Closing achievement gaps and beyond: teachers’ reactions to the remedial education policy in Taiwan

Educators have increasingly implemented remedial education in elementary and secondary schools throughout Taiwan as a systemic approach toward closing achievement gaps. However, students from lower socioeconomic backgrounds and those in remote areas have shown little improvement in academic achievement. This issue raises the question of how educators are providing needed learning support to disadvantaged students in school and classroom settings. Thus, this study applies grounded theory to investigate teachers’ reactions to the remedial education policy in Taiwan, to have a reflective assessment on the policy, and to provide suggestions for policy implementation. The findings suggest that teachers’ responses to this government-imposed, centralized approach—classified as “cosmetic compliance,” “professional commitment,” and “try-out participation”—vary widely based on whether their ideological underpinnings are consistent with the government’s policy intent to close achievement gaps, and on whether they are equipped with professional knowledge and practical strategies to support the effective implementation of remedial education. Based on the findings, this study develops an interactive systemic model for more effectively implementing the remedial education policy, which illustrates a conceptualization that educational practitioners can hold professional autonomy while improving teaching and learning for low-achieving students.     

Boston Public as Public Pedagogy: Implications for Teacher Preparation and School Leadership

The media play a major role in the construction of popular cultural “texts,” such as films and television programs. These media forms are conceptualized as “public pedagogies”—i.e., as texts that have great potential to teach the public about a wide range of educational issues. This article focuses attention on the representation of teachers and principals in the popular television series Boston Public. Specifically, the authors provide two complimentary accounts of how the representations of teachers and principals can be engaged through critical analyses or “readings.” One account develops a deconstructive reading of how Boston Public treats teacher preparation, teacher competence, and principal leadership. The second account examines how preservice teachers were engaged in multiple readings of the program. The article concludes by suggesting that analyzing popular representations of teachers and educational leaders in film and television can become one important strategy, among others, for developing critically reflective educational leaders and teachers.     

U.S. Teachers as Policy Protagonists in Digital Public Spaces?

Teachers engage with policies far beyond the confines of their classroom and seemingly unrelated to their classroom practice, stretching the parameters of theories such as street-level bureaucracy (Lipsky, 2010; Weatherly & Lipsky, 1977) and doing policy in schools (Ball, Maguire, & Braun, 2012). This was observed in ethnographic studies and analyses, suggesting a “policy protagonism” in which teachers engaged in public arenas with the state and with the public outside of school to address problems they faced within school walls (Robert & McEntarfer, 2014). Four attributes of policy protagonism are defining policy “problems,” seeking power and resources to address those policy-worthy problems, “using” social categories and symbolic identities such as perceptions of teachers as mothers and caregivers, and, finally, demanding multiple seats at the decision-making table. Using discourse analysis, I examine Massachusetts' teachers' publications in local and national online newspapers between 2012–2014 that identify Teach Plus Teaching Policy Fellows, teachers who presumably wish to engage with public policy and are taught how to do so. The sample only demonstrated application of the first attribute, defining policy problems. Changes in policy and policymaking will only come from systematic and sustained engagement of teachers in policy protagonism in both real and virtual public spaces. Although teaching policy fellows were trained to do just that, the analysis suggests that more effort is needed to support teachers' policy work in public spaces. There is no silver bullet to the educational challenge of strengthening teachers' policy work and gaining a seat at the policy table.     

The school as a workplace: Extending democracy to schools

The author has a thorough knowledge of the educational scene in the USA. His critical analyses of the “modern” educational theories developed by J. Holt, H. Kohl, Ch. Silbermann, I. Illich and others, and of their — as yet unresearched — application to institutionalized learning and socialisation processes provide very informative insights into the on-going discussion on reform, even outside his own country. Stopsky points to four factors which have had a pronounced influence on the objectives, direction and progress of curriculum reform:

1. The student movement and the stimuli it generated in the civil rights movement and the relations with the “Third World”.
2. The subculture of youth, accompanying this protest movement and partly caused by its lack of success, with its typical phenomena of drug consumption and social disintegration.
3. The disappointment at the failure of the propagated educational reform to establish, e.g., equality of chances and improve the quality of life, and the effects of raising the standards of performance demanded of under-privileged pupils by means of drastic restrictions on admission and entrance examinations implying social selection for higher educational courses.
4. The development of “anti-curricula” in the form and content of “open” or neohumanist education. The favourable reports on experiments with these “pupil-centred” curricula in British schools created a fascinating response from teachers and pupils in the USA, but most colleges rejected the innovation as being anti-intellectual and decided in favour of a “competency based” or “performance based” curriculum.

In this future-oriented paper F. Stopsky attempts to free school from the odium of suffering individual oppression and the resulting fear of the pupils, and to turn it instead into a place where children and adults will work without repression.     

Can “Some College” Help Reduce Future Earnings Inequality?

This article addresses the policy debate over “college for all” versus “college for some” in the United States and analyzes the relationship between “some college” (as a formal education attainment category) and earnings. Our evidence confirms—using data from the American Community Survey (ACS), the Panel Study on Income Dynamics (PSID), and the Survey on Income and Program Participation (SIPP)—that more (postsecondary) education, on average, is associated with higher median earnings. However, there is emerging evidence that a proportion of workers who have attained lower levels of education (i.e., “some college”) earn more than those who have attained higher levels of education (bachelor's degree).

We focus particular attention on the subset of Americans who fall into the U.S. Census official category entitled “some college.” This is a heterogeneous group who have alternate educational credentials but who have not acquired a formal associate or bachelor's degree. Instead of an unequivocal focus on “college for all” or even “community college for all,” we argue that educators and policymakers should consider “some college” as a viable pathway to future labor market success. In sum, we conclude that some types of “some college” could lead to a reduction in earnings inequality.     

Privilege,Prejudice, Predicament: “PRC Scholars” in Singapore—An Overview

With the rise of educational mobilities worldwide, students’ experiences of educational sojourn, especially that of the Chinese Mainland students, have come under greater research attention in recent years. Amongst diverse kinds of Chinese students/scholars abroad, this paper focuses on a type that finds themselves in a unique country under equally unique circumstances: Chinese students studying at pre- and undergraduate levels in Singapore under Singapore’s government-sponsored “foreign talent” scholarship schemes. Based on an ethnographic study conducted over a 16-month period in China and Singapore, this paper presents an overview account of these Chinese student-scholars’ sociocultural experiences in Singapore under three headings: (1) privilege—how Singapore’s “foreign talent” policy endows considerable privileges, opportunities, but also responsibilities on these Chinese students; (2) prejudice—how and why these PRC “foreign talents” encounter certain local discourses of discrimination and exclusion; and (3) predicament—how they sometimes experience complex and conflicted feelings about being made Singapore’s “foreign talent.”     

Taking a new look at cultural attitudes in multilingual settings: Stories and storying in teacher training

Cultural attitudes and expectations in multilingual educational settings are closely related to teachers’ implicit theories about children growing up “between two different cultures” and about their role as “knowledgeable practitioners.” These assumptions are in themselves neither discriminating nor explicitly judgmental. Nevertheless, they may obstruct truly intercultural learning and teaching experiences and should be made the subject of teacher training. Data collected during the in-service training of preschool and primary school teachers are the basis for the analysis of these assumptions and for exemplifying a strategy for enhancing cultural awareness. The use of narrative — i.e. the creation and interpretation of stories — is discussed as a method that encourages practitioners to take a new look at their preconceptions and images and to engage in a conscious process of “meaning making”.     

The cultural politics of national testing and test result release policy in South Korea: a critical discourse analysis

This paper examines the ideological construction of educational discourses embedded within the South Korean print media. Significantly, these discourses have recently promoted the resurrection of a sweeping national testing and test results release policy. Through careful examination of the “test plus release” policy, the authors show how the government has achieved hegemonic power by shaping public opinion through the national testing contexts. Drawing on a critical discourse analysis of educational policy texts from the government and top 10 print media sources, this paper analyses how discourses on “accountability”, “the right to know” and “the fairness of the tests” have been produced, reproduced and recontextualized to favour particular perspectives. The authors also examine how government and influential print media discourses interact with political and cultural factors such as “acclaiming the evaluative state”, “education fever” and “meritocratic beliefs” to achieve public consent for the new “test plus release” policy.     

Teachers Working for Change: Gender equity and the politics of teacher activism in South Korea

This paper examines the controversies over the Women's Committee of the Korean Teachers Union (KTU) or Chunkyojo—in particular, the implementation of the quota policy which requires that 50% of the union's representative body be composed of women. Initially, this policy led to concerns that the KTU's militancy may be weakened. However, the increase of women in the local leadership has gradually led to positive changes in the union's work patterns as well. Despite these achievements, the Women's Committee continues to deal with the prevalent “family ideology”, which is reinforced by the structural constraints upon female teachers. This paper suggests that constructing viable gender-sensitive agendas in the progressive teachers' union is not only important for the empowerment of women teachers, but also for constructing a more substantial basis for gender equality education.     

社会公平视野下美国联邦政府教师教育改革政策的社会学分析

面对教育改革面临的诸多社会挑战,包括新冠疫情对美国教师队伍的冲击以及美国中小学教师队伍离职率高、缺乏多样性等问题,美国联邦政府将教师教育改革纳入其“重建更好”一揽子改革计划的重要组成部分。“公平”价值转向、从“缺陷”到“优势”的政策话语转变和弗雷泽三维社会公正理论构成了美国联邦政府教师改革政策的重要理论基础。美国联邦政府采取的教师教育改革措施主要包括:修改大学和高等教育的教师教育援助计划;实施“培植你自己”教师教育项目;完善一年制教师驻校培养模式;加大对少数族裔学校的资助力度;提高教师工资与专业发展水平。美国联邦政府的教师教育改革凸显了社会公平与多元种族和谐相处的政策价值导向,其政策机制体现了联邦政府协调角色的不断增强和市场化教师教育改革方式的适度消退。     

“Brains before ‘beauty’?” High achieving girls,school and gender identities

In recent years educational policy on gender and achievement has concentrated on boys' underachievement, frequently comparing it with the academic success of girls. This has encouraged a perception of girls as the “winners” of the educational stakes and assumes that they no longer experience the kinds of gender inequalities identified in earlier studies. However, trying to balance academic achievement with being seen as a “proper girl” presents girls with difficult challenges, particularly in terms of being accepted and approved of by classmates and securing the attention of teachers. This paper explores the views of a group of high achieving 12‐ to 13‐year‐old girls who indicate that being regarded as “clever” continues to be negotiated within acceptable frameworks of femininity.     

Globalization and Chinese Education in the Early 20th Century

With China’s growing significance in the global economy ever more evident, studies in recent years have highlighted multiple aspects of China’s “Globalization” (or global connections) that predate the contemporary period. This article focuses on educational reform in the late Qing and early Republic as a way of illuminating a significant aspect of China’s Globalization during this period. In particular, the article highlights the role of an emerging Chinese educational “lobby” that was involved in administration, teaching, and textbook compilation; furthermore, this lobby pioneered the introduction of new ideas, concepts, and innovative practice from abroad in the specialized journals on education—the first of their kind in China—which they edited and contributed to. More significantly, contributors to these journals engaged with and discussed educational issues and problems that were simultaneously being debated in the West. In the process Chinese educators and officials were able to draw upon, either to valorize or critique, a wide spectrum of contemporary foreign educational debate and practice in their prognosis of domestic education and its future. The picture that emerges of Chinese education during this period is one in which Chinese educators perceived themselves very much as active participants in a global educational community.     

A “Deleterious” Driver: The “First Teacher” Reform in Sweden

This article investigates the implementation of the “förstelärare” or “First teacher” reform in Sweden. We draw upon the insights of a superintendent, union official, principal, three First teachers, and two of their colleagues in one school, and recent literature on career development reform. We employ Michael Fullan’s overview of the “right” and “wrong” drivers of educational reform to analyse the extent to which the First Teacher initiative cultivated productive “professional capital.” The research reveals: how broader national policy aims were in clear tension with municipal-wide school development, and school-level development efforts; the perverse effects of a strong focus upon salary on professional conduct; and how an emphasis upon teachers’ roles per se undermined the espoused policy focus on enhancing teaching. The research cautions against the problematic effects of the initiative on more profession-oriented prerogatives, and how more external, “deleterious,” drivers of reform militate against more productive professional capital.     

Teacher representation in news reporting on standardised testing: A case study from Western Australia

News media coverage on education plays a “uniquely important role in shaping public opinion”, can influence educational policy, and can affect and concern teachers. Yet, research examining how teachers have been represented in the news is scarce. What is particularly scarce are investigations with a historical dimension. The study reported in this paper is offered as a contribution towards rectifying the deficit and pointing the way towards one of a number of avenues of research that other scholars in the field could take for various contexts (including different countries) and time periods. It is part of a much larger study whose aim was to provide a historical analysis of The West Australian newspaper’s representation of teachers in its reporting of five major educational developments in the State of Western Australia that were the subject of sustained coverage at various times between 1987 and 2007. The specific topic which is the focus of the analysis presented in this paper is “standardized testing”.     

Sustaining the adoption of gamified outdoor social enquiry learning in high schools through addressing teachers’ emerging concerns: A 3-year study

Gamified Authentic Mobile Enquiry in Society (GAMES) is a GPS-supported mobile application for gamifying social enquiry learning in outdoor environments. Teachers are always the “educational innovation gatekeepers” in schools. This paper reports on a 3-year study in which the Stages of Concern model was employed as a quantitative diagnostic instrument to continuously understand and address the emerging concerns of 91 social humanities teachers (from 91 high schools in Hong Kong) about adopting GAMES in their teaching practice. With adequate interventions for addressing the participants’ ongoing needs, their peak categorical concern shifted initially from “Management” (in Year 1) to “Consequence” (in Year 2), and finally to “Refocusing” (in Year 3). The results reveal that the participants largely intended to go on harnessing GAMES to facilitate outdoor social enquiry learning in their schools. This work provides the field with profound strategic insights into sustaining technological innovations in schooling from the perspective of teachers—an important stakeholder of education.     

短板下的聚焦:乡村教师政策演变分析——基于《国家中长期教育改革和发展规划纲要(2010-2020年)》实施十年的思考

乡村教师是教师队伍建设的短板。十年来,我国政府不断补足政策短板,乡村教师政策聚焦于村庄学校、教学点教师,再进一步深度聚焦于最薄弱的集中连片特困地区、国家级贫困县、“三区三州”等深度贫困地区的乡村教师。通过细化补充、强化保障、优化管理和深化质量等多方面不断加强乡村教师政策体系建设,有效缓解了乡村教师“下不去、留不住、教不好”的问题,为提高乡村教师质量,缩小城乡教育差距打下坚实基础。但乡村教师政策仍有缺失,尚需进一步以调查、监测手段,夯实政策改进的研究基础,并彰显教师政策制定的乡村立场。     

Class Analysis and the Emancipatory Potential of Education

Recently, a range of educational theorists have explored and extended upon popular currents in political theory through articulating “open” and “unknowing” pedagogies. Such contributions represent a radical turn away from the presumed “universals” found in proclamations of justice and emancipation and, ultimately, the centering of class analysis. At the same time, inspired by and building upon Bourdieuian theory, another cluster of educational research has developed a nuanced understanding of the social, cultural, and educational mechanisms involved in class reproduction. In this essay, Jessica Gerrard offers a critical — though sympathetic — response to these dual trends. Bringing together theories of reproduction in conversation with theories of pedagogical possibility, Gerrard argues for a renewed understanding of working‐class relations to education that incorporates an understanding of working‐class action and struggle.     

Understanding the role cumulative exposure to highly qualified science teachers plays in students' educational pathways

Years of experience, education level, and subject matter expertise are three measures of teacher qualification that are employed widely in contemporary educational policies including tenure, salary, and hiring, despite significant questions about their effectiveness at predicting student performance. These questions reveal a critical gap in the literature, concerning, in particular, the enduring impact of teachers' qualifications on students' educational experiences, and they ways in which related research has traditionally been framed and conducted. Specifically, studies examining these predictors have focused almost exclusively on investigating the role that an individual teacher's qualifications have on students' performance. In schools, however, students are exposed to different teachers every year, and those teachers often have differing qualifications. This study explores the impact of teacher qualification from a cumulative perspective by examining the relationship between cumulative science teachers' qualifications (measured by years of experience, education level, and subject matter expertise) and students' educational success (academic achievement, college enrollment, and decision to major in a Science, Technology, Engineering, or Mathematics field). The study found that students taught by science teachers who—as a group—were cumulatively more highly qualified, tended to have higher achievement, as well as better educational pathways and outcomes in STEM. Given that students are taught by teachers from across a broad spectrum of qualification throughout their schooling, findings from this study could have important implications, not only for research and practice, but also for education policy.