Shawn M. Bullock - Böcker

In a linguistic and cultural landscape that has become more diversified, it has become more and more challenging for politicians, policymakers, researchers, as well as teachers, to deal with the increasing complexity of current classrooms.This book explores multilingualism from a historical and critical perspective. Drawing from three contexts – Canada, England and France – and beginning at a time of societal changes in the 1960-70s, the book offers an analysis and interpretation of when and why bilingualism was regarded as a problem in education, and the reasons for the turn towards multilingual education and its subsequent dominance of educational thinking in the English-speaking world. In so doing, the authors provide a unique critical stance at the multilingual turn that has since taken place. They examine language education policies and discourses as well as social representations around languages, their speakers, their practices and their identities. They conclude with their concern about multilingual education at a crossroads, particularly at this increasingly divisive political time, and what we might do to move forward in language education practice and policy.

Part of a vital Springer series on self-study practices in teaching and teacher education, this collection offers a range of contributions to the topic that embody the reflections of science teacher educators who have applied self-study methodology to their own professional development. The material recognizes the paradox that lies between classroom science and the education of science teachers: the disciplines of science are often perceived as a quest for right answers, an unintentional by-product of the classroom focus on right answers in student assessment in science. In contrast, the profession of teaching has few right answers and frequently involves the management of conflicting tensions. A dilemma thus arises in science teacher education of how to shift perspectives among student teachers from reductionist to more inclusive attitudes that are open to the mercurial realities of teaching. The self-studies presented here are unique, fresh and stimulating. They include the input of a beginning science teacher as well as science teacher educators from a range of backgrounds and varying levels of experience. In addition, the volume presents a truly international perspective on the issues, with authors hailing from five countries. Providing analysis at the leading edge of education theory, this collection will make fascinating reading for those teaching science—as well as those teaching science teachers.