Access to higher education: an exploration of realities and possibilities

In this article the author describes and evaluates the development of a learning support service for dyslexic students at the Chichester Institute of Higher Education. She refers to both student and staff experience of the service in order to appraise its success and in so doing she raises significant issues relating to the creation of an inclusive educational experience for all students in higher education.     

Edutaining audio: an exploration of education podcast design possibilities

The versatility, intimacy and ease of production of podcasting make it a logical technology to apply to flexible education contexts. As a result, there has been increasing scholarly interest in the value of education podcasting in recent years. While education podcasting literature has tended to explore podcast implementation in institutional contexts, education podcasts outside of academia have also grown in popularity, to the extent that “education” is a common sub-group in podcast aggregation sites. This paper adapts Fernandez, Sallan and Simo’s framework of variables in education podcast design, to conduct a textual analysis of emergent design themes in non-institutional education podcasts. The findings reveal how highly successful podcasts from outside of educational institutions can both reinforce and challenge norms about education podcast design that exist within academic discourse, including in regard to podcast length, pedagogical approaches and the position of the podcast in the learning experience. It is the hope that the findings of this study might shift discourse from an interest in universalising ideas about “good practice” in education podcast design, towards more nuanced discussion of design practices that fit within specific contexts.     

An evaluation of health and sexuality education in Turkish elementary school curricula

Research was undertaken to evaluate whether and to what extent the health‐related domains, including sexuality education, specified by the Development of Health Awareness in Adolescent Project Science Committee overlapped with the goals and objectives of the 2002/03 elementary school curricula (grades one to eight; ages 7–14 years) in Turkey. For this aim, the goals and objectives of the courses in the curricula that include health‐related and sexuality‐related subjects were compared by the seven domains with a total of 230 subcategories. The analysis demonstrated that 147 of the 230 subcategories matched the goals and objectives of the curricula with the highest frequencies in the domains of physical development, protection from detrimental‐external factors and healthy living habits. However, the domain of healthy beginning to life was found to have the lowest frequency. Moreover, subcategories such as pregnancy–birth, unintended pregnancy, sexual identity, changes in adolescence, sexual violence and abuse, birth control and sexual discrimination were not covered at all. These results are discussed in relation to the missing points that might have implications for policy and practice in health and sexuality education in Turkey.     

Examining dominant discourses of sexuality in sexuality education research

This article is concerned with some of the theoretical and methodological complexities of collecting young people's preferences for sexuality education content and using them to inform educational practice. Data are drawn from focus groups and questionnaires undertaken by 16–19‐year‐olds. Participants' suggestions often reflect dominant discourses of sexuality circulating in wider society, providing insight into social norms and cultural contexts in which they live. Suggestions do not reflect dominant discourses in any simple way, but involve a complex interplay of these and subordinate meanings of sexuality. When working within a methodological framework that values and centres young people's perspectives, these proposals can be problematic. As dominant discourses of sexuality often reinforce social inequalities, programme implementation of young people's suggestions may perpetuate these. How to reconcile a commitment to a methodological paradigm that prioritises young people's perspectives with the creation of sexuality education which promotes social justice is discussed.     

School-based sexuality education in Portugal: strengths and weaknesses

Portugal, like many other countries, faces obstacles regarding school-based sexuality education. This paper explores Portuguese schools’ approaches to implementing sexuality education at a local level, and provides a critical analysis of potential strengths and weaknesses. Documents related to sexuality education in a convenience sample of 89 schools were analysed and findings confirm both the results of the few existing Portuguese studies on the subject and commonalities in sexuality education between Portugal and other European countries. These include strengths, such as the existence of teams in charge of sexuality education in schools and the provision of resources, but also weaknesses, such as too heavy a focus on health-related issues, difficulties in cross-curricular teaching, low levels of community participation and poor-quality evaluation. Findings point to the need for a greater sharing of information and good practice between countries, and the need for clearer guidelines. Suggestions are made for improving the quality of sexuality education in Portuguese schools.     

Conscientious internationalisation in higher education: contextual complexities and comparative tensions

Asia Pacific Education Review - In this paper, authors focus on how internationalisation is defined, interpreted, and responded to by Universities in Australia and Canada, two decades after de...     

初中思想政治课知行评价的研究与探索

从知行评价目标的制定、评价的方法和课堂教学改革等方面,总结《初中思想政治课知行评价的研究与探索》课题三年来所取得的初步经验和研究成果。     

Comprehensive sexuality education,culture and gender: the effect of the cultural setting on a sexuality education programme in Ethiopia

Comprehensive sexuality education (CSE) is recognised as an effective method of sexual health education, with the school identified as a fitting site of implementation. Its holistic and participatory nature endeavours to develop the knowledge, attitudes and life-skills of students to help them secure their sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR). This qualitative study aimed to better understand aspects of CSE implementation in one context. Specifically, it focuses on the effects of the cultural setting, considering how gender and sexuality norms influence teacher and student implementation strategies. The research was carried out in one secondary school in Ethiopia, which delivered a Dutch-developed programme throughout 2013. Over 50 in-depth interviews were conducted with teachers and students, influential community members and experts in SRHR. Data were also gathered through focus group discussions and classroom observations. Results show that CSE teachers and students, both male and female, were able to discuss issues of sexuality. However, the cultural context was seen to affect interpretation of programme information, influencing the nature of this discussion. For an impactful implementation, it is recommended that sexuality education aims to engage with and involve the wider community, to reduce contradictory messages and increase programme support. Furthermore, teachers should undergo extensive and comprehensive pre-programme training that addresses their attitudes and values, not just their knowledge.     

创业教育再探

创业教育在美国、澳大利亚等国的高校已经形成了比较完善的教学模式和稳定的专家队伍,取得 了显著的教学和研究效果。在我国高校,创业教育还是个新生事物,有很多理论与实践问题亟待探索和研究. 例如高校创业教育的概念应包括的主要内容以及鲜明的时代特点等。     

Sexual choreographies of the classroom: movement in sexuality education

This paper is interested in thinking more about sexuality education at school. As such, it is concerned with a mundane and unacknowledged feature of the sexuality classroom – the mapping of movement. While human movement is a familiar focus of educational research, the movement of things is not. With reference to Barad’s concept of intra-activity, the paper maps human-non-human movements and characterises these as a sexual choreography of schooling. Instead of asking what does movement mean or reveal about sexuality education, I attend to the event movement inaugurates. Predominantly theoretical, the paper weaves together ideas from conventionally disparate disciplinary fields. These include Edensor’s concept of rhythm from geography, Eggermont’s notion of the choreography of schooling from education, and Barad’s spacetimemattering from quantum physics. This theorisation enables a recognition of movement as a force in human-non-human classroom intra-actions implicated in the becoming of sexuality education as event.     

Enacting whole-school relationships and sexuality education in England: Context matters

Evidence from intervention evaluations suggests that achieving meaningful and lasting social, behavioural and attitudinal change from relationships, sex and health education (RSHE) in schools requires more than just a curriculum. Whole-school approaches appear particularly promising since they work at multiple levels. For instance, they may: engage with carers, communities and local services; address iniquitous cultures and norms; change school policies and practices; and actively involve young people themselves. They have also been advocated to tackle sexual harassment and abuse in schools. Currently, however, such approaches have not been rigorously evaluated in the UK. This article focuses on the whole-school elements of two recent RSHE pilot studies conducted in English secondary schools. We describe how these elements were variably enacted in different settings. We analyse contextual factors that help account for these differences, including: teacher and departmental professional identity and autonomy; broader education policy including high-stakes testing and school inspection judgements; the significance of support staff; and staff–student relationships and partnerships. We argue that the likely impact of whole-school approaches and RSHE in schools more generally will depend on attending to all of these factors. The paper contributes firstly to debates about the theory and practice of RSHE by highlighting the significance of processes and cultures beyond the classroom in enabling or constraining positive change. Secondly it contributes to scholarship that elucidates the role of contexts, broadly defined, in understanding the enactment of policy and practice.