This book explores, and problematizes, what it means to be ‘critical’ in education research. Drawing together chapters from diverse global perspectives, this volume aims to stimulate dialogue about possible meanings of criticality in education research. In doing so, they question why criticality has become such an essential part of education, and what researchers expect of it. The book opens up and contests some of the deficiencies of criticality in education research: ultimately it is not a global term, but often creates a false binary between East and West. Offering an alternative trajectory to educational narratives surrounding criticality, this book will be of interest and value to scholars of critical pedagogy and comparative education.
1. Introduction: Beyond Impotent Criticality in Education Research?.-
Part I. Reflecting on and Defining Criticality in Education.- 2. Developing
Anglo-Centred Academic Literacy: Problematizing Understandings of
Criticality.- 3. Criticality Within the École de la République: A Study of
a French Educational Programme Based on Scientific Research.- 4. Reflections
on Narratives of Others Lives in Critical Educational Research.- Part
II. Beyond Just Criticality?.- 5. Critical Online Learning Networks of
Teachers: Communality and Collegiality as Contingent Elements.- 6. Moving
Forward with Poetry Lessons: Exploring How Poetry Can Stimulate Creativity
and Criticality in English Secondary Schools.- Part III. Different Ways of
Doing Criticality in Education (Research).- 7. Historical Bodies and Spaces
in Criticality Practices: Revisiting Interview Data from Upper Secondary
History Classrooms in Sweden, Russia and Australia.- 8. A
Practitioner-Research Study of Criticality Development in an Academic English
Language Programme.-
9. Afterword: Beyond the Naïve Mantra of Criticality in
Education (Research)?.
Ashley Simpson is Assistant Professor at Shanghai University of Finance and Economics, China. His research specialises in intercultural education, discourse theories and methods, and critical approaches to democracy. Fred Dervin is Professor of Multicultural Education at the University of Helsinki, Finland. He also holds honorary and visiting professorships in Australia, Canada, China, Luxembourg, Malaysia and Sweden. He specializes in intercultural communication education, the sociology of multiculturalism and student and academic mobility.
