Expresní Astronomické Informace
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"When the chips are down" : a response to Ambasciano
Get PDFThe author comments on Leonardo Ambasciano\u27s book An Unnatural History of Religions: Academia, Post-truth and the Quest for Scientific Knowledge (2019) and develops the line of its argument that a fideistic, sui generis, confessional History of Religions tradition continues due to the tacit support from scholars, institutions and organisations. Gnosticism is presented as a case study, showing how it exemplifies core critiques of HoR, and is supported by the same scholars and institutions, particularly the IAHR. The author then considers the recent British Academy report into Theology and Religious Studies in the UK to argue that the HoR tradition in contemporary Religious Studies is not a "problem to be solved", but rather something at the very basis of the discipline. The argument is therefore made that there cannot be a truly scientific academic study of religion while RS exists
Networks in education : making use of social network analysis in educational research
Get PDFAnalýza sociálnych sietí si svojim širokým využitím nachádza miesto v množstve vedeckých odborov. V pedagogickom výskume má potenciál odhaliť a preskúmať doteraz neznáme usporiadania vzťahov medzi aktérmi vo vzdelávaní. Tento článok poskytuje úvod do problematiky, techník a využitia analýz y sociálnych sietí v pedagogickom výskume. V prvom rade predstavuje základnú terminológiu a koncepty analýz y sociálnych sietí. Na príklade malej siete ilustruje základné sieťové výpočty tak na úrovni jednotlivých aktérov, ako na úrovni celej siete. Článok ďalej poskytuje stručný prehľad štúdií z pedagogického výskumu, v ktorých bola analýza sociálnych sietí využitá. Hlavná časť článku na príklade fiktívnej triedy a piatich výskumných otázok ukazuje možnosti analýz y sociálnych sietí v pedagogickom výskume od základnej prierezovej analýz y po dynamickú inferenčnú analýzu. Krok za krokom sú predstavené rôzne metódy s následnou interpretáciou ich výsledkov. Okrem výpočtov centralít, klastrovacieho koeficientu a prepojenosti siete sú v príkladoch predstavené aj permutačné testy pri testovaní významnosti za využitia sieťových dát, ERGM (exponential random graph models) a STERGM (separable temporal exponential graph models). V neposlednom rade sú prediskutované problémy spojené s využitím analýz y sociálnych sietí.With its wide range of applications, social network analysis has found its place in a number of scientific fields. In educational research, social network analysis has the potential to uncover and investigate yet unknown configurations of relationships among actors in education. This paper provides an introduction to the issues, techniques, and applications of social network analysis in educational research. It first surveys the basic terminolog y and concepts in social network analysis. Using the example of a small network, it demonstrates basic network calculations at the level of both the individual actors and the network as a whole. Furthermore, the paper provides a brief overview of studies in the field of educational research that have employed social network analysis. Using the example of a fictional classroom and five research questions, the main part of the paper demonstrates the application of social network analysis in educational research ranging from crosssectional descriptive analysis to dynamic inferential analysis. Step by step, it introduces a range of methods and interprets their results. In addition to centrality, clustering, and connectedness measures, the example contains permutation tests used for significance testing with network data, exponential random graph models (ERGM), and separable temporal exponential graph models (STERGM). Finally, the paper discusses challenges related to the application of social network analysis
Aligning teacher preparation, professional development and evaluation : the orthodoxy of TAP teachers and teaching
Get PDFThis paper looks at one of the most popular teacher accountability systems in the USA, TAP: The System for Teacher and Student Advancement, which is a comprehensive program that meets the requirements of multiple large federal grants schemes. The paper shows that, after consortia in Arizona and Texas won multimillion-dollar grant awards, thousands of teachers in these states have become engrossed within a TAP circuit that shapes multiple domains of their professional identity and growth. TAP\u27s ubiquitous presence helps build system alignment, but it also means that teachers are increasingly limited in their exposure to alternative philosophies, practices, or measurements of teaching. Therefore, I challenge the assumptions of alignment and illustrate how such alignment flattens and overly-simplifies the plurality and complexity of teaching, even though present times require adaptability within schools. What I ultimately argue is that the precise and comprehensive alignment of this system enforces and reinforces TAP as the orthodox reality of what it means to be and become a teacher
Teacher status and the role of teacher unions in the context of new professionalism
Get PDFThe status of teachers and the teaching profession is currently under pressure from the reform agendas of governments and international organisations. This article examines the perceptions of teacher unions about changes in teacher status under the influence of new public management and its dominant discourse of new professionalism. The analysis is underpinned by a conceptual framework that seeks to reveal the main challenges facing teachers and their unions in the context of new professionalism. The framework is applied deductively to data drawn from two surveys conducted by Education International in 2015 and in 2018. The findings revealed some worrisome trends that appeared consistently over time and influenced teacher status, including an increased accountability for teachers through external control, a lack of government efforts to improve teacher professionalism, the expansion of privatisation policies, and a lack of teacher union engagement. This restructuring of the teaching profession implies the need for teacher union renewal in mission and action
Teachers for Slovakia : tensions in the profession
Get PDFThe Slovak teaching profession is in a difficult situation. There are signs that the country is facing a teaching staff shortage and that the demand for new teachers will continue to grow. The data indicate that some subjects are being taught by unqualified teachers on a fairly wide scale. Finding quick, simple solutions to these problems is a challenge because teaching is not considered an attractive profession, mainly because of teachers\u27 low salaries and social status. We will illustrate related uncertainties and complications in the teaching profession by looking at two extremes of these trends in the teaching profession. On the one side, we have Teach for Slovakia, which has opened potential for new teaching qualification models. It is an example of inclusive education in the sense that it only works when differences among teachers are accepted and the focus is on teachers\u27 strong points and professional characteristics. On the other side, the introduction of national testing has made teachers accountable for student educational outcomes. Our qualitative interviews reveal that, in the (sometimes critical) views of teachers, accountability is now part of professionalism in Slovakia and is producing various tensions