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’Pagan Knowledge’: a case study of post‐modern theorising and youth work training
Author(s) -
Rosie Anthony
Publication year - 1996
Publication title -
british educational research journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.171
H-Index - 89
eISSN - 1469-3518
pISSN - 0141-1926
DOI - 10.1080/0141192960220306
Subject(s) - oppression , sociology , set (abstract data type) , modernity , training (meteorology) , discourse analysis , work (physics) , pedagogy , focus (optics) , order (exchange) , epistemology , linguistics , politics , political science , law , mechanical engineering , philosophy , physics , optics , finance , meteorology , computer science , programming language , engineering , economics
Abstract Youth worker training has existed on a formal basis for many years but the training programme can be seen as conventional. There is an emphasis on participative activity where students are encouraged to work in groups, to develop learning opportunities and to use contracts to regulate their experience. A case‐study of a part‐time training route provides the focus for the paper. J‐F. Lyotard has developed a set of categories in his understanding of post‐modernity including the notions of pagan knowledge and the figural. Two scenes from the course are analysed through Lyotard's categories in order to reveal the distinctive discursive work that was taking place. Other accounts of such scenes have relied upon a clash between discourses, e.g. a discourse of oppression being countered by a different discourse. If Lyotard's ideas are developed, then the dominant discourse can be seen to contain its own oppositional practices and there is no need to search for further external discourses. The case‐study shows how the students in training used the dominant discourse of participation to bring about a series of different effects.