Making educational development and change sustainable: Insights from complexity theory

This article considers the challenge of sustainable change and development in education from the perspective of complexity theory. Complexity theory’s concept of emergence implies that, given a significant degree of complexity in a particular environment, new properties and behaviours emerge that are not necessarily contained in the essence of the constituent elements, or easily able to be predicted from a knowledge of initial conditions. These concepts of emergent phenomena from a critical mass, associated with notions of lock-in, path dependence, and inertial momentum, contribute to a perspective on continuity and change that indicates what conditions might need to be in place for the emergence of sustainable, positive, system-wide change and development in education.     

Understanding the Dialectical Relations Between Everyday Concepts and Scientific Concepts Within Play-Based Programs

In recent times there has been an enormous interest in Vygotsky’s writing on conceptual development, particularly his insights on the differences between everyday and scientific thinking. In drawing upon cultural–historical theory, this paper seeks to examine the relations between everyday concepts and scientific concepts within playful contexts, such as preschools, with a view to better understanding how very young children develop conceptual understandings in science. This paper presents an overview of a study which sought to map the transformation and appropriation of scientific concepts within two early childhood settings. Approximately ten weeks of data gathering took place, with video recordings, field notes, photographic documentation, and child and teacher interviews for recording child concept formation within these naturalistic settings. The findings indicate that when teacher programs are more oriented towards concepts rather than materials, children’s play is focused on conceptual connections. Importantly, the study showed that: It was possible to map the multiple and dynamic levels or stratas of thinking that a child or group of children may exhibit within play-based contexts; An analysis of ‘unorganised heaps’ and ‘complexive thinking’ evident in conceptually or materially oriented play-based programs can be determined; the dialectical relations between everyday concepts and scientific concepts in play-based programs can be understood; and greater understanding about the nature of concept formation in situated playful contexts have been possible.     

Changes in school through a long-term project of action research. Building bridges between school practice and Roma communities

ABSTRACT

This study was carried out within the framework of a long-term action-research project in schools in Barcelona, Spain, in which a large concentration of pupils come from diverse ethnic backgrounds and are at risk of social exclusion. Specifically, the introduction of the Fifth Dimension (5D) model into these schools is analysed here. 5D is an action-research programme partnership between universities and schools that has been developed by an international network of researchers and is based on a collaborative learning model, supported by information and communication technologies and by the university students themselves. This study focuses on the changes produced in school practices and in the role of teachers. Over a 4-year period, qualitative data were elicited from four primary school using linguistic methods, field notes, interviews and focus group with educators involved in the process. Cultural Historical Activity Theory was used as a framework for analysis of the coded data. The findings highlight the key elements for the change: consistency in the mediating devices (proposed tools and activities), reorientation of classroom interactions into forms of collaboration, the changing roles of the teachers to include design, observation and help, and the development of inter-institutional partnerships based on permanent negotiation.     

Making sense of conceptual tools in student-generated cases: Student teachers' problem-solving processes

This article examines the way student teachers make sense of conceptual tools when writing cases. In order to understand the problem-solving process, an analysis of the interactions is conducted. The findings show that transforming practical experiences into theoretical reflection is not a straightforward matter. To be able to elaborate on the task it is crucial to make meaning of the tools. It is demonstrated that the institutional practices, rules and expectations must be explicit for the students. The overall aim is to demonstrate that activity theory can enhance our understanding of the interdependence between activity, task and mediating tools.     

Stretching performances in education: the impact of gay parenting and activism on identity and school change

This paper features one gay parent activist in the complex social milieu of his child’s school and his community, his actions meeting both resistance and concurrence as a larger movement operated locally and nationally to make schooling more accepting of and acceptable to gays and lesbians. The paper traces this man’s parenting processes and their effect on the schooling of many children, not only his own, and then contrasts his voice with the reluctant, often denying, and finally acquiescent voices of school people. The narrative captures the essence of cultural and identity change as well as individual and institutional processes. Turning to theory, I use postmodern dilemmas to define the episodic movements of the groups and the multipositionality of the individuals involved. Agency, social roles, and collaborative and individual activity illuminate the agenda of social groups effectively working with and through this parent to meet political goals for students.     

Black Boxes in Workplace Mathematics

We ground Cultural-Historical Activity Theory (CHAT) in studies of workplace practices from a mathematical point of view. We draw on multiple case study visits by college students and teacher-researchers to workplaces. By asking questions that ‘open boxes’, we ‘outsiders and boundary-crossers’ sought to expose contradictions between College and work, induce breakdowns and identify salient mathematics. Typically, we find that mathematical processes have been historically crystallised in ‘black boxes’ shaped by workplace cultures: its instruments, rules and divisions of labour tending to disguise or hide mathematics. These black boxes are of two kinds, signalling two key processes by which mathematics is put to work. The first involves automation, when the work of mathematics is crystallised in instruments, tools and routines: this process tends to distribute and hide mathematical work, but also evolves a distinct workplace ‘genre’ of mathematical practice. The second process involves sub-units of the community being protected from mathematics by a division of labour supported by communal rules, norms and expectations. These are often regulated by boundary objects that are the object of activity on one side of the boundary but serve as instruments of activity on the other side. We explain contradictions between workplace and College practices in analyses of the contrasting functions of the activity systems that structure them and that consequently provide for different genres and distributions of mathematics, and finally draw inferences for better alignment of College programmes with the needs of students.     

Tensions in equity- and reform-oriented learning in teachers' collaborative conversations

This paper explores how teachers' collaborative conversations afford and constrain their learning opportunities, through the close analysis of an interaction between equity-oriented mathematics teachers who were working together. The analysis reveals that although the group seemed like an ideal professional learning community in many ways, the teachers were frequently caught in tensions between restrictive and inclusive discourses about mathematical competence. The existence of these tensions presented opportunities for the teachers to learn, but teachers' framings of their own collaborative work stifled these opportunities. This paper contributes to understanding the challenges of equity- and reform-oriented learning in teachers' professional communities.     

Contradictions in theorizing and implementing communities in education

Past educational improvement endeavors were fundamentally centered on the learner as an individual. This changed by the early 1990s after an increasing number of educators and researchers embraced sociocultural learning concepts such as “communities of practice,” “communities of learners,” and “knowledge-building communities.” These ideas are originally grounded in a dialectical materialist, cultural-historical theory of activity, or, as Lev Vygotsky called it, in a “concrete human [social] psychology.” However, as these concepts filtered into Western scholarship, some of their defining characteristics have been lost or downplayed. The intention of this article is thus to offer a more complete theorization of the educational notion of community that is centered on collective activity or practice mediated by history and culture/society. Two case studies, which exemplify learning communities using this lens, conclude the paper.     

Large-scale change and survival of school principals in Turkey

ABSTRACT

Turkey possess one of the most vibrant educational systems in the World. This study specifically aims at revealing Turkish school principals’ perceptions about the large-scale changes imposed by the Ministry of Education and the strategies they follow for coping with these changes. The study was designed as a generic qualitative study. Twenty principals from different schools at different levels were identified through snowball sampling and semi-structured interviews were conducted with each of them. The decoupling between change interventions and the needed change, inappropriate change implementation process, the passive role of the school principals in the design phase of change interventions are some of the major challenges that school principals encounter. The passivity of the principals during design phase put them into a state of reluctant activeness to find out resources, create readiness and adopt a mediating role between top authority and the teachers in order to implement the imposed changes.     

Creating expansive learning opportunities in schools: the role of school leaders in initial teacher education partnerships

This article analyses the learning opportunities afforded pre-service teachers when participating in a primary school placement in London, England as part of their university teacher education course. Cultural historical activity theory is used as a theoretical framework to address how pre-service teacher learning opportunities are constructed. Building on a previous year-long ethnographic study which explored how and why pre-service teacher learning opportunities differed in school settings, this paper introduces a small scale pilot study. The study integrates developmental work research into an initial teacher education school/university partnership, and considers the role of the school leader in this. Possibilities for pre-service teachers, teachers and teacher educators to work together in a research process that is integral to an initial teacher education partnership are forwarded, with the aim of ensuring that critical enquiry and learning are kept at the forefront of the activity.     

史学理论及其在中学教学中运用的几点思考

随着中学历史教学改革的深入 ,将史学理论运用到历史教学中日趋重要。在运用史学理论进行教学中 ,必须做到 :要与史实分析相结合 ,要与习题训练相结合 ,要与思想教育相结合 ,要与历史课外活动相结合     

Authentic science experiences as a vehicle for assessing orientation towards science and science careers relative to identity and agency: a response to “learning from the path followed by Brad”

This response draws from the literature on adaptive learning, traditional ecological knowledge, and social–ecological systems to show that Brad’s choice is not a simple decision between traditional ecological knowledge and authentic science. This perspective recognizes knowledge systems as dynamic, cultural and historical activities characterized by diverse worldviews and ways of constructing and legitimizing knowledge. Brad’s decision is seen as an example of adaptive learning, identity development and personal/collective agency oriented to increasing tribal influence in resource management decisions and policies. I will conclude that science literacy for all is not served by a transcendent, universal, Western modern view of science.

Reconsidering the 'nature of science' as a curriculum component

Although the nature of science has long been seen as an important, indeed central, component of science education during this century, efforts to integrate an authentic view of the nature of science into the curriculum have often met with little success. Work in the field of science studies since the 1960s has compounded this difficulty by presenting educators with various competing, often conflicting, views of the essence of scientific inquiry. I discuss previous attempts to come to grips with this fundamental issue of how to deal with the competing views of science and suggest an alternative approach for integrating nature of science issues into the school science curriculum. What is needed is for educators to accept that no single nature of science exists and to develop curricula that help students understand instead the diverse, local practices that are found within and across scientific disciplines.     

Evaluating school inspection effectiveness: A systematic research synthesis on 30 years of international research

The present study summarized research on school inspection of the last 30 years to provide an estimation of its effectiveness and to identify factors influencing inspection effectiveness. Following a systematic literature search, k = 30 inferential statistical studies on school inspection were coded. Due to the large variety in the analytical strategies used in the studies, the findings were synthesized in a systematic review. Twenty-four percent of the n = 222 effects of the k = 16 control group studies indicated positive and 18 % negative inspection effects. The majority of effects (58 %) was not significant. The most consistent positive inspection effects resulted for standardized achievement tests in Mathematics and in the mother language. Perceived accountability pressure and the perceived quality of the inspection were two of several factors that influenced inspection success in the k = 16 comparison group and correlational studies. The findings highlight new avenues for school inspection research and practice.     

Partnerships in pedagogy: refocusing of classroom lenses

Current models of initial teacher training (ITT) in England include substantial elements of school‐based experience developed in collaborative partnerships with local schools involving university tutors working with experienced classroom teachers. Balance in such partnerships has been characterised as trainees focusing on day‐to‐day pragmatics of working in classrooms whilst engaged in school experience, while their higher education institution (HEI) elements provide theoretical bases to underpin school based activities. Within such partnership arrangements, development of pedagogic beliefs and expertise is achieved by a complex network of experiences. Within the context of this paper this element of pedagogic development is shown to be less well supported than other aspects of trainee teachers’ professional preparation. This paper, using cultural historical activity theory (CHAT), focuses on a small‐scale research project in which mentor and trainee dialogue is examined. The paper concludes that CHAT analysis makes a valuable contribution to our understanding of how to resolve some of these issues within teacher training partnerships.     

The challenges of scaling-up and sustaining professional development school partnerships

This article addresses the challenges PDS partnerships face as they go to scale. Based on Coburn's (2005) notions of scale, the article uses organizational theory to analyze data from a ten-year qualitative meta-synthesis of PDS partnership research. Based upon the analysis, the article offers four recommendations: PDS partnerships should sustain strong trajectories of research regarding their work; Stakeholders in PDS partnerships need to ensure that faculty and staff have adequate support to thrive; PDS partnerships need to be based upon enabling bureaucratic structures; and PDS partners need to create opportunities to engage with each other in positive, normative spaces.     

Positioning the individual teacher in school-based learning for inclusion

This paper reports on a critical ethnographic case study investigating teacher learning in a primary school in South Africa. A qualitative research methodology within a cultural–historical activity theoretical (CHAT) framework was employed. The learning trajectories of two teachers are presented spawning questions on how the empirical relationship between individual (teacher) and social (school as system) could be represented within CHAT. It is possible to argue theoretically for an agentive positioning for the two teachers allowing for the possibility that elements of this project will be sustained.     

The characteristics of the school organization and the constraints on market ideology in education: an institutional view

The paper raises theoretical insights against central premises underlying the policy of parental choice and educational market from the standpoint of the institutional theory of organization. It discusses how the institutional theory may explain the barriers to diversity, responsiveness, and improvement, all of which are assumed to be driven by the implementation of parental choice reform at the school level, and it looks at what this perspective says about rational decision‐making. In general, institutional elements such as conformity to institutional rules, isomorphism, decoupling, and loose coupling argued to prevail in schools seem to be obstacles for many educational processes and outcomes ‘promised’ by advocates of parental choice and market in education. Implications for the study of parental choice and educational marketing are suggested.     

近十年鸳鸯蝴蝶派研究述评

传统的评论家把鸳鸯蝴蝶派看作顽固不化的封建余孽,但当疏离了“五四”激进的话语场域,在当下语境中进行审视时,鸳鸯蝴蝶派的研究呈现出多元性和开放性的局面。批评家从不同的视角和立场对其进行阐释和解说,在对鸳鸯蝴蝶派的近十年研究中,梳理点放在本体论的言说和关系论的沟联两大体系上,在众生喧哗中透视鸳蝴派的历史本质,为更好的理解文本提供一条捷径,以便利于文本的阐发性言说。