The Inner London Education Authority and the William Tyndale Junior School Affair, 1974-1976

The William Tyndale Junior School affair marked a turning point in modern educational history. The affair, in which one north London primary school was paralysed by internal arguments over teaching method, is here analysed as a product of the pressures prevalent in Inner London education, and the article assesses the attempts of the Inner London Education Authority to contain those pressures. A necessary deference to the autonomy of teachers led to the adoption in the school of adventurous didactic methods which proved unacceptable to many parents. The unfolding of the affair widened divisions within the authority, between the authority and the teachers, between radical and traditional teachers, between teachers and managers, between teachers and parents, between different groups of parents and between the ILEA and the Borough of Islington. The Tyndale controversy was thus very complex, but its outcome is relatively straightforward: the apparent failure of 'progressive' methods in one London school prompted the adoption nationally of a more interventionist approach to methods and standards by central government and, in the process, a diminution of the autonomy of LEAs.     

The impact of dynamic assessment: an exploration of the views of children,parents and teachers

A qualitative research project was carried out to explore the views of children with special educational needs, their parents and teachers about one aspect of educational psychology practice: the dynamic assessment of cognitive skills. The research was carried out in a highly diverse and inclusive borough in East London, by Nicola Lawrence from Hounslow Educational Psychology Service, and Sharon Cahill from the University of East London. The views of nine children were sought through semi‐structured interviews regarding the process of dynamic assessment, supported with tools and techniques to facilitate discussion. The views of eight parents and seven teachers were also sought, through semi‐structured interviews and focus groups, regarding the psychological reports produced from dynamic assessment. Of the original findings acquired through thematic analysis of the data, those pertaining to the perceived impact of dynamic assessment of cognitive skills are reported. Dynamic assessment was reported to impact positively upon the child's emotional well‐being, self‐perceptions, approach to learning and social relationships, both directly, and through the subsequent intervention of parents and educators. Dynamic assessment, as well as providing instructionally useful information for parents and teachers, encouraged them to move beyond locating the problem within the child, to reconceptualising their special educational needs in context. As a result, parents and teachers became more positive and optimistic about the child, the current situation and the child's future. Dynamic assessment impacted upon the child's holistic needs, parenting and the development of inclusive practice in the classroom. It is concluded that from the perspective of service users, dynamic assessment forms a worthwhile and valuable part of educational psychology practice.     

What do special educational needs coordinators think they do?

In this article, Elizabeth Cowne presents the results of research which began as an investigation into the organisational contexts in which special educational needs coordinators (SENCOs) work, and continued as an evaluation of the outreach SENCO training accredited with the London Institute of Education. Questionnaire data was collected from course members over a three‐year period. Further research used focus groups in four London boroughs to explore SENCOs' views of their constant and emerging roles. Interviews with local education authority (LEA) officers from the same London boroughs enquired how SENCOs and their schools were supported. Findings confirmed earlier research showing the importance of management support. Where SENCOs had sufficient non‐contact time and status, they felt efficient. Taking part in the long courses enhanced confidence, skills and knowledge. The focus groups uncovered the wide variety and expanding roles held by SENCOs: the majority requiring work with pupils, parents, teachers, teaching assistants (TAs) and outside agencies. LEA support was seen as essential in maintaining this ever‐changing development.     

‘Invisible’ teachers of literacy: collusion between siblings and teachers in creating classroom cultures

The promise to raise literacy standards significantly at age 11 in economically disadvantaged areas has been an important part of the present British Government's educational policy. Integral to this promise has been the introduction of official home/school ‘contracts’ or ‘agreements’, which oblige parents to engage in specific literacy activities with their children. However, evidence from a longitudinal study of family literacy practices in East London suggests that family and community members other than parents might play a crucial role in initiating young children into literacy. Siblings particularly have been found to be efficient ‘teachers’ of school literacy practices. In this paper, I investigate particularly ways in which an unspoken collusion takes place between teacher and older sibling revealed during ‘play school’ sessions in Bangladeshi British households in East London.     

Choosing a secondary school for young people on the autism spectrum: a multi-informant study

Deciding on a secondary school for children with autism is notoriously difficult for parents. While current UK legislation emphasises the choice that parents of children with special educational needs should have in educational decision-making, there is a dearth of research in this area, which means that little is known about how parents come to make decisions about secondary school placements and the types of support, if any, they receive from professionals. The present study aimed to determine the factors that immediately influence secondary school choice for young people with autism in one London local authority from the perspectives of multiple informants. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with parents of children with autism (n?=?7), young people themselves prior to secondary school entry (n?=?6), parent advisors (n?=?5) and secondary school professionals (n?=?5). Parents emphasised the anxiety and burden of the decision-making process. There was, however, substantial agreement among adult groups on the factors necessary for a successful secondary school placement: a nurturing, flexible and inclusive environment that emphasised both academic and life skills. Few adults, however, mentioned the importance of children's social relationships – a factor that featured prominently in the reports of young people. These findings highlight both the different perceptions of those involved in making decisions about the educational placements of children with autism and the challenges associated with weighing up these potentially conflicting perspectives. More work is needed to ensure both that information is transparent and accessible to all parents and that young people are actively involved in decisions that ultimately affect their lives.     

PARENTING PROGRAMMES: Do generalist parenting programmes improve children's behaviour and attendance at school? The parents’ perspective

Previous research has demonstrated that parenting programmes can be an effective intervention in changing behaviour and parent/child interactions. However, less attention has been given to the impact of these programmes in relation to improving attendance and behaviour at school. Lynne Rogers, lecturer in teacher education specialising in the post-14 sector, Susan Hallam, Professor of Education and Dean of the Faculty of Policy and Society, and Jacquelene Shaw, educational psychologist, all working in the University of London, set their debate in this article in the context of the Anti-Social Behaviour Act 2003 and the Respect Action Plan 2006. These authors use their article in order to describe parents' perceptions of the impact of parenting programmes on their own and their children's behaviour, with particular reference to behaviour at home and at school. The perceptions reported here, and enlivened with direct quotes from parents, are based on questionnaire data from 142 parents and interviews with a sample of parents and teachers. Parents were broadly positive about the benefits of parenting programmes. However, where the child's problem was rooted in school-related issues, some concerns about behaviour and attendance remained. Lynne Rogers, Susan Hallam and Jacquelene Shaw close their article with a call for parenting programmes to be more closely aligned with activities in school and with educational processes.     

Bridging the gap between policy and practice: adopting a strategic vision for partnership working in special education

The desirability of parents and professionals in special education working in partnership continues to be expressed through Government policy and legislation and through voluntary sector initiatives. Moreover, partnership working attracts significant financial investment. Yet effective, working parent - professional partnerships often remain elusive in practice. In this article, Susanna Pinkus, a teacher, consultant and teaching practice supervisor who recently completed her PhD, describes her research into partnerships between parents and professionals. She bases her assertions on the daily experiences of 14 parents based in four London education authorities and attributes an absence of effective collaboration to lack of understanding about how partnerships between parents and professionals do, and should, function in the special educational context. In order to bridge this gap between the rhetoric of policy and the difficulties that are frequently reported in developing parent-professional relationships in practice, Susanna Pinkus identifies and discusses four principles as being central to forming effective partnerships.     

关于家庭教育权的若干思考

家庭教育权,不仅指家长对其子女施加教育的权利,还应当包括家长接受提升其教育素养之教育的权利。在终身教育、终身学习和学习化社会三大理念的指导下,成人教育应当在家庭教育方面有所为,开设家庭教育培训课程,以此提升家长的教育素养,从而提高家庭教育的质量。     

The New Tribunal: First Responses

Special Educational Needs Tribunal: Consultation Paper on Draft Regulations and Rules of Procedure was issued on February 9 by the Department for Education (DFE). The draft regulations and draft circular derive from sections in the 1993 Education Act which replace the present 'flawed' system of local authority appeals committees with a new independent system to deal with appeals against LEA decisions about statements of special educational needs. Jack Rabinowicz, chairman of the Education Law Association (ELAS) and a partner in a London firm of solicitors, and John Friel, a London barrister who leads the special educational needs interest group in ELAS and is the father of a child with a statement of needs, give their first reactions.     

Blame,guilt and the need for ‘labels’; insights from parents of children with special educational needs and educational practitioners

Previous research on home–school relationships and blame has concentrated on the experiences of parents with children with behavioural, emotional and social difficulties (BESD). This has led to the voices of educational practitioners, as well as parents of children with other special educational needs, being neglected. This article, by Karen Broomhead of Lancaster University, details part of a larger study examining socio‐emotional aspects of home–school relationships between parents of children with special educational needs and educational practitioners. The study reported in this article explored perceptions of blame via semi‐structured interviews with 15 educational professionals and 22 parents of children with various special educational needs. The findings reveal that parental experiences of blame and guilt were influenced by the nature of their children's special educational needs, which consequently influenced parental focus on obtaining ‘labels’ of special educational needs for their children. The implications of these findings for educational practitioners are discussed.     

Education,parenting and family: The social geographies of family learning

This paper explores the relationship between education, parenting and family through the prism and particularities of family learning. Family learning is an example of an educational initiative, primarily aimed at parents and linked to wider policy concerns, which can be explored through a mapping of its social geographies; family learning is played out across and productive of different sites, spaces and identities. Based on qualitative research undertaken in West London, this paper draws on individual and group interviews with mothers participating in family learning classes and interviews with family learning providers. The key argument we extend is that focusing on the social geographies of family learning ‐ of home, school, work, community and nation ‐ allows us to see how educational initiatives extend the state's reach in family life, producing particular normative versions of family and ‘good’ parenting operating at a range of interconnecting scales. Education remains a cornerstone of family policy in the UK and detailed analyses of specific initiatives at the point of implementation – how they are practiced and received – is vital for better understanding their diverse and varied effects in contemporary society.     

不均等教育结果的成因：理性资本与不同社会阶级家长的教育行动

台湾从20世纪90年代起执行了一系列教育改革方案,其中课程是重点之一,其目的在于结合其他教改方案,改善学习成效以及教育结果的不均等。尽管如此,社会大众却强烈质疑教改成效。本文将不评论这些质疑的合理性,而是试图说明教改结果的高度动态性,以及此种特性与社会阶级的关联性。尽管教育政策足以产生结构性规范,但＂施为＂的主动作为足以使家长脱离结构的束缚,因为他们能积极介入教育政策的制定,影响教育政策的实施过程,至少能调整自身以契合政策的特性与要求,因而使子女处于有利的学习位置。但受阶级文化差异的影响,中产阶级家长往往展现高度＂施为＂,劳工阶级家长则偏向接受结构的规范,此种差异使教育结果难以脱离社会阶级的影响。

Abstract：

Taiwanese central government has initiated a series of educational reforms since 1990s targeting at improving leaning efficiency and educational inequality.Nevertheless,such educational reforms do not significantly meet the needs of parents but bring education into a controversial arena.This article will not evaluate such criticism but attempt to profile the social class factors whose influence is adequate to regulate educational results.Although educational policies may produce a structural form to constrain parents＇ educational behaviors,agency,a counter element,may bestow a great amount of latitude upon parents allowing them to conduct constructive actions and,then,to free themselves from such structural constraints.Nevertheless,different social class parents may employ different types of educational actions towards educational reforms.Generally speaking,middle class parents may generally be characterized as a proactive creature.In contrast,working class parents tend to be subject to the structural constraints.Such a differentiation with a powerful influence tends to make educational inequality remain firmly.     

‘That great educational experiment’: the City of London Vacation Course in Education 1922–1938: a forgotten story in the history of teacher professional development

Each summer between 1922 and 1938, up to 500 elementary school teachers from across Britain, and some from overseas, joined together in London for a two-week residential vacation course. Organised by Evans’ Brothers Publishers and patronised by leading educationists, politicians and policy-makers, the City of London Vacation Course came to be regarded as an important annual educational institution and a cutting-edge exemplar of teacher professional development. In spite of this apparent fame, it appears to have been entirely overlooked in the history of teacher education. This paper seeks to recover the lost story of the City of London Vacation Course and documents its educational and professional focus and its social and cultural function. Locating it within a wider educational, economic and political climate, the paper also examines how the City of London Vacation Course somehow captured and embodied the promise of an emergent new professionalism for elementary teachers during that period.     

The impact of adolescents’ dyslexia on parents’ and their own educational expectations

The present study examined the role that adolescents’ dyslexia plays in their educational expectations, as well as their parents’ expectations concerning their offspring’s future education. To investigate this, 170 adolescents were asked to report their educational expectations on two occasions while they were still attending comprehensive school (in 7th and 9th grade). Forty-five of the 170 adolescents were diagnosed as having dyslexia. The adolescents’ mothers and fathers also filled in questionnaires concerning their educational expectations for their offspring. The results showed that parents of boys with dyslexia had lower expectations about their sons’ future education than parents of typically reading boys. However, parents of girls with dyslexia and parents of typically reading girls did not differ in this respect. Parents’ expectations also predicted the adolescents’ own educational expectations. Moreover, dyslexia was associated with boys’ academic achievement (GPA), which further predicted their educational expectations.     

‘They never go off the rails like other ethnic groups’: teachers’ constructions of British Chinese pupils’ gender identities and approaches to learning

This paper examines the ways in which British Chinese pupils are positioned and represented within the popular/dominant discourse of teachers working in London schools. Drawing on individual interviews from a study conducted with 30 teachers, 80 British Chinese pupils and 30Chinese parents, we explore some of the racialised, gendered and classed assumptions upon which dominant discourses around British Chinese boys and girls are based. Consideration is given, for example, to teachers’ dichotomous constructions of British Chinese masculinity, in which British Chinese boys were regarded as ‘naturally’ ‘good’ and ‘not laddish’, compared with a minority of ‘bad’ British Chinese boys, whose laddishness was attributed to membership of a multiethnic peer group. We also explore teachers’ constructions of British Chinese femininity, which centred around remarkably homogenised representations of British Chinese girls as ‘passive’ and quiet, ‘repressed’, hard‐working pupils. The paper discusses a range of alternative readings that challenge popular monolithic and homogenising accounts of British Chinese masculinity and femininity in order to open up more critical ways of representing and engaging with British Chinese educational ‘achievement’.     

Students with special educational needs: transitions from primary to secondary school

This article looks at the experiences of young people with Statements of special educational needs prior to and following moves from primary to secondary school. Pam Maras and Emma-Louise Aveling of the University of Greenwich, London, used interviews to develop six qualitative case studies focusing on the transition process. Findings from these case studies reveal that the young people varied in their expectations and needs during the transition to secondary school, and that schools differed in the quality and efficacy of the support systems they provide. Parents' and carers' responses suggest that additional support services were not necessarily the most beneficial way to provide for all of the young people. What did appear to be beneficial was continuity of support throughout the transition to a new school, and the provision of a dedicated space within the school, such as a special needs unit. Several of the young people adapted easily alongside their peers without special educational needs, while others required more structured support. Pam Maras and Emma-Louise Aveling suggest that effective communication between support services, the young person, and their parents can facilitate successful transitions by allowing support to be tailored to individual students' needs.     

小城镇小学生家长教育观念存在的问题与对策

目前我国小城镇小学生家长的教育观念存在诸多问题,即家长对自身教育角色认识不足、定位不准,以及家长教育目标观脱离实际。社会应宣传正确的教育理念,帮助小学生家长树立正确的教育观念和终身学习的理念,以转变家长的教育观念。     

Pathways to Achievement: Career and Educational Aspirations and Expectations of Latina/o Immigrant Parents and Early Adolescents

Drawing on sociocultural and related theories, 4 questions examined career and educational aspirations and expectations among 24 immigrant Latina/o early adolescents and their parents as predictors of students’ grades. First, adolescents’ career aspirations and expectations were correlated, and both parents and adolescents held educational aspirations that exceeded their expectations. Second, most adolescents and parents held congruent educational aspirations. Third, congruence between students’ career and educational aspirations was uncommon. Fourth, parents’ educational aspirations and adolescents’ career–education congruence predicted students’ grades. Discussion highlights students’ ongoing reconciliation between aspirations and academic skills and multiple ways immigrant Latino parents contribute to their adolescents’ future.