National Context,Educational Goals and Pupil Experience of Schooling and Learning in Three European Countries

The paper reports on the findings of a major research project which examines the relationship between the national context and national educational values as these are translated into the school context, teacher beliefs, classroom processes and pupil perspectives on learning and schooling. The theoretical rationale for such research is examined and evidence is drawn from questionnaires administered to approximately 1,800 pupils in secondary schools in England, France and Denmark, individual and group interviews with pupils, discussions with teachers and headteachers, and classroom observation. The paper explores the significance of the cultural context in which learning occurs by examining pupil perspectives on the purposes of schooling and on the teaching they receive. Our findings suggest that although pupils in different European countries share many common concerns, they also come to school with significantly different attitudes towards themselves as learners, towards school and towards achievement. As a result their expectations of themselves and of their teachers are also different.     

Comparing teacher roles in Denmark and England

This article reports the findings of a comparative study of teaching in Denmark and England. Its broader aim is to help develop an approach for comparing pedagogy. Lesson observations and interviews identified the range of goals towards which teachers in each country worked and the actions these prompted. These were clustered using the lens of Bernstein’s pedagogic discourse to construct teacher roles, which provided a view of pedagogy. Through this approach we have begun to identify variations in pedagogy across two countries. All teachers in this study adopted a variety of roles. Of significance was the ease with which competent English teachers moved between roles. The English teachers observed adopted roles consistent with a wider techno-rationalist discourse. There was a greater subject emphasis by Danish teachers, whose work was set predominantly within a democratic humanist discourse, whilst the English teachers placed a greater emphasis on applied skills.     

The Cultural Context of Learning and Education in England, France and Denmark as a Basis for Understanding Educational Change

The article is based on findings from acomparative study of pupil experience ofsecondary schooling in England, France andDenmark 1998–2001. The research highlights andprovides evidence for the significance ofunderstanding the socio-cultural context inwhich learning takes place to qualify andvalidate inquiry on educational change. Thearticle will point out and exemplify some ofthese aspects.     

Mexican Immigrant Students' Schooling Experiences and the Construction of Disengagement in Mathematics Learning Contexts

Through an ethnographic and narrative inquiry approach, this study draws attention to the plight of 4 Mexican immigrant high school students and their pursuit of education and mathematics learning. Their elementary school stories and experiences show a deep relationship between the learning contexts in which these students largely do school (i.e., an English learner context) and the nature of students' relationships (or lack thereof) with teachers and their process of disengagement from mathematics learning and school. Doing school is used to convey a key distinction from simply attending school. Attending school assumes uniformity/neutrality in how students might experience schooling and is a passive way of describing student participation in school. Doing school implies that students make sense of and respond to their schooling experiences in different ways and accounts for how these experiences are shaped and/or influenced by other forces (e.g., structural forces, social forces) in and out of school.     

Schooling,symbolism and social power: The hijab in republican France

To fully understand the implications of the global climate of heightened suspicion about Islam we must also be aware of its expression through distinctive national discourses. Media debate leading up to the adoption by the French parliament of a law banning the hijab at school fits into a global discourse, but also presents local strategies of incorporation and silencing. The targets of scrutiny are primarily first and second generation migrants, a large and increasingly visible portion of whom live in rundown public housing and attend ‘problem’ schools associated with violence and failure. It is important therefore to consider the position, and positioning, of Muslims in relation to media representation. This article analyses the forms the dispute over the hijab has taken in France in terms of the role of the school in Republican ideology; the social and economic position of Muslims; and dominant representations of migrants and Islam.     

Religion,Schooling, Community,and Security: Exploring Transitions and Transformations in England

Education is a complex social practice. In the United Kingdom context, schooling is further nested within the complex social practices of community governance, quasi-market public choice, and religion. This essay explores the shifting definitions of community and education in the context of the Counter Terrorism and Security Act 2015, which places a duty on all public bodies, including schools, to prevent violent extremism. Drawing on analyses of the “Trojan Horse” moral panic in Birmingham schools in 2014 and guidance documents operationalizing the educational policy changes that followed, two distinct discourses can be observed, derived from different policy directions. One discourse is the social, concerned with integration and at times assimilation toward national norms; and the other is the communal, concerned with internal cohesion and development within the Muslim community. These can be characterized as societal “we identities” in vertical tension (Buzan, 1998).     

The Work-based Learning Route in the Netherlands and in England: Comparing ideas and meanings

The paper provides the outcomes of two small-scale sets of interviews carried out in the Netherlands and in England on views about and interpretations of the work-based route for young people. In the light of current revival of interest in work-based learning for young people, and in particular the apprenticeship model in England, I was particularly interested in the issue of parity of esteem between the work-based route and other routes. Whereas in the Netherlands the focus for the development of Vocational Education and Training (VET) is on the full-time vocational route, which has a reasonably high status, England has opted for the apprenticeship route to be the development tool for high quality VET. The paper explores what we can learn about our own experiences in England in the light of what is happening elsewhere (Raffe, 1998; Raffe et al ., 1999). It becomes clear from the data obtained that policy development in the Netherlands aims to increase the status of work-based learning through incorporating the route into the full-time route and providing end qualifications that can be achieved through either a full-time college-based route or through a work-based learning route. The modern apprenticeship route or work-based learning route as such has not a high status, contrary to what is sometimes claimed to be the case. In England, the aim of policymakers is to create a work-based learning route, which is considered to be a high quality route, and is comparable to the general/academic route. The paper shows that there are various reasons as to why this attempt might fail. Both countries aim to provide a 'ladder' or 'column' of opportunities in VET. The research shows that very few young people in fact move up a ladder, but rather move into work-based learning or apprenticeships at certain points on the continuum, and subsequently move sideways into general or theoretical provision in order to be able to progress higher up. Target groups for work-based learning are different at the lower end from those at levels 3, 4 and 5. Very few participants in either country move from level 1 up to level 4 through participation in a work-based route, and it may therefore be appropriate to talk about the provision of a climbing framework, where young people move backwards and forwards and sideways, rather than about a ladder of opportunities.     

法国促进终身学习的做法及经验借鉴

法国是较早通过立法等方式促进终身学习的国家之一,其推展终身学习始于职业教育领域,旨在通过一系列的立法来保障相关政策的落实。法国是终身教育理论的发源地,其有关终身学习的理念和实践体现了终身学习者的主体地位,这一理念值得借鉴。我国在推进终身学习的时候,也应始终把学习者放在主体地位,政府和教育机构及教育者要共同为学习者搭建一个灵活的、能满足个性化需求的学习平台,使终身教育真正起到服务全民的作用,体现终身教育的全纳性和公平性。     

Schooling in the Information Age: Old Academic Goals in New Societal Contexts

Both scholarly and popular publications in the United States have always contained critical comments about schools and education, but lately what is usually a trickle has become a raging torrent. Each professional journal and edition of the daily paper or weekly news magazine contains stories about the “great crisis” in American education and the perceived gap that exists between what children and adolescents know and what adults think they should know to become useful and productive citizens in the 21st century. This great concern over what is thought to be a “quality” education has ushered in one of the most intense and long-lasting reform movements in the history of our educational system (National Commission on Excellence in Education, 1983; Cremin, 1989).     

Student Self‐evaluation Processes in Student‐centred Teaching and Learning Contexts of Australia and England

Student self‐evaluation processes and their impact on pedagogy, in the promotion of sound reflective student [1] practices, are the focus of this article. The ways in which students self‐evaluate and teachers integrate these self‐evaluative processes into their teaching practice in Australian and English contexts are analysed. The educational sites chosen for focus are engaged in implementing student‐centred teaching and learning practices. This article is based on research that draws on data analysed using case‐study methodology. For a period of 6 months student self‐evaluation processes were examined in both an Australian secondary high school and an English Further Education (EE) college which was piloting the advanced General National Vocational Qualification (GNVQ) science programme. The introduction of the skills of self‐evaluation to students offers an added dimension to the current learning environment. It provides students with opportunities to take increased responsibility for, and a more active role in, their own learning. An underlying assumption of this research is that there exists a need to examine how learning in the classroom is structured, and that it is this dimension to teaching and learning that makes a difference. A fundamental premise is that student self‐evaluation is an educative activity.     

丹麦中小学教育的特点及未来走向

丹麦的小学和初中教育是一体化的，高中教育则以其灵活、多样而著称。2002年丹麦发布的名为《更好的教育》的政府文件将深刻影响丹麦高中教育的未来走向，同时丹麦福利制度的变革将影响中小学教育的经费。     

Skilled Students and Effective Schools: Reading Achievement in Denmark,Sweden, and France

This study investigates how reading achievement relates to student and school characteristics in countries with different reading scores at the fourth grade level. Data comes from the Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS) 2011 for Denmark, Sweden, and France and the multilevel analysis includes two levels: student/home and schools. The school effectiveness and the home literacy models informed the selection of the independent variables. Results show that students’ early literacy skills, home literacy practices and resources, and reading behavior are associated with reading scores in all countries. Furthermore, across different countries there are student/home universals and school particulars that explain variation in reading achievement. Educational policies should address home and school literacy skills and practices, school climate, and school composition to improve students’ reading ability.     

冲突与抉择：学习化社会背景下的学校教育

学习化社会的来临给制度化的学校教育带来了前所未有的冲击与挑战。正规化、阶段化、精英化、标准化的学校教育开始受到来自四面八方的指责与批评。新的时代背景要求学校教育对这些问题做出积极的回应。学校正处在十字路口，改造与创新势在必行。     

The State and Catholic Schooling in England and Wales: Politics,ideology and mission integrity

Changing relations between the English State and the Roman Catholic Church in the sphere of education policy are examined in two historical periods. Between the 1870s and the 1970s, despite initial anti-Catholic prejudice, the Catholic hierarchy was able to negotiate a favourable educational settlement in which substantial public funding was obtained without serious loss of autonomy and mission integrity for the Catholic schooling system. The existence of a liberal State, a voluntarist tradition in schooling and the relative social and political unity of the Catholic community all contributed towards this settlement. The inauguration of an ideologically 'Strong State' in the 1980s and 1990s, pursuing an interventionist strategy in education driven by New Right market doctrines, threatened the whole basis of this settlement. The Catholic hierarchy had to develop new strategies to respond to this situation, complicated by the fact that the Catholic community was now more socially differentiated and more divided on key education policy questions.     

Learning Robotics in a Science Museum Theatre Play: Investigation of Learning Outcomes,Contexts and Experiences

Theatre is often introduced into science museums to enhance visitor experience. While learning in museums exhibitions received considerable research attention, learning from museum theatre has not. The goal of this exploratory study was to investigate the potential educational role of a science museum theatre play. The study aimed to investigate (1) cognitive learning outcomes of the play, (2) how these outcomes interact with different viewing contexts and (3) experiential learning outcomes through the theatrical experience. The play ‘Robot and I’, addressing principles in robotics, was commissioned by a science museum. Data consisted of 391 questionnaires and interviews with 47 children and 20 parents. Findings indicate that explicit but not implicit learning goals were decoded successfully. There was little synergy between learning outcomes of the play and an exhibition on robotics, demonstrating the effect of two different physical contexts. Interview data revealed that prior knowledge, experience and interest played a major role in children’s understanding of the play. Analysis of the theatrical experience showed that despite strong identification with the child protagonist, children often doubted the protagonist’s knowledge jeopardizing integration of scientific content. The study extends the empirical knowledge and theoretical thinking on museum theatre to better support claims of its virtues and respond to their criticism.