Globalization has brought increased opportunities for educators to collaborate across borders, sharing everything from curricula, teaching practices and educational standards to learning technologies, institutional structures and organizational policies. In the literature, this is often referred to as educational transfer, or the borrowing and lending between educational systems from different countries or cultures. Today, institutions that share between educational systems—whether schools, community groups, development organizations, corporations or governments—are so ubiquitous that some may think of it as a natural, inevitable and benign process. Yet as perspectives shared in this study illustrate, for many in-field practitioners, transfer can be challenging, have processes and outcomes that are not always clear or beneficial, and be fraught with many problems. This study examines the perspectives and problems of hosts when Western educators and development practitioners work within their postcolonial communities. Drawing on concepts, methods and strategies from postcolonial and critical education theory, this study examines how transfer can perpetuate historically inherited patterns of Western imperialism to answer the question, as educational borrowers and lenders, how do we know we are or aren’t neocolonial actors when transferring Western education into postcolonial countries, and what can we do to help ensure that we aren’t? Using a mix of grounded theory, narrative inquiry and action research, this study draws on data from interviews, narratives and group discussions that were collected between 2014 and 2019 from over 33 participants representing visiting and hosting volunteers and staff at three universities in Ghana and Vietnam. The results demonstrate that although their specific problems are individual and varied, hosting professionals can struggle with similar themes like Eurocentrism, developmentalism, inequality, harm and racism, requiring practitioners to use additional evaluation methods besides traditional needs assessments and outcomes-based program evaluations to decolonize their work. In addition to theorizing how practitioners might improve transfer evaluation, the study also examines how hosts and visitors might develop more critical awareness of neocolonial patterns and better support decolonial goals like participant consent, self-determination and empowerment. To this end, the study shares postcolonial perspectives, theoretical models and piloted problem reduction strategies to help future transfer practitioners develop deeper and more critical understandings of educational transfer. / Graduate / 2021-12-03

The accelerated growth of 1:1 educational computing initiatives has challenged digital equity with a three-tiered, socioeconomic digital divide: (a) access, (b) higher order uses, and (c) user empowerment and personalization. As the access gap has been closing, the exponential increase of 1:1 devices threatens to widen the second and third digital divides. Using critical theory, specifically, critical theory of technology and critical pedagogy, and a qualitative case study design, this research explored the experiences of a middle school categorized under California criteria as “socioeconomically disadvantaged.” This study contributes to critical theory on technology within an educational setting, as well as provides voice to the experiences of teachers and students with economic disadvantages experiencing the phenomena of 1:1 computing. Using observational, interview, and school document data, this study asked the question: To what extent do 1:1 technology integration uses and associated pedagogical practices foster Margins of Maneuver in an eighth grade comprised of a student population that is predominantly economically disadvantaged? Probing two key markers of Margins of Maneuver, student agency and participation, the study found: (a) a technology-enhanced learning culture; (b) a teacher shift to facilitator roles; (c) instances of engaged, experiential, and inquiry learning and higher order technology uses; (d) in-progress efforts to strengthen student voice and self-identity. Accompanying the progress in narrowing economically based digital divides, the data also demonstrated some tension with the knowledge economy. Nevertheless, sufficient margins existed, associated with one-to-one uses and practices, to result in micro-resistances characterized by assertion of student agency and democratization potential.

Magister Educationis - MEd / This mini-thesis comprises two sections, the what and the how of writing-across-the curriculum (WAC). Section one investigates the integration of writing into content area subjects through the writing process as a project of possibility for critical pedagogy. The view is held that the writing in content area subjects makes learning more meaningful, enjoyable and also empowers students to become critical self-determined thinkers. Students no longer only fill in blanks, choose the correct answer or rely on rote learning when writing in content area subjects, but write creatively and expressively in a variety of discourse forms. In chapter two the literature on WAC is reviewed in depth. The chapter commences with some thoughts on what writing is. Then it investigates the writing process and proceeds to what writing across the curriculum is, with all its merits highlighted. The implementation of writing across the curriculum which involves the whole school as well as a proposed writing across the curriculum policy comprises the main section of the chapter. One of the objectives of this research is to show that implementing the writing process in a content area subject not only improves the standard of writing but also enhances the internalisation of subject matter. A further objective is to illustrate that writing across the curriculum can facilitate change in the classroom. Section two, starting with chapter three, is devoted to the "how" of WAC, and its practical application. Observations in classrooms where writing in content area subjects were done in Missouri schools are described and examples of work done at the schools are cited. In chapter four attention is given to the design and presentation of a writing project in Home Economics based on the standard eight Home Economics syllabus. This classroom research is based on experiential learning. A detailed description of the results is included. The last chapter starts with a dream, an outline of a Home Economics project of possibility for a standard eight Home Economics class. The project is developed around community work to convince students that they can make a difference in the world by showing care and concern for the elderly. The second part of chapter five, deals with constraints with regard to the implementation of a writing programme in Home Economics at the school where I teach. The chapter concludes with recommendations for the implementation of a writing programme in Home Economics.

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Doctor Educationis / This dissertation is a study of a primary school teacher researching her classroom practice within the broader specific aim of the project was to investigate how a primary school teacher could go about her work in more for democratic ways. The research method used in the study was that of action research, and the empirical basis for argument in the dissertation lies in the use of data created during the process of researching that classroom practice. A fundamental assumption of the study is that teachers are the central driving force in any meaningful development of a critical pedagogy. Teachers, acting as trans formative . intellectuals, can work towards socialist transformation, because viewing teachers as intellectuals redefines their work and the political nature of schooling. The study, therefore, takes the problematic relationship between authority and emancipation as central to its concerns and tries to develop a rationale for making an emancipatory view of authority, and thus a rationale for a particular notion of professionalism, a central category in the development of a critical theory of schooling. In taking the position that teachers are central to learning in the classroom, and are the nexus of the authority/emancipation problematic, critical reflection on the classroom practices was approached both reflexively and dialectically so that uncertainties and contradictions could surface and be explored. The epistemological radicalism inherent in action research made this form of reflection possible. The study views primary school teachers as important mediators of change. This meant examining the process of instruction more carefully. The task was to understand how mediation generates higher mental functioning. To this end, Vygotsky's notion of a zone of proximal development, as the zone in which mediation can take place, is explored. The problem of how to investigate the substance of the zone of proximal development is met by the use of rationally reconstructed mediational operators. Drawing from the data in the study, three mediational operators are fashioned to study the one-to-many interaction in the process of instruction. These mediational operators serve as explanatory constructs to explicate the interrelation between the teacher's (and other significant others') instructional process and the learners' existing levels of development. • The preoccupations of this reflective dissertation writing take a multi-disciplinary approach, for to consider critical pedagogy means also to consider the psychological functioning of human beings within society - the mind-in society dialectic. The study reveals that 'democratic practice' is something to be negotiated and contested continually, for the authoritative position of teachers has to be questioned endlessly to locate the contradictions within that position. The experience of this study suggests that action research is a powerful means whereby teachers can reflect both reflexively and dialectically on their practice, that action research is intrinsically educational. A significant realization in the study, therefore, is the ways in which the educators themselves may become educated to take responsibility for their agency in transformation. • Bringing power relations into question is a permanent political task inherent in all social existence, thus a local specific inquiry such as this one can take on a general significance at the level of that regime of truth which is essential to the structure and functioning of our society. • Chapters One to Three provide the social and theoretical context for the study, dealing as they do with the crisis in schooling, the role of the teacher in change and the ways in which a teacher can research her practice for a transformed pedagogy. Chapters Four to Six consider the teacher-researcher at work in her classroom and indicate how she goes about trying to understand her role as mediator in the instruction process her process of reflection and action while she was teaching. • Chapters Seven to Nine represent the reflection which took place after the initial investigation of actual day-to-day practice. These chapters arise historically out of the research process and include argument for developing a more critical pedagogical discourse, a deeper understanding of the instruction process (the teaching/learning dynamic), and discussion of the validity of an action research paradigm for emancipatory pedagogical practices .

The aim of this study is to gain a deeper understanding of the strategies used by young people in Mexico City to exercise civic participation in the form of human rights activism. Mexican society is currently markedby an increased amount of human rights violations, together with high levels of corruption, violence and severe flaws within the democratic system. To claim and stand up for human rights in this context is not onlydifficult but also dangerous, which is a pattern that recurs in many context throughout the globe. The young activists who were interviewed share the experience of having attended the same human rights education, where human rights are taught through critical pedagogy. They manifest a perspective where human rights have to be enacted in all spheres of society, including interpersonal relationships. Human rights ideals also seem to represent something similar to an ideology that, when understood correctly, entails a transformative potential. The experience of undertaking human rights education formed new networks and bonds in civil society, as well as personal reflections on their own position in their surrounding. Although recognizing the importance of relating to the parliamentary structure and public institutions, the activists seem sceptical towards achieving human rights progress through that arena due to the large political and financial corruption. Instead, the result of this study highlights other strategies for exercising civic participation and defending human rights in Mexico, such as the creation and participation in autonomous, democratic structures within in the civil society and social movements, as well as actions executed within informal relationships and spheres.

Orientador: Fábio Fernandes Villela / Resumo: Esta dissertação teve como objetivo identificar como estudantes no ensino médio de uma Escola Estadual do interior paulista, constroem sua formação profissional, através de uma abordagem fundamentada no método da Pedagogia Histórico- Crítica, caracterizada em cincos momentos: Prática Social Inicial; Problematização; Instrumentalização; Catarse e Prática Social Final. No percurso de delineamento de uma concepção histórica e crítica, os estudantes realizaram os estudos sobre o tema do trabalho, visitaram fábricas, participaram em grupos de conversas com trabalhadores e estudantes universitários, sob viés do método Materialista HistóricoDialético que se caracteriza pelo movimento do pensamento através da materialidade histórica da vida dos homens em sociedade. Nessa linha de pensamento, definimos como produto educacional final de pesquisa, um vídeo documentário: “Eu Sonho Um Futuro”, cujos relatos dos estudantes, foram categorizados através da Análise do Discurso, e nos forneceu indícios e referências de que o ensino da Pedagogia Histórico Crítica fomentou, entre os estudantes repensar a formação profissional de forma integral envolvendo conhecimento científico com saber prático. / Abstract: This dissertation aimed to identify how high school students from a State School in the interior of São Paulo, build their professional training, through an approach based on the Historical - Critical Pedagogy method, characterized in five moments: Initial Social Practice; Problematization; Instrumentalization; Catharsis and Final Social Practice. In the course of delineating a historical and critical conception, students carried out studies on the theme of work, visited factories, participated in groups of conversations with professional workers and university students, under the bias of the Historical-Dialectic Materialist method that is characterized by the movement of thought through the historical materiality of human life in society. In this line of thought, we defined as a final educational product of research, a documentary video: “Eu Sonho Um Futuro”, whose students' reports were categorized through Discourse Analysis, and provided us with indications and references that the teaching of Historical Pedagogy Criticism encouraged, among students, to rethink professional training in a comprehensive way involving scientific knowledge with practical knowledge. / Mestre

Orientador: Luciana Maria Lunardi Campos / Resumo: Este trabalho tem como referencial a pedagogia histórico-crítica e como objeto de estudo os conteúdos escolares de Ecologia. Ecologia é uma área central dentro da área das Ciências Biológicas e é conteúdo proposto no Currículo do Estado de São Paulo e na Base Nacional Comum Curricular, respectivamente nos sextos e sétimos anos do ensino fundamental. A identificação dos conteúdos escolares, de diferentes áreas das ciências, e tendo por referência o conceito de conteúdos clássicos, é um desafio que tem sido assumido por pesquisadores pautados na pedagogia histórico- crítica. A partir do exposto, as questões de pesquisa norteadoras do estudo foram: conteúdos fundamentais de Ecologia, identificados por especialistas na área, estão presentes no currículo do estado de São Paulo e na Base Nacional Comum Curricular? Esses conteúdos se articulam ao conceito de conteúdo clássico? O objetivo da pesquisa foi analisar conteúdos fundamentais de Ecologia, apontados por ecólogos e propostos por documentos oficiais de ensino, a partir do conceito de conteúdo clássico. Como resultados temos que, houve correspondência entre os conteúdos mais citados pelos especialistas e pelos documentos curriculares, os quais foram: ‘interações ecológicas’ e ‘conservação’, e que ‘interações ecológicas’ é conceito fundamental para entender a Ecologia. / Abstract: This thesis has as theoretical foundation the historical-critical pedagogy and the concept of classical knowledge and it has as object of study the school contents of ecology. Ecology is a central theme in the biology field, and its contents are proposed in the Sao Paulo State Curriculum and Common Curricular Base for, respectively, the sixth and seventh grades of elementary school. The identification of the school contents in different areas of science throw the classical knowledge approach is a challenge that has been taken up by researchers based on the historical-critical pedagogy. Based on that, the questions that guided this study were: Are the central ecology contents – identified by specialized professionals – present in the curriculum of São Paulo and in the National Common Curricular Base? Are they articulated with the classical knowledge concept? So, this study aimed to analyze the central ecology contents pointed out by ecologists and official curriculum documents, based on the classical knowledge concept. As result, there was a parity between the contents most cited by the specialists and the curricular documents, which were ‘ecological interactions’ and ‘conservation’. Moreover, ‘ecological interactions’ is a fundamental concept to understand Ecology. / Mestre

Orientador: Fábio Fernandes Villela / Resumo: Este trabalho versa sobre a alfabetização de jovens e adultos na perspectiva pedagógica histórico-crítica. A problemática desta pesquisa reside na busca de propostas pedagógicas aliadas a uma concepção crítica e dialética de alfabetização para jovens e adultos. Neste percurso foi feito o diálogo com o método Paulo Freire de alfabetização de adultos em sua versão original. O objetivo do diálogo foi o de estabelecer os postulados de cada vertente pedagógica em relação a alfabetização, de modo a esclarecer suas aproximações e divergências, buscando incorporar por superação aspectos do método de Paulo Freire que possam contribuir para a construção de uma proposta de alfabetização histórico-crítica. Para contextualizar a modalidade de ensino de Educação de Jovens e Adultos (EJA) foi feito um levantamento histórico e dos marcos legais da EJA no Brasil, reconhecendo as especificidades desta modalidade de ensino e o seu espaço dentro das políticas públicas. Sendo a alfabetização também objeto de estudo desta pesquisa, é feita uma análise crítica sobre a chamada “querela dos métodos” buscando a superação dialética dos principais métodos já existentes, identificando o que eles possuem de válido e os rearticulando em uma nova proposta na perspectiva histórico-crítica de alfabetização, onde alguns autores defendem a centralidade da palavra no ensino da escrita. É a partir desta ideia que se faz a aproximação com método Paulo Freire, que também parte da palavra para alfabetizar. A partir ... (Resumo completo, clicar acesso eletrônico abaixo) / Abstract: This work deals with the literacy of youth and adults in the historical-critical pedagogical perspective. The problem of this research lies in the search for pedagogical proposals combined with a critical and dialectical conception of literacy for young people and adults. In this path, a dialogue was made with the Paulo Freire method of adult literacy in its original version. The objective of the dialogue was to establish the postulates of each pedagogical aspect in relation to literacy, in order to clarify their approximations and divergences, seeking to incorporate aspects of Paulo Freire's method that can contribute to the construction of a historical literacy proposal. -critical. To contextualize the Youth and Adult Education (EJA) teaching modality, a historical survey of the legal frameworks of EJA in Brazil is made, recognizing the specificities of this teaching modality and its space within public policies. Since literacy is also the object of study in this work, a critical analysis is made of the so-called “quarrel of methods” seeking to overcome the dialectic of the main existing methods, identifying what is valid and rearticulating them in a new proposed in the historical-critical perspective of literacy, where some authors defend the centrality of the word in the teaching of writing. It is from this idea that the Paulo Freire method is approached, which also starts from the word for literacy. From the conclusion of this research, as a contribution, literacy activi... (Complete abstract click electronic access below) / Mestre

Orientador: Vitor Machado / Resumo: O presente estudo tem como contexto educacional uma escola rural no município de Pariquera-Açu, no interior de São Paulo. Trata-se de uma pesquisa de abordagem qualitativa, com características de estudo documental e desenvolvimento de produto. Teve por objetivos: a) desenvolver uma análise documental dos registros de uma proposta de sequência didática e dos documentos curriculares oficiais do componente curricular Ciências; b) Com base nos registros e resultados das práticas analisados, sistematizar um objeto de aprendizagem com base na sequência didática desenvolvida na disciplina de Ciências, à luz da Pedagogia Histórico-Crítica. A pesquisa foi utilizada como técnica, a análise de conteúdo. Os resultados da análise documental apontaram para a escassez de conteúdos relacionados a temática sobre problemas ambientais no currículo do Estado de São Paulo e consequentemente da falta de materiais didáticos no Ensino Fundamental I específicos para as comunidades rurais e salas multisseriadas. O produto educacional denominado “Lap Book”, compreende um conjunto de três jogos, a saber, contém um jogo de trilha, um jogo da memória e um caça palavras, que é parte da sequência didática desenvolvida nesta pesquisa, com o intuito de instrumentalizar os alunos e tornar a aprendizagem dos conteúdos mais significativa através de ferramentas de aprendizagens lúdicas que contemplem a realidade local, uma vez que todos os jogos abordam conteúdos do componente curricular Ciências, levando-se em c... (Resumo completo, clicar acesso eletrônico abaixo) / Abstract: ABSTRACT The present study has the educational context of a rural school in the municipality of Pariquera-Açu, in the interior of São Paulo. It is a qualitative research, with characteristics of documentary study and product development. Its objectives were: a) to develop a documentary analysis of the records of a didactic sequence proposal and of the official curricular documents of the Sciences curricular component; b) Based on the records and results of the analyzed practices, systematize a learning object based on the didactic sequence developed in the Science discipline, in the light of Historical-Critical Pedagogy. The research was used as a technique, content analysis. The results of the documentary analysis pointed to the scarcity of content related to the theme about environmental problems in the curriculum of the State of São Paulo and, consequently, the lack of didactic materials in Elementary School I specific to rural communities and multi-serial classroom. The educational product called “Lap Book”, comprises a set of three games, namely, it contains a track game, a memory game and a word game, which is part of the didactic sequence developed in this research, with the aim of instrumentalizing the students and make the learning of the content more meaningful through playful learning tools that contemplate the local reality, since all the games address contents of the Science curricular component, taking into account the social role of the school, in the face of e... (Complete abstract click electronic access below) / Mestre