Cultural Training And Educational Spaces

For two centuries, the school system has been a central point around which other players have gravitated: local authorities, voluntary organizations and the world of work. Over the course of the 20th century, this school centric configuration underwent a transformation, with local authorities tending to become integrated into the vertical culture of the school system. This was only the beginning of a process that brought schools and socio cultural players into constant contact. Cultural, Training and Educational Spaces first examines the relationships with knowledge generated by the links between the school system and other cultural, training and educational spaces, taking a historical, pedagogical and philosophical perspective. Easy access to learning materials creates different relationships with knowledge than those observed in schools. The book then looks at the pedagogical practices in these different cultural educational spaces, such as libraries and media libraries, museums and historical sites, places of heritage, history and entertainment, social networks and other multimedia formats.

The growing interest in transnational cooperation in education across borders has different implications for developed and developing countries. It is true that globalization affects all societies, but not at the same speed and magnitude. Supporting Multiculturalism in Open and Distance Learning Spaces is a critical scholarly resource that examines cultural issues and challenges in distance education arising from the convergence of theoretical, administrative, instructional, communicational, and technological dimensions of global education. Featuring coverage on a broad range of topics such as cultural diversity, interaction in distance education, and culturally sensitive intuitional design, this book is geared towards school administrators, universities and colleges, policy makers, organizations, and researchers.

Contested Spaces of Teaching and Learning examines the educational experiences of adults as cultural practice. These practices take place in diverse settings from formal educational contexts to institutionally interstitial realms to fluid and explicitly contested everyday spaces. This edited collection includes twelve richly rendered ethnographic case studies written from the perspective of practitioner-ethnographers who straddle the roles of educator and ethnographic researcher. Drawing on distinct theoretical framings, these contributors illuminate the ways in which adults engaged in teaching and learning participate in cultural practices that intersect with other dimensions of social life, such as work, recreation, community engagement, personal development, or political action. By juxtaposing ethnographic inquiries of formal and informal learning spaces, as well as intentional and unintended challenges to mainstream adult teaching and learning, this collection provides new understandings and critical insights into the complexities of adults’ educational experiences.

"While changes related to cultural diversity are visible and at work in social, cultural and political contexts, cultural diversity as such is being ignored or rejected across many countries. It is the denial or hidden nature of diversity in educational settings and learning processes, reflected in the marginalisation of this topic, that this book wants to address. The book chapters are blind peer reviewed and draw from a variety of learning settings across the world. They are intended to open up spaces to talk, promote and struggle for the relevance of addressing learning diversities. This includes current and new directions for theoretical and methodological discussions. They concern spaces of interaction and diversity research across single and multiple moments, different contexts and various time scales. They also explore the diversity of theories used to address these issues and how we theorize the relationship between centres and margins in understanding the idea of opening spaces for dialogue."

Pedagogy of Place focuses on the embodiment of purposefully created space resulting from the creation and enactment of its participants' cultural and social conditions. It is also about education, the purposeful creation of spaces that comprise learning environments, and the aesthetic dimensions of the created space called school. The essays present the concept of space--the place where learning happens and where the lives of student and teacher can thrive or wither--a place rich in human potential. In an attempt to address the diversity of what we define as space, Pedagogy of Place addresses issues around place and identity in three distinct strands: as social, as aesthetic, and as political and historical. As a collection, these essays are attempts to open conversations with persons interested in what counts as curriculum, teaching, and learning within the spaces and places that release human potential and nurture the human spirit.

Canada is more diverse than ever before, and the application of transcultural literacies in Canadian classrooms is needed for the successful growth of students and teachers alike. In this edited volume, world-renowned educators offer unique perspectives on the impact of race, culture, and identity in the classroom. With an interdisciplinary approach, this book investigates not only how teachers can design learning spaces to accommodate diverse students, but also how they can build literacy programs to complement and further develop the varied strengths, skills, and experiences of those students. Educators will learn to better understand the trajectories of immigration: how immigrant students often enter the classroom after living in multiple places, acquiring several languages, and forming memories of places that are different from Canadian socio-cultural and geographic landscapes. Examining the roles of both teachers and students in transcultural language learning, this text will benefit students in teacher education programs and in graduate-level education studies that focus on language and literacy, diversity, and global citizenship.

What can we learn from a teacher's journal about working with challenging youth? Why does the Training Room Program in German schools impede the development of an empowering learning culture? What experiences transpire during a train trip to the sea with an unruly crew of school boys? Or: what happens when children plan a trip on their own? Anyone who has accumulated experiences in teaching faces creative choices when putting that legacy to paper. The author chose to use this selection of studies to illustrate formative and inspirational moments from his years as a dedicated teacher and father.

This book explores a cultural understanding of cities and processes of civic learning by scrutinizing urban educational topics from a cultural studies perspective. This book approaches the city as a cultural fabric that consists of social, material and symbolic dimensions, and describes how civic learning is not an accidental outcome of cities but an essential component through which citizens coproduce the city. Through a combination of theoretical development and methodological reflection the chapters in the book explore three interrelated questions addressing the relationships between culture, learning and the city: How does civic learning appear in urban spaces? How does civic learning take place through urban spaces? How are urban spaces created as a result of civic learning?