Do family order and neighbor intervention against intimate partner violence protect children from abuse? Findings from Kathmandu

Drawing on previous research on intimate partner violence, child maltreatment, and informal social control, we hypothesized relationships between child abuse severity and (1) protective informal social control of intimate partner violence (ISC_IPV) by neighbors, (2) intimate terrorism, (3) family order, and (4) the power of mothers in intimate relationships. In what we believe may be a first study of physical child abuse by parents in Nepal, we used a three stage cluster approach to draw a random sample of 300 families in Kathmandu. Random effects regression models were used to test the study hypotheses. The analyses found support for hypotheses one and two, but with an important caveat. Although observed (actual) protective ISC_IPV had the hypothesized negative association with child abuse severity, in one of our models perceived protective ISC_IPV was positively associated with child abuse severity. The models clarify that the overall direction of protective ISC_IPV appears to be negative (protective), but the positive finding is important to consider for both research and practice. A significant relationship between family order and child abuse severity was found, but the direction was negative rather than positive as in hypothesis three. Implications for neighborhood research and typological research on IPV and child maltreatment are discussed.     

A Pedagogy of Friendship: young children’s friendships and how schools can support them

Children’s friendships are often neglected by teachers and researchers. This phenomenological study conducted with seven children aged five and six years explores young children’s perceptions of their everyday friendship experiences. This multi-method study used role play interviews, drawings and persona doll scenarios to consider children’s everyday experiences of friendship in school. The paper discusses the importance of socio-cultural aspects of children’s friendship including: imaginary friends; losing friends; protecting time and space to develop friendships and children’s routines and practices as they form and maintain friendships. Data and findings are discussed, leading to an original conceptual framework: a ‘Pedagogy of Friendship’. This is designed to help children make meaning from their friendship experiences and also provide practitioners with the opportunity to nurture and scaffold children through their friendship experiences in schools. We suggest that there is a need to raise the profile of children’s friendships in early childhood education and generate an educational perspective on friendship. Finally we conclude that listening to children’s views of friendship indicates that the application of the framework of a ‘Pedagogy of Friendship’ would be beneficial to children’s all round learning and development.     

Adolescents’ profiles based on student agency and teacher autonomy support: does interpersonal justice matter?

In this study, we adopted a person-oriented approach to (a) identify latent profiles of adolescents characterized by unique patterns of perceived teacher autonomy support and student agency, (b) investigate whether perceived interpersonal justice can predict profile membership and (c) compare different profiles in relation to personal responsibility. Participants were 545 Italian secondary school students (55% boys, 94% born in Italy, M_age = 14.24, SD_age = .53). Five adolescents’ profiles emerged: disengaged (24%), average students (34%) and committed (28%), with low, mean and high scores, respectively, in both teacher autonomy support and agency; resistant (5%), with low scores in teacher autonomy support and high scores in agency; compliant (9%), with high scores in teacher autonomy support and low scores in agency. Perceptions of interpersonal justice significantly predicted profile membership in the comparison of almost all profiles. Several significant differences in responsibility among profiles also emerged. Implications of the findings for practices and policies are discussed.

     

Activism through attrition?: An exploration of viral resignation letters and the teachers who wrote them

In recent years, there has emerged a new phenomenon in response to contemporary educational policies: public teacher resignation letters. Through the theoretical frames of participatory democracy and identity, and analyzed in light of literature on teacher attrition and activism, we investigate the following questions with 8 teacher resigners: (1) What are the rationales of and implications for teachers to resign in public ways? (2) How are teachers' public resignation letters a reflection of their personal and professional identities?     

Internalizing and externalizing symptoms among Palestinian adolescents from Israel as consequences of their exposure to community violence: Are they moderated by their self-efficacy and collective efficacy?

This article presents the findings of a study that examined the rates and the consequences of exposure to community violence (ECV) as reflected in witnessing and experiencing such violence, among Palestinian adolescents from Israel. In particular, it examined the extent to which these adolescents exhibit high levels of internalizing and externalizing symptoms as consequences of such exposure, and the extent to which self-efficacy and collective efficacy moderate these consequences. A systematic random sample of 760 Palestinian adolescents in Israel (320 boys, and 440 girls) filled out a self-administered questionnaire. The results show that most of the adolescents had witnessed community violence during the last year and during lifetime, and more than one third had directly experienced such violence during their lifetime compared with 19.6% during the last year. Boys were exposed to community violence more often than girls. Moreover, participants' ECV predicted high levels of externalizing and internalizing symptoms. Hierarchical regression analysis revealed that collective efficacy moderated the correlation between experiencing community violence and internalizing symptoms, whereas self-efficacy moderated the correlation between witnessing community violence and externalizing symptoms. There is a need for providing support for youth from close adults as well as from formal and informal resources in the community before and after their ECV.     

Constructivism and classroom teachers: What can early childhood teacher educators do to support the constructivist journey?

Abstract

Constructivism is a theory of learning that has become increasingly accepted by educators. Yet translating a theory of learning into practical instructional strategies has proven to be quite difficult for teachers. A qualitative study was recently completed that examined primary grade teachers’ understanding of constructivism and its influence upon their teaching practices. Analysis indicated that the teachers had several misconceptions of constructivism and were at varying levels of understanding, based upon their experience and professional development in constructivist education. This study has implications for the teacher education field, and early childhood teacher educators can play an important role in helping preservice and inservice teachers gain a deeper understanding of constructivism and implement teaching practices based upon this understanding. Suggestions for colleges of education are given.     

MOOC instructor designs and challenges: what can be learned from existing MOOCs in Indonesia and Malaysia?

The purpose of this study was to explore Indonesian and Malaysian instructors’ perceptions of massive open online course (MOOC) design and how they deal with the design challenges. Surveys, email interviews, and course reviews are the main data-collection methods employed in this sequential mixed methods study. Forty-six instructors participated in the survey, and nine of them voluntarily participated in an email interview. The findings revealed that half of the courses were delivered using a hybrid/blended type of MOOC. Personal motives, institutional encouragement, and altruism were among the main reasons for instructors to offer MOOCs. Preparation, attraction, participation, and assessment were the categories used to explain the design strategies used by these instructors in designing their courses. The survey also revealed that collaboration encouragement, participant engagement, video development, and time constraints were the primary design challenges that the instructors experienced during the design process. Furthermore, most instructors sought advice from other MOOC instructors, MOOC providers, their institutions, video tutorials, and open educational resources (OERs) to surmount their design challenges.

     

Educational performance or educational inequality: what can we learn from PISA about France and England?

This article evaluates PISA 2000 as a resource for providing information on educational attainment and inequality, focusing on France and England. Going beyond pupils' performance, it assesses levels of educational inequality by examining distributions of scores and the relationship between socio‐economic status and performance. This review raises methodological issues which could hamper the comparison of performance. The prioritising of ‘skills for life’ over curriculum‐based questions, together with PISA's sampling on the basis of pupils' age rather than their class/grade, works to the advantage of the English performance. The issue of low response rates in England is also raised and care is urged with regard to ranking the performance of France and England on the basis of these results. The article concludes that as a tool for comparing average performance PISA has drawbacks, but for assessing levels of inequality it is a useful resource.     

‘It's just more in the real world really': how can a local project support early years practitioners from different settings in working and learning together?

This article describes how early years practitioners working in different settings, with different experiences and qualifications, can work and learn together. It is a small-scale case study of an eight-month project, with a grass-roots approach, involving early years settings within the reach area of an inner-London Children's Centre. The data collected are primarily from interviews, questionnaires and meeting minutes and the methods aim to replicate the democratic ethos of the project. The findings show that participants found this way of working empowering, drawing on their own and each other's knowledge and developing links for ongoing collaboration. However, the practical issues of staffing, costs and the structures of different types of settings remained significant barriers throughout the project. Further, the range of roles held by the participants, including the participant researcher, allowed power imbalances to operate. The study highlights the issues and opportunities that more local, ongoing forms of professional learning present.     

Teachers’ experiences of engagement with and in educational research: what can be learned from teachers’ views?

In this paper, we explore what is known about teachers’ engagement in and with educational research with a special emphasis on teachers’ voice evoking their experience of participating in research. This will draw upon international contexts in order to suggest ways of utilising the benefits of research in practice. Our review is framed around five key themes between which there are interesting links. The first theme is purpose and consequence, which highlights the dimensions of teachers’ control and autonomy. This is related to the second theme—teachers’ learning and affective response. The third theme, agency, addresses the contextual factors influencing teachers’ experience of research, which opens up the fourth theme concerning the degree of trust and collaboration that is experienced by teacher researchers. The final theme is contradiction. This phenomenon is understood in the context of socio-cultural theory in that the teacher researcher is evolving practice and questioning the focus on aggregate examination results/targets and its associated technology. While the available evidence of teachers’ experience of research is overwhelmingly positive, providing an acceleration of professional understanding and new perspectives, which re-invigorates those teachers who do engage, it is not always experienced as such. Overall, we underline the importance of dialogic approaches and ecological agency, which relate to teachers’ multi-dimensional perceptions of and participation in research.     

Student enrolment in Malaysian higher education: is there gender disparity and what can we learn from the disparity?

Access into higher education has traditionally been dominated by males. However, the current situation in Malaysia as well as in many developed and developing nations is that females have outnumbered males in higher education. By comparing gender enrolment, this paper illustrates the extent of gender disparity in Malaysian higher education across different higher education institutions, levels of study and fields of study. The disparity across the three dimensions can be summarised as a trend in which there is over-representation of females in public universities, in all disciplines except engineering, manufacturing and construction, and at all levels except the doctorate. Importantly, although set in Malaysia, this paper has wider implications where the trend of gender disparity underlined two areas of concern, namely an overly emphasised academic admission for transition from schools into higher education and the differentiated willingness of households to spend on higher education for their sons and daughters.     

The role of schools in disaster preparedness,response and recovery: what can we learn from the literature?

In order to contextualise the articles in this special issue, this introductory article surveys the relevant literature from recent disasters in mostly developed countries in order to explore the wider role of schools in disaster preparedness, response and recovery. The first section argues that as schools are hubs of their communities, it is important to understand the literature on communities in disaster contexts. This is followed by recent examples of school experiences of disasters, particularly in Japan, New Zealand and Australia. The final section synthesises the literature on children and young people in disaster contexts. The article closes with a set of recommendations for integrating schools into disaster planning.     

Sexual and reproductive health education attitudes and experience in India: how much support is there for comprehensive sex education? Findings from an Internet survey

This study assessed the extent to which an Internet-recruited sample of residents of India was supportive of the provision of comprehensive sexual education in school in a country where youth sexual health is poor. We sought to determine whether attitudes differed for those of varying demographic backgrounds (age, sex, education level, religion), the extent of support for comprehensive coverage, the school or age levels deemed appropriate for delivery, and whether own sex education history influenced support. We conducted an anonymous online survey with 1140 Indian adults using crowdsourcing methods. We found widespread support for the provision of sex education to youth in India among members of our largely well educated, middle-class sample. However, most participants believed sex education should be provided relatively late (i.e., in mid- to late-adolescence). Few opposed sex education altogether and attitudes were not predicted by background, own school-based sex education, or parent-child communication about sex. Less than one-third of participants endorsed the coverage of all topics, indicating that support for truly comprehensive coverage was not strong. However, the findings counter politicised efforts to ban sex education by state leaders despite the availability of a progressive, comprehensive curriculum offered by the Central government.     

The quality of secondary education in the Middle East and North Africa: what can we learn from TIMSS’ results?

Research on educational quality has been scarce in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region, whereas the debates over educational quality date from 1966 in the USA with the Coleman Report. Fortunately TIMSS (Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study) starts to fill this gap by providing data on students’ achievement and for many MENA countries this is the first time that such data are available. The paper gives an overview of the quality of education in MENA using TIMSS’ 2007 data. The research questions addressed here are why is achievement low? And why is the gap between the top‐performing countries and MENA countries large? In order to answer these questions, the paper focuses on several aspects: the first is the inefficiency of acquiring the language, the second is the inefficiency of time devoted to homework, the third is the meagre intended curriculum which is translated into a weaker implemented curriculum, the fourth aspect deals with the inefficiency of public resources devoted to the education sector. Finally, the paper highlights two other factors believed to affect students’ achievement: family background and students’ attitudes towards mathematics and science.     

Teachers' perceptions of the recent curriculum reforms and their implementation: what can we learn from the case of Korean elementary teachers?

This study examines: 1) how Korean elementary school teachers perceive recent curriculum reforms; 2) where their perceptions emanate from; and 3) what support teachers need in order to implement curriculum reforms actively and effectively. This study has shown that teachers generally harbour negative and unconstructive feelings about curriculum reform. These feelings negatively impact their involvement in and commitment to implementing reform. Several issues to be considered for teacher training and support evolved from our analysis of teachers' perceptions of the curriculum reform and the implementation: first, teachers are insufficiently provided with professional development programmes that support curriculum implementation; second, teachers lack opportunities to work through implementation problems and difficulties with peer teachers; and last, contextual and cultural constraints inhibit implementation of curriculum reform. Based upon these findings, this study makes several suggestions for teacher educators and curriculum policymakers.     

A model for personal and professional support for nurture group staff: to what extent can group process consultation be used as a resource to meet the challenges of running a nurture group?

This article details a mixed methods study designed to examine the impact of a group process consultation model in helping staff manage challenging behaviour in the nurture group setting. It relates to two geographical clusters of staff, including teachers and teaching assistants, running 11 nurture groups in a major metropolitan area in the UK, facilitated by an educational psychologist (EP). For 32 consultation referrals, teacher-rated levels of concern were compared before and after each session revealing a consistent drop, which was maintained throughout the intervention (p < 0.001). Measures of self-confidence and self-efficacy collected at the beginning of the group process consultation programme, and at the end of the first year of operation, revealed that teacher and teaching assistant self-confidence had improved significantly (p < 0.001) along with aspects of teacher self-efficacy (p = 0.023). A focus group, comprising eight teachers and teaching assistants, identified several themes and provided further elaboration on the outcomes of involvement.