Technology and Technology Education: Views of Some Solomon Island Primary Teachers and Curriculum Development Officers

The implementation of technology as a formal subject – either separate or integrated – in school curricula is a relatively recent phenomenon with most studies confined to Western or developed countries and little known about non-Western contexts. In this study we sought to gain an understanding of primary teachers' and curriculum development officers' perceptions of technology and technology education for a small island nation in the South Pacific. Participants' views were ascertained by means of semi-structured interviews including the use of picture card prompts used by Rennie and Jarvis (1995). The study reveals that the participants hold a rather limited view of technology and technology education. The participants see technology as consisting of a variety of artifacts and skills (including in some cases indigenous artifacts and cultural practices), but the predominant view was technology consists of modern, new, foreign, artifacts especially those associated with information and communication technologies. The participants view technology education as learning about how to use technological artifacts. Personal experiences including pre- and in-service teacher training and encounters with technological artifacts were the main influences on their views of technology and technology education. These findings suggest that primary science teachers will need pre-service training in order to implement a curriculum that provides a comprehensive understanding of technology.     

Factors contributing to the implementation of inclusive education in Pacific Island countries

This study reports the outcomes of focus group discussions reflected in presentations of concept maps relating to the implementation of inclusive education in the Pacific based on the views of 39 stakeholders from four countries (Fiji, Samoa, Solomon Islands, and Vanuatu). Five themes emerged, with one of the strongest being that of culture, community, and religion. This, amongst other ideas, is central to Pacific Islanders’ understandings of inclusive education implementation, and results in some tensions between western educational ideas and the local context. The implications of this paper clearly show that local culture and context must be accounted for, if inclusive education is to be successfully implemented in the region.     

Children’s rights in education research: from aims to outcomes

One approach to children’s rights in research is to adopt a methodology that focuses on eliciting children’s perspectives. Ensuring representative participation from all children allows a diversity of contexts to be reflected in the results, and points to ways in which improvements can be made in specific settings. In cultural contexts where participation in decision-making is not a traditional role for children, their viewpoints are likely to provide results that highlight differences between cultural norms and children’s rights, and can offer an important focus of dialogue among stakeholders. It is proposed that children’s rights can therefore become integral to the whole process of a quantitative research project. This paper describes such an approach used in a Pacific Islands study, which investigated the quality of schooling through a probability-based sample survey of 1560 children in the first three years of formal education in 55 schools in Vanuatu, the Solomon Islands and Kiribati.     

Knowledge through a collaborative network: a cross‐cultural partnership

A recurring issue for researchers, policy‐makers and practitioners is how new knowledge can be disseminated, critiqued, assessed and incorporated into policy development and practice. Campbell and Fulford examined strategies in a Canadian Education Ministry which was striving to incorporate research findings into policy debate. They evolved a useful framework indentifying six forms and stages of knowledge development related to research use in this context: generation of new knowledge, mobilisation, contextualisation, adaptation, application and integration. This paper uses their framework to explore links between research and practice in a collaborative cross‐cultural partnership designed to develop greater capacity in teacher education in a Pacific country, and based on action, co‐construction and reflection. It argues that there are blurred boundaries between knowledge production and its practical implementation, use and testing, that contextualisation and relationship building are crucial to knowledge mobilisation, and that knowledge is generated across all stages in the process.     

Using students’ drawings to elicit general and special educators’ perceptions of co-teaching

This paper describes the findings of a study of general and special educators’ perceptions of co-teaching in elementary and middle school classrooms. A total of 85 students, 20 general education, and 11 special education teachers participated in this investigation in which student drawings were used as both data and as tools to spark teacher reflection. Students’ pictorial depictions of co-teaching were analyzed for apparent features and traits. Co-teachers’ reactions to the drawings were springboards for reflective conversations around modifications they felt needed to take place to improve co-teaching. Findings suggest that proactive role distribution, support structures, and trust building are critical factors in strengthening co-teaching. Implications for practice are discussed.     

Do university students,alumni, educators and employers link assessment and graduate employability?

Within higher education literature, assessment and graduate employability are linked and co-presented, in that quality student assessment is purported to enhance employability. This research was designed to query the extent to which these same conceptual links are perceived by those actively involved in higher education. Four stakeholder groups from multiple disciplines and eight Australian states and territories (students, alumni, educators and employers) were interviewed about graduate employability (n?=?127). Interviewers intentionally omitted any mention of assessment to determine whether the various stakeholders would bring it up themselves when asked questions such as what is and is not effective for nurturing employability. The results indicated that among the educators, assessment emerged as a dominant theme. While the three other stakeholder groups infrequently used the term assessment, they did discuss related educational concepts and practices in the context of enhanced employability. All stakeholder groups identified a missing link between theory and practice, with educators specifying that link as assessment. Recommendations to improve employability through assessment are the key takeaways from this research.     

Teaching students with Autism Spectrum Disorders: What are the needs of educational professionals?

The academic achievements of students with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) are usually lower than those of their peers. It is therefore important to know what educational professionals need to provide these students with optimal support. To identify these needs, we applied Q methodology, a qualitative method using quantitative techniques. We found four groups of professionals with different needs. The first group emphasized a need for collaboration within school; the second valued practical suggestions to guide their teaching, the third emphasized gaining more confidence to teach students with ASD, and the fourth group focused on enhancing students’ social and communication skills.     

Research in the field of inclusive education: time for a rethink?*

This paper sets out to challenge thinking and practice amongst researchers in the field of inclusive education. It does this based on an analysis of published articles in the International Journal of Inclusive Education between 2005 and 2015, which identified topics and methodologies used in studies of inclusive education. The analysis highlights the fact that most of the studies are only concerned with certain groups of learners and that a limited number make use of collaborative, transformative approaches. It is argued that focusing only on some students, rather than on all, is contrary to the principles of inclusive education. At the same time, given the emphasis of inclusion on enabling the participation for all students, it is argued that more research needs to adopt collaborative approaches that set out to change thinking and practice in the field. Illustrative examples from articles that used such approaches are discussed to highlight their potential benefits.     

Developing the capacity of teacher‐librarians to meet the diverse needs of all schoolchildren: Project ENABLE

US school libraries are required to ensure that schoolchildren and school staff with disabilities have equal opportunity to use and benefit from library facilities and information services under federal law. However, evidence indicates teacher‐librarians (TLs) often lack the training, knowledge and skills to provide programmes and services that meet the needs of students with disabilities. Project ENABLE (Expanding Nondiscriminatory Access by Librarians Everywhere) was created to respond to this shortfall by designing, implementing and evaluating a professional development programme in New York State. The project applies a social model of disability to help 100 TLs, special educators and general educators further develop their skills and resources by teaming together to create an inclusive environment for all students. This is achieved through the use of universal design principles, appropriate assistive and other technologies, an emphasis on person‐first language and sensitivity simulations, a focus on inclusive lesson planning, and by developing collaboration capacity among participant teams. Curriculum development, data collection and analyses are presented. The effect of the Project ENABLE trainings was significant in terms of higher levels of skill and knowledge reported by participants for creating accessible library programmes, advancing inclusive education and building effective collaborations. Drawing from their workshop learning and resources, participant teams developed action plans to implement during the 2011–2012 school year. This project underscores the importance of TLs in the education of all students, including those with disabilities. Higher education and local professional development programmes must place greater emphasis on preparing TLs to perform this role effectively and confidently.