About this essay…
What is a position paper?
Position papers for this module will take the form of a summary of an issue or aspect of an issue arising from your study of a particular historical perspective. The paper will normally include two or more ‘viewpoints’ about the issue so that they can be contrasted and more than one side of the issue can be seen. A ‘viewpoint’ is more than just your opinion about the issue. It is a ‘view’ of the issue based on reading around the topic and will refer to published sources, and may also, if appropriate, refer to professional experience.
What are we looking for?
The purpose of the position papers is to help you develop your skills of reasoning and appraisal. Most of all, we want you to be good thinkers about the issues you come across and about how they might affect the services to children available today. Thinking can be hard – but you are almost certainly much better at it than you might imagine!
How long is a position paper?
The papers for this course are to be 750 words long. Anything between 675 and 825 words will be accepted. It will not be accepted if it is outside these limits. It can be quite a challenge to summarise an issue and different ‘viewpoints’ on it with so few words. It does however provide excellent practice in the skill of presenting a ‘line of argument’ or a ‘case’ (a position) on a particular topic, whether you agree with it or not.
Getting started
You may already have given some thought to the issues raised by the position papers. If not, a good way to get started would be to scan your eye over some of the relevant reading in the course booklet that seems to you to be interesting. You could then see if you can find anything else written about the issue by browsing in the library.
Questions to ask yourself
As you read and think about the issue, you could ask yourself the following questions:
· Do I understand what the issue is about – could I explain it to someone clearly and in my own words?
· Thinking about the different viewpoints on the issue that you have read, do they seem to you to be making a good case? Are they logical and well reasoned even if in the end, you may not agree?
· Have writers that have taken a particular viewpoint on the issue quoted other sources to support their viewpoint? If so, have they relied on just one source or more than one? Do they describe the issue so that you can form a judgement about how valid you think it is? If they have not quoted any other source, where does their viewpoint come from?
Be careful!
Sometimes people say ‘I know this is right or true because my source agrees with it’. In looking at historical and philosophical perspectives there is no one truth. In the end, it is normally our values and beliefs that make us decide our views on an issue. Other sources help us decide but it does not provide ‘proof’ of right or wrong, good or bad.
References
* Rudolf Steiner
- Clouder, C. & M. Rawson (1998) Waldorf Education, Edinburgh: Floris
Chapt 2 & 3
- Drummond, M-J. (1999) ‘Another way of seeing: perceptions of play in a
Steiner Kindergarten’ in Abbott, L & H. Moylett eds Early Education
Transformed, London: Falmer
- Edmunds, L. F. (1992) Rudolf Steiner Education: the Waldorf School, Rev. ed., Sussex: Rudolf Steiner Press
- Oldfield, L. (2001) Free to Learn: Introducing Steiner Waldorf Early Childhood Education, Stroud: Hawthorn
- Pusch, R (1993) Waldorf Schools: Kindergarten & Early Grades, New York: Mercury
- Stewart, W.A.C. (1972) Progressives and Radicals in English Education,
London: Macmillan [pp.287-302]
* Current theory and practice
- Johnson, A. (2000) ‘Language and Thought’ in Mills, J. & R. Mills eds (2000) Childhood Studies: A Reader in Perspectives of Childhood, London: Routledge
- QCA (2000)) Curriculum Guidance for the Foundation Stage, London: DfEE [sections on PSE]
- Wood, D. (1990) How Children Think and Learn, Oxford: Blackwell
Credit:ivythesis.typepad.com
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