Abstract/Notes: This research explored how an expanded and sustained education about food within the primary school curriculum in the Republic of Ireland could be achieved. A constructivist ontology underpinned the project, with multiple theoretical frameworks related to constructivist learning and building agency, informing the study. A multi-method action research methodology was used, providing practical solutions through action, reflection, practice and theory. A narrative review of the literature and existing policy preceded three sections of fieldwork. A scoping consultation with key stakeholders was followed by the development and piloting of a food education programme entitled the Global Citizenship Food and Biodiversity Theme in eight primary schools over two years, in conjunction with Green-Schools. The third section of fieldwork verified and expanded the results within a research findings feedback workshop which included academics working in education, principals, teachers, trainee teachers, and two staff members from the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment. The scoping consultation with key stakeholders highlighted a desire for a changed approach to food education in Irish primary schools. The key findings indicated that schools are in a unique position to influence and promote food education, but that an expanded approach to the current curriculum’s principal focus on health and nutrition was required. The term ‘circular food education’ was coined to describe the approach to food education which was consequently developed. Circular food education encompasses experiential learning, sustainability and pleasure. It is grounded in theory and is an educational solution to tackling an array of social issues: building knowledge about climate change, biodiversity loss, and food waste, teaching practical food skills, as well as instilling the potential for children to become active citizens. The development and piloting of the Global Citizenship Food and Biodiversity Theme illustrated how educational approaches that stem from constructivism could be put into practice. This theme included hands-on classes as well as building agency to think critically through the use of collaborative and social learning methods. Amartya Sen’s capability approach was used as a theoretical framework to evaluate data generated from the pilot. The research findings feedback workshop indicated that increased circular food education would require support from the whole-school, a change in approach by government as well as teacher training to address confidence and agency, and the provision of suitable facilities. One of the outputs from the research is the Global Citizenship Food and Biodiversity Theme programme which is being implemented incrementally in schools on a nation-wide basis, with 120 locations to date. A limitation of the Global Citizenship Food and Biodiversity Theme is the two-year cycle of the Green-Schools flag system. The thesis recommends a systemic policy change to food education in Irish primary schools. An embedded full-time approach within the primary curriculum would provide structure and scaffolding but requires a collaborative approach from all stakeholders. Until then, an increase in teacher training and developing teacher agency would be a suitable first step to increased food education in Irish primary school classrooms. Circular food education offers a model, which helps provide students with the ability to lead a life in which both they, and the natural world, could flourish.

Language: English

Published: Dublin, Ireland, 2023

Abstract/Notes: This study compared the effects of multi-age classroom strategies to those of traditional classroom strategies on the academic achievement of fourth grade students in reading and math. Standardized test scores from 20 fourth-grade students in two multi-age third- and fourth-grade classrooms were compared to the scores of 20 students from 7 traditional fourth-grade classrooms. The Stanford Achievement Test (SAT), ninth edition was used as the test instrument. Scores from the students' third grade test in the 1996-97 school year were compared to their scores from the fourth grade test in reading and math by applying T-tests to the data. Analysis of the data revealed no difference in reading or math achievement between students taught in a multi-age classroom and those from a traditional classroom.

Language: English

Published: Salem, West Virginia, 1998

Language: German

Published: Frankfurt am Main, Germany: P. Lang, 1994

ISBN: 978-3-631-47463-1

Series: Heidelberger Studien zur Erziehungswissenschaft (Frankfurt am Main, Germany) , 43

Abstract/Notes: L’occasion de lancer des recherches sur les liens entre le mouvement théosophique et l’éducation en Espagne et l’intérêt que celles-ci pouvaient présenter surgirent à partir de la lecture du Petit Journal d’Adolphe Ferrière dans les Archives de l’institut J.-J. Rousseau de l’université de Genève. En 1930, de passage à Barcelone sur le chemin de son long voyage vers l’Amérique latine, le pédagogue suisse fut reçu par Maria Solà de Sellarés, Attilio Bruschetti et José Forteza. Cependant ces personnages n’apparaissent pas dans les pages de l’historiographie de l’éducation nouvelle et de la rénovation pédagogique en Catalogne au cours du premier tiers du XXe siècle. Après les recherches qui s’imposaient, nous sûmes qu’ils militèrent dans l’hétérodoxe mouvement théosophique et que, suivant les pas de Béatrice Ensor, ils se rapprochèrent de sa pédagogie par le biais de la Fraternité internationale de l’Éducation. La vocation éducative du mouvement théosophique se manifesta dans l’organisation de cours et de conférences, l’édition de livres et de dépliants à caractère doctrinal et didactique, la création d’espaces de sociabilité et, entre autres initiatives, par la fondation d’un certain nombre d’écoles et de centres éducatifs qui tentèrent de rejoindre les mouvements rénovateurs européens, tout en restant fidèles au spiritualisme oriental. Plus tard et malgré les distances que leur imposèrent dissidences et fractures, un autre courant allait apparaître à l’horizon de l’évolution de ce mouvement: l’anthroposophie de Steiner et la pédagogie Waldorf. Cet article se propose d’analyser, dans les contextes européen et international, la fonction sociale, éducative et socialisatrice de la théosophie et des réseaux socioéducatifs théosophiques, hors et dans l’école, en Espagne au cours du premier tiers du XXe siècle. Cette recherche part de l’analyse de sources orales (membres de familles de théosophes et personnes ayant des liens avec le mouvement théosophique) et de sources écrites (directes et indirectes) consultées et étudiées dans diverses archives : Biblioteca de Cataluña (Barcelone), bibliothèque privée de la Branche Arjuna de Barcelone, Centro nacional de la Memoria histórica de Salamanque (Espagne), archives privées de la famille Jover Dalmau (ancien élève de l’école Damon) et Archives historiques municipales de Sabadell (Catalogne). [The opportunity to launch research on the links between the theosophical movement and education in Spain and the interest that these could present arose from the reading of the Petit Journal d'Adolphe Ferrière in the Archives of the institute J.-J. Rousseau from the University of Geneva. In 1930, passing through Barcelona on the way to his long journey to Latin America, the Swiss teacher was received by Maria Solà de Sellarés, Attilio Bruschetti and José Forteza. However, these characters do not appear in the pages of the historiography of new education and educational renewal in Catalonia during the first third of the twentieth century. After the necessary research, we learned that they were active in the heterodox theosophical movement and that, following in the footsteps of Beatrice Ensor, they approached her pedagogy through the International Fraternity of Education. The educational vocation of the theosophical movement was manifested in the organization of courses and conferences, the publication of books and leaflets of a doctrinal and didactic nature, the creation of spaces for sociability and, among other initiatives, by the foundation of a number of schools and educational centers which tried to join the European renovating movements, while remaining faithful to Eastern spiritualism. Later and despite the distances imposed by dissidence and fractures, another current would appear on the horizon of the evolution of this movement: the anthroposophy of Steiner and the Waldorf pedagogy. This article aims to analyze, in European and international contexts, the social, educational and socializing function of theosophy and theosophical socio-educational networks, outside and in school, in Spain during the first third of the twentieth century. This research starts from the analysis of oral sources (members of families of Theosophists and people with links to the Theosophical movement) and written sources (direct and indirect) consulted and studied in various archives: Biblioteca de Cataluña (Barcelona), library private of the Arjuna Branch of Barcelona, ​​Centro nacional de la Memoria histórica de Salamanca (Spain), private archives of the Jover Dalmau family (former pupil of the Damon school) and Municipal Historical Archives of Sabadell (Catalonia).]

Language: French

Published: Rennes, France: Presses universitaires de Rennes, 2018

ISBN: 978-2-7535-5561-7

Series: Histoire

Language: English

Language: English

DOI: 10.1086/456450

ISSN: 1554-8279, 0013-5984

Language: German

ISSN: 0949-2682

Abstract/Notes: This chapter examines Maria Montessori’s text, Education and Peace (1972) which was first published in 1949 in Italian. The text is a series of speeches she gave throughout Europe during the Interwar period of 1932-1939 and is divided into three parts. Part I is an introduction to Montessori’s vision for peace education. Part II collects the lectures from the Sixth International Montessori Congress in Copenhagen, 1937. Part III focuses on the lecture, “The Importance of Education in Bringing about Peace,” from an address to the International School of Philosophy in Amersfoort, 1937. The final section contains Montessori’s “Address to the World Fellowship of Faiths” in London, 1939. Montessori’s works assume a worldview where peace is the most natural state of consciousness and express her belief that humans can concretely address the fact that humanity seems to be devolving into greater forms of violence instead of advancing toward peace.

Language: English

Published: New York, New York: Bloomsbury Academic, 2023

ISBN: 978-1-350-27561-4 978-1-350-27560-7 978-1-350-27562-1

Series: Bloomsbury Handbooks

Abstract/Notes: This paper aims to explore the influence of Montessori education and traditional education on children's learning psychology and compare the advantages and disadvantages of the two educational methods. First, the influence of Montessori education and traditional education on children's learning ability and attitude was explored through observation and comparative analysis. In terms of learning ability, Montessori education focuses on cultivating children's independent learning ability and practical ability, while traditional education pays more attention to the indoctrination of knowledge and examination results. In terms of learning attitude, Montessori education cultivates children's concentration and continuity, while traditional education may lead to children's interest in learning and motivation to learn. Next, the advantages and disadvantages of Montessori education and traditional education are analyzed. Finally, the integration and innovation of Montessori education and traditional education are discussed. In conclusion, Montessori education and traditional education have different influences in terms of children's learning psychology, and integrated education may provide better educational methods for children's all-round development.

Language: English

DOI: 10.54097/1y1s8e93

ISSN: 2957-9465

Abstract/Notes: Based on a database of over 500 resources, this paper explores the educational alternatives that exist today between the cracks of mainstream education and culture. It presents information about the growing numbers of schools and education centers that call themselves learner-centered, progressive, and/or holistic. Sources of data for this summary report also include over 3 years of informal interviews with and observations of people at alternative schools. The paper begins by examining terminology issues, discussing qualities for distinguishing educational alternatives, and describing eight types of schools (democratic and free schools, folk education, Quaker schools, homeschooling/unschooling/deschooling, Krishnamurti schools, Montessori schools, open schools, and Waldorf schools). It also presents frameworks for education (maps for understanding the territories of alternatives), and it discusses the three orientations of a competency based education: transaction (progressive), self-directed (learner-centered), and transformation (holistic). After looking at political issues around school choice which could impact the growth of the various philosophical alternatives, the paper concludes that in a society where issues of pluralism and diversity are valued as part of creating a more sustainable world and just democracy, the diversity of philosophical perspectives in education needs to be acknowledged. (Contains 41 references.) (SM)

Language: English

Published: New Orleans, Louisiana, 2002