8 Political and financial support for school‐based and child‐centred reforms

This chapter concentrates on the nature and focus of education reform efforts in city school systems during the late 1980s and early 1990s. A thesis is developed that political, and closely related financial, support for continuing efforts to reform or restructure education depends on two primary factors. The degree of agreement about values and goals among stakeholders within and external to school systems appears to influence the likelihood of a given set of reforms. Adoption and implementation of reforms also depend on the level of intensity of action devoted by those groups. This framework is used to examine whether current reform activities in urban environments engender political and financial support that might be essential for future reform initiatives. The paper concludes that future reform initiatives will need to consider changes in the delivery of non‐educational services to garner sufficient political support for meaningful education reform. Yet there must be agreement among values and interests of diverse agencies and sufficient intensity of action of all groups to bring about meaningful change.     

Motivational influences on school‐prompted interest

Some argue that the goal of education is to influence out‐of‐school learning activity, yet little research exists on how teachers can help students develop an interest in a topic and continue to pursue that interest outside of school. The current study tested classroom context variables from self‐determination theory (teachers’ autonomy support) and from achievement goal theory (teachers’ mastery goals) that may predict students’ school‐prompted interest above and beyond students’ mastery goals and self‐efficacy. Survey data were collected from 178 high school students in 15 mathematics classes. Hierarchical multiple regression revealed that students’ perceptions of a teacher who focuses on mastery goals account for little variance above and beyond students’ own motivation, whereas perceived teachers’ autonomy support emerged as a significant predictor. While the results are correlational and do not support causal claims, they suggest that teachers who support student autonomy might foster school‐prompted interest.     

Influences on US middle school teachers’ use of environment‐based education

The term environment‐based education (EBE) describes a form of school‐based environmental education in which an instructor uses the environment as a context for integrating subjects and a source of real world learning experiences. Despite the growing body of evidence that supports the educational efficacy of this instructional approach and its grounding in high‐quality environmental education, relatively few US teachers seem to practice EBE (University of Maryland Survey Research Center 2000 University of Maryland Survey Research Center. 2000. Environmental studies in the K‐12 classroom: A teacher’s view, College Park, MD: Author.  [Google Scholar]). In the context of encouraging more widespread adoption of this formal instructional approach, the author used survey research with a random sample of fifth–eighth grade teachers in US public schools to investigate influences on their decisions to use EBE and barriers to EBE implementation. The study also investigated how perceived influences on and barriers to EBE teachers differed from perceptions of teachers using other forms of environmental education and teachers using neither approach. Results suggest the importance of the following in teachers’ decisions to use EBE: positive environmental attitudes; environmental sensitivity; receptiveness to EBE; teaching context; and environmental literacy knowledge and skills. The influence that best discriminated between EBE teachers and teachers using other forms of environmental education was evidence of positive outcomes. The barrier that best discriminated among EBE teachers, teachers using other forms of environmental education, and teachers not using any form of environmental education was lack of training.     

The problem of education‐based discrimination

While the research, theory and policy literature on race, class and gender discrimination in education is extensive, the problem of education‐based discrimination itself has been widely overlooked. Indeed, the dominant ideologies of meritocracy and human capital (into which we are inculcated throughout our lives by schools, media and the state) proclaim that higher levels of education are and should be linked with greater reward. In a world where education is regularly invoked to legitimate inequality, it can appear nonsensical even to raise concern about education‐based discrimination as a matter of social injustice. We need, however, to challenge those who have taught us not to see what has essentially become an elephant in our living room. Otherwise, we will find ourselves unable ever to use our public systems of education for universal emancipation and empowerment.     

An evaluation of Learning Contracts within the context of partnership in school‐based training: implications for school based mentoring

This paper explores parents' expectations and perceptions of effective induction and formative partnership with their child's school during the transition to full‐time statutory education.

Based on fifty case study children from two schools of similar size and catchment area but with different induction practices, it looks at a range of issues including parents' perceptions of home visiting, pre‐entry visits to school and pre‐entry profiles, as well as parents' knowledge about school and their notions of partner ship.

The paper outlines the implications for schools' partnerships with parents, exploring: ways in which schools and parents can begin to understand one another; how schools can help parents to support their children's learning; and ways in which effective schools can create opportunities for parental involvement.     

Schools' fulfilment of sex and relationship education documentation: three school‐based case studies

This article presents a critical evaluation of school policies, programmes of work and practices in three state secondary schools in one district in one local authority in England. They are evaluated regarding Sex and Relationship Education (SRE) documentation, statutory and non‐statutory from 1900 to the most recent SRE guidance introduced in July 2000 by the Department for Education and Employment. The article concludes that historically and contemporarily SRE documentation has mainly been inadequate and that in the three case studies legislative requirements concerning SRE policy and practice are predominantly not met. This is particularly the case regarding the most recent SRE guidance. Young people's access to information was institutionally limited and partial. Within the three case studies there was a failure to equip children and young people with an appropriate knowledge and understanding of sexuality, which reflects their lives and the realities of a diverse society.     

Stopping to thinks school‐based and higher education‐based primary student teachers' reflections on their learning

This paper examines trainees' perceptions of the impact, on secondary mathematics trainees, of collaborative school‐based work involving small groups of trainees, a university tutor and a class teacher. The findings suggest that trainees' become better able to plan and deliver a coherent yet diverse sequence of lessons, that their awareness of children's learning styles and misconceptions was raised and that preconceived notions about teaching and learning were challenged and mediated. A few trainees found the experience unhelpful and threatening. The role of the tutor was found to influence trainees' responses to the program and, to an extent, moderate the effects of variations in teacher involvement. Some implications are discussed.     

Evaluation of a school‐based sex education programme delivered to Grade Nine students in Canada

The effectiveness of a multidimensional Canadian sex education programme was evaluated using 240 Grade Nine students. The intervention was offered by representatives from various community groups and involved instructional classes on anatomy/physiology of the reproductive system and sexually transmitted infections, a video and group discussion on healthy relationships, a form of ‘peer education’ and discussion on teen pregnancy and HIV/AIDS, as well as a parent workshop and newsletter on teen sexuality. Respondents in the intervention and control groups completed a self‐administered questionnaire at baseline and one month after the programme. Compared with the control group, students in the intervention group showed positive changes in the areas of knowledge, sex‐role attitudes, sexual interaction values, and the perception that birth control is important. These results suggest that a collaborative effort of outside professionals from various community organisations and involvement of ‘peer educators’ to provide sexual health education in Grade Nine high school classes may be a useful strategy.     

Writing web‐based distance education courses for adult learners

Abstract

This study examines faculty writing style in Web‐based courses aimed at adult learners, a key audience for university‐level courses. Taking into account independent‐study courses and others, the investigator conducted faculty interviews, looking at written and oral strategies implicit in teaching; print vs. Web formats; and adherence to educational philosophies. Faculty who were interviewed revealed minimal experience in both print and Web realms, minimal style differences beyond teaching netiquette or using occupational jargon, and adherence to active learning or social constructivism.     

Comprehensive for who? Neoliberal directives in Australian ‘comprehensive’ sexuality education and the erasure of GLBTIQ identity

At present, Australian sex(uality) education curricula aim to equip students with information which facilitates ‘healthy’ sexual choices as they develop. However, this is not neutral information, but rather socially and culturally regulated discourse which encodes a normative binary of sexuality. The largely US-focused sexuality education literature tends to categorise curricula as belonging to either ‘comprehensive’ or ‘conservative’ factions, consisting of progressive, secular approaches or religious- or abstinence-based programmes, respectively. Neither of these factions, however, appear to be able to cater for the integration of issues relevant to gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, intersex and queer (GLBTIQ) students nor does this binary conceptualisation represent the reality of Australian sexuality education policy and practice. This paper argues that contemporary sexuality education has a fundamentally neoliberal focus, which aims to assimilate GLBTIQ people into existing normative frameworks (economic and social), rather than challenge them. Such an approach does not foster critical student understandings of oppression, power or morality. The development of critical literacy around sexuality is regarded as essential to meaningfully address the complex needs of GLBTIQ students. The paper explores missing queer discourses within Australian teaching resources. The inclusion of these would benefit GLBTIQ students by bringing previously silenced issues to the fore.     

Short‐term policy support for long‐term school change: a dilemma for reform‐minded practitioners

This paper questions the ability of a reform policy of five years’ duration to create the conditions necessary for practitioners to sustain change. California's school restructuring initiative challenged schools to transfer authority to teachers and to demonstrate that every student could succeed in learning. Analysis of this progressive policy is based upon the ‘best‐case’ experiences of an exemplary elementary school staff. After five years, the teachers are just developing the ability to confront the volatile issues of race and social class that surfaced in their inquiries into persistent disparities in student achievement. Using theories from institutional analysis of organizations, the paper argues that withdrawal of policy support means weakening of the regulative, cognitive and normative legitimacy for the goals and processes of change. Fixed‐term policies which invite radical reform thus leave schools vulnerable to the tradition‐reinforcing institutions that remain after the initiative has ended.     

The evaluation of a school‐based chemistry method course

The My Class Inventory and two creativity measures ‐ one figural and one verbal ‐ were administered to a sample of 350 students selected from the Grade 6 population of elementary schools in the three Caribbean territories, namely Barbados, Grenada and St Vincent. Analyses pointed to Barbadian schools as having a more favourable classroom learning environment for creative production than the other two territories. The level of creativity demonstrated by Barbadian students was also significantly higher than that of their counterparts in Grenada and St Vincent.     

The effect of school‐based practice on student teachers' attitudes towards inclusive education in Northern Ireland

This study seeks to discover the attitudes to inclusion of those about to embark on initial teacher education in Northern Ireland and the extent to which an extended teaching practice in a non‐selective placement school can influence attitude change. A cohort of 125 student teachers responded to a survey that explored their attitudes towards a range of issues relating to inclusive education in the context of Northern Ireland. The findings indicate that student teachers in Northern Ireland show positive attitudes towards the principles of inclusion, with teaching practice experience in a non‐selective school appearing to confirm and increase these positive attitudes. However, despite displaying increasingly positive attitudes towards inclusion post‐teaching practice, there are indications that student teachers continue to show strong attachment to current organisational practices strongly related to academic selection.     

Prioritization of online instructor roles: implications for competency‐based teacher education programs

Online instructors need to take on a multi‐dimensional role and to be an effective online educator they are required to possess a varied and wider range of competencies. Preparing teachers for online education involves preparing them for a wide variety of roles and developing related competencies. However, the extent of emphasis required to be placed on each of these roles or competencies during a teacher training program may vary according to its culture and the context. The investigation reported in this article obtained expert opinions with regard to the priority and criticality of eight online instructor roles identified in earlier research on online education. Pedagogical roles received the highest priority by the respondents, followed by professional, evaluator, social facilitator, technologist, advisor, administrator, and researcher roles. These results have implications for teacher education and further research pertaining to the context in India.     

A methodological framework for understanding and describing discipline‐based scholarship of teaching in higher education through design‐based research

Since their inception in 1993 at an Australian university, the workshop tutorials in physics have evolved and grown beyond the initiating department. In this paper, we adopt an interpretive perspective to: (i) reflect on why the tutorials continue to be successful; (ii) use models from literature to understand that success; and (iii) abstract key features that can inform scholarly inquiry into teaching and learning in higher education in other contexts and discipline areas. Practitioner (action) research and design‐based research not only provide useful methodological frameworks that support the success of the workshop tutorials, but they also offer a worthwhile methodological strategy for fostering scholarly inquiry into university teaching and student learning.     

Whole school support for vulnerable children: the evaluation of a part‐time nurture group

The positive impact that nurture groups can offer is well documented. This study aims to describe the evaluation of a nurture group intervention across six schools. In contrast to previous research, children accessed the group for a maximum of four mornings per week. The findings show that this model did not comprise the gains reported in previous studies. The results show a significant positive effect on the children with reference to their behaviour both in school and at home. In addition, the intervention appears to have contributed further to the whole school system. Schools reported an improved ethos and an increased capacity to support children with social and emotional difficulties. This paper concludes by considering the new Scottish Curriculum guidelines A curriculum for excellence and whether the principles and theoretical underpinnings of nurture groups can be fully integrated into a mainstream environment.