The Postmodern Challenge

The authors argue that the aim of research should be to improve practice through a process of critical reflection. Focusing clearly on the everyday concerns and problems of practitioners, they emphasize the importance of practical knowledge. Their definition of ‘practice’ is wide, and includes the generation of theory and the doing of research as well as front-line teaching. They show how notions of ‘adult learning’ and ‘the adult learner’ have been constituted mainly through theory and research in psychology and sociology, and examine action research as a mode of understanding. They conclude by looking at the curriculum implications for the teaching of adult education as reflective practice.

This volume is designed to bridge a gap in the current theoretical debate about the nature, scope and relevance of postmodern perspectives in the humanist and social sciences in Eastern and Western Europe. While the debate has been reasonably comprehensive and certainly abrasive in Western European and Anglophone countries, it has signally failed to incorporate the viewpoints of Eastern European scholars and intellectuals. Even the current appropriation of Mikhail Bakhtin as a prophet of the postmodern is, paradoxically, a monologic engagement with his thought rather than a dialogic encounter of cultures. Doubtless different historical experiences, ideology and social aspirations go some way to account for the weariness of Eastern Europe with postmodern challenge and its glad embrace by Western scholars. The volume comprises some fifteen essays by leading historians, literary theorists and social scientists from Western and Eastern Europe and America. It has a threefold aim: firstly, to illuminate the distinctiveness of current Western and Eastern European theorizing about history and society; secondly, to reveal points of tension and disagreement, and, finally, to open up a space for a meeting of seemingly incompatible worlds.

This volume is designed to bridge a gap in the current theoretical debate about the nature, scope and relevance of postmodern perspectives in the humanist and social sciences in Eastern and Western Europe. It comprises some fifteen essays by leading historians, literary theorists and social scientists from Western and Eastern Europe and America. It has a threefold aim: firstly, to illuminate the distinctiveness of current Western and Eastern European theorizing about history and society; secondly, to reveal points of tension and disagreement, and, finally, to open up a space for a meeting of seemingly incompatible worlds

In stark contrast to previous scholarship about citizenship as a construct, this groundbreaking book covers the full spectrum of literature on citizenship theory, including the state and structure of identity, the individual and the public, and the enduring issues of civic engagement and collective discourse. It examines some of the complex challenges faced by citizens and policy makers and explores the existing procedural and institutional mechanisms that undermine democratic political accountability as well as its legitimation. Drawing from classical conceptions of citizenship in the early Greco-Roman eras to the more contemporary critical social theory and postmodernist contentions, the work casts a wide net that covers complex issues including rights and obligation, the doctrine of state sovereignty and authority, equality, the principle of majority rule, citizen participation in governance, public versus self-interest, ideas of justice, immigration and cultural identity, global citizenship, and the evolution of hybrid communities that challenge traditional notions of state-citizenship identity. With meticulous detail and powerful analysis, author Kalu N. Kalu unceasingly places citizenship as the central thesis of this project, illuminating its intellectual richness on the one hand, and demonstrating the ongoing challenges in both conceptualization and practice, on the other.

The Enlightenment, it is argued, has lost its intellectual force; a scientific view of society, no longer seems incontestable; and modernism is dead. Possible successors are neoliberalism, the back-to-basics conservative backlash associated with, in very different ways, Margaret Thatcher and Allan Bloom, or postmodernism, an inchoate eclectic intellectual movement that denies the imperial claims of overarching ideologies. But is it possible to distinguish clearly between modernism, a broad church by any measure, and its supposed rivals.

Based on nearly a decade of scholarship, this is a highly focused book on the implications of postmodernism for the construction and assessment of theory and practice in educational administration. Current ideas of practice are deconstructed, from the notions of sound research to the use of national standards in the preparation of educational leaders along with ways of examining and resolving the theory-practice gap. Part One of the book contains chapters dealing with the rise of postmodernism and describes its broad-based dissent from a century of thought in the field, including a penetrating examination of whether the concept of a field itself is viable. Part Two of the book explores the many ramifications of postmodernism to practice, beginning with ideas concerning educational research. These chapters tackle the tough issues of the efficacy of the Interstate Leaders Licensure Standards (ISLLC) and the national exam as examples of job deskilling and deprofessionalization in the guise of raising standards of preparation of future educational leaders. Other chapters deal with deconstructing the popular managerial ideas contained in Stephen Covey's works and dispute Joe Murphy's call for a new center of gravity in the field as reinforcing the status quo. Finally, the book tackles the issue of the theory-practice gap and indicates that new and progressive theories which anticipate problems of practice are what is required to deal with this persistent issue. The book contains many helpful exhibits in understanding the issues concerning theory and practice, as well as a glossary of terms most commonly found in postmodern discourse. This book is designed for college and university programs engaged in the preparation of educational leaders for ele-mentary/secondary schools and college administrative positions.

This book offers some suggestions as to ways forward from this dilemma. Drawing on the new intellectual frameworks of critical pedagogy, feminism and postmodernism and their impact upon educational theory, practice and research, the book focuses on the changing contexts of adult education. By building on the notion of going beyond the limits of certain current adult education orthodoxies, the authors try to provide alternatives for practice. The final three chapters deal with research, focusing on a critical macro-analysis of mainstream paradigms, a review of alternative approaches, and a more micro-analysis centering on the role of the socially-located self in the research process.

'A well-crafted, sensitive, reflective and constructive book. It is highly recommended.' --Development Policy Review