13 results on '"Sellar, Sam"'
Search Results
2. Conjuring optimism in dark times: Education, affect and human capital.
- Author
-
Sellar, Sam and Zipin, Lew
- Subjects
- *
HUMAN capital , *POSITIVE psychology , *SOCIAL mobility , *EDUCATION policy , *INVESTMENTS - Abstract
This paper analyses how the discursive construction, valuation and subjective experience of human capital is evolving in parallel with crises of capital as a world-system. Ideology critique provides tools for analysing policy ‘fictions’ that aim to sustain investment in human capital through education. Foucauldian analytical tools enable analysis of how human capital has become a project of self-appreciation and cultivation of positive psychological traits. We argue that the work of Lauren Berlant provides an important complement to these approaches and enables us to analyse how crises of capital are being lived as the cruelling of optimism about social mobility through investment in oneself as human capital. The paper points to an educational politics and pedagogy for living through infrastructural breakdown in darkly uncertain historical times. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2019
- Full Text
- View/download PDF
3. International large-scale assessments, affective worlds and policy impacts in education.
- Author
-
Sellar, Sam and Lingard, Bob
- Subjects
- *
EDUCATION policy , *GLOBALIZATION , *TEENAGERS , *SCHOOL children - Abstract
This paper examines the impact of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development’s Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) in two national policy contexts: Canada and Australia. Drawing on theories of globalisation and affect, the paper explores ‘catalyst data’ and its effects in these contexts to show how affective responses to mediations of PISA performance have become important levers for policy change. Two empirical cases of the role of data in the globalisation of schooling are discussed. The first case examines responses in Canada to the PISA 2012 results, which generated senses of anxiety among parents that coalesced into a view that Albertan schools faced a mathematics crisis. The second case interrogates how, since PISA 2009, a narrative about the declining quality of Australian schooling has become dominant in political discourse and in media representations. The paper compares and contrasts the affective effects of data across both contexts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2018
- Full Text
- View/download PDF
4. Leaving the future behind.
- Author
-
Sellar, Sam
- Subjects
- *
EDUCATION , *OPTIMISM , *PESSIMISM , *THOUGHT & thinking - Abstract
This article puts forward the provocation that optimism has become a trap for educational research. It is argued that optimism underpins the implicit model of modern educational thought, which is oriented toward the future and wants it to be better. However, optimism can become a trap when it encourages investment in promises about the benefits of education that cannot be realized for all. As more and more people invest in education to 'get ahead' their optimism contributes to decreasing the value of credentials and thus undermines the promised benefits. Educational researchers contribute to this bind because the dominant model of modern educational thought is inherently optimistic. However, pessimism offers an inherently unpromising alternative. In a time of economic, environmental, and technological disruption, this article the concept of disaster might provoke lines of thought that go beyond the alternative between optimism or pessimism. The writings of Lauren Berlant, Maurice Blanchot, and Gilles Deleuze provide the theoretical framing for the argument. The article concludes that if optimism has lured educational thought and research into a trap, then it may be time to give up on 'the future' in order to get out. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2016
- Full Text
- View/download PDF
5. A feel for numbers: affect, data and education policy.
- Author
-
Sellar, Sam
- Subjects
EDUCATION policy ,DATA analysis ,EDUCATIONAL accountability ,SOCIAL theory ,POLICY sciences ,POLITICAL debates - Abstract
This article explores the relationship between commensuration and affect in various contexts of education policy. Commensuration is the process through which disparate qualities are transformed into a common metric and is central to the production of performance data. The rise of governance through numbers in education has resulted in a proliferation of performance data, comparisons and rankings that influence political debate and policymaking. The efficacy of data as a governance mechanism depends on their usage to shift perceptions of performance, and this involves both conscious interpretation and affective sense-making of data and their representation in multiple forms. For example, performance data used within accountability systems in education are linked to sanctions and rewards, and their effects are partially due to the feelings that are provoked. The relationship between affect and data is also important in the mobility of policy ideas, which spread via meetings that enable affective proximity between participants. This article draws on a philosophical concept of affect, defined as the feeling of transition in bodily states, and topological concepts that are being taken up in social theory, to consider new perspectives on education policy research that these thinking tools may afford. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]
- Published
- 2015
- Full Text
- View/download PDF
6. 'There was something about aspiration': Widening participation policy affects in England and Australia.
- Author
-
Sellar, Sam and Storan, John
- Subjects
LEVEL of aspiration ,HIGHER education & state ,RIGHT to education ,EDUCATION policy ,BRITISH education system ,EDUCATION & society ,ADULTS ,HIGHER education - Abstract
This paper discusses the emergence of aspiration as a keyword linked to higher education equity policy in England and Australia since 1997. Aspiration serves multiple purposes when constructed as a problematic site in which policy must intervene. For example, it can be understood as a vector for new technologies of governance that operate through the production of entrepreneurial dispositions; as a signifier for groups that have experienced upward social mobility; and as a personality trait that correlates with future earnings and thus can be defined as a dimension of human capital. It has also provided a rallying point for equity work in higher education. Focusing on English and Australian policy contexts, as well as the recent education work of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), we examine the different perspectives of a range of stake-holders on the strategy of 'raising aspiration' for higher education and how these have changed over time; the partnership work undertaken in the HE systems of both countries under the aegis of aspiration-raising policies; and recent policy developments in both contexts. In particular, we consider how aspiration-focused policies have affective effects on policy actors and seek to control affects directly by modulating feelings about capacities for action in the future. Two data sets provide the empirical basis for the paper: (a) document analysis of major equity policies in England since 1997 and in Australia since 2008, as well as a review of relevant OECD policy documents; and (b) analysis of nine interviews with equity practitioners and policy personnel in England, Australia, and located within the OECD. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2013
- Full Text
- View/download PDF
7. ‘It's all about relationships’: Hesitation, friendship and pedagogical assemblage.
- Author
-
Sellar, Sam
- Subjects
- *
FRIENDSHIP , *HESITATION , *EDUCATION , *SELF-confidence , *LEARNING - Abstract
This paper examines the relationships between hesitation, friendship and pedagogy. It develops three main arguments: (a) first, that feelings of hesitation can unsettle our self-assurance in what we know, activating new problematics; (b) second, that this unsettling may become pedagogical under certain conditions; and (c) third, that friendship provides such conditions, potentially spurring creative processes of thought and learning. In response to secondary school teachers’ claims about their teaching and relationships with students, the paper employs hesitation as a methodological strategy for thinking beyond established understandings about pedagogy. The concept of pedagogy as assemblage is elaborated, drawing on the work of Deleuze and Guattari, and friendship is then conceived as a joyous encounter and mode of intellectual hospitality. These concepts enable description of the affective contexts in which the destabilisation of knowledge about ourselves and our worlds might provoke learning, in response to problems that are newly sensed in hesitation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2012
- Full Text
- View/download PDF
8. The responsible uncertainty of pedagogy.
- Author
-
Sellar, Sam
- Subjects
- *
EDUCATION , *EMPIRICISM , *EDUCATIONAL outcomes , *TEACHER-student relationships , *EDUCATION policy , *SOCIAL policy , *EDUCATIONAL ideologies - Abstract
In our current moment there is a resurgence of interest in pedagogy as an object of research and policy. In this context the Redesigning Pedagogies in the North (RPiN) project sought to improve educational outcomes for students from low-socioeconomic status communities by researching teachers' efforts to develop more connected pedagogies. However, difficulties were encountered during collaborative theory building with teachers. Except for repeated suggestions that pedagogy is 'all about relationships', teachers struggled to develop theoretical accounts of their practice. Using data obtained within the RPiN project, I draw on Massumi's (2002) notion of expanded empiricism and Bauman's (1995) concept of being-for the other to analyze this difficulty. I argue that the condition for pedagogy becoming an ethical experience inheres in an affective dimension of the teacher-student relationship that cannot be translated into a stable object of discursive knowledge. However, this condition is substantive and requires further attention in research and policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2009
- Full Text
- View/download PDF
9. Leaving the future behind
- Author
-
Sam Sellar and Sellar, Sam
- Subjects
future ,education ,Education theory ,media_common.quotation_subject ,05 social sciences ,0507 social and economic geography ,050301 education ,Pessimism ,optimism ,Education ,Educational research ,Optimism ,Framing (social sciences) ,affect ,disaster ,Criticism ,Sociology ,Positive economics ,Philosophy of education ,Natural disaster ,050703 geography ,0503 education ,thought ,media_common - Abstract
This article puts forward the provocation that optimism has become a trap for educational research. It is argued that optimism underpins the implicit model of modern educational thought, which is oriented toward the future and wants it to be better. However, optimism can become a trap when it encourages investment in promises about the benefits of education that cannot be realized for all. As more and more people invest in education to ‘get ahead’ their optimism contributes to decreasing the value of credentials and thus undermines the promised benefits. Educational researchers contribute to this bind because the dominant model of modern educational thought is inherently optimistic. However, pessimism offers an inherently unpromising alternative. In a time of economic, environmental, and technological disruption, this article the concept of disaster might provoke lines of thought that go beyond the alternative between optimism or pessimism. The writings of Lauren Berlant, Maurice Blanchot, and Gilles Deleuze provide the theoretical framing for the argument. The article concludes that if optimism has lured educational thought and research into a trap, then it may be time to give up on ‘the future’ in order to get out. Refereed/Peer-reviewed
- Published
- 2016
10. International large-scale assessments, affective worlds and policy impacts in education
- Author
-
Bob Lingard, Sam Sellar, Sellar, Sam, and Lingard, Bob
- Subjects
business.industry ,05 social sciences ,0507 social and economic geography ,PISA ,050301 education ,globalisation ,Affect (psychology) ,Education & Educational Research ,Education ,Globalization ,Politics ,data ,affect ,Scale (social sciences) ,OECD ,National Policy ,Cross-cultural ,Narrative ,Social science ,business ,050703 geography ,0503 education ,Mass media - Abstract
© 2018 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group. This paper examines the impact of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development’s Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) in two national policy contexts: Canada and Australia. Drawing on theories of globalisation and affect, the paper explores ‘catalyst data’ and its effects in these contexts to show how affective responses to mediations of PISA performance have become important levers for policy change. Two empirical cases of the role of data in the globalisation of schooling are discussed. The first case examines responses in Canada to the PISA 2012 results, which generated senses of anxiety among parents that coalesced into a view that Albertan schools faced a mathematics crisis. The second case interrogates how, since PISA 2009, a narrative about the declining quality of Australian schooling has become dominant in political discourse and in media representations. The paper compares and contrasts the affective effects of data across both contexts.
- Published
- 2018
11. A feel for numbers: affect, data and education policy
- Author
-
Sam Sellar and Sellar, Sam
- Subjects
education policy ,commensuration ,topology ,business.industry ,media_common.quotation_subject ,Corporate governance ,PISA ,Public relations ,Policy analysis ,Affect (psychology) ,Education & Educational Research ,Education ,Feeling ,data ,affect ,Accountability ,Sanctions ,Education policy ,Psychology ,business ,media_common ,Social theory - Abstract
This article explores the relationship between commensuration and affect in various contexts of education policy. Commensuration is the process through which disparate qualities are transformed into a common metric and is central to the production of performance data. The rise of governance through numbers in education has resulted in a proliferation of performance data, comparisons and rankings that influence political debate and policymaking. The efficacy of data as a governance mechanism depends on their usage to shift perceptions of performance, and this involves both conscious interpretation and affective sense-making of data and their representation in multiple forms. For example, performance data used within accountability systems in education are linked to sanctions and rewards, and their effects are partially due to the feelings that are provoked. The relationship between affect and data is also important in the mobility of policy ideas, which spread via meetings that enable affective proximity between participants. This article draws on a philosophical concept of affect, defined as the feeling of transition in bodily states, and topological concepts that are being taken up in social theory, to consider new perspectives on education policy research that these thinking tools may afford. Refereed/Peer-reviewed
- Published
- 2015
12. 'Unleashing aspiration': the concept of potential in education policy
- Author
-
Sam Sellar and Sellar, Sam
- Subjects
education policy ,Economic growth ,Equity (economics) ,potential ,Higher education ,aspiration ,business.industry ,Knowledge economy ,Educational psychology ,Public relations ,computer.software_genre ,Social mobility ,Human capital ,Education & Educational Research ,Education ,affect ,Educational assessment ,human capital ,Sociology ,Education policy ,business ,computer ,opportunity bargain - Abstract
This paper examines the promises made in education policy regarding people's future education, employment and social mobility. Specifically, the paper analyses how the term 'potential' functions in education policy texts and discourses to make tacit promises at an affective level. Contemporary education policies often invoke the need to realise personal and national economic potential, and speak of the risk of 'wasted potential', when justifying reform agendas directed at both increasing human capital investment and reducing educational inequity. Drawing on the work of Gilles Deleuze, the paper develops a philosophical concept of potential that provides a theoretical framework for the analysis. The aim of the paper is to analyse how the term 'potential' functions in policy to: (a) couple economic and equity purposes for education; and (b) imply a relationship between talent, opportunity and aspiration, and particular a distribution of responsibility between governments and citizens for 'realising potential'. While primarily theoretical, the paper is informed by analyses of interview data and documents in two research projects: (1) a small pilot study of higher education equity policy in England and Australia since the mid-1990s and (2) a study of the expansion of human capital theory and large-scale educational assessments to include non-cognitive skills. The paper diagnoses the potential of 'potential' as a key word in policy and raises questions about the risks of becoming invested in the promises of education to 'realise potential'. Refereed/Peer-reviewed
- Published
- 2015
13. The responsible uncertainty of pedagogy
- Author
-
Sam Sellar and Sellar, Sam Richard
- Subjects
Linguistics and Language ,Theory building ,pedagogy ,Teaching method ,Context (language use) ,emotions ,Object (philosophy) ,Education ,teacher ethics ,affect ,Pedagogy ,Affect (linguistics) ,Sociology ,relationships ,Affective dimension ,Empiricism ,Social Sciences (miscellaneous) - Abstract
In our current moment there is a resurgence of interest in pedagogy as an object of research and policy. In this context the Redesigning Pedagogies in the North (RPiN) project sought to improve educational outcomes for students from low-socioeconomic status communities by researching teachers' efforts to develop more connected pedagogies. However, difficulties were encountered during collaborative theory building with teachers. Except for repeated suggestions that pedagogy is 'all about relationships', teachers struggled to develop theoretical accounts of their practice. Using data obtained within the RPiN project, I draw on Massumi's (2002) notion of expanded empiricism and Bauman's (1995) concept of being-for the other to analyze this difficulty. I argue that the condition for pedagogy becoming an ethical experience inheres in an affective dimension of the teacher-student relationship that cannot be translated into a stable object of discursive knowledge. However, this condition is substantive and requires further attention in research and policy. Refereed/Peer-reviewed
- Published
- 2009
Catalog
Discovery Service for Jio Institute Digital Library
For full access to our library's resources, please sign in.