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.     

Socioeconomic Status Gradients in Young Children’s Well-Being at School

This study examines the socioeconomic status gradients in children’s well-being at school using data on the total population of Danish public school children age 6–11 (N = 147,994). Children completed the national well-being at school survey, an environment-specific self-report of satisfaction with school, social well-being at school, and psychological well-being at school. Data were linked with administrative register data on family characteristics. Regression analysis was used to estimate gradients by parental education and income for each of the three dimensions of well-being at school. Findings indicated that even in the relatively equal Danish context, children from more educated and higher-income families experienced greater satisfaction with school and higher social and psychological well-being at school than their less advantaged peers.     

Supporting the transition to inclusive education: teachers’ attitudes to inclusion in the Seychelles

The inclusion of children with disability in regular classroom settings has been identified worldwide as crucial to the provision of effective education for all children and to the creation of more inclusive societies. To this end there has been significant focus on pre-service and in-service teacher education to ensure that teachers are adequately prepared to teach in inclusive classrooms. When delivering a unit on inclusive education in the Seychelles, which was developed in Australia, we considered it essential to determine the suitability of the unit in supporting Seychellois teachers to teach inclusively. Teachers’ attitudes and beliefs about people with disability are two aspects that have consistently been shown to impact on a teacher’s willingness to include children with disability. Therefore, the Seychellois teachers were asked to complete questionnaires in the first and final weeks of the semester in which the teachers undertook the unit. The two sets of responses were analysed to determine significance and effect sizes of any change in attitudes and beliefs. Data revealed that the Seychellois teachers reported more positive attitudes and beliefs about the inclusion of children with disability in regular classrooms after completing the unit, suggesting that the unit of study was suitable for the Seychellois context.     

Children’s access to pre‐school education in Bangladesh

Using the Education Watch household survey database, this paper explores children’s access to pre‐school education in Bangladesh. Participation in pre‐school education has been increasing in Bangladesh at the rate of 0.6% per year and the net enrolment rate was found to be 13.4% in 2005. Enrolment of over‐aged children in pre‐school education made the gross enrolment ratio as high as 30.5%. However, over half of the four to five year olds at school were actually enrolled in primary school and not in pre‐school. Moreover, 71% of the four‐ to five‐year group were out of school. Only a third of the four‐ to five‐year‐old children enrolled in schools had the opportunity to attend the English‐medium kindergartens or NGO‐run non‐formal schools, both of which provide better quality pre‐school education. Urban children, especially those with educated parents and from more privileged socio‐economic backgrounds, were more likely to have access to pre‐school education. The lack of a common pre‐school curriculum seems to have created further inequity among children at this very early age. An educational policy targeting poor and socially disadvantaged children with support from both the state and current pre‐school providers is urgently needed to provide four‐ to five‐year‐old children appropriate education for their needs.     

‘Learning the basics’: young people’s engagement with sexuality education at secondary schools

School-based sexuality education remains a key response to the HIV epidemic. Drawing on findings from an ethnographic study, this study explores how young people engage with sexuality and HIV- and AIDS-related education as it is delivered through the Life Orientation (LO) learning area in South Africa, in order to understand the dynamics that support or hinder engagement. Focus group discussions were held with Grade 9 and 11 learners (aged 14–18 years) from 16 randomly selected public secondary schools across three provincial districts. Results show that enjoyment of LO education was related to perceived relevance and distinctiveness, informal lesson delivery, subjective assessment standards and seemingly minimal effort. However, the perception of reduced effort tarnished the status of LO and young people’s motivation to participate. Learner engagement is influenced by a variety of cognitive, affective and behavioural pathways including internalised discourse around HIV and AIDS, gender and sexuality; the quality of youth–educator relations and teaching competencies; peer pressures; and broader cultural dynamics. The cultivation of a learning environment in which young people share and debate their views promotes engagement and critical thinking. In-service and pre-service educator training, structured activity plans and monitoring are recommended to advance the content knowledge and pedagogy of educators.     

Part‐time higher education in Northern Ireland

Previous studies have shown that tutors usually enjoy teaching students and working for the University. During 1985 Reg Melton and colleagues in the Student Research Centre in the Institute of Educational Technology interviewed a number of tutors in depth to ascertain their reactions to the experience of reductions in their teaching. Job satisfaction and goodwill appeared to be under considerable strain.     

Introduction to the Issue: Exploring Affect in Children’s Literature

Children's Literature in Education -     

Using Children’s Literature in the Middle School Science Class to Teach Nature of Science

Science & Education - In this study, we report the results of the content analysis of preservice middle school science teachers’ own written science storybooks and middle school female...     

Motor Impairment in Children’s Literature: Asking the Children

How do schoolchildren respond when they encounter a wheelchair user in a fictional text? This article describes a doctoral project where groups of children were presented with excerpts from books by Hilary McKay and Jacqueline Wilson in which wheelchair users play a significant role. The pupils were asked to discuss issues arising from these readings. The views pupils expressed were relevant, imaginative and positive. Only on two rare occasions did the pupils respond in ways that could be categorised as prejudicial towards disabled people. The article describes the methodology adopted for the study, directly quotes from and explores the views of the pupils. The teaching of children about disability and disabled people currently in the English curriculum for Personal, Social and Health Education (PSHE) is alleged to be inadequate; a weakness which could be addressed in the manner described, using literature for sensitive educational debate. This study is unusual in that the research subjects include a group of children who are motor impaired. The Doctor of Education who conducted the research for her thesis and authored this article is also herself a fulltime wheelchair user.     

Opening the black box: women’s empowerment and innovative secondary education in Honduras

This article aims to clarify the relationship between education and women’s empowerment. Drawing from qualitative data collected in a study of four Garifuna villages on the north coast of Honduras, it argues that education can trigger the empowerment process if it expands women’s knowledge and understanding, self‐confidence and awareness of gender equity. However, not all education programs will do this. The program studied, Sistema de Aprendizaje Tutorial, has several unique features that appear to foster the empowerment process and are not traditionally present in Latin American secondary schools. We must carefully consider the content and pedagogy of educational programs that attempt to promote women’s empowerment, rather than assuming that education and empowerment automatically go hand‐in‐hand.     

Does self-efficacy contribute to the development of students’ motivation across the transition from secondary to higher education?

European Journal of Psychology of Education - The transition from secondary to higher education is a challenging process, in which the development of students’ motivation plays a pivotal...     

Correction to: School climate in Mongolia: Translation and validation of the What’s Happening in This School

Learning Environments Research -     

How Large are Secondary School Effects in Northern Ireland?

ABSTRACT

This study is concerned with estimates of secondary school effect size in Northern Ireland. Utilising data from a random sample of the region's schools, four indices of pupil achievement variation in public examinations are employed. These outcome measures are (i) overall examination achievement ‐ a composite weighted measure ‐together with achievement in General Certificate of Education examinations in (ii) English, (iii) Mathematics and (iv) Chemistry. Examinations of this type are taken, typically, by pupils aged 16 years (the statutory leaving age), at the end of their fifth year of secondary education.

Using a two‐level hierarchical linear regression model, the paper considers variation in school effect size by outcome criterion. Variation is measured in standard deviation units and in terms of the proportion of achievement variance “explained” by schools after adjustment for pupil‐intake differences. Comparisons are made with recent findings for Scotland and for England.