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Social Context of Education, Ljubljana 2009

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SOCIAL CONTEXT

OF EDUCATION

Edited by

DAMIJAN ŠTEFANCBOŻENA HARASIMOWICZ

LJUBLJANA, 2009



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Reviewer: Assoc Prof. Anna Kožuh, PhD

Prof. Vjačeslav Terkulov, PhD

Edited by: Damijan Štefanc

Bożena Harasimowicz © Univerza v Ljubljani, Filozofska fakulteta, 2009.

All rights reserved.

No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in retrieval system ortransmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying,recording or othervise, without the prior permission of the publisher.

Main entry under title:

SOCIAL CONTEXT OF EDUCATION

Published by: University of Ljubljana, Faculty of ArtsFor the publisher: Valentin Bucik, DeanIssued by: Department of Education

Includes index.1. Educational-Research-Slovenia-Adresses, essays.2. Education-Social Sciences-Methods-Slovenia-Adresses, essays.Damijan Štefanc, Bożena Harasimowicz.

CIP - Kataložni zapis o publikacijiNarodna in univerzitetna knjižnica, Ljubljana

37.01(082)

SOCIAL context of education / edited by Damijan Štefanc, BoženaHarasimowicz. - Ljubljana : Faculty of Arts, 2009

ISBN 978-961-237-337-51. Štefanc, Damijan249000960

Printed by MellowTechnical Editor: Luka NovakPublikacija je brezplačna




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CONTENTS

1. Elena Bocharova

GIFTEDNESS AS A PEDAGOGICAL PHENOMENON................................... 7

2. Richard Kahn

VISION OF THE DEMOCRATIC FUTURE OF THE NET .......................... 27

3. Zbigniew Pucek

THE LOCAL SOURCES OF AN IDEA OF HOMELAND ............................. 47

4. Alison KingtonMETHODOLOGICAL CONSIDERATIONS OF CAUSALITY .................... 65

5. Boris Kožuh

THEORY OF META-ANALYTIC STUDIES ..................................................... 79

6. Jelena Maksimović

ETHNOGRAPHIC APPROACH IN PEDAGOGICAL RESEARCH ............ 89

7. Nenad Suzić

STEPS TOWARDS TO INCLUSIVE EDUCATION IN BiH ........................ 97

8. Jodi Bergland Holen, Bonni Gourneau, Woei Hung SUPPORTING PURPOSE-DRIVEN TEACHINGAT THE UNIVERSITY OF NORTH DAKOTA, USA

A Teacher Education for the Future Project .......................................... 117

9. Teresa A. Hughes, Norman L. Butler, William A. Kritsonis,

David Herrington PRIMARY AND SECONDARY EDUCATION IN CANADA AND

POLAND-COMPARED: INTERNATIONAL IMPLICATIONS ................ 135

10. Danuta Skulicz

TEACHER’S ACTIVITY IN THE DEVELOPINGOF EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM ............................................................................. 143



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11. Norman L. Butler, Barry S. Davidson, Ryszard

Pachocinski, Kimberly G. Grif�ith, William A. Kritsonis INTERNATIONAL PERSPECTIVES: POLISH POST – SECONDARYVOCATIONAL SCHOOLS AND CANADIAN COMMUNITY COLLEGES:

A COMPARISON USING AN INFORMATION TECHNOLOGYCONCEPTUAL MODEL .................................................................................... 159

12. María del Carmen Malbrán

DIGITAL SUPPORTS FOR PERSONS WITH MULTIPLE DISABILITY

AND COMPLEX COMMUNICATION NEEDS ............................................ 171

13. Natasha Angeloska-Galevska, Zora Jacova

ACTION RESEARCH IN THE INCLUSIVE CLASSROOM ...................... 179

Index ................................................................................................................... 185




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Under the conditions of modern social cultural situation,which is characterized by rapid changes in dierent spheres ofthe life of society and constant introduction of new informationtechnology, the problem of education of intellectually and

creatively talented personality, capable of non-standard thinking,ready for refusing from templates and usual methods of activityin searching something new and creative shouldn’t be neglected.School should fulll the social order for pupils’ all-rounddeveloped personality, the future highly qualied specialist in adenite sphere of creative life.

The future of Ukraine depends on intellectual and spiritualpower, creative potential of the growing generation, its desireof acquiring the new knowledge, making new technologicalinnovations, creative thinking and taking constructive decisions. Itis conrmed on a government level with the Ukrainian President’sintroduction of the Program “The Gi�ed Child” and the decisionof the Cabinet of Ministers “About conrming Governmentgoal-directed program of working with the gi�ed youth during2007-2010 years”. That is why organizing the normal conditionsfor developing the gi�ed pupils and students is one of the mostactual problems in the modern psycho-pedagogical science.

So, the actuality of the problem is based on the necessity ofsystem research and generalizing the conception of gi�ednessand its kinds, describing the eective methods of diagnostics for a

Elena Bocharova

Нorlivka State Pedagogical Institute ofForeign LanguagesUKRAINE

GIFTEDNESS AS APEDAGOGICAL PHENOMENON



Elena Bocharova: Giftedness as a Pedagogical Phenomenon

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gi�ed personality, peculiarities of pedagogical process, which thegi�ed children are involved in and forms of realizing the socialand pedagogical support for the gi�ed youth.

During the century in psycho-pedagogical science gi�ednesshas being discussed in educational practice, reveal the gi�edindividuals, organize their learning according to specialeducational plans and programs. But the scientists have not cometo any univalent conclusion about what the gi�edness is, whichmethod is beer for dening it, which instruments should be usedfor revealing a gi�ed pupil.

From the point of view of D. Bogoyavlenska, the dicultyand specicity with gi�ed children demand involving into thisproblem dierent specialists. They are: teachers, psychologists,

sociologists, cultural and sport gures, managers from dierentspheres of education. The work with gi�ed children cannot base only on empiric experience. It should have scientic andmethodological elds, which permit to decide such importantquestions as dening, teaching and developing a gi�ed child[14].

From the psychological point of view the gi�edness isa dicult object, in which cognitive, psycho-physiologicalemotional, motivating and willing persons’ spheres are crossing.

The diculty of the phenomenon is caused by the specicityof work with talented children. In this process pedagogicaland psychological diculties constantly appear and theyare connected and they are connected with dierent kinds ofgi�edness, a great amount of theoretical approaches and methodswhich dene it, lack of specialists, who are professionally readyfor work with dierent categories of gi�ed children in educationalestablishments of dierent types [16].

The problem of gi�edness is considered to be psychological.In addition there is no doubt that the notions “gi�edness”,“genius”, “talent” belong only to psychological apparatus.For a long time Psychology was developing in the network ofphilosophy, thanks to which most of the categorical notions wereformed as philosophical, and only much later they became theobject of investigation of psychologists. That’s why we will beginwith the examination of the problem of gi�edness from the pointof view of Philosophy.

As far back as the times of Antiquity great hopes were seton the people with prominent intellectual faculties, a special rolein the society was assigned to them. In particular, Plato believed




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that people with a high level of intellectual faculties had to forman elitist caste and to occupy the top of the social pyramid inthe ideal republic. Plato also thought that a person’s intellectualfaculties did not change with the lapse of time and that is why thehumanity did not have any opportunity to inuence their level[21, p. 27].

Long before Anno Domini some individuals appraised to be cleverer than the others. In Ancient Egypt in order to beginstudying the art of a priest one had to stand the dened systemof the tests. At the beginning the applicant gave an interviewduring which his biography, the level of experience and alsohis appearance, the ability to hold a conversation were foundout. Then came the rest of his ability to work, listen to and keep

silent, ordeal by re, water, fear and so on. It is recollected thatPythagoras, a famous scientist of antiquity, stood the system ofthe tests successfully and when he returned to Greece he foundthere a school. One could enter it only a�er standing a numberof dierent tests which were like those ones which he hadstood himself in due time. The sources indicate that Pythagorasappreciated the role of intellectual faculties and he asserted that“it is impossible to turn Mercury out of every tree”. That is why heaached a great importance to the diagnostics of these faculties.

Quintilian’s pedagogical theory is based on the learningof the positive nature of a person. He believed that almost allthe children had abilities for learning and that is why a teacherhad to know and take into account in his work the individualpeculiarities and abilities of each child. He suggested beginning tolearn as soon as possible. According to Quintilian, every person isgi�ed by the nature in dierent ways. The thinker emphasized thegreat importance of education for forming gi�edness, he thoughtthat collective education did more good than the private one. Healso mentioned the great importance of school friendship [7, p.158].

Hippocrates was the rst to express the opinion about thesubordination of the human way of existence to the universallaw with endless variety of individual variations. Taking intoconsideration the canons of ancient Greek philosophy (aboutfour origins) he developed the teaching about four types oftemperament, which explained individual dierences between

people [17, p. 86].Aristotle developed the theory of education of “the citizenswho were born by free parents”. From his point of view, a person




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gets from the nature only bents which education can develop.The mind is the God’s part of the human existence; people are

born with “clear mind” which is being lled by thoughts duringgaining the life experience. According to Aristotle, education mustensure harmonious combination of physical, moral and mentaldevelopment of a person. In the sphere of mental education hestood up for bread scholarship which is not compatible withspecialization in one of the kinds of activity which from Aristotle’spoint of view is unworthy of the people who were born by freeparents [7, p. 29].

In psychological investigations the problem of gi�ednesstakes a long period of time. O. Klimchenko believes that it isappropriate to divide it into two periods: before-scholastic and

a�er-scholastic. While analyzing before-scholastic period theauthor denes that in philosophy of antiquity the existence of someinternal preconditions was not prohibited, however a person’sperfection to the level of wisdom, gi�edness was consideredto be the product of will and freedom of any particular person.Thus, almost in all the philosophical views of this period thedistinct dierentiation of the notions of genius, gi�edness, talentis absent, and related notions were dened by individual viewsof thinkers [11, p. 25]. The situation changed in scholastic period.

The main dierence from antique period was that scholasticstried to prove the innateness of all the person’s qualities, the factthat all these qualities were given to people by God. A high levelof the development of abilities is gi�edness, or God-given talent.During a�er-scholastic period (Schopenhauer, Carlyle, Hirsch,

Jolly, Lae, Reynard and others) dierentiations of the notionsof gi�edness, genius and talent appeared. Thus, the problem oforigin of the highest human abilities – gi�edness, genius, talent

– in philosophy became a basis for systematic and scientic studyof this phenomenon in psychology and helped the psychologiststo develop the theory of gi�edness.

RenaissanceThe epoch of Renaissance is the epoch of passion for the

culture, knowledge art and the wide demand for painting. Afamous Polish pedagogue and writer of political essays Andrew

Frich Modrzewsky wrote about school orientation whichconsisted in the selection of pupils to schools according to theirabilities. He emphasized that the task of parents was the support




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of development of children’s abilities and the task of teachers wasto educate the children in the way so that they could bring joy andpleasure to their relatives.

XVII CenturyThe conception of the development of children’s abilitiesthought appropriate encouragement of pupils to intellectualactivity in the process of teaching appeared. (R. Descartes)

XVIII CenturyZh.-Zh. Rousseau in his conception of “free education” stated

that abilities and other features of gi�edness had to developwithout any interference of teachers, and education had to come

only to allocation of the possibilities of the free choice. Rousseauthought that the main factors of education were the nature, thepeople and the objects of surrounding world.

XIX CenturyY. Pestalozzi propagandized the elemental development of a

person according to his character and inclinations. Education andteaching, according to Pestalozzi, had to correspond to the child’snature and the instincts which were put in it.

A German philosopher, pedagogue Johann Fredrick Herbart(1778-1841) stated: “The variety of human mental faculties makesthe biggest problems in school education. Not taking this factinto account is a fundamental mistake of any legislation whichconcerns education” [23, p. 19].

In the XIX century the emphasis was laid, essentially, onintelligent development of pupils, but all the pupils were takenas homogenous group, without taking in account their individual

peculiarities.At the beginning of the XX century, due to Swedishteacher’s work “Ellen Key the Century of the Child (1990)”, theaitude to a pupil and importance of the school education waschanged. Reorganization of the teaching content, dierentiationof programs and methods of teaching has been going on over aperiod of the whole century [23, p. 19].

In 1916 German psychologist William Stern (1871-1938)published the work “The growth of talents” in which he

ascertained, that due to abilities a child develops rapidly over aprogram of acess and enriching course in a primary school, whichobliged to include not only 2% of talented children, but another




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10% of clever pupils. It’s necessary to mention, that these cleverstatements were formed more than 90 years ago! [23, p. 20].

The investigation of the problem of human abilities wasstarted in the XX century and promoted the accumulation of the

information data about the nature of gi�edness. The increasingof this problem was promoted by the interest of famous authorsand thinkers. The works which were appeared in the second halfof the XIX century concerned to explications of the existence ofcreative process.

In the Ukrainian publication of “The PedagogicalDictionary” it was dened that “gi�edness is the individualpotential peculiarity of inclinations of a person, owing towhich one can achieve success in a certain branch of activity”.

The necessary natural inclinations for the development of thegi�edness do not dene it themselves. Gi�edness is developingin a process of mastering by an individual cultural and otherwealth of the humanity, individual’s creative activity. Gi�ednesscan be technical, musical, poetical and artistic. The high level ofgi�edness is called talent. The general gi�edness is an ability ofpeople to dierent branches of activities [7, 236].

In the psychological encyclopedia of O. M. Stepanovagi�edness is a level of the development of general abilities whichdenes the range of intellectual abilities of a person and providesthe achievement of considerable success in the accomplishment ofdierent kinds of activity. Gi�edness is a basis for the formationof a great number of abilities and the result of the development ofspecial abilities [17, p. 228].

The main function of gi�edness according to V. Molyako isa maximum adaptation to the surroundings, nding decisions inall kinds of situations, when unpredictable problems which need

creative approach appear. The researcher thinks that a personmust get specic potential of abilities (ancestral factors andearned experience). That’s why gi�edness cannot be supposed asunique or rare phenomenon [13].

The literature analysis of scientic sources shows that theconcept of cleverness has being used in dierent meanings tillnow.

Thus, in 1792 in the ocial report of the state departmentof the USC (the Congress) the following denition of gi�edness,

which has being used by American specialists was proposed bynow: gi�ed and talented are those pupils, who are exposed by




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professionally prepared people as persons who have a potentialfor great achievements under outstanding abilities [15, p. 15].

B. Teplov dened gi�edness as the peculiar consolidationof abilities. The success of realization of an activity depends on

it. He thinks that “general gi�edness can be dened in a generalmeaning as the gi�edness for the wide range of activities” [19, p.15].

American psychologist Rensulli J. S. emphasizes thatgi�edness is a number of interacting components and that it isimpossible to indentify it by only one description. According toit he suggested the scales of estimation of the peculiarity of thegi�ed children’s behavior in the educational, motivational andcreative and leadership sphere. One of the most holistic concepts

of the gi�edness in the world of psychology is the J. Renzull’stheory about three rings. The concepts describe the gi�edness asthe interaction of three groups of person’s qualities. The modelscontain three elements: mental ability, which surpasses themiddle level, insistence (the motivation is oriented on the task)and creativity [24].

In this theoretical model the knowledge on the basis ofpractice and favorable society is also taken into account. Theauthor noted that due to his concept the number of gi�ed childrenmight be rather higher than according to IQ-tests identifying theachievements. He does not connect the term “gi�edness” only toextremely high marks in every sphere. His model is democratic.This makes it possible to refer the children who showed highresults even in one parameter to the category of gi�ed.

At the beginning of the XX century American psychologistCh. Spearmen assumed that gi�edness is based on the special“mental energy” which is constant for certain individual and

considerably distinguishes one person from another.In A. Matushkin’s concept the psychological structure ofgi�edness coincides with structural elements, which characterizethe creativity and creative development of a person. The gi�ednessis regarded as general ground of creativity in any profession,science or arts [12].

Researchers distinguish a great number of indications ofgi�ed children. On the basis of principle of systematization theymay be united in three groups:

- Leading cognitive development;- Psychosocial sensibility;




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- Physical peculiarity.According to this, there are three tasks for the pedagogical

work: to promote person’s development, to draw the individualachievements of the child to the maximum level as soon as possible,

to promote social progress using the resources of gi�edness.In foreign psychological researches there is a great number of“lists of abilities of creative personality”. We will dwell on two ofthem. The rst belongs to E. Torrans and L. Holl. The peculiaritiesof genius personalities are:

1)”the possibility of working miracles. Miracles mean the ac-tions which go out of bounds of usual, natural phenom-enon, but do not contradict the laws of nature”

2) The high level of intrusion into needs and wills of people;3) The aureole of peculiarity that possesses the ability to give

to the people, he communicates with, the belief in theirpower;

4) The ability of solving conicts, especially in that situationwhen they do not have any logical solution;

5) The presence of feeling of future, vivid imagination that isconnected with reach fantasy and intuition;

6) The aitude to the transcendental meditation. The basicaim of the meditation is to reach the condition of self-actualization and perfectness [8, p. 28].

The American psychologist K. Taylor points out suchfeatures of a gi�ed personality as: the desire for being always therst; the independence; the tendency to a risk; activity; curiosity– the insistence in searching, dissatisfaction with existingmethods, traditions that provokes dissatisfaction with society;unconventional thinking; the reclines to make a decision of gi�ed

communication; the talent of prevision [8, p. 28].Summing it up, it is possible to say that particularities of agi�ed person are: the versatile knowledge and in-depth study ofsearching process of objects which give him an opportunity tolearn the inherent laws and to forecast their further development;the original way of thinking and creating the ability of enrichingthe science and art with new fundamental ideas and discoverieswhich are directed to creating new sciences and spheres ofknowledge, new theories, paradigms, directions or styles in art

that nally may cause a revolutionary renewal in culture of peopleor a new interpretation of known; the independence of thinking is




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a great inuence, not only during your life, on social and spiritualactivity of society; insistence in achieving aims [8, pp. 30-31].

Due to the widespread researches of cognitive abilities it ispossible to trace the way of forming the term “gi�edness”, forexample, in mental gi�edness.

The investigation of the problem of human abilities was statedin the XX century and facilitated accumulation of information aboutthe nature of gi�s. The interest of popular creators and thinkerspromoted growth of this problem. The works, that appeared inthe second half of XIX century concerned the explication of theexistence of the creating process. Their results seled that peopleare quantitatively dier from each other according to their mentalabilities. In course time they came to resume that individualities

dier from each other according to the mental abilities not onlyquantitatively but also qualitatively. Qualitative dierences arecaused be presence of mental ability in structure except generalmental components, factors which are responsible for mentalabilities. The time has proved this theory as now they distinguishtwo types of gi�edness: special and general.

But the concepts of that time form not intellect but its outsidedisplay, when the intellect is unlimited in its outside displays.

In psychological sciences there is an opinion that mental

development is determined by anatomical and psychologicalparticularities of neurotic relations and processes and also bysome psychological person qualities, his volitional, emotional andmotivational spheres. Scientists mentioned that the links betweenthe separate facts and phenomena which are known from theprevious practice and the speed of processes that are responsiblefor exchange of information are marked on the eciency of themental activity.

L. Vygotsky indicted, that the idea is being formed in thesphere of needs and interests. When solving one or anotherproblem, the thinking of a human thinking time a�er timedistracts from the basic activities and processes information,produces ideas which are not connected with the content of aproblem which is being solved. O�en the idea of solving is lost.Thus, the ability of concentrating on the problem is necessary formaking your brain work. It is an important component in thestructure of intellect [5, p. 24].

Sorting out an individual tendency of learning somedevelopment of intellect, cognitive and relative in particular, ledto the consideration of creative abilities.




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The problem of connection of intellectual and creativeabilities is not new. The highest expansion achieved the result ofTerman’s experiment who, having measured intellectual abilitiesof 1500 children, noted the results of their creative activity, while

being adults. He came into conclusion, that there is a close relation between person’s intellectual and creative abilities of a personand as the argument, he came up with the fact, that pupils whohave achievements in two academic branches show much morecreative hobbies [1, p. 15].

Veil and Martinson include to the main characteristics ofintellectual children’s abilities an early speech, usage of dierentwords, early learning of counting and arithmetical action overnumbers and reading, curiosity, tenacious memory, quick

perception, rich imagination [2, p. 77]. Those children make upsentences with complicated syntactical structures. It is typicalfor them to classify information and experience. Barco, Panuc,Lasarevsky, Vasilchenko, Guilbuh mention that very o�en gi�edpersons show an excessive aention and wide vocabulary.

In young ages they are capable of intuitive brain leaps duringthinking process.

The next feature of intellectually gi�ed children is persistencein achieving their aims and ability to concentrate themselves in

one kind of activity.Those children possess the ability to get connections andrelations between the objects and phenomenon. In their charactersthe desire to do everything by their own is showed brightly.They express mostly resourceful various propositions towardsa concrete situation. They can look at the same problem fromanother side. Intellectually gi�ed children crave for completeness,order and precision, they have a high energetic level which givethem an opportunity to solve many problems at the same time.

They are fond of making models and systems. They also payaention to the ability of asking questions. The persons mentionedabove make up new words and give denitions to conceptionswhich come to their mind, the main point of phenomenon,process, quality or fact which are under examination. Theygive their preference to intellectual games; most of them haveinclination to mathematics. The independent thinking is typicalfor these children which is shown both in creative for founding the

self-made solving a problem and in learning without an excessivedirections of teachers and parents. They give their preferencerather to diculties than to easy ways. They are mainly erudite. At




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last, from the very childhood these children have special abilitieswhich are concerned to one or several kinds of abilities. As forthe physical development of intellectually gi�ed children, somescientists say, that they begin to walk earlier, have tall stature,coordinative movements; they are healthy and aractive, thoughthese indications are not typical for every person.

Many scientists stated that every intellectually gi�edchild, except his general indications, inherent to the majorityof these types of persons, dier from others by his uniquenessthat complicates the process of his detection. Altogether theindependent features of these persons can be inherent to ordinarypupils. It leads to the mistaken identity.

That is why, in order to get a reliable prediction of intellectual

development of the children, they use quantitative values oftheir intellectual abilities that is to the testing diagnostics of theintellect.

First tests of intellectual abilities appeared at the beginningof XX century in connection with the pragmatic program ofshowing out those pupils who lag behind their class-mates andtherefore they are not able to learn material, except by educationalprograms.

Later they made a test to measure intellectual abilities of a

wide range of pupils in order to range pupils on the basis of thedevelopment of intellectual activities, dividing them into groupsand organizing their dierentiated education.

These tests are widely known. In fact, the usage of them givesthe basic reason to control not only the level of development, butalso some of manifestations and intellectual skills, that’s why itwill be correct to call them as the tests of intellectual skills.

Thus, intricacy of it is that you should give the answer tothe question: what meaning of the level of intellectual skills ofsome pupils alienates the intellectually gi�ed children fromusual pupils. Associating the higher intellectual skills withgood inclinations of the person that nature gives him. Suchkind of pupils is used to be called the gi�ed pupils. In suchway we get to know about term “gi�edness”, but with this onewe have new problems of scientic and practical character.By this moment we don’t know unique and exhaustive term of“gi�edness”. As though manifestation of gi�ed pupils is not end

of itself, but it is a component of complex action for organization ofdierentiated studies, development of skills, social rehabilitation,so in this situation the criteria of gi�edness should be special for




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As it has been already mentioned gi�edness is basicallyconnected with general abilities of a person and his achievementsin studies. Earlier the gi�edness was connected with generalabilities of a person. Then it became clear that high intellectual

possibilities are based on special personal abilities. The newapproach includes either special abilities or the high generalintellectual development [6, p. 115]

For a long time gi�edness has been associated just with theintellectual abilities of a person. Then besides the intellectual onesacademic, art, social, physical and other kinds of gi�edness areused

We are sure that it is correct to use the term of generalgi�edness and connect the specic combination of abilities which

dene intellectual, mental and physical spheres of a person withit. The general gi�edness is realized in one of the kinds of specialgi�edness: scientic, technical, organizational, art, physical. Eachof them is realized in a practical activity in the form of this or thattalent.

Having worked over the scientic-pedagogical literaturewe agreed to the points stated by Grabovsky who classies thegi�edness in the most complete and reasonable way. He denesseveral criteria for the dierentiation of the kinds of gi�edness withqualitative and quantitative aspects. The analysis of qualitativecharacteristics of gi�edness is going to dene its specic typesin connection with the specication of the psychological abilitiesof a person and peculiarities of their realization in these or thosekinds of activity. The analysis of quantitative characteristicsallows describing the level of realization of psychological abilitiesof a person. There are several criteria of gi�edness: 1. the kindof activity of psychological sphere which supports it; 2. the level

of development of gi�edness; 3. the form of its realization; 4. thelevel of realization in dierent kinds of activity; 5. the peculiaritiesof age. Following the rst criterion of the classication of typesof gi�edness is realized according to ve kinds of activity whichreect three psychological spheres and the level of dierent stagesof psychological organization. Practical, theoretical, esthetical,communicative, mental are the main kinds of activity. Thepsychological spheres are subdivided into intellectual, emotionaland volitional [19, p. 510].

The following kinds of gi�edness can be divided into:the practical activity – the gi�edness in trades, sport and




20

organizational ones; the cognitive activity – choreographic, stage,literary, art, musical ones; the communicative activity – leadingand aractive ones.

In the mental activity we dene the gi�edness in creationnew mental values, the service to people. According to suchan approach the gi�edness is shown as integral realization ofdierent abilities for the concrete activity. The same kind ofgi�edness may have its unique character, as some its componentsthat dierent people have may be realized dierently.

It is necessary to organize the conditions for the forming ofthe internal motivation of the activity, straightness of the personand the system of the values which make the basis of the statureof the spiritual personality.

According to the criterion “the level of the forming of thegi�edness” it can be dierentiated as the actual and potentialgi�edness. The rst is the psychological characteristic of the childwith the researched indices of the psychological development,which reveal themselves and on a higher level of the execution ofthe activity in the concrete subject-branch by comparison with theage and social standard. It goes without saying, that in this casenot only learning activity is mentioned but also the wide rank ofthe various types of activity.

The special category of the mentally gi�ed people consistsof the talented children who reach the results which meetrequirements of the objective novelty and social signicance. Asa rule, the concrete product of the activity of a talented child isestimated by the expert as one which corresponds to the criteriaof the creation.

The potential gi�edness is a psychological characteristics ofthe child which has only certain psychological possibilities for thehigh achievement in the certain type of activity, but he can’t realizethem at the moment because of his functional insuciency.

The maturity of this potential can be delayed because of theunsuitable reasons (the hard family circumstances, insucientmotivation, the low of the self-regulation, if the receives of theabilities of people let compensate the absence or not enoughexpressed components, necessary for the successful realization ofthe activity.

The special striking gi�edness or talent say about the presence

of the high gi�edness and a great number of the componentsfor the realization of activity and also about the intensity ofthe integration process together with the personal sphere. The




2

various contribution of the leading components in the structureof the cleverness can give a paradox picture when the eectivelearning of the activity, intelligence and creation do not coincidewith the expression,

The facts of this dierence in the expression of the gi�ednessdo not say in one meaning for the benet of the distinguishing itstypes (academic, mental, creative). The activity is always realized

by the person. The aims and motives inuence on the level ofthe quality of the realization. If a pupil prepares his home task

just for not being shouted because of bad marks or not to losethe prestige of the rank of a good pupil then the activity is donerather doubtful and its result even in the best realization does notsurpass the normal requirements [18, p. 92].

The gi�edness forces the involvement in the subject, activitythat the child does with love, he constantly makes beer, realizingnew thoughts, born in the process of working. As a result anew product is rather higher than the rst idea that is why it isimpossible to say about “development of the activity”. If the lastone is realized with the initiative of the child, this is the creativity[4, p. 151].

The theoretical approach has a very important result,researching the development of gi�edness, it is impossible tolimit the work only by the construction, the program of theabsence of the necessary environment. The expression of thepotential gi�edness requires the high prognoses of the diagnosticmethods which are used because the question is about the systemof the abilities which has not been formed yet, about the futuredevelopment of which could be considered only on the basis ofseparate features.

The integration of the abilities, which are necessary for

the high achievements is absent yet. The potential gi�ednessis showed according to the suitable conditions, which providefor certain developing inuence on the outgoing psychologicalabilities of the child [9, p. 17]

According to the criterion “the form of manifestation” thereare evident and hidden gi�edness. According to the criterion “thewidth of manifestation in various types of activity” the generaland special gi�edness can be distinguished. General gi�edness isshown with a regarding to the various kinds of activities and sticks

out as the basis of its productivity. The general gi�edness denesthe level of the understanding of what is happening, the depth of




22

the emotional and motivational involvements in the activity, theeectiveness of the aim-formulating and self-regulation.

The special gi�edness reveals itself in the concrete types ofactivity (music, arts, sports etc). The special gi�edness inuencesthe specialization of general psychological resources of a person,increasing its uniqueness of the gi�ed child.

According to the criterion of the age development, it ispossible to distinguish the early and the late gi�edness. The tempof the psychological development of the child and also those agestages on which the gi�edness is brightly dened are the decisivemarkers here. It is necessary to take into consideration the factthat the rapid psychological development, the early deningof the gi�edness of a child do not always determine the high

achievements further. At the same time the lack of them at thechildhood does not mean any negative conclusion concerning theprospects of the further psychological development of a person.The example of the gi�edness is the children called “infants”.

There is some dependence between the age at which thegi�edness is dened and the sphere of activity. The earliestgi�edness is determined in arts, especially in music, a bit laterin the sphere of ne arts. In the science the achievements ofimportant results in the form of famous explores, creation of new

spheres and methods of investigation take place later than in arts.Besides, it is connected with the necessity of acquisition of deepand wide knowledge without which the scientic discovers areimpossible. As a rule, the talent for mathematics is determinedearlier than those.

It was already mentioned above that dierences ingi�edness may be connected both with the level of manifestationof its features and with the control of the level of the child’sachievements. The dening on this basis notwithstanding theconditional character is being realized with the help of comparingdierent markers with the average age standard. The uniquenessis known to counterbalance with mediocrity. So, the individualdevelopment inuences greatly the peculiarities of the gi�edness.Thus, the abilities of some children exceed to some extent theaverage level of abilities of their coevals. Their gi�edness is notalways visible. But they have the basic denite features and must

be evaluated by teachers and school psychologists.

Others show rather striking intellectual, artistic,communicative or other kinds of inclinations. As a rule, theirgi�edness is evident for the people surrounding them.




23

At last, there are some children who go beyond their agestandards that does not allow to speak about their unique andspecial gi�edness. The success of their activity may be extremelyhigh. At the same time they o�en form “a risk group” as theyhave serious problems which require a special aention andappropriate support from teachers and psychologists. It is veryimportant to take into consideration the level of the dening ofgi�edness as there are certain principles of its demonstration anddynamics depending on its level [10, p.132].

Summing it up we can sort out the particularities of thegi�ed child. They are: uniqueness of knowledge and the depthof penetration in exploring processes or objects that give him anopportunity to investigate interior regularities and to anticipate

their further development; originality of thinking and creativity,the ability of enriching science and art by new fundamental ideasand discoveries which lead to the creation of new science and

branches of knowledge, new theories, paradigms, tendencies orstyles in arts that nally can lead to the revolutionary renewal inthe culture of people or the new interpretation of the old known;independence and liberty of thinking: a great inuence (notonly in life) the social and spiritual life of society; persistence inachieving targets [8, pp. 30-31].

Generalizing everything which was mentioned above avery rapid development of the intellect concerning the child’sage is considered to be a sign of gi�edness. This developmentis connected with the maximum combination of anatomy-psychological peculiarities which were received at one’s birthand which dene mental faculties, character of moral and willqualities and psycho energy. Talent shows that the creative levelof development of abilities which are specic for every kind ofhuman activity is characteristic for a child.

Thus, every individual case of a child’s gi�edness may be evaluated from the point of view of all the criteria of theclassication of its kinds which are enumerated above. Thereby,gi�edness is dened as a multifarious phenomenon accordingto its character. For a practitioner it is a possibility and also anecessity of a more concrete view on the originality of talent of aparticular person.

References1. Барко В. І. Психолого-педагогічна діагностика творчогопотенціалу учня в навчально-виховному процесі: метод.




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реком. / В. І. Барко, В. Г. Панюк, С. В. Лазаревський. - К., 2000.- 30 с.

2. Виговський О. Вольові якості талановитої особистості.Парадокси психологічного дослідження / О. Виговський //

Директор школи, ліцею, гімназії. — 2002. — 3. — С. 76-79.

3. Гальтон Ф. Наследственность таланта / Фрэнсис Гальтон. - М.,1996. - 272 с.4. Гильбух Ю. З. Внимание: одаренные дети / Юрий Зиновьевич

Гильбух. - М.: Знание, 1991. - 198 с.5. Гильбух Ю. З. Умственно одаренный ребенок: психология,

диагностика, педагогика / Юрий Зиновьевич Гильбух. - К.,1992. - 83 с.

6. Глассер У.: Школа без неудачников / У. Глассер; общ. ред.В. Я. Пилиповского. - М.: Прогресс, 1991. - 184 с.

7. Гончаренко С. У. Український педагогічний словник / СеменУстимович Гончаренко. - К.: Либідь, 1997. - С. 326.

8. Гончаренко Н. С. Гений в искусстве и науке. – М: Искусство,1991. – 432 с.

9. Грабовский А. И. К вопросу о классификации видов детскойодаренности / А. И. Грабовский // Педагогика. - 2003. - 8.- С. 13-18.

10. Карпенко Н. В. Діагностика психічного розвитку дитинив роботі педагога (вчителя, вихователя): навч. посіб. / Н. В.Карпенко. - К.: Каравела, 2008. - С. 130-134.

11. Клименченко О.Н. Проблема одаренности, гениальности,таланта в философии / О.Н. Климченко // Одаренныйребенок.- 1. - 2003.- С. 25.

12. Матюшкин А. М. Одаренность и творчество / А. М. Матюшкин// Учителю об одаренных детях / под. ред. В. П. Лебедевой,В. И. Панова. - М., 1997. - 148 с.

13. Моляко В. О. Проблеми психологи творчества и разработкапохода к изучению одаренности / В.О. Моляко // Вопросыпсихологи. – 1994. - 5. – С. 86-95.

14. Одаренность: Рабочая концепция / Под ред. Д. Б.Богоявленской. - М., 2002.-192 с.

15. Одаренные дети / Под ред. Г.В. Бурменской и В.М.Слуцкого.-М.: Прогресс, 1991.- С. 15.

16. Панов В. И. Теоретические и практические аспекты выявления,обучения и развития детей с признаками одаренности / В.И.Панов // Одаренность: рабочая концепция. Матер. 1 Межд.конф. – М., 2002.- С.110.

17. Психологічна енциклопедія / Автор-упорядник О. М.Степанов. – К.: «Академвидав», 2006. – 424 с.

18. Савенков А. И. Диагностика детской одаренности какпедагогическая проблема / Александр Ильич Савенков //Педагогика. - 2000. - 10. - С. 87-94.




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While environmental education o�en stresses a variety ofphysical, aective, imaginative and moral methods of learningfrom and about the environment, it is hardly a controversialstatement to say that environmental education is additionallya way of making a form of critical inquiry into the world.

Minimally, there is the expectation that students need to inquireinto the workings of nature and pose questions about thenonhuman order that can in turn be experienced and evaluatedin order to generate knowledge that will serve the beermentof civic society. Environmental literacy so dened reaches backto the eld’s beginnings, as in the formulation given by Stapp(1969). The U.S. Oce of Environmental Education, createdunder the George W. Bush administration, also now promotes arelated form of critical environmental literacy.1 Considering thatthis is a political administration that has been deemed the mostenvironmentally unsound in history (Pope & Rauber, 2004), andwhich has routinely moved to block scientic ndings that maysupport sustainability as well as overturn or ignore importantenvironmental regulations on corporations and the military(Kellner, 2005), current State-endorsed critical environmentalliteracy frameworks must therefore be judged as suspect (atleast in the United States). Alternatively, well meaning reformist

programs of outdoor education, like those promoted by theNo Child Le� Inside Coalition and writers such as RichardLouv, tend themselves to reduce environmental education to a

Richard Kahn

University of North DakotaUSA

THEORIZING A NEW PARADIGMOF ECOPEDAGOGY THROUGHTEACHERS’ EMANCIPATORY

PRACTICES



Richard Kahn: Theorizing a new Paradigm of Ecopedagogy...

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single-issue focus that over-privileges under-theorized statesof nature and wilderness. In this way, environmental educatorscan adopt problematical epistemologies and work ideologicallyagainst the aims of emancipatory multicultural movements andanti-oppressive education, as a reied form of environmentaleducation likewise becomes curricularly tethered to the natural(and not the social) sciences (Kahn & Nocella, Forthcoming).

Increasingly then it is becoming clear that if contemporaryenvironmental educational literacy practices are not themselvesmade the object of critical inquiry, they are at least as liable towork on behalf of a social hegemony involved in the domination ofnature as they are to work against it. In other words, environmentaleducation—as with the world in which it aempts to work—now

stands in a moment of crisis , a concept that implies the need forour informed collective judgment and diagnostic deliberation. AsCapra (1984) has remarked, such crisis implies both measures ofdanger and opportunity hanging in the balance. But, cruciallyfor this paper, it is also “a moment of decisive intervention…ofthorough-going transformation…[and] of rupture” (Hay, 1999,323).

Despite environmental education’s potential limitations asa critical eld of study, signicant theoretical inroads have been

made over the last 10 to 15 years that have sought to intervene andreconstruct it as an advocacy pedagogy capable of transformativelyengaging with the socio-political and cultural contexts ofenvironmental problems. It is thus not altogether uncommon nowto hear critical environmental educational theorists speak of theneed to either develop pedagogical methods that can work bothfor ecological sustainability and social justice or mount critique ofenvironmental education from an oppositional variety of racial,class, gender, queer, and non-ableist standpoints. Institutionally,this has translated into the recent emergence of education forsustainable development as environmental education’s heir(Gonzalez-Gaudiano, 2005) along with aempts to blend forms ofenvironmental education with work hailing from the tradition ofcritical pedagogy (for examples, see McKenzie, 2005; Gruenewald,2003; Gruenewald & Smith, 2007; Fawce, Bell & Russell, 2002;Bell & Russell, 2000; Cole, 2007; McLaren & Houston, 2005;O’Sullivan, 2001; Kahn, 2008a; 2008b; 2006; 2002; Andrzejewski,

2003; Gadoi, 2008).2

While some of this work, like that of McKenzie, Russell,Fawce, and Andrzejewski has been concerned with the need




29

for a critical literacy of nonhuman animals, the majority of thesocio-ecological turn in environmental education has eitherignored nonhuman animal advocacy issues or has worked onlyambiguously on nonhuman animals’ behalf through an aemptto teach non-anthropocentric values. Though deconstructions ofanthropocentrism are no doubt useful towards reconstructingeducational frameworks, they have however been deployedfor dierent and sometimes contradictory ends by a variety ofgroups. Hence, a curriculum of deep ecology might critiqueanthropocentrism in order to establish norms of greater equality

between species and to challenge human identities through anaempt to foster biocentric or ecocentric literacies of planetarity.This could work well with outdoor education and other

wilderness-oriented pedagogies. Animal welfarist educators, byturn, might promote reformed visions of humanity as a goodsteward for life on earth and thereby uphold human rights touse nonhuman animals within an ethics that is less imperialistand more paternalistically familial. The curricular model herecould question painful or needless dissection exercises in scienceeducation or promote the value of using classroom pets to teachcharacter traits of responsibility and non-violence. Yet, neither ofthese theoretical perspectives, despite whatever positive outcomes

they may tend toward, entail the production of knowledge aboutthe ways in which the plight of nonhuman animals is structurallynecessitated by our current system of political economy basedon exploitative capitalism, violent militarism, and industrialtechnics. Moreover, they do not demand that we understand thesubjugated status of nonhuman animals in our society as relatedto or concordant with the historical reality of oppressed humangroups as well as with the domination of nature generally.

Without seeking to limit the multiple pathways thatliberatory pedagogy may presently take—that is, I recognizedierences between sociopolitical struggles even as I seek topromote recognition of their common causes—my feeling isthat a new paradigm3 of what might be inclusively termed “totalliberation ecopedagogy” is now at hand and beginning to be morefully articulated in the practices of a vanguard of educators. Thistotal liberation ecopedagogy aempts to work intersectionallyacross and in opposition to all oppressions (including those of

nonhuman animals) and for ecological sustainability. Producingwhat Haraway (1988) has called “situated knowledges,” totalliberation ecopedagogy may in any given instance favor analysis




30

of the primacy of one social antagonism over another, or one setof antagonism over the others, in generating inequalities of powerand privilege. Again, there is still room for the application ofecofeminist educational theory, for example, and it need not giveway to the universalization of vegan Third World ecofeministanticapitalist Queer disability (etc.) pedagogy, no maer howmuch I might welcome the laer.4 But total liberation ecopedagogy,following the advances of multicultural educational theory, viewsoppression in systematic and complex terms, what Collins (2000)has termed the “matrix of domination.” This not only allows fora more rened analysis of the ways in which power circulatesthroughout nature and culture, to the systematic advantage ofsome and disadvantage of others, but by increasing the number

of epistemic standpoints from which to teach and learn we freea potential multitude of educational subjects from the culture ofsilence generated by the dominant mainstream pedagogical andpolitical platforms.

To backtrack, save for perhaps lacking a strong commitmentto the moral challenge that society’s treatment of nonhumananimals now poses for robustly democratic educational theory,those taking the socio-ecological turn in environmental educationalready tend to integrate intersectionality into their analyses. What

distinguishes total liberation ecopedagogy, then, is its normativerequirement that we also educate against what intersectionalsocial psychologist Melanie Joy (2008) calls, “arguably the mostentrenched and widespread form of exploitation in humanhistory: speciesism” (p. 17). This would be to go beyond, forinstance, teaching non-anthropocentric values. For by developingeducational platforms that illuminate the socially-constructednature of “species,” total liberation ecopedagogy does not seek to

just destabilize human power in the abstract, but roots this in theneed to support cultural and political practices that actively seekto overthrow speciesist relations across society.

To put speciesism on the agenda in a major way is crucialnow for a number of reasons. First, we live in a time of a massspecies extinction event such as we have not witnessed on theplanet for nearly 65 million years.5 The zoöcidal eradication ofunprecedented numbers of mammals, amphibians, reptiles,

birds, sh, insects, and other animals that is now fully underway

is analogous to the mass-murder of American bison or the greatwhales that took place during the 19th century. Only there,species were driven to extinction at the direct point of the gun




3

and harpoon; here, we must learn the ways in which speciesistideology is folded into and intersects with nearly every arrayof social relations and institutional practice, including theinstitution of education proper (Kahn, 2007). A second reason totake up speciesism within intersectional pedagogy involves theexponential growth over the last few decades of the industrialfactory farm model of animal agriculture as a worldwidestandard. As animal advocates like Peter Singer (1975) have madefamously clear, the ubiquitous low price and high availability ofsupermarket meat comes at a tremendous cost to the sentientnonhuman animals themselves, who spend whatever lives theyhave being tortured until their brutal slaughter in order to providesuch meat. More recently, people are becoming increasingly

aware of the environmental eects of factory farming—includingits role in deforesting the Amazonian rainforests for soybeanmonocrops, its toxic eects on streams, water tables, soil, andthe air local to such farms, and its being recognized as a primarycause in aggravating global warming. Moreover, recent books likeSchlosser’s Fast Food Nation (2005) and Eisnetz’s Slaughterhouse (2006) reveal how the nightmare of factory farms extends intoits role as an exploitative and racist labor industry as well as itscorrupting inuence on public health in the name of maximized

proteering. Still a third reason I believe that it is important todemand an intersectional, anti-speciesist pedagogy at this timeis because I believe that exactly this form of education has beendeveloping within grassroots activist circles in recent years. Whatis more, slowly but surely, the “cognitive praxis” (Eyerman &

Jamison, 1991, p. 44) of this movement pedagogy has started to become established within formal education across its variouslevels and to challenge prevailing approaches to environmentaleducation and critical pedagogy. Yet, it is ultimately my argumentthat intersectional critical literacies forged from the practices ofanti-oppressive/critical pedagogues, ecological educators, andnonhuman animal advocates remain, unfortunately, a potential to

be far more powerfully realized in the future.In this essay, therefore, I draw upon a series of interviews

conducted with nine new paradigm educators in order to chronicleand contextualize the challenges to their work across elementaryand secondary education, higher education, and nonformal

education sectors. By so doing, I do not seek to describe theirtotal liberation practices in detail. Neither do I wish to suggestthat each is the possessor of specic pedagogical aributes




32

(beyond their commitment to the development of the kind ofcritical intersectional literacies I hope for) that therefore allow meto create a character sketch of a total liberation ecopedagogue.None of these educators self-identies to my knowledge as being“total lib,” and while I believe that all demonstrate anticipatoryelements of and problems for a total liberation ecopedagogy builtupon critical intersectional literacy practices, I also desire to letthem speak for themselves as much as possible.

I do aspire, however, to call aention through their stories tothe crisis now faced by the form of total liberation ecopedagogyI theorize, even as we maintain that such pedagogy representsa coherent aempt to respond to the crises of contemporaryenvironmental education, critical pedagogy, and animal

advocacy in kind. By so doing, I aim to provide a kind of criticalcounterstorytelling (Yosso, 2006)—tentative and introductoryin scope—that may serve as a seed for future dialogue on theissues pertinent to these educators with a wide variety of moremajoritarian environmental educators, as well as with theircolleagues working primarily for either social justice or animaladvocacy in education and other elds.6

Humane Education in Elementary and Secondary Schools

Anyone interested in intersectional total liberationecopedagogy simply must study the history of the humaneeducation movement, which represents its original form.7 Emerging circa 1870 along with the formation of humanesocieties, humane education initially worked at the junctureof animal and child welfare, aempting to encourage publicsentiment for abandoned or neglected children and nonhumananimals. While the increase of social service agencies in the 20th century led to the narrowing of humane education, such that it

became a pursuit largely concerned with ending domestic animalcruelty, the last two decades have found humane educationreinventing and revisioning itself, at times in radical ways. Inthe 1980s, for example, humane education broadened its scope toinclude wildlife issues as well as to question the use and treatmentof nonhuman animals in institutions such as zoos, aquariums, andcircuses. Moreover, when the 1990s saw a surge of interest in theanimal advocacy movement by citizens concerned with achieving

progressive change across society, key humane educationalistssuch as David Selby and Zoe Weil responded by articulatinghow humane educational theory could integratively incorporate




33

environmental and human rights issues alongside its ongoingfocus upon the violence, exploitation, and injustice done tononhuman animals (Weil, 1998).

According to Rae Sikora, who co-founded The Center forCompassionate Living (ultimately to become the Institute forHumane Education) with Weil in 1996, there were also strategicreasons for moving the eld to an intersectional focus. For despiteSikora and Weil having developed a thriving certicate and M.A.program in humane education through the Institute that hastrained over 1200 elementary and secondary-level educators,humane education has been described somewhat accurately as the“Ultima Thule” (Selby, 2000) of education – a far-away, unknownregion, barely if at all recognized by emancipatory educators

working in related endeavors such as environmental education orcritical pedagogy because of its advocacy for nonhuman animals.Thus, Sikora believes that intersectionality has made it easier forhumane education “to be seen as more consistent and credible”and that “More doors open for the work when it incorporates alllife” (Sikora, Personal communication, 2008).8 Indeed, in the 32years that she has been involved in catalyzing this work, she haswitnessed it ripple outward from being virtually unpopulated tothe point where many of the programs she designed now occur

under others’ names and she is sometimes contacted by studentswho unknowingly communicate workshop or website ideas toher for which she was the original impetus (ibid.).

But a critical problem for humane education remains itslack of adequate resources and school or other stakeholdersupport. For example, Dani Dennenberg, who obtained an M.Edin Humane Education from the Institute for Humane Educationstudent and founded Seeds for Change (a non-prot humaneeducational organization), found that her work as an adjunctfaculty member and director of a small educational non-protequated to less than $30,000 annually with no health care, benets,or savings plans available to her to draw upon (Dennenberg,Personal communication, 2008). Further, when private fundingfor her organization expired a�er 6 years she was forced to retireher operation despite the success of having created one of therst high school courses devoted to examining global ethicalissues from an intersectional humane perspective. The Canadian

humane educator, Lesley Fox, who helped to found the Powerof One secondary education program through the VancouverHumane Society in 2006, provides additional evidence of humane




34

education’s chronic resource problem. Fox discovered that with alile ingenuity it was surprisingly easy to gain access to Canadianschools and to network with the Ministry of Education in BritishColumbia. As such, her program grew quickly to provide a wide-range of intersectional curricular oerings for any and all takers.However, as she relates:

Our program was part of a small non-prot organization with a limitedbudget. There were no resources in terms of sta to help with presentationsand grant writing and fundraising. The program became too much for one fulltime sta person to manage. The demand for the presentations and resourcescould not be met. Ultimately, the program was such a success it became its ownundoing. (Fox, Personal communication, 2008)

In our opinion, if the critical intersectional literacies of humaneeducation can become beer integrated into environmentaleducation standards and frameworks, it will undoubtedly serveto more suciently support humane educators who might thenrealize the added benet of stable employment opportunitieswithin school districts. While I do not imagine that many schoolsconsider themselves more cash positive than the majority ofanimal advocacy non-prots, it still must be the case that withgreater legitimacy within formal education institutions the workof humane educators can more fruitfully advance and proliferatein a timely manner.

Critical Intersectional Literacy Developments in Higher Education

In order to achieve the developments that I would like tosee happen in schools of elementary and secondary education, aswell as in the ranks of grassroots activism, there will have to be acorrelative shi� in the sphere of higher educational discourse to

develop and teach critical intersectional literacies as part of a totalliberation ecopedagogy movement. If environmental educationdegree programs integrate social science such that students aretrained in issues of the brown agenda9 and environmental justice,or the ecological eects of globalization, this should translateinto more critical forms of environmental studies for youth inschools that can supplement curricular forays privileging naturewalks and outdoor appreciation exercises. What is additionallyrequired, though, is that the “animals agenda” not be le� outof the equation. Too o�en forms of conservation science arestill oered uncritically as a form of pedagogy that implies that




35

nonhuman animals are natural resources that can be managed toproduce maximum sustainable yields or harvests. Relatedly, moreand more students are asked to explore how invasive species areecological threats without a corresponding demand that studentsquestion the histories of colonialism and world trade that haveproduced the invasive species problem. What is more, with itsknown advantages in contributing to a low ecological footprint,should any environmental educator be allowed to graduate todaywithout having seriously investigated the ecology and politicsof veganism? But how common is this practice really in highereducation?

Connie Russell, Associate Professor in the Faculty ofEducation at Lakehead University and co-editor of the Canadian

Journal of Environmental Education , seems to us to be a leader inenvironmental education that is working to transform the eldin light of the total liberation-oriented problems I raise here.In her own work, she consciously organizes the curriculum tofocus on “the interconnections between social and environmental

justice and animal issues” (Russell, Personal communication,2008). She is careful to point out that, in her opinion, this doesnot require the formation of a new educational eld of study.Rather, Russell believes such critical intersectional literacy can

emerge reconstructively within present forms of environmentaleducation, including outdoor and experiential approaches:[T]here is a subset of outdoor educators out there who aren’t making

connections to social issues and whose work seems too overly science education- focused, or about pursuing adventurous or recreation-oriented activitiesoutside. But on the ipside, I also see many environmental educators who seemto have lile experience with other animals or the more-than-human world. SoI guess I get nervous when I see what almost looks like a discounting of outdoor

experiential education approaches. For me, tackling anthropocentrism means paying some aention to natural history and geing to know the places wherewe live and our more-than-human neighbours. It is not an either/or approach, azero-sum game, but a broadening of our horizons (ibid.).

Another intersectional educator I contacted is JulieAndrzejewski, who has explored the possibility of a new eld forthis work.10 Andrzejewski co-founded the M.A. program in SocialResponsibility at St. Cloud State University in 1995, which shenow directs. In recent years, Professor Andrzejewski has workedto radicalize what could otherwise be a social justice-orientedprogram through in-depth examinations of how the animal rights




36

movement oers an inclusive standpoint for the emancipation ofoppressed persons and the restoration of environmental justice.While she nds that students increasingly have some familiaritywith nonhuman animal issues, and overwhelmingly respondto her courses by changing their life practices and engagingin collective activism, she also guardedly believes that “Veryfew others are doing this work and there are very few supportsystems for it” (Andrzejewski, Personal communication, 2008).In 2006, Andrzejewski therefore aempted to organize a CriticalInterspecies Special Interest Group (SIG) within the AmericanEducational Research Association in order to gather educatorsaround these issues and provide them with a platform forongoing research. However, the SIG proposal was rejected,

ostensibly because the application commiee believed that thesubject maer was already covered thematically by the SIG forEcological and Environmental Education. Whether or not this iscorrect, and in Andrzejewski’s opinion it is not, I believe that thisis further conrmation of the need for environmental education tostep forward and demonstrate a leadership role on total liberationissues in order to accord critical intersectional literacies widerinstitutional legitimacy.

The case of highly inuential ecofeminist, Greta Gaard,

supports this conclusion. Despite having produced a large bodyof important feminist work, she has found Women’s Studies itselfto be an unwelcome home and thus has o�en had to strategicallynd courses in Interdisciplinary Studies, the Humanities, orEnglish in order to teach. As she told me, “teaching ecofeminismhas always been dicult since most introductory Women’s Studiestextbooks still ignore the environment as well as the vast body ofwork produced by vegetarian (eco)feminists, and there is still nosingle introductory textbook for a course on ecofeminism, womenand ecology, or feminist environmentalism” (Gaard, Personalcommunication, 2008). If teaching critical intersectional courseshas proven dicult for Gaard, though, nding receptive colleagueswho will not punish her for her radicalism has been harder still.While she remarked that her tenure at Fairhaven College, a placeknown for cuing-edge interdisciplinary pedagogy, was a warmexperience, in another teaching appointment at the Universityof Minnesota-Duluth she felt that her politicized intersectional

coursework was tolerated only because it was oered as asummer option that served to generate revenue at a time whenother faculty did not care to work. More shocking still, the recent




37

release of Gaard’s book The Nature of Home (University of ArizonaPress, 2008) was pointedly ignored by her colleagues in English atthe University of Wisconsin-River Falls, who then added to theirprotest, she said, by voting “overwhelmingly against retaining medue to my excessive emphasis on environmentalism, feminism,and creative writing” (ibid.) on maers such as the suering ofanimals.

As I consider these stories about a total liberation ecopedagogythat works to include social, ecological, and animal justice issuesin higher education, I must conclude that critical intersectionalliteracy is gaining ground but continues to encounter resistance.As the examples of Russell, Andrzejewski, and Gaard intimate,this new paradigm of pedagogy is excitedly surging forth on

campuses across both Canada and the United States. Yet, thereis also signicant fear of and aempts to repress it (Kahn,Forthcoming). For the time being, critical intersectional literacypractitioners will undoubtedly continue to face opposition in theirprofessional and personal lives. Still, I am hopeful that a momenthas nally arisen in which future perspectives on this struggleare starting to coalesce and to have the ear of ever more allies inacademia and beyond.

A Movement for Cognitive PraxisAs previously noted, a major impetus to transformative

change in higher education is coming from scholars who have onefoot in, or ear open to, emancipatory grassroots social movements.As Connie Russell mused, “I entered academia as an activist andhave remained one, just a dierent type of one than I originallyenvisioned…any social movement needs some members who canstep back and analyze the work we are doing, and academics arein a unique position to do that. That is the beauty of academic/activist collaboration” (Personal communication, 2008). With thisin mind, then, I would like to briey relate the current eortsof three emerging academic-activists that we believe are onthe cuing-edge of furthering the type of critical intersectionalliteracy work representative of total liberation ecopedagogy.

Breeze Harper is doing research on critical food geographiesat University of California Davis and considers her scholarshipa kind of “literary activism” (Harper, Personal communication,

2008). Several years ago, Harper came to examine the role diet hadin her health as a black American woman and came to the opinionthat she was a member of a demographic suering environmental




38

racism, one whose diet was colonized by brutal corporate agendasdesigned to exploit life. She took this knowledge to a practicallevel and “decolonized” (ibid.) her diet by rejecting the StandardAmerican Diet and instead adopted a whole food, plant-baseddiet instead. She also began to organize other vegan females of theAfrican diaspora through a project called “Sistah Vegan!.”11 Thishas resulted in an anthology (Harper, Forthcoming) of black femalevoices “who resist and/or combat the systemic oppression thathas manifested as diabetes, uterine broids, obesity, depression,environmental pollution, and the inhumane treatment of non-human animals” (Harper, Personal communication, 2008). Morethan a statement of identity politics, Harper hopes that this bookcan stimulate dialogue on issues of public health, environmental

justice and sustainability, and the corporate food industry’s role inestablishing the Standard American Diet.For her part, Lauren Corman, an assistant professor of critical

animal studies at Brock University, has used her position as long-standing host of the radio show Animal Voices (CIUT 89.5) toput “environmental, social justice, and animal advocacy issuesin conversation” with one another and with current scholarship(Corman, Personal communication, 2008). Interviewing a myriadof major activists and academics whose work she believes informs

the animal rights movement, Corman is very interested in usingher medium as a form of public pedagogy to encourage “a cross-fertilization of ideas” (ibid.). Specically, she hopes the AnimalVoices show can work pedagogically and politically to make:

academic ideas more accessible to a wider audience, or…provide an entry point into theories while it simultaneously pushes scholars to demonstrate the practical relevance of their research. Additionally, it introduces the public andother animal activists to the burgeoning eld of animal studies. Among the

most important contributions, though, is that the radio show ekes out a spacewithin the public sphere for critical perspectives on animals, while disruptingthe stereotype that all animal activists are terrorists, humourless, self-righteous,hysterical, exclusively white and middle-class, North American, etc. Crucially,too, it demonstrates to other social justice and environmental movements thatmany animal activists and scholars are not single-issued in their approaches,which hopefully provides incentive for coalitions. Similarly, it promotes critiqueand reexivity within the animal movements, and foregrounds a diversity of

perspectives.

Lastly, I would like to call aention to the work of AnthonyNocella, a doctoral student in Syracuse University’s Maxwell




40

or concerned citizenry. This ability to resist being standardizedand conned within a particular educational sphere strikes me asa particularly crucial aspect of the form of total liberation workthat is our interest.

As the critical educator Paulo Freire remarked, education isnot itself the lever of social change but it can play an importantrole to the degree that it works curricularly to generatecounterhegemonic knowledge and stir the feelings of socio-political protest in students (Shor & Freire, 1987). In our opinion,the new paradigm of total liberation ecopedagogy that I have hereaempted to highlight should be understood as part of an evolvingsocial movement that has been struggling to emerge over the lastcouple decades—one whose militant advocacy is informed by a

holistic respect for life up to and including the planet and whichstrongly rebukes the ongoing instantiation of classism, racism,sexism, ableism, speciesism, and other “dominator hierarchies”(Eisler, 1988). Liberation pedagogy oering critical intersectionalliteracy has thus far been blocked (i.e., Selby’s “Ultima Thule”)from formal educational circles, in part, because it has critiquedthe ideological blind spots of much that is considered legitimateeducational discourse. Moreover, its transdisciplinarity anddesire for aecting qualitative change in students’ identities pits

this new pedagogical paradigm against mainstream discursivedemands for specialization and quantitative accountability.But the time for critical intersectional literacy has nally

arrived. I feel certain that a pedagogy for total liberation is nolonger locked in the remote Hyperborean imagination of theultra-radical Le� but is rather ooding like rays of light intothe dawning work of a new generation of environmental andecological educators, social justice-oriented critical pedagogues,anti-oppression teachers, humane education instructors, andother faculty with an abiding interest in the pedagogical aspectsof realizing a beer world for all beings. In other words, I believethat a conscientization of these elds is underway, which shouldproduce signicant changes both within the academy and theworld-at-large. Yet, without dialogue across these elds, aswell as between those working in other educational seings (bethey elementary, secondary, post-secondary, or nonformal), thetransformative possibilities resulting from these pedagogies will

remain limited.What is more, the dialogue that I feel is necessary doesnot translate merely into trading syllabi or thoughts on what




4

constitute emancipatory “best practices.” Instead, it must fosterthe kind of critical encounters that best relate the situation of theschool to that of society, as well as that analyze the structuralforces that disrupt aempts to alter the institutional status-quoof our everyday lives. I also seek dialogue toward what thephilosopher Steven Best (2003) has termed “interspecies alliancepolitics,” or the organization of solidarities across a wide-rangeof educational actors that should in turn propel them to occupyspaces of power. In order for this to happen, however, thoseworking for environmental education and animal rights needto begin to robustly engage with political issues such as whitesupremacy and class privilege, even as it suggests that thoseworking for the benet of peace and equality between human

groups need to critique their own potentially speciesist and/orindustrialist-urbanist assumptions.Undeniably, it still is not easy to think, much less work,

intersectionally without quickly spiraling into a bevy ofcontradictions. But these contradictions should become thefoundational context for new progressive theories and literacypractices, not the raison d’etre for debunking them. We must tryto unravel the systemic causes of the present misery and end ourfuture peril. That we can now name zoöcide (Kahn, 2006) as the

historical condition for our work in environmental educationmeans that we possess both the necessary and sucient conditionfor the eld’s radical reconstruction in accordance with a totalliberation ethic. The massive desecration of our planetary ecologythat is now taking place, a crime that includes an unparalleledaack upon the great mass of nonhuman animals and thegeneration of global social upheaval that equates to dire poverty,disease, starvation, and the unending threat of armed violencefor many billions of people, simply demands that we aspire tonothing less.

ReferencesAllen, A. & You, N. (Eds.) (2002). Sustainable urbanization, bridging the

green and brown agendas. Jenner City Print, Ltd. UK: UN-Habitat,Department for International Development, and the DevelopmentPlanning Unit.

Andrzejewski, J. (2003). Teaching animal rights at the university:

Philosophy and practice. Journal of animal liberation philosophy and policy , 1(1).




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Andrzejewski, J., Baltodano, M. P., & Symcox, L. (Eds.) (2009). Social Justice, Peace, and Environmental Education: Transformative Standards .New York: Routledge.

Bell, A. C. & Russell, C. L. (2000). Beyond human, beyond words:Anthropocentrism, critical pedagogy, and the poststructuralist

turn. Canadian journal of education , 25(3), 188-203.Best, S. (2003). Common natures, shared fates: Toward an interspeciesalliance politics. Impact press (Dec/Jan).

Best, S. and Nocella, II, A. J. (Eds.) (2006). Igniting a revolution: Voicesin defense of the Earth. Oakland, CA: AK Press.

——. (Eds.) (2004). Terrorists or freedom ghters?: Reections on theliberation of animals. New York: Lantern Press.

Capra, F. (1984). The turning point: Science, society and the rising culture.New York: Bantam Books.

Cole, A. G. (2007). Expanding the eld: Revisiting environmentaleducation principles through multidisciplinary frameworks. The

journal of environmental education , 38(2), 35-45.Collins, P. H. (2000). Black feminist thought: Knowledge, consciousness,

and the politics of empowerment. New York: Routledge.Eisler, R. (1988). The chalice and the blade: Our history, our future. San

Francisco: Harper.Eisnitz, G. (2006). Slaughterhouse: The shocking story of greed, neglect,

and inhumane treatment inside the U.S. meat industry. Amherst, NY:Prometheus Books.

Eyerman, R. & Jamison, A. (1991). Social movements: A cognitiveapproach. University park, PA: Pennsylvania State UniversityPress.

Fawce, L., Bell, A, & Russell, C. (2002). Guiding our environmentalpraxis: Teaching for social and environmental justice. In W. LealFilho (Ed.), Teaching sustainability at universities: Towards curriculum

greening. New York: Peter Lang.Gadoi, M. (2008). Education for sustainability: A critical contribution

to the Decade of Education for Sustainable Development. Greentheory & praxis: The journal of ecopedagogy , 4(1), 15-64.

Gaard, G. C. (1993). Ecofeminisim: Women, animals, nature. Philadelphia:Temple University Press.

González-Gaudiano, E. (2005). Education for sustainabledevelopment: Conguration and meaning. Policy futures ineducation , 3(3), 243–250.

Greenwood, D. A. (2008). A critical pedagogy of place: From gridlockto parallax. Environmental education research , 14(3), 336-348.

Gruenewald, D. A. (2003). The best of both words: A critical pedagogyof place. Educational researcher , 32(4), 3–12.

Gruenewald, D. A. & Smith, G. (Eds.) (2007). Place-based education in a global age: Local diversity. New York: Lawrence Erlbaum.




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Gray-Donald, J. & Selby, D. (Eds.) (2008). Green frontiers: Environmentaleducators dancing away from the mechanism. Roerdam, TheNetherlands: Sense Publishers.

Haraway, D. (1988). Situated knowledge: The science questionin feminism as a site of discourse on the privilege of partial

perspective. Feminist studies, 14.3, 575-599.Harper, A. B. (Forthcoming). Sistah vegan!: Decolonizing our diets,Healing our bodies, liberating our souls. New York: Lantern Books.

Hay, C. (1999). Crisis and the structural transformation of the state:Interrogating the process of change. British journal of politics andinternational relations , 1(3), 317-344.

Humes, B. (2008). Moving toward a liberatory pedagogy for allspecies: Mapping the need for dialogue between humane andanti-oppressive education. Green theory & praxis: The journal of ecopedagogy , 4(1), 65-85.

Joy, M. (2008). Strategic action for animals: A handbook on strategicmovement building, organizing, and activism for animal liberation.New York: Lantern Press.

Kahn, R. (Forthcoming). Operation get red: A chronicle of theacademic repression of radical environmentalist and animalrights advocate-scholars. In S. Best, A. Nocella, II, & P. McLaren(Eds.), Academic repression: Reections from the academic-industrialcomplex. Oakland, CA: AK Press.

——. (2008a). From education for sustainable development to

ecopedagogy: Sustaining capitalism or sustaining life? Greentheory & praxis: The journal of ecopedagogy , 4(1), 1-14.——. (2008b). Towards ecopedagogy: Weaving a broad-based

pedagogy of the liberation for animals, nature and the oppressedpeoples of the Earth. In A. Darder, M. Baltodano, & R. Torres(Eds.), The critical pedagogy reader (2nd ed.). New York: Routledge.

——. (2007). Toward a critique of paideia and humanitas:(Mis)education and the global ecological crisis. In I. Gur-Ze’ev& K. Roth (Eds.), Education in the era of globalization. New York:Springer.

——. (2006). The educative potential of ecological militancy in an ageof big oil: Towards a Marcusean ecopedagogy. Policy futures ineducation , 4(1), 31-44.

——. (2002). Paulo Freire and eco-justice: Updating Pedagogy of theOppressed for the age of ecological calamity. Freire online journal ,1(1).

Kahn, R. & Nocella, II, A. J. (Forthcoming). Greening the academy:Environmental studies in the liberal arts. Syracuse, NY: SyracuseUniversity Press.

Kellner, D. (2005). Media spectacle and the crisis of democracy. Boulder:Paradigm Press.




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McKenzie, M. (2005) The ‘post-post period’ and environmentaleducation research. Environmental education research , 11(4), 401-412.

McLaren, P. & Houston, D. (2005). Revolutionary ecologies:Ecosocialism and critical pedagogy. In P. McLaren, Capitalists

& conquerors: A critical pedagogy against empire. Lanham, MD:Rowman & Lileeld.Noddings, N. (2003). Caring: A feminine approach to ethics and moral

education (2nd. ed.). Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.O’Sullivan, E. (1999). Transformative learning: Educational vision for the

21st century. Toronto, ON: University of Toronto Press.Pope, C. & Rauber, P. (2004). Strategic ignorance: Why the Bush

administration is recklessly destroying a century of environmental progress. San Francisco: Sierra Club Books.

Santayana, G. (1906). The life of progress. New York: Scribner’s Sons.Schlosser, E. (2005). Fast food nation. New York: Harper Perennial.Seed, J., Macy, J. Flemming, P. & Naess, A. (1988). Thinking like a

mountain: Toward a council of all beings. British Columbia, CA: NewSociety Publishers.

Selby, D. (2000). Humane education: Widening the circle ofcompassion and justice. In T. Goldstein & D. Selby (Eds.), Weavingconnections: Educating for peace, social and environmental justice.Toronto, CA: Sumach Press.

——. (1995). Earthkind: A teacher’s handbook on humane education.

Stoke-on-Trent: Trentham.Shor, I. & Freire, P. (1987). A pedagogy for liberation: Dialogues ontransforming education. Westport, CT: Bergin & Garvey.

Singer, P. (1975). Animal liberation: A new ethics for our treatment of animals. New York: Random House.

Stapp, W. (1969). The concept of environmental education. Journal of environmental education , 1(3), 31-36.

Weil, Z. (2004). The power and the promise of humane education. BritishColumbia, CA: New Society Publishers.

——. (1998). Humane education: Charting a new course. The animalsagenda (September/October), 19-21.

Yosso, T. J. (2006). Critical race counterstories along the Chicana/Chicanoeducational pipeline. New York: Routledge.

Notes1 See hp://www.epa.gov/enviroed/basic.html.2 For additional scholars exploring the crossroads of environmental

education and critical pedagogy, see Greenwood (2008, p. 338).3 By “new paradigm” we do not mean to assert that the work thatwe chronicle does not have a signicant history of theory and




45

practice, rather that this history is nally now beginning to aecta Kuhnian paradigm shi� in others’ theories and practices.

4 As McKenzie and Russell (in works previously cited) bothnote, ecofeminism in its many variants has been an important

inuence for an intersectional pedagogy that works against socialoppression and to increase the moral status of nonhuman animalsand nature. There are shades of grey, however, with more and lesscompelling approaches to the form of intersectional analysis wefeel is now required. A poor example would be Noddings (2003),whose animal welfarist-tinged approach to the pedagogy of careprovides an inadequate model for total liberation ecopedagogy,and Gaard (1993), whom we interviewed for this essay as anilluminative trendseer. Also noteworthy within the ecofeminist

tradition is the work of anti-nuclear and peace activist, JoannaMacy, who has helped to create ritualized intersectionaleducational practices such as the Council of All Beings (Seed,Macy, Flemming & Naess, 1988).

5 For more information on this and an educational movement centeredaround it, see Species Alliance (hp://www.speciesalliance.org/video.php).

6 Environmental education’s potentially primary role in this critical

diplomacy process cannot be overstated. As Gray-Donald & Selby(2008) have wrien, “Environmental education is well positionedto be a unier, to bring together dierent disciplines and galvanizethem into unied action” (18).

7 For a careful and robust study of the history, philosophy andpractice of humane education, which is beyond our scope here,see (Humes, 2008). Important humane education texts includeSelby (2000; 1995; Weil (2004); and Gray-Donald & Selby (2008).

8 However, humane educator Lesley Fox also told us that intersectionalhumane education can be a problem for some people withsingle-issue orientations who “believe that it is too ‘broad’ inscope—and they would rather focus on one specic topic such ashuman rights as opposed to introducing other elements/angles”(Personal communication, 2008). Still, she agreed that whenelementary and secondary curricular frameworks lack demandsfor dealing with nonhuman animal issues in the classroom,covering the environmental and human rights concerns of topics

like slaughterhouses or factory farms provides a way to be invitedin as a speaker.




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9 Sustainable development literature distinguishes between thetraditional “green agenda” of environmentalists concerned withpreserving wilderness or conserving natural resources and the“brown agenda” of how environmental issues like waste watertreatment, air pollution, or soil degredation may aect people’squality of life. See, for instance, Allen & You (2002).

10 Related to this endeavor, she is the recent co-editor of Andrzejewski,Baltodano, & Symcox (2009).

11 See hp://sistahveganproject.com.12 On critical animal studies, see hp://criticalanimalstudies.org.




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What I mean is Lübeck as a spiritual form of live Thomas Mann

The term locality comes from the Latin word “locus”,

which means a point in space, also in the space understood as aterritory, a geographic area. But locality is something more than just a place, it is rather a certain state of aairs connected with theplace, it is the content which lls this place. The term refers to thelocal syndrome of natural, social and cultural components. In thesociological sense, locality is a set of local conditions determiningthe functioning of a local community and the people who belongto it. Such a conception of locality is only one of the aspects ofthe life of a local community. Apart from this, a set of supra-localfactors can be distinguished. It has various aspects: regional,nation-wide, global, but from the point of view of the localcommunity, the most important thing is that the conditions whichare connected with it and the inspirations of the processes whichare taking place within the community, do not belong to the localsystem, they are outside it.

An always-present component of many important problemswhich are involved in the functioning of local communities is

the clashing of internal and external factors. Their importanceand the strength of their inuence are variable and subject tovarious uctuations in which general tendencies of social life,

Zbigniew Pucek

A. F. M. Krakow UniversityPOLAND

THE LOCAL SOURCES OF AN IDEA

OF HOMELAND



Zbigniew Pucek: The Local Sources of an Idea of Homeland

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that appear in various periods, are expressed. This phenomenonoccurs and is the subject of many studies. The XX century’sprevailing tendency was the strong predominance of the externalfactors, and the diminishing importance of locality, not only as anaspect of the organization of a social systems but, rst of all, inthe sense of the inuence it exerts on the life and the social andcultural functions of local communities. There can be observedconsiderable subordination of local communities to the centralauthority, a signicant loss in the scope of self-government andthe phenomena of disintegration which are due to the changeswhich are taking place in broader social structures, especially themigrations as well as the development of electronic media andmass communication.

Today cultures seem to be not so very deeply entrenched intheir local ground like before, because of still stronger impact ofa distant events and values on local live and aairs (Appadurai1996). All this points to a relative weakening of the role of localityin modern society. On the other hand, the process should not

be treated as an irreversible and nal decline of locality. Such atendency is disproved by the appearance of new trends in politicallife which aempt to depart from the centralized and arbitrarysystem of authority in favour of transferring authority to various

social structures and circles. It means also an eort to restitutea social subjectivity of many communities, group and cultures.Inevitably, the process could not omit local communities whichhave an inherent, spontaneous inclination towards autonomy.And it is this quality of local communities that makes us hope forthe present trend to be reversed or stopped at least.

Even if circumstances do not favour particular forms ofsocial, economic, political and cultural life, local communitiesstrive to create and reproduce communal elements thus regainingand retaining what I mean by locality. Since locality is a formof realization of communities which are spatially grouped on apermanent territorial base, it is a way of their concrete selementin space, it is their homeland. The aachment of local communitiesto a particular territory denes their specic position amongsocial communities. From this point of view they are contrastedwith family, tribal and political nomadic communities, and areassigned to the sphere of the European culture. Within the scope

of this culture, the local community is an indispensable element ofthe organization of society, so the social progress cannot consistsin the reduction of its role (Sowa 1988).




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Territorial seing of local communities is accompanied by anumber of social and cultural phenomena which stem from theirties with the local paern. The very fact of durable, sometimesmulti-generation rooting in the common territory is a factorpromoting the appearance of ties. The local environmental paerndetermines the basic framework of a relatively autonomous localcommunity and the people who belong to it. Such a paern can be,and very o�en is, conceived and treated by the local communityas homeland. It is in this sense that locality is understood here ashomeland. Within the reach of the European culture, where thelocal community plays such a great role, locality is one of the mostimportant forms of man’s homeland.

The idea of homeland, although intuitively easily perceptible,

is nevertheless rather dicult to discursively articulate. Neitherlocality nor any other form of reality given to man is not homeland by itself. It may only be considered to be homeland in the eectof providing it with some denite meanings. In its most generalsense, homeland is a value which is applied by people and wholecommunities to their milieu. Stanisław Ossowski says: “Homelandis a correlate of some psychic aitudes which are part of a culturalheritage of a group” (Ossowski 1967). What is meant here are,of course, aitudes towards some area of reality which is, more

or less directly, subject to manifold experiences of a community.This area of reality is the milieu of the community. However, in itsobjective form the milieu is only a substratum from which therearises and on which is constructed a phenomenon of homeland,which is connected with it by a ne network of meanings. Thus,we are dealing with a term which belongs to this specic categoryof notions that describe neither autonomous, objective facts norpurely subjective, psychic phenomena, but refer to the sphereof values and meanings which are expressed by the aitude ofmembers of a social group towards their milieu. “An area becomeshomeland only inasmuch as there is a group of people who sharesome specic aitude towards it and shape its appearance” writesS. Ossowski. “Only then this stretch of outside reality assumessome specic values which make it homeland (…) Characteristicfeatures of homeland are always a function of images, whichmembers of some community associate with it” (Ibidem, p. 203).

In each seled culture, the idea of homeland fulls

an important adaptative function by providing models ofidentication with a specic area of reality at which a communityhappens to build up and develop its existence. It is, in a sense,




50

an “ecological” idea, which ties man culturally and emotionallywith his milieu. It also performs the function of integrating ahuman community by developing an aitude, common for alland shared by all, towards the environment in its broad sense.The term homeland refers then to the specic manner in whichthe man and human communities are rooted in some areas of thesurrounding reality. The word always evokes specic associationsand a full range of images of the country, places, customs, people,landscapes. It calls forth memories and experiences referring tothis reality and, in a way, building the core of our personalityand our biography. All this has real grounds. What is a homelandfor human communities?; what is considered to be homeland invarious social situations?; what are proportions of objective and

subjective factors, habits, creational and emotional factors andconvictions? all these are questions about the real ground, thesubstratum of the phenomenon of homeland.

The fact of homeland being rooted in man’s specic milieudoes not raise any doubts, but the character of this relationshipis varied and changing. It is also shaped in a selective way. Theidea of homeland appears in various aspects and dierent rangesof environmental seing of human communities. It is not onlylocality that is a correlate of homeland but also the nationalterritory, all cultural areas, and in some contexts, even humanityand the world. On the other hand, it is strongly associated by thesocial consciousness with some specic areas and forms of realityand it can hardly, if at all, be transferred to new milieux in which asocial group and its members have to live. Breaking the continuityof ties with a given native milieu does not automatically erasefrom the consciousness the feeling that it is a homeland.

The image of homeland remains, as a rule, associated with

the old environment, at least for the generations which werespiritually formed in it. It is known that a feeling of stronger orweaker ties with the place of origin is o�en awoken in subsequentgenerations and is very characteristic for descendants of emigrants.This supports the thesis that the phenomenon of homeland is ofcultural character and that it belongs to the cultural heritageof a social group. This selective sense of the idea of homeland,in connection with the tendency to keep its continuity, is animportant characteristic of the phenomenon. Homeland is not

only what one has. It is also one’s duty. Homeland should beretained and one should be faithful to it, no maer whether direct




5

ties with the native milieu still exist. “Should I forget you, let myright hand forget me” - calls the Psalmist,

Dening man’s milieu as a substratum of his homelandinevitably gives rise to the question whether locality ischaracterized by some particular features in this respect. It seemsthat a positive answer can be given to this question. Locality hassome characteristic features which diract in the image of a localhomeland, giving it a specic multi-dimensional character. Itallows us to perceive the local homeland as a separate type, whichis distinguished against the background of other types of thiscultural phenomenon. What is the distinctive feature?

Giving an answer to this question requires a broaderdenition of man’s life milieu. By milieu I mean this part of

our environment which is separated from our individual andcommunal experience as an existentially important area of reality.Life activity of communities, in its broadest sense, is concentratedat this area. So, it is this part of the world around with whichman is in direct contact and which exerts inuence upon him. Itis also subject to transformations by man’s activity. Man’s needsare satised in this area and it is a point of reference for his tasksand aims. What is considered to be a milieu for an individual orfor a community depends on the range and importance of their

contacts with the environment. There is always a denite horizonof these contacts. It depends on many factors, among which are:the area of selement occupied by a given community, the systemof natural and cultural boundaries determining the community’ssphere of activity as well as such specic features of a given groupas the degree of its openness, its expansiveness and the exibilityof its culture.

Generally speaking, man’s milieu is always limited andit never corresponds with the boundaries of the world ruled

by man. Even in the present-day, restless world, which is becoming “smaller” all the time, the limitations imposed byman’s culture and biology are not subject to any radical changes,so the problem of their becoming extinct is out of the question.Human communities live in numerous and varied social andcultural structures which have specic character. Thus, homeland

basically remains a particular phenomenon, it always remainssomeone’s homeland among other homelands of other people,

communities, nations.The phenomenon of milieu is complex, both from the aspectof its range and components. As far as the range is concerned, it




52

can usually be divided into a closer and a more distant milieu.The closer milieu is determined by points of contact and close,recurrent and durable relationships. These are mostly directrelations. We are in contact with the more distant milieu by randomand infrequent encounters. The character of the inuence which isexerted upon us by the more distant milieu is discontinuous andindirect, as a rule. Its importance, in the existential experience ofa seled community, is smaller but, of course, it can have, andusually has, some importance in some particular moments in thelife of a community.

The theory of sociology, while taking into account thedivision of man’s milieu into closer and more distant, is trying todeal with it in terms of typology of homelands. Very popular is

the dierentiation between a small, local homeland and the largehomeland approached in the categories of the nation or the state.This division is similar to the typology introduced by Ossowski:“The private homeland and the ideological homeland, bringsout, among other things, the question of the specic characterof the local homeland. The local homeland, in this sense, is thehomeland stemming from the closer milieu. It is born in theconditions of continuous and durable contacts with the area ofreality, where the live of a local community and its members is

directly rooted. It is a set of real places and conditions in whichthe life is taking place. The tie between the man and this homelandis to a considerable degree habitual, being a result of xed paernof relations with various elements of environment. Convictionaland ideological ties connecting the man with the broader, moredistant milieu, like the national territory, plays complementaryrole here”(Ibidem).

Locality generally produces the notion of homeland, whereasthe more distant milieu need not necessarily be included in thisnotion. It nally depends on the strength of the inuence it exertson people and on the positive meanings aributed to it by thepeople in whose experience the more distant milieu occurs. Thecloser milieu, well known and familiar as it is, may equally welldetermine the borders of the accepted world, beyond whichlies a foreign territory. Such is undoubtedly the consciousnessof cultural gheos or social groups which live in exceptionallydicult and hostile natural environment. The idea of a local

homeland is o�en enriched in a situation like this. It is penetrated by the awareness of being besieged and compulsion to defend theendangered national values. These phenomena were presented by




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and its degeneration is sure to have an unfavourable impact onthe feelings of bond with any homeland.

For a man whose existence is rmly set in a seled communitythe local paern is simultaneously an expression of the order ofexistence, a preguration of the world, an archetype in which, toa certain extent, a vision of an ideological homeland can be seen,which is constructed of convictions and beliefs. It is in this waythat the specic experience of local community named Soplicowofrom the poem “Pan Tadeusz or the last foray in Lithuania” byAdam Mickiewicz is interpreted by a contemporary writer:“Sunrises and sunsets, common activities like making coee orpicking mushrooms are (…) a surface under which there is hiddentotal acceptance which enlivens and supports the description (…)

The cucumbers and melons from the orchard in Soplicowo fulllall conditions to be granted the status of symbols, which meansthat they fully are the things the names of which are assigned tothem, but they also have, a dierent meaning.” (Miłosz 1982, p.133). A concrete association of the ideological homeland consists,rst of all, in the pictures of the private homeland. This is partlydue to the fact that the former one is, to a great extent, an a prioriconstruction, from the point of view of an individual, whereasthe laer one stems from a direct and personal experience. Ever

partial and random perception of the supra-local world cannotessentially change this state of aairs. Anyway, it does not degradethe ability of emotional perception of the ideological homeland.

Locality is not only the closer homeland but alsothe fullestand the most complete one. Its multidimensional character is areection of the complexity of the local life milieu. It is a naturalconglomerate of all three elements which make up man’s world:nature, culture and community. Each of these elements plays somedenite role in the shaping of the notion of homeland. Each part ofthe milieu contributes to this notion. A direct and durable contactwith them all is, for a man who lives within the local paern, notonly natural but, as a maer of fact, unavoidable. Locality is acomplete milieu of man’s life. It is always a community which isset in some specic and limited natural and cultural environment.Sociology seldom uses such a broad category of environment. It isdue to the fact that we have to do with the elements given to manin dierent ways, each of them inuencing the man in a dierent

and specic way (Rybicki 1979, p. 593). Natural and culturalfactors cannot be reduced to the social ones, therefore they aremarginal in sociological considerations. This mostly refers to the




55

nature. In reality, however, the respective parts of the milieu arenot ideally separated from one another in social experience. Firstof all, they are ltered through the system of values and expressedin culture pictures. In these images, the various components ofthe surrounding world are connected and integrated with oneanother by a number of meanings and interrelations.

The more life of a given community is bound with somespecic territory and local paern, the stronger are the featuresof a unity in the images created by the social consciousness. Thereis also an objective aspect of this phenomenon: the functioningof a local community is, to some extent, a real factor whichintegrates the components of the milieu. One could mentionhere the phenomenon of the transformation of space, the shaping

of the landscape, the adjustment of the selement and thearchitecture to the topographic and climatic conditions of thenatural environment (e.g. the type of economy imposed by theseconditions). Locality then is a paern the dimensions of whichare usually perceived jointly as some composite whole and aspecic quality: the completeness. The bonds connecting the manto his local homeland are, in a sense, integral and complete bonds,whereas in relation to the supra-local, ideological homeland theyhave a partial, aspect-sensitive character.

The supra-local homeland is given to the man basicallyin an indirect way, as an ideological conviction. In its image,which by nature is of a priori kind, the whole variety ofenvironmental components is reduced to the area of symbolicculture. And although there are ways of broadening of one’s ownpersonal aitude towards this homeland, rst of all by tourism,nevertheless such contacts do not produce such aachment as is aresult of the habits arising from the seled life (Ossowski 1967 a,p. 222). Generally speaking, the broader the notion of homeland,the more abstract, detached and devoid of a direct contact with thepeople, landscape and culture, is phenomenon of it. This createsfavourable conditions for imbuing it with a mystic element,which is exemplied by numerous nationalist movements in thecontemporary world.

The local life milieu is a typical milieu. I am referring here tothe concept of a typical life milieu proposed by Paweł Rybicki. Inthe conditions of a seled life limited, to a great extent, to the local

paern, all the components of the life milieu can be consideredas typical, i.e. as a sum of durable and recurrent conditionsdetermining the human being. Within the local framework, the




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man, not only meets the same people all the time, but also the sameideas and values. What is more, even the natural environmentassumes, through recurrent aeries of the same stimuli, thefeatures of typicality. These elements of experience are similar forall members of a community and are common for them. They arethe factor which shapes the appearance of the community. Theproblem of how a specic local paern inuences the life of anindividual, how it shapes him and the forms of his communalexistence can, of course, be solved only through systematic anddetailed studies. However, in the context of these observations, ageneral thesis can be adopted that the local homeland is a correlateof a typical life milieu which for man is locality. Thus, it turnsout to be an idea which in the cultural consciousness integrates

the surrounding reality into one, relatively reasonable system ofhabits and conceptions, organizing his aitudes towards locality.As I have already mentioned, in the idea of homeland

there is expressed some conception of order, which is a sort of aaxionormative predestinate order, which is obligatory, since it ispredestined. Within this context, a special aention to the elementsof magical thinking must be paid (Ibidem). At any rate, one canin some sense speak here of the task and role. Predestinate orderis an idea, to which man’s aitude is spontaneous, in his contacts

with the outside world. “To leave the Ukraine” - writes ZenonFisz - “with the village heart, our heart, with the local notions ofpeople and things, with the belief, straightforward but not blind,and to leave everything which will pass before my eye, and how itwill relate to our notions.” (Fisz 1988 a, p. 149). So locality is o�enidealized as the object of deep emotions, and in literary visionsit sometimes assumes the importance of the mythical Arcadia,an earthly paradise, like the Lithuanian Novogrodek in theMickiewicz’s poem. In this sense Bohdan Jałowiecki writes aboutthe archetypal character of homeland (Jałowiecki 1988, p. 61). Anarchetype seems to be an important factor in the continuity of thenotion of homeland and it may exert a preserving inuence on theshape of its environmental substratum.

The desire to retain homeland in its beloved and acceptedform is a frequent motive of human behaviour, manifesting itself

by local ecological movements or act1vities initiated by lovers oflocal history, monuments, landscape, customs and folklore. In

various conditions, the desire provides an impulse to introducesuitable corrections to the environment in order to make it thesame or similar to the cultivated vision of the local homeland




57

/e.g. actions in favour of preserving customs, rituals, architecture,natural environment and even the local community with itsinstitutions and organizations/.

The archetype of homeland, while being an expression ofan ideal adjustment of a community and its members to somespecic area of reality, allows the man, on the one hand, to be inharmony with it, but on the other, makes it dicult for him toaccept changes at his territory, especially such changes which leadto the change of the life milieu. Last but not the least, the archetypeshould be perceived as a factor which preserves the pluralisticstructure of the human world, since the very aachment of manto various forms of life rooted in some specic places poses anobstacle to the unication processes which are inspired by the

claims of the ideologies of centralized development of challengesof the globalization process.The local type of homeland, as opposed to the supra-local

homeland, is bound with the man’s life milieu in a threefoldway: by the bonds of nature, culture and community. Each ofthem inuences the notion of homeland in a specic way. Theinuence of the natural environment is exerted both directly and

by means of culture forms. It is sometimes pointed out that theformer Commonwealth of Poland, the communal life set on the

stretch of Europe between the Baltic Sea and the Dnieper river,had its foundations rooted more deeply in the landscape than inits statehood. One can says that the topographic and landscapefeatures nd their expression in the social organization and in thesystem of values of some communities (Vincenz 1979).

Advantages of the natural environment and their impact onother areas of human world nd their reection in the images ofhomeland. “Apart from the Baltic Sea” - writes Thomas Mann -“Lübeck has other landscape features, landscape in its real senseof the word. It is such a beautiful landscape, that the beauty ofit can freely compete with many, or - in my opinion - with allthe landscapes in Germany or anywhere else. Here we have theHolstein Switzerland, the areas around Eutin and Molln, the lakeUklei - it would be unnatural if such images did not leave animprint on the psyche of a Lübeck child, and even the more sothat no future impressions were able to obscure, in my soul, thefresh and pure character of those idyllic landscapes.” (Mann 1971,

p.p. 17-18). What is meant here is, of course, not the convictionthat the Lübeck landscape is superior in some objective sense.In Mann’s relation, the determination of a direct psychological




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eect is related to the emergence of a cultural model. It containsa scheme of a paern intermingled with the native notions of

beauty. This particular aitude towards nature that surrounds usis repeated with a great regularity not only in the visions created

by literature but also at lower, much more common levels ofsensitivity. The majority of us are most sensitive to what conrmsthe vision of natural order, which is so deeply rooted in us, andremains in harmony with this vision. The sense of this order is

built in the course of durable and recurrent contacts with thenative environment.

The individual experience of a direct contact is intermingledwith the element of culture. We familiarize the world byinterpreting it in terms of esthetic-functional order we identify

ourselves with. While living in a permanently devastated andchaotic environment, the man need not necessarily like it. Justthe opposite, the discrepancy between the reality and someideal principles of our culture invariably remains the source ofuneasiness, dissatisfaction and frustration.

Natural environment as a place of emotional seing is givento the man mostly through the category of his culture. Naturalqualities of the respective regions of Poland usually have foundtheir sanction in the local folklore and their development in

art and literature. But local likes and dislikes are sometimes inconict with some more popular or more qualied judgments.The rened artistic culture does not always use the same criteriaand models as the local culture. Characteristic in this respect isthe great argument in Chapter III of “Pan Tadeusz”, referringto the features of the landscape, in which the arguments of thelocal, native aesthetics are opposed to the criteria of the Europeanartistry. Of course, the problem of the natural environmentcannot be reduced only to the esthetic questions. It can also be

approached as a workshop or a source of components which areindispensable to life as well as a set of conditions determining thequality of this life. All these things form the basis of our aitudetowards the environment - the more so that the local milieu is anarea at which a community, a family or an individual build theirlives, sometimes for generations. In this way it becomes a part ofhuman biography and history, a distinguished area in the world.Let us listen to the words of Broniewski: “for me, this land isdearer than others/ I neither want nor can leave it/ my childhood

and my youth were blown with Mazurian winds over the Vistula/There are elds and poplars in my window/ and I know it is justPoland.”




59

The feeling of aliation, which usually accompanies theman’s aitude towards his native land results from the adoption,in the process of communal socialization, of a role of an inheritor,lover and user of the landscape. This thesis is conrmed by themany instances of emigrants’ children recognizing the native landof their parents to be their own homeland: “The land where myparents lived, where they were buried, the land (…) is dearestfor me.” (Pamiętniki emigrantów ... 1977). In this context Ossowskimentions the predestinate bonds (Ossowski 1967 a).

Another element of the local milieu which leaves its mark onthe vision of homeland is other people and the social bonds thattie them. The vision of the local homeland is rooted in the localcommunity. While existing within the framework of a larger social

whole, the local community retains the character of a relativelyautonomous centre of social life (Rybicki 1979, p. 18). This isexpressed by at least partial autonomy, a spatial separation,usually imperfect, and the ability to satisfy the needs of theday. This brings the local community closer to a type of a socialcommunity, even if its origin is natural. An individual is bornin this community, grows up and builds his social and personallife. In an individual experience, the community is separated as agroup of identication and solidarity, as an indispensable part of

homeland.The local community is perceived by its members as a carrierof considerable sovereignty. This explains the constant tendency,recurring even in relatively unfavourable outside conditions, toact autonomously, which is a result of a direct discernment ofone’s own needs, aspirations and possibilities. It is an eect ofrecognizing the native homeland as a basic area of one’s own life.It can also be founded in the perception of the local communityas “inheritance”, as an element of cultural heritage. Assumingthe role of children of their homeland, people adopt a masterfulaitude towards the domain they consider to be their own.

Thus, the elementary social substratum of the local homelandis a permanently assembled human community which creates, forthe individuals who grow up and live within its boundaries, a

basis for repeated social contacts and which is a source of themost permanent and important part of their social experience. Forthem it is a typical social milieu. It seems that the moat substantial

part of the social experience, which not only shapes the image ofhomeland but also tinges it with sentiments and emotions, is thetype of social relations which are the basis for the functioning of




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the group. It is characteristic of a local community that the life thereis permeated with personal ties founded on a direct contact. So, inthe case of a local homeland we have to do with a situation whichmeets the personalistic ideals. This characteristic is particularlywell expressed by the German term Heimat, which refers to thehomeland as determined by individual personal experiencesin relation to the community rather than to the territory. Theaachment to this homeland stems from personal contacts amongthe people who share the same feelings. It should be added thatthe core of the local community is usually composed of a set ofinterrelated bonds of kinship and neighborhood of families ina broader sense (Jałowiecki 1988, p. 19). These bonds make theimage of the local homeland assume the character of a more

personal and intimate experience.While considering the problem of social sources of the localhomeland, such factors should be taken into consideration assome dominant features of the social structure, elements of socialstandards and even the features of the political system in its localrealization. A classical example of praising the political system asa factor which creates bonds and is the cause of a communal prideof the homeland is the famous speech by Pericles to the Athenians,which is known to us through the relation of Thucydides. Also

T. Mann writes with sentiment and approval of the middle-classcharacter of Lübeck, and traces back his spiritual formation to thismiddle-class character. Prompted by similar motives, a Polish19th century writer acknowledges with regret the changes whichtook place within the community of small town Czehryn – “Themiddle-class type in Czehryn, as elsewhere in the Ukraine, isforeign, diverse and alien to the place and the relics of the past.The local elements have been degenerated in such a way that theycannot be recognized any longer.” (Fisz 1988 b, p. 354).

The last component of the local milieu is culture: the worldcreated and transformed by human activity. Locality is lledwith products of human hand and human mind. Apart fromthe element. of material culture like houses, public buildings,selements, roads, parks and gardens, cultivated elds andtechnical facilities which are so characteristic of this type ofculture, there is also a broad sphere of customs, rituals, and theequally rich area of symbolic culture. The contents of the local

culture are assimilated by an individual together with elementsof broader, supra-local culture and are o�en mixed in such a waythat it is dicult to discriminate between them.




6

The proportions vary. The more the traditional forms oflife are cultivated by a community, the stronger is the role ofthe local culture. The autonomy and the cultural separatenessof the Polish villages in the inter-war period was expressednot only by the domination of local, district forms of socialorganization, but also by the countless facts of everyday andfestive, material and spiritual life. Czarnowski observes that evenin neighbouring villages there were dierences in the customs,rituals, cra�smanship, aitude towards school and readinghabits, religious and political convictions. He also shows thestrength of the local culture which, even when the interests clash,makes people show solidarity in their actions (Czarnowski 1956).At the source of these phenomena there lies the constant trend

of “organic” evolution of the local community and its culture.That is what Maurycy Mochnacki noted in his criticism of the“constructivist” genesis of Petersburg with reference to olderEuropean towns, which could still be contained in the conceptionof locality. “Other European capitals” - he wrote –“slowlydeveloped from the elementary selement and lazily broke the

boundaries. The spirit and the appearance of generations, thecharacter of the inhabitants, the history of the nation and thenature of the government, all le� their stamp on the dierent

types of architecture, on the various and ever changing shapes of buildings, streets and churches. A great town of a great nation isan architectural chronicle of its notions, customs, education, it is ahistory wrien with walls and geometrical shapes.(…). In such atown the past is. always related to the subsequent periods, and isa sum of continuous eort and labour of the nation.”(Mochnacki1863, p. 29). In the modern world, characterized by populareducation, mass culture and information eciency, the autonomy,continuity and unity of the local culture are not so stronglymarked and must assume a dierent shape. Dialects, customsand other elements of the local folklore disappear. Manifestationsof unication or foreign interference can also be seen within thesphere of the material culture. The evolution of styles in regionalarchitecture in provincial Poland may serve as an example. Ofcourse, the more the local culture is perceived (even against thefacts) as one’s own and local, the more important role it plays inthe construction of the image of homeland. The Lübeck Gothic is

a synonym of private homeland for T. Mann in the same way asthe Vilnius Baroque is for polish poet Czesław Miłosz (1985). The bonds of conviction play an important role in the perception of




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cultural elements as components of homeland. Ossowski observesthat the values which ere assigned to the whole group may be animportant link among individuals, both due to the conviction thatall the members of the community are bound by these values in thesame way, as well as due to the fact that the forms of coexistencedepend on these values. And although the bonds of convictionare the main generator of the images of the ideological homeland,they also are, apart from the bonds of habit, a signicant elementin the shaping of the private, local homeland.

All components of the natural environment belong to twocategories. On the one hand, they are a set of objective facts.On the other, they are elements of a symbolic order, as all theobjective phenomena are ltered through a representational-

symbolic level and are given to man as components of his milieuin these two forms. It is very important for the understanding ofthe specic character of the local homeland. If the contact betweenthe man and the sphere of the objective phenomena produces the

bond of habit, then the domain of the symbolic culture is a basisfor the creation of the bonds of conviction. The unication of thesetwo factors determines the strength and durability of the localhomeland. The decline of the bonds of habit results in the declineof the bonds of conviction. The decline of localism as a relatively

autonomous form of communal life, the weakening of its positionin the organization of a society may mean the decline of the localhomeland. This, in turn, as was mentioned earlier, may clear theway for the erosion of the ideological, national homeland.

To sum up these considerations, I should like to emphasize themost important points. The local homeland may be dened as a setof notions belonging to the cultural heritage of a local community,referring to its life milieu: the nature, the people and the culture.It is a milieu typical of the members of the community. Locality isthe foundation from which the idea of a local homeland arises onthe basis of the bonds of habit and the bonds of conviction. Thefull and typical character of environmental aitudes distinguishesthis type of homeland from the homelands of the supra-local type:the regional, national, civilizational etc. This seles the issue of itsimportance in the processes of communal identication and thecultural and social integration, Its image is component of a man’spersonality and due to this it evades, on the one hand, rational

manipulations and evaluations, and on the other, being lledwith emotions, it becomes transformed into a specic archetypeof the fundamental seing of a human being, through which an




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individual perceives and interprets the world that surrounds him.The notion of the local homeland contains in it a well formedconception of a predestinate order. All this refers, of course, tosome ideal situation.

The reality approximates to this ideal, beer or worse.Nevertheless, in all those areas where locality is an importantaxis of the communal and individual life and retains its positionin the clashes with the outside world that presses against it, thelocal homeland appears as its correlate. The feeling of aliationto the local homeland, which is not just a maer of a spontaneousimpulse but also acculturation in the local community, imposesa specic social role on the man: the role of the son of the localhomeland and its citizen. This role lies at the foundation of many

types of communal behavior and actions undertaken by thecitizens of small towns, village. and selements all over the world,or at least within the framework of the European civilization. “If Ichose the title ‘Lübeck as a spiritual form of life’ for my lecture”,says T. Mann, “what I meant was the form of life and the lifeaitude of the son of Lübeck.” (Mann 1971, p. 6).

LiteratureAppadurai A., Modernity at Large. Cultural Dimensions of Globalization ,

University of Minnesota Press 1996.Czarnowski S. , Podłoże ruchu chłopskiego , „Dzieła”, vol. II, Warszawa1956.

Fisz Z., Listy z podróży przez Tadeusza Padalicę , In: Janina Kamionka-Straszakowa, Do ziemi naszej , Warszawa 1988 (a).

Fisz Z., Wieś Subotów i okolice , In:J.Kamionka-Straszakowa, Do zieminaszej , Warszawa 1988 (b).

Jałowiecki B., Lokalizm a rozwój , In: Problemy rozwoju regionalnego ilokalnego, B. Jałowiecki (ed.), Warszawa 1988.

Mann T., Lubeka jako duchowa forma życia , O sobie, Warszawa 1971.

Miłosz Cz., Ziemia Ulro , Warszawa 1982.Miłosz Cz., Zaczynając od moich ulic , Paryż 1985.Mochnacki M., Powstanie narodu polskiego w roku 1830 i 1831 , Berlin-

Poznań 1863, vol. I.Ossowski S., Analiza socjologiczna pojęcia ojczyzny, Dzieła, Warszawa

1967, vol III. (a)Ossowski S., Zagadnienia więzi regionalnej i więzi narodowej na Śląsku

Opolskim , Dzieła, Warszawa 1967, vol.III. (b)Pamiętniki emigrantów. Stany Zjednoczone , Warszawa 1977.Rybicki P., Struktura społecznego świata , Warszawa 1979.

Sowa K. Z., Lokalizm versus centralizm , „Zdanie” No. 10, 1988.Vincenz S., Krajobraz jako tło dziejów , Z perspektywy podróży, Kraków1979




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IntroductionThe study of social development in children diers from the

study of cognitive development in that it does not solely focuson the process of development and acquisition of knowledge,

but considers the constraints (situational and interpersonal)that are apparent during this process. Children entering schoolalready have a long history of social learning, bringing withthem perceptions of the self and of their social environment.However, social learning in early years has taken place mainlywithin the family and supervised play-groups. During thisprocess of socialisation, an important component of the culturewhich the child adopts, and a signicant determinant of his/herneeds and self-perceptions is the element of grouping. Evenwhile the child’s experience is limited within the bounds ofthe family, values of group interaction enter into his/her world

because they are part of the family life and customs. When thatexperience extends to school, there is greater opportunity forencounter with cultural values of other groups, which widen thechild’s experience. Schooling covers a broad area of intellectualand social development, much of which takes place under

the direction of the main agent in the classroom, the teacher.Evidently interactions between teacher and pupil have profoundeects upon the formation of social skills. The teacher mediates

Alison Kington

University of NottinghamUNITED KINGDOM

DEFINING TEACHERS’CLASSROOM RELATIONSHIPS



Alison Kington: De�ining Teachers’ Classroom Relationships

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between a child and society, while schooling provides the practicearena for the child’s social behaviour.

This chapter presents selected ndings from a small-scale,exploratory study of teacher-pupil relationships. The studyemployed both observation and interview techniques with childrenand teachers in order to provide a description and understandingof teacher-pupil relationships ‘in context’. However, a furthermethod was also used that was based on teachers’ own ideas andfeelings regarding classroom relationships. Such an instrument isthe repertory grid interview, the practical method based on Kelly’spersonal construct theory (Kelly, 1955). It is this method that is thefocus of this chapter.

The aim of the project was twofold: i) to develop a method

with which a teacher’s classroom relationships could bediscussed from his/her perspective; and, ii) to assess the methodand to explore the perceived qualities, as well as elements of theformation and development of teacher-pupil relationships. Thestudy considered aspects of school life such as classroom contextand organisation in terms of opportunity for interaction andreinforcement of positive relationships, as well as investigatingsome of the possible pervasive inuences on teacher perceptionsand expectations. The ndings reported in this chapter advocate

that the nature of these relationships has great signicance whenrelated to their manifestation and use in everyday interactions,and that continuity of positive feedback and shared activitiesare important as a means of emphasising a sense of reciprocity

between teacher and pupil.

Theoretical backgroundFor brevity, a review of the current literature in this area will

not be included as it can be found elsewhere (e.g. Kington, 2001;Kington, 2005). However, a brief overview of personal constructtheory and the repertory grid technique is detailed below.

Personal Construct Theory Personal construct theory was proposed by George Kelly.

According to Kelly (1955), a person tries to organize experiencesin a way that is meaningful for them. Observations are madeabout the environment, and hypotheses are put forward, tested,and a theory is developed. Every experience is ltered throughpersonal constructs. Constructs created in dierent situations are




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built into a construct system which can both dene thinking andactions, and aect personality when talking and acting. Kelly(1955) formed a fundamental postulate , as follows:

A person’s processes are psychologically channelized by the way inwhich he anticipates events. (Kelly, 1955, p. 46)

Kelly characterises the central concept of ‘construct’ in histheory, as follows:

Let us give the name constructs to these paerns that are tentativelytried on for size. They are ways of construing the world. They are whatenables man, and lower animals too, to chart a course of behaviour,explicitly formulated or implicitly acted out, verbally expressed or uerlyinarticulate, consistent with other courses of behaviour or inconsistentwith them, intellectually reasoned or vegetatively sensed. (Kelly, 1955,p. 9)

Kelly (1955) considered constructs bipolar, in order to stresstheir dichotomous nature. They have two extremes, e.g. honest vs.dishonest. Another central concept in Kelly’s theory is that of the‘element’ that is explained as ‘The things or events which are abstractedby a construct’ (ibid: 137). Thus a construct is characterised throughits elements, and with elements an individual can describephenomena through which they exist. Such phenomena are, for

example, persons, events, objects, ideas, etc.The repertory grid interview

In addition to philosophy and theory, Kelly (1955) developeda method for data gathering called the repertory grid technique.This technique gives an holistic view of the individual, andenables them to do so in their own terms. Whereas othertechniques – such as questionnaires, aitude scales, or observationtechniques – presuppose that one can use the terms oered by

others, the repertory grid technique allows the participant todiscover personal constructs in terms of how they experienceaitudes, thoughts, and feelings in a personally valid way (Solas,1992). The grid technique has been used a number of times inthe past with individual teachers (Oberg, 1986; Shaw & Thomas,1982). Diamond (1988) concluded that ‘the grids proved auseful, speculative tool which reected back to the teachers theirchanging views of themselves and teaching as seen through theirown eyes’ (p 176).

For the purposes of this study, the repertory grid interviewwas conducted by following four steps:




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i) The teacher is asked to produce a list of people who areimportant to him/her (e.g. mother, father, sister, etc.) ordescribe signicant incidents / turning points in their pro-fessional life. These may come from present as well as pastexperiences. The situations, people and/or events form theelements of the grid, with the teacher included as the mostsignicant element.

ii) The teacher is given a triad of these people and asked tothink about how two of them are similar to each other, andat the same time dier from the third. All of the elementsare included in one or more triads. The categories obtainedformed the constructs (Ingvarson & Greenway, 1984; Fran-sella et al , 2003). Based on these elements and constructs, a

matrix is formed (elements in columns, constructs in rows).iii) The teacher is asked to rate the matrix.iv) Factor analysis is applied in order to condense the informa-

tion obtained.

Research design

The sample

Four teachers were involved in the study; however, the datafor only one of these teachers is presented here. Linda1 was aYear 3 (7-8 yrs old) teacher in her early thirties. She had workedat the school for nine months and prior to that had completeda year and a half of supply teaching in and around the localarea. Linda worked at Greenacre Primary School, which was amaintained County primary school for children aged 4-11 years.The school opened in 1880 but had only been in existence as aprimary (elementary) school since 1984. There were 15 classes,with one class designated for children with Special EducationalNeeds. The school was well equipped and was located on theedge of some playing elds used by the school for football andother sporting activities.

Data collectionPrior to the repertory grid interview being administered,

evidence was collected via semi-structured, face-to-faceinterviews, supplemented at various stages of the research bydocument analysis, and informal interviews with school leadersand other teachers. The evidence was gathered in an iterative




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and evolving process consistent with the use of groundedtheory methods. Thus, a rich and detailed picture of the teacher-pupil relationships in the target classrooms was recorded. Thepreservation of this evidence in detail serves to enhance theveriability of the ndings (audit trail, etc).

The opportunity for in-depth description of relationshipswas also oered by observations of interactive episodes betweenteacher and pupils and sequences of interaction within theclassroom. Observations were interrelated with the interviewsregarding the perceptions of the existing relationships. Thecontextual information which this approach generated regardingparticipants’ perceptions of and interactions within therelationship were important in order to incorporate both partners’

understanding and behaviour, and to explore these interrelatedelements. Finally, diaries were also used to illuminate further theteachers’ perceptions and feelings about the relationships.

A complex prole was compiled for each teacher whichcomprised:

· a general description of the day’s lessons focusing on theteacher’s behaviour;

· verbatim notes of teacher and pupil interactions, includingexamples of when the teacher talked about or expressedfeelings with the class, used praise, built on the ideas of thepupils, used criticism, etc;

· a diagrammatic representation of the classroom seatingplan.

In order to understand the nature of teacher-pupilrelationships it was also necessary to consider what washappening between the teacher and pupils in relation to:

· each participant’s behaviour and understanding within the

relationship· the seing (class organisation, space)· the dynamics of the relationship (roles, changes in behaviour

etc)· the context of the relationship as dened gradually by the

participants (in context, in time).

The repertory grid interview was presented to each of the

teachers as an empty table, i.e. the teacher contributed all ofthe material in order to construct her perceptions. Since theseinterviews generate plenty of rich data, factor analysis was used




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to condense it and determine the nature of underlying paernsamong a large number of variables. In order to strengthen thereliability of the results, the structure of perceptions was shownto the individual participant teachers so that they could reect ontheir thinking and understanding.

The repertory grid interviews were conducted in theschool, during the school day. Each teacher participated in fourinterview sessions, each taking approximately one hour. In orderto elicit the elements for the grid, each teacher was asked a seriesof questions. The responses formed a list of positive and negativerelationships characteristics which were used as the elements ofthe repertory grid. When continuing with the grid, the elementswere wrien on cards which the participant could physically

arrange. Variations of this approach have been previously usedwith teachers (e.g. Day et al, 2008). Once all the elements had been wrien on individual cards, they were given to the teacherand she was asked to conrm that they were the same ones shehad described. Each teacher was given an opportunity to changewordings as well as to add or to remove properties during theinterview.

Each teacher was then asked to choose cards that describedthemselves as a teacher and which best described the relationships

they had developed in the classroom. The 16 elements elicitedfrom Linda, as well as the eventual codes given for these elements,are shown in Table 1 (next page).

The second step in the interview was to ask Linda to sort thecards (elements) in an arbitrary way that made sense to her. Atthe same time she selected the constructs that she connected withher own classroom relationships. Having grouped the constructs,Linda was asked to describe the groupings (i.e. the similarities ofthe elements in each group) and write them on cards. These aregiven in Table 1. Furthermore, Table 1 also shows which elements

belong to each grouping.




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Table 1: Elements elicited from Linda and groupings

ELEMENTS GROUPINGS

LikingShared construction

Contextual understanding ofclassroom relationships

CaringQuestioningFeedbackDaily ritualsRules

Classroom interaction

Clarity

FlexibilityOrganisation

Teacher expectations of pupils

ApproachabilityDisciplineRespectSensitivityLoyaltyDependence on peers

Teacher perceptions of relationshipswith pupils

The structure of Table 1 was used as a starting point for thenext step. Linda was asked to describe dierences between thegroupings, comparing them in pairs. According to Kelly (1955)the similarities and dierences are described as constructs and,since in the repertory grid technique constructs are considered

bipolar, Linda was also asked to determine the opposite of

each construct, and write these on the cards. At the same time,she explained which pole of the construct best described herclassroom relationships. Table 2 shows the constructs (and theiropposites) given by Linda.




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Table 2: Linda’s constructs

Construct Opposite pole

Pupil likes the teacher Pupil does not get along withteacher

Teacher and pupil work togetherin learning process

Pupil does not want to work withthe teacher in learning

Teacher cares Teacher does not show caring

Teacher uses questions to elicitinterest from pupil

Teacher does not ask questions

Teacher gives positive feedbackto pupil

Teacher does not give feedback

Clear rituals within the schoolday

Day is chaotic and not structured

Class rules are established at the beginning of the relationship

No rules

Teacher is clear about expectations No clear expectations

Teacher shows exibility inexpectations

Expectations are rigid

Good classroom organisation No organisation in the classroom

Teacher is approachable Teacher is not approachable

Good standard of behaviour anddiscipline

Behaviour and discipline is poor

Teacher shows respect for pupils No respect for pupils

Teacher is sensitive to pupil needs No sensitivity to pupil needs

Teacher shows loyalty to pupils No loyalty

Teacher encourages dependenceon peers

Teacher discourages dependenceon peers




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For the second interview, the elements and constructs wereset into a grid where elements were in columns, and constructswere in rows. A copy of the grid was given to Linda, and shewas asked to rate every box in the grid on a scale of 1 – 5 (1=theconstruct was not important to the element, 5=the construct wasvery important to the element).

Factor analysis

Due to the amount of data generated via the grids – the16 x 16 matrix with value loadings from 1 to 5 - factor analysiswas employed to reduce the information in order to determinerelationships and structures among constructs. Whenimplementing the factor analysis, two constructs (‘teacher shows

loyalty to pupils’ and ‘teacher encourages dependence on peers’)were removed because they showed no variance (i.e. all theirratings were the same (5)). The factor analysis resulted in a three-factor solution.

Since the purpose of the study was to dene classroomrelationships through the perspective of a teacher, Linda wasasked to validate the ndings during a third interview. She wasshown the results of the factor analysis and asked to commenton the four-factor solution (which was explained in advance). As

she was happy with the solution, Linda was then asked to rankthe categories. As the next step, the factor analysis with threefactors was implemented, and the solution was shown once moreto Linda (Table 3).

Discussion

Context for relationship development

Linda commented on the notion of ‘liking’ developedthrough familiarisation, shared construction, and knowledgeof the relationship. The opportunity and time children had tointeract with the teacher was said to be signicant. Limitedpositive interactions and controlled impositions by the teacher(seating arrangements or interruptions of interactions) sometimesdiminished the shared opportunities with the teacher andopportunities to experience reciprocity in their relationship.Conversely, pupils whose development led to an increasednumber of social encounters were said to enjoy more opportunitiesto learn about others and about relationships.




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Table 3: Linda’s perspective on good classroom relationships

CONSTRUCTS FACTORS

Pupil likes the teacherTeacher shows respect for pupilsTeacher caresTeacher is approachable

Context for relationshipdevelopment (1)

Teacher is sensitive to pupil needsClear rituals within the school day

Positive interaction (2)

Class rules are established at the beginning of the relationship

Teacher is clear about expectations

Teacher shows exibility inexpectationsTeacher gives positive feedback topupilTeacher uses questions to elicitinterest from pupil

Good classroom organisation Teacher expectations (3)

Teacher and pupil work together inlearning process

Good standard of behaviour anddiscipline

Linda reported that this factor was further related to thedynamics between the social networks, and pupil dependenceand independence in their relationships with the teacher. She saidthat, in her experience, children would dene their relationships

by the relationships other children had with the same teacher,rather than in relation to the qualities of their own relationships.This concern was intrinsically linked to a pupil’s awareness of thestatus of their relationship with the teacher compared with otherdeveloping relationships in the class.

The building of trust was another aspect relationship

development. According to Linda, this trust was grounded in thecare and consistency demonstrated over a period of time, in whicha teacher’s concern was reected in response to an individual




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pupil and the actions they were prepared to take in order tosupport and develop the child and their relationship. Behaviourthat potentially undermined this trust, was said to includeinconsistent application of the rules, escalation of situations dueto immediate use of sanctions, and humiliating pupil in front ofpeers.

Finally, Linda discussed reciprocity as an instrumental aspectof teacher-pupil relationships in the sense that if the teacherdemonstrated a negative aitude to the pupil, the pupil wouldreact negatively to the teacher. Lack of reciprocity, expressedusually through bad or unfriendly behaviour, was a potentialcause of breakdown of the relationship. To elaborate, a teacherand pupil were said to have a good relationship if the esteem/

respect that one expressed toward the other was reciprocated.Positive interaction

Linda thought that an important principle in the developmentof relationships was proximity. This did not guarantee that a‘good’ relationship would develop; however, it seemed thatpupils needed to see, hear and interact with the teacher regularlyand consistently. Closely related to proximity was the consistencyof the relationship, which was demonstrated by the teacher in the

form of verbal and non-verbal communication. This consistencycould be at any level – personal or institutional.The importance for the teacher to be genuine in their

teaching, according to Linda, was associated with the need tomaintain communication, to reduce barriers, and for new ideasto be considered. She went on to state that the intensity andstrength of the relationship depended on the status of the pupiland their willingness to exhibit genuine feelings to the teacherrather than aempt to seek aention. The pupils who were more

successful in the development of their relationships were thosewho acknowledged and accepted the fact that, although therelationship could be reciprocal, it was unequal.

Pupils enjoyed sharing time with the teacher, but the waysin which this manifested itself in classroom interactions dieredaccording to the specic relationship rituals and the individualsconcerned. Linda stated that daily rituals provided a vehiclethrough which the teacher might establish relationships with thepupils. For example, the rst ritual of the day, taking the register,oered an opportunity for the reinforcement of relationships fromthe previous day. The classroom rules also provided a framework




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for the stabilising of relationships within the group and withthe teacher. Pupils who were involved at an early stage in theformation of these rules were provided with an initial bondingexperience with the teacher as well as enhancing their owncommitment to the rules.

Teacher expectations

Linda commented that clear expectations about the level ofability within their classes in terms of academic and social skillswere important. She expected to take on a strongly nurturant/pastoral role with the class, as well as the rigorous daily curriculum.Her day had a relatively exible structure, mainly due to relianceon outside help from parents or classroom assistants. However,

there was also a focus on independent learning, with an emphasison organisation of work and time.The need for the teacher to be approachable and to provide a

secure environment where pupils could be happy and condentwas said to be vital. Within this context, where all pupils were to

be oered equal opportunities for academic and social success,high standards were to be set by the teacher and a fair but rmdiscipline enforced. Participation in the management of theirlearning experience was also reported by Linda as essential for all

pupils since this enabled their progress both academically and asactive members of the class group.

ConclusionsThrough the repertory grid interviews, Linda provided her

explanation of a positive teacher-pupil relationship. Duringinterviews she was compelled to consider issues that she had notreected on previously. Rather than a specic type of teacher-

pupil relationship, a range of relationships was found to occurfor this teacher. Individual dierences as well as the perceptionof relationships as dynamic and continuously developing madeit dicult to establish general statements about a specic type ofteacher-pupil relationship. This was partly due to the fact thateach teacher-pupil relationship develops dynamically betweentwo individuals; therefore, no two relationships were identical.Many factors contributed to the formulation and development ofsuch relationships.

This research suggests that, in order to understand classroomrelationships, one should perceive them as a dynamic, developingand contextual process. Dynamic in the sense that they involve




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more than one person in the negotiation and construction ofshared meanings; developing because relationships continuouslychange in various ways; and contextual in the sense that teacher-pupil relationships, as a process, take place within a certaindenable context.

Inferences made about teacher-pupil relationships have totake into account the individual dierences of the teachers andpupils involved in the study, the interpersonal competencies,context of the relationship, and the methods used to approach andunderstand these. The repertory grid technique gleaned morereliable information than with more traditional semi-structuredapproaches, since although less exible, the starting point is theparticipant’s own thoughts, ideas and experiences. Therefore, the

discussion revolves completely around what is important to them.However, there are weaknesses to this method – it is a lengthyprocess and one that can be mentally and emotionally exhaustingfor the participants as they are required to reect on their ownthinking, reasoning and practice. Although the development ofa relationship with participants over time can be an advantageto a study of this kind, the use of such a method could also resultin participant fatigue and retention issues. In spite of this, themethodological implications of this study provide an important

critique towards the methods o�en used in the study of classroomrelationships. Consistent observations of the relationship provedto be an essential base for the conduct of the interviews withparticipants and the understanding of the importance of theresponses.

ReferencesDay, C., Sammons, P., Kington, A., Regan, E., Ko, J., Brown, E., Gun-

raj, J. & Roberston, D. (2008). Eective Classroom Practice: A mixed

method study of inuences and outcomes. Final report: ESRC.Diamond, C. (1988). ‘Turning-on teacher’s constructs.’ In F. Fransella

& L. Thomas (Eds). Experimenting with Personal Construct Psychol-ogy (p 175-184). London: Routledge & Kegan Paul.

Fransella, F., Banister, D. & Bell, R. (2003). A Manual for Repertory GridTechnique. John Wiley and Sons Ltd., London.

Ingvarson, L. & Greenway, P. (1984). Portrayals of Teacher Develop-ment. The Australian Journal of Education, Vol 28, 45-64.

Kelly, G.A. (1955). The psychology of personal constructs. Volume 1: A

theory of personality. New York: Norton.Kington, A. (2001). Teacher-Pupil Relationship at Key Stage Two: Individ-ual dierences, experiences and constraints. Unpublished PhD thesis:




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University of Bristol.Kington, A. (2005). ‘Qualities, Formation and Development of Teach-

er-Pupil Relationships in the Primary School’. In B. Kozuh, T.Beran, A. Kozlowska & P. Bayliss (Eds). Measurement and Assess-ment in Educational and Social Research. Exeter-Calgary-Cracow.

ISBN 83-89823-61-6.Oberg, A. (1986). Using Construct Theory as a Basis for Researchinto Teacher Professional Development. Journal of CurriculumStudies, Vol 19, 55-65.

Shaw, M. & Thomas, L. (1982). Extracting an Education from a Courseof Instruction. Journal of Educational Technology, Vol 1, 1-17.

Solas, J. (1992). Investigating Teacher and Student Thinking Aboutthe Process of Teaching and Learning Using Autobiography andRepertory Grid. Review of Educational Research, Vol 62, 2, 205-225.

notes1 All names are pseudonyms.




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IntroductionIn the study of educational phenomena pedagogy

encompasses theoretical thought and empirical inquiries, as wellas explaining the essence and the rules of education. Cognitionis always systematic and comprehensive on the one hand, andpartial and limited on the other. The character of pedagogy,therefore, is that of both empirical and theoretical science at thesame time. Actually, it may be assumed that it functions solelyas an inseparable union of theory and practice. Theoretical andempirical inquiries are mutually complementary. Empiricalknowledge allows pedagogy direct contact with the social reality,and above all, with the educational reality. Without empiricalknowledge, pedagogy would remain on the level of speculationand abstract thinking about phenomena, with no meaningaained through the contact with the educational reality. Lackof theoretical analysis and of points of departure in pedagogymeans losing the possibility for generalisation and explanationof phenomena (giving sense to them). It also renders impossibledetermining the essence of phenomena and from formulatinggeneral rules.

One of the eects of the complexity of the educationalphenomena is the complexity of the cognitive process with regardto these phenomena. At the same time, this means the complexity

of the cognitive methods, i.e. research methods.The development and dissemination of empirical studies are basic factors of the development of pedagogical methodology.

Boris Kožuh

A.F.M. Krakow UniversityPOLAND

THEORY OF META-ANALYTICSTUDIES



Boris Kožuh: Theory of Meta-Analytic Studies

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Eectiveness of a method may be evaluated and veried mainlythrough the empirical research practice. Its development initiatesthe methodological discourse. The relation discussed acts in

both directions, the eect of which is the development of thepedagogical research methodology and the eectiveness ofthe research practice. Empirical studies constitute the basis fortheoretical deliberations.

One of the most important aspects of scientic research to befound at the point of transition from the empirical to the theoreticalinquiries into the essence of the educational phenomena, is theissue of integrating the results of the empirical studies. Suchintegration constitutes a bridge between specic and alreadyacknowledged facts and the rules of a more general nature. It is

not a new problem in the scientic methodology. Nevertheless,the dilemma of integration, despite the volume of research,remain open to this day. There is also the need for searching fornew answers to the questions already posed and for nding newways of integration of empirical studies.

Origins and Development of Meta-analysisThe history of inquiries into meta-analysis proves that

every successful original empirical research includes in its early

stages a review of the previous theoretical scientic reports. Byits nature, it is an aempt at initial integration. Such reviews aremostly unsystematic and are mainly based on intuition. Due tothis fact, descriptions of reviews are rarely of a scientic nature,which is determined by such features as preciseness, accuracy andexplicitness.

The principal assumption of the already discussed reviewsof the theoretical achievements is the formulation of the scienticpremises and hypotheses. Analysis and synthesis remainsecondary aims in such perspective. This is the reason why thesereviews serve their purpose well in most cases. In its subsequentstages, the primary analysis searches for the answers to theresearch questions and brings new theoretical statements. Inthe cases where the primary analyses are aimed at reaching newtheoretical conclusions, while, at the same time, exploring theessence of the research subject, the reviews appear insucient. Itcan, therefore, be assumed that they may be sucient, however,

they do not lead to any new conclusions in a systematic manner.Hence, a review ought to be distinguished as an introduction to therst empirical study or as an independent research undertaking.




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These types of reviews are dierentiated by their essential aimand disparate methodologies.

One of the simplest ways of quantitative integration iscalculating the results which conrm or invalidate the formulatedhypothesis. In the case of research based on sampling, the onlyresults which can be calculated are those having certain level ofrelevance (e.g., 0.05 or higher). In the already discussed cases,activities are admied, whose results of the level of relevance

below 0.50 are categorized as “positive”, and whose results of thelevel of relevance above 0.50 are categorized as “negative”. A thirdcategory is o�en distinguished – critical results, i.e., mean resultswhich do not sele the results denitively (e.g., their level ofrelevance is between 0.40 and 0.60). A study using the “positive”

and “negative” results was carried out by Meehl in the eld ofclinical psychology (Meehl 1954). In his study, he integrated theresults of twenty original analyses which compared the forecastsof the clinical psychologists with the statistical data. Meehl foundthat the statistical forecasts were conrmed in half of the originalanalyses studied, the psychologists’ forecasts were more accurateonly in one analysis, while the remaining part did not show anydierences. The inequality of the results was so obvious thatMeehl showed the weaknesses of the clinical forecasts solely on

its basis.The second example is provided by another study, whichyielded similar results (similar in the sense of conrmation thestudied, though completely dierent, relations). The study wasconcerned with the eects of studying with the use of television(Chu & Schramm 1968). The authors of the study integratedthe results of the examination of eciency of the two forms ofstudying: the traditional school teaching and studying with theuse of television. The analysis showed that in 15% of the cases,students learned more with the help of television, in 12% of thecases the traditional school teaching proved to be more ecient,while in 73% of the cases no clear dierence was reported. Theresults of the integration lead at least to the conclusion that thesupremacy of one form of studying over the other should not beassumed on the basis of one individual study only.

The methodology of integration of studies the resultsof which are expressed in percents is more complicated. It

requires calculating the results which conrm or invalidate theformulated hypotheses and quantifying the input of each studywhile conrming or invalidating the formulated hypotheses. An




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example of this is provided by such results as 54% and 79%, therst of which has a denitely smaller input, although they bothlie on the same side of the border, conrming he same hypothesis.A study conducted by Eysenck, regarding the eectiveness ofpsychotherapy, is an example of employing this methodology(Eysenck 1952). It was used in numerous independent studies, allof them describing changes of conditions of post-psychoanalysisneurotic patients. The author singled out in them the levelof permanent improvement, comparing it with the level ofimprovement of the condition of patients who underwent electrictreatment and of the patients who were looked a�er by GPs andsocial workers. He found that among the patients treated withpsychoanalysis, the improvement of their condition reached

44%, the patients who underwent electric treatment showed animprovement of 64%, while the result of the third group was 72%.The negative relation between the eciency of treatment andtherapy is, therefore, obvious.

The result of the individual studies are o�en the correlationindices. The situation is very simple for integration, as thecorrelation indices constitute a measure of eect in themselves.The fact that they are independent of units of measurement iseven more important. In consequence, the correlation indices

are among the most precise in the process of meta-analyticalstudy. The discussed research methodology is best illustrated byBloom’s study concerning the eects of various factors on pupils’school results (Bloom 1976). It integrates the results of studies ofschool achievements of pupils from 30 countries. The studies wereconducted mainly within the framework of International Studiesof Educational Achievement. They were concerned with diverselevels of the educational system, dierent groups at schoolsand dierent subjects taught. Bloom focused on the statisticalevaluation of the correlation index. The most important results arethe correlation indices converted into the proportions of inuenceof the three main factors (and some variables functioning withinthem) on the dispersion of the pupils’ educational achievements.Bloom’s interpretation is concerned above all with the integratedresults. They were obtained from the results of separate studies,which were not directly employed by Bloom. Hence, all theconclusions are drawn from the integrated results.

The methodological model of this study appears to be of moreimportance. In the process of working out the correlation indices,Bloom did not use the statistical methods considered by many




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authors to be an integral part of meta-analysis. Nevertheless, evenwithout applying them, he achieved almost the same scienticlevel of his studies, as he would have achieved if he had appliedthem. This was possible due to the features of the correlationindices, which in themselves are a sort of reection of the eectsize.

In the 1960s, Erlenmeyer - Kimling and Jarvik publisheda review, which caused quite a stir in the scientic community(Erlenmeyer-Kimling & Jarvik 1963). The subject of their study wasthe inuence of heredity and environment on the development ofintelligence. Although the obtained results will not be presentedhere, it ought to be emphasized that the degree of utilization ofthe information included in the correlation indices was even

higher than in the case of Bloom’s studies discussed above.It is at this point that Kulik and Kulik notice the borderline between the reviews and the meta-analyses. The study byErlenmeyer - Kimling and Jarvik is classied by them as meta-analysis. They even suggest that the only thing that this andsimilar studies lack is the name – meta-analysis (Kulik & Kulik1989, p. 242).

The ideas formulated by Glass turned out to be more profoundthan just inventing new methodology and nding a name for it.

This is why Glass did not content himself with just the ndings.At the time of his lecture, the fundamental principles had already been formulated and developed in a way which allowed for theirimplementation in practice. For instance, Rosenthal made severalsyntheses which could have been dened as meta-analysis.

In their rst meta-analyses, Glass and his collaboratorsintroduced the concept of quantitative integration (Smith & Glass1977, Glass & Smith 1979, Glass, Cahen, Smith & Filby 1982 etc).At the same time, several theoretical papers were published,concerning the methodology of such studies (Glass 1977, Glass,McGaw & Smith 1981). If the main idea and the very beginningsof meta-analysis are separated, it is dicult to determine explicitlywhether Smith’s contribution can match the scientic inquiriesof Glass. Hence, the analysis of their works will be carried outsimultaneously.

The said authors were among the rst to achieve such complexintegrations. The extent of those meta-analyses was denitely

larger than the extent of the previous quantitative reviews.No one had earlier displayed such great erudition in theapplication of statistical methods to the needs of integration




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of the empirical studies. Nor had anyone followed with suchaention the factors inuencing the study results. Glass andSmith were innovators in the application of the dierences of thearithmetic means as a measure of the eect size in the integrationof experimental research. The main advantage of such eect sizemeasurement is its independence of measurement units. This facthas substantially broadened the area which could be covered bythe quantitative reviews and integration.

They showed that the number of studies which could have been used in the integration was considerably larger than hadpreviously been assumed.

The third innovation is presentation of a method of controllingthe eect of a set of features of a study on the results. The earlier

quantitative reviews controlled only one or two features. Therewere also reviews which did not control any qualities at all.Another novelty concerns the analytical methods applied byGlass and Smith. These are very progressive and they dierconsiderably from the methods used in previous quantitativereviews. They developed a whole set of regression equations,used in studies concerning the relation between the eect of thetherapy and the kind of therapy, the patients’ characteristics, wayof measuring the eects, etc.

Although Glass’s rst meta-analysis was made in the eldof psychotherapy, the author clearly discerned the possibilitiesand the perspectives of the application of this methodologyin other humanities, particularly in the studies of educationalphenomena. He crystallized his reections showing the issuesof the pedagogical sciences concerning, among other things,programmed education, computer-aided education, evaluation ofthe syllabi (mainly, mathematics syllabus), etc.

The Bases of Meta-analysisOver the past decades, the global development in the

methodology of pedagogical research was heading in the directionof development of consciousness, which discerns the meaning andthe need for empirical foundation of research. At the time whenmany new methods were developed (e.g., action research, newmodels of pedagogical experiments, diverse complex statisticalanalyses, etc.), many opportunities arose to use them on a large

scale. Today, it is hard to imagine the implementation of anyundertaking in the scholastic system without it having a basis inanalyses of the educational reality, i.e., empirical studies.




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The problem of mass publication of research results veryclearly appeared over the last few decades. The number of theresearch results is increasing continuously, which, in consequence,leads to limitations in the possibilities of reviewing them. Theresearchers who take up those issues within their specialitieskeep trying to meet the growing challenges of reality. A�er all,the research projects are also intended for teachers, class tutors,school principals, educational ocials, etc. Therefore, a beersystematisation of such overabundance of literature is necessaryand urgently needed.

There are reviews, in the world scientic and specialistliterature, which aempt to summarize the most importantscientic achievements and results concerning specic issues.

Over thirty years ago, Glass unravelled the faults of scienticreviewing of the time (Glass 1976). He found that the authorsof the reports and reviews chose materials for their integrationmostly at random. The results of such studies were inaccurateand too general. As a result of the listed errors, the statements ofthose reviews were unreliable, unsystematic and very o�en didnot allow comparison. Moreover, the authors of the reviews didnot dene their methodology clearly.

Poor clarity of the reviews makes it dicult if not

impossible for the readers to evaluate the accuracy of thepresented statements. Most of the reviews apply too simple amethodological model of lile accessibility. Glass saw the mainreason for that in poorly developed methodology of integratingthe results of the published studies. He maintained that what wasneeded were methods allowing systematic evaluation of results ofa study so that the essence of cognition could be extracted from alarge set of separate studies (Glass 1976, p. 4). In his opinion, thecontemporary reviews cannot accomplish this task well enough.

Consequently, he categorised three types of analysisindispensable for making progress in research within the eldof education: primary analysis, secondary analysis and meta-analysis. Primary analysis is the basic operation in data study,which is usually performed by the researcher who organises thestudy and data collection. Secondary analysis is a reanalysis ofthe data, oriented towards searching for answers to the primaryresearch questions by employing beer statistical methods. Meta-

analysis is, in turn, a quantitative study of the research results,not the data related to the primary and secondary analyses.Hence, a meta-analyst carries out statistical analyses of the




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quantitative results of the individual researches. Meta-analysis isnot concerned with the initial empirical data but with the resultsobtained from such data.

The aributes of meta-analysis are (Glass 1976, pp. 3-4):1. making use of the most objective methods of selection of the

studies chosen for synthesis,2. describing qualities of the selected studies with the quanti-

tative categories (i.e., large sample, small sample, publica-tions in periodicals, monographs, etc.),

3. converting results of all studies into the same scale, the so-called “eect size”,

4. making use of quantitative statistical methods to measurethe relation between qualities and results of the studies.

According to Glass, not all empirical reviews are meta-analyses. This pertains mostly to the earlier reviews. Apart fromthe subject of a study, the methodology is also vital. The subject ofa study may be the same both in a meta-analysis and in a review,as opposed to methodology, where they are completely dierentin either case. The intention of the author is to summarizethe main qualities of a meta-analysis based on the formermethodology sources. What will be taken into consideration are

the fundamental starting points of Glass’s deliberations on meta-analysis, as well as studies carried out in the years that followed(the works of Schmidt, etc.).

The preeminent features of a meta-analysis are as follows:1. Meta-analysis comprises study results (the results of the

study reports). This means that no initial empirical materialis gathered in a meta-analytical study. What is necessaryfor meta-analysis are the primary studies and some of theirresults.

2. Meta-analysis involves application of statistical methods toquantitative study results. The empirical material used inmeta-analysis includes, for example, mean values, measuresof dispersion, correlation indices, results of verications ofstatistical hypotheses, etc.,

3. Meta-analysis involves a set of individual studies. Some ofthe meta-analyses integrate several hundred, or even sev-eral thousand of studies.

4. What is calculated in a meta-analysis is the eect size, notonly its direction or a determined level of relevance. The




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procedure of calculation of the eect size ought to allowcomparing eects of several studies.

5. The subject of meta-analysis is also the relation between thestudy results and the fundamental qualities of studies. The

eect of qualities of a study on its results is also taken intoaccount. The purpose of meta-analysis is not only to makethe simplest summary of the available literature, but also todetermine the eect of the qualities of a study on the dier-ences, eects, levels of relevance or on the eect size index.

The term “meta-analysis” was the subject of a discussionand critical remarks. Some authors claim that the expression hasassociations with a beer kind of analysis, when compared withthe primary and secondary analyses, i.e., with a super-analysiswith regard to the level of scientic value of its results. Anotherissue related to this term is concerned with how it sounds. Itpoints to dispersion and division, though the essence of meta-analysis is the opposite – integration. This is the reason why someauthors suggest that the term “synthesis”, rather than “analysis”,is more appropriate for this procedure. Nevertheless, none of thesuggested terms (e.g., research integration, synthetic study, meta-

synthesis) has been accepted in practice.

ReferencesBorenstein, M. Hedges, L. Higgins, J. & Rothstein, H. (2009). Intro-

duction to meta-analyses, London.Bushman, B. J. & Wells, G. L. (2001). Narrative impressions of litera-

ture: The availability bias and the corrective properties of meta-analytic approaches, Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin , 27 ,

1123-1130.Bloom B. S. (1976). Human Characteristics and School Learning. NewYork.

Chu G. C. & Schramm W. (1986). Learning from television: What theresearch says. Washington.

Cohen J. (1988). Statistical power analysis for the behavioral sciences.Hillsdale.

Cooper, H. M. (2009): Research Synthesis and Meta-Analysis, AppliedSocial Research Methods, 4th edition, Los Angeles.

Erlenmeyer-Kimling L. & Jarvik L. F. (1963). Genetics and intelli-

gence: A review. Science. pp. 1477-1479.Eysenck H. J. (1952). The eects of psychotherapy: An evaluation. Journal of Consulting Psychology,pp. 319-324.




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Eysenck H. J. (1978). An exercise in mega-silliness. American Psycholo- gist , p. 517.

Glass G. V. (1976). Primary, secondary, and meta-analysis of research.Educational Researcher, pp. 3-8.

Glass G. V. (1977). Integrating ndings: The meta-analysis of re-

search. Review of Research in Education, pp. 351-379.Glass G. V. & Smith M. L. (1979). Meta-analysis of research on classsize and achievement. Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis.pp. 2-16.

Glass G. V., Cahen L. S., Smith M. L. & Filby N. N. (1982). School classsize: Research and Policy, Beverly Hills.

Glass G. V., McGaw B. & Smith M. L. (1981). Meta-analysis in socialresearch. Beverly Hills.

Hedges L. V. & Olkin I. (1982). Analyses, reanalyses. and meta-analysis. Contemporary Education Review, pp. 157-165.

Hedges L. V. & Olkin I. (1985). Statistical methods for meta-analysis.New York.

Kožuh В. (2004). Integracja wyników badań w pedagogice,Częstochowa.

Kulik J. A. & Kulik C.-L. C. (1987). Eects of ability grouping onstudent achievement. Equity and Excellence, pp. 22-30.

Kulik J.A. & Kulik C.-L. C. (1989). Meta-Analysis in Education. Inter-national Review of Educational Research, pp. 223-340.

McGaw, В. (1988). Meta-analysis. [In:] J. P. Keeves (ed.). Educational

research, methodology and measurement: an international handbook. Oxford.McGaw B. & Glass G. V. (1980). Choice of the metric for eect size in

meta-analysis. American Educational Research Journal, pp. 325-337.Meehl P. E. (1954). Clinical versus statistical prediction. Minneapolis.Rosenthal R. (1990). Evaluation of procedures and results, [In:] K.

Wachter & M. L. Straf (eds.). The future of meta-analysis. NewYork.

Rosenthal R. (1991). Meta-analytic procedures for social research,Beverly Hills.

Slavin R. E. (1986). Best-evidence synthesis: An alternative to meta-analysis and traditional reviews. Educational Researcher, pp. 5-11.

Smith M. L. & Glass G. V. (1977). Meta-analysis of psychotherapyoutcome studies. American Psychologist, pp. 752-760.

Smith M. L. & Glass G. V. (1980). Meta-analysis of research on classsize and its relationship to aitudes and instruction. AmericanEducational Research Journal, pp. 419-433.

Suzić, N. (2002). Metaanaliza u pedagogĳi i socĳalnim naukama,Pedagoška stvarnost , 1-2, pp. 68-84.




89

IntroductionAt the time of signicant global changes (European

integrations, new EU members, disintegration of the USSR,SFRY, Czechoslovakia, Iraq wars, American aggression) it

becomes more than evident that modern societies are verydependent on communication and co-operation, on interrelationsin all spheres of science, art and culture, and especially soin the sphere of education. International, intercultural andinterdisciplinary qualities are the main aributes of moderneducation, communication, and education environment as wellas of the related research. One question has to be answered:to what extent do the participants in education becomeinstrumental in various researches and what is the right time forthe realisation of these researches? For an eective research andexamination of education and the teaching process as well as fora beer communication between students, teachers, educators,administrators, parents and other participants in the process ofupbringing and education, it is necessary to evaluate their work.Within that context, evaluation research appears to be essentialfor assessing the level of student achievement, drawbacks of theexisting education system, organisation, methods, procedures,

and steps of the curricula.It is a common practice in the EU countries, the States andmany other countries trying to keep abreast of the current world

Jelena Maksimović

University of NišSERBIA

EVALUATION APPROACH INPEDAGOGICAL RESEARCH



Jelena Maksimović: Evaluation Approach in Pedagogical ...

90

tendencies that each innovation, a new method or technique,curriculum or overall reform of the education system rst betested on a chosen sample. It means that it will be observed,evaluated, assessed, and appreciated, in order to locate weakpoints and consequent negative eects, with the idea of correctingor eliminating them. Only then is the evaluated innovation,method, technique, curriculum or reform implemented in thewider community.

Methodologists and education researchers have to tacklethe question whether it is possible for a reform or innovation inthe schooling and education system to be implemented withoutprior assessment and evaluation. Earlier approaches to pedagogicresearch are no longer adequate in practice. For that reason one is

constantly running a�er new approaches, accepting and rejectingthem without consideration.What do the participants in education need to know and

to do in order to function well? Most educators recognize theincreasing emphasis of formal evaluation research.Educatorsfrequently ask how evaluation research can help decision-makersand various policy-making groups improve schools and makewise educational policies. Which desings and methods are mostappropriate in education for XXI century?

Evaluation research also yield more general educationalknowledge about education in many schools. A brief denitionof evaluation research is the determination of the worth of aneducational program, product, procedure or objective. Mosteducators recognize that evoluation using in education can servea formative purpose, such as helping to improve a curriculum ora summative purpose.

Many types of studies are called evaluation research, especiallyin last decade of XXI centudy. Evaluation research will be includein all segment of schooling embracing curriculum materials(textbooks, lms, microcomputers, hand calcurators, educationaltelevision), programs (language arts program, talented and gi�edprograms, preventive programs), instructional methods (lectures,discovery), educators (administrators, teachers, volunteer tutors,inservise teachers), students, organization (alternative schools,high schools, higher education), menagement and all other waysof school system.

Evaluation research oers many potentional benets toeducation. Education is a complex activity within a larger,changing interdependent social and political society. In this




91

context evaluation research oers a rational and empiricalperspective on educational practices. A good evaluationeducational study satises the standards of utility, feasibility andaccuracy. How does the nature of research problem and selectedmethodology - quantitative or qualitative inuance the format ofresearch communication? The future perspective in education aremodify the time being through many types research methods,

but in this work, we will show evaluation research methods, likemethods with strong tendency to change school powerless in thissociety which certainly isn’t free of foults.

Methodological concept of evaluation researchEvaluation research aims at assessing the success of

completing a certain task or activity taking into account the pre-set criteria or goals. Evaluation, an act of calculating or judgingthe value or degree of, to evaluate, to calculate or decide the valueor amount of. Evaluation research is a kind of progress researchwhose main goal is to assess the value of a certain educationaland pedagogical situation by applying various procedures ofqualitative and quantitative analysis. It gains special prominencein assessing the curricula for pedagogical and educationalactivities.

Despite the fact that it has been used in education process,evaluation research gets into the limelight in the last decade ofthe previous century and begins to be implemented with the newmillennium when the need arises to evaluate in an appropriatemanner every step in teaching, schooling, and education. It haslong been considered, by some authors, a kind of disciplinarypre-school research and an integral part of progress evaluationor applied research, with the main goal of assessing the value of apedagogical-educational activity, procedure, technique, situation,result etc., in other words of the given pedagogical-educationalpractice, on the basis of qualitative and quantitative analyses. Suchresearch represents an integral part of transversal, longitudinal,activity and other research and investigation (Banđur 1999, p.112).

In The Dictionary of Pedagogical Methodology the item‘evaluation research’ is substituted with ‘evaluation studies usedfor a systematic assessing of curricula, projects, interventions,’

which is an indication of relative theoretical congruence (Gojkov2002, p. 56). Evaluation is used for the quality assessment andanalysis of the procedures, curricula, innovations or means.




92

According to Savičević, it determines whether the educationalpractice justies the material investments, whether it pays andwhether it contributes to more comprehensive communicationamong the participants in the education process (Savičević 1996, p.254). Evaluation is a distinct type of pedagogical and educationalresearch, relying on research methods and techniques commonto all disciplines. Evaluation is characterised as an educationalresearch because such a research based on evaluation contributesto easier making of decisions signicant for the practice. Toolong considered as a phase of some other types of pedagogical-educational research, evaluation research or evaluation as aprocedure represented a link following planning, realisation ofpedagogical-educational contents and assessing of that procedure

in practice (Mužić 1999, p. 31).Evaluation research, aimed at eecting changes in the processof upbringing and education, covers the whole span from pre-school to university level, in the areas where practical tendenciesof dynamism and adequacy of methods, techniques, procedures,plans and curricula are to be implemented. The investigationof phenomena can be appreciated, measured and assessed, i.e.evaluated in their dynamism, so that they appear as indirectlyrelated to communication within the horizontal and vertical

community context.It is evident that evaluation research in its aspects ofcomplexity and dynamism greatly contributes to the developmentof pedagogical practice and a specic act of communication inevery society which is ready for assessment and resulting changes,and consequent rejection of interference by politicians producingdisorder and disorganisation in the whole process of successivesteps leading to a more modern education practice.

Evaluation research stepsThe need for evaluation research is the result of demands

made by individuals, groups, institutions, organisations and allothers who require analysis and reassessment of the adequacy ofeducation tendencies. It comprises a description and familiarisationof the researcher with the object of research (it should be notedthat evaluation research is not carried out of personal motivationof an individual or the whole team of researchers regarding a

certain problem or specic segment of the education process, butout of the need and necessity imposed by institutions, groups orindividuals) including a description of what is to be evaluated,




93

the intention, goal or meaning of evaluation, compositionof evaluation questions, selection of the evaluation modelconcerning the problem in question, specication time, analysisand interpretation of the strategy, positive outcomes, evaluationmanagement (implies the evaluation outcome which wouldcontribute to the budget of the institution realising the evaluation)and the meta-evaluational plan for further developments.

Evaluation research concerns all relevant problems andcurricula, so that it is not carried out only at the end of the research

but all along, which is the main characteristic of this researchdistinguishing it from all other types. It may be signicant tomention that many methodologists relate it to action researchwhile some consider it an integral part of action research whose

course undergoes constant change. For that reason this research is based on the independent and dependent variables and observingthe changes of the dependent variable.

Like all other research, evaluation research meets theestablished methodological standards which means it has to bereliable, valid and objective. There are two types of evaluationresearch: the formative and summative, and their two functions:control function and innovation function (Kundačina 2003, p.50). Formative evaluation research type is used for improving

and advancing of current activities, the role of the educator, andachieved results, while the summative evaluation research type isused with regard to responsibility, selection or issuing of adequatediplomas and certicates.

The participants and creators of evaluation research arestudents, teachers, educators, professors, assistants, volunteertutors, in-service teachers, administrators, members of school

boards, ocials from the Ministry of Education and all otherswho indirectly or directly inuence the process of assessment ineducation. According to the methodology standards, evaluationresearch consists of phases and a general course, designing andreporting on the researched eld or problem. There are: thephase of preparation, the phase of realisation, and the phase ofinterpretation and conclusion, and within them the selection ofthe problem, goal, tasks, hypotheses, variables, samples, methods,techniques, instruments and procedures, then practical realisation,data analyses, evaluation and presentation of conclusions. Further

there is the feedback information, team work, and the possibilityof ecient changes towards the set goals.




94

ConclusionDierent evaluation methods, as an integral part of evaluation

research, have so far provided signicant qualitative andquantitative indicators of success regarding projects, programmes,

and data, suggesting that there has been an advancement in thepedagogical and educational practice so that we could rely on thepower of education. Pointing out current tendencies in scienceand education reminds one that education could be altered withthe goal of reaching higher quality more suitable to individualand common needs. It is signicant to note that the promoters ofevaluation research are primarily pedagogues, andragogues, andeducation sociologists, open towards new methods, techniquesand instruments for assessment and evaluation of the outcomes

of projects, plans or programmes.Although fairly recently presented, evaluation researchquickened the spirit of change and modernity which will contributeto the advancement of education and team work with possiblechanges in the course of realisation. The results of assessmentand evaluation of the teaching process, teachers, professors,assistants, administrators, course books etc. are a permanentfocus of research studies, investigations and papers. With regardto the evaluation of teacher activity, assessment of teaching means

validity or success of the teaching process, it becomes evident that both the researchers and educators constantly undergo the processof self-evaluation using self-assessment as the basis for mutualevaluation and advancement of the teaching practice either inrelation to themselves or their colleagues. To get an insight intothe education system, acknowledging the signicance of adequateand proper communication in schools, to acquire knowledge,skills and abilities to assess and correct oneself, means to be aresearcher who by evaluation gets school democracy in motion.

References

Bandjur, V., Potkonjak, N. (1999). Metodologĳa pedagogĳe. Savezpedagoških društava Jugoslavĳe, Beograd.

Gojkov, G., Krulj, R., Kundačina, M. (2002). Leksikon pedagoške met-odologĳe. II. drugo dopunjeno izdanje, Viša škola za obrazovanjevaspitača, Vršac.

Kundačina, M. (2003): Funkcĳa evaluativnih istraživanja u reformiobrazovanja, Godišnjak za psihologĳu, 2, Filozofski fakultet, Niš.




95

Mertens, D. M. (1997). Research Methods in Education and Psychol-ogy. Sage Publications, New Delhi.

Mužić, V. (1999). Uvod u metodologĳu istraživanja odgoja i obra-zovanja. Educa, Zagreb.

Savičević, D. (1996). Metodologĳa istraživanja u obrazovanju i vaspi-

tanju. Učiteljski fakultet u Vranju Univerziteta u Nišu, Vranje.Whity, G. (2000). Teacher Profesionallism in New Time. Journal of In-Service Education , 26 (2), pp. 281-295.

AbstractThe present paper will investigate the interaction of evaluation

research which results in favourable eects in relation to the currentpractical conception of education. The literature available in Serbian

periodicals concerning evaluation research does not oer extensiveinformation since this eld became an area of research as late as the lastdecades of 20th century coinciding with the introduction of the conceptof evaluation in schools. That was an instigation to search for newsolutions and paradigms by evaluating the researched phenomena.This paper will focus on the possibility of empirical evaluation ofthe outlined theoretical foundation within the context of practicalimplementation so as to contribute to the quality of communicationamong participants in the process of education.

The paper will explore various specic applications of evaluationresearch as well as methods, techniques and instruments in studyingthe education process and its outcomes which leads to more commonusage and opens the possibility for the education renaissance of thewhole community oriented towards modern tendencies in informationtechnology.

Key words: evaluation, evaluation research, education, moderntendencies, reform.




96




97

Introduction

Cultures, civilizations and nations are dierentiated today,among other things, according to the nature of establishedrelationships between people living in a community. We would

like to remind you that the term symhedonia in the broadest sensemeans “sympathy for the happiness of other people” (Royzmanand Rozin, 2006, p. 82). To be more specic, symhedonia is to beunderstood as “a man’s tendency to support the other person, tohelp him/her in his/her accomplishments and development, toenjoy the happiness of others” (Suzić, 2006, p. 8). A short historyof inclusive education in Republika Srpska and BiH indicates thatwe are at the beginning of a long-lasting process of the integrationof children with special needs in school system. Italy, which hashad experience in this maer for more than three decades, canserve as an example, its experience can assist us to overcomeintroductory diculties of integrating children with special needin regular education and the life of a community. The Balkanpeople are turned to symhedonia. It is known that people in ourlocal communities keep beer drink and food for their guests.Similarly, people in local communities also spontaneously helpeach other in building houses and, o�en, in everyday jobs. This

symhedonian determination of people living on the Balkans can be used as a basis for the development of qualitative inclusiveeducation.

Nenad Suzić

University of Banja LukaBOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA

STEPS TOWARDS TO INCLUSIVEEDUCATION IN BiH



Nenad Suzić: Steps Towards to Inclusive Education in BiH

98

The rst steps towards inclusive education in BiH and RSare assisted by Italy and Finland since these countries are richin experience in this area. We should outline the contributionof Educ-Aida, an Italian NGO which was of special importancefor the encouragement of inclusive education in RS and BiH andalso the assistance of the organization “Cooperazione Italiana”.Steps towards inclusive education in BiH will be best presented

by historical comparison, if I identify the inclusion phases in mycountry and the world starting from the rst inclusive educationup to the present.

A short historical overviewFirst documented case of aempting to individualize or

personalize the treatment of people who are dierent comparedto other people dates back to more than 200 years ago. It is aboutan aempt of Marc Iard, John Lock’s associate, who wanted tohelp a boy Victor, known as a “wild boy” (Hardiman, Drew Egan,1996, p. 4). In the late XIX century, Binet and Simon constructedtheir scale for measuring intelligence which they published at the

beginning of the XX century. According to the scale children withthe lower IQ are called “idiots“, “imbeciles“, “morons“ (Binet,1922). No maer how stigmatizing it seems, this classication

brings in scientically focused consideration of children’scharacteristics and their needs that are delayed in their mentaldevelopment. Two works of an American psychologist, JohnWatson, focus the aention on environmental eects on mentalprocess and human behaviour (Watson, 1914). As the educationdeveloped during the XX century, norms of school behaviour andachievement were established, and children who could not meetthem were treated as “abnormal“, “inadaptable“or deviant. From1920 to 1960 the adjustment of schools to children with specialneeds was sporadic. “Special education was permied in manycountries but was compulsory only in few” (Hardiman, Drew &Egan, 1996, p. 5).

In the 50s of XX century, in many countries in the worldparents of children with special needs organized in groups whichlobbied at the governments for proper educational and socialsupport for their children. Many professionals from dierentareas: medicine, psychology, pedagogy and social work joined

this endeavour was. “Between 1950 and 1960 many children witha mild mental retardation and emotional diculties were taughtin an environment which was isolated from their peers who did




99

not have any disorder in their development “ (ibidem, p. 5). In the60s of XX century many researches were conducted which shouldgive a respond to the question if children with special schoolsgot more than in regular schools. “The research on the eciencyof special classes for children with mild disability indicated thatthere were lile or no advantages of moving these children fromspecial to regular classes” (ibidem, p. 5). In the 70s of XX centurya real revolution began in special education.

Three key phases of inclusive education can be distinguished:1) formation of special classes and special schools in the 60s of XXcentury, 2) opening of regular schools for children with specialneeds in the 70s of XX century and 3) educational integrationand non-discrimination a�er 1990. Each of these phases will be

described in order to have a beer insight of what is happeningwith inclusive education in BiH and Republika Srpska today.Formation of special classes and special schools began

intensively worldwide a�er 1960, although there are a numberof examples that special schools and institutions were openedin many countries in the 70s of XX century. This decade can

be described as “a revolution in the area of special education”(ibidem, p. 5). The main idea was that all children had the rightto education and that it also applied to the children with special

needs. It was considered that “special classes” and “specialschools” would give children with special needs more than whenthose children would aend regular schools.

Opening of regular schools for children with special needs began as a result of numerous analyses and research (ibidem)which showed that children who had diculties in theirdevelopment considerably improved in special schools than theywould be in regular ones. As a turning point for this phase wasthe year of 1975 when the Congress was held in the USA knownas IDEA (Individuals with Disabilities Education Act) at whichthe idea that the children with special needs should have accessto all educational institutions, especially to free public educationwas promoted (ibidem). A basic idea was that children withspecial needs should be placed in “special“ classes only if they

by the nature of their disability could not participate in teachingof regular classes. Today this phase is recognized in BiH in twoforms: 1) formal inclusive education and 2) partial inclusive

educations (explanation follows).Educational integration and non-discrimination meansthe support to children with special needs in educational and




1 00

wider, social sense. The term integration is broader that the terminclusion and means elimination of separation of children withspecial needs. It is about the integration of children with delaysin development, gi�ed children, children of ethnic minoritiesand social integration of all community members in educationalsystem, social life and justice. An especially interesting term forus is educational integration which is, again, narrower than thegeneral term integration. “Educational integration is dened asa physical inclusion of children with extensive needs in schoolsand campuses of general education. Other denitions can adda need for support, servicing and collaboration between generaland special education” (ibidem, p. 7). This process was moreintensively recognized in the world a�er 1990 when ICD-10

classication was adopted (ICD-10, 1992; MKB-10, 1998). It is abouta coordinated activity between many institutions and individualsin collaboration with the World Health Organization (WHO)aimed at protecting persons with deciency and handicappedfrom irresponsible and incomplete diagnosis. It resulted in widerendeavours to provide these persons with rights and conditionsfor inclusion in regular education and social life.

Three phases of education relates to each country and regionindividually. To be more precise, this issue has been delayed in

BiH so that we have all three phase simultaneously. In Italy thethird phase started 30 years ago. Simply, these three phases can bepresented as three steps towards inclusive education.

Three steps towards inclusive educationSteps towards inclusive education can be presented in

three levels (Scheme 1 and Scheme 2). The First step presentsLevel C, which is about opening of special schools for childrenwho had decit or handicap in their development, and specialclasses were formed for these children in regular schools. Thisis rather a separation of children from a real life environment,a kind of stigmatization, than inclusive education However,for the Balkan circumstances it is a signicant improvement

because handicapped children were tacitly considered as God’spunishment, bad luck or a curse. Parents did not want to showchildren like these, o�en hiding them from the public even fromtheir peers. It has remained so until today. An essay of a teacher

who has a boy with the damaged eyesight in her class tells aboutit. This boy was kept by his parents like in a “glass cage“ until hehad to go to school. The following text from her essay testies this:




1 01

“I found out that he had no other friends expect for those in theclass. He said he had celebrated his birhtday during the weekend.I asked him if he had a party and whether his friends came. Hesaid they did not by there were his grandpa and grandma” (Suzić,2008, p. 40).Scheme1: Three steps towards inclusion in education

Even today in Bosnia and Herzegovina there exists this typeof inclusive education which proves the current “Law on PrimaryEducation in RS” stating that: “Children with severe mental

disabilities acquires primary education in compliance with thislaw and are enrolled in a special school or a class based on theDecision which determines the type and degree of disability indevelopment” (Law on Primary Education, 2008, p. 9). In Article84 of the same Law there is a term “autistic children” (ibidem,p. 9). As we can see, stigmatization and rigid past in the area ofinclusive education is projected in the future. The things would

be less dramatic if the author of this text did not publicly and inwrien warn the creator of the law, but still, despite the warnings,these terms are used in the “ Law on Primary Education “ and theprovision of the Law are applied in schools.




1 02

Scheme 2: Models of inclusive education (Suzić, 2008a, p. 90)




1 03

The second step (Scheme 1 and 2, level B) means practicaland formal inclusive education. What is practical and what isformal inclusion? Practical inclusive education means practicalinclusion of children with special needs in regular schools andtheir aending a part of teaching in a special school or a class. Thismeans a close co-operation of a special and regular school or theexistence of a special class within regular school. In BiH there arespecial classes within regular school so that children with specialneeds are involved in school life at least for school performances,extracurricular activities, breaks etc. Formal inclusive educationcould be dened as a tendency to meet the desired form, andthat a child with special needs is included in regular classes butwithout necessary humane preconditions for inclusion. Such

cases are o�en seen in Republika Srpska, and also throughoutBiH. For instance, a teacher beginner has three children withdierent development delay in her class, but she does not havean assistant teacher. The problem becomes even more complexif we consider the fact that the public is informed that there are20 assistant teachers in Republika Srpska, in Mostar canton 22,Una-Sana 3 and so on (Vlašić – inclusion monitoring, 2009). This isobviously about misunderstanding or confusion of terms. Namely,assistant teacher is not the same as a mobile team or supporting

team. When we say assistant teacher, it means that we talk abouta specialist teacher who, together with a regular teacher, does theteaching, but a specialist teacher works individually with a child(children) with special needs so that he/she permanently givessupport both to the child with special needs and the teacher inprogram implementation adapted for children with special needs.Supporting team or mobile team comes to school on weekly ormonthly basis or even more rarely and should not be identied asan assistant teacher.

The third step (Scheme 1 and 2, level A) includes realand complete the integration of persons with special needs ininclusive education and social life. It also implies the supportto both children with development delays and gi�ed. It meansthe removal of all barriers, physical, social, moral and economic.Traditional system of education represents a serious barrier forchildren with special needs. In order to include children withspecial needs in regular schools in a humane manner, we have toprovide their acceptance by their peers, adapted curricula, and an

assistant teacher in the classroom and to remove architectonicaland other barriers. Examples of such a support exist in BiH, butare rare.




1 04

Humane preconditions for inclusionHumane preconditions for the inclusion of children with

special needs in schools are of special importance on the Balkans.The reason for this is that even the most humane idea can be

turned into its contradiction if it becomes a decree and if carriedout mannaristic and formally. Which are humane preconditions forinclusion? Without giving the priority, hereto ve preconditionsare given:

1. “Children with special needs should get more than whatthey get in special schools.

2. Children in regular schools should not loose anything.

3. Children, parents and teachers should accept the child withspecial needs in regular teaching.4. All human resources, material and organizational precondi-

tions need to be in place.5. All risks should be foreseen and negative consequences pre-

vented” (Suzić, 2008, p. 17).

If we accept inclusive education as something coming formthe top, imposed by the Ministry of Education, if we understandit as a trend or „fashion“ which Europe follows, there is a greatdanger of transforming this idea in an inhuman act. If this is thecase, a supervisor civil servants from the Ministry and PedagogicalInstitution “order” the inclusion and “demand” that children withspecial needs are included in regular classes although a teacherhas twenty or more students in the class. This is exactly what the“Law on Primary Education in RS” oers, stating that:

“For one student with psych-physical disability thenumber of students in a regular class is reduced for twocompared to an optimum number of students, whereas fortwo students with psycho-physical disabilities the numberof students in the class is reduced for six compared to anoptimum number of students” (”Law on Primary Educationin RS, 2008, Article 44, p. 9).

If we consider that the provision of this Law “optimalnumber” of students states the number of 25 students, it is obviousin what kind of situation are the students with development




1 05

delays, other students and the teacher who has to work with23 students of regular education and a child with developmentdelays using an adapted curriculum. We can imagine how achild with development delays might feel when he/she ndshimself/herself among twenty peers and watch them using themultiplication table, do their exercises, answer the teacher’squestions, write on the blackboard, and for him/her everything isincomprehensible, unfamiliar language and skills. So, it happenedthat a boy with special needs from Banja Luka, who a�er a monthof being included in a regular class (without an assistant teacher),waited for a break and when everybody had le� the classroom,he opened all the windows and threw out of the classroomschoolbags, a chalk, a sponge, geometry kits and everything what

his peers used in learning with ease but what frustrated him. Wehave to wander if it was humane to place this boy in the classroomwithout an assistant teacher. Somebody might say that we do nothave the money for these teachers. But that is not true! Namely,each year in Republika Srpska the number of teachers decreasesfrom 100 to 200 because of lesser number of enrolled children.Similar proportion is also valid at the BiH level. If these salariesare reallocated to assistant teachers, we will have a humaneprecondition for inclusion without additional resources for the

revenue.It is interesting that there are a number of people who thinkthat inclusive education is harmful (Figure 1), but it is no wonderif know that humane preconditions for inclusion have not beenestablished. On the sapmle of 607 teachers in BiH research hasdiscovered 80 teachers who holds this opinion (Figure 1) or13.18% of the sample.

Teachers who are considerably against inclusion are mostlyover 40 years old (M = 40.99), and have more years of experience (M= 16.90) and higher level of qualication (M = 2.20) and therefore,signicantly dier from 86.82% of their colleagues. When Iexamined their essays, it was clear to me that it is not about beinginhumane of these people, but rather about their willingness towork with children who had problems in their development butthey want to be trained and to learn new methods and techniquesadapted to these children. It is encouraging that out of sixteachers, ve is determined to support inclusion unconditionally,

but they also think that humane preconditions have been fullledto a great extent. (scores above M = 3.72: ibidem, p. 23).




1 06

Figure 1: Attitudes towards inclusion in relation to age, years of experience and qualications of teachers (Suzić, 2008, p. 25)

Category N mean (M) standarddeviation

F signi-cance

A g e

Against inclusionSupportsinclusionStronglysupportsinclusionTotal

8043592607

40.9935.9233.0936.16

13.4013.6114.5413.87

7,320 0.001

Y r s . o f e x p e r i e n c e Against inclusion

Supports

inclusionStronglysupportsinclusionTotal

80435

92607

16.9012.72

10.3412.91

13.8613.08

13.7413.38

7,320 0.005

Q u a

l i c a t i o n

Against inclusionSupportsinclusionStrongly

supportsinclusionTotal

8043592607

2.201.921.641.91

0.720.760.760.77

11,653 0.001

A close estimation of humane precondition for inclusion wasgiven by 162 parents in other research (M = 4.03; Čolić, 2009). Aswe can see, both parents and teachers give high importance tohumane preconditions for inclusion.

Data about children with special needsIn order to include children with developmental delays

in regular system of education, rstly we need data aboutthe number of those children, what kind of disabilities can beidentied to develop strategic support of the state and to organizeadequate social support in this regard. Data2 which are presentedhere can be generalized with a great reliability for the entirepopulation in BiH because the sample is representative for all

students in BiH. About 0.71% of students have been indentied tohave developmental delays (Figure 2; n = 1351).




1 07

Figure 2: Children with developmental delays

Region sample DPP withdocumen-

tation%

DPP withoutdocumen-

tation%

DPPwith andwithout

docum.

%

RepublikaSrpka

116.451 836 0.72 1.731 1.50 2567 2.20

Tuzla Canton 14.300 144 0.10 489 3.42 633 4.43

CantonSarajevo

40.173 229 0.57 506 1.26 735 1.83

Zenica-DobojCanton

20.128 142 0.71 295 1.47 437 2.17

T o t a l 191.052 1351 0.71 3021 1.58 4372 2.29

This datum corresponds to other parts of Bosnia andHerzegovina and enables the projections of support for childrenwith special needs according to two criteria: 1) long-term and 2)individualized. Long-term support can be based on a familiar factthat the structure of children with special needs will not radically

be changed for a longer period, given to the fact that the researchincludes children of ten dierent ages. Therefore, we can alsoproject the prole of specialist teachers who will work with thesechildren as assistant teachers in the classroom. They will alsoparticipate in planning of purchasing equipment. Individualizedcurricula can be designed with regard to the level of disability andthe need of each individual child. These curricula can be easilyexchanged if we know where these children with special needsare. For example, the school for children with damaged sight in

Banja Luka can develop curricula which can be used in Bihac andvice versa. The Internet data base would be of great benet.

LegislationRecently we can notice that state administration has been

trying to improve laws and provisions regulatimg inclusiveeducation and social integration of persons with special needs.Despite of these eorts, it should be pointed out that theseregulations are not in compliance with European and worlds

standards and they contain a number of deciencies. The greatestdeciency lies in that fact that what is dened in legislation is




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partially or not implemented at all. For example, “Rulebookon teaching children with special educational needs in primaryand secondary schools in RS” (2004) has excellent provisions oninclusion of children with special need, but in practise they areweakly implemented or not implemented at all. Article 5 of theabove mentioned Rulebook states that there are assistant teachersin the classroom: “Through the cooperation with the PedagogicalInstitute, the Government will design projects for the employmentof assistants in regular classes” (Article 5, p. 2). As we can see, thisis dened in a very humane manner, but up to now there have beenno assistant teachers employed in BiH or just sporadic examples.In addition to this Rulebook, the right of children with specialneeds is also regulated by the Rulebook on exercising the rights of

child protection. This Rulebook mainly regulates benciary rightsof children with special needs and their parents, socializationand re-socializations, summer and winter holidays, pre-schoolcurricula and other rights of children with special needs. Theserulebooks are designed dierently throughout BiH, at entity andcantonal levels. As a bylaw for identication of children withdevelopmental delays entity and cantonal governments haveenacted the Guidelines for conducting the rst instance procedurefor the categorization of persons with developmental delays and

disabilities. These Guidelines are designed in a way to preventstigmatization of children with special needs which appearsimmediately a�er or during the diagnostic observation. It is ofspecial importance that these Guidelines prevent unprofessionaldiagnosis which can be o�en found in our school practice.

The latest Framework Law on Primary and SecondaryEducation in BiH, entity and cantonal laws foster inclusiveeducation and integration of children with special needs, butin some provisions we can notice understatement or evenstigmatisation. For example, adequate aention has not beenpaid to the engagement of assistant teachers; some terms arein contradiction with ICD 10 and the newest ICS classicationsof disabilities and handicaps of children with special needs.Although we see considerable improvement, it should bestressed out that action have to be taken in two strands: 1) theimplementation of provisions of the existing legislation and 2) theimprovement of the legislation and introduction of European and

worlds standards in this area.




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Lesson Learned – achieved resultsA critical overview does not mean the negation of the

achieved results. There are numerous good examples whichcould be noticed contributing to inclusive education and social

integration of persons with special needs in BiH. Here are some ofthe most important:

1) Considerable improvement of legislation,

2) Pre-service and in-service teacher training on inclusion isocially and systematically provided,

3) There are more and more children in regular classes whouse adapted curricula,

4) There are more and more schools with architectonical bar-riers removed and provided with the equipment for workwith the children with special needs,

5) The increase of awareness about the need for inclusive edu-cation and integration,

6) There are more and more examples of good practice.

I have already discussed the improvements in legislation– obviously they exist, but a lot of eort should be put into itsimplementation and additional improvement and new one is alsoneeded.

Pre-service and in-service teacher training on inclusion isocially and systematically provided for the rst time. Thanksto the project of an Italian NGO “Educ-Aid” and the FinishGovernment “Inclusion and individualization in education”, andthe enthusiasm of professors from the Faculty of Philosophy in

Banja Luka, a study programme of the course “Introduction toInclusion” was dra�ed. Apart from the study programme, twotextbooks were published (Ilić, 2009; Suzić, 2008a). A basic ideaof this programme is to inform teachers and specialist teachersinto preliminary diagnosis and to provide them skills for therecognition of elementary symptomatology so that they cancooperate with other specialists and work with children withdevelopmental delays. This example of positive practice should

be followed by other higher education institutions which provide

teacher training programmes in BiH as well as pedagogicalinstitutions.




1 1 0

More and more children with special needs aend regularclasses who have adapted curricula. Research conducted by Educ-Aid” indicates this (Graph 1). We can notice that the number ofchildren for whom individualized programmes have been createddiers from region to region BiH. Here we have a key issue torise: if these curricula are appropriate and whether those wholled in the questionnaire had clearly dened criteria on whatindividualized curricula mean for a child with special needs. If weobey the elementary principle which was promoted by professorAndrea Canevaro from Bologna, stating that individualizedcurricula for these children should be designed starting from“what a child can do” (Canevaro, 2000), and that parents should

be included in curricula design because they know best what their

children can do, then we would review many of these curricula orapply a completely dierent approach.

Graph 1: Individualized curricula for children with special needs

There are more and more schools with architectonical barriers removed and provided with the equipment for workwith the children with special needs. Graph 2 shows that there aremore schools with architectonical barriers compared to schools inwhich these barriers have been removed.




1 1

Graph 2: Removal of barriers in BiH schools

If we consider the fact that ten years ago schools did notremove barriers and adjust their rooms for children with specialneeds, we can be satised with the data that today there are moreand more schools which have removed barriers and becomeaccessible to children with disabilities.

When it comes to the equipment for supporting the childrenwith special needs the situation is dierent. Most schools in BiH

do not have equipment for support although children with specialneeds are in the classroom. (Graph 3). This should be discussedfurther.

Firstly, it is inhumane to bring a child with damaged hearingor sight into a regular class without providing a device which willhelp him/her to follow the work with other children or to workindividually. Secondly, we have to bear in mind that this childwithout assistant teacher in the classroom, and that a regular

teacher does not have time to devote only to him/her becausethere are twenty or more students in the class. It is obvious that inthis way a humane idea transforms into its controversy.




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Graph 3: Equipment for support the children with special needs inBiH schools

As we can see in Graphs 2 and 3, in BiH schools the process

of removing barriers and purchasing equipment for supportthe children with special needs. It should be emphasized thatit depends lile on schools because they are nanced from the

budget and they cannot aord to buy expensive equipment.Obviously, it is up to those create and handle the budget to makea move to accelerate this process and make in humane at the sametime.

Rising awareness about the need of inclusive education andintegration is evident although there are some zealous opponentsto inclusive education. We can illustrate this with an examplefrom my practice. I have recently participated at the seminarfor school principles and pedagogues in Republika Srpska. I toldthem about a meeting of scientists in Belgrade and there wasand an old professor who said: “Those people from the Westwant to destroy our old special schools”. Some ten aendeesloudly supported this professor although I had expected onlyan ironic smile. It is comforting that most people who were there

understood his decadency and observed the reaction of strongopponents of inclusion in amazement. Media do not work enoughof changing awareness of people about inclusive education, and




1 1 3

seminars for teachers focus rather on formal side of inclusion thanon inuencing peoples mind of inclusion. Therefore, we needmore examples of good practice and research to nd out whatis behind of these negative aitudes towards inclusive educationand to have contra arguments.

There are more and more examples of good practiseindicating that humane process of introducing inclusiveeducation for children with special needs is justiable. In the book“Introduction to Inclusion” (2008a), I gave a number of examplesconrming this, essays of children with special needs, theirparents and teachers. An example is also found in magisterialthesis of Tanja Čolić quoting a statement of a mother of a childwith special needs.

“Once I watched three boys covering Marko withsand and kicking him. There was sand in his eyes, hair,even in his ears. I was standing aside and watched themsecretly. When I could not stand it any longer, I approachedthem and chased them away. Like a lion defending her

youngster. Interestingly, Marko asked me: why did youdo that? I should not have stopped the game. Yes, that wasa game for my Marko. He agreed to everything just to be a

part of that game. He was happy!” (Čolić, 2008, p. 253).

Regardless of being treated as a “toy” Marko enjoyed thegame. The worst thing to do would be to move Marko awayfrom that environment. By counselling and advising, teachers,parents, pedagogue/psychologist it is possible to explain the boysthat they treated Marko inhumanely, and that they should treatthem as equal while playing games. This example shows how

justiably is to include a child with special needs in interactionwith the peers. Firstly, it was pleasurable for him. Secondly, only

by active participation in peer interactions children with specialneeds can be socialized. Thirdly, it is dicult to inuence peersto accept children with special needs only by talking to them –thepresence of a child with special needs is the best educational basefor learning.

There are other examples of good practice: there a numberof well-adapted curricula, there are more and more teachers

who successfully deal with challenges of working with adaptedcurricula. Parents give examples that it was justiable to includechildren with special needs in regular education. Another




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example shows both cons and pros of inclusive education. Ateacher who has never been taught elementary special pedagogyhas a boy with Down syndrome in her class. The term of the rstyear she put a lot of eort working with the child because she hadnoticed that he had considerably improved. At the beginning ofthe second term a parent criticized her for neglecting her son whois talented in maths. She cried at that. When I asked her why shehad cried, she replied that the most dicult thing was that theparent had been telling the truth. She unconsciously neglectedthe talented child in her most humane desire to help a child withspecial needs. A typical female reaction followed – tears. Thesolution to this problem is the angagement of an assistant teacherwho would be working together with her with a child with special

needs, and if needed, also with talented ones.Conclusion

Steps towards to inclusion in BiH correspond two threehistorical phases of inclusive education: 1) segregation which isrecognized in opening special schools and institutions for personswith special needs, 2) formal and partial inclusion is recognizedin the formation of special classes within regular school or byformal “inclusion” of children with special needs in regular

classes without teachers being trained and the preparation ofother students and even without individualized curricula and3) integration which is found in real inclusion of children withspecial needs in inclusive education and social life. At presentinclusive education is at the lowest level, i.e. the inclusion ofchildren with special needs in special schools or classes (levelC). The second, higher level of inclusive education is temporarilymore present with formal inclusion than with partial or realinclusion (level B). The reasons for this can be: poverty, weak socialorganization, inconclusive regulations and inconsistency in theirimplementation, low awareness of inclusion in our society andother subjective and objective factors. Real integration of personswith special needs acquired for (level A) exists only in fragmentsand very rarely in BiH. It takes time to remove barriers in people’sminds and the physical ones so that inclusive education shouldget its genuine humane dimension and be transformed into realintegration.

Despite all diculties, we can state that there areimprovements in inclusive education in Republika Srpskaand BiH. Therefore, we can conclude that awareness has been




1 1 5

raised, legislation has been improved, inclusive education has been organized, individualized and adapted for children withspecial needs, and architectonical barriers are fewer and fewer,purchasing equipment for children with special needs has began,there are more and more examples of good practice.

Finally, it should be emphasised that the current level ofachievements in inclusive education in Republika Srpska and BiHwould not have been aained without the support of the ItalianGovernment, NGO Educ-Aid, the Finish Government, and anumber of international projects. This does not mean that withoutthis international assistance there would be a lack of progress inBiH, but the achievements certainly would not be as notable.

References

Binet, A. (1922). L’étude expérimentale de l’intelligence. Paris: AlfredCostes.

Canevaro, A. (2000). Između decita i hendikepa. (Prevod izdanjaUniversita’ degli studio di Bologna, Departmento di science dell‘educazione). Tuzla: Educ Aid.

Čolić, T. (2008). Smisao i sadržaj inkluzivnog obrazovanja u savre-menim uslovima kod nas. Banja Luka: Monograja.

Čolić, T. (2009). Priprema učenika redovne škole za prihvatanje djecesa posebnim potrebama. Doktorska disertacĳa. Banja Luka: Filo-zofski fakultet.

Defektološki leksikon (1999). Beograd: Zavod za udžbenike i nas-tavna sredstva.

ICD-10 (1992). Classication of mental and behavioural disorders.Clinical descriptions and diagnostic guidelines. Geneva: WorldHealth Organization.

Ilić, M. (2009). Inkluzivna nastava. Istočno Sarajevo: Filozofskifakultet.

MKB-10 (1998). Klasikacĳa mentalnih poremećaja i poremećajaponašanja: Dĳagnostički kriterĳumi za istraživanje. Beograd: Za-vod za udžbenike i nastavna sredstva.

Правилник о васпитању дјеце са посебним образовнимпотребама у основним и средњим школама (2004). Службенигласник Републике Српске бр. 85 од 29. септембра 2004.

Правилник о остваривању права из дјечије заштите (2005).Службени гласник Републике Српске бр. 80 od 31. avgusta,2005. godine

Royzman, B. E., and Rozin, P. (2006). Limits of shymedonia: Thedierential role of prior emotional aachment in sympathy andsympathetic joy. Emotion, 6, pp. 82–93.




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Сузић, Н. (2006). Симедонија између културе и образовања. In:Култура и образовање (pp. 7–29). Бања Лука: Филозофскифакултет.

Suzić, N. (2008а). Uvod u inkluzĳu. Banja Luka: XBS.Сузић, Н. (2008b). Инклузија у очима наставника. Васпитање

– часопис за педагошку теорију и праксу (Подгорица), nr 1,pp. 13–32.Упутство о спровођењу првостепеног поступка разврставања

лица са сметњама у физичком и психичком развоју (2007).Службени гласник Републике Српске бр. 15 od 7. marta, 2007.godine.

Vlašić – monitoring inkluzĳe (2009). Sastanak predstavnika entiteta ikantona BiH održan 13. 02. 2009. na Vlašiću.

Watson, B. J. (1914). Behavior. New York: Holt.Закон о основном образовању и васпитању (2008). Бања Лука:

Службени гласник Републике Српске бр. 74.

SummarySteps towards inclusive education in BiH are presented in a simple

manner in three historical phases of the origin and development of

inclusion. The rst phase is called segregation (level C) and relates tothe establishment of special schools and institutions for children andpersons with special needs. The author calls the second phase partialand formal inclusion (level B). It concerns the inclusion of children withspecial needs in regular schools. Formally, it is only physical inclusionof these children without trained teachers, equipment, individualizedprogrammes, and in partial sense, it means the fullment of someconditions, such as individualized programmes, but without trainedteachers and specialized equipment. The third phase (level A) meansthe real integration of children with special needs and their completeinvolvement in teaching process and social life of the community. Thepaper presents a set of data about positive improvement in inclusiveeducation and the most important issues related to inclusion inBosnia and Herzegovina. The author does not forget to stress anddocument the assistance from Italy and Finland and from many otherinternational non-governmental organizations, especially Educ-Aida,which largely contributed to the development of inclusive educationin Republika Srpska and BiH.

Key words: inclusive education, inclusion, integration,stigmatization, humane preconditions for inclusion




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The faculty of the School of Education at Southern Oregon University invited3 faculty from the University of North Dakota (UND) to participate in a

Teacher Education for the Future research project. This project is an interna-tional collaboration between teacher educators in 8 countries that has been on-

going for 3 years. The purpose of this research is to investigate the perceptionsof educators regarding the aims and purposes of education as well as issuesthat need to be emphasized in the preparation of future teachers around theworld. Surveys were administered by the UND faculty members to area teachereducators, classroom teachers, student teachers, and pre-service teachers. Thisstudy consisted of mixed methods including both qualitative and quantitativedata collection. The ndings and ideas for the future direction of this work willbe shared in this paper.

IntroductionAs many great educators have previously stated, “we

teach who we are.” Ultimately, it is important to note that theimplementation of a belief system for any educator is a carefullyconstructed “way of being” in the realm of their own individualschools and classrooms. It is impossible to remove inculcated

value systems and life experiences if we deem to work as ourauthentic selves. Bill Ayers (2001) states, “I believe that humandevelopment is complex and interactive, and that it is not useful

Jodi Bergland Holen, Bonni Gourneau,

Woei HungUniversity of North DakotaUSA

SUPPORTING PURPOSE-DRIVENTEACHING AT THE UNIVERSITY

OF NORTH DAKOTA, USA

A Teacher Education for the FutureProject



Jodi Bergland Holen, Bonni Gourneau, Woei Hung: Supporting...

1 1 8

to separate physical, emotional, social, and intellectual growth.We are all whole people—cognition is entwined with aect, andmy mind (and yours) is embedded in spiritual, cultural, andpsychological being” (p. 60).

However, teachers today are showing more and moreconcern for educating the whole child, all the while aemptingto understand their context, divergent personalities, and lifeexperiences. “There is almost unanimous support in the literaturefor the notion that teachers’ beliefs, aitudes, values, and feelingssignicantly impact on their classroom practice” (Connor &Greene, 2006, p. 321). This concern has led the School of Educationat Southern Oregon University (SOU) to initiate a research projectTeacher Education for the Future (TEF). This project aempted to

depict a beer a picture of teachers’ beliefs and values and howthey aect teachers’ classroom practices. The faculty members inthe Department of Teaching and Learning at University of NorthDakota have participated in this project since 2008 and this chapterwill report the UND team’s research ndings from this project.

Background

The University of North Dakota (UND) is located in Grand

Forks, a college town of 50,000 on the Red River of the Northseparating North Dakota and Minnesota. UND enrolls 13,172students in 193 elds of study from baccalaureate through doctoraland professional degrees. Fi�y percent of students come fromNorth Dakota; the rest represent all other states, seven Canadianprovinces, and more than 50 other countries. With specics torace/ethnicity White/Non-Hispanic American students make up82.81%, American Indian/Alaskan Natives, 2.66%, Black/Non-Hispanic Americans, 1.51%, Asian/Pacic Islander Americans,

1.52%, and Hispanic Americans at 1.17% (www.und.edu/prole/2009-10).The Teacher Education Unit at UND includes programs and

faculty involved in the preparation of teachers and other schoolpersonnel. The Department of Teaching and Learning preparesundergraduate students to earn teaching degrees in earlychildhood, elementary, middle level, and secondary education.There are also a large variety of graduate programs at the master

and doctoral levels.The TEF project is an international collaboration betweenteacher educators in eight countries. These countries include




1 1 9

New Zealand (Christchurch), Australia (Sydney), USA (Oregon,Hawaii, and North Dakota), Fĳi (Suva), Korea (Seoul), Latvia,Mexico, and China. The purpose for this international researchcollaboration investigates the perceptions of educators regardingthe aims and purposes of education as well as issues that need to

be emphasized in the preparation of the future teachers aroundthe world.

The project was originated by the SOU faculty in 2005 andUND was invited to join in fall 2008 with the purpose of examiningthe varying perspectives on the role of education and teacherpreparation programs and current issues facing educators in thisarea of the United States. The survey, developed by SOU, wasthen administered by the UND faculty members to area teacher

educators, classroom teachers, student teachers, and pre-servicestudents who were enrolled in their last semester of classes beforestudent teaching. The questions in this study ask the respondentsto reect on the aims and purposes of education, how teachingpractice supports beliefs about education, and what should be therole of teacher education in preparing teachers for the future.

Teachers and teacher candidates have strong beliefs abouteducation, how students construct knowledge, what is importantto know, and how to ingratiate appropriate behaviors in their

given classrooms. With this in mind, educators o�entimes ndthemselves stuck in a status quo type of thinking instead of takingan existential and /or futuristic approach to their work. The TEFProject has enabled our University to look inward so that we can

begin to state our core values and beliefs, respect them in eachother, and begin to use them for visionary thinking and as avehicle for change. In order to create change in the 21st century,schools of education throughout the United States will need tomake a major paradigm shi� in how we train future teachersas well as implementing non-traditional ways of educating ourstudents.

Hoagland-Smith (2005) discusses what corporate Americais presently doing to beef up their workforce and make extremechanges to their ways of doing business. She states,

Maybe it is time for public education to take a lesson from corporate America who is just now also realizing the impact of so� skills onthe boom line. During the last two centuries, businesses focusedon controlling their employees. The work environment was one of control where individual actions required a chain of approval that




1 2

To aend to the child’s aect and the promotion of so�skills will be of the utmost importance in a world lled withtechnological advancements and the ability to multi-task in avariety of dierent ways.

Data collectionThe surveys were distributed and collected during the

Spring 2009 and Fall 2009 semesters at UND. This study consistedof mixed methods including qualitative and quantitative datacollection and analysis. There were a total of 122 participants,consisting of 37 student teachers, 55 pre-service teachers, 14teacher educators, and 16 classroom teachers. The student teacherand pre-service teacher participants were enrolled in the teachereducation undergraduate programs at the University of NorthDakota, the teacher educator participants were faculty membersof College of Education and Human Development, and theclassroom teacher participants were practicing teachers frompublic schools in Grand Forks, North Dakota.

Surveys contained personal rankings of beliefs concerningeducation and open response questions that were organizedunder the following two themes:

Part 1: The Aims or Purposes of EducationUnder the aims and purposes of education, the respondents

were to rank and select 5 educational purposes that most closelyalign with their own beliefs about the purposes of education from28 choices. Three open-ended questions followed that probeddeeper into how teaching practice reects beliefs and purposes ofeducation, obstacles encountered in aempting to put beliefs intopractice, and factors that supported puing beliefs into practice.

The survey choices included the following:The purpose of education is to:(a) Prepare students for employment(b) Secure in students the skills for independent living(c) Promote material well-being(d) Help students acquire academic knowledge and skills(e) Increase students’ motivation to learn(f) Prepare students to be rational problem-solvers and deci-sion-makers(g) Prepare students to be critical thinkers




1 22

(h) Promote students’ sense of competitiveness(i) Discover and facilitate the realization of each student’shuman potential(j) Develop students’ sense of individuality

(k) Promote positive personality formation(m) Develop students’ ability to raise their standard of liv-ing(n) Prepare students to be productive members of society(o) Develop students’ respect for the beliefs and values ofothers(p) Promote social and emotional development of students

(q) Develop students’ empathy for the needs of others(r) Promote moral development of students(s) Preserve cultural heritage(t) Promote spiritual development of students(u) Create changes in values and beliefs to promote a beersociety(v) Develop positive values and aitudes toward societyand democracy

(w) Create active citizens in local and national society(x) Prepare students to live cooperatively with others in thelarger society(y) Prepare students to understand dilemmas in global sus-tainability(z) Prepare students to be active agents of change for social

justice

(aa) Prepare students to take a role in solving political andreligious conicts(bb) Prepare students to take responsibility for protecting

the environment(cc) Other (please describe)

Part 2: Areas Emphasized in the Preparation of Future Teachers

Under the areas to be emphasized in the preparation of

future teachers, the respondents were to rank and select 5 issuesfor which tomorrow’s teachers should be prepared for from a listof 24 choices. Two open-ended questions followed that probed




1 23

deeper into how teacher education programs can beer preparefuture teacher programs and what should be the focus of teachereducation in the 21st Century. The survey choices included thefollowing:

Teachers in the future will increasingly need to:

(a) Establish a balance between academic and non-academicneeds of students(b) Base curricular decisions on academic content standards(c) Address the discrepancy between personal ideals andteaching practice(d) Employ student-centered approaches(e) Establish collaborative and creative interactions among

teachers(f) Exert a stronger voice in educational change and reform(g) Promote greater mobility and access for students to edu-cational pursuits(h) Encourage a sense of community and belonging in theschool/classroom(i) Foster closer relationships with students’ parents/families(j) Make the curriculum more relevant to work and careeropportunities(k) Adapt or change instructional strategies and deliverymodes(l) Respond to technological change(m) Provide students with tools and skills for active citizen-ship

(n) Instill respect, tolerance, and empathy for other cultures(o) Teach conict resolution skills(p) Address controversial issues while maintaining neutral-ity(q) Uphold universal human rights while respecting localcultural practices(r) Promote equity and opportunity for all students(s) Promote survival skills for planetary citizenship(t) Be beer prepared for teaching basic academic skills andcontent




1 24

(u) Adapt to changing economic, social, and political envi-ronments(v) Be beer prepared for teaching critical thinking(w) Provide students with the tools for improving social

conditions

Quantitative ndingsThere were 2 parts to the questions in this survey: “The Aims

and Purposes of Education” and “Areas to Emphasize in theFuture.” The quantitative data analysis results are summarized inTable 1 and Table 2 for the two parts respectively. For the rst partof the survey, the participants were asked to select 5 educationalpurposes and rank them from 1 to 5 to reect the degree of theirimportance. The participants were asked to do the same for thesecond part of the survey.

Overall, (g), (d), (f), (e), and (n) were ranked the highest in allparticipant responses as to the importance of aims and purposesof education.

Similarities and Dierences among groups:· Pre-service teachers and teacher educators shared simi-

lar beliefs and values as they consistently ranked (g), (d),and (f) in the ranks of 1-3.

· Student teachers and classroom teachers shared similar beliefs and values as they both ranked (f) and (g) as sec-ond and third most important.

· Classroom teachers ranked (e) [Increase students’ moti-vation to learn] as the most important issue to the aimsand purposes of education, while pre-service teachersand teacher educators did not feel as strongly about thatas classroom teachers did.

· All participants ranked (g) [Prepare students to be criti-cal thinkers] highly.




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Table 1: Question One: Aims and Purposes of Education

RankStudentTeachers

N=37

Pre-serviceTeachers

N=55

TeacherEducators

N=14

ClassroomTeachers

N=16

OverallN=122

1 (d) Helpstudentsacquireacademicknowledgeand skills

(g) Preparestudents to be criticalthinkers


(e) Increasestudents’motivationto learn


2 (f) Preparestudents to

be rationalproblem-solvers anddecision-makers

(d) Helpstudents

acquireacademicknowledgeand skills

(d) Helpstudents


(f) Preparestudents to

be rationalproblem-solvers anddecision-makers

(d) Helpstudents


3 (g) Preparestudents to be criticalthinkers

(f) Preparestudents to be rationalproblem-solvers anddecision-makers




4 (n) Preparestudentsto beproductivemembers of

society


(n) Preparestudentsto beproductivemembers

of society

(d) Helpstudentsacquireacademicknowledge

and skills


5 (o) Developstudents’respect forthe beliefsand valuesof others

(i) Discoverandfacilitatetherealizationof eachstudent’shumanpotential

(o)Developstudents’respect forthe beliefsand valuesof others

(n) Preparestudentsto beproductivemembers ofsociety

(n) Preparestudentsto beproductivemembers ofsociety




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Table 2: Question Two: Areas to Emphasize in the Future

Rank

Student

Teachers

N=37

Pre-service

Teachers

N=55

Teacher

Educators

N=14

Classroom

Teachers

N=16

Overall

N=122

1 (d) Employstudent-centeredapproaches

(h) Encouragea sense ofcommunityand

belonging inthe school/classroom

(v) Be beerpreparedfor teachingcriticalthinking

(t) Be beerprepared forteaching basicacademicskills andcontent

(d) Employstudent-centeredapproaches

2 (a) Establisha balance

betweenacademic andnon-academicneeds ofstudents

(d) Employstudent-

centeredapproaches

(d) Employstudent-

centeredapproaches

(l) Respond totechnological

change

(h) Encouragea sense of

communityand belongingin the school/classroom

3 (i) Fostercloserrelationshipswith

students’parents/families

(r) Promoteequity andopportunityfor all

students


students

(k) Adaptor changeinstructionalstrategies

and deliverymodes


students

4 (n) Instillrespect,tolerance,and empathyfor othercultures

(n) Instillrespect,tolerance,and empathyfor othercultures

(k) Adaptor changeinstructionalstrategiesand deliverymodes

(d) Employstudent-centeredapproaches


5 (v) Be beerpreparedfor teachingcriticalthinking


(q) Upholduniversalhumanrights whilerespectinglocal culturalpractices

(h) Encouragea sense ofcommunityand

belonging inthe school/classroom

(n) Instillrespect,tolerance, andempathy forother cultures

Overall, (d), (h), (r), (v), and (n) are ranked the highest in allparticipants’ responses as to the importance of aims and purposesof education.




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Similarities and Dierences among groups:• The dierent groups of participants had more diversity

in their beliefs and values about preparing teachers forthe future as seen from less consistency in terms of the

items chosen and their rankings.• Student teachers, pre-service teachers, and teacher edu-

cators consistently ranked (r) as the third most importantto this question.

• (d) [Employ student-centered approaches] was the be-lief that was ranked as high priority by all four studentteachers, pre-service teachers, teacher educators, andclassroom teachers groups. Although (d) was on the

classroom teachers’ top 5 list, it was ranked as the fourthmost important, as opposed to rst or second most im-portant as ranked by the other three groups.

• Classroom teachers shared a very dierent set of beliefsin regards to this question, as their top 2 (t, l) out ofve beliefs were not the same as any of the other threegroups’ top ve beliefs.

Qualitative ndingsPart 1: Under, “The Aims and Purposes of Education,” the

survey respondents were asked three open-ended questions thatprobed deeper into how teaching practice reects beliefs andpurposes of education, obstacles encountered in aempting toput beliefs into practice, and factors that supported puing beliefsinto practice. The three questions included:

1a. Describe how your teaching practice reects your strongest beliefs about the purpose of education.

1b. What obstacles have you encountered in aempting to putinto practice your beliefs about the purpose of education?

1c. What factors have supported you in puing into practiceyour beliefs about the purpose of education?

The emergent themes for each of the four groups, Student

Teachers (ST), Pre-service teachers (PST), Classroom Teachers(CT), Teacher Educators (TE) will be summarized below.




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Question 1a. Describe how your teaching practice reects yourstrongest beliefs about the purpose of education.

ST PSTDierentiated instructionTeach content knowledgeCreate safe learning environmentsPromote respect/value systems

Critical thinking skillsContent knowledgeProblem solving skillsRelevance

CT TETeach critical thinkingEducate productive members ofsocietyIncrease motivation to learn

Teach critical thinkingImplement dierentiated instructionTeach problem solving skills

Question 1b. What obstacles have you encountered in attempting to put into practice your beliefs about the purpose of education?

ST PSTLack of critical thinkingRigidity in schools/time constraintsLack of motivation/behavioralconcerns

Weak home school relations

Complacent studentsRespect issues

CT TELack of student motivationDiverse student populations

Time constraintsInternal /external obstacles

Question 1c. What factors have supported you in putting your beliefsinto practice?

ST PSTCollege coursework MentorsupportLife experiences/core values

Teaching critical thinking skillsUsing problem solving skillsTeaching content knowledgeCreating relevant learning experiences

CT TEPromoting life-long learningCreating classroom community

Using problem solving skillsHoning positive relationships

Developing cultural/diversityawareness




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Analysis of Part 1The analysis of Part 1 in the surveys held common

reoccurring themes. Developing students into critical thinkersand problem-solvers seemed to be important for all four groups.One respondent stated, “I am not here just to teach students howto read. I believe we are here to teach children to think!” Anotheremphasized the point this way, “I am not an “answer machine. Ithink students need to feel frustration once in a while. They needto learn how to “gure it out.”

Another theme focused on the importance of schoolspreparing students to be productive members of society. Onerespondent wrote, “I believe that schools prepare students to berespectful, responsible, members of society. I do this by creating a

democratic classroom and instilling a strong sense of motivationin my students.” Another shared, “There are many skills neededto become an active, independent, and cooperating citizens.”

Motivating students to learn was another theme discussed by the groups. This was evidenced in quotes that stated, “Withoutmotivation, they won’t be interested and won’t be engaged. As ateacher, it is important to be excited about teaching and learning

because if you are, chances are your students will be too. I wantto instill my students with a passion for learning and acquiring

knowledge that will be carried with them into adulthood.” Thekey was also to make the learning relevant to the students’ livesas stated by this respondent, “I try to make lessons as interactiveand interesting as possible. I build on student interests and relatecontent to the child’s everyday life.”

There were also themes discussed that related to whateective educators must be able to do

-when teaching students. One thread was dierentiating in-struction for all students. A teacher said, “I encourage mystudents to discover their strengths and follow their prefer-ences. I

-don’t like the memorization of facts but the understanding ofconcepts,” while another

-mentioned, “Dierentiated instruction is one thing I believefuture teachers can do to help

-promote equality and opportunity for all students. Also, dif-ferentiating instruction for individual

-students help foster close relationships with parents and fami-lies.” Having a thorough grasp of




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-content knowledge was also discussed many times withquotes such as, “It is critical for teachers

-to know subject content thoroughly in order to be able toadapt instructional practices for all students.” Another

quote stated the need for teachers to be able to “developnew thoughts and ideas on how to teach content by stay-ing ahead of students and not by only using the traditionalmethods of teaching.

Another theme found in the surveys was the importance ofrespect and creating a safe environment. One respondent wrote,“Empathy is needed to be a good teacher. Without empathyteachers would be unable to relate to the students. We have tounderstand students come from dierent backgrounds; dierenthome lives, and have dierent learning styles. Being blind to thiswould hamper the students’ education. We must be empathetic totheir needs, wants, and lives outside the classroom.”

It was also reassuring when respondents grouped together anumber of the themes as shown in this quote. “My emphasis is onproducing empathetic teachers who understand the needs of theirstudents and dierentiate instruction to facilitate the learning oftheir students. I o�en use simulations and discussions to promoteempathy and understanding of others.”

When survey respondents discussed obstacles, the diversityof students was a common concern along with time constraintsand required testing. One explained the testing obstacle in thismanner, “Currently the biggest obstacle in education is theemphasis placed on the test scores to be sure your school ismaking Adequate Yearly Progress, (a mandate of the UnitedStates No Child Le� Behind Act). O�en times teaching to meet theneeds of the test does not match the needs of the students.” While

another touched on diversity in this way, “Diversity is the rulingfactor in our classrooms and around the world. Helping studentsthink about the world will help build a future of more informedand peaceful worldly thinkers.”

In summary one respondent touched on many of the themeswith this quote, “Children need safe, encouraging places wherelearning how to search out knowledge and promote the desire tolearn is always [present] as well as compassion for all humanity.”

Part 2: Under, “Areas Emphasized in the Preparation of

Future Teachers” the survey respondents were asked two open-ended questions that probed deeper into what teacher education




1 3

programs can do to prepare future teachers. The questionsincluded:2a/2b. How do you think Teacher Education programs can best

prepare future teachers to promote the things you discussed above? What else should be the focus of teacher education in the 21st

century?

The emergent themes for each of the four groups, StudentTeachers (ST), Pre-service teachers (PST), Classroom Teachers(CT), Teacher Educators (TE) will be summarized below.

2a/2b. How do you think Teacher Education programs can best prepare future teachers to promote the things you discussed above? What else should be the focus of teacher education in the 21st century?

ST PSTPromote a more holistic curriculumMore eld experiencePrepare for diversity/multiculturalism

More eld experienceMore technology trainingFocus on diversity

Summary of Classroom Teachers (CT) Teacher Educators (TE)

Emergent Themes

CT TEUtilizing technologyMore eld experience

Linking theory and practiceUtilizing technology appropriatelyCreating trusting relationshipsDeveloping cultural/diversityawareness

Analysis of Part 2The analysis of Part 2 in the qualitative portion of the surveyrelated ideas about how teachers should work in the future.Technology, extended eld experiences and diversity werecommon themes permeating all 4 groups. To emphasize the needfor more eldwork one student teacher noted, “Anytime we aregiven the opportunity to interact with students in a classroomseing, so much more can be learned [t]here, rather than in acollege classroom,” another says, “More hands on classroom

experience with expert teachers.” Historically, the idea of handson learning is not a new one, and dates all the way back to theprolic writings of John Dewey.




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With technology changing on an almost daily basis, itis incumbent upon schools of education, their students, andclassroom teachers to stay current and receive the trainingneeded to do so. It also warrants mentioning that the immediatetechnological support must also be in place to embed technologyin creative ways. With this in mind, a classroom teacher hopesfor more meaningful uses of technology as represented by thiscomment “utilizing technology in purposeful ways-not just for thesake of using technology” [is what is needed]. Another mentions,“technology!-use it to inspire, motivate, and engage students.”

Diversity is becoming more prevalent in the Grand ForksPublic schools, the state of North Dakota and the region. Teachersare quite concerned about how to deal with not only intellectual

diversity but cultural diversity as well. A student teacher isconcerned that schools of education must focus on “teachingstudents to be exible and an awareness of the changing faces ofour students.” Several classroom teachers also mention that UNDmust help our education students to be aware of dierences, beadaptable to the multiplicity of the classroom, and be willing to asone put it, “know your students and their needs, and be willing toaccept change.”

ConclusionThe study has lead us to 2 assertions: 1) Teachers must aend

equally to the aective and cognitive needs of their diverse studentpopulations 2) Teachers must inculcate technology in meaningfulways in order to fully engage students and keep them connectedto the current ideologies of a global society. These assertionsagree with many of the ndings from other groups in the TeacherEducation for the Future Project.

This ongoing research intends to focus on collecting more datafrom all the cooperating parties including pre-service teachers,student teachers, classroom teachers and teacher educators.As well, it is possible that the instrument may be modied inorder to be more exacting on what the needs of our students, theuniversity, and the state of North Dakota as a whole.

Another overriding goal of this study is to use the collecteddata as an impetus for departmental reection and critical action.It is through the continual discussion and reective process that

schools of education beer ourselves and continually work asactive agents of change, all the while deepening our understandingof education from a global perspective.




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As the agship university of the State of North Dakota, it isour responsibility to share our ndings with colleagues, sisterinstitutions, and contribute to the literature in the rising eld ofglobal education. As we do this, we will continue to be activein the Teacher Education for the Future Project and use thiscollaborative to understand not only ourselves, but our colleaguesand students from around the world.

ReferencesAyers, W. (2001). To teach. New York: Teachers College Press.Bergland Holen, J. (2009). Rubrics rules requirements: What about

risk? Teaching & Learning: The Journal of Natural Inquiry and Reec-tive Practice. 23, (2), 72-87.

Bergin, C., Bergin, D. (2009). Aachment in the classroom. EducationalPsychology Review , 21, 141-170.

Conner, L., Greene, W. (2006). Teacher education for the future proj-ect: A collaborative study of diverse perspectives from Fĳi, Korea,the United States and Latvia. General Scope and Purpose. In A.Pipere (Ed.), Education and Sustainable Development: First Steps To-wards Changes , 1, (319-323). Daugavpils: Daugavpils University.

Hoagland-Smith, L. (2005, October 23). Education needs to emphasize so�skills that translate into hard cold cash. Retrieved December 21, 2009,from hp://ezinearticles.com/?Education-Needs-to-Emphasize-

So�-Skills-that-Translate-into-Hard-Cold-Cash&id=85905.(2009-2010) www.und.edu/prole/




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IntroductionUnlike Poland, Canada does not have a national system of

education. Each province and territory has its own system of

schooling. One advantage of having separate school plans in acountry as large as Canada is that regional needs are more likelyto be dealt with. Conversely, a single system of schooling mightstrengthen Canadian identity.

Purpose of the ArticleThe purpose of this article is to compare Polish and Canadian

primary and secondary education in terms of systems, curriculum,governance and teacher education.

Polish and Canadian educators are sensitive to the linguisticneeds of minority groups. Generally speaking, the language ofinstruction in Polish schools is Polish, but there are provisionsfor Slovaks, Ukrainians, Jews, Germans, Byelorussians andLithuanians to be taught all subjects in their own language(Janowski 1992, p. 49). Likewise, “minority language education”(English or French) is provided for in Canada (Council of Ministersof Education, Canada).

Prairie View A&M University, USAAGH University of Science and Technology, Cracow, Poland

Teresa A. Hughes, Norman L. Butler,

William A. Kritsonis and David HerringtonUSA, POLAND*

PRIMARY AND SECONDARYEDUCATION IN CANADA

AND POLAND-COMPARED:INTERNATIONAL IMPLICATIONS



Teresa A. Hughes et al.: Primary and secondary...

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Both Poles and Canadians are commied to the notion ofcompulsory education and public (state) schooling. Poles startschool at age 7 and can leave at age 18; Canadians are expectedto begin their studies generally between 5 and 7 years of agedepending on the province or territory and remain in school untilthey are 16 or older (Council of Ministers of Education, Canada).As a maer of fact, there are guarantees in both countries forprivate schools and special education.

Perhaps, the main feature of Polish and Canadian educationrespectively is: 1) the studying of West European languages at anearly age

1which are of benet to Poles in the European Union

and 2) religious tolerance (Johnson 1968, p. 5). In some Canadianprovinces, there are separate school systems based upon religious

preference, Ontario and Quebec, for example.It is the recent reforms in Polish primary and secondaryeducation that motivate this study. The theoretical frameworkfor this work is supplied by the general notion of the school as anorganization and social institution.

The Systems and CurriculumIn September 1999 the Polish Ministry of National Education

and Sport introduced signicant changes into the primary and

the secondary school system (Kucińska, 23 February, 2000;Ministerstwo Edukacji Narodowej, 1999, pp. 3-72; MinisterstwoEdukacji Narodowej, 1999, pp. 3-80; Ministerstwo EdukacjiNarodowej, 1999, pp. 3-48). The number of years of primaryschooling was reduced from 8 to 6 years, 3 year junior secondaryschools (gymnasiums) were created, and starting in September2001 students (depending on their academic ability) begantheir studies in either 3 year academic senior secondary schools(specialized lyceums) with the possibility of earning a schoolleaving certicate (the matura) or 2 year vocational seniorsecondary institutions (Bogaj et al. 1999, p. 70).

The Ministry hopes that junior secondary schooling will leadto an increase in the number of pupils entering secondary schooldue to the fact that these institutions will be beer staed andequipped than many primary schools (Kucińska, 23 February,2000, Ministry of National Education, 2000, pp. 12-13). Poland’srural dwellers will most likely signicantly prot from this

particular change. A UNESCO report entitled “Republic of PolandEducation For All: The year 2000 assessment” indicates that 35%of the urban adult population have nished secondary school




1 37

whereas somewhat less than 15% in rural centers have done so.The establishment of junior secondary schools is in itself a benet

because it segregates pupils between the ages of 13 to 15 frommuch younger ones.

2That is, of course, if these schools are located

apart from primary institutions.Academic schools include broad vocational training in their

curriculum, and the vocational schools oer “wide elds of study”instead of “narrow ones” which prepare students to move from“one vocation to another” (Bogaj et al. 1999, p. 86; Kupisiewicz,1999, pp. 105-108). This approach to vocational education isvery much in keeping with the labor requirements of a globalmarket economy which Poland now is now part of. Moreover, itis possible for those students who originally choose to study at

vocational institutions to prolong their education in two gradeacademic schools and then write the school leaving exam (Bogajet al. 1999, p. 71; Ministry of National Education, 2000, p. 4).

The new system involves: 1) integrated skills teaching forthe rst three years, 2) block instruction for the next three and 3)teaching by subject throughout junior secondary school. In the oldsystem, instruction by subject began in the second grade. Sinceit is thought that children have diculty dierentiating betweensubjects at an early age these changes in teaching practices are an

aempt “to make the school t the child” (Kucińska, 23, February,2000). Besides, these new initiatives include standardizing thewrien part of the school leaving exam (the matura) resulting inincreased equivalency of school leaving certicates (Szymański2000, p. 197).

Major changes also took place in the Ontario secondaryschool system of education. Grade 13 was abolished at the endof the 2003-2004 school year. Therefore, Ontario learners are nowable to pursue post-secondary learning opportunities a�er 12years of schooling as is the case with their Polish counterparts.

Furthermore, according to a 1998 report published by theCouncil of Ministers of Education, Canada, interesting initiativeswere happening a few years ago in education in other parts ofCanada:

1. The “development and implementation of curriculum thatreected the Dene and Inuit perspectives” (NorthwestTerritories).

2. The development of “common curriculum and assessmentinstruments at the K-12 level” (Newfoundland andLabrador).




1 38

The rst initiative suggests that the government of theNorthwest Territories is sensitive to the needs of its aboriginalcitizens.

Governance and Operation of the Systems of EducationThere is wide participation pertaining to educationaladministration in Poland and Canada. In Poland, pedagogicalsupervision is carried out by the Ministry of National Educationand Sport. The responsible minister is represented at thevoivodeship level by a superintendent (kurator) and at theinstitution level by a school head-teacher or director (Ministryof National Education, 2000, p. 31). On the other hand, theadministration of school aairs is handled by district authorities

(senior secondary schools) that are smaller government unitsthan voivodeships and communes (kindergartens, primary and junior secondary institutions) that are even smaller still (Ministryof National Education, 2000, p. 29). All educational expendituresare covered by the state budget (hp://www.ibe. unesco.org/international/databanks/dossier/mainfram.htm). Communes mayhave diculty carrying out their responsibilities due to a lackof expertise even though the EU has provided assistance for thetraining of local administrators of education through their Term

Plan (OECD, 1996, p. 98; Bogaj, et al. 1999, p. 107). During theCommunist Period such responsibilities were undertaken by theMinistry of National Education and Sport.

Each Canadian province has a department of education thatlooks a�er K-12 schooling (Withworth 1995, p. 404). Individualschools headed by principals are under the inuence of school

boards whose areas are provincially determined. Boards areresponsible for the commercial side of education such as: 1) thehiring of teachers and 2) the purchasing of equipment (Withworth1995, p. 404).

Supplying Personnel for the Systems of EducationK-12 teacher education normally occurs only in Canadian

universities (Berg 1995, p. 624) when in fact in Poland varioussorts of higher schools like universities, academies and higherpedagogical institutions participate in such training whichprovides opportunities for dierent kinds of learning experiences

(Bogaj et al. 1999, p. 209).The status of teachers who are employed in the Polishpublic school system is dened in the Teachers’ Charter which




1 39

has recently been amended (18 February, 2000) by parliament(Ministry of National Education, 2000, p. 34). At the moment,there are four “categories of teaching posts”: trainee teacher,contracted teacher, appointed teacher and chartered teacher. Also,provisions are made in the charter concerning advancement,wages and working conditions. The Charter does not cover termsof employment -communes and district authorities are responsiblefor such maers (Kuchinska, 11 October, 2001). On the otherhand, provincial and territorial governments are responsible forteacher certication in Canada which restricts the movement ofteachers from one part of the country to another. However, thereare agreements concerning the “transfer of teacher credentials”from one jurisdiction to another (http://www.ibe.unesco.org/

international/databanks/ dossiers/ mainfram.htm).Polish teachers are limited in their capacity to becomeinvolved in the educational process because teacher − trainingin Poland focuses on preparing them to teach only one subject(OECD, 1996, p. 94). This approach is particularly not suitablefor aspiring primary school teachers because recent changes inprimary school teaching methods (which were mentioned earlier)do not include subject teaching.

Concluding RemarksIn conclusion, civic education is a requirement in Polish

and Ontario schools which means that governments in bothPoland and Canada are aempting to foster democratic idealsand values in their citizens (http://www.civnet.org/journa/issue2/ jfmzbug.html ; http://www. edu.gov.on.ca/eng/document/curricul/secondary/oss/oss.html #diploma).

The integration of technology in teaching and learning is achallenge confronting educators in Canada and Poland.

InterviewsKucińska, Teresa, (MA), Deputy Director of the Department

of Post-Primary Training and Permanent Education, Ministry ofNational Education in the Republic of Poland. Interviewed: 23February 2000 and 11 October 2001 in Cracow.

ReferencesBogaj, A., Kwiatkowski, S., Szymański, M. (1999). Education in Poland

in the process of social change. Institute for Educational Research,Warsaw.




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Council of Ministers of Education, Canada (1998). Report on education,Council of Ministers of Education, Canada. Retrieved February9, 2004, from hp://www.cmec.ca/reports/nec98 and hp://www.civnet.org/journal/issue2/jfmzbug.html. Retrieved March30, 2006, from hp://www.edu.gov.on.ca/eng/document/curricul/

secondary/oss/oss.htm#diploma and hp://www.ibe.unesco.org/countries/countrydossiers.htm Janowski A. (1992). Polish education: Changes and prospects. Oxford

Studies in Comparative Education 2(1), 41-55. Johnson, F. (1968). A brief history of Canadian education. Toronto,

Canada: Mc Graw Hill Company.Kupisiewicz, C. (1999). O Reformach Szkolnych, Wydawnictwo

Akademickie „Żak”, Warszawa.Ministerstwo Edukacji Narodowej (1999). O reformie programowej

gimnazjum, Ministerstwo Edukacji Narodowej, Warszawa.Ministerstwo Edukacji Narodowej (1999). O reformie programowej,

kształcenie blokowe, Ministerstwo Edukacji Narodowej,Warszawa.

Ministerstwo Edukacji Narodowej (1999). O reformie programowej,kształcenie zintegrowane, Ministerstwo Edukacji Narodowej,Warszawa.

Ministerstwo Edukacji Narodowej (2001). O egzaminie maturalnymod 2002, Ministerstwo Edukacji Narodowej, Warszawa.

Ministry of National Education (2000). The Polish system of national

education in the period of reforms. Ministry of National Education,Warsaw.OECD (1996). Review of national policies for education: Poland, Paris.Republic of Poland education for all: The year 2000 assessment. Retrieved

January 2, 2003, from hp://www.unesco. orh/efa/wef/countryreports/Poland/contents.html.

Szymański, M. (2000). Polish education in the period of changes.In C. Majorek and E.V. Johanningmeir (Ed.) Educational reformin national and international perspectives: Past, present and future.Cracow: Polish Academy of Sciences Publishing House.

University of Toronto. The essential U of T . Retrieved January2, 2003, from hp://www.igrary.utoronto.ca/admissions/international.htm

Whitworth, F. (1995). Canada: Education. In The Encyclopaedia Americana , vol. 5, Grolier Incorporated.

Notes1. Starting in the late 1940’s, the Russian language was adopted as

the primary foreign language to be instructed to all students from

the age of 11 and upwards, regardless of the kind of institution(Janowski, 1992, p. 43). A “West European language” was




1 4

oered as a “second foreign language” only to pupils aendingfull secondary school in other words, institutions leading to aschool leaving certicate (Janowski, 1992, p. 43). From the 1989-90 academic year onward the learning of Russian ceased to becompulsory, and, at about the same time, the Polish government

began to encourage the widespread teaching of West Europeanlanguages in schools (Janowski, 1992, p. 50). Fi�y-ve newteacher training colleges have been opened throughout Polandin support of the government’s policy (Janowski, 1992, p. 51).From 1991 to 1992 two foreign organizations endorsed this newtraining initiative by sending volunteers to Poland: 1) SolidarityEastern Europe, a Canadian company and 2) the American PeaceCorps. The author has rst-hand knowledge about the activities of

these organizations. In 1991 he was recruited by Solidarity EasternEurope to teach English at The Technical University of Rzeszów,and while he was there he got to know one Peace Corps worker.

2. This point was made by Mgr Jadwiga Tyszownicka who is a seniorlecturer in English at the University of Science and Technology inCracow.

3. The Polish school leaving certicate is a recognized qualicationfor admission to undergraduate programs at the University ofToronto, a leading Canadian university with an internationalreputation, suggesting that both Polish and Canadian secondaryschooling are of similar standard (University of Toronto).

AbstractThis article compares Polish and Canadian primary and

secondary education in terms of systems, curriculum, governanceand teacher education. It is motivated by the recent changes in Polishschooling. The theoretical framework for the work is supplied by the

general notion of the school as an organization and social institution.Citizenship education and the integration of technology in teachingand learning are of concern to educators in Poland and Canada.




1 42




1 43

Changes in the national educational system in the last decadeas well as expectations from teachers in the context of socialand cultural changes in Poland, are broadly discussed both inpedagogic literature and in the mass media creating the teacher’simage. The imageI is supplemented with legal regulationsindicating kinds and types of educational tasks required from

teachers, as well as standards of social behaviour, resulting from broadly understood culture of our society. All of the above-mentioned aspects determine the kinds of aitudes expectedfrom teachers. So, in the rst place I will show the contexts ofteachers professional training and their activity in the developingof educational system. A number of questions are asked here:

* What objectives do we want to achieve in the future in thearea of the development of education? Do we only build avision or do we also construct “tools” for the achievement offormulated long-term goals?

* Why is there such a big discrepancy between democracy ofthe ruling elites and democracy in schools?

* What can be the consequences of transferring (applying)solutions taken from other educational systems to areformed system of a given country?

*What are the possibilities of using mutual experience? Whatcan we do to help one another?

*Is it enough to co-operate and understand the participants of aproject to carry out planned changes?

Danuta Skulicz

A. F. M. Krakow UniversityPOLAND

TEACHER’S ACTIVITY IN THEDEVELOPING OF EDUCATIONAL

SYSTEM



Danuta Skulicz: Teacher’s activity in the developing...

1 44

*To what extent do political reasons decide about the future ofeducation and to what extent the expert ones?

*Is there any research conducted in the area of using pedagogictheories in educational practice? To what extent does the

status of the theory inuence undertaking system solutions?*What is the extent of the participation of expert theoreticians in

implementing reforms in educational system?*What is the role of teachers in reforming educational systems

and what should teachers be like?*Can decentralization lead to segregation, separation and a

division into local and regional spheres?

* Are university teachers ready to take the role of “teachers ofteachers” in the reformed educational systems?

Here are the most interesting “views of experts on some ofthe questions that will be presented below in the form of concisestatements.

Politics determines almost all aspects of social life to a largeextent. Education is not outside its inuence, on the contrary,education constitutes a very strong instrument in the area of

politics. Politicians reform educational systems making theirown idea superior to teacher’s arguments. Not being teachersthemselves but civil servants , they formulate own educationalgoals while treating teachers as opponents .

By understanding mutual experiences as well asparticipating in the implementation of created curricula, we tryto achieve balance between political and pedagogic reasoning,although we encounter numerous problems that requiresolution. One of them is the lack of condence on the part of

practitioners towards theoreticians. The practitioners treattheories as a methodology of education and o�en expect concreteanswers to questions concerning solutions where implementingcomplex pedagogical processes. Theoreticians, in turn, think thateverybody understands a hermetic language they use and , anumber of pedagogic elds they create. They are surprised thatpractice still does not match their creative solutions. It seems thatone of the ways to solve that problem is to educate teachers whocarry out research related to the processes realized by theoretitians

and teachers who are considerate and can use acquired theoreticaland methodological knowledge in practice.




1 45

Mobility of school resulting from the necessity to adjust itto certain formal requirements limits the possibilities of takingadvantage of scientic and educational projects created that arenot always compliant with social needs.

Three trends in the development of the pedagogic thoughthave determined educational system organizations for centuries.They are the following: idealism, pragmatism and naturalism.The pragmatic trend has had the greatest inuence uponpoliticians’ decisions We can see it, for instance, in England whereretired teachers with dozens years of experience are employedat present. Politicians perceive in such a method a chance for apositive solution when it comes to dicult social problems, inaccordance with a model proved good in the past. However,

they do not fully realize that looking for certainty in the poorlyunderstood use of the ’tradition’ makes them ridiculous instead ofgiving a reason to be proud of. Simultaneous commercializationof social and cultural life, omnipresent liberalism and relativism,computerization and mass media ruling people places teachersin a completely new professional situation in which the so farexperience seems to be not very useful.

Decentralization of educational systems undoubtedlyincreases the chance for the implementation of personal goals.

They may be congruent with global goals, provided the laerare formulated in the form of the most important values,penetrating the life of school, family, local community and agiven region. Developing universal values and not striving for’some kind of’ future may lead to such form of education thatwill be beyond ethnic, racial, religious, regional, national orstate divisions. Willingness to be separated from others and theinterests of ruling elites, temporariness of their political goals,views contradictory to opinions of society, do not contribute to thedevelopment of educational systems and are closely connectedwith considerable delays in the development of various spheresof life concerning societies suering from short-sightedness ofpoliticians. Decentralization contributes to the use of funds aimedat supporting the development of particular spheres of life of localcommunities; it also contributes to the creation of a society opento debates and discussions, and to a continuous evaluation of theeducational system so that its development in a specied direction

would not result, as a consequence, in negative phenomena forthe society and individuals living in it. The experience from notso distant Polish history teaches us that it could happen.




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The problems presented here do not cover all problemsof the discussion. However, we need to leave something solelyto memories and impressions of the participants. At the end ofthat report I would like to quote a statement that constitutesthe answer to the last quoted question concerning the role of auniversity and university teachers in educating teachers of todayand tomorrow: “It is an illusion to educate teachers at a university.University gives students an engine, motivation, belief andconviction. A university teacher is more of a guide than an arbiter.If a teacher wants to play their professional role well, they mustlearn throughout their whole life. A university teacher should bean authority and a model, and of course a master in managinglearning processes.

Irrespective of the created image of teachers, we can assumethat each type of their behaviour and aitudes will aect theirsuccesses or failures in teaching. Other factors inuencing theeducational eects also include additional structural changeswithin the educational system in which arbitrary organizationalsolutions have been adopted. Additional factors constituteactivities of local governments, including nancing andsupervision of regional institutions.

Therefore, teachers are particularly involved in all changes

taking currently place in educational system. Furthermore, politicaland social changes aect their social status and performance ofduties. Special signicance is aributed to the changes in the socialsystem of values, including opinions and ethical preferences.“Social changes directly and indirectly inuence social studiesconcerned with education, and above all, educational practice. Inresponse to such changes, studies concerned with education tendto select new axiological preferences, whereupon the old systemof education and upbringing is altered educational practice...Under the inuence of social changes, certain values becomepreferable in education. This happens in such a way that currentaxiology quickly becomes negated with the rise of the new, morepopularly held values inuenced by social changes. A goodexample can be the current legislation preferring such values, asfreedom, individualism, and open interpersonal communication”(Poznaniak 1994, p. 305).

Educational changes may also occur in the process of rivalry

between various social groups and institutions (Polak 1997, pp. 22-23). Although this thesis is not popular, such strategy of changesis not unknown in Polish educational system. The consolidated




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method of introducing changes, functioning in the form of astereotype, undoubtedly aects very concrete activities of thepresent educational authorities. An example can be arbitraryestablishment of a network of schools (types of schools in agiven area), which has been the cause of many conicts betweenauthorities and local communities. Another example can bestrengthening the exclusive status of alternative schools, mostfrequently private and the so-called social ones, in which feeamounts approximately to 50% of average teacher’s salary. Onlyteacher’s salaries are subsidized from the community budget.In principle, apart from a few exceptions in the whole country,there is no European model of free schools subventioned by thestate. According to Margaret Archer, ghts and rivalry in respect

of changes in the universal educational systems are replaced bynegotiations (M. Archer, Social Origins of Educational System,Sage, London 1984). This view has been characterized in thecontext of presenting selected conditions for the modernizationof educational system. The following are the most signicantassumptions of the mentioned concept:

“Negotiations may assume various forms (we can talk about threesources of educational changes). The rst one is the internal initiation. Itmeans that a teacher can initiate a given change. This can be a change on

a small scale (i.e. taking place in one school) resulting from spontaneousinitiatives, or, on a bigger scale, due to group activities. Another formof negotiations is the external transaction meaning the way in whicheducational groups... negotiate with the representatives of educationalenvironment the variants of its development...

The third form of negotiations is political manipulation. Accordingto M. Archer, all three types of negotiations coexist in decentralizedsystems. Political manipulation, on the other hand, dominates incentralized systems...Various forms of negotiations inuence particulareducational changes in dierent ways. In centralized systems thosechanges are abrupt and full of sharp educational windings. On the otherhand, in decentralized systems changes are characterized by continuity,they follow an incremental model in which small local changes accumulateresulting in a signicant scale of changes. In such instances it happensthat sucient autonomy of educational institutions imposes barriers on

political intervention and limits its scope” (Ibidem, pp. 22-23).One of the conditions of autonomy of educational institutions,

which are particularly sensitive to the needs of society, is thedevelopment and activities of subjects of educational processes(i.e. pupils, teachers and school principals). Essential also is the




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awareness of the necessity to implement changes among personssupporting school activities, i.e. parents, local organisations, thechurch and initiatives of local communities. The way, in which theschool itself uses such initiatives depends rst of all on teachersand school principals. It is, to a large extent, due to their activitieswhereby local or regional educational interests can be agreed ornegotiated. It is teachers and school principals who are regardedas direct causes and participants of changes and they are requiredto have special professional competencies, among which thecrucial ones are communicational competencies.

It is worth mentioning the opinion of pedagogues, who whilepresenting in their studies the concept of ’schools of thoughtabout education’ referred theories and educational orientations

to the practice of teachers’ thinking about education (on the basis of research carried out among teachers and students ofteacher training faculties). ’Models of thinking about education’developed on that basis have been categorized in the followingway:

1. Teachers as implementing bodies of the assumptions whichhave been imposed; “school” of fundamental thinking (adominant way of thinking among the participants of thesurvey).

2. Teachers, as ’authentic’ practitioners. It’s ’school’ of theoreticalthinking (frequent way of thinking among the participantsof the survey).

3. Teachers as bodies implementing the culture; ’school’ ofanti-fundamental thinking (a quite frequent way of thinkingamong the participants of the survey);

4. Teachers as negotiators of all signs and meanings of culture;’school’ of negotiations between fundamentalism and anti-

fundamentalism (a small number of such opinions amongthe participants of the survey).Without evaluating or assessing the opinions presented

above, it must be emphasized that in the context of changes takingplace in the educational system, each style of implementation ofprofessional roles requires activity from teachers, both in relationto themselves (self-education and self-development), and towardsthe school and local community. Teachers who are ’passive

performers’ cannot counterbalance the pressure of changesespecially since they take place currently in all basic spheres ofour social life. In this context it is more signicant for teachers to




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’maintain’ the role of a teacher concerning, inter alias, the ability toretain balance between the educational strategy adopted by him/her (or obligatory) and his/her own innovative and even creativeactivities, expressed in the dialogue with social, cultural, civilizedand technical environment.

Teachers who are at the same time school principals are alsoin a dicult position. Their current and long-term role has beendiscussed in the considerations related to school self-development

by Roman Schulz, a recognized theoretician concerned withinnovations in the area of pedagogical studies (Schulz 1996,pp. 121-123). By presenting the infrastructure of self-regulatoryprocesses in the educational system, he emphasized necessity tosatisfy prerequisite conditions by the system. They are as follows:

functional autonomy, access and use of information, introductionof innovations, ecient management and suitable nancialresources. He particularly stressed the role of managementin the area of directing the system development, both in themacro, medium and micro scales. Management should consist increating a suitable subsystem within the educational system. Themanagement system structure and quality of the decision makingprocesses (i.e. taking appropriate decisions by appropriate peoplein appropriate maers and in the appropriate time) constitute,

according to Roman Schulz, two basic conditions of a self-regulatory capability of the educational system.There is also the issue of appropriate managers: their

competencies, personal qualications and communicationalskills. Perturbations in self-regulatory processes at each levelof the eveloping system result in permanent ’apparent work’ or’illusion of work,’ and in broader time perspective, the pathologyof the real internal structure of the system. (For details concerningthis interesting topic, refer to the publications by C. Nosal 1994, p.292 and Kwieciński, 1992).

In the context of changes taking place in the educationalsystem in relation to school principals and other educationalinstitutions, principles resulting from model solutions are beingformulated. At this point, taking into consideration the complexityof the role in question, I will concentrate on the selected andespecially emphasized aspect, i.e. on the innovative and creativemanagement. According to D. Katz and R. L. Kahn (Schulz 1996,

pp. 141-142), such management corresponds to the use of powerfor policy making, consisting in specifying new goals and activityprograms for organizations (institutions). Usually, it is connected




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with the necessity to introduce structural changes. Such type ofmanagement prefers organizational development. In this ’mode’”special emphasis is put on this kind of obligations and behaviourwhich are connected with planning and implementation ofchanges. More and more conspicuous decentralizing tendencieswithin European educational systems are favourable to such kindof management.

In the rst several-year phase, the strategy of reforming Polisheducational system will strengthen the style of managementfocusing on the achievement of specied objectives, formulatingthe evaluation criteria and assessment measures, as well as thestyle of performing administration duties, or practical use ofestablished rules related to current situations. This perspective

does not release schools principals from their responsibilityfor the change and development of the educational system; onthe contrary, it expects them to self-educate, learn, introduceinnovative development and creative style of school management.

According to D. Katz and R. L. Kahn, each type ofmanagement requires from people representing various cognitivestyles to possess knowledge of various kinds and levels, aswell as to possess various aective capabilities. And thus,innovative and creative management is connected with the basic

cognitive requirement, i.e. systemic perspective, and the aectivemanagement, i.e. charisma.The management of the second type, focusing on the

achievement of objectives and evaluation of results, is connectedwith the intra-systemic orientation. The cognitive requirementis to possess knowledge (including also the technical one) ofthe structure of the tasks to be implemented and knowledgeof interrelations between the elements of subsystems. Aectivequalications include the ability to integrate the elements of asubsystem, as well as to create proper interpersonal relations, i.e.communicational skills, in a given institution. On the third levelof the administrative management, a proper technical knowledgeconcerning tasks whose performance of the object of control isrequired, together with understanding formal bases of activitiesof a given institution. Aective qualications include the abilityto use binding rules and regulations governing the managedprocesses.

The model characteristics presented above, concerning theprofessional and personal qualications of school principalscan be used for the analysis of various levels and mechanisms




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administering educational system. They especially help in theunderstanding of the specicity of the requirements, which haveto be satised by a person willing to become a school principal.This role may be also performed through the presentation ofinnovative and creative initiatives among teachers co-operatingwith the principal.

The present situation of changes within the structure of theeducational system seems to be especially favourable to activefulllment of professional roles, both by teachers and schoolprincipals. In the context of the viewpoints presented above, thequestions have been posed about how in the present situationthose roles are performed, as well as in which areas the activitiesof teachers and school principals contribute to the development of

the educational system and in which they strengthen the modelsof the old activities..I will give the answers to the above-formulated questions by

presenting the results of a survey carried out among �y femaleteachers teaching early grades who completed studies at teachertraining colleges and specialized in early school pedagogy and in1999 (at the beginning of the reform of Polish Educational System)were the rst year students of graduate studies in the Institute ofPedagogy at the Jagiellonian University.

The questions posed in the basic version of questionnaireconcerned the following subjects:* the participation of teachers in the changes taking place in the

educational system,* priorities of their work,* specication of the areas in which the changes are benecial

and those in which changes are inevitable,* indicating directions to follow in order to implement the

proposed changes,*the evaluation of the activities of school principals by the

teachers, indication of areas in which they perform theirroles well and in which areas of their activities changes areindispensable.

The teachers participating in the research come from the areaof Southern Poland and were employed mainly in rural areas andin small towns: 42 percent of the participants of the survey.

The participants have dierent number of years of experienceas teachers; the group of experienced teachers working over sixyears were numerous and constitutes 36 persons. They began




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studies at the University in order to keep their jobs: it is required by law for teachers to have a diploma of higher education. Beforethey started higher education, the teachers worked in schools ornursery schools a�er nishing two-year post-secondary teachertraining studies. These studies did not have the status of universitystudies and a�er 1990 they started to be systematically liquidated.Most frequently the graduates of teacher training studies lastingtwo years were women coming from rural areas and smalltowns.At present, in the face of competition, they aended thepaid extramural courses (the number of graduates of early schoolpedagogy a�er ve-year university graduate studies grows and itis easier for them to nd a job). Many of them, to further developtheir professional skills, additionally did teacher development

courses workshops organized mainly by educational centers.One of conditions of active participation in the changeswas their acceptance and positive aitude of the participants ofchanges towards the undertaken activities. In principle, almostall respondents declared that they participate in the changeswillingly, although some of them were active because they likesuch kind of activities. However, a number of them were willingto perform tasks assigned to them, but would like the principals’requirements to be formulated clearly. Because of a great number

of curricula and textbooks approved for use by the Ministry ofEducation and the obvious possibilities of selection by teachers,they expected help concerning the selection, frequently even aconcrete suggestion. Their comments concerning pedagogicalinnovations conrm that situation. All the teachers claimed thatthey appreciate innovations, but only four of them declared thatthey introduced innovations out of their own initiative. Twopersons said that they did not see any need for changes andthat they did what they had to. Therefore, we can say that theacceptance of the changes taking place in teaching early gradesis universal. In connection with the changes introduced, theteachers regarded greater possibilities of good and eective workwith pupils, introduction of changes related to the reform into thecurricula, as well as the possibilities of self-development (studiesand teacher development courses and workshops), as the mostimportant at their work. Concerning more eective work withpupils, many of them declared the introduction of new and active

methods of teaching, as well as the change in the organizationof classes (doing away with the division into 45-minute lessons,introduction of breaks any time, variety of forms of work, the




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increase of school trips, etc.). Teachers started to co-operate moreclosely with parents. All undertaken and declared activities wereconnected with the introduction of the reform, and therefore,with the implementation of certain required activities. There wasnot much real initiative on the part of the teachers. Only four ofthem declared that they introduced their own curricula and twoof them transferred someone else’s curricula. Listing the benetsof changes taking place in the educational system right now andspecifying own activities in that area, only ve of the participantsof the survey claimed that they appreciated the possibilities of freework planning, selection of curricula and textbooks, independenceand the possibilities of creating and implementing own curricula.It is also interesting to analyze the teachers’ aitude towards co-

operation with parents. Although they declared a larger extentof such cooperation, only six persons could see advantagesand certain benets of such contacts. The teachers also noticedcertain drawbacks concerning the changes. The most frequentlyenumerated ones included the following: bad organization ofthe whole school and dicult access to dierent curricula andtextbooks, which in consequence causes that the choice waslimited to those which were currently available on the market.It was worthwhile to emphasize that the Ministry of Education

had approved several dozen curricula, however, only few ofthem were available. The result of the changes was also imposingadditional organizational work on teachers who complainedabout that and perceived it as the limitation of time that could

be used for their self-development and for their families. It must be also emphasized that the increase of the salary did not matchthe changes in the scope of teachers’ responsibilities and theremuneration was dramatically low. The teachers also mentionedother disadvantages of the reform, especially the insecurity ofwork. They said that within the last ve years change of termsand have aected have been aected by changes of terms andconditions of their jobs (employment contracts or place of work),and the chance for professional stabilization was even smaller.

Organization of schools, about which teachers complainedso o�en, depends, to a large extent, on the principal. Therefore,we asked the teachers to express their opinions about schoolprincipals. Based on a ve-level scale, 32 persons evaluated their

principal’s work as satisfactory and lower. The highest scorereceived principal’s pedagogical activities consisting of didacticand upbringing activities (way of communication with pupils




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and solving behavioral problems). Next, teachers evaluated quitehigh the principals’ administrative operations, and a bit lower,their organizational skills. Very low score concerned principal’scommunication with the environment and managerial activities.

The lowest score they received for the way of communicatingwith teachers. 28 persons evaluated this aspect as satisfactoryor lower, while 15 persons assessed the principal’s work in thisrespect as really positive. It was worthwhile asking a question, atthis point, to what extent teachers, as participants of the processare responsible for this poor communication. We do not have datanecessary to answer this question. However, we can claim thatthis low score is veried by the equally low score in respect ofcommunication with the environment and managerial activities

requiring extensive communication skills. The teachers askedabout what should be changed in the principal’s work, postulatedin the rst place to change the way the principal communicateswith them and next his organizational activities in the school. Inthe context of such opinions it is dicult to expect that principalspaid special aention to supporting innovative and creativeactivities of the teachers or stimulated them in this area. Perhapsthe tension present right now among teachers in many schools isconnected with complex introduction of the educational systemreform, which both teachers and principals are not well preparedfor. Summing up, we can say that despite the signs of extensiveactivities among teachers and positive aitude towards thechanges taking place, they played their roles in a conservativemanner, not showing in principle their innovative and creativeactivities. They tried to be active performers of tasks assignedto them. By using their experience and knowledge (also theknowledge they were acquiring currently) they tried, as best as

they could, to function in the structures of the new system, whichthey cannot inuence at all. Similarly, the principals played theirroles in the areas in which the routine activities were consolidated.They did not succeed signicantly in those areas in which it wasnecessary to possess the skill of innovative activities (organizationof schoolwork), as well as communicative skills (e.g. co-operationwith teachers and local community).

It is important for us, i.e. academic teachers, to nd a wayconcerning how to support teachers and principals in developing

their innovative and creative professional activities. We haveundertaken certain concrete activities. The schedule of courses for




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extramural teacher training studies should include the subjectswhich will be realized in the form of the following workshops:

1. Construction of educational curricula.2. Interpersonal and social communication.

3. School management.4. Negotiations in school society.

Those are examples – the list of proposition is open…Let us hope that the teachers and principals really use the

competencies they have acquired while introducing improvementsto schools.

We all are wondering about competencies of school principalsand teachers, as well as social conditions contributing to the

independent and creative school management.Undoubtedly, such conditions are present in our state, which

we organized owing to decentralization consisting in the transferof direct responsibility for functioning of the whole infrastructurefrom central authorities to local governments. In such a socialarrangement schools or rather their principals take responsibilityfor the implementation of reforms and nancial responsibility.That is why, each school as an independent and autonomous

institution should be a learning and improving organization.Therefore, it should also have a capability (autonomy) ofmeasuring the results of its own activities. It results from the abovethat Management through learning is another crucial step towardsmaking decentralization reality. It is extremely important tosupport schools in that process through local authorities, inspectorsand advisors, based on their co-operation with school principals.The basis for such co-operation should be an assumption adopted

by all parties that school is a learning organization and a dialogue

and negotiations should constitute basic forms of communicationwhile implementing specied tasks expressed also in the form ofvalues.

During the discussion, which academic teachers organizedwith the school teachers, principals and supervisors, theparticipants emphasized a considerable importance of thecooperation between school principals. It was stated that it is veryimportant to point out similarities and dierences between resultsof work of particular schools. It results from various conditionsof work in school even within one city. The participants agreedthat a basic instrument of a co-operation should be the exchange




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of information concerning independent projects within schools’work, as well as results of evaluation. Areas of schools’ work thatshould be taken into consideration were enumerated. They are asfollows:

1. work procedures and teaching role (structure of activities inclasses, teachers’ own learning, structure of leadership).2. use of resources and support to students with dierent

disabilities.3. student’s responsibility and inuence on their own learning

process.4. students’ achievements and feedback.

Schools should also acquire support from competentinstitutions that are concerned with preparing appropriaterequirement standards, allowing for a proper evaluation ofnal results to be achieved by students at a given stage of theireducation. It is especially important in Poland, where thereare barriers between particular kinds of schools in the form ofentrance examinations. Transition in the management of schoolswork from managing based on regulations to managing throughgoals and from authoritarian management to participation

management was also emphasized as an important eect of thedecentralization. The participants focused on the considerablesignicance of schools’ values and vision as main sources of theiractivities such as planning and evaluation. Against the backgroundof these considerations, the results of research concerning the roleof students, teachers and principals in the school understood inthe above manner were presented. With reference to students,the participants stressed their contribution as participants of theeducational process, i.e. belief in their own strength, need success,creative activities and ability to co-operate. The values listedtogether with the spheres of activities were perceived as extremelyimportant while the implementation of the vision of a learningschool. Conditions of teachers and school principals as well astheir readiness to manage educational processes in autonomousschools were presented in detail in papers. Everybody agreed that

both teachers and school principals burdened with numerous andexcessive duties lose their enthusiasm and motivation for creative

and innovative activities. It sometimes happens that they do notpossess suitable competencies and needs for taking independentand autonomous decisions as a result of independent management




1 57

of educational processes. Their independence is o�en apparentsince they must subject themselves to a political lobby which ispresent at each level of administration in the country, and whoseinterests are not always consistent with the pedagogic vision of agiven school.

ReferenceArcher M. (1984). Social Origins of Educational System. London.Kwieciński Z. (1992). Socjopatologia edukacji. Warszawa.Nosal C. (1994). Kształcenie umysłu - na progu edukacyjnej

rewolucji. In: Edukacja wobec zmiany społecznej. J. Brzeziński, I.Witkowski, (Ed.). Poznań -Toruń.

Polak K. (1997). Nauczyciel Twórczość Promocja. Wybraneuwarunkowania modernizacji oświaty. Kraków.

Poznaniak W. (1994). Stygmaty i dylematy etyczne w warunkachzmiany społecznej. In: Edukacja wobec zmiany społecznej. J.Brzeziński, I. Witkowski, (Ed.) Poznań -Toruń.

Schulz R. (1996). Studia z innowatyki pedagogicznej. Toruń.




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What are Post-Secondary (Grammar) Vocational SchoolsPost-secondary vocational institutions, which are part of the

Polish secondary school systems of schooling, prepare secondaryschool graduates for employment as “skilled manual workers ortheir equivalent” and specializations requiring secondary schoolqualications (Ministry of National Education, 1994 10). There arethree types of schools: 1) public (state), 2) non-public and 3) non-

public with state-school status. These post-grammar vocationalinstitution programs which lead to a diploma can be completedwithin three years, depending on the occupational track (Ministryof National Education, 1994,10). All programs insist upon thecompletion of secondary school prior to entry.

AGH University of Science and Technology, Cracow, PolandTroy University, USA

Institute for Educational Research, Warsaw, PolandLamar University, USAPrairie View A&M University, USA

Norman L. Butler, Barry S. Davidson, Ryszard

Pachocinski, Kimberly G. Grifth, William A.KritsonisUSA, POLAND*

INTERNATIONAL PERSPECTIVES:

POLISH POST – SECONDARY

VOCATIONAL SCHOOLS AND

CANADIAN COMMUNITY COLLEGES:A COMPARISON USING AN

INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY

CONCEPTUAL MODEL



Norman L. Butler et al.: International Perspectives...

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What are Post-Secondary (Grammar) Vocational SchoolsPost-secondary vocational institutions, which are part of the

Polish secondary school systems of schooling, prepare secondaryschool graduates for employment as “skilled manual workers ortheir equivalent” and specializations requiring secondary schoolqualications (Ministry of National Education, 1994 10). There arethree types of schools: 1) public (state), 2) non-public and 3) non-public with state-school status. These post-grammar vocationalinstitution programs which lead to a diploma can be completedwithin three years, depending on the occupational track (Ministryof National Education, 1994,10). All programs insist upon thecompletion of secondary school prior to entry.

What are Canadian Community Colleges?

The term community college is generic. According to theAssociation of Canadian Community Colleges, communitycolleges are characterized by a number of designations includingcollege of applied arts and technology, College d’EnseignementGeneral et Professionnel (CEGEP) institute of technologyand university college (Association of Canadian CommunityColleges). The main task of the institutions is to respond to theeducational concerns of vocationally orientated school graduates

and the training needs of both the public and the private sector(Association of Canadian Community Colleges).In the beginning, colleges oered learners only certicates

and diplomas, however, at the moment, some of them awarduniversity degrees as well, and a number oer university transferprograms (Association of Canadian Community Colleges).

IntroductionUnlike Poland, Canada does not have a national system of

education - each province and territory has its own system ofschooling. One advantage of having separate school plans in acountry as large as Canada is that regional needs are more likelyto be dealt with. Conversely, a single system of schooling mightstrengthen Canadian identity.

There are guarantees in both countries for private schoolsand special education.

Purpose and Motivation for this InvestigationThe aim of this study was to compare Polish post-secondary

vocational institutions with Canadian community colleges. The




1 6

rationale for doing so is because on one hand many collegecourses in Canada are occupationally directed and require atleast some secondary school aendance prior to admission; onthe other hand, in Poland, one must complete secondary schoolprior to starting a post-grammar vocational institution course.Moreover, post-secondary vocational schools in Poland do notaward university degrees, nor do most community colleges.Finally, it must be stressed that these two kinds of institutions arecomparable, but not equivalent.

Our comparison focused upon programs in: informationtechnology (3) because we live in an information age (Kupisiewicz1999, p. 111).

This investigation was undertaken to provide information in

Canada and Poland about programs with a common mission and because of: the changes that have been taking place in the Polishprimary and secondary school system of education.

Theoretical FrameworkSince the 1980s (Byron and Glagiardi) massive changes have

occurred in the area of information technology (for example, thedevelopment of the Internet and (CD-ROMS) which have resultedin more knowledge being available that has brought about a newform of human relationships in terms of participation, feedbackand partnership.

That being the case it is reasonable to compare Polish post-secondary vocational schools and Canadian community collegesin terms of the manner in which these two kinds of institutionsadopt this new form because “Education is not only a preparationfor life; it is a development in life” (King 1979, p. 12).

This study focused upon the feedback aspect of the theoretical

model.The Research Methodology

Method of Data CollectionA program evaluation form was administered to learners

in both Poland and Canada. Furthermore, it consisted of 33statements, and covered three areas curriculum (8 statements),learning materials (5 statements) and instruction (20 statements).

In addition, space was available following each group ofstatements for comments and recommendations. At the top of therst page provisions were made for students to:




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1) write the name of their institution and their program ofstudies and

2) indicate the year of their studies and sex (male/female).The form and the instructions associated with it were

translated from English into Polish. Copies of the form weregiven to eight Cracow School of Information Technology studentsin order to conrm that the instructions to it were understood andthat 30 minutes was sucient time for it to be completed. Theresults of these learners were included in our investigation.

The ProcedureThe program evaluation forms were completed between

January 2001 (Cracow School of Information Technology) and the

fall of 2002 (Confederation).The Analysis

With regard to each student sample:1. The mean, median mode, standard deviation and of the

responses were computed.2. Response percentages were calculated for statements

1-8 (Curriculum), 9-13 (Learning materials) and 14-33(Instruction).

Following this, the resulting information was put intohistogram format.

The RespondentsA. Cracow School of Information Technology. Thirty-two

full-time students took part in our investigation:1) 17 rst year (of which 13 were male and 4 were female) and2) 15 second year (of which 14 were male and 1 was female).

B. Durham College. Fi�een full-time learners lled out ourprogram evaluation instrument (of which 10 were male, 4 werefemale and 1 was male or female)1.

C. Confederation College. Fi�y-seven full-time studentsparticipated in our research:

1) Eighteen rst year (of which 14 were male and 4 werefemale).

2) Twenty four second year (of which 21 were male and 3 werefemale).

3) Fi�een third year (of which 12 were male, 2 were female and1 was male or female).




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The percentage of learners sampled was greater for theCracow School of Information Technology population than forthe Confederation and Durham ones: 80% (32 out of 40), 64% (15out of 89) and 60% (15 out of 25) respectively. This means that theparticipation level in our study was larger for the Polish studentsthan it was for both of their Canadian counterparts.

The ResultsFigures 1, 2, 3 and 4 below illustrate the value for the

measures of central tendency and the standard deviation for eachof the information technology program sample distributions.




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Response percentages for assertions 1-8, 9-14 and 15-33 areshown in Figures 5-8 underneath for each group of information

technology participants.




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DiscussionThe value for both the mode and the median for the

Cracow School of Information Technology, Durham College andConfederation College sample distributions is 1 which means thatcategory Agree contains the highest number of answers and is the




1 67

point in each of the distributions where 50% of the sample falls below and 50% falls above (see Figures 1-4).

The value for the mean is greater for the Polish sampledistribution than for either the Confederation or the Durham one:

1.5 and 1.6 (2nd year students only), 1.3 and 1.2, respectively (seeFigures 1-4). This means that the Polish learners were more likelyto choose category Disagree than their Canadian counterparts andthat the average response for each of the three groups of studentslies between designations Agree and Disagree.

The value for the standard deviation is smaller for both of theCanadian distributions than for the Polish one: .3 (Confederation),.3 (Durham) and .5 (Cracow School of Information Technology(see Figures 1-4). This signies that the spread of answers for the

Polish distribution is larger around the mean than for either of theCanadian ones.Response percentages for statements 1-8 are higher for

category Agree and lower for designation Disagree for boththe Confederation and the Durham students (74.6% and 15.1%and 75% and 15.8%, respectively) than for the Cracow Schoolof Information Technology respondents (64.1% and 20.3% and58.3% and 22.9%) (second year students only) which implies that

the Polish information technology curriculum was not as highlyvalued by learners as the Canadian ones (see Figures 5-8).With regard to statements 9-13, the percentage of answers

is higher for designation Agree and lower for category Disagreefor both the Confederation and the Durham respondents (74.1%and 23.8% and 77.3% and 14.7%, respectively) than for the Polishsample: 56.3% and 33.1% and 47.8% and 38.9% (second yearstudents only) (see Figures 5, 6, 7 and 8). This indicates thatthe learning materials that are used in the Cracow School of

Information Technology program were not highly regarded bystudents as those employed in the Canadian ones.Likewise, instruction was not as highly valued by the Polish

respondents as it was by their Canadian counterparts giventhat response percentages for statements 14-33 are higher forcategory Agree and lower for designation Disagree for both theDurham and the Confederation participants (84.3% and 11.3%and 80.7% and 14.3%, respectively) than for the Cracow Schoolof Information Technology ones (60.3% and 25.8% (second yearstudents only) and 62.5% and 23.9%) (see Figures 5-8).




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Figures 5-8 illustrate that the percentage of Polish studentswho decided upon designation Don’t know for assertionspertaining to curriculum, learning materials and instruction ishigher in each case than for their Canadian tallies: 13.7%, 10.6%and 13.4% as opposed to 8.8%, 2.1% and 4.5% and 16.7%, 13.3%and 13.9% (second year students only) as opposed to 8.3%, 8%and 4%. This indicates that the Cracow School of InformationTechnology learners had less information about their programthan their Canadian counterparts.

The percentage of Cracow School of Information Technology,Durham and Confederation learners that did not choose a category(No answer) for statements 1-33 ranges from 0-2.1 suggestingthat the level of interest shown by the information technology

program participants in our investigation in both Canada and inPoland was very high (see Figures 5-8).

Concluding RemarksThis study compared Canadian community colleges

with post-secondary (grammar) vocational schools in Poland.The comparison concentrated upon programs in informationtechnology that are delivered by one Polish school CracowSchool of Information Technology and two Canadian community

colleges: Durham and Confederation.Our results indicate that both the Polish and the Canadianstudents valued their programs given that answer category agreeis the most popular one for all of the samples and is the pointin each of the distributions where half of the sample falls belowand half falls above. However, response percentages for the threeprogram areas and the value for the sample means suggest thatDurham and Confederation learners held their programs in higheresteem than their Polish counterpart. This might be due to thefact that colleges in Canada are higher up in the school structure‘pecking order’ than post-secondary vocational schools in Poland:post-secondary as opposed to secondary. (Academic achievementis valued in terms of school structure, King 1979, p. 55).

Learner evaluations of teaching (as well as of curriculumand learning materials) are ‘subjective by nature’, so we oughtto keep this in mind when making use of them (Adams).Theymight be inuenced by grades received. Furthermore, the Polish

students in our investigation might not have been as objective intheir evaluations of instruction as their Canadian counterparts forlinguistic reasons. In the English language, teaching and learning




1 69

are considered to be two very dierent activities2 whereas inPolish there is ‘a faint connotation ‘ that learning occurs as a resultof another persons eorts. (Jankowicz 2001, p. 86).3

Are post-secondary vocational school and college studentsqualied to evaluate instruction? It has been suggested thatevaluations are a ‘measure of student satisfaction’, which is anaspect of faculty performance (Adams). Because formal learning isnow a lifelong process (due to rapid advances in technology), it istherefore important for learners to be satised with their teacher’sperformance so that they will have a liking for education.

Given that Poland has recently entered the European Union,it would be useful to compare post-grammar vocational schoolswith their counterparts in EU member states.

It is recommended that additional research be carried out, inthe future, involving a larger number of institutions.

ReferencesAdams, J. V., Student Evaluations: The Rating Game, Inquiry, Volume

1, Number 2, Fall 1997,10-16, hp://www.vccaedu.org/inquiry/inquiry-fall97/i12-adam.html, Retrieved: 10 May.2007

Association of Canadian Community Colleges, hp://www.accc.ca/english/colleges/index.cfm. Retrieved: 3 April, 2007

The Role of Information and Communication Technologies inEducation, UNESCO: International Bureau of Education,hp://www.idrc.ca/acadia/studies/ir-unesl.htm#1/introduction.Retrieved: 25 June 2001.

Jankowicz, D. (2001), A Comparison of Approaches to StudentAssessment in Business and Management Subjects in Polandand the UK, In Jan Steczkowski (Ed.) Dydaktyka XXI wieku,Akademia Ekonomiczna w Krakowie, Kraków

King, E. (1979), Other Schools and Ours. Fi�h Edition, London: Holt,

Rinehard and Winston.Kupisiewicz, C. (1999). O Reformach Szkolnych, WydawnictwoAkademickie „Żak”, Warszawa.

Ministry of National Education in the Republic of Poland (1994),Development of Education in Poland in 1992-1993, Warsaw.

See: www.nationalforum.com

NotesSpecial Note: Special note of gratitude to Dr. Kimberly Grantham Grith

and Dr. William Allan Kritsonis for their professional assistance ingeing this article published in the United States of America. See:www.nationalforum.com




1 70

1. It should be noted that Durham was asked to restrict their sampling tosecond year students due to the anticipated completion date of ourresearch.

2. The same can be said for French (enseigner-apprendre) and German(lehren-lernen).

3. In Polish uczyć means to teach and uczyć się means to learn.

AbstractThis study compares Polish post-secondary vocational institutions with

Canadian community colleges using an information technology conceptual

framework. The research concentrated upon programs in information

technology delivered by one Polish school Cracow School of Information

Technology and two Canadian community colleges Durham (Oshawa,

Ontario) and Confederation (Thunder Bay, Ontario). It is recommended that

additional research be carried out, in the future, involving a larger number of

institutions.




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Introduction

Multiple disability alludes to a condition where the personhas signicative restrictions in more than one of the followingareas: sensory, motor, cognitive and emotional. These limitationsaect the quality of life in many ways. One frequent loss aectscommunication: the person cannot speak being his/her languagemimic, gestual and/or guural . Many of them are non – verbalhaving lile or no speech reliant on hand movements (point toobject), facial expression and body language. Understandingunconventional communication requires an eort for interpreting

the meaning of corporal expressions such as pointing, gesturing,moving the body closer, touching the computer screen, eyegazing, looks and vocalizing.

Communication through fragmentary signs demands a greatneed for inference, questioning and guessing by the listener . Tofacilitate this task alternative and augmentative communicationsystems have been developed. These systems can be adapted tothe computer.

Multiple disability may appear at any time of living due to

dierent cause. Usually the situation becomes chronic turninginto a lifelong condition.

María del Carmen Malbrán

University of LujánARGENTINA

DIGITAL SUPPORTS FORPERSONS WITH MULTIPLEDISABILITY AND COMPLEXCOMMUNICATION NEEDS



María del Carmen Malbrán: Digital Supports for persons ...

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Intervention and rehabiltation are focused on three areas: giving supports, enhancing inclusion and encouragingempowerment. Action is aimed at improving communication,

building self determination and autonomy and assuring thequality of life.

Multiple disability may also be seen as a set of barrierscoming both from the individual traits and to the physical andsocial context. As it was said, persons with multiple disabilityusually have complex communication needs being subjectedto a dual vulnerability: biological and environmental , runnigrisks of social deprivation and experience of failure. Appropiateenvironmental conditions suppose ghting and overcoming theseobstacles.

An important distinction is determining the cognitive statusin order to bring digital assistance according to the characteristicsof the involved person and the available supported technology .The aim is always to reduce the limitations at a minimun.

The training of human resources must be taken intoaccount. Sophisticated layout and structure may be an obstacleto implement adequate supports for the person , the humanmediator and the context.

Digital technology is going to change our current views

about multiple disability. Moreover, the access to digital culturemay be considered as a maer of human rights.The criteria based on the remainder abilities are being

replaced or complemented by the determination of the kind ,extent and length of needed supports. The diagnostic baselinefocuses on the selection of tools aending the cognitive status interms of the previous knowledge, the extent of understandingsymbols, signs and pictures, the motor capabilites – body , hands,leg and mouth , and facial movements as eye blinks and whispers. These indicators lead to making decisions about the kind , theamount, the lasting and the continuity of digital supports.

The exploration is also oriented to inquire the individualdependence on others to meet basic daily needs, the relativeabsence of verbal skills, the sensory loss and the severity of motordiculties. Collecting information includes the behavioral stateof the person, the social context, the communication partner andthe communication indicators.

Designing digital aids must pay aention to the culturalrelevance of symbols, number of exposure, guarantee of itscontinuous use, association between pictures and icons , part




1 73

– whole perception, directionality and familiarity. The aim is toproduce positive behavioral, cognitive and emotional outcomes.

To do so professionals, caregivers and support persons haveto be trained on:

- the potentialities of dierent digital devices;- the availability of digital resources;- the selection according to particular needs;- the abilities for making adaptations;- the wiedness for introducing innnovations;- the nonconventional ways of communication.

Examples of suitable existing tools for improvingcommunication are:

- special alphabet using multimedia;- sensitive to touching screen;- magnetic ring that receives the sounds amplifying them and

sending to a wire. Persons who use earphones with phone bobbin can access the magnetic space;

- eye mouse where the computer can be operated and con-trolled by visual movement. The screen verbalizes the textlines, paragraphs, words and leers;

- bionic prothesis such as arms, legs, hands and eyes ;- Braille computer keyboard;- video console for people who have suered brain acci-

dents.Areas of application of digital means are mobility, domestic

living, communication, and social interaction in formal andinformal environments.

Person centered digital technology is aimed at:- enhancing communication;- reducing dependence;- diminishing obstacles and barriers;- increasing self - condence and self - determination;- avoiding isolation;- respecting human rights;- improving the quality of life;- helping empowerment;- expressing preferences and choices in meaningful ways;




1 74

- widening inclusion;- making decisions;- active participation;- communicating expectancies, motives, interests, needs,

likes and dislikes, moods, satisfaction, sadness, fears, an-ger; temper outbursts;

- expanding the body;- supporting everyday life:- providing alternative and augmentative communication.

Illustrative cases

The British Stephen Hawking born in 1942 suers amiotrophiclateral sclerosis (ALS) called Lou Gehrig Disease. He is a widelyknown astrophysic, author of the theory of the black holes. Heneither speak nor move his hands and legs. He only does slightfacial expressions with the muscles around his eyes, eyebrows ,cheeks and mouth. He speaks through a computer selecting thewords presented on a screen with a sensor placed on a helmet thatdetects his cheek movements.

He obtained a PhD in Cambridge University where he is a

professor on Mathematics.He has received many important distinctions and honoriscausa doctorates from a lot of universities all over the world. Hislatest production includes a text “The theory of all” (2008) and a

book for children “George`s secret key to the universe” wrien incolaboration with his daugther. The book tries to explain the mainsecrets of the cosmos in plain language.

In 2007 he had the experience of oating in an environmentfree from gravity in a ight of the Zero Gravity Corporation.

The French Jean Dominique Bauby born in 1952, died on1997 , suered the Locked In Syndrome. He was the editor of theElle magazine. At 44 he was victim of a cerebral vascular accident(CVA) surviving for two years. The only way of communicationwas the le� eye blink. The language therapist modied thealphabet order puing in the rst places the most frequentlyused French leers. She told Jean the leers in a loud voice andhe indicated yes (one eye blink) or no (two eye blink). Doing sohe was able to dictate words and sentences. The strategy allowedhim to write a book entitled “Le scaphandre et le papillon” (Thediving bell and the buery) working with an assistant in a three




1 75

hours daily schedule. The book reects his experience. He calledhimself an exiled in is own body, a shipwrecked , trapped in adiving bell.

The situation would have been dierent if Jean had had adigital aid giving orders to the computer using the eye blink.He would have been more autonomous avoiding emptiness,

boredom and solitude during the lasting time he was alone, byhis own means.

Cases from Argentina Juan. Aged 17. Multiple disabled. Seizure episodes. He

cannot walk or speak. Reduced facial expression. Digestivetroubles due to the motor restriction. He only eats mashed food.

Early diagnosed as profound intellectually disabled, later as anautist. In his infancy he went to special schools changing from oneschool to another without evident progress. His mother lookedfrom training in the United Kingdom. There she were used todigital means to meet the challenge. An individual digital systemwas designed. Using a special keyboard connected to a computerhe translates words on the screen. He learnt to read and writecompleting elementary and secondary education.

Besides he integrates a group of self - advocates. In 2007 he

went to Washington participating in an international meeting,was interviewed in a TV program and wrote a leer publishedin the Disability Tribune about the denied rights of multipledisabled people.

The case of Juan C. shows:- very collaborative relatives and friends;- suitability of digital resources;- cognitive and emotional progress;

- improve of communication;- loss of time for eective action.

Jorge. Elected Parliament representative in the October 2007voting elections. In November 2007 he was assaulted at the doorof a pharmacy near his house in a neigbouring district of BuenosAires. He was severely beatened with a screw. As a consequencehe was found unconscious laying on the oor. He was sent tohospital suering craneal trauma, brain haemorrhage , tetraplejic

and breathing diculties. He lost mobility and language and wasconned to a wheelchair. A special communication device wasdesigned by a friend of him. The programme called HadaSo�




1 76

contains modules combining writing and speech production.The keyboard is added to a webcam that allows him to movethe cursor with his looks and a synthesizer reproducing theselected words translated into the local language. The webcam isprogrammed for following the head movements, particularly theeye J.R. is able to clicking with his point nger. A�er 17 monthsfrom the aack he sworn in as a Parliament deputy. By means ofthe digital aid he is able to “talk” and to send messages as anyother representative.

ReferencesArticles from the press and magazines: The New York Times, Argentine

Newspapers ( Clarín, La Nación, Perl)

Brown,U. & Percy,M. Eds. : A Comprehensive Guide to Intellectual & Devel-opmental Disabilities. Baltimore: Paul H. Brookes Publishing Co.(2007) J.C. : Personal CommunicationHawking, S. W. : www.biograca.info/biograa-de-hawking-stephen-wil-

liam-1119Malbrán, M. del C. Digital communication supports for PMID. Journal of

Intellectual Disability Research, 52, parts eight & nine, 773. (2008)Malbrán, M. del C. IASSID 13th World Congress. Symposium on Communi-

cation and interaction with Persons with Profound and Multiple Intel-lectual Disabilities (PMID). South Africa: Cape Town. (2008)

Mitchell, J. & van der Gaag, A. Through the eye of the Cyclpos: evaluatinga multi – sensory intervention programme for people with complex dis-abilities. British Journal of Learning Disabilities, 30,159 – 165 (2002)

Mayer, R. E. Ed. : The Cambridge Handbook of Multimedia Learning. Cam- bridge University Press, New York (2005)

Scherer, M.J. & Craddock. G. . Matching Person & Technology (MPT) assess-ment process. Technology & Disability, 14, 125 – 131. (2002)

Schnabel, J. Film Director: The diving bell and the buery (2007).Telecapacitados: el Teletrabajo para la inclusión laboral de las personas con

discapacidad. www.telecapacitados.tic.org.arwww.hadaso�.com.arwww.literaturas.com. La escafandra y la mariposa. Editorial Planeta.(www references accessed July 2009)




1 77

AbstractDigital supports are changing the vision about people who suer

multiple disability and complex communication needs, giving them thechance of expressing ideas, needs, expectancies and interests. Oral and wrien

language may be complemented or even replaced by visuo – spatial andauditory codes –pictures, icons, sounds and words mediated by the computer.Lack of motor control is not an unsurmountable obstacle when the responsecan be given on a digital keyboard.

The accessibility to these devices needs training in relatives, institutionalsta, web designers, teachers, peers, friends and persons with disabilities,as well as matching between shared computer engagement and humaninteraction.

The development of digital tools grows rapidly demanding a continuous

eort for adaptation to particular persons and situations.The illustrative cases presented in the article were taken from the

literature, the mass media and the author`s experience.Available information shows the relevance of digital resources for

improving communication and questions predictions about the real abilitiesof persons with multiple disabilities and complex communication needs.

Communication is the essence of social human life. Digital supportscombined with a person centered approach opens a more promising future forpeople with multiple disabilites and complex communication needs.

Key words

digital supports – multiple disabilities – complex communication needs– person centered approach




1 78




1 79

IntroductionThe paper has two aims and according to this it is positioned

in two parts. First part is focused on the prospectives andadvantages of using qualitative methods for research of inclusivepractice. Second part describes the methodology we have used ina longitudinal research where qualitative methods were used forcase study of a child with cohlear implant included in the regularclassroom. Beside reporting the results, we also reect on themethodology used in the research, pointing to the appropriateness

of qualitative research methods for exploring phenomena in theeld of special education.

Usıng qualıtatıve approach for research of inclusıveclassroom

Growing popularity of qualitative approach resultedwith signicant number of research reports where qualitativemethodology is used for exploration of the inclusive education.Special educators and teachers, social workers, clinicalpsychologists and therapists use qualitative methods to describeand share good practice related to the people with special needs.In Macedonia, like in other neighbouring countries, qualitativeresearch was mostly introduced in the last two decades. Qualitativeresearch were introduced also as a content in the curriculum forteachers and special educators on the undergraduate level andas a separate course for postgraduates at the Institute of SpecialEducation and Rehabilitation at the Faculty of Philosophy in

Skopje, the only institution of a kind in the country.Case study became more popular among the researchers,especially for classroom research. Interpretative paradigm and

Natasha Angeloska-Galevska, Zora Jacova

University of SkopjeMACEDONIA

ACTION RESEARCH IN THEINCLUSIVE CLASSROOM



Natasha Angeloska-Galevska, Zora Jacova: Action...

1 80

symbolic interactionism were used for investigation of status ofchildren with special needs in regular classes and for researchingthe cases of student with special needs during their employment.Phenomenological approach and life-history method were usedfor researching the experience of parents who have children withspecial needs, describing trauma they went through. Documentanalysis is also frequently used technique in the research workof special educators. Besides encouraging our students to initiatequalitative research of inclusive practice, we developed our ownstudies, among which we would like briey to present one ofthem. It started in year 2006, when we got opportunity to join aninternational project named as: Developments towards the InclusiveSchool: Practices – Research - Capacity Building , nanced by the

CPWP program of the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Aairs.Seven universities from six countries are included in the project:Belgrade, Ljubljana, Oslo, Sarajevo, Skopje, Tuzla and Zagreb.Each team selected own topic relevant to inclusive education anddeveloped appropriate methodology for research. The objectiveof the research project was development of new knowledgeand improvement of competence about a child with a Cochlearimplant through inclusive classroom studies.

Macedonian research team (Prof. Dr. Zora Jacova, co-

ordinator, Prof. Dr. Natasa Angeloska-Galevska, main researcherand Alexandra Karovska, young researcher) initiated three-yearaction research in a regular classroom in which a child withcochlear implant is included.

The research problem is contextual one with the purposeto gain information that describe the situation and thediculties that the pupils with Cochlear implant interfacein a certain context, in Republic of Macedonia. In this rathercomplex research, methodological triangulation is used withqualitative methods like: participant observation and openinterviews combined with scales and tests for assessing ofstudent behaviour, communication, inter action and schoolachievements of the child. Related to learning and teachingactivities, we follow the socio culture and culture-historicalapproach, where the main idea lies in Vygotsky theory for‘the proximal zone of development’. We helped teacher increating environment for development of potential strenghts

of included child, paying more aention on communicationand cooperation with more competent peers as tools forlearning.




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Further we present only some results gained from thequalitative analyses of the teachers’ responses.

Qualitative Analysis

Themes of the open interviews with teachers who work in theinclusive classroom:1. The eect of the impairment on the child’s educational

activities2. Social interaction of the child with his peers3. Professional preparation of teachers4. Adaptation of the curriculum5. Special methods and forms of educational work

6. Treatment of the child by his teachers. Theme 1

Concept Quotations from the teachers

The impairment is a problem, it hasan inuence

- The impairment certainly obstructshim to understand more complicatedgrammar forms

The impairment doesn’t have any

signicant inuence

- The impairment doesn’t have

any special inuence because Iwrite everything on the board andsometimes if he doesn’t understandme I explain to him individually

The impairment has no inuence atall (generally)

- In my opinion the impairment hasno inuence at all for this subject

Most of the teachers (8) think that the impairment certainlyaects the child’s educational activities. In the answers of theteachers the overall concept is - The impairment is a problem and

it is inuencing the educational activities. A smaller number of theteachers (5) believe that the impairment is not so inuential. Theme 2


Positive social interaction with peersoutside the inclusive classroom

- ...I see that in the school yard whenI’m monitor, he is always with a

group of children, boys or girls, healways has company.

Negative social interaction with peersoutside the inclusive classroom

/




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Positive social interaction in theinclusive classroom

- His friends constantly help him,even if they work individually. They

guide him, they give him instructions.

Negative social interaction in theinclusive classroom /

The general aitude of the larger number of teachers (12)is that the child with a cochlear implant is well accepted in theinclusive classroom. They believe that there is neither apparentlack of acceptance by the child’s peers nor any negative socialinteractions in and outside the classroom.

Theme 3


No need for professional support - Concretely for my subject I don’tneed any additional assistance.

Need for additional assistance by aspecial teacher / professional support

- To be honest, I think that help froma special educator is necessary

Most of the teachers consider professional support necessary(10). They think that their qualications can not initially respond

to the needs of the child with the cochlear implant. Only a fewteachers think that their qualications are adequate because of thenature of the subject. (Ex. art)


No assistance - I don’t get assistance, I do everythingmyself.

Assistance from the parents - ...and the parents are involved, theyhelp a lot...

Assistance from the other pupils - Frankly I learned a lot from thepupils

Assistance from the Department ofSpecial Education and Rehabilitation

- I nd the instructions from thedepartment of special education andrehabilitation very useful

Assistance from the professionalservice in our school

- I get help from the professionalservice in the school: the pedagogue,the psychologist.

Regarding the teachers’ professional preparation, most ofthem (11) think that they need beer qualications or professionalsupport like special educators and rehabilitators.




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Theme 4


Use dierentiation - When there is need I make someadjustments like simplication of the

material.Don’t use dierentiation - When there is need I make some

adjustments like simplication of thematerial.

In the educational work with the child with cochlearimplant most of the teachers (8) make an Individual EducationalPlan, and the realisation of the teaching contents is done thrudierentiation.

Theme 5


Use dierent educational methodsand forms of work

- Because of the fact that there areno textbooks for this subject, I make

concepts which I dictate to the pupils,and for him I make them in wrien

form.

Use the same educational methods

and forms of work

- Yes, I use the same methods with all

pupils.Most of the teachers (10) use the writing method, as the only

dierent education method in regarding to the other pupils. Thoseteachers who don’t use dierent methods consider that there is noneed for any adjustments, because of the very good feedback fromthe child. This is the case with subjects like art, gym, and technicaleducation.

Theme 6


Equal treatment as the other peers - It wouldn’t have any reforms. I havethe same treatment with all pupils,

it’s the same responsibility.

Dierent treatment compared to thepeers

/

Our research has shown that all the teachers (13) believe that

the child with cochlear implant has an equal treatment by histeachers and his peers.




1 84

ConclusionBeside interviews, we analysed the recorded observations

and together with teachers we discussed situations in classroom,pointing to the good and bad examples of behaviour. We had also

provided professional support to the regular teachers in planning,implementing and assessing individual educational plan relatedto the child and the class that he aended. With these in one waywe overtook the role of state institutions in upgrading a regularschool for an inclusive practice. Educational intervention in thisaction research also contribute to beer cooperation between theteachers, and with the parents of the child as well.

References

1. Акционен план за образование (2004). Декада на вклучувањена ромите во РМ. Скопје.2. Education Program (2008). Skopje.3. Јачова, З. (2004). Инклузивното образование на децата со

посебни потреби во Република Македонија. Дефектолошкатеорија и практика , 1-2, pp. 35-46

4. На патот кон ЕУ: Придонесот на Граѓанското општество вокреирање политиката за социјално вклучување во Р.М. (2008),Скопје.

5. Национална програма за развој на образованието воРепублика Македонија: 2005-2015, (2005) Скопје: Министерствоза образование и наука на Република Македонија.

6. Национална стратегија за изедначување на правата на лицатасо хендикеп во Република Македонија (2001), Службен весник,101.

7. Roma Education Projects Portfolio (2008), Skopje.8. Стратегија за интеграција на бегалци и странци во Р.М. 2008-

2015, (2008), Скопје.




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INDEX

Academic ability 18, 138academic skills 76, 125, 128, 139Adams J. V. 170adaptative function 12, 49 , 175

Andrzejewski J. 28anthropocentrism 29 , 35Appadurai A. 48Archer M. 149assistant teacher 105 , 110. 113, 116, 176association 18, 50 , 54, 87, 174Ayers W.119

Barco V. 16 behaviour 13,56 , 63, 67, 74, 100, 121, 148, 152, 174Bell A. 28

Bergland Holen J. 122Best S. 41Binet A. 100Bloom B. 82Bogaj A. 138Bogoyavlenska D. 8

Cahen L. S. 83Canevaro A. 112Capra F. 28certicate program 39 , 162

children 8 , 118, 122, 139, 176Chu G. C. 81citizens 9 , 32, 63, 124, 131, 141civic education 27, 141classroom 29 , 45, 65, 70, 73, 107, 123, 132, 135classroom relationships 65 , 66, 71, 73, 76cognitive development 13 , 65Cole A. G. 28college 120, 143, 162, 164 , 170, 172communication 14, 33, 39 , 75, 91, 155, 174, 178community 39, 47, 51, 55 , 83, 92, 97, 128, 147, 156, 162, 170

complex communication needs 174, 179concept 7, 11, 13 , 15, 28, 44, 56, 67, 93, 97, 150Conner L. 120



Index

1 86

Corman L. 38creative abilities 15, 16 , 18, 158creative activity 12 , 16, 151, 156, 158criteria of gi�edness 17, 19 , 23critical pedagogy 28, 32 , 40, 43cultural contexts 28 , 54

cultural heritage 49, 50 , 62, 124culture 10 , 23, 30, 42, 48, 55, 60, 145, 150, 174curriculum 29 , 35, 42, 76, 92, 107, 125, 137, 143, 155, 163, 170Czarnowski S. 61

Data analyse 81, 95 , 126, 134data collection 85 , 119, 123decentralization of educational systems 147 , 157democracy in school 96, 124, 145Dennenberg D. 33development 13 , 25, 34, 57, 65, 73, 84, 95, 105, 124, 139, 152development of gi�edness 19Dewey J. 133diagnostics 7 , 17, 21, 28, 110, 117, 174dialogue 32, 38 , 43, 151, 157discipline 45, 71 , 94dynamics of the relationship 64, 69

Ecological sustainability 28, 29ecology 29 , 35, 41ecopedagogy 29 , 32, 37, 40, 45

education 7 , 27, 31, 40, 61, 84, 92, 101, 115, 123, 135, 143, 150, 162educational achievement 82educational center, educational organization 33, 101, 149, 154educational integration 101educational practice 8 , 45, 93, 146, 148educational theory 28, 30 , 32education researchers 42, 44, 92educators 28 , 34, 39, 45, 92, 119 , 134, 143eect 31, 49, 59, 79, 84 , 97, 158eect size 83, 86 , 88Eisler R. 40

elementary social substratum 59empirical study 80 , 84, 97environmental education 27 , 32 , 36, 41Erlenmeyer - Kimling L. 83 , 83 , 89evaluation 62 , 84, 91, 97, 158, 164, 170examination 8, 16 , 35, 81, 91, 158expectation 27 , 66, 72, 145experience 8 , 16, 27, 50, 60, 74, 99, 108, 133, 146, 156, 177explanation 76, 79 , 87, 101Eyerman R. 31Eysenck H. J. 82

Fawce I. 28feedback information 66, 71, 74, 95 , 158, 163

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1 87

Filby N. N. 83Fisz Z. 56uctuation 47 , 53formal inclusive education 101 , 105, 116formative evaluation 95Fox L. 33

Freire P. 40

Gaard G. 36Gadoi M. 28gi�edness 7Glass V. 83global goal 147graduate studies 35, 120, 153 , 162Greene W. 120Gruenewald D. A. 28

Guilbuh J. Z. 16Haraway D. 29Hawking S. 176Hay C. 28Herbart J. F.B. 11higher education, high school 31, 34 , 92, 154, 170Hoagland-Smith L. 121Holl L. 14homeland 49 , 52, 59, 63Houston D. 28

humane education 32 , 34, 40, 44,human behaviour 56human development 119

Ilić M. 111imagination 14 , 27, 40inclusive education 99 , 102, 105, 110, 114, 117information 12, 45, 73 , 83, 163, 169, 174, 184information technology 7 , 97, 163, 169instructional method 92 , 128, 132integration 21, 53 , 62, 80, 99, 109, 116, 143

intellectual abilities 17 , 19interview 9, 45, 68 , 73, 177intuition 14 , 80

Jamison A. 31 Jarvik L. F. 83 , 83–89 Jałowiecki B. 56 Johnson F. 138 Joy M. 30

Kahn R. 28Kellner D. 27King E. 170

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Index

1 88

Klimchenko O. 10knowledge 10 , 23, 38, 79, 92, 122, 132, 152, 163, 174Kucińska T. 141Kulik C. L. C. 83Kulik J. A. 83Kundačina M. 95

Kupisiewicz C. 139Kwieciński Z. 151

Lasarevsky S. V. 16learning process 9, 15, 65, 72, 132, 148 , 158, 170lectures 63, 83, 92 , 143legislation 11 , 109, 117, 148lesson 69 , 121, 154life success 18 , 34, 76, 93local communities 47, 48 , 59, 99, 147, 156

local milieu 58, 60Manifestation 17 , 21, 66manipulation 62 , 149Mann T. 57Matushkin A. 13McGaw B. 83McKenzie M. 28McLaren P. 28measure 17 , 28, 82, 86, 94, 171Meehl P. E. 81mental ability 13 , 15

meta-analysis 80 , 85 , 89methodological model 82methodology of education 79, 84, 146 , 186methodology of integration 81 , 85Miłosz Cz. 54Mochnacki M. 61Modrzewski A. F. 10Molyako V. 12motivation 13 , 20, 87, 123, 130, 148multicultural movement 28 , 133multiple disability 173 , 179Mužić V. 94

National system of education 137 , 162natural environment 52, 58 , 62Nocella A. 28nonformal education 31, 39Nosal C. 151

O’Sullivan E. 28Ossowski S. 49

outdoor educators 27, 35 , 39




1 89

Panuc V. I. 16paradigm 14 , 23, 31, 37, 45, 97, 121parents 9 , 16, 59, 76, 100, 106, 125, 131, 155participation, participants 69, 77, 92 , 123, 148, 154, 158, 166pedagogical practice 94pedagogical research 80, 84pedagogical supervision 140personal construct theory 66Pestalozzi 11Polak K. 148Pope C. 27Poznaniak W. 148practice 8, 13 , 30, 39, 77, 83, 94, 110, 123, 146primary analysis 80, 85production of knowledge 29profession 13 , 148, 155, 171

public school system 101, 123, 140 , 162Quality assessment 93quantitative analyse 83, 93quantitative integration 81questionnaires 67 , 112, 153

Rauber P. 27reection 54 , 83, 134regular class 101, 105, 107 , 116regular education 99, 102, 107 , 115

Rensulli J. S. 13Rousseau J. J. 11Royzman B. E. 99Rozin P. 99Russell C. 28Rybicki P. 54

Savičević D. 94scholastics 10 , 84school education 11 , 33, 66, 70, 92, 105school management 152, 157school principal 114, 149, 152 , 158Schramm W. 81scientic methodology 80secondary analysis 85 , 87secondary school 32 , 110, 138, 143, 161, 163Selby D. 32self-development 150self-education 150 , 152self-perception 65Shepotko V. P. 18Shor I. 40Sikora R. 33Singer P. 31



Index

Smith M. L. 28 , 83social behaviour 66 , 122, 145social communication 157social group 49, 50 , 147social institution 138social learning 65

social life 47 , 59, 102, 105, 116, 146, 150social movement 37, 39 , 40social progress 14, 48social structures 48 , 51, 60society 7 , 15, 23, 29, 41, 62, 92, 116, 145, 157Sowa K. Z. 48Spearmen C. 13special school 101 , 114, 177standard 7 , 20, 31, 40, 60, 72, 95, 108, 125, 143, 164Stapp W. 27statistical methods 82 , 85, 88Stepanova O. M. 12Stern W. 11subordination 9, 48summative evaluation 95

i 106 157

foreign publication - william allan kritsonis, phd

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