Debate as Global Pedagogy


Book Description

Debate as Global Pedagogy: Rwanda Rising illustrates that the teaching of debate offers an ideal educational approach for the prevention and remediation of genocide. As the antithesis of propaganda, debate and argument instruction promotes the critical thinking necessary to resist processes of propaganda that enable injustice and human rights abuses. Case studies of argumentation instruction and deliberative forums worldwide demonstrate how environments of discursive complexity can be fostered through education in debate and argumentation. The central example of Rwanda recovering from genocide in 1994 with help from innovative pedagogy by iDebate Dreamers Academy provides a model for how argumentation instruction can reduce and prevent social injustices.




Global Pedagogies


Book Description

Global Pedagogies: Schooling for the Future, which is the twelfth volume in the 12-volume book series Globalisation, Comparative Education and Policy Research, presents scholarly research on major discourses in comparative education research with reference to globalisation, educational policy and classroom pedagogy. It is a sourcebook of ideas for researchers, practitioners and policy makers in education, globalisation, global pedagogies and schooling for the future around the world. The aim of the book is to provide an easily accessible, practical yet scholarly source of information about the international concern in the field of globalisation, global pedagogies, and educational transformation. Readers will find here the very latest thinking on globalisation, global pedagogies and educational transformation in the context of global culture. It offers a timely overview of current issues affecting discourses pertaining to global pedagogies and policy research in the global culture. It provides directions in education, and policy research, relevant to transformational educational reforms in the 21st century. The book critically examines the overall interplay between comparative education discourses, globalisation, and education. It draws upon recent studies in the areas of globalisation, equity, social justice, and the role of the State. It explores conceptual frameworks and methodological approaches applicable in the research covering the State, globalisation, equity, and education. It demonstrates the neo-liberal ideological imperatives of education and policy reforms, and illustrates the way the relationship between the State and education policy affects current models and trends in education reforms and schooling globally. Various book chapters critique the dominant discourses and debates pertaining to comparative education discourses and the newly constructed and re-invented models of neo-liberal ideology in education. Using a number of diverse paradigms in comparative education research, ranging from critical theory to globalisation, the authors, by focusing on globalisation, ideology and democracy, attempt to examine critically both the reasons and outcomes of education reforms, policy change and transformation and provide a more informed critique on the Western-driven models of accountability, quality and school effectiveness. The book draws upon recent studies in the areas of equity, cultural capital and dominant ideologies in education.




The Rhetoric of Genocide


Book Description

Genocide represents one of the deadliest scourges of the human experience. Communication practices provide the key missing ingredient toward preventing and ending this intensely symbolic activity. The Rhetoric of Genocide: Death as a Text reveals how strategic communication silences make this tragedy probable, and how a greater social ethic for communication openness repels and ends this great evil. Careful analysis of practical historical figures, such as the great debater James Farmer Jr., along with empirical policy successes in places such as Liberia provide a communication-based template for ridding the world of genocide in the twenty-first century.




Using Debate in the Classroom


Book Description

Debate holds enormous potential to build 21st century skills such as critical thinking, communication, collaboration, and conflict resolution in the K-12 classroom, but teachers often struggle to implement and contextualize it effectively. Using Debate in the Classroom draws on research from a variety of academic disciplines to explain the benefits of debate across subject areas, and describes how teachers can use debate to enliven their curriculum and support the aims of the Common Core. Topics include: Introducing debate as a pedagogical practice to engage students, improve school culture, and disrupt the school to prison pipeline. Using debate to teach critical literacy and improve students’ reading, writing, and speaking skills. Implementing role-playing techniques to strengthen information literacy and reasoning skills. Building students’ empathy, perspective-taking skills, and cultural humility as they confront difficult social issues through debate. Appendices provide a variety of tools to assist K-12 teachers in implementing debate in the classroom, including ready-made debate activities, student handouts, and a step-by-step guide to introducing students to debate in just one week.




Antonio Gramsci: A Pedagogy to Change the World


Book Description

This volume provides evidence for the argument of a central place of pedagogy in the interpretation of Gramsci’s political theory. Gramsci’s view that ‘every relationship of hegemony is necessarily a pedagogical relationship’ makes it imperative to dismiss narrow and formal interpretations of his educational theories as applying to schooling only. This book argues that what is required rather is an inquiry into the Italian thinker’s broad conceptualisation of pedagogy, which he thought of as a quintessential political activity, central to understanding and transforming society. Preceded by a broad introduction that positions Gramsci in his context and in the literature, the essays in this book critically revisit the many passages of the Prison Notebooks and pre-prison writings where Gramsci addresses the nexus between politics and pedagogy. Some essays apply those concepts to specific contexts. The book for the first time brings to the attention of an English-speaking audience voices from the current historiography in Italy and Latin America. We are forced at regular intervals to consider how Gramsci might still be useful, in particular national territories, in an international context. How can we carry on with pessimism of the intelligence, but find some basis for optimism of the will? From the foreword of Anne Showstack Sassoon, Visiting Professor of Politics at the Department of Politics at Birbeck, University of London




Speech and Debate as Civic Education


Book Description

In an era increasingly marked by polarized and unproductive political debates, this volume makes the case for a renewed emphasis on teaching speech and debate, both in and outside of the classroom. Speech and debate education leads students to better understand their First Amendment rights and the power of speaking. It teaches them to work together collaboratively to solve problems, and it encourages critical thinking, reasoned and fact-based argumentation, and respect for differing viewpoints in our increasingly diverse and global society. Highlighting the need for more emphasis on the ethics and skills of democratic deliberation, the contributors to this volume—leading scholars, teachers, and coaches in speech and debate programs around the country—offer new ideas for reinvigorating curricular and co-curricular speech and debate by recovering and reinventing their historical mission as civic education. Combining historical case studies, theoretical reflections, and reports on programs that utilize rhetorical pedagogies to educate for citizenship, Speech and Debate as Civic Education is a first-of-its-kind collection of the best ideas for reinventing and revitalizing the civic mission of speech and debate for a new generation of students. In addition to the editors, the contributors to this volume include Jenn Anderson, Michael D. Bartanen, Ann Crigler, Sara A. Mehltretter Drury, David A. Frank, G. Thomas Goodnight, Ronald Walter Greene, Taylor W. Hahn, Darrin Hicks, Edward A. Hinck, Jin Huang, Una Kimokeo-Goes, Rebecca A. Kuehl, Lorand Laskai, Tim Lewis, Robert S. Littlefield, Allan D. Louden, Paul E. Mabrey III, Jamie McKown, Gordon R. Mitchell, Catherine H. Palczewski, Angela G. Ray, Robert C. Rowland, Minhee Son, Sarah Stone Watt, Melissa Maxcy Wade, David Weeks, Carly S. Woods, and David Zarefsky.




English as an International Language


Book Description

The rapid global spread of the English language has serious linguistic, ideological, socio-cultural, political, and pedagogical implications as it creates both positive interactions and negative tensions between global and local forces. Accordingly, debate about issues such as the native/non-native divide, the politics of an international language, communication in a Lingua Franca, the choice of a model for ELT, and the link between English and identity(ies) has stimulated scholarly inquiry in an unprecedented way. The chapters in this volume revisit, challenge, and expand upon established arguments and positions regarding the politics, policies, pedagogies, and practices of English as an international language, as well as its sociolinguistic and socio-psychological complexities.




Understanding Global Skills for 21st Century Professions


Book Description

This book highlights the increasing need for people who will be working in professions such as teaching, health, engineering and business management to have the skills for living and working in a global society. Globalisation and the challenges resulting from recent political events in Europe and North America have given rise to a need for training and further and higher education programmes to address the skills young people all need to effectively engage in the current global society. Reviewing the range of theories and debates surrounding skills for the twenty-first century, the author suggests there is a need to directly address the real-world issues of today and move beyond abstract concepts such as team work, critical thinking and problem solving, as important as these concepts are. The author proposes a new framework for global skills using examples from international and national policy-makers and evidence from further and higher educational programmes and training courses. This pioneering yet practical book will be of value to students and scholars of global education as well as practitioners and policy makers.




The Theory and Practice of Development Education


Book Description

Development education is much more than learning about development; it is a pedagogy for the globalised societies of the twenty-first century that incorporates discourses from critical pedagogy and postcolonialism, and a mechanism for ensuring that differing perspectives are reflected within education, particularly those from developing countries. Learning about development and global issues is now part of the school curriculum in a number of countries, and terms such as global citizenship, sustainable development and cultural understanding are commonplace in many educational contexts. Development education has been recognised as one of the educational discourses that has influenced the acceptance of these terms, for both policy-makers and practitioners. This ground-breaking volume addresses the history, theoretical influences, practices and impact of development education in Europe, North America, Australia and Japan. Chapters include how development education evolved, the influence of theorists such as Paulo Freire, the practices of aid and development agencies, and the impact of governments seeking evidence of public understanding of and engagement with development. The Theory and Practice of Development Education provides essential reading for anyone engaged in re-thinking and reflecting upon the educational needs of a globalised society, and seeking approaches towards learning that place social justice at the heart of that practice. It will be of particular interest to academics and postgraduate students in the fields of development education, international education and globalisation.




The Battle of the Classics


Book Description

These are troubling days for the humanities. In response, a recent proliferation of works defending the humanities has emerged. But, taken together, what are these works really saying, and how persuasive do they prove? The Battle of the Classics demonstrates the crucial downsides of contemporary apologetics for the humanities and presents in its place a historically informed case for a different approach to rescuing the humanistic disciplines in higher education. It reopens the passionate debates about the classics that took place in late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century America as a springboard for crafting a novel foundation for the humanistic tradition. Eric Adler demonstrates that current defenses of the humanities rely on the humanistic disciplines as inculcators of certain poorly defined skills such as "critical thinking." It criticizes this conventional approach, contending that humanists cannot hope to save their disciplines without arguing in favor of particular humanities content. As the uninspired defenses of the classical humanities in the late nineteenth century prove, instrumental apologetics are bound to fail. All the same, the book shows that proponents of the Great Books favor a curriculum that is too intellectually narrow for the twenty-first century. The Battle of the Classics thus lays out a substance-based approach to undergraduate education that will revive the humanities, even as it steers clear of overreliance on the Western canon. The book envisions a global humanities based on the examination of masterworks from manifold cultures as the heart of an intellectually and morally sound education.