Governing the governors: A case study of college governance in English further education

This paper addresses the nature of governors in the governance of further education colleges in an English context. It explores the complex relationship between governors (people/agency), government (policy/structure) and governance (practice), in a college environment. While recent research has focused on the governance of schooling and higher education there has been little attention paid to the role of governors in the lifelong learning sector. The objective of the paper is to contribute to the debate about the purpose of college governance at a time when the Learning and Skills Council commissioning era ends and new government bodies responsible for further education and training, including local authorities, arrive. The paper analyses the nature of FE governance through the perspectives and experiences of governors, as colleges respond to calls from government for greater improvement and accountability in the sector. What constitutes creative governance is complex and controversial in the wider framework of regulation and public policy reform. As with other tricky concepts such as leadership, professionalism and learning, college governance is best defined in the contexts, cultures and situations in which it is located. College governance does not operate in a vacuum. It involves governors, chairs, principals, professionals, senior managers, clerks, community, business and wider agencies, including external audit and inspection regimes. Governance also acts as a prism through which national education and training reforms are mediated, at local level. While governing bodies are traditionally associated with the business of FE—steering, setting the tone and style, dealing with finance, funding, audit and procedural matters—they are increasingly being challenged to be more creative and responsive to the wider society. Drawing on a recent case study of six colleges, involving governors and key policy stakeholders, this paper explores FE governance in a fast changing policy environment.     

English as a foreign language,globalisation and conceptual questioning

This text discusses the locus of English in globalisation discourses. Assuming that languages constitute discursive formations informing ways of knowing, discourses of English as a global language (EGL) are positioned in relation to teaching English as a foreign language in the glocal scene. We draw on post‐colonial theories and critical education, treating languages as social practices and conceiving of teaching EGL as a privileged context for discursive agency, especially when discourses of global English are critically engaged with through dialogue and conceptual questioning. We present a post‐method suggestion of procedures to promote conceptual questioning through construction of open spaces.     

The Token Teacher: representations of professional educators in school governing bodies

ABSTRACT

This paper, drawing on data from a four‐year study of the governing bodies of 10 English schools, is concerned with the way in which lay members of governing bodies tend to downgrade the voice of professional educators, in particular the elected teacher governor(s). It is argued that the teacher governor's position is often undermined by a fundamental ambivalence on the part of many lay governors regarding the desirability of teacher involvement, the implication being that only lay governors, by virtue of possessing a ‘non‐partisan’, ‘common sense’ perspective on education, can act in the best interests of all concerned with the school. The questioning of teachers’ competence in the context of school governing bodies can be seen as part of a wider ‘discourse of derision’ surrounding the teaching profession. The discourse of derision can, however, take many forms and is capable of being resisted and replaced with alternative discourses.     

Images and stories: through the eyes of at-risk college learners

In a study with at-risk Scottish college learners (n?=?81), a participatory action research method called Photovoice was strategically employed. Participant-driven photographs were used to access learners’ intimate thoughts and emotions while photograph-inspired stories were used to understand further their views and experiences. This photo-elicitation method provided access to rich and informative findings and enhanced the overall research process where photographs and narratives encouraged reciprocal validation. The study uncovered four key aspects in supporting at-risk learners: (a) overcoming psychological barriers; (b) addressing physical barriers; (c) providing adequate social support; and (d) assistance through suitable support for learning. This led to three pragmatic results: it (a) raised awareness about the plight of vulnerable learners, (b) afforded them a coordinated voice and (c) brought real benefits to both at-risk and other college learners alike. The implications of the study findings were discussed using the Human Capital Theory.     

College Presidents and Black Student Protests: A Historical Perspective on the Image of Racial Inclusion and the Reality of Exclusion

This essay revisits college presidents during the early 1960s to investigate the long history of how academic leaders manage racial unrest on college campuses. Throughout time, the concept of a welcoming and inclusive climate for black students on majority-white campuses has functioned as an illusion alongside the prevailing reality of racism on and off American campuses. In turn, this essay exhibits how political structures, as well as university hierarchy, have shaped academic leaders' approach to social change in higher education. Therefore, this work demonstrates the need to reevaluate higher education history as a lens for understanding the current American sociopolitical context that shapes present-day academic leaders and their challenges of addressing racism on college campuses. In summary, this work renders a richer and more nuanced understanding of the complexities college presidents, students, and campus stakeholders, such as governors and boards of trustees, face to provide equal and meaningful educational opportunities to all students.     

The professional identities of teacher educators in three further education colleges: an entanglement of discourse and practice

Initial teacher education programmes have been identified as crucial to meeting the twin policy aims of professionalising the further education (FE) workforce and achieving improved learner outcomes, yet college-based teacher educators are underrepresented in published research and commentary. Drawing on a case study of teacher educators employed by three FE colleges in England, this paper argues that the contested and politicised nature of the FE sector presents a unique set of circumstances that distinguishes this population from other members of their professional group and severely restricts the identities available to them. Through a thematic discursive analysis of documentation, observation and interview data, it is argued that FE positions teacher educator identity through political governance, through the business practices of colleges and through the sector’s historical relationships with vocational and higher education. Within this distinctive context, teacher educators experience competing identities of ‘qualified and credible’, ‘teacher’, ‘different from others’, ‘part of FE’ and ‘employee’ that are entangled with the dominant discourses of English further education. After discussing the implications of these findings for a professional profile of teacher educators, the paper concludes that teacher educators are better understood as a heterogeneous occupational group in order to avoid obscuring professional concerns linked to policy landscapes.     

School Governance in the New South Africa

This article examines the early experience of the school governing bodies established in South Africa following the 1996 South African Schools Act. It relates the emergence of school governance to wider issues of democracy and participation and assesses the composition of governing bodies, notably the inclusion of learners. Governing bodies' powers include provision to set fees, subject to parental approval, and the paper examines how this requirement impacts on the resources available to different types of school, and the implications for equity and equality. Governing bodies also determine their own admissions policies, and the paper explores how this provision has led to school populations differentiated by class and race. The relationships between lay governors and school principals are examined to see if the Act's plan to separate governance and professional management has been achieved in practice. The paper concludes that, despite the significant difficulties facing the educational system in South Africa, governing bodies provide a good prospect of enhancing local democracy and improving the quality of education for all learners.     

Principals' views on challenges of their school governance roles

Abstract

This article explores principals' views regarding governance challenges they experience at schools. We conducted focus group interviews with primary and secondary school principals, purposely and conveniently selected from township schools in two Gauteng Province's districts. We found that principals were challenged mostly by having to balance their roles as ex officio school governing body members and their roles as bona fide members of school governing bodies (SGBs). Other challenges found were confirmatory of other school governors' views as reported in numerous studies, related to among others, the specialist nature of governance functions, poor training of school governors, difficulties associated with governor recruitment and unwillingness of parents to serve as governors. There is therefore a need for a re-clarification of the principals' roles, in terms of both their ex officio and bona fide SGB membership with regard to governance in the context of the functioning of the schools. This should include a review of the governing body structure, the re-allocation of specialist functions, customized and needs-based training of school governors and aspects relating to the general functioning of SGBs.     

“优秀”儿童英语学习者之社会文化研究

研究立足于儿童二语习得和儿童英语教学的研究现状,采用个案研究方法,从社会文化视角对来自北京城区的10位英语成绩优秀的儿童进行了为期一年的跟踪访谈、观察和实物分析,旨在探究外语环境中影响儿童二语习得的社会文化因素和高水平儿童外语学习者的共性。研究发现影响儿童外语学习的宏观社会文化因素主要有两个层面：（1）宏观层面：社会环境和家长教育理念对儿童英语语言接触的决定作用;（2）微观层面：语言接触中真实语言的系统输入和文化体验的长效性。其中,微观层面为高水平儿童外语学习者的共性。     

Becoming artist,becoming educated,becoming undone: toward a nomadic perspective of college student identity development

In this article, I place my ethnographic project among undergraduate university art students and their professor in dialog with Rosi Braidotti’s figuration of the nomadic subject and her reflections on the importance of creating theoretical alternatives for mapping the embedded and embodied social positions that we inhabit. As educational interlocutors, college students must negotiate expectations and categorizations about age-appropriate relations, career paths, and identity passageways, which are always already framed by Western psychological development discourses. Interested in loosening the grip of these closure-seeking and normalizing discursive practices, I argue for a revision of identity development grounded in a nomadic theory of the subject and engage my data through an alternative analytic of arts-informed assemblage in light of Braidotti’s ideas. In so doing, I uphold my feminist commitment to do theory as both critique and creativity, bringing into view poetic-enough writing and imagery as a response to the question how is it to be in the process of becoming?     

Chinese College Students’ Use of Copular Verbs——A Corpus-based Study

Adopting corpus-based approach, the use of copular verbs by Chinese college English learners is studied through a comparison between the COLEC and the LOCNESS. The main findings are: 1)Chinese college English learners under-use copular verbs; 2) Chinese college English learners select a limited variety of copular verbs; 3) Types of complement after most copular verbs used by Chinese college English learners lack variety; 4) Chinese college English learners use less various and more simpler complements than native speakers.     

The Psychology of Effective College Governance,Part 1 — The Management Skills

Summary

This is the first of two articles discussing how the thinking styles of FE college governors might affect dramatically the managerial effectiveness of the governing bodies on which they serve. In Part 1 we focus upon the topic of management skill, and in Part 2 (to be published in JFHE Spring 1993) we go on to demonstrate how every identifiable management skill depends upon a set of psychological skills to support it. This is a phenomenon which needs to be clearly understood by all those involved with FE's ongoing drive for better management standards. The position of the new ‘employment interest’ governors is found to be particularly problem‐ridden. Indeed, it is still far from guaranteed that they will be able to provide FE with the skills, energy, and flair we were once assured they would be bringing. The detailed reasoning behind this gloomy assessment is given and some practical suggestions for improvement made.     

Challenging ideals of connected learning: the networked configurations for learning of migrant youth in the Netherlands

New infrastructures that dramatically change our possibilities for knowledge production and learning have also brought forward ideals on ‘new’ connectivity. Two important ideals of connectivity are that of the individual who tailors his or her knowledge among expansively dispersed resources, and the ideal of access to multiple, diverse resources that provide individuals rich learning opportunities. In order to better understand what cultural norms are implied in our ideals of connectivity, we argue, they must be tested in the crucible of empirical data through the analysis of the actual socio-technical practices of different social and cultural groups. Through a combination of ego-network analysis and a qualitative, in-depth discursive approach, we analyze the networked learning practices of three ethnically different groups in the Netherlands from an extensive research study called ‘Wired Up'. We comparatively describe Dutch youth as ‘unrooted' learners, Moroccan-Dutch youth as ‘routed' learners, and Turkish-Dutch youth as ‘rooted' learners. We propose the idea of the Networked Configuration for Learning as a means to contrast the learning opportunities individuals and groups have in relation to particular offline and online connections, their historical geographies, the development of learning ‘places’, and particular learning affinities.     

Complementing the mainstream: an exploration of partnership work between complementary alternative provisions and mainstream schools

In the English context, complementary alternative provisions (APs) can make specific positive contributions for young people at risk of exclusion from mainstream school. Whilst recognising the potential value of all complementary AP that is carefully selected and of high quality, we problematise the ‘repair and return’ rationale that continues to underpin the commissioning of some provisions. Drawing on two case studies, we explicate the nature and value of partnership working between complementary provider and mainstream school. We argue that when a productive partnership happens (1) schools take greater responsibility for young people at risk of exclusion, and (2) there is the potential to encourage wider shifts in the learning context of the mainstream school in ways that are beneficial for a larger group of pupils. Such wider transformations in the mainstream context may be particularly beneficial given the current performative regimes that dominate English education policy, and focus schools’ work on the achievement of key data targets rather than inclusive practice. We reflect on what can be learnt from these cases in relation to the evolving AP policy context in England.     

谈图式理论与高职英语阅读

阅读理解能力历来是衡量学习者英语水平高低的重要标准之一,图式理论是认知心理学中用来解释心理过程的一种理论模式。本文通过介绍图式理论与高职英语阅读教学的关系,重点阐述图式理论在高职英语阅读的应用。     

Consumers and Education Professionals in the Organisation and Administration of Schools: partnership or conflict?

Using data drawn from a 4 year multisite case study of 10 governing bodies in two English local education authorities (LEAs), the paper examines the extent to which recent changes in the responsibilities of governors, and social factors including ethnicity, gender and social class, have affected the possibility of governing bodies and education professionals working together in harmonious ways. It is argued that the move to site‐based management may have enhanced the tendency for governing bodies to be loosely coupled to their schools, and exacerbated micropolitical differences within individual governing bodies. It is suggested that both heads and governors seek power and the capacity to determine the actions of the other. Although this does not mean that conflict is always present, it becomes more likely when there are extensive cultural differences between the governing body and education professionals. It is these differences, together with the legislation on local management and grant maintained status, which may be seen to be largely responsible for the increasing degree of conflict experienced in some governing bodies.     

An English-Speaking Prekindergarten Teacher for Young Latino Children: Implications of the Teacher–Child Relationship on Second Language Learning

This case study was designed to describe how an effective English-speaking prekindergarten teacher develops strategies for communicating with and teaching young English language learners. The teacher’s classroom practices to enhance her own relationship with the children promoted opportunities for the Latino children to become full participants in the classroom community. At the end of the year, the Latino children showed progress in formal and informal measures of receptive vocabulary in both English and Spanish. Findings from the study suggest the importance of the affective and social nature of second language learning in young children. Implications for practice and research are discussed.     

Tensions and complexities in school-university collaboration

This study, conducted over a one-year period, examined the collaboration practices in a large-scale school-university capacity-building collaborative action research project that was designed to help English language teachers develop the skills needed to deal with the reforms to assessment practices in Hong Kong's school curriculum. The study theorized collaboration as a complex construction that must be understood in the context of the prevailing ideologies shaping professional development practices for teachers. Online data generated from the collaborative action research project were analysed to explore the discursive construction of interpersonal relationships. Critical discourse analysis was used to examine the discursive strategies that were used in the emails of two university researchers and two school teachers to negotiate and manage collaboration practices. It examined the complexities of negotiating collaboration as a social practice in institutional cultures in a non-Western sociocultural setting. The implications of the findings for policy, professional development and future research are discussed.     

Land of ‘My 9’: Welsh–English Bilingual Girls Creating Spaces to Explore Identity

Based on ongoing research into the literacy practices of bilingual girls from different UK communities, this article focuses on the experiences of 11‐ to 13‐year‐old Welsh–English bilingual girls in Wales. Examples of the girls' talk about their bilingual lives are explored within the social, political, educational and literary context of the Welsh language today. The position of these young Welsh speakers within both the wider dominant, English language context and that of the Welsh language and culture proves to be riven with paradox. However, the girls make creative use of their situation to explore and demonstrate their own identities. One way in which this is evident is in their use of electronic text, and examples are drawn here of their use of personal websites and Instant Messaging in order to provide an insight into their experience.