What is the reality of ‘inclusion’ for children with emotional and behavioural difficulties in the primary classroom?

Abstract

Current education policy is oriented towards including children with special educational needs in mainstream classrooms. Hitherto they have been, on the whole, educated in special schools. Children with special educational needs include those who are physically disabled, those with learning difficulties and those with emotional and behavioural difficulties. It is the inclusion of this last group which is raising problems in mainstream classrooms. The article draws on psychoanalytic concepts in order to examine the reality of inclusion for three primary-age children with emotional and behavioural difficulties. Observational material is presented which shows the impact of inclusion policy on the children, their teachers and their learning support assistants. There is also discussion of the work of the behaviour support teacher, whose job is to reduce exclusions and help schools to become more inclusive.     

Relationships and learning: a review and investigation of narrative coherence in looked‐after children in primary school

This review and investigation draws on principles from attachment theory regarding the importance of early relationships and their impact on the coherence and organisation of psychological functions. Comparisons are made between the narrative coherence scores of an experimental group of 17 looked‐after children with problematic relationship histories in mainstream school and a matched control group of 17 of their peers. There were significant differences between the groups in the coherence of children's narratives, denial and avoidance in story play themes and in their use of intentionality. The paper considers the theory and discusses the results in terms of the implications for teaching, learning and intervention.     

‘On the move’: primary age children in transition

The focus of this article is the experience of the growing numbers of children who, as one of the consequences of increasing globalisation, move between cultures internationally as a result of their parents' occupations. Beginning with a review of research relating to transition, the article goes on to describe a study at an international school in Thailand which, it is argued, is similar in terms of the globally‐mobile nature of its student population to many other such schools worldwide. Using a computer‐based questionnaire, the views of primary‐age children were explored in relation to various dimensions of the transition process. Findings highlighted the importance of recognising the impact of such moves on young children, and of schools being aware of the different stages of transition that children might be experiencing so that appropriate support may be provided.     

Imagining a different life in school: educating student teachers about ‘looked after’ children and young people

The research described in this paper concerns the acquaintance of student teachers with the educational and wider pastoral experiences of children and young people who are or have been ‘looked after’ and who they may well teach at some point, together with the familiarisation of student teachers with the ‘looked after’ system in the UK. We discuss an exploratory awareness‐raising curriculum project within a Teacher Education Department at a University in the UK that utilises digital multimedia to develop a ‘community of awareness’ of young people and student teachers. As a result of this work, the student teachers were able to reflect on their pedagogical knowledge and practices related to teaching and wider pupil pastoral care. Further, those involved in the project therefore not only learned how to use technology, but to apply it in meaningful, productive ways, which were potentially transforming in terms of appreciation and knowledge of diversity. Benefits for the participants – the young people involved and the student teachers, as well as implications for both student teachers’ understanding of diversity and limitations of the technology – are discussed.     

‘Heroes’ and ‘villains’ in the lives of children and young people

This paper explores the responses of nearly 1200 children and young people in Wales who were asked to identify which three famous people they most admired and which three they most disliked. Analysis of these young people's responses reveals a number of sociological and educational issues. Their selections confirm other research which has highlighted the importance of celebrities in the lives of young people. Their ‘heroes’ and ‘villains’ are drawn mostly from the worlds of popular music and sport. Their choices are also highly gendered and ‘raced’. Of particular interest is the finding that someone's ‘villain’ is more than likely to be someone else's ‘hero’. Our young people's selection of heroes and villains reflects the broader landscape of celebrity culture, where female fame is as much about appearance as talent and Black and minority ethnic celebrities are to be found largely in the fields of sport or popular music. The paper concludes by discussing the chasm between our young people's ‘heroes’ and ‘villains’ and those which are ‘officially sanctioned’ within the school curriculum and considers what schools and teachers might do about it.     

Barriers to participation and retention: engaging and returning ‘out of school’ children in the Gambia

This study explores the phenomenon of out-of-school children in the Gambia through the perspectives of children and families. Using mixed methods, the study reports the extent of school participation. Interviews with urban and rural out-of-school children reveal their experiences and reasons for non-enrolment or leaving school. The study highlights children's and families' views about the value of and aspiration for education, so often missed through statistical studies on access to education. Findings suggest the main barriers to participation and retention are a mix of family and school-based factors encompassing issues of affordability and accessibility of school, and family and cultural circumstances. In the context of wider policy reforms, initiatives to address unaffordable costs of school and to improve the quality of education such as the School Improvement Grant and Early Childhood Development provision show promise for engaging and returning children to school.     

‘Nature’ and the ‘environment’ in Jamaica’s primary school curriculum guides

In cases where environmental education is institutionalised within schools, the curriculum can affect what and how students learn about ‘nature’ and the ‘environment’. In Jamaica, schools are considered important settings for environmental education; the curriculum therefore includes environmental issues. Using content analysis, representations of ‘nature’ and the ‘environment’ in the nation’s primary level Curriculum Guides were examined. Findings indicate that although many units emphasise an anthropocentric view of nature, this is tempered by depictions of nature’s fragility and, in some instances, nature’s ‘divine’ dimensions. Several curricular units also facilitate student’s creative engagement with nature, allowing for multiple views of the natural world.     

Dutch children and their ‘God’: the development of the ‘God’ concept among indigenous and immigrant children in the Netherlands

In the 1980s and 1990s in the Netherlands, as a reaction to the growing number of non‐Christian pupils at Christian schools, religious education and religious development became issues for debate. At some schools, it was the exclusiveness of the Christian tradition that dominated, and at others it was the inclusiveness. Another group specialised in inter‐religious dialogue. Our research studied the religious development of pupils from two primary schools. One is the first and only inter‐religious primary school in the Netherlands, the Juliana van Stolberg primary school. The other is a Christian school, the Prinses Margriet primary school that educates pupils exclusively in the Christian tradition. The research questions focussed on the development of the ‘God’ concept of children confronted with stories from different religious traditions. The ‘God’ concept is seen in our research as a concept that develops in an inductive way from the data. This way of conceptualising ‘development’ is coined as the prospective perspective on development. The results of this comparative research led to the tentative conclusion that pupils in our research population who were involved in inter‐religious learning, demonstrate explorative behaviour concerning their own religion and that of others. Their ‘God’ concept shows hybrid characteristics. These pupils are rooted in their own tradition, and at the same time they are ‘on the move’. This offers points of departure for the development of citizens articulating their commitments and turning imminent conflicts into inter‐religious encounters.     

Teachers’ views about pupil diversity in the primary school classroom

The present study explores Greek primary school teachers’ perceptions and views on pupil diversity in the classroom environment. A large-scale survey was carried out in order to examine teachers’ perceptions about pupil diversity and to identify personal and/or educational characteristics that can influence or predict these perceptions. The outcomes of the study reveal that Greek primary school teachers view diversity as a challenge more than as a barrier in teaching and learning, they can recognise at a high level the key elements of differentiated instruction as part of managing pupil diversity in their class and hold a negative-to-neutral stance on traditional curriculum implementation practices. The most influential factors and predictors of these perceptions and views are also presented and discussed.     

Students’ goals and self-regulation in the classroom

This chapter argues for an understanding of action regulation as inextricably related to the motivational process of goal setting and planning. Within this conceptual framework our research has explored students’ action patterns, both in normal ongoing classroom situations and in stressful circumstances. Goals are emphasized as essential aspects of the motivational quality of activities, namely through the role they play in the regulation of action. In this study the detection of students’ behavioral goals is addressed. Several achievement and social goals are described and ways to assess students’ goal setting and planning processes are proposed. Strategies that students use to handle classroom stressors are explored. These include strategic flexible action, strategic rigid action, passive behavior, and disorganized behavior. These strategies represent distinct forms of action regulation. Relations between students’ strategies, which are viewed as indications of their control, and agency beliefs are also examined. Finally, classroom features, which might help or hinder students’ self-regulation are discussed, including teachers’ goals and students’ perceptions of teachers’ goals for classroom activities.     

Struggling for visibility in higher education: caught between neoliberalism ‘out there’ and ‘in here’ – an autoethnographic account

What happens when neoliberalism as a structural and structuring force is taken up within institutions of higher education, and works upon academics in higher education individually? Employing a critical authoethnographic approach, this paper explores the way technologies of research performance management, specifically, work to produce academics (and academic managers) as particular kinds of neoliberal subject. The struggle to make oneself visible is seen to occur under the gaze of academic normativity – the norms of academic practice that include both locally negotiated practices and the performative demands of auditing and metrics that characterise the neoliberal university. The paper indicates how the dual process of being worked upon and working upon ourselves can produce personally harmful effects. The result is a process of systemic violence. This paper invites higher education workers and policy-makers to think higher education otherwise and to reconsider our personal and collective complicity in the processes shaping higher education.     

When ‘Muslim‐ness’ is pedagogised. ‘Religion’ and ‘culture’ as knowledge and social classification in the classroom

The article presents a curriculum‐sociological study of ‘religion’ in the classroom. More specifically, it is a study, inspired by Bernstein, Foucault and Bourdieu, that examines various forms of identity politics tied to ‘religion’ and ‘culture’ as these concepts unfold in the classroom in relation to knowledge production and social classification. Categories such as ‘Muslim’ and ‘Danish’ are tentatively broken down in a study of the classroom as a locus for knowledge production and the production of social difference. What knowledge of religion is produced? What spaces for subjects? What ways to be a pupil? And in what ways do ‘Muslim‐ness’ and ‘Danishness’/‘Christian‐ness’ figure in the social economy of the class? The classroom is studied as a micro‐political arena for relations and politics concerning minorities and majority. In this sense, ‘religion’/‘culture’ may be seen partly as knowledge clusters and partly as subject‐producing technologies colouring and shaping bodies. These knowledge clusters, in turn, are coloured by the social economy associated with the agents’ bodies, making it a productive and potent part of social classification. Categories such as ‘Muslim’ and ‘Danish’/‘Christian’ are in themselves to be understood as processes of social classification and distribution. Hence, ‘religion’ may be understood as a class‐producing practice as the latter is transformed and produced in the pedagogical field of practice.     

‘One girl had a different idea’: children’s perspectives on learning and teaching models in the traditional classroom

ABSTRACT

This paper explores learning from the perspective of primary pupils in Egypt. The article explores models of learning and teaching and how pupils respond to traditional models and to changes within those. Qualitative data was collected from 57 interviews with 81 primary pupils in Alexandria, Egypt. Our research approach was interpretivist and our method was individual interview and observation. Teachers had introduced for the first time the practice of group and/or pair-work in the English language classroom. Following this change, pupils described their learning as benefiting from: peer support; exercising self-direction; participating more actively; and enjoyment of collaborative work. These findings accord with the research literature on collaborative learning. We conclude that even in traditional sites of learning, children appreciate aspects of collaborative learning.     

‘She's alpha male’: transgressive gender performances in the probation ‘classroom’

The past decade has seen an exponential rise in the popularity of cognitive–behavioural programmes as a means of rehabilitating ‘offenders’. Although the programmes have been evaluated by a number of researchers, very little qualitative work exists, particularly with regard to the discourses mobilised by practitioners, and the production of gendered subjectivities in this setting. Consequently, this article focuses on one woman, ‘Michelle’, who attended an Aggression Replacement Training programme as part of her probation sentence. By drawing on Francis’ [2010. Re/theorizing gender: Female masculinity and male femininity in the classroom. Gender and Education] notion of gender monoglossia and heteroglossia I aim to provide a nuanced account of Michelle's seemingly straightforward ‘performance’ of ‘female masculinity’ [Halberstam, J. 1998. Female masculinity. Durham, NC: Duke University Press]. Through an analysis of the discourses mobilised by practitioners I also demonstrate that within this discursive environment the rehabilitation of female ‘offenders’ continues to be one of conformity to traditional ‘feminine’ gender norms as well as a desistance from crime.     

Activating learning in engineering education using ICT and the concept of ‘Flipping the classroom’

ABSTRACT

This case study trialled the introduction of a student-response system (Top Hat) in a third-year engineering Fluid Mechanics course (n?=?44) to improve student engagement, motivation and cognition. It was recognised that for the potential benefits of student-response systems (SRSs) to be fully realised, more time must be allocated for student engagement and the active learning components of the course. In order to allow sufficient time to fully engage with the SRSs and other classroom activities, traditional lectures were revised and the classroom format was flipped. This paper presents the initial case study results focusing on the use of SRSs. Overall, the new flipped lecture and SRS teaching format demonstrated a substantial increase in the level of student engagement, motivation, active learning and attendance compared to previous cohorts. However, the increased levels of engagement did not appear to reflect on any large increase in students’ individual grades.