21P.

European Educational Research Journal:

http://www.wwwords.co.uk/eerj/content/maincontents.asp

Numbers: 1,2,3,4
====================================
Volume 6 Number 1 2007

Section 9

Title: Why Shouldn’t Teachers and Teacher Educators Conduct Research on their Own
Practices? An Epistemological Exploration

Source: European Educational Research Journal, Volume 6, Number 1 2007, pages 1-12.

Authors:
Mieke Lunenberg
Petra Ponte
Piet-Hein Van De Ven (Netherlands)

Keywords:
Teacher educators
Practitioner research
Knowledge construction
Epistemological exploration
Netherlands

‫תמצית‬

The aim of this article is to pause to allow time to reflect on the concept of practitioner
research from a perspective that sees knowledge, knowledge-constitutive interests and
knowledge construction as interrelated.

‫מאמר‬

Source: European Educational Research Journal, Volume 6, Number 1 2007, pages 1-12.

The idea of teachers and teacher educators engaging in research is not, in itself, new, but in
recent years the propagation of this idea seems to have become really popular. This growing
popularity brings the risk that practitioner research will degenerate into an increasingly vague
and obscure ‘container concept’.

The aim of this article is to pause to allow time to reflect on the concept of practitioner
research from a perspective that sees knowledge, knowledge-constitutive interests and
knowledge construction as interrelated.
Volume 6 Number 2 2007

Section 10

Title: The Building of a New Academic Field: the case of French didactiques

Source: European Educational Research Journal, Volume 6, Number 2, 2007, pages

125-130.

Author:

Michel Caillot (France)

Keywords:
Academic field
Comparative didactics
Instructional systems
Research programs
France

‫תמצית‬

In this article, the author attempts to show how French disciplinary didactiques were created
and have developed. At the beginning, nobody could forecast the future and whether the
didactiques would one day be recognised by the academic and instructional systems. The
French didactiques are strongly based on school subject matters.

‫מאמר‬

Source: European Educational Research Journal, Volume 6, Number 2, 2007, pages

125-130.

In this article, the author attempts to show how French disciplinary didactiques were created
and have developed. At the beginning, nobody could forecast the future and whether the
didactiques would one day be recognised by the academic and instructional systems. The
French didactiques are strongly based on school subject matters.

Since the creation of Instituts Universitaire de Formation des Maîtres (University Teacher
Training Institutes) in 1991, they are completely integrated in French educational research
and training systems: a major evolution in education that has taken about 40 years. More
recently, a new field of research is developing in the French-speaking area: comparative
didactics that groups together disciplinary didacticians in a true research programme.
---------------------
Section 10

Title: Readjusting Didactics to a Changing Epistemology

Source: European Educational Research Journal, Volume 6, Number 2, 2007, pages

131-134.

Author:
Yves Chevallard Lufm (France)

Keywords:
France
Didactics
Epistemology
Anthropological Theory

‫תמצית‬

This article provides an overview of the gradual development, in the span of two decades
(1985-2005), of a theorisation which has come to be known as the Anthropological Theory of
the Didactic (ATD). It stresses important stages in the dismissing – based on both fact and
theory – of some widespread views of teaching and learning, and the establishing of new
attitudes towards ‘the didactic’, seen as an anthropological dimension of social life.

‫מאמר‬

Source: European Educational Research Journal, Volume 6, Number 2, 2007, pages

131-134.
This article provides an overview of the gradual development, in the span of two decades
(1985-2005), of a theorisation which has come to be known as the Anthropological Theory of
the Didactic (ATD).

It stresses important stages in the dismissing – based on both fact and theory – of some
widespread views of teaching and learning, and the establishing of new attitudes towards ‘the
didactic’, seen as an anthropological dimension of social life.

It emphasises the logic behind the evolution of a ‘science of the didactic’ that, in adapting to
the changing nature of its object of study, currently brings to the fore new ideas, among which
the concept of ‘study and research course’ (SRC) seems to be most promising.
----------------------
Section 10

Title: Trends in Research on Teaching and Learning in Schools: didactics meets classroom
studies

Source: European Educational Research Journal, Volume 6, Number 2, 2007, pages

147-160.

Author:
Kirsti Klette (Norway)

Keywords:
Teaching and learning
Didactics
Classroom studies
Teaching–learning gap
Instructional activities
Norway

‫תמצית‬

In this article the author argues for the need to bridge studies of teaching and learning with
studies of the subject involved – to establish a conversation between didactics and classroom
studies. An analytical design and framework able to bridge the teaching–learning gap needs
to be developed. Emerging technologies in video/audio documentation provide one chain of
investigations for bridging how different thematic patterns are linked to instructional activities
and interaction formats in classrooms.

‫מאמר‬

Source: European Educational Research Journal, Volume 6, Number 2, 2007, pages

147-160.

The relation between teaching, instruction and children’s learning arises whenever models of
the teaching–learning process are discussed or whenever problems of learning occur. Despite
massive research efforts we still know little about how differences in learning activities are
related to students’ learning.

The primacy of teachers and teaching as the primary subjects of research has contributed to
a rather limited understanding of what goes on in schools and classrooms. Few studies of
teachers and teaching have examined the extent to which differences in teacher effectiveness
are related to differences in teachers’ subject matter knowledge, and there is still a tendency
to discuss issues of teaching and learning in general terms separated from the content that
has been taught.

In this article the author argues for the need to bridge studies of teaching and learning with
studies of the subject involved – to establish a conversation between didactics and classroom
studies. An analytical design and framework able to bridge the teaching–learning gap needs
to be developed.

Emerging technologies in video/audio documentation provide one chain of investigations for

bridging how different thematic patterns are linked to instructional activities and interaction
formats in classrooms.
---------------------------
Section 10

Title: Didactics, Sense Making, and Educational Experience

Source: European Educational Research Journal, Volume 6, Number 2, 2007, pages

161-173.

Author:
Meinert A. Meyer (Germany)

Keywords:
Germany
Didactics
Educational experience
Teaching and learning
Student involvement

‫תמצית‬

This article focuses on student participation in classrooms. It aims to demonstrate that

effective cultivation of educational experience in schools will lead to a new perspective on the
process of teaching and learning. There are no privileged methods of teaching and learning,
but most of the teachers have in mind some fuzzy ideas of what good instruction is, and there
is a great variety of how teachers involve their students and how students get involved in what
happens in school.

‫מאמר‬

Source: European Educational Research Journal, Volume 6, Number 2, 2007, pages

161-173.

This article focuses on student participation in classrooms. It aims to demonstrate that

effective cultivation of educational experience in schools will lead to a new perspective on the
process of teaching and learning.

There are no privileged methods of teaching and learning, but most of the teachers have in
mind some fuzzy ideas of what good instruction is, and there is a great variety of how
teachers involve their students and how students get involved in what happens in school.

That is why the student’s didactic competence should be used in the instructional process and
teachers’ and students’ sensitivity for classroom participation and student involvement should
be increased.

Examples of how learners view their educational process, and how sense making can be
identified and described, are given. Sense making is an individual affair, and what the
teachers want is not necessarily in accord with the students’ constructions.

Therefore, it is not only of interest to examine how learners acquire knowledge and skills but
also how they develop the ability to decide things for themselves and act responsibly in an
increasingly complex and difficult world.
======================================
Volume 6 Number 3 2007
Section 2

Title: Unpacking Autonomy and Control in Education: some conceptual and normative
groundwork for a comparative analysis

Source: European Educational Research Journal, Volume 6, Number 3, 2007, pages

203-213.

Authors:
Alan Cribb
Sharon Gewirtz (UK)

Keywords:
UK
Autonomy
Control
Comparative analysis
Regulation

‫תמצית‬

The purpose of this article is to make a contribution to the first two of these tasks which are
relatively neglected in the education research literature. The authors begin by unpacking
some conceptual complexities involved in debating issues of autonomy and control,
distinguishing between three dimensions of autonomy-control: loci and modes of autonomy,
domains of autonomy-control and loci and modes of control.

‫מאמר‬

Source: European Educational Research Journal, Volume 6, Number 3, 2007, pages

203-213.

To make meaningful comparisons of the consequences of new modes of regulation in

education for local autonomy in different national settings we need to a) be clear about what
is meant by local autonomy and state control, b) be clear about why the balance between
local autonomy and state control matters and c) produce good quality empirical data and
analysis.

The purpose of this article is to make a contribution to the first two of these tasks which are
relatively neglected in the education research literature. The authors begin by unpacking
some conceptual complexities involved in debating issues of autonomy and control,
distinguishing between three dimensions of autonomy-control: loci and modes of autonomy,
domains of autonomy-control and loci and modes of control.

They then go on to illustrate some of the normative complexities surrounding issues of

autonomy-control, using the case of individual teacher autonomy to explore arguments about
the value of autonomy and control.

Finally, the authors discuss the implications of these complexities for the task of policy
analysis. In doing so, they seek to: ‘trouble’ the presumption that autonomy is necessarily
good; challenge the notion that control and autonomy are discrete entities in some simple
zero-sum relationship to one another, drawing attention to the ways in which control can be
seen as ‘productive’ as well as ‘destructive’ of autonomy; and sketch out the multi-
dimensional nature of cross-national comparative evaluation of regulation in education.
----------------------
Section 11

Title: Towards a New Professionalism in School? A Comparative Study of Teacher Autonomy

in Norway and Sweden
Source: European Educational Research Journal, Volume 6, Number 3, 2007, pages
232-249.

Authors:
Ingrid Helgøy
Anne Homme
(Norway)

Keywords:
Professionalism
Teacher autonomy
Compulsory education
National standards
Norway
Sweden

‫תמצית‬

The authors argue that both individual teacher autonomy at the local workplace and
autonomy at the national level embracing teachers as a collective group are important in
analysing teachers’ professional autonomy. In comparing teachers’ professional autonomy
they differentiate between processes of individualisation and collectivisation. Their analysis
indicates, although intra-national differences, that the difference between Norwegian and
Swedish teachers is striking.

‫מאמר‬

Source: European Educational Research Journal, Volume 6, Number 3, 2007, pages

232-249.

Local autonomy is one of the recent trends in reforms of compulsory education. However,
several parallel trends such as individual accountability, performance and visibility challenge
professional autonomy. The aim of this article is to explore how accountability and
transparency reforms affect teacher autonomy in Norway and Sweden.

The authors argue that both individual teacher autonomy at the local workplace and
autonomy at the national level embracing teachers as a collective group are important in
analysing teachers’ professional autonomy. In comparing teachers’ professional autonomy
they differentiate between processes of individualisation and collectivisation. Their analysis
indicates, although intra-national differences, that the difference between Norwegian and
Swedish teachers is striking.

While the Swedish teachers experience a high degree of individual autonomy, their influence
on national policy processes seems weakened. This leads to the assumption that professional
autonomy as a result of transparency and accountability reforms, even if the teachers report
individual professional autonomy, reduces the authority of the profession at the national
policy-making level.

The analysis indicates that Norwegian teachers are characterized by old professionalism. The
strong input regulations in Norway limit individual teacher autonomy. Even with weakened
individual autonomy, teachers still manage to supply conditions for national education policy
making.

This means that teachers still are autonomous at the collective level. Moreover, the findings
indicate that national standards and control in education are accepted as tools for securing
professional knowledge and status.
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Volume 6 Number 4 2007
This issue is still in production.