Running head: SCRUTINIZING JOURNAL ARTICLES

SCRUTINIZING JOURNAL ARTICLES Steven Clark Bradley Northcentral University

Introduction

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Academic writing is a skill that is unique in its approach, style, personality and form. Writing a peer-reviewed article is not the same as sitting down to write an opinion-based paper. The information contained in a properly written scholarly piece of writing must be able to give details that are expressed without the authors subjective voice skewing the conclusion drawn by readers. The author must not intentionally or unintentionally beg for agreement but allow the body of information presented in the paper prove or disprove ones hypothesis and premise for the article itself. The purpose of this essay is to examine and analyze two very dissimilar peerreviewed articles and to analyze the evidence employed to prove the authors main ideas and to apply apparent lessons observed to real world experience. Tearing Down the Walls The main thesis of the article In the article, Tearing Down the Walls, Grant (2010) states that distance learning online has always been regarded as a way of giving more flexibility and opportunity to get further education. Today, it is clear that distance learning should also be used as a way to give students a channel through which they can become more globally and culturally aware of the modern world they live in, and it should not be overlooked by teachers that may not be informed of the use of digital resources. Evidence that makes the authors case Today, students are deeply rooted in twenty-first century technology, such as computers, smart phones and are as firmly accustomed and devoted to social networks like Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube as adults are. Every day, new and more advanced digital distance courses and tools are created that increasingly captivate childrens imagination. Grant (2010) believes that the youths prowess for digital knowledge and their abilities through safe social networking should be a practical part of education today.

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The information and study opportunities children need and want is easily accessible at their fingertips on the internet, which is the most powerful form of communication available today. Unfathomable abilities of helping students to grasp and find the information they need in almost any subject they are studying exists online and access to such resources should be a prerequisite for all students. Children have, in some ways, taken control over their own education by the click of a button, Illingworth, M. (2012). To accomplish this important achievement, Grant (2010) pointed out that teachers must be trained to take advantage of the online global tools at their disposal. Such instructors must also be able to move beyond traditional textbooks and teaching styles and know how to get out of their comfort zones. Grant (2010) insists that modern teachers possess the abilities to create new standards of practice in a creative, unique and pioneering structure that is rich in academic content and that that maximizes critical thinking and analytical solutions to problems. The author emphasizes that the most important aspects of such a learning environment in the modern-day classroom is a knowledge of how to use information, media literacy, and appropriate learning techniques available online and through distance learning. The author strongly suggests that teachers must be capable of advantageously making use of the globally connected world of online tools available to them. Professional Teacher development means that instructors will have to be willing to face and accept changes in how and what they teach in the twenty-first century classroom. Effective teachers today need to view the use of online resources as an occasion to use new ways of imparting knowledge and skills to their students and new opportunities for teachers themselves to avail themselves of the skills needed in the global world. It will demand that teachers possess a willingness to accept the changes that educators everywhere will face, Twining et al (2013). The author of this article listed several examples to prove their hypothesis about what a modern classroom should look like. One case in point was of visionary teachers that encouraged

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education experiences online to whole districts by giving instruction to local immigrant populations. The author pointed out a second-grade teacher in Wichita that conducted an online interview with a zoologist at the Serengeti National Park, where students asked the researcher questions about lion migration movements. Another supporting example given by the author was of a high school student involved in film studies in California, who produced an online video with a high school senior in Iraq on rebuilding efforts in postwar Iraq. These examples and others all gave credence and support to the writers views that education in the twenty-first century would greatly benefit from using online tools that reflect the global nature of the modern world. Grant (2010) also employed some convincing statistics that demonstrate the points made in the article. The author aptly underscored that American schools are in need of improvement and reform. The author showed that white students, in kindergarten through the 12th grade, in Western states, were in the minority in 2006. Also, one out of eight people living in America were immigrants in 2007. Grant (2010) demonstrated how useful and important the use of online tools is today. The author also mentioned that in Ohio, business and industry leaders are working together with the State Board of Education to increase critical thinking, foreign language achievement, world geography, and geopolitics through distance programs. Key lessons from the article Certainly, nothing instills fear and trepidation in the hearts of traditional people more than the changes that are brought about by the advancement of technology. The breakthroughs that have exploded upon the world stage have changed the lives of all people in both good and often in not so good ways socially, politically, and educationally. Though communication technology presents certain dangers for young people today, smart, innovative educational leaders and actual teachers can find ways to make the potentially interruptive forms of

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technology, such as smart phones, tablets and all other forms of digital communicative devices amazing tools for learning. Changing the form of instruction from the real to the virtual is a daunting challenge for teachers that have never ventured into the virtual world of online instruction. Yet, the whole premise behind education is to prepare the next generation for the world they will inherit. There can be no more self-defeating activity than failing to prepare students for the high-tech world they will one day need to lead. The greatest lesson for open-minded educational professionals is to overcome the potential dangers and to maximize the certain assets that online forms of education and communication can achieve for students of today. Addiction to the past and fear of today is the enemy of the future. The lack of knowledge of the amazing user-friendly tools available for world-wide communication in education shall never again be acceptable. The application of lessons learned With the vast web of globalization it is vital that the leaders of tomorrow know how to creatively access and utilize online courses, webinars, services and resources for decision making, financial expansion and educational growth today. It is a profound truth that anyone undergoing a medical procedure would expect that the most modern medical devices be used by the surgeons operating on them. Yet, irrationally, many teachers, that would insist upon the use of the most advanced technology, when having procedures done on their bodies, do not see the same need of the implementation of modern online technology when a childs mental development is concerned. The abundance of prospects for students to participate in and view the global world around them is virtually limitless today. Todays schools and actual classrooms can go virtual with programs such as Skype, which provides students the capability of talking with teachers, professional as well as other students from other countries right in the real-world or virtual classrooms. Other very revolutionary tools like blogs, wikis, webinars and online videos can give

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students real expertise in many forms of virtual communication. Regrettably, it is easy to recognize that these new and powerful avenues of instruction are already better known and more often used by the students than by their teachers. For teachers working in international teaching situations, such as ESL, EFL, TESL and TEFL, these amazing resources are priceless additions to the classroom. The possibilities of helping international students hear, see, and participate practically in the language they are learning are unbounded. It is easy to use Google to find a short bio or video of the person the students are reading about that can turn a dry reading passage on a page of a course book into an adventure in meeting the person they are striving to understand, in a language that is not their own. There is also an online economic benefit that can be applied to the work of educating the young. Many minority students have a background that is rooted in poverty. This situation can squelch a childs innate desire to learn, because the costs are often exorbitant. Schools and homes that are online can overcome much of this obstacle. Sites like Youtube have literally thousands of free videos, many of which are full series that teach grammar, reading, writing skills and even complete series of videos on test preparation for TOEFL, IELTS and SAT and virtually every kind of educational need students may have. All of these are free and offer poorer students an opportunity to virtually attend the needed classes that they may not otherwise be able to afford. Real-world schools and classrooms that disregard these amazing, education-transforming devices of the virtual classroom and teachers that repudiate online resources render education inadequate for the twenty-first century. Such instructors that refuse to adequately ameliorate themselves to these new forms of teaching do a serious disservice to the children in a manner that is tantamount to holding children hostage to a world of intellectual mediocrity. Quality of the Article

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In the article, Tearing Down the Walls, A.C. Grant (2010) presents a very pertinent view of the need for global society to fearlessly advance to the next level, in the field of education. The author presented very clear and demonstrative examples of how online resources can empower students throughout the world. Grant (2010) designed an excellent piece of academic writing that is easily applicable to the times in which todays students and teachers find themselves. Whereas many peer-reviewed articles and essays are written in profoundly difficult styles, the author developed this article around common language that is not typically found in academic articles. This made the paper much more easily understood. The organization is well developed and the examples are all pertinent to the subject matter. In addition, this article possesses a higher level of emotionalism than most scholarly written material. It appeared that many sections of the paper pushed high emotions to the borders of academic language without actually crossing over the line into common forms of writing that should not be seen in peer-reviewed articles. The authors conviction and convincing arguments are rendered more powerful by the risk of using slightly less objective language without actually blemishing the articles intellectual value. Overall, Grant (2010) wrote an article that is of great use to educators and that can convince doubtful academic professionals of the value of online distance learning and resources and challenge them to take a first step in arming themselves with the needed new tools to teach their students in the twenty-first century global world. There is nothing in the article that detracts from its rich value and an adequate reading of the warnings and exhortations that reside inside the authors words will bring about more well-prepared teachers and better, more globally prepared students to face the challenges of today. Governing Through Early Childhood Curriculum The main thesis of the article

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Zsuzsa Millei (2011) focuses her article, Governing through Early Childhood Curriculum on the ways that kindergarten education was designed in Soviet Hungary. During the 1970s kindergarten was used as a tool to condition childrens thinking around the specific philosophy of collectivism in their community. The authors intention is to compare under state socialism in Soviet-era Hungary to the planned system of kindergarten ideals implemented in the early years of contemporary neoliberal/capitalism in Australia. Evidence that makes the authors case In this article, Millei (2011) uses an historical approach to analyze the circumstances in relationships between subjects and objects and the circumstances that developed and changed them. The author employs the Foucauldian research methodology that uses historical, genealogical information mapping to follow the history of the subject being traced and the progress of people and society through an historical setting. The main focus the author applied to this form of analysis is how kindergarten-aged children in Soviet-era Hungary were the subject of scientific sociological experimentation and the knowledge the studies produced about early education of children in Hungary under state socialism and how similarities exist with Australias early-years education policy of contemporary neoliberal/capitalism. Millei (2011) pointed to studies that revealed how Sovietera Hungarian children were considered to be universal subjects who were educated differently as Marxist political change swept into the country. The author described how teaching styles and curriculum were reformed by the historical shifts in political philosophy the nation faced as Marxism took over the nations institutions and society. Millei (2011) also considered the political and social environment that made it possible for the changes toward a philosophy of collectivism to take hold. The scrutiny of this paper is centered on documents concerning kindergarten education in former socialist Hungary, and comparisons that apply, in the authors opinion, in present liberal democratic Australia.

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The writer of this article gave evidence of the authors views by reviewing the history of the Hungarian feudal system that ruled the nation for centuries as part of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy until when the nation became a socialist country after World War II. Millei (2011) described how kindergarten education became a means of changing the thinking and traditions in the future generations from the earliest ages of the nations children in the education process. It was proclaimed that the changes were in part to help meet the needs of working mothers. Millei (2011) points out that the silent underlying reasons for the changes in the kindergarten system of education were principally political ones. In a separate essay by this same author, Millei (2013) stated that political power in the Marxist sense cannot be comprehended by what those who are
controlled in what they think but rather by what they are allowed to think and by the actions they can or cannot participate in. As a result, teachers are judged as having fulfilled their roles by whether they met their prescribed goals and not by how well they taught.

According to the author, the thrust of the socialist changes were in reality to tear down the former foundations and traditions and to create a new system of personality formation from individuals with their own goals and preferences to socialist citizens, who were part of the community, and who were intrinsically connected to their collective society more than their own self interests. Indeed, one of the important agents of identity formation and socialization is education. Education in the former Soviet satellite states demonstrated the force that education has in creating a childs identity, and it affects whole groups in the decision of who children will become. Political power is the catalyst behind identity formation and individual socialization, Roper (2005). Character alteration became the chief goal and reason for the importance placed on early education in kindergarten in Soviet Hungary. Millei (2011) presented themes such as the idea of the socialist community, the man-child, and the formation of the socialist man through the Marxist community. All of these important points gave powerful credence to views written in

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the article. Such ideology, according to the author, was also the driving force behind Australias neoliberal early education policy. Early education in Soviet-era Hungary compared to contemporary neoliberal Australia According to Millei (2011), the main reforms that the liberal Australian governments Early Years Learning Framework for Australia (EYLF) policy to be fully implemented in the nations education program by 2013 were for universal access to formal schooling for every child and the chance to partake in the federally-controlled program for at least fifteen hours per week. The liberal Australian governments policy was heralded as play-based and professionally taught by licensed, qualified teachers. Millei (2011) paints a clear comparison with the Marxistsocialist agenda that existed, according to the author, in Marxist Hungary. The writers unmistakable comparison with Hungarys situation is clear when mentioning that the Australian policy of compulsory kindergartens actual intention and agenda was economic productivity and collective conditioning of children. Millei (2011) stated that the program aspired to restructure economic and social problems through conditioning children into an industrious future general population. The author drives home the view that the Australian governments venture into early education was economically driven to ultimately increase Australias economy. Millei (2011) credibly revealed that the Australian policys bywords used for the EYLF were, Belonging, Being & Becoming. Though the language of the Australian policy is couched in democratic terms, it is clear that the author sought to demonstrate that the modern-day kindergarten policy in Australia destines children into the same controlled environment as the authors own culture in Hungary did during the Soviet occupation. In 2007, the Rudd Federal Labor government was elected with productivity as their key goal for the nation of Australia. Their political philosophy for improving the economy of Australia was to advance what they called social and human capital. One of the Rudd

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Governments chief ways of creating economic growth was through educating the very young and conditioning them to think productively, Sumsion et al (2009). Key lessons from the article Though is cannot be said that all that is political is necessarily self serving and shrouded by expedient intents, it can be noted that nothing that is said politically has the same intention as it is proclaimed to common citizens. The information in this profound article scribed by Millei (2011) is one that sheds light on perhaps one powerful and abiding lesson to the reader who has eyes that see and ears that hear. People, such as this author and the Nelson Mandelas and Martin Luther Kings of history, lived through tyrannical and brutally inhumane treatment that no sane person would dare seek to emulate willingly. Yet, the experience that impacts the lives of the intellectually aware produces an intrinsic ability to read between the political lines and to squeeze out true intent and reasoning from the seemingly well intentioned political overtones that potentially endanger the lives of us all. As a result of the abusive past and the experiences, through which the author lived, a natural distrust exists in this article that is, in fact, healthy and wise. It has been said that every person has the responsibility to plan their lives and their families as they choose them to be or risk having someone else end up doing so for them. The true essence of education is the act of placing oneself into a self-determined position to become what they desire to be. The grave threat is when education takes on an Orwellian form of newspeak that deceives and contrives to such a degree that sheer impossible promises become a national lullaby that sooths and diminishes doubtful wisdom so that a whole society slumbers and accepts false pretenses as truth when they are in reality mere dreams and impending nightmares. The application of lessons learned Though, as a student or as a teacher, one must possess the ability to consider as true what they might in fact find disagreeable, at the same time, having a well tuned sense of respectful

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distrust is an important attribute to cultivate. The warnings and observations in the article by Millei (2011) are powerful revelations and stern admonitions not to yield ones own determination to pursue the life one chooses. The actions taken by the two examples in this article are representative of the need to be responsible for ones own actions and decisions in life. Though community is an important part of society at large, the individual right to choose and refuse is an innate part of what it means to be a free human. The need of knowing what one believes and holding and keeping what one holds dear is clearly displayed in this powerful article. That is the greatest lesson of all. The case studies that Millei (2011) presented in this article are wholly applicable to American society in 2013. There is a plethora of new policies that have been cast as problemsolving approaches that have turned out to be transformational in their actual intents. One such policy that presently could transform education in America is the national curriculum currently infiltrating American classrooms called Common Core. As Millei (2011) demonstrated in the authors views, very similar socially collective ideals are now being quietly implemented that will change the thinking, actions and educational futures of American students. It is for individuals and educational professionals to decide whether the massive changes that loom on the national communitys horizon are positive and for the good of Americas youth or to their detriment. Quality of the Article It is clear that Millei (2011) wove personal experience and academic research into this unique and well-developed paper. The information has inestimable value and in many ways prevailed over the apparently insuperable political ideals. The subject matter covered and delved into the hidden meanings behind the political language of tyranny and brought clarity into a deep and complex subject. When one considers the vast amount of material and the genealogical years

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that the author negotiated in this article, it is remarkable that the final product is quite easy to read and is highly understandable. As normal academic writing is typically free of the use of the first person, it was somehow striking and yet refreshing to read of the authors personal experience and short biographical details. The significant and apparently extraordinary introduction easily became a welcome part of the article. Because of the high degree of emotional prose that is not often found in academic writing, it became evident that the real power of the article was not actually the information itself alone, but the fact that Millei (2011) had actually lived and experienced what was written and described about early education transformations that both Soviet-era Hungary and contemporary neoliberal Australia experienced. The article is articulate, scholarly and of great value in a world that is increasingly linked together through globalization. Conclusion Globalism is the unstoppable phenomenon of our times. It is not just an idea being dreamed about but is now all around us. In the two vastly different articles reviewed in this essay, Tearing Down the Walls by Grant (2010) and Governing Through Early Childhood Curriculum by Millei (2011), two very different but powerful arguments were developed and presented. As peer-reviewed articles, both authors presented their information in straightforward and unusually emotional manners. Grant (2010) gave ample substantiation that Americans are becoming more and more aware of the vast changes overtaking the world and of the broad spectrum of cultural and international opportunities available to them. The author stated that Americans are progressively less culturally boxed in as students, and schools have become gradually interested in investigating and understanding world globalization. To facilitate this unstoppable trend, the author insisted that teacher education needs to be more geared toward better online teacher

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education that prepares youth, and the professionals that teach them, for the emerging global community. Millei (2011) drew some stark comparisons of the political impact of Marxist policies on the educational situation in Soviet-era Hungary to the neoliberal Australian policy on the education and care of kindergarten aged children. In 2007, the government of Australia announced a federal program titled, The New Directions for Early Childhood Education policy that placed increased importance on kindergarten education. The authors premise was that the Rudd Labor governments intention was the reeducation of children into human capital that would improve the nations economic productivity. The authors comparative language and examples drew a clear resemblance to the policy that Hungary had endured during its Soviet-era years. Each author used a wide range of examples to substantively prove their specific points and suppositions, and both were informative, easy to read and easy to understand. It is apparent that the paper by Grant (2010) was developed around an idea that the author believed should be taught and implemented in classrooms of the twenty-first century. The second paper by Millei (2011) presented an argument from an opposite point of view that the information presented represents policies and a form of education that is not tolerable and that should not be used to teach to kindergarten children.

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References

Grant, A.C. (2010). Tearing Down the Walls. Creating Global Classrooms through Online Teacher Preparation Programs. Distance Learning, 7(2), 37-41. Read the article: Millei, Z. (2011). Governing Through Early Childhood Curriculum, the Child, and Community. European Education, 43(1), 33-55. Illingworth, M. (2012) Education in the Age of the Information Superhighway. Canadian Journal of Education, (3) 180-193 Twining, P., Raffaghelli, J., Albion, P.; Knezek, D. (2013) Moving education into the digital age: The contribution of teachers' professional development. Journal of Computer Assisted Learning, (5) 426-43712 DOI: 10.1111/jcal.12031.

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Millei, Z. (2013) Memory and kindergarten teachers' work: children's needs before the needs of the socialist state, Globalisation, Societies and Education, (11) 170-193 DOI: 10.1080/14767724.2013.782185 Roper, Steven D. (2005) The politicization of education: Identity formation in Moldova and Transnistria". Communist and post-communist studies, (4) 501 DOI: 10.1016/j.postcomstud.2005.09.003 Sumsion, J. Barnes, S. Cheeseman, S. (2009) Insider Perspectives on Developing Belonging, Being & Becoming. Australasian Journal of Early Childhood, (4) 4-13