Reino Unido

Page 56 of 84
1 … 54 55 56 57 58 … 84

Reino Unido:How electro and techno could help to revolutionise school music lessons

Noticias

For many British children, the music they grow up listening to with friends, family, parents and relatives is often not reflected in school music lessons. So while their teacher is trying to get them to listen to Mozart, Bach or Beethoven, back home in their bedrooms the radio is often tuned into a very different station.

Improving access to classical music for children from deprived backgrounds has been a priority for music education and rightly so. Because there is no good reason why the daughter of a brick layer or the son of a shop assistant shouldn’t be enthralled by Mozart.

But it is likely that for a lot of these students, rather than Chopin or Vivaldi, they will be much more familiar with a musical education in hardcore electronic dance music (EDM).

For these young people, this is “our music”, and overlooking this in school music lessons misses an opportunity to help these pupils engage with something they are already naturally interested in.

Hardcore electronic dance music has great potential for student engagement. Pexels.

For a lot of these kids, they’ve grown up with this music – their aunties, brothers and friends are into it, too. And their parents were probably ravers in the heyday of “acid house” or the subsequent years when “happy hardcore” and other forms of harsh, repetitive EDM provided the soundtrack for the lives of countless young people.

School music lessons, however, very rarely even acknowledge the existence of such music within British culture. In many schools, coverage of dance music might stretch from the Galliard or the Pavan to Disco via the Viennese Waltz, but no further in most cases.

Modern music making

Serious engagement with rave and post-rave EDM in the classroom is rare in the extreme. Even your classic mainstream dance music seems to be way off the agenda in most schools.

This much was clear to me when I provided training on using DJ decks in music teaching for a group of Teach First trainee teachers back in 2013.

Teach First sees young graduates recruited into tough, under-performing, inner-city schools for their first teaching placements. And yet despite the strong prevalence of youth culture and niche music scenes in many of these cities – grime in London or bassline in Sheffield – none of these young teachers had seen such equipment used in the schools where they were on placements.

Bassline in Sheffield. Facebook

This was with one exception: one trainee admitted that his school had DJ decks but, disappointingly, he explained that they were never removed from the cupboard where they were gathering dust as “nobody knows what to do with them”.

Face the music

I, too, had little or no experience of using DJ decks when I became a secondary school music teacher in 2003. MC rapping was alien to me and I had never been much of an enthusiast of EDM.

But because of the inner-city character of the North East of England school I was working in, I soon realised that a large minority of the learners were passionate about a form of happy hardcore EDM known as “makina”. This is a sub genre of hardcore techno – which originates in Spain. It is similar to UK hardcore, and it includes elements of bouncy techno and hardtrance.

The bulk of the pupils that were into this type of music at my school were considered to be some of the most disaffected and “at risk” learners. But I actually learned much of what I now know about DJing and MCing from these young people.

A makina rave in Newcastle. Monta Musica Facebook

I also made a little effort to learn from expert local DJs and MCs about this form of music-making and the attendant skills so that I could give it coverage in my lessons.

I have seen first hand the transformative effect the use of DJing and MCing in the classroom can have upon learners. And yet the creative use of DJ decks coupled with MC rapping – an international musical tradition for around 40 years – is barely recognised as a musical discipline even in many of the inner-city schools.

Conversations with the large US provider of music education Little Kids Rock have indicated that a similar situation pertains across the US.

Lost in music

While this kind of music gets some coverage in pupil referral units and youth clubs, and some schools employ visiting specialists for extra-curricular learning, it is extremely rare to find it employed in mainstream classrooms for everyday lessons with the regular music teacher. But given the availability of more affordable technology such as “DJ controllers” and CD decks, this situation may hopefully begin to improve.

Making our classrooms relevant to students is vitally important, because if school feels culturally alien and alienating – as indeed it does for a significant minority of typically inner-city youth – then as educators we are leaving behind a whole group of keen and passionate music lovers.

Engaging pupils with music they know and love is one way to make school feel more familiar and more welcoming. And it could even help to change a few stereotypes about what “types of people” listen to “what types of music” in the process.

Fuente :

https://theconversation.com/uk/education

Fuente Imagen:

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/EUQI3KaPWVZx1b1choK7nRan_f0VXt7TeLN8IPHdoJhMCTkoc2WZ4aUA4MS9viFtBUVzNQ=s85

Comparte este contenido:
Leer más »

Reino Unido: The Victorians taught children about consumerism – and we can learn from them too

Noticias

/Europa/Reino Unido/Abril del 2018/Noticias/https://theconversation.com

Every parent dreads the day their child asks where babies come from. But perhaps we should be more concerned about how children learn where other things come from. What do we say when they ask where we get the clothes we wear, the furniture in our homes, the food we eat?

Considering the volume of advertising of all kinds of products designed for and marketed directly to children – everything from toys, to cereals, to fashion – it is surprising how little time we spend on helping children to become educated and empowered consumers.

Growing interest in eco-friendly and sustainable products has led to increased awareness among modern consumers of where our clothes, food and other goods come from. Documentaries like Ethos (2011), The True Cost (2015), and campaigns like Buy Nothing Day and the Clean Clothing movement inspired by the Savar Building collapse in Rana Plaza in 2013, encourage us to think carefully about our choices as consumers. Most of the educational campaigns aimed at young consumers focus on the things they eat and drink, whereas those aimed at older consumers focus on industry and manufacture.

Perhaps this is because we assume children are more interested in what they eat than where their wellies or beds come from. But perhaps we need to think about a more holistic approach. Indeed, consumer interest in sustainability is far older than many of us realise. Though the interest in conscious consumerism may feel like a modern phenomenon, it existed in the 19th century, too. And the Victorians had some interesting solutions to the problem of telling children where our stuff comes from.

Victorian consumers

The Great Exhibition of 1851 brought together goods from all over the world in Crystal Palace, an enormous glasshouse in south London. There were fantastic things on display: a steam engine small enough to fit inside a walnut, a fabulous fake medieval court, a model that transformed from dwarf to giant at the touch of a button. There were very mundane things there, too: blocks of coal and alum, piles of wood, sheets of paper, tablecloths, and ordinary cutlery and crockery.

Considering that the modern department stores and shopping malls didn’t exist yet – Le Bon Marché opened in 1852 – this was the first time so many things could be seen in a single building, making the exhibition a bewildering experience for many visitors. A considerable portion of these visitors were children.

The Great Exhibition. V&A Museum

Many books were written about the Great Exhibition for children – both guide books to lead young visitors around the Crystal Palace and stories about the exhibition after the spectacle closed. These books emphasise the provenance and production of the things on display and encourage child readers to think about where these things come from, who made them, and how they were made.

Children’s Prize Book of the Great Exhibition.Pollard Collection, Trinity College Dublin

These writers wanted to engage children with the material goods around them and, by doing so, to mould them into informed consumers who understood where things came from, how they were made, and how they fit into a wider global economy. For example, the child reader of The Children’s Prize Book of the Great Exhibition, a souvenir book for young visitors, is reminded that “some of the nice butter that you eat on your rolls comes from Ireland” and that the food on the breakfast table doesn’t appear by magic.

Licking alum

The master of this sort of lesson for young consumers was Samuel Prout Newcombe. He appears in various census records as a photographer and a teacher, but by 1851 he was a writer and educator. His books about the Great Exhibition encourage children to investigate the objects around them and really think about where they came from.

He has some unconventional methods. In one book, Little Henry’s Holiday, the characters Henry and Laura are encouraged to touch the objects on display in the Crystal Palace and even to lick the huge block of sharp-tasting alum (aluminium potassium sulfate, which is used today in baking powder and deodorant crystals). It’s a playful, and tactile sort of learning – the kind of approach we associate more readily with Sesame Street than with the 19th century. Newcombe emphasises that the children should engage all of their senses and learn about the whole manufacturing process, from raw materials to the finished product.

A little later in the century, Annie Carey’s Threads of Knowledge (1872) focuses on helping young readers to understand the social and environmental impact of common items made from cloth.

Once she realises her children consume without thought or reflection, the Mamma of the story decides to instruct her children about the origins of the most common items of clothing, reminding them that young children are involved in the manufacture of some of the items they consume thoughtlessly. She reminds the children that though industrialisation has created employment, its history is “a history of much misery and many mistakes”, and tells them of the harmful effects of the chlorine used to bleach cotton on both people and the environment.

By positioning child characters – and by extension child readers – at the centre of a global economy, Carey’s work, like Newcombe’s, helps child readers to become informed, thoughtful consumers.

These Victorian books foreshadowed modern concerns about consumerism and sustainability. Today, our emphasis is on the informed choices that adult consumers can make. But we need to start educating consumers earlier – much earlier.

The Victorians’ playful, narrative-based approach engages the young consumer in the whole process of making, selling, buying and using household goods. We could do worse than learn from the Victorians, and their strategies for teaching young children about production and consumption at a time when consumerism and industrial manufacture were just getting started.

Fuente:

https://theconversation.com/the-victorians-taught-children-about-consumerism-and-we-can-learn-from-them-too-76658

Fuente Imagen:

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/ZDY082RFX7ScYKbjGUI-IUXPN3wqdzA0WygnBqoRwXtm9nIB526FZKirfi-JCZijk650jQ=s85

Comparte este contenido:
Leer más »

Película: Educando a Rita

Reseñas

Educando a Rita es una película británica, estrenada el 14 de septiembre de 1983 y basada en la obra teatral homónima de Willy Russell.

Argumento

Educando a Rita cuenta la historia de Susan White (Julie Walters), una mujer joven que siente el deseo de volver a estudiar pues le gustaría dejar su actual vida de clase baja. Susan cambió su nombre por Rita, debido a la escritora Rita Mae Brown.

El profesor de la universidad abierta (Open University) a la que asiste, Frank Bryant (Michael Caine) le enseña a conocerse a sí misma y a tomar sus propias decisiones libremente. Al mismo tiempo le ayuda a preparar sus exámenes. A medida que Rita va aprendiendo, la relación con su marido se hace cada vez más distante.

Finalmente, Rita vuelve a cambiar su nombre por Susan y trata en todo momento de comportarse como una persona culta, mientras que Frank, por su parte, habla empleando un lenguaje bajo en cultura (como aquel que usaba Rita al comienzo de la obra) y, además, ha caído en el vicio del alcohol y el cigarro.

Para ver, haga clic aquí:

Fuente de la Reseña:

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Educando_a_Rita

Comparte este contenido:
Leer más »

Boletín Informativo «Reformas y Contrarreformas Educativas»

CLACSO

GT CLACSO – OIREPOD/ 21 de abril de 2017/

Boletín Informativo «Reformas y Contrarreformas Educativas»

Espacio que pretende socializar las voces de los(as) actores que viven las reformas educativas mundiales. Tendrá un difusión quincenal en el portal otrasvoceseneducacion.org, a quienes agradecemos y en nuestro próximo portal del Grupo de Trabajo del Consejo Latinoamericano en Ciencias Sociales.

  

Boletín Informativo N°1. Año Abril – 2017.

Reformas y Contrarreformas Educativas.

Publicación que llega a ustedes, gracias al apoyo de investigadores(as) del GT CLACSO “Reformas y Contrarreformas Educativas” y el Observatorio Internacional de Reformas Educativas y Políticas Docentes (OIREPOD), registrado en el IESALC – UNESCO.

Para iniciar éste recorrido, se presenta una mirada de las injerencias de los organismos internacionales para el reformismo en América en “Criatura bicéfala del modelo neoliberal, educación y estado”, en http://insurgenciamagisterial.com/criatura-bicefala-del-modelo-neoliberal-educacion-y-estado/

En el mismo orden, tenemos el “Informe Mundial sobre la Calidad Educativa” de la Red Global/Local por la Calidad Educativa, que aunque fue presentado en el año 2015, hoy en día tiene gran vigencia, ya que menciona todo el debate educativo, sobre las injerencias de los organismos internacionales para propiciar el Apagón Pedagógico Global, a través del reformismo de los sistemas educativos mundiales, léalo en https://revistas.unc.edu.ar/index.php/integracionyconocimiento/article/view/12554

América

Desde una mirada, hay quienes dicen “México requiere de reformas educativas que desarrollen la ciencia”, podrás ver la noticia en http://www.provincia.com.mx/web/M%C3%A9xico_requiere_de_reformas_educativas_que_desarrollen_la_ciencia-69139

Hay otros(as) que tienen posturas a favor y en contra de las reformas educativas mexicanas, como “La reforma educativa a ras del suelo” http://otrasvoceseneducacion.org/archivos/214962

Hay quienes como Alejandro Castro, reflexionan sobre México en “Un modelo que no es ni nuevo ni modelo” http://sipse.com/milenio/columna-gis-y-pizarra-alejandro-castro-un-modelo-que-no-es-ni-nuevo-ni-modelo-251081.html

“La Cámara de Diputados de Chile rechaza la reforma educativa de Bachelet”, ya que aunque ésta contempla el acceso gratuito a la educación y la extensión de diferentes becas del Estado, aún no satisface las grandes necesidades del sector estudiantil en Chile. http://otrasvoceseneducacion.org/archivos/214965

En el siguiente artículo, se menciona “¿Cómo reconfigurar la arquitectura de la Reforma a la Educación Superior en Chile”?, en http://ciperchile.cl/2017/03/31/como-reconfigurar-la-arquitectura-de-la-reforma-a-la-educacion-superior/

En Argentina, se inicia con fuerza la consigna de reformas educativas por el presidente Macri, agarrándose de los resultados de PISA- OCDE, de la situación laboral con los docentes y en el querer de mejorar las escuela, vea noticias referentes en “¿Sigue mereciendo la escuela pública de Argentina la admiración del resto de América Latina?” http://www.t13.cl/noticia/mundo/bbc/sigue-mereciendo-la-escuela-publica-de-argentina-la-admiracion-del-resto-de-america-latina y el “Consejo de expertos argentinos fija mejora educación como prioridad para 2030” https://www.terra.cl/noticias/mundo/latinoamerica/consejo-de-expertos-argentinos-fija-mejora-educacion-como-prioridad-para-2030,ab3416795ea0431bf13922ff4e29aa88oakou8sl.html

Brasil, no se escapa de ésta situación, véalo en “Docentes de Brasil también enfrentan ataques a la educación” http://www.laizquierdadiario.com/Docentes-de-Brasil-tambien-enfrentan-ataques-a-la-educacion

Europa

“United Kingdom, Special report: ‘Money wasted on free school scheme’ as education cuts bite”, menciona la lucha de Anne Swift en contra de las reformas educativas que ha implementado el gobierno de Reino Unidos, por los recortes de la inversión en educación, por el aumento de los “proyectos vanidad”, que ha fragmentado el sistema educativo y además ha dejado la educación en manos de las empresas. http://otrasvoceseneducacion.org/archivos/215026

Sigue en España dando que hablar la reforma educativa, así se presenta en la “Educación recula y ya no hará falta aprobar para obtener el título de ESO” http://www.elmundo.es/sociedad/2017/04/18/58f4e16122601d162e8b462e.html

Desde otro punto de vista, en “España, Grecia y Lituania, los países con las reformas educativas peor valoradas” http://www.educaweb.com/noticia/2017/03/02/espana-grecia-lituania-paises-reformas-educativas-peor-valoradas-12840/

Los(as) docentes en Polonia exigen que no hayan despidos por reformas educativas, léalo en “Cientos de escuelas polacas se declaran en huelga por reforma educativa” http://spanish.china.org.cn/international/txt/2017-03/31/content_40541091.htm

Comparte este contenido:
Leer más »

United Kingdom, Special report: ‘Money wasted on free school scheme’ as education cuts bite

Noticias

United Kingdom/18 april 2017/By: Nina Swift/Source: www.yorkshirepost.co.uk

“We are not in a good situation in education in this country.”

These are the words of the former president of the National Union of Teachers, who stepped down from her leadership role yesterday.

 Anne Swift told The Yorkshire Post the growing number of academies, government “vanity projects” amid cuts to school budgets and intense pressures on pupils and teachers to “get results” have led to an increasingly fragmented education system.
 The former Scarborough headteacher, who has been president of the union for the last 12 months following two years as vice-president, handed over the medal of office at the opening meeting of the NUT’s annual conference.
 Reflecting on her time as leader, she said: “There has been a big rise in the number of academies and academy chains sponsored by businesses and commercial investors, who view education as a market where you can make a profit.

“Everything the Government has been doing is in preparation for companies to take over the education of pupils.

“We are fundamentally opposed to that. It is a public right and should be paid for through general taxation.”

Last year The Yorkshire Post revealed that Wakefield City Academies Trust paid close to £450,000 to companies belonging to its chief executive and his daughter.

Referencing this, Mrs Swift said: “There has been a rise in the number of CEOs, principals, or whatever they want to call themselves, who have the position of a headteacher, but pay themselves eight-figure sums, which is taking money away from pupils and education.”

Mrs Swift said the Coalition Government was able to put a “bit of a break” on some of the controversial schemes, and praised the introduction of free school meals for infants.

“It is good to see the Labour group is expanding that all primary pupils,” she said.

But it is the cuts to education funding that Mrs Swift said is the biggest issue facing the system, with unions warning that schools across Yorkshire could lose more than £312m from their budgets and up to 8,378 teachers facing the axe. She said: “This will have a massive impact on schools all over the country and it’s a big challenge for us at the moment.

“The Government is choosing to spend its money on vanity projects, like free schools, academisation and now it is talking about having grammar schools. These are red herrings to distract us from what’s really going on.”

Highlighting serious problems related to the growing number of schools which act as their own admission authorities, she added: “Academies are finding their own ways of excluding children. They can set criteria so children who won’t enhance their results won’t make it into their schools. I don’t think the public realise this is going on. They are not fully inclusive and that’s a scandal. I think the Government should hold it’s head in shame for allowing a system to develop that doesn’t meet the needs of all children in society.”

Mrs Swift said a “striking” change she had noticed during her time in office was the rest of the UK was going in a different direction with education and was moving away from the English system. She said: “We don’t even have a United Kingdom education service anymore. It is part of the Government’s plan to fragment the education system, whilst at the same time controlling it more totalitarity. They want schools taken out of the local authority and to be funded directly by Westminster.”

After spending her presidential year visiting schools and teachers across the UK, as well as travelling abroad to meet educators, she concluded: “We are not in a good situation in education in this country.

“The testing is not appropriate. The idea that all schools should achieve above average results, that’s not possible. At the moment if schools fall below average they can expect a poor Ofsted report.

“Staff are now demoralised because they are doing things they know don’t improve the education of pupils. It’s to satisfy requirements for evidence children are making progress.

“The workload is a massive issue. Teachers want to put their time and energy into planning exciting lessons for children, but they feel bowed down teaching things that are not suitable – an inappropriate curriculum.

“I know of at least five teachers who are going abroad to teach. The phenomenon seems to be growing. People are deciding it’s not worth their own health, the impact on relationships and the lack of opportunity to be with their families, and they are teaching elsewhere, where they are more respected and valued.”

However, she added: “Without exception everyone I have met wants to do their best for the young people they teach.”

A Department for Education spokeman said academies operated under a strict system of accountability and all transactions must be disclosed in academies’ audited accounts.

He said: “Thanks to our reforms there are now 1.8 million more children being taught in schools rated good or outstanding schools than in 2010. School funding is at its highest level on record.”

Source:

http://www.yorkshirepost.co.uk/news/education/special-report-money-wasted-on-free-school-scheme-as-education-cuts-bite-1-8495020

Comparte este contenido:
Leer más »

Reino Unido: NUT backs strike action in English schools over funding crisis

Noticias

Reino Unido/Abril de 2017/Fuente: The Guardian

Resumen: Las escuelas en Inglaterra podrían ser cerradas por huelgas antes del final del período estival, después de que el Sindicato Nacional de Maestros apoyara la acción industrial sobre la crisis de financiamiento de la educación en su conferencia anual. El voto a la huelga se produjo después de que los delegados fueran informados de niños en una escuela que pasaron dos semanas usando sombreros y abrigos en su salón de clases este invierno debido a las presiones presupuestarias. La moción aprobada significa que el sindicato considerará la acción industrial en las partes del país más afectadas por los recortes de fondos. El secretario general de NUT, Kevin Courtney, dijo que cualquier movimiento del gobierno para reducir la financiación adicional podría conducir a la huelga nacional.

Schools in England could be closed by strikes before the end of the summer term, after the National Union of Teachers backed industrial action over the education funding crisis at its annual conference.

The vote to strike came after delegates were told of children at one school who spent two weeks wearing hats and coats in their classroom this winter because of budget pressures.

The motion passed means the union will consider industrial action in the parts of the country hardest hit by funding cuts. The NUT general secretary, Kevin Courtney, said that any government moves to reduce funding further could lead to national strike.

Joanna Yurky, the co-founder of Fair Funding for All, a parent campaigning group, told the delegates in Cardiff that many schools in England were being severely affected by the crisis, with parents asked for regular contributions to meet core running costs and cover deficits.

“Schools are asking parents for regular payments to plug the funding shortfall, schools with £100k, £200k, £300k deficits begging parents for help,” she said in her speech.

“In one secondary school near me, the children were taught for the first two weeks of January with their coats and hats on because they’ve had to become a bit more careful about when they’ll turn the heating on to save money.”

Yurky added of a school in Haringey, north London: “That school can’t afford to buy the textbooks the pupils need, but they also can’t afford to photocopy them because that budget’s been cut too.”

Jackie Baker, a member of the NUT’s executive, told the conference of a school where a teacher was made to teach Spanish despite not speaking the language.

The conference passed a motion protesting against the effects of funding cuts on rising class sizes, the sacking of teaching assistants and other cuts for children with special educational needs. It also overwhelmingly backed an amendment calling for strike action in the worst affected areas.

Courtney said the union’s analysis showed that schools in England would be worse off in real terms by £3bn over the next three years. “There are places where the cuts are so bad and the degree of concern so big that strike action is a real possibility,” he said after the motion and amendments were passed.

“We will consult with colleagues in the regions about the readiness of members to do this. If Justine Greening [the education secretary] announces the funding formula is changing to make things even worse in some areas, that would be very likely to raise the level of anger in those areas to a point where action will take place.

“Already class sizes are increasing, school staff levels are being cut or jobs not being replaced, subjects are disappearing from the curriculum and materials and resources are scarce. This clearly cannot go on.”

A Department for Education spokesperson said the core schools budget in England has been protected in real terms since 2010, and will rise along with pupil numbers to £42bn by 2020.

“We recognise that schools are facing cost pressures, and we will continue to provide support to help them use their funding in the most cost effective ways, so that every pound of the investment we make in education has the greatest impact,” the spokesperson said.

Delegates at the NUT conference also narrowly rejected a call to affiliate the union to the Labour party.

A motion to officially affiliate the NUT to Labour for the first time was overturned by a whisker when just 50.6% backed an amendment that blocked the move.

Delegates at the NASUWT conference in Manchester passed a motion calling for the union to consider telling teachers not to hold revision classes or tutoring outside the school day.

Louis Kavanagh of Solihull, who proposed the motion, blamed “lazy students, pitiable parenting, ineffectual school discipline measures and structures putting all the burden on the class teacher”.

Fuente: https://www.theguardian.com/education/2017/apr/15/nut-backs-strike-action-in-english-schools-over-funding-crisis

Comparte este contenido:
Leer más »
Page 56 of 84
1 … 54 55 56 57 58 … 84