‘Never really had a good education you know,until I came in here’: educational life histories of young adult male prisoner learners

This article focuses on the educational life histories of nine prisoner learners aged between 18 and 21 years which were collated as part of doctoral work which sought to access the life histories of adult male prisoners who were attending a prison school while incarcerated in prison. The nine life histories of the young men were collated not only in two Dublin prison sites: St. Patrick's Institution (mainly) but also Mountjoy Prison and their educational life histories are explored in this article with the specific aim of offering insights into young adult male prisoner learners' experiences of education. Negative experiences of compulsory education were reported by the nine prisoner learners interviewed, none of whom had completed upper second level education. The average age of the young adults was 19 years. Two had no experience of secondary school education and six of the nine reported being expelled from school. The intergenerational impact of imprisonment and cycle of disadvantage was illustrated across many of the life history interviews. Prisoner learners reported having experienced stressful events in their childhood, events which included, inter alia, the separation of parents, being removed from parental care and witnessing alcohol and drug misuse and violence in the home. Two of the prisoner learners reported learning to read and write in the prison school and a profile of one prisoner learner, Nick, aged 20, is included in this article.     

Inequality of educational opportunities: School failure trends in Spain (1977–2012)

School failure is substantive in Spain. The percentage of students that do not achieve the compulsory education diploma is around 20%. School failure is higher for students from lower socio-economic backgrounds. Students who ‘fail’ cannot continue to post-compulsory education and, sooner or later, they have to leave formal education. The evolution of school failure in Spain follows a U-shaped curve that decreases from the seventies and rises from the end of the past century. This article explores the evolution of the impact of students’ socio-economic backgrounds on school failure from the seventies onwards and tests whether this impact increased at the end of last century. Using logit models of estimation to control for socio-demographic factors, we demonstrate that students from higher socio-economic backgrounds show fewer fluctuations in school failure than students from lower socio-economic backgrounds. We also provide evidence in support of an increase in the impact of socio-economic background on school failure from the end of the past century, thereby increasing differences by social origin of students. Our paper is consistent with previous literature showing that the impact of socio-economic background on school failure from the seventies onwards is declining. Nevertheless, we show an increase in this impact from the late nineties not described before. We offer a possible explanation for this upward trend in the shape of change in the institutional structure of the education system, although labour market incentives may also have played a role.     

Early School Leavers and Social Disadvantage in Spain: from books to bricks and vice-versa

It can be argued that in Spain there is a relationship between the high rates of early school leaving (ESL) and inactive or unemployed young people, as is evidenced by the current situation in which over half the working population aged 25 or younger is unemployed, many having completed compulsory education only. ESL and its social and economic consequences must be considered within the parameters and expectations of the Spanish labour market and how these expectations are/were linked to demands (or not) for continued education. This article considers the monumental social, political and economic changes that have occurred in Spain during a short span of time (including the real estate crash of 2008 and subsequent economic crisis), and how these issues intersect with measures that directly concern the educational system. It also considers a variety of endogenous and exogenous factors related to the Spanish educational system, and the impact these have on rates of ESL. The article ends with a discussion of policies and practices that may reduce ESL rates and help transform the Spanish general perception of early school leavers from a ‘lost generation’ to a generation of young people with potential for helping Spain move out of its current economic crisis.     

Problematising vocational education and training in schools: using student narratives to interrupt neoliberal ideology

ABSTRACT

In Australia, like many western countries, there has been a convergence of education policy around a set of utilitarian and economistic approaches to vocational education and training in schools. Such approaches are based on the assumption that there is a direct relationship between national economic growth, productivity and human capital development resulting in the persuasive political argument that schools should be more closely aligned to the needs of the economy to better prepare ‘job ready’ workers. These common sense views resonate strongly in school communities where the problem of youth unemployment is most acute and students are deemed to be ‘at risk’, ‘disadvantaged’ or ‘disengaged’. This article starts from a different place by rejecting the fatalism and determinism of neoliberal ideology based on the assumption that students must simply ‘adapt’ to a precarious labour market. Whilst schools have a responsibility to prepare students for the world of work there is also a moral and political obligation to educate them extraordinarily well as democratic citizens. In conclusion, we draw on the experiences of young people themselves to identify a range of pedagogical conditions that need to be created and more widely sustained to support their career aspirations and life chances.     

Can educational engagement prevent Early School Leaving? Unpacking the school’s effect on educational success

There is growing evidence that school engagement, or more specifically disengagement, is a key indicator for predicting Early School Leaving. The aim of this article is to explore the impact of secondary schools in student (dis)engagement and subsequent opportunities to succeed in school. Drawing on data from a qualitative study in five secondary schools in Barcelona, the article discusses the role of school context in inhibiting or facilitating school engagement by exploring compositional effects, organisational and pedagogical practices, and teachers’ expectations. To do so a twofold perspective is adopted: firstly, we look at the main school features and their impact on students’ educational opportunities; and secondly, a systematic analysis of the dimensions of school engagement (behavioural, emotional and cognitive) is carried out. As a result, the article contributes to the identification of the most significant variables at school level that influence student engagement and their opportunities for school success.     

‘Education comes second to surviving’: parental perspectives on their child/ren’s early school leaving in an area challenged by marginalisation

This paper examines early school leaving from the perspective of parents of early school leavers in an inner-city local authority housing estate in the Republic of Ireland living with the challenges of significant marginalisation. While the vast majority of post-primary pupils now sit a Leaving Certificate examination, and improvements in school retention rates have also been found in ‘disadvantaged’ schools in recent years, a disproportionate number of those leaving school early come from lower socio-economic backgrounds. Through in-depth, semi-structured, interviews, this qualitative study examined the perspectives of nine parents of early school leavers about the factors contributing to young people from this area leaving school early. This article focuses on three aspects of the findings through which the parent participants framed their views on early school leaving; (1) feeling let down by school, and (2) being stigmatised being from a ‘disadvantaged’ area, and (3) dealing with life traumas. For the participants, these factors significantly constrained their child/ren in engaging with education. The findings are examined through an interrogation of the shaping impact of social class and ‘place’. Recommendations include specific professional development for educators in challenging contexts about the impact of trauma and socio-demographical positionality on educational engagement and outcomes.     

试述葡萄牙职业教育和培训的法律支持及执行机构

葡萄牙为支持职业教育和培训,相继制定了一系列的法律条．在教育系统中,职业培训是以学校为本位的教育类型;在劳工市场里,则以初级职业培训和继续培训为主。葡萄牙职业教育和培训的执行机构由多个部门构成,它们各司其职,又相互配合,保证了葡萄牙职业教育和培训的顺利进行。     

教育券能否改进学校效率的分析

教育券提升学校效率的前提是学校间能形成竞争,而学校间竞争形成则需要具备相应的条件。在教育实践中,学校竞争所需的一系列条件如学校的可选择性、教育发展的均衡性、服务的异质性、信息的可获性、完善的退出机制等要素并不完全具备。且上述要件作为一种必要条件,得到满足也并不意味着教育效率的必然提高。教育券诱发的过度竞争、精英化和成本失控反而会导致教育效率的降低。     

义务教育学校实现教育公平的思考

教育公平是社会公平的基石,是人生公平的支点。实施素质教育就是最大的教育公平,加强学校软实力建设是实施教育公平的基础,努力提高教育质量是实施教育公平的途径,建设健全的教师队伍是实施教育公平的关键,以教育科研引领是实施教育公平的保障。     

Experimental Impacts of the “Quality Preschool for Ghana” Interventions on Teacher Professional Well-being,Classroom Quality,and Children’s School Readiness

We assessed the impacts of a teacher professional development program for public and private kindergartens in the Greater Accra Region of Ghana. We examined impacts on teacher professional well-being, classroom quality, and children’s readiness during one school year. This cluster-randomized trial included 240 schools (teachers N?=?444; children N?=?3,345, M_age?=?5.2) randomly assigned to one of three conditions: teacher training (TT), teacher training plus parental-awareness meetings (TTPA), and controls. The programs incorporated workshops and in-classroom coaching for teachers and video-based discussion groups for parents. Moderate impacts were found on some dimensions of professional well-being (reduced burnout in the TT and TTPA conditions, reduced turnover in the TT condition), classroom quality (increased emotional support/behavior management in the TT and TTPA conditions, support for student expression in the TT condition), and small impacts on multiple domains of children’s school readiness (in the TT condition). The parental-awareness meetings had counteracting effects on child school readiness outcomes. Implications for policy and practice are discussed for Ghana and for early childhood education in low- and middle-income countries.     

贵州省劳动力市场发展的难点与对策

完善的劳动力市场要求劳动力的供求双方都有自主的权利,贵州省劳动力市场发展的难点与本质是劳动力市场供给与需求非均衡问题,使得主体之间相互选择不充分。今后劳动力市场建设应该采取因地制宜的措施:延长劳动者受教育时间,推迟青少年人口的劳动参与;提高劳动力的社会保险能力,建立用人单位内部劳动力市场;加强劳动力市场现代化、科学化、规范化建设。