How schools tackle bullying,and the use of whole school policies: changes over the last decade

Surveys were carried out to assess the UK government’s anti‐bullying pack Don’t suffer in silence in 1996 (after the first edition) and 2002 (after the second edition), to investigate what schools are doing about bullying, and the effect of anti‐bullying policies becoming a legal requirement. Schools in England were approached, randomly but within the constraint of having a spread across geographical regions. In 1996 109 schools and in 2002 148 schools were asked about school policy, interventions, and bullying frequency. Most schools moved from having a bullying policy as part of a broader policy on behaviour and discipline, to having a separate anti‐bullying policy. More schools attempted to survey the extent of bullying and there were changes in the use of particular interventions. Most interventions were rated as moderately useful. Some variations in use and satisfaction between different school levels were found. The implications of anti‐bullying work at schools and its success are discussed.     

From inspection to quality: Ways in which school inspection influences change in schools

Inspection is employed by most European education systems as an instrument for controlling and promoting the quality of schools. Yet there is little research knowledge about how inspection drives the improvement of schools. The study reports on surveys to principals in primary and secondary education in six European countries to attempt to clarify how school inspection impacts on the improvement of schools. Based on an analysis of principals’ perceptions the evidence suggests that inspection primarily drives change indirectly, through encouraging certain developmental processes, rather than through more direct coercive methods. Inspectorates that set clear expectations and standards have an impact on the increased utilization of self-evaluation and on developing the capacity of schools to improve in a variety of ways.     

About looking: Vision,transformation, and the education of the eye in discourses of school renewal past and present

This article reports the interim findings of historical research, funded by the British Academy (2007), which is exploring the possibilities of prosopography (the study of biographies linked through a common purpose, philosophy or practice) in researching the relationship between educational thought and school design since World War Two. Through oral history and archival research, the lives of leading figures in the post‐war period of English school design have been examined in relationship with one another. The research has uncovered networks of individual architects and educationists who together constructed a particular vision of education and subsequently a process of school design during the third quarter of the twentieth century. The research suggests that current efforts to visualise school as a transformational and transformed learning environment might profit from the notion of prosopography in the sense that it may help to expand our understanding of contemporary networks that are engaged in constructing a common vision of school for the twenty‐first century. The article begins with a brief discussion of discourses of educational vision set in the context of the contemporary UK government Building Schools for the Future (BSF) and Primary Capital Building programmes. It then moves on to demonstrate how a network of individuals, linked to three key protagonists in school/education design, developed in England during the post‐war period of reconstruction a collective vision of school which gave a special significance to what came to be understood as the education of the eye. This research suggests that while vision is important, the history of visualising school offers another still relevant set of references to those generally chosen today.     

Middle leaders and middle leadership in schools: exploring the knowledge base (2003–2017)

ABSTRACT

The purpose of this article is to explore the development of the knowledge base on middle leadership in schools. Since the seminal reviews conducted by Bennett a contemporary scan only of the scholarly literature on middle leaders/leadership in schools has not been undertaken. Consequently, this article looks at outputs relating to this topic by examining research papers indexed in the Web of Science and in SCOPUS between 2003 and 2017. The prime purpose of this review is to offer some reflections on the development of the empirical base on middle leadership in schools since 2003 and to highlight some of the implications for future research. The article concludes that middle leadership in schools remains an ongoing focus of research inquiry in a growing number of countries but suggests that the knowledge base would benefit from more sophisticated empirical studies and greater theoretical analysis.     

Embedding mental health support in schools: learning from the Targeted Mental Health in Schools (TaMHS) national evaluation

The Targeted Mental Health in Schools (TaMHS) programme was a nationwide initiative that funded mental health provision in schools for pupils at risk of or already experiencing mental health problems. The implementation, impact and experience of this programme was evaluated using quantitative and qualitative methodology involving three main studies: (1) a 1-year RCT involving 8658 8–10 year olds and 6583 11–13 year olds, (2) a 3-year longitudinal study involving 3346 8–10 year olds and 2647 11–13 year olds and (3) qualitative interviews with 26 TaMHS workers, 31 school staff, 15 parents and 60 pupils. The RCT demonstrated that TaMHS led to reductions in behaviour problems but not emotional problems for 8–10 year olds. No impact was found for 11–13 year olds. The effects on behaviour problems in primary school were enhanced by the provision of evidence based self-help materials, but not by other area level support. The longitudinal study found information giving and good inter-agency working correlated with more positive outcomes for behavioural problems in secondary schools. The qualitative findings indicated that TaMHS was well received by all groups, though challenges to its implementation were noted. Overall, findings indicate the utility of targeted mental health provision in schools, particularly in primary settings. The implications for implementation are discussed.     

The dangers of schooling: the introduction of school medical inspection in the Netherlands (c.1900)

In this article the authors address the question of why school medical inspection in the Netherlands developed not only considerably slower than the British service but did so also on a more modest scale in terms of the impact on children’s lives. In the Netherlands school doctors were not allowed to treat children’s illnesses and therefore never opened clinics of their own. Likewise, they did not become part of the school system or even join forces in a national school medical service. To explain this the authors discuss the history of school hygienic concern since the mid‐nineteenth century, the respective roles played and arguments provided by the medical and teaching professions in the process of claiming the necessity for school medical inspection, and the conditions that have determined the appointment and instructions of school doctors since 1904. They draw the conclusion that the rapidly growing power of religious groups has limited the expansion of the medical regime. In the Netherlands schoolchildren did not become part of the ‘social body’ because of national fitness, but because society no longer accepted the inadequacy of the protection of pupils’ health against the dangers of schooling, especially after compulsory education was introduced.     

From authoritative discourse to internally persuasive discourse: discursive evolution in teaching and learning the language of science

Learning science interpreted in existing theoretical frameworks often means that students are assimilated, accommodated or enculturated from the entity of the vernacular world to the entity of the scientific world. However, there are some unsolved questions as to how students can best learn purely a new language or new knowledge of science. The purpose of this study is to conduct microanalysis of moment-to-moment interactions in order to understand how science language is taught and learned in details. Informed by Bakhtin’s dialogism, the analysis indicates that learning science is a process of appropriating authoritative discourse into internally persuasive discourse. Based on our analysis and findings, we propose the framework of discursive evolution to describe the process of teaching and learning the language of science. Four different stages of discursive evolution are identified to demonstrate the discursive changes during the course of science teaching and learning discourse: (a) using deictic references to connect scientific terminologies, (b) understanding science terminologies through its derivatives, (c) communicating science practices conventionally through science terminologies, and (d) communicating science practices innovatively through mutated science terminologies. The findings suggest that science teaching and learning comprise a heterogeneous process which draws on both science and non-science language and is a constantly evolving process. Understanding teaching and learning as a heterogeneous and constantly evolving process allows us to reunite the roles of teachers and students as mutually responsible collaborators rather than science knowledge givers and consumers.     

Turning the tide: creating Professional Learning Communities (PLC) to improve teaching practice and learning in South African public schools

Abstract

Poor learner performance in South African schools raises concerns related to lack of commitment and accountability from school leaders and teachers with no common vision to promote a culture of high learner performance. This paper provides a literature overview of research available on the impact of professional learning communities (PLC) on effective teaching and practices to promote higher levels of learning amongst students; the nature of PLCs; their essential characteristics, developmental stages and challenges; and an assessment of the benefits of PLC in schools and the challenges of PLC from other researchers’ observations. PLCs are necessary to encourage collaborative teamwork on essential outcomes and intervention activities in learning. Finally, I conclude by exploring how South African schools can benefit from the practices of professional learning communities which endeavour to improve teaching practices and poor learner achievement.     

Capacity for (quality) instruction: a framework for understanding the use of resources to promote teaching and learning in schools

Abstract

The inception of no-fee schools and a school-fee exemption policy has become a contentious issue but also an exciting one for school managers in South Africa. Managers opposed to the policy have cited amongst others things, academic standards dropping, as well as parents who can afford to pay jumping on the bandwagon and refusing to pay. While the advocates for no-fee schools argue that it is not only a moral obligation for the authorities to ensure that every child is able to get basic education, it is also a basic human right. Notwithstanding these contrasting views, an overwhelming majority (62%) of the purposively sampled principals of public schools in the Free State Province expressed relief and agreement with this decision to declare poor school nofee schools. This article, therefore, intends to explore not only the background to the policy but also the possible impact of this decision on overall school performance as perceived by the school principals.     

Teachers' knowledge work in collective practice development: Approaches to introducing assessment for learning at the school level

Collective approaches to practice development are increasingly common in the teaching profession. Such initiatives frequently involve groups of teachers taking responsibility for introducing, sharing and developing new pedagogical resources and for aiding their integration into existing practices. This article explores teachers’ knowledge work as a component of collective practice development, and investigates how engagement with knowledge is constructed in different school environments. Drawing on research that followed an Assessment for Learning (AfL) project in a Norwegian city, the article examines how two groups of lower secondary teachers worked to support the introduction and development of AfL resources at their respective schools. The analysis reveals how their knowledge work was framed in different ways through available organisational roles and resources, and discusses the implications for initiatives aimed at collective practice development at the school level.     

Fifteen years looking at the mirror: On the presence of PISA in education policy processes (Portugal, 2000‐2016)

This article describes and discusses what happens when knowledge for policy generated within PISA is received by its target audience: what have the Portuguese policy actors been doing with PISA data and analysis when they consider, express and justify their choices? Drawing on previous and current studies, using interview materials and formal and informal policy documents, as well as texts published in the written press, the article analyses two main phenomena related to the reception of PISA and how this has evolved between 2001 and 2012 in Portugal: the consolidation of PISA's credibility as a source for policy processes and texts; the emergence of new actors and modes of intervention in the production of knowledge for national policy, drawing on PISA. Finally, it presents an analysis of the reception of PISA 2015 in the Portuguese media, focusing on the interventions by political actors in the Portuguese daily and weekly written press. Two main elements emerge from our content analysis as the main common elements of that reception: the consecration of PISA's credibility; and the practices of qualification and disqualification of educational policies and perspectives. The article concludes by emphasising the regulatory role of PISA in Portuguese policy processes and the relevant contribution played by the politics of reception in legitimising this role.     

The children's school: Putting the three R's (reading,research, rhetoric) to work

Philip Vassallo teaches writing at Middle-sex County College, Edison, NJ, and writes on educational issues. Information about the Children's School can be obtained by writing MS. Carolyn Jones, Director, The Children's School, 2111 Crotona Avenue, Bronx, NY 10457.     

From the (Academic) middle to the top: an evaluation of the AVID/TOPS college access program

Abstract

Despite overall increases in college-going, college enrollment rates remain inequitable. Many programs attempt to address these persistent racial/ethnic and social class disparities in college attendance by intervening in the high school curriculum. Advancement Via Individual Determination (AVID) is among the longest standing and prevalent of these college access programs. In this paper, we present findings from a multi-year evaluation and cost analysis of the AVID/TOPS program – an enhanced AVID model – in place in Madison Metropolitan School District (Wisconsin). Taken together, the evaluation’s findings characterize AVID/TOPS as a promising program model that is associated with an increased likelihood for college readiness and matriculation, particularly for student groups underrepresented in higher education. We also report on the resources and costs required to implement the program, and show that the program’s benefits appear to exceed its costs.     

Democratic environments offered to children at school,in the family,and in society: the case of Turkey

This research aims to investigate democratic environments offered to children in Turkey at school, in the home, and in society. A mixed method is a general type of research where qualitative and quantitative methods are used together. The researcher first collects quantitative and then the qualitative data. The study group in the research consisted of children in Kirsehir, a small city near the capital Ankara, in central Turkey. Democratic Environments scale and interview forms were used in the research. To analyze the obtained data, arithmetic averages, standard deviations, and percentages were calculated and multivariate analyses of variance conducted. The data obtained during interviews were analyzed through content analysis. Results show that even though Turkey accepts the Convention on the Rights of the Child, some problems remain associated with the democratic environment offered to children at school, at home, and in society.     

Non-word (buyan) and non-self (wuji): Resistance to duality,standardisation and comparison in regime of school accountability

Abstract

This article problematizes the way of thinking schooling in discourse of sign system, which involves opposition, and double gesture of inclusion/exclusion. Drawing on two fundamental texts of Taoism, the Tao Te Ching and Chuang Tzu, this article puts forward the seemingly passive Non-Word and Non-Self to resist the hierarchy ordering of conceptions and man, and to undo duality of binary opposition. It links the history of assessment and PISA to the rethinking of evidence and sign in contemporary movements. The second section proposes teaching as wandering (you, 游), the transcendence into Non-Self with response to men’s natural inquiry, but not artificially manipulating and shaping man by privileging certain knowledge, value, and thoughts over other. Instead of making categories of race, gender, and normal/abnormal, Taoist provides a way of reconsider the self operating on assessing, standardizing, normalizing, correcting and predicting others in school accountability. It is built on the ontology of considering individual as belonging to an ultimate sameness, the oneness. The article concludes with underlying assumption that students are subjected to change, and their difference must be eliminated through standard test. It further questions tactics of reason that educational reform face in the current regime of school accountability.     

A comparison of learning management systems in a school district: searching for the ideal personalized integrated educational system (PIES)

This study explored the use of several learning management systems (LMS), their benefits, and their limitations in relation to the desired characteristics of an ideal Personalized Integrated Educational System (PIES) for the information age. A qualitative research design was used. The participants of the study were teachers, administrators, and technology coordinators in a small suburban school district. The data were collected through interviews and were subjected to content analysis. The findings of the study indicated that each of the LMSs investigated in this study still has some significant limitations, for none of them provides all the information-age functions of PIES, and what an ideal PIES should possess as information-age functions can be categorized under students’ learning, assessment and system-related preferences.     

Myint Swe Khine (Ed.): Emerging trends in learning analytics: leveraging the power of education data (Contemporary approaches to research in learning innovations,volume 12)

Learning Environments Research -