Willem Wardekker | Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam (original) (raw)

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Papers by Willem Wardekker

International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education, 2014

ABSTRACT This article describes experiences with a qualitative research project into teachers’ le... more ABSTRACT This article describes experiences with a qualitative research project into teachers’ learning from innovating their own educational practices. Decades of New Public Management (NPM) in the Netherlands, with its top-down and businesslike approach to areas of public interest, obscured the learning and innovating capacity of teachers, teams, and schools. Merely studying the learning processes which take place at a teacher level would present insufficient insight into the deeper mechanisms which hinder or stimulate learning from innovation in a bottom-up manner. We, therefore, focused on the relations between different layers (individual, systemic) within schools. A high-quality design was required for answering the research question: How and what do teachers learn from innovating their own educational practices? This article elaborates upon this design and discusses the methodological findings and complications of this type of research.

Social Science & Medicine, 2004

Curriculum Inquiry, 1997

Critical pedagogy, once the prominent new paradigm in educational discourse, is practically absen... more Critical pedagogy, once the prominent new paradigm in educational discourse, is practically absent from it now. Many writers attribute this to its lack of practical consequences. In this article, however, the authors investigate its underlying model of personal identity as an aim of education. This model, with its emphasis on consistency and rationality as a source of human agency, is a typical product of the "modern" way of thinking. In the light of the discussion of postmodernity, it can no longer be taken for granted. It is suggested that another model, based on a discursive theory of identity along Vygotskian lines, may present more adequate possibilities for specifying the aims of education. One aspect of critical pedagogy should not be lost, however, that is, its emphasis on the political nature of education and the necessity of an ethical discourse about its aims.

Mind, Culture, and Activity, 2000

Researchers working in Cultural Historical Activity Theory (CHAT) need to develop criteria for th... more Researchers working in Cultural Historical Activity Theory (CHAT) need to develop criteria for the adequacy of the processes and products of research that is founded on the central tenets of that theory. Criteria like validity and generalizability are not universal, but have been developed from a specific theory of knowledge use. This relation is explained both for the nomological and the interpretive paradigms, and suggestions are made for the development of criteria in the CHAT paradigm on a similar basis.

Journal of Philosophy of Education, 2001

In pluralistic Western societies, schools have a specific task in moral education. This task is t... more In pluralistic Western societies, schools have a specific task in moral education. This task is to be understood neither as the transmission of specific values, nor as the development of moral reasoning skills or universal values, but as teaching pupils to handle plurality in an autonomous way. The concept of autonomy is interpreted from a Vygotskian and Deweyan position, where learning in school means learning to participate in cultural activities in a reflective and critical way. Participation has both intellectual and moral aspects, and thus moral education can never be separated from cognitive education.

Religious Education, 2001

Teachers College Record, 2002

Because most informal classroom assessment is based on the observation of students by teachers, t... more Because most informal classroom assessment is based on the observation of students by teachers, the purpose of the present study is to construct a view of this assessment that is consistent with the practitioners' perspective. To find out how teachers frame observation, we analyzed stories of 25 Dutch teachers about teaching diverse learners and focused on what they said about the observation of students. Most attempts to improve observation have recommended the separation of subject and object in an effort to eliminate teachers' personal frameworks. The present study, however, shows that observation is embedded in the action of teaching. Thus, the realities of the classroom do not allow teachers to separate themselves from what they are observing.

Journal of Curriculum Studies, 2011

This article describes and reflects our experiences as researchers in a design‐based research pro... more This article describes and reflects our experiences as researchers in a design‐based research project on a curriculum innovation focused on meaningful, co‐operative learning in vocational education in the Netherlands. The project was successful in gaining insights in possible practices for workplace learning but did only partly realize the individuation aims formulated for the participating students. Among the reasons for this are the complexity of the project (having different types of schools participating) and the desired outcomes formulated by the financing authorities (somewhat contradicting the original goals of the originators). Mainly, however, this study reflects on the authors’ contribution as researchers: it succeeded only partially in helping the project keep focus on the individuation aims. This study inquires into the causes and suggests that at the start of design‐based research projects a profound analysis of the project structure and power relations and negotiations aimed at realizing conditions for real partnership are necessary. Also, one should not under‐estimate the amount of time and involvement required of researchers.

Mind, Culture, and Activity, 1998

Educational Review, 2004

ABSTRACT In this article, I develop the idea that the starting point of moral education is formed... more ABSTRACT In this article, I develop the idea that the starting point of moral education is formed by the affective commitments individuals make in the course of growing up. The task of education is to enable children to critically consider and revise these commitments, as part of the development of a reflective personal identity. Ethical concepts like justice as well as other culturally developed ‘instruments’ may be taught in order to structure the discursive development of identity. This points to a view of moral education that differs from the two approaches that are now most popular.