The Promises of Modernity – Perspectives on National and

Transnational Modernity in an Age of Globalization

Hans Dorfassociate professor of educational

sociologyDPU, Denmark

The Promises of Modernity

1. The idea of Modern Europe: three sources - Globalization and the institutionalization of modernity in the European Union

2. European Union visions of education since the Lisbon Declaration – general features

3. European Union visions of education since the Lisbon Declaration – teacher education

European Union Visions

The idea of Modern Europe: three sources

– The division of labour and its dilemmas – The great European conflicts and the

quest for peace – The bourgeois revolutions and the ideas

of modernity

The division of labour and its dilemmas

• Community, differentiation and inequality

• Society as NOT an organism– Structure and reproduction– Human agency and change

• The issues of social integration– Solidarity within groups– Solidarity among “strangers”

The ambiguous role of state education

• Continuity and change• Differentiation and unity• Stability and development• Structure and human agency (creativity)• The “faith” in education

The great European conflicts and the quest for peace

• Europe – a continent of changing conflicts: power play and vision

• Interdependence as an impediment to large scale violence and war

• Transactions and benefits as means of acquaintance, acceptance, and legitimacy

• Pluralism or re-nationalization of the imagined community?

The bourgeois revolutions and the idea of modernity

• Modernity as an epoch• Modernity as a utopian idea – the

promises• The institutionalization of modernity• The Janus head of modernity – the

threats

Modernity – the visions

• Freedom, equality and brotherhood• The rule by the people – monist and

pluralist versions• Enlightenment, rationalism, reflexivity• Universalism• Progress through action• Democracy as an educational program

and a mode of cooperation and learning

Modernity – the institutionalization process

• The concept of institutionalization• State power and social control – models

– The liberal state– The social (and one-party) state– The neo-liberal (and neo-conservative) state

• The changing reality of community• The evolvement of the concept of citizenship• Nationalism as institutionalization of politics, cultural

identity and territory• Education as institutionalization

The Janus head of modernity – the unfulfilled promises as threats

• The unequal social distribution of citizenship – within the framework of the nation state

• The unequal social distribution of citizenship – transcending the national perspective

• Social and geographical mobility as sources of unrest – new communities and new modes of “disenchantment”

• The “war against terror”• A new world order?

Globalization and the recasting of modernity

• The pressure on nation state power and indirect modes of governance

• Global competition and the ideology of knowledge economy

• Global threats, local unrest, and the paradigm of social cohesion

• Dewey’s obstacles to democracy 2.0• A regressive or progressive notion of

community (Beck)

Education and the vision of modernity

• With the advent of democracy and modern industrial conditions, it is impossible to foretell definitely just what civilization will be twenty years from now. Hence it is impossible to prepare the child for any precise set of conditions. To prepare him for the future life means to give him command of himself; it means so to train him that he will have the full and ready use of all his capacities; that his eye and ear and hand may be tools ready to command, that his judgment may be capable of grasping the conditions under which it has to work (Dewey, My pedagogical Creed, 1897).

Topics for discussion part 1

• The societal ”model” – social organism or social conflict as explanatory viewpoints

• The modern basis of solidarity in a society with an extensive division of labour

• The important dilemmas of modernity –visions, institutionalizations and unfulfilled promises

• Education as the “supreme tool” of modernity

European Union Visions of education since the Lisbon

Declaration

Hans Dorfassociate professor of educational

sociologyDPU, Denmark

European Union Visions of education since the Lisbon Declaration 1

• European Union educational policy and meta-policy – historical view

• Convergence through educational governance • Competence development for

competitiveness• Inclusion and cohesion through active

citizenship

European Union educational policy and meta-policy – historical view

• Educational policy and educational politics as a walkabout on the razor’s edge – national reluctance to transnational educational policy

• The early phase – before the 1990’s• The take off – LLL as a political lever• The Lisbon Declaration and beyond

The early phase – before the 1990’s

• Education for immigrant children, a closer relationship between educational systems, collection of documentation and statistics, closer cooperation on higher education, foreign language education, and equal opportunities

• Unemployment and decreasing growth (1970’s)• Strengthening young peoples sense of

European identity and values, particularly the principles of democracy, social justice and human rights (1980’s)

The take off – LLL as a political lever• a new synthesis of the aims pursued by society (work

as a factor of social integration, equality of opportunity) and the requirements of the economy (competitiveness and job creation)

• a risk of a rift in society between those who can interpret, those who can only use, and those who are pushed out of mainstream society and rely on social support: in short those who know and those who don’t know

• Educational competences of “learning to learn”, communication, cooperation and self evaluation

Edith Cresson on active supranational citizenship

• I maintain, then, that turning a Europe of Knowledge into reality importantly includes promoting a broader idea of citizenship, which can strengthen the meaning and the experience of belonging to a shared social and cultural community. The active engagement of citizens is part of that broader concept of citizenship, and the aim is that people take the project of shaping the future into their own hands. (…)

• A deeper commitment lies behind these words - the affirmation of a coherent set of democratic values and social practices which together respect both our similarities and our differences. In a time of fundamental change, we need the solid foundation which those values provide, for they underlie our recognition of the social reality of a globalised world in which the significance of active citizenship extends far beyond local communities and national frontiers

The Lisbon Declaration and beyond

• The most competitive, dynamic and knowledge based economy in the world

• Three strategic objectives – quality and effectiveness; access for all; and openness of education and training systems to the wider world

• 13 targets: e.g. improving education and training for teachers; developing skills for a knowledge society; active citizenship, equality and social cohesion; mobility and exchange; and European cooperation

• In sum: a dual paradigm of competence and value development for competitiveness and employability in a “knowledge society” and for democratic citizenship and social cohesion in a society of risks and threats

Convergence through educational governance

• Meta-policy as the ”real” EU educational policy?• The Bologna process• Efficiency, mobilization, and inclusion (critique

of middle class educational cultural failure)• Educational governance as transnational

convergence?• Educational governance as bureaucratic de-

democratization?

The accountability-ensemble

• Governance by expectations (output)• qualification frameworks, aims and targets • Tests, comparisons and ranking on a national or

transnational scale• Freedom of choice• The elements of the accountability strategy

appeal to different parts of the political spectrum, because different groupings hold preferences for different elements

Criticisms• Individualization of the responsibility for

progress in so far as education is conceived in psychological terms as “learning” thereby circumventing the political nature of education

• Indirect management of educational output tends to solidify bureaucratic regulation and to “liquidize” politics into “sub-politics”

• Wrenching power from educational institutions and leaving it to people outside them

• The adverse effects of testing on teaching

Competence development for competitiveness on a global scale

• The notions of knowledge, skills, and competences• Generic competences and subject specific

competences • Criticisms – notions of learning progression

– “learning to learn”– “learning to deal with content”

• Criticisms – the issue of competence match and mismatch

The EU Tuning project distinguishes three types of “generic” competences

• Instrumental competences: cognitive abilities, methodological abilities, technological abilities and linguistic abilities;

• Interpersonal competences: individual abilities like social skills (social interaction and co-operation);

• Systemic competences: abilities and skills concerning whole systems (combination of understanding, sensibility and knowledge; prior acquisition of instrumental and interpersonal competences required).

Criticisms 1

• Four unwarranted assumptions of the predominant competence development policy1) there is a general bottleneck in the labour market due to

lack of skills and competences in the labour force2) the provision of education and training is the best way to

break this bottleneck3) the existence of a perfect match between the skills

provided by the education and training system and the specific skills recognized by the labour market

4) a perfect match between the levels of competences individuals possess and the jobs they can acquire

Criticisms 2• no evidence that generic competences can be acquired,

taught or assessed separately from specific domains with their specific contents, contexts and concepts – or matches labour market demands

• the triple governance paradigm of quality frameworks, generic competences and learning outcomes tend to replace “educational concepts concerned with intellectual development by economic concepts concerned with optimizing choice behaviour

• an invisible pedagogy to the disadvantage of those which it professes to help - new variety of “symbolic violence

Globalization, nationalism, and the EU conception of active citizenship

• Education since 9/11 – economy, politics, and culture• Diversity and tolerance – inequity and unity• A modern, democratic concept of community -

participation• Inclusion through work• Inclusion through education• Criticism: “Citizenship” and social cohesion as a

countermeasure against the social tension created by neo-liberal globalization – “liquidization” and roots

Topics for discussion part 2

• Meta-politics (governance by expectations) and sub-politics as a means of educational convergence in the EU

• The two beliefs on competence development – “learning to learn” (generic competences) and educating through (specific) content – and the effects on educational inequality

• Citizenship, social inclusion and social cohesion – a progressive or conservative concern; the proper understanding of community

European Union Visions since the Lisbon Declaration 2

• A general EU educational framework• EU defined teacher qualifications• National impediments to the development of

a European teacher education• Teacher expertise – the “real” challenges

EU defined teacher qualifications

• A three cycle education• A scientific and “evidence based” education• Three categories of teacher qualifications

– Working with others– Working with knowledge– Working with society

• Key competences– Reflexive practice, academic and transmission skills, and

classroom research– Global responsibility and multicultural understanding

• Framework factors and resources

EU Tuning project, teacher competences• Commitment to learners' progress and achievement • Competence in a number of teaching/learning strategies • Competence in counselling learners and parents • Knowledge of the subject to be taught • Ability to communicate effectively with groups and individuals• Ability to create a climate conducive to learning • Ability to make use of e-learning and to integrate it into the learning

environments • Ability to manage time effectively • Ability to reflect upon and evaluate one's own performance • Awareness of the need for continuous professional development • Ability to assess the outcomes of learning and learners' achievements • Competence in collaborative problem solving • Ability to respond to the diverse needs of learners • Ability to improve the teaching/learning environment • Ability to adjust the curriculum to a specific educational context

A model of learning progression• Ability to identify and acquire relevant knowledge (skills) through observation, thinking

and imagination• Ability to express/exercise relevant knowledge (skills)• Ability to categorize, differentiate, and combine relevant knowledge (skills)• Ability to contextualize, analyze and synthesize knowledge (skills) by using images,

concepts, models and theories• Ability to reflect on knowledge: its creation, foundations, reliability and validity• Ability to assess the practical uses and theoretical implications of knowledge • Ability to reflect on the values and interests connected with knowledge• Ability to reflect on one’s own and others’ cognitive and normative preferences in the

selection and filtering of knowledge • Ability to generate new understandings and expressions of knowledge on the basis of

observation, thinking and imagination (creativity)

• Ability to use knowledge (skills) in substantiating and giving reasons for educational action• Ability to distinguish between the epistemologies of theory and practice• Ability to express/exercise their knowledge (skills) in educational practice taking into

account subject matter, pupils’ potential, learning circumstances and social aims of education

EU Tuning, educational sciences• Ability to analyze educational concepts, theories and issues of policy in a systematic way• Ability to identify potential connections between aspects of subject knowledge and their

application in educational policies and contexts• Ability to reflect on one’s own values system• Ability to question concepts and theories encountered in Education Sc.• Ability to recognize the diversity of learners and the complexities of the learning process• Awareness of the different contexts in which learning can take place• Awareness of the different roles of participants in the learning process• Understanding of the structures and purposes of educational systems• Ability to do educational research in different contexts• Counseling skills• Ability to manage projects for school improvement/development• Ability to manage educational programs• Ability to evaluate educational programs/materials• Ability to foresee new educational needs and demands• Ability to lead or coordinate multidisciplinary educational teams

DPU, Educational sociology• Analyse and assess into the social origins, relations, and

importance of education, educational systems and educational programmes internationally, nationally, institutionally, organisationally and at the level of interaction

• Analyse and assess educational-sociological problems connected with the various spheres of society, with educational policy and public management, with institu tions and schools and with socialisation in relation to ways of life, class, gender, ethnicity or locality

• Analyse and assess differences and similarities in development trends in education and educational policy in cross-national contexts on the basis of empirical results and drawing on religious, cultural, social, economic and political perspectives

Citizenship Education at school in EU 1

• learning about social, political and civic institutions, as well as human rights;

• the study of conditions under which people may live harmoniously together, social issues and ongoing social problems;

• teaching young people about national constitutions so that they are better prepared to exercise their rights and responsibilities;

• promoting recognition of the cultural and historical heritage;• promoting recognition of the cultural and linguistic diversity

of society.

Citizenship Education at school in EU 2 critical thinking; attitudes an values

• acquiring the skills needed to participate actively in public life;• developing recognition of and respect for oneself and others

with a view to achieving greater mutual understanding;• acquiring social and moral responsibility, including self-

confidence, and learning to behave responsibly towards others;• strengthening a spirit of solidarity;• the construction of values, with due regard for differing social

perspectives and points of view;• learning to listen and resolve conflicts peacefully;• learning to contribute to a safe environment;• developing more effective strategies for fighting racism and

xenophobia.

Citizenship Education at school in EU 3 active participation

• enabling them to become more involved in the community at large (at international, national, local and school levels);

• offering them practical experience of democracy at school;• developing their capacity to engage with each other;• encouraging pupils to develop project initiatives in

conjunction with other organisations (such as community associations, public bodies and international organisations), as well as projects

• involving other communities.

National impediments to a European teacher education – the case of Denmark

• Why national politics resist EU initiatives• Historical cleavages – liberal communitarism

and social democratic reformism; stability and development

• The current issue – competence development, citizenship, and democracy

• The institutional and organizational set-up• Neoliberal limits to educational development?

Historical cleavages in Danish teacher education

• Stability or change – social order or competence development

• The vicarage and the state college• Academic and social reform or local

community• Culture or democracy• Academic achievement or personal

development• Competence development or citizenship

Teacher competence in Denmark• Through the education and in preparation for her professional work

as a teacher in the school, the student should • 1) acquire theoretical and practical competences to collect, analyze,

order, select and communicate knowledge on the basis of the methods of the various subjects and in accordance with the professional aims of the education

• 2) learn to plan, assess and evaluate, develop, practice and cooperate on teaching utilizing her theoretical and practical competencies

• 3) obtain didactical insight in the school subjects in a close interplay with the pedagogical subjects and school practice, qualifying her to found her teaching on the aims of the school as well as of the particular subjects; on important aspects of societal development; and on the individual pupil’s needs, potentials and learning conditions

Citizenship in Denmark - It is the aim that the teacher students acquire competences a) to assess the influence of Christian religion and other

philosophies of life on the structure of values in a European and Danish cultural context;

b) to handle the educational goals of the school for the pupil as an individual as well as a Danish and world citizen

c) to prepare the pupils of the school to participate in a society with equity, intellectual freedom and rule by the people

d) to develop the pupils’ critical faculties and abilities to make judgments and act when meeting with new challenges and teach them to live together respecting each other’s values and norms

- Two concepts of community (Beck/Dewey)

The institutional and organizational set-up

• A non-university based, non-research based teacher education (at the bachelor level)

• An “integrated” model – school subjects, educational subjects and school practice

• A decentralized, small-unit teacher education• A “lean” education – neo-liberal limits to

world championship

Teacher expertise – the “real” challenges to teacher education

• Three levels of educational professionalism – the theory and practice relationship

• The issue of “pedagogy” – between pupil and society

• The issue of subject and subject didactics expertise

• The challenge of democratic citizenship in Europe – the unresolved problems and the role of education: an example

Three levels of educational professionalism (Durkheim)

• Educational practice• The theory of educational practice• Educational research

Three models of the theory and practice relationship

• Theory as opposition, prescription, and reconstruction

• The auditorium model • The apprenticeship model• The laboratory model

The relationship between knowledge, skills, and competences

• A definition of competence: “The sum of all skills and qualities in combination with attitude and knowledge which defines the behavior which enables a person to successfully carry out a certain task at a certain level in certain surroundings” (Altet)

• Knowledge reinvested into action, hence the fundamental role of the situations which give sense to knowledge and the importance of contexts in which the use of knowledge is relevant

• The competences are neither conveyed, nor acquired, but constructed on and by the activity in a professional situation and context

Pedagogy – Education is not learning

• The dual reference of pedagogy– The personal context– The societal context (two perspectives)

• The school is a social institution – not a supplier of services• Pedagogy connects the self and the social in a double way

– Qualification– Integration

• The teacher is an authorized expert in competence development

• Competences are developed in dealing with content in a situation and a context

• The educational relationship is established through dealing with subject matter and issues

Pedagogy between pupil and society

• The purpose (of institutionalized education)“is to ensure that as many as possible of each cohort or age group are able to acquire the knowledge that takes them beyond their experience and which they would be unlikely to have access to at home, at work or in the community” (Michael Young: Alternative educational futures for a knowledge society)

Subject and subject didactics expertise

• Expertise in subjects and subject didactics make for better learning results– Through a more detailed handling of progression– Through a more accurate handling of learners’ potentials

and resources– Through a more detailed selection of methods and

contexts• Enthusiasm, involvement, and explicit identification

of the elements of the teaching program make for better learning results

• A content and task oriented focus and an open classroom climate make for better learning results

• These factors are important for reducing inequality

An example: democratic motivationValue of discussion

Freq. of discussing soc.

Pupil‘s school School’s d. responsiveness

Freedom of opinion in class

School topics tedious

School empowers for demo.

Frequency of discussing soc.

0.46*** -

Pupil’s school Insign. Insign. -

School’s demo. responsiveness

-0.28* corr. not c.** 0.50*** -

Freedom of opinion in class

0.22 Insign. 0.30*** corr. not c.*** -

School topics tedious

0.44** 0.27** corr. not c.** 0.32** 0.42*** -

School empowers for democracy

0.48*** 0.26*** corr. not c.** Insign. 0.32** 0.23 -

Interest in politics

0.50*** corr. not c.** corr. not c.** Insign. Insign. 0.32** 0.41***

A Gramscian ”outroduction” - The critique of what we are is at one and the same

time the historical analysis of the limits that are imposed on us and an experiment with the possibility of going beyond them. (…) I do not know whether it must be said today that the critical task still entails faith in Enlightenment; I continue to think that this task requires work on our limits, that is, a patient labour giving form to our impatience for liberty (Foucault, What is enlightenment?, 1984)

- School makes the largest difference to those that it cares least for! Differences can make a difference!

Topics for discussion part 3

• The proper level of defining teacher competences

• The proper understanding of “pedagogy” and “education” – learner society relationship

• The proper handling of theory and practice• Active citizenship as a realistic aim of school• The perspectives and chances of a common

EU teacher education framework