- christinebecks.com
- I hold a Dr. phil. in Curriculum Studies with an emphasis in historical and internationally comparative work that foc... moreI hold a Dr. phil. in Curriculum Studies with an emphasis in historical and internationally comparative work that focuses on the theories and practices of public schooling. Before that, I earned my M.A. in Teaching (ESL, philosophy, psychology) and building my scholarship around education reform, I remain a teacher at heart and thoroughly enjoy working in the classrooms of various places and institutions.edit
Research Interests:
Herbart's work informs scholars of education history and historiography that seek to understand the foundations of modern German-speaking Education. Scholars interested in education reform find guidance and clarity in Herbart's... more
Herbart's work informs scholars of education history and historiography that seek to understand
the foundations of modern German-speaking Education. Scholars interested in education reform find guidance and clarity in Herbart's uncompromising commitment to pedagogy for and with the enlightened human being. This is of particular relevance in view of the current policy developments in the German-speaking world that move away from the roots of Didaktik and toward systems of accountability reminiscent of the past 40 years of U.S. education policy.
the foundations of modern German-speaking Education. Scholars interested in education reform find guidance and clarity in Herbart's uncompromising commitment to pedagogy for and with the enlightened human being. This is of particular relevance in view of the current policy developments in the German-speaking world that move away from the roots of Didaktik and toward systems of accountability reminiscent of the past 40 years of U.S. education policy.
Research Interests:
As always after reading David Labaree, I feel lifted up and grateful, both for his clarity and for his encouragement to free intellectual play in pursuit of an enticing intellectual argument. He puts into place both academic technicians... more
As always after reading David Labaree, I feel lifted up and grateful, both for his clarity and
for his encouragement to free intellectual play in pursuit of an enticing intellectual argument. He puts into place both academic technicians and justice warriors that charge works to be non-methodical, or without positionality, therefore without substance and incapable of insight. (...) I read David Labaree’s essay as an invitation to carve out our spaces for free intellectual play and interesting research that tells a relatable story. Being interesting calls for being brave, and doctoral students need this advice just as much as dancers do.
for his encouragement to free intellectual play in pursuit of an enticing intellectual argument. He puts into place both academic technicians and justice warriors that charge works to be non-methodical, or without positionality, therefore without substance and incapable of insight. (...) I read David Labaree’s essay as an invitation to carve out our spaces for free intellectual play and interesting research that tells a relatable story. Being interesting calls for being brave, and doctoral students need this advice just as much as dancers do.
Research Interests:
My contribution begins with briefly highlighting the foundational concepts of J. F. Herbart's three major works for which I utilize the German originals. I then place those within the intellectual and social setting they emerged from by... more
My contribution begins with briefly highlighting the foundational concepts of J. F. Herbart's three major works for which I utilize the German originals. I then place those within the intellectual and social setting they emerged from by contrasting my reading with Andrea English's seminal work in which she relates Herbart's work to English-speaking audiences in Discontinuity in
Learning (2013). Daniel Tröhler's analysis of "The lasting legacy of the European Reformation of the 16th century: Protestant foundations of modern educational reasoning" (2020) provides a further step in contextualizing Herbart and his contemporaries through another frame that illuminates concepts such as Bildung and Bildsamkeit as uniquely Protestant, if by then formally secularized, endeavors. I end my sequence on the case of Herbartianism in Germany that became an all-encompassing reform movement at the end of the 19th century, more than 20 years after Herbart's death.
Learning (2013). Daniel Tröhler's analysis of "The lasting legacy of the European Reformation of the 16th century: Protestant foundations of modern educational reasoning" (2020) provides a further step in contextualizing Herbart and his contemporaries through another frame that illuminates concepts such as Bildung and Bildsamkeit as uniquely Protestant, if by then formally secularized, endeavors. I end my sequence on the case of Herbartianism in Germany that became an all-encompassing reform movement at the end of the 19th century, more than 20 years after Herbart's death.
Research Interests:
Herbart's work informs scholars of education history and historiography that seek to understand the foundations of modern German-speaking Education. Scholars interested in education reform find guidance and clarity in Herbart's... more
Herbart's work informs scholars of education history and historiography that seek to understand the foundations of modern German-speaking Education. Scholars interested in education reform find guidance and clarity in Herbart's uncompromising commitment to pedagogy for and with the enlightened human being. This is of particular relevance in view of the current policy developments in the German-speaking world that move away from the roots of Didaktik and toward systems of accountability reminiscent of the past 40 years of U.S. education policy.
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Austrian high school student Benjamin Hadrigan developed a basic school and teacher app that went online in 2019. It caused outrage among teachers and schools and the teachers' union, calling publicly for the app's immediate removal and... more
Austrian high school student Benjamin Hadrigan developed a basic school and teacher app that went online in 2019. It caused outrage among teachers and schools and the teachers' union, calling publicly for the app's immediate removal and legal proceedings against its inventor, prompting a thorough investigation by Austrian Data Protection Authority the Austrian Federal Ministry of Education, Science and Research. After temporary removal of the app for the purpose of these proceedings, the app and its owners have now been fully cleared and "Lernsieg" (loosely translatable as "learning victory") is now available to the public without any changes to the initial app. (...) The teaching profession should welcome feedback in the various shapes it comes because it serves our goal to advance students in having a voice and using it to critically engage and actively involve themselves in the school community they live in every day! It is democratic participation that public schooling needs to foster and create, no less by living its values as an example to the students.
Research Interests:
is finalizing her dissertation on issues of evidence-based policy making, specifically focusing on US accountability school reforms and their counterparts in Europe. Her work is in Foundations of Education, and hence her interest lies in... more
is finalizing her dissertation on issues of evidence-based policy making, specifically focusing on US accountability school reforms and their counterparts in Europe. Her work is in Foundations of Education, and hence her interest lies in understanding the different ways in which the world-and specifically matters related to education-can be viewed. Aiming to uncover the implicit philosophies that guide arguments, her research is comparative and historical, utilizing various sources and forms of data. Her causes include equity and agency, in education and other societal manifestations. Stefan Becks has been collaborating in an extensive empirical, longitudinal research project on the standardized school exit exam in Austria. His dissertation is focused on students' experience of instruction prior to their final exams. His work approaches education reforms and policy-making critically, informed by education theory as well as an empirical approach. His further research interests follow a wide scope, reaching from the implications of transhumanism on education to the (re)creation of educational and societal inequity.
Research Interests:
Accountability as the ultimate rationale for education reform premises its efforts on equitable student achievement that results from quality schooling and teaching. However, historically stable achievement gaps expose this policy as... more
Accountability as the ultimate rationale for education reform premises its efforts on equitable student achievement that results from quality schooling and teaching. However, historically stable achievement gaps expose this policy as failing by its own measure. I argue that three narrowings of student achievement lead to conceptual limitations of the functions of schooling and the breadth of what students achieve in schooling as well as the attribution of so-called student achievement to schooling alone. Second, I show the twofold misconstruction of achievement gaps that claim to reflect individual differences but are a mirror image of gaping historical disparities in funding, resources, education experiences and economic security that have accumulated. I conclude that research and policy that focuses on achievement gaps, therefore, emphasizes those disparities and replicates them by assigning responsibility to the individual, as well as to schooling.
Research Interests:
Accountability as the ultimate rationale for education reform premises its efforts on equitable student achievement that results from quality schooling and teaching. However, historically stable achievement gaps expose this policy as... more
Accountability as the ultimate rationale for education reform premises its efforts on equitable student achievement that results from quality schooling and teaching. However, historically stable achievement gaps expose this policy as failing by its own measure. I argue that three narrowings of student achievement lead to conceptual limitations of the functions of schooling and the breadth of what students achieve in schooling as well as the attribution of so-called student achievement to schooling alone. Second, I show the twofold misconstruction of achievement gaps that claim to reflect individual differences but are a mirror image of gaping historical disparities in funding, resources, education experiences and economic security that have accumulated. I conclude that research and policy that focuses on achievement gaps, therefore, emphasizes those disparities and replicates them by assigning responsibility to the individual, as well as to schooling.
Research Interests:
Dieses abschließende Kapitel stellt nicht den Anspruch, alle Aspekte von Wandel im Bildungs-system, die in den einzelnen Beiträgen angesprochen wurden, synoptisch in den Blick zu nehmen. Es erscheint uns aber lohnend, einige Themen... more
Dieses abschließende Kapitel stellt nicht den Anspruch, alle Aspekte von Wandel im Bildungs-system, die in den einzelnen Beiträgen angesprochen wurden, synoptisch in den Blick zu nehmen. Es erscheint uns aber lohnend, einige Themen aufzugreifen, die, wie wir meinen, mit einer gewissen Beharrlichkeit in den versammelten Texten immer wiederkehrten – manchmal als zentraler Gegenstand eines Beitrages, manchmal in Zusammenhängen, die von den Auto-rinnen selbst gar nicht ins Zentrum ihrer Überlegungen gestellt wurden. Auf drei solche As-pekte wollen wir im Folgenden eingehen: auf Muster und Probleme von Bildungsreformern in Sinne eines ‚Accountability‘-Paradigmas, die etwa um das Jahr 2000 auch einige Länder, die in diesem Band betrachtet wurden, erfasst haben; auf die oft übersehene Rolle, die Lehrerin-nen und Lehrern als entscheidende Akteure bei Bildungsreformen spielen; und schließlich darauf, welche Muster sich hinsichtlich der Reform von Unterrichtsinhalten in den versammel-ten Beiträgen ausfindig machen lassen.