This paper reports on an Australian government-commissioned research study that documented classroom pedagogies in 24 Queensland schools. The research created the model of "productive pedagogies", which conjoined what Nancy Fraser calls a politics of redistribution, recognition and representation. In this model pedagogies are…

This paper takes as its starting point the concept of concerted cultivation as coined by Annette Lareau. It examines whether a focus on concerted cultivation adequately captures the various practices observed in young women's experiences of being privately educated in four schools in one area of England. We suggest that a variety of practices of…

Various injurious effects of schooling have been documented in the literature over the years, leading some authors to characterise schooling as violence. In this article we draw together such research to present an account of the ways in which schooling in the Global North damages young people (and their teachers). The range of damage includes:…

This study researches the role prayer plays in a class at a faith primary school in Slovakia in terms of reproducing the traditional elements of school organisation/schoolwork, such as accepting authority, conforming and competing. It looks at non-religious elements of school socialisation as a consequence of the practice of praying. At the same…

This article analyses teachers' experience in the period of educational change in Estonia from 1989 to 2010. We review the introduction of the new national curricula and national exams. We show how, in the teachers' experience, the period of change can be divided into two distinct periods. Firstly, the period of freedom and chaos in the early…

In the English-speaking world educational research is often conceived as the interdisciplinary study of educational processes and practices. Hence research in education strongly relies on theoretical input from a range of different academic disciplines. What is virtually absent in this construction of the field is the idea of education as an…

The widespread turn towards "collaboration" in qualitative research methodologies warrants careful and continuous critique. This paper addresses the possibilities and the challenges of collaborative methodology, and in particular what happens when the line between pedagogy and methodology is blurred in classroom-based ethnographic research.…

Reforms made to France's education system structures during the 1960s resulted in a repositioning of academic subjects within study plans. This article looks at three relatively similar subjects (physical sciences, natural sciences and physical education) and throws light on the arguments put forward to defend the purpose of each of them in the…

In this paper, the author shows that the issue of whether toleration promotes coexistence is controversial and therefore needs careful consideration in light of the complexities that are involved in understanding and teaching toleration in the schools of conflict and post-conflict societies. In particular, this paper offers a critique to the…

This article will explore education, pedagogy and praxis (morally informed and committed action oriented by tradition, and "history-making action") through the lens of the "relational". The article brings together empirical investigations of professional development and classroom teaching to explicate the role of this relational dimension, via the…

In this article we investigate educational leadership as a site of practice, utilising the notion of "practice architectures" as our lens. The latter shifts Etienne Wenger's more individualising notion of 'learning architectures' to a broader study of the systems and organisations that prefigure educational practices and potentially, leading…

This article reveals how educational policies and policy contexts in Sweden, Norway, Finland and Australia establish the circumstances which enable and constrain individual and collective teacher professional development as praxis. We provide insights into existing partnerships between universities and schools, and, municipalities and the state as…

The research on which this paper is based is a response to the UNESCO directive for the Decade of Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) 2005-2014. Educators are advised to prepare young people for sustainable development and global citizenship and the Arts should be included in programmes in ESD. This paper presents an overview of a research…

Media educators and researchers call for learner-centred, bottom-up pedagogical approaches, which take into account learners' own cultures, knowledge and experiences. Nevertheless, there seem to be gaps between traditional, authoritarian school culture and the interactive, creative media culture that is a significant part of youngsters' lives…

This paper describes a heuristic framework developed to provide a common vocabulary with which to discuss pedagogy within a collaborative university-school research team studying pedagogical redesign in middle-years classrooms (Years 6-9) serving disadvantaged students. The framework was developed in response to discussions about teaching in such…