A Reflective Account of a Working Fortnight in Bulgaria with 12 Post-graduate Student Teachers of English and Geography

This paper seeks to describe, explore and elucidate my own and my student colleagues' thoughts and feelings during a British Council funded project involving a working visit to Bulgaria for 12 student teachers of English and geography during the summer of 1998. In particular, I examine the feelings of 'otherness' widely experienced, finding in Shakespearian theatre a suitably apt metaphor. Other intercultural and interdisciplinary dimensions are also noted, drawing on the journals of the party, and I go on to suggest tentative conclusions about the value of the project in developing understanding of diverse cultures and disciplines for students about to embark upon their teaching careers.     

Teacher interpersonal competence for Dutch secondary multicultural classrooms

In the Netherlands, as in many European countries, classrooms display a growing cultural diversity. There are only very limited empirically supported data on the interpersonal competence teachers need in Dutch classrooms and studies from other countries cannot be generalized because of differences in the composition of the student population. This paper reports on an exploratory study in two schools on teachers' experiences in multicultural classes followed by an in‐depth case study of one expert teacher. We use this study to answer the question to what degree this teacher displays interpersonal competence (teaching behaviours, knowledge and attitudes) specific for teaching in multicultural classrooms by comparing this teacher's competence with generic interpersonal teaching competence. The teacher studied seems to be aware of special needs of students from different cultures and to use this knowledge to apply specific teaching strategies and interpersonal cues to create a positive classroom atmosphere and to cater for needs of diverse students. Further, the results indicate that many elements of this teacher's interpersonal competence in teaching a multicultural class can be considered aspects of generic teaching competence. It seems that the multicultural classroom puts heavier demands on this competence than a less diverse classroom.     

Book reviews

Background: In England, the promotion of ‘national values’ within the history curriculum has become an increasingly topical issue in the wake of recent debates about ‘Britishness’ and community cohesion. However, despite the swathe of policy statements and pronouncements, there is little empirical evidence linking young people's identities and their attitudes towards history.

Purpose: Drawing on a survey of undergraduates, we explore young people's attitudes towards the history curriculum and how these relate to their ethnic, national and political identity. We anticipated that students ascribing to a strong sense of national identity may be particularly receptive to a traditional approach to teaching national values within history classes, while those with a strong sense of political identity would be receptive to a multicultural approach; and vice versa.

Sample: The sample consisted of 353 undergraduates attending five universities in the North of England. The sample was composed of British citizens, the majority of whom would have recently experienced secondary education including discrete or cross-curricular teaching designed to promote ‘British’ national values.

Design and methods: Students' attitudes towards history and their self-identity were estimated using a questionnaire survey asking respondents a series of questions about history teaching and identity. Exploratory factor analysis was used to reveal underlying patterns in students' responses to items assessing their attitudes towards history. Items gauging relevant dimensions of self-identification, such as the relative importance of their national identity, along with other individual background characteristics, were then regressed on to attitudes towards history.

Results: We found that students' attitudes towards history were connected with two distinct factors: traditional/conservative and multicultural/liberal. The regression results revealed a positive relationship between a strong sense of national identity and a traditional attitude towards history, and, a negative relationship between a strong sense of national identity and a multicultural attitude towards history, even when controlling for students' background characteristics.

Conclusions: Our exploratory research suggests that students' self-identity is likely to influence their attitudes towards approaches to history teaching. Educational policy-makers and practitioners must therefore pay careful attention to students' self-identity and the context in which this is formed when seeking to inculcate an inclusive national identity in history classes.     

A cross‐cultural comparison of anatomy learning: Learning styles and strategies

Cultural influences on anatomy teaching and learning have been investigated by application of a questionnaire to medical students in British and Chinese Medical Schools. Results from the responses from students of the two countries were analyzed. Both groups found it easier to understand anatomy in a clinical context, and in both countries, student learning was driven by assessment. Curriculum design differences may have contributed to the British view wherein students were less likely to feel time pressure and enjoyed studying anatomy more than their Chinese counterparts. Different teaching approaches resulted in British students being more likely to recite definitions to learn, and the Chinese students found learning from cross‐sectional images easy. Cultural differences may account for the observation that British students were more inclined to ask questions in class, and the preference of Chinese students to study in small groups. The findings give evidence to show how ‘cultures of learning’ influence students' approaches and indicate the importance of cultural influences as factors amongst international and home learner groups. Anat Sci Ed 2:49–60, 2009. © 2009 American Association of Anatomists.     

Reading about the Enemy: school textbook representation of Germany's role in the war with Britain during the period from April 1940 to May 1941

Much analysis of National Curriculum emphasis upon ‘British history’ has centred upon ‘national identity’. This article argues that coverage of ‘British history’ will inevitably present images of other nations. In developing a sense of ‘Britishness’ pupils will attach identities to other nations. The focus is school textbook coverage of Germany's wartime role from April 1940 to May 1941. In covering Britain's ‘finest hour’ texts present images of the German enemy. These images are explored using quantitative and qualitative research techniques. Images of mindless instinctive aggression by automatons are in the foreground of what I term the ‘German condition’. The means employed by school textbooks to construct these images are also analysed. School text coverage is compared with a small number of established academic histories. These are shown to be both richer and more diverse in character. This article concludes by considering the political and educational questions raised. There are concerns about how pupils will view Britain's powerful European partner. There are implications for curriculum control content ana     

Shakespearean Intertexts and European Identities in Contemporary Black British Fiction

The article analyses the presence of William Shakespeare as intertext in three recent novels by black British writers which deploy the work of the Bard as they explore British and European identities. Caryl Phillips’s The Nature of Blood recreates an Othello-like figure who in early Modern Venice struggles to come to terms with his identity as an outsider. Zadie Smith’s White Teeth summarises the influence of imperial history in contemporary English society with The Tempest’s idea that ‘What is past is prologue’ and evokes an African presence in Shakespeare’s England by way of the dark lady in sonnets. Bernardine Evaristo’s Soul Tourists presents a journey through European countries that are haunted by the ghosts of old African inhabitants, among them the dark lady of the sonnets. These novels use their dialogue with William Shakespeare to construct stories of Africans in Europe in the past centuries that question received narratives of the British nation and undermine the myth of an all-white Europe.     

欧洲国家中小学教师职责的变迁与发展

英法等欧洲国家教育变革极大地推动了本国经济的发展,并在培养具有国际竞争能力的"理想人"上取得了成效.改革实现了政府对教师工作和学校行为最大程度控制的同时,对教师职责产生了重大的影响.教师要接受与传统截然不同标准的评价与问责,甚至失去传统意义的信念与实践方法,教师被迫重构专业身份.尽管教师对教学工作的有效关心因受到来自校外压力而改变,但是他们还是在保留传统和迎接新时代上积极地应对,最大程度地获得对教师专业的认同和得到更好的发展.     

The role of the British Council in the encouragement of Anglo-French scientific interchange

The British Council is part of Britain's overseas representation and its aim is to promote a wider knowledge of Britain and the English language, and to develop closer cultural ties and better understanding between Britain and other nations. Thus it is concerned with cultural relations in the widest sense, embracing education, science and the arts, and it promotes all kinds of professional and intellectual interchange. In France, as elsewhere in Europe, the Council operates a number of programmes to facilitate these exchanges, and in this article — although it is naturally based on Anglo-French scientific exchanges — I hope to give an idea of the sort of schemes which are also available in other European countries.     

TALKING GEOGRAPHY: an investigation into young children's understanding of geographical terms PART 2

This research investigates the understanding by children of seven years of age of certain geographical terms and compares data collected in 1991, reported in an earlier paper, with that collected in 1993, after two years’ implementation of the English National Curriculum for Geography. The findings do not indicate any significant difference in the quality and range of response by the children. Most children, from both samples, appeared to show restricted or inconsistent understanding of most of the terms. It is clear from the research that children construct their own meanings for particular words, based on intuition and experience together with some formal teaching, but that even vernacular terms can present difficulties for them. Children have particular problems in conceptualising space. Further investigation of children's constructions, related to specific geographical concepts, is therefore urgently needed if geography teaching programmes are to be designed with adequate reference to the cognitive demands of particular aspects of the subject. We need to know more about children's views of geography.     

Teaching for Democracy in Higher Education

Britain, South Africa and Russia all have national policies that acknowledge that higher education should play a role in the development of democracy. This paper reports how a group of teaching staff in British, South African and Russian universities view the relationships between their teaching and their understandings of its democratic purposes. There are some common ways in which the relationship between teaching and democracy is understood. These point towards a concern for greater equality between teachers and learners. There is also a widely held view that globalisation may impact in ways which are counter to lecturers' educational and democratic purposes. However, the different cultures and histories of the countries heavily influence such understandings. The study suggests that professional development of university teachers might pay more attention to the democratic purposes of higher education.     

Problems of West German Universities on the Way to Mass Higher Education

The preliminary conference theme "Quality versus Equality: A Problem for Higher Education?" came to me as a big surprise: in many European countries, those evaluating lines of future development in higher education and looking for new problem-solving possibilities have grown used to giving special attention to those countries in which the expansion of higher education is already very advanced. Why, then, does one in the United States scrutinize the European countries, where the share of university students in the corresponding age group is smaller? Is it due to a felt need for information unrelated to one's own situation? Does one wish to document that the other countries are gradually encountering the same problems that one already has? Or does one perhaps expect that the European countries - either on the basis of their particular traditions in higher education and society, or as "developing countries" of educational expansion that are attempting to avoid the difficulties of their predecessors - offer special solutions worthy of consideration in the United States, too?     

Teacher Educators: hidden professionals?

The pace of change in today's society means that there is an ongoing need for teachers to learn, have new knowledge and use new pedagogical approaches to meet the needs of their pupils. For many teachers, this requires redefining their identity as teachers and what ‘teaching’ means in 21st century learning environments. These changes also require teachers to be supported in learning to ‘teach’ in different ways that are relevant to their own individual needs and to the contexts in which they work throughout their career. In this article, it is argued that a more integrated and collaborative approach to teacher education is needed with better understanding of those who take up the roles of teacher educator across a teacher's career. With a particular emphasis on ‘teacher educators’ working in school to support teachers' career-long professional learning it is argued that currently many do not recognise themselves as teacher educators nor are they recognised by those they work with as teacher educators. Drawing on an empirical study carried out with mentors in schools in Scotland, it is suggested that these teacher educators may be ‘unrecognised’ and remain ‘hidden professionals’ because of the identities they construct for themselves, the values and priorities that they or others attach to their roles or because of the institutional structures and cultures in which they work. It is concluded that it will be difficult to recognise and value these ‘hidden teacher educators’ and the distinctive contribution they can make to teachers' career-long professional learning without further clarification by them and others of the roles and responsibilities they hold.     

Becoming a lecturer in further education in England: the construction of professional identity and the role of communities of practice

Further education colleges in England offer a wide range of post‐school education and training provision. Recently they have undergone major transformations that have resulted in considerable changes to the work of those teaching in them. In this paper we examine how cultures of learning and teaching in colleges are affected and how the nature of professional identity has changed. The paper considers the formation of professional identity amongst a group of trainee lecturers completing a one‐year full‐time teacher‐training course at a university in the English Midlands. Lave and Wenger's work on apprenticeship to communities of practice is used to examine the effect of trainees' teaching placement on the development of professional identity. Rather than identifying effective processes of increasing participation in existing communities of practice, a strong sense of marginalisation and alienation amongst trainees was observed. The paper argues that this is detrimental both to trainees and experienced lecturers if they are to actively engage in building new forms of professionalism for the future.     

Oranges aren't the only fruit. Ask a Gardner

This article draws upon a research and development project ‘TASTE’ (teaching-as storytelling), based at the School of Education at Cambridge University and conducted in Greenwich, London and King's Lynn, Norfolk. Over the last two years, teachers and children have been working with professional storytellers to improve teaching and learning. The project highlights interesting similarities between the practices of teachers and storytellers and suggests that teacher education has much to learn from the art of storytelling. Such a perspective is particularly important because teaching is increasingly subject to centralised control and standardisation; and under so much pressure to improve learners' literacy. Parallel arguments are pursued in respect to the curriculum. The TASTE project developed stories emphasising a locality's identity, and diversity, for teachers to use within National Curriculum subjects such as English, history, geography and science.     

White British; dual heritage; British Muslim: Young Britons' conceptualisation of identity and citizenship

This paper examines young British people's conceptualisation of identity and citizenship. Data were gathered through a questionnaire survey from 442 young male and female citizens of majority and minority ethnic origins, aged 14–24 years and at different stages of education, employment and non-employment. This was followed up by in-depth interviews with a stratified sample of 40 participants. Drawing on quantitative and qualitative data, and by closely examining the two key concepts of identity and citizenship, the paper analyses the ways in which young Britons perceive their multiple identities and citizenship status. The research shows that education and career are the major priorities of these young people. They have clear notions of identity and citizenship and most are comfortable with their own identities and feelings of citizenship. However, some of those who are from a minority ethnic background have doubts about being viewed as British citizens because of racial harassment or stereotyping, particularly in the aftermath of terrorist attacks in the West. The research has implications for pedagogy, education policy, community cohesion and social justice.     

IMPROVING TEACHING AND LEARNING IN AFRICAN UNIVERSITIES ‐‐ STAFF (FACULTY) DEVELOPMENT PROGRAMMES AS A FIELD OF CO‐OPERATION BETWEEN EUROPEAN AND AFRICAN UNIVERSITIES

In virtually all the countries of the world, the need for staff‐development programmes for university and other higher education teachers has been recognized. Because the developed countries of Europe and of North America have a head start in the domain, specialists from these countries have frequently been called upon to create and to offer staff‐development programmes in the universities of developing countries. This article discusses the appropriateness of European conceptions of staff‐development for African universities. Concluding that Euro‐centric staff‐developers and pre‐packaged European programmes are not appropriate, that they run the risk of becoming a form of cultural neo‐colonialism, the author considers ways in which European specialists can collaborate with their African colleagues in the structuring of staff‐development programmes that are not only African‐centred but are geared to the real needs of African universities as they are perceived by Africans themselves. If the author's suggestions are accepted, African universities will be able to make use of those aspects of European staff‐development concepts and programmes which have universal value without having to accept European cultural tutelage along with them.     

Ecopedagogy and Citizenship in the Age of Globalisation: connections between environmental and global citizenship education to save the planet

Teaching the connections between environmentally-harmful acts and social conflict is essential but is often ignored in education. This article presents two ways in which these are not taught because of the policies of those who benefit from the ignorance of these connections: first, the avoidance of teaching global-local connectivity and second, the devaluing of non-dominant cultures. Ecopedagogy is a democratic, transformative pedagogy centred on increasing justice by critically teaching the politics of environmental issues. I argue that global citizenship education (GCE) must be an element of ecopedagogy to contextually learn globalisation's effects upon local communities. In addition, GCE's goal is to increase students' understanding of diverse cultures to respect them. Ecopedagogy is also essential to GCE to fully teach social conflicts resulting from environmentally harmful acts. I offer policy and pedagogical changes to disrupt reproductive environmental pedagogies that help to sustain environmental ills for ecopedagogy-GCE models to emerge.     

Student Geography Teachers' Pre-conceptions about Teaching Environmental Topics

This article describes selected aspects of a study into geography student teachers' thinking and practice in teaching environmental topics and influences on their thinking and practice. The focus is on particular aspects of the methodology and findings related to the student teacher's thinking about teaching their chosen environmental topic at the start of their course. Reporting on methodology, the article focuses on measures for trustworthiness and credibility, an integral part of this qualitative study, and the ethical principles which were created and practised to take account of the researcher's dual role as researcher and tutor. Related to findings, the focus is on examples of the student teachers' pre-conceptions about subject matter and subject-specific pedagogy in teaching their chosen environmental topic, together with prior experiences which appear to have influenced their thinking. A short conclusion suggests implications for practice in geography teacher education.     

Who Counts; Who Cares? Scottish children's notions of national identity

Compared to the literature on children's racial and ethnic identities, relatively little is known about their understanding of national identity. Such knowledge is necessary if schools are to challenge racism, xenophobia and ethnocentrism effectively. In this paper, we present the findings of a case‐study (undertaken in a mainly‐white Edinburgh primary school) of 9‐11 year‐olds’ understanding of this complex form of collective identity. Particular attention is given to age‐related differences in response. Comparisons are drawn between the Scottish children's conceptions of their national identity and those of a multiethnic cohort drawn from three English primary schools (in a recently‐completed, parallel investigation by the same authors). We conclude by exploring the policy implications of our data.