List of The last word Archive

Reporting back on the Teachers' TV debate

Blog

27 Jan 2009

Matthew Taylor

I said I would report back on the Teachers’ TV debate last night. The gig was worth it even if only to see the magnificent Capital City Academy building and facilities in Willesden. Call me a liberal old softie, but I find it inspiring to see wonderful facilities like this serving a diverse working class community.

Just two more posts left in my series: 'cultural theory for dummies'

Blog

27 Jan 2009

Matthew Taylor

Last week I described fourteen types of sub-optimal solutions, each excluding one or more of CT’s four ways of seeing the world (egalitarian, hierarchical, individualist and fatalist). The best circumstance for what cultural theorists call ‘clumsy solutions’ is not just when each is in play (in a sense, they are all always be in play at some level) but when the exponents of each view are able to engage creatively with the others. This helps to address one often made criticism of CT’s paradigms: that within each way of viewing the world there are both reasonable and unreasonable ways of thinking and behaving.

Subjects or competencies - a false dichotomy?

Blog

26 Jan 2009

Matthew Taylor

I’m slightly nervous ahead of a date to appear on Teachers’ TV this evening to talk about the curriculum and, in particular, discrete subjects versus cross curricular teaching. Two of the other panellists – Professor Alan Smithers and Mick Waters of the QCA are national experts on the curriculum, while a third, Phil O’Hear, is an Academy head teacher and a man of outspoken, if not always consistent, opinions. Fortunately the presence of Saira Khan, a runner up from the Apprentice, means I’m not the only enthusiastic amateur.

The self importance of the printed word

Blog

26 Jan 2009

Matthew Taylor

There is a rare opinion column by me in today’s Independent. The comment editor was interested in my blog last Thursday and asked me to do a version for the newspaper. But I find reading the piece in print makes me feel uncomfortable, and it’s not just that the sub-editing has taken away some of the balance of the piece.  As regular readers of this blog know, I only write about party politics occasionally, and while not disguising my own progressive leanings, I try to be pretty even handed in my praise and criticism. I guess the problem today is that to have a prominent piece in a national newspaper seems like I am shouting ‘look at me I’ve got something important to say’. Just transposing words from on-line to print makes them seem more self-important.

Social networks, signalling theory and deception

Blog

23 Jan 2009

Something I have come across recently is signalling theory. Part of the theory (as I understand it) is that humans communicate almost entirely through conventional signals where there is no inherent cost if communication is dishonest or not (compare a ‘natural’ signal such as one antelope communicating to its cohorts that there is a pack of hunting lions nearby – the costs to the ‘honesty’ or otherwise of this signal are immediate and extremely high). Signalling theory says that the costs of deception must be high enough to keep signals within the expected range of honesty of signallers and receivers.

The (many) unacceptable faces of capitalism

Blog

23 Jan 2009

Matthew Taylor

I defy anyone to read the following without wanting to kick something or somebody. 

Fourteen ways to get things wrong...

Blog

22 Jan 2009

Matthew Taylor

So, back to cultural theory. Each of CT’s paradigms (hierarchy, egalitarianism, individualism and fatalism) derives its dynamism primarily from its contest with the others. This is crucial. It explains why people often find it easier to explain their approach by contrasting it with the others rather than in terms of its own virtues. For example, neo-liberals make their political case less through advocacy of individualism and more through a sophisticated critique of hierarchy (producer capture theory of the state) and egalitarianism (public choice theory as a critique of collectivism). More importantly still, the inherent conflict between the paradigms means it is impossible to create an enduring synthesis; they are always in tension, like repelling magnets.

Neuroscience, learning and agency

Blog

22 Jan 2009

As Matthew Taylor has reported in his blog, we hosted on Tuesday an RSA/NIACE event on neuroscience and life-long learning. I want to pick up on two points that were made by speakers. First, Sarah-Jayne Blakemore talked about the ‘seductive allure’ of neuroscientific explanations – that even when neuroscience adds nothing to an explanation, the mere use of neuroscience language, or images of the brain, adds gravitas. Second, Paul Howard-Jones mentioned briefly that when teenage learners were taught about the links between brain function, learning and environment, they were more motivated to engage with learning and change their behaviour.

Why the old ways won't work for Labour

Blog

22 Jan 2009

Matthew Taylor

I will return later today to cultural theory, thinking a bit more about how it can provide a practical tool to managers and policy makers. But first something a bit more mainstream.