolute judgements on performance within a political context of continuous improvement (Coffield and Edwards, 2009).
This poster presentation summarises some key findings from a research project on the influence of Ofsted grading criteria on tutors carrying out teacher observations in a large PCET Consortium. It considers the different purposes of teaching observation, the potential impact of a shift from developmental to judgemental observations and the effect of Ofsted discourse on the language tutors use in feedback to trainees.
Margaret Ohia
Department of Philology, University of Wroclaw, Poland
Can we trust educational institution? Africa as a Course in Polish Schools
The main purpose of my poster is to introduce various ways (both iconic and by means of language) of conceptualizing Africa and Africans in the form of a lesson or course in the Polish educational system at the elementary school levels. Teaching about Africa to children often tends to reflect stereotypical social representations of people that focus on wildness, backwardness, skin colour and language difference, lack of civilisation, amongst others.
According to Teun van Dijk's discourse analysis approach, strategies of race discrimination are hidden in text and talk both at the micro and macro level of discourse. Therefore the critical lesson analysis will not only reveal the distorted image of Africa and Africans perceived and adopted by young people, but also show discrimination as the discursive strategy of the dominant group in Michel Foucault's theory of power relations. This misconception about Africa may affect children's attitudes towards people of different skin colour living in their own country and may produce institutionalized racism.
Since there is a lack of major African Diaspora in contemporary ethnic Polish society, I believe early elementary education about Africa has not been fully developed, and consequently the need to introduce this issue will be important and will lead to non-discrimination, as it has become an issue of public discussion in most European countries.
Jerome Satterthwaite
University of Greenwich, UK
DPR in the UK
This poster sets out a brief history of Discourse, Power, Resistance (DPR) from its beginning in 2001 to the present day, showing how DPR has grown from its early beginnings as an Education conference in Plymouth to its relocation in 2010 to Greenwich.
The poster touches on the central aims of DPR as they have developed over the last nine years. There is a section of the poster dealing with publications – the books and the journal Power and Education.
The poster aims to show the international spread of DPR, highlighting the fact that the 2010 conference has representatives from 29 nations throughout the world.
There is a section of the poster looking at the scope for a DPR Community – with shared research, the development of Special Interest Groups, the use of Ning for networking, and the growth of a DPR archive.
Jennifer S. Simpson
University of Waterloo, Canada
The Social Contract between Higher Education and the Public
Scholars broadly agree that a social contract exists between institutions of higher education and the public. At the same time, there is both a) a lack of clear attention to what this social contract includes; and b) explicit tensions between liberal and critical scholarship as to what the public good, often linked to this social contract, requires. Undergraduate education has a profound influence on the ways in which students see the world in which they live and act through a sense of democratic agency. Finally, democratic societies prioritize specific values and practices, including equity and justice. This presentation focuses on the links between undergraduate education, higher education's obligations to the public good, and the ways in which pedagogy and knowledge support democratic practices. It will assert both that liberal scholarship does not offer a sufficiently complex response to the above issues, and that democratic values place specific demands on the epistemologies and pedagogies on which faculty rely. Finally, this presentation will consider the ways in which undergraduate education can offer students a sense of democratic agency and capacities that can respond to and counter injustice.