Reel music teaching: a classroom music teacher reflects on the portrayal of music teaching in Mr Holland's Opus

The commercially successful movie Mr Holland's Opus tells the story of a high school music teacher throughout his thirty year career. It offers the general public a picture of what it is to be a music educator. This article outlines a critical reading of the film from the perspective of a practising high school music teacher. Three broad themes emerged in this teacher's viewing of Mr Holland's Opus: (i) general issues about teaching were identified that were not specific to music education, (ii) issues specifically about music education were critiqued as being unrealistic, and (iii) it is difficult being a musician if you are a music teacher. The themes suggest the movie has numerous possibilities for teacher reflection, as well as exposing myths about teaching which are portrayed in the mass media.     

Building career capital through further study in Australia and Singapore

In modern society, individuals are having to assume increasing responsibility for their own career trajectories. One of the key ways in which individuals can engage in such ‘career self-management’ is by taking up learning opportunities through further study. The purpose of this paper, therefore, is to explore, using the conceptual framework of career capital, ways in which samples of adults in Australia and Singapore perceive that they are self-managing and leveraging their careers through continuing education, and the nature of the career capital they are accumulating. It draws on data from two different research projects undertaken in Australia and Singapore. These projects involved individuals who had undertaken studies in two different educational sectors: the academic and the vocational. Australian respondents (n=190) had studied in both the vocational education and training (VET) and the higher education (HE) sectors; Singaporean respondents (n=101) had graduated from both the formal tertiary education (PET) and the Workforce Skills Qualifications (WSQ) sectors. Data were gathered through online surveys and in-depth interviews. Based on the reports from these samples, the study found that the building of career capital was being played out relatively consistently despite educational, political and cultural differences, but that different emphases were placed on the types of career capital, with ‘knowing-how’ the most important.     

The (d)(t)oxic lifeworld of early career postgraduate supervisors

In the context of higher education as social space or field in the Bourdieusian sense, exploring the lived experiences of early career postgraduate supervisors allow us to (re)consider the institutionalised rhythms, procedures and practices that shape graduate supervision. At the intersections of, inter alia, increasing numbers postgraduate students, the urgent need to transform SA higher education, and the need for appropriately qualified and experienced supervisors, many early career postgraduate supervisors are caught between understanding the doxa and orthodoxy shaping postgraduate supervision, and the necessary symbolic capital to formulate, engage with and practice heterodoxy. This article employs Bourdieu’s doxic schema (doxa, orthodoxy and heterodoxy) along with symbolic capital to make visible the doxic lifeworld experiences and journeys of early career supervisors. The research found that early career supervisors are often under-prepared, lacking symbolic capital and experiencing (toxic) shame.     

A case study of early career secondary teachers’ perceptions of their preparedness for teaching: lessons from Australia and Spain

This paper presents an international comparison of Australian and Spanish secondary teachers’ perceptions about the effectiveness of their pre-service education and their learning as in-service teachers. It aims to identify, firstly, the extent to which beginning teachers believe they are prepared for their careers through their teacher training and, secondly, what teachers have learned as practicing teachers. A qualitative case study was conducted to uncover whether similar issues raised by early career teachers were identified in different contexts. Data were collected through interviews with secondary teachers (N = 11) from Australia and Spain in their third year of full-time teaching. Findings suggest similar positive perceptions towards their practicum experiences, transition to beginning teachers and professional development. However, differences were found in their early career experiences regarding professional learning and their development of identity. Implications of the study are discussed by identifying strategies to improve pre-service education for secondary teachers.     

SWOT Analysis of Veterinary and Animal Science Education in India: Implications for Policy and Future Directions

Abstract

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to identify and rank the SWOT issues of India's veterinary and animal science education.

Design: The data were collected at the Indian Veterinary Research Institute (IVRI) from 168 post-graduate students. The two surveys generated 72% (N=121) and 68% (N=114) response rates, respectively. In the first stage, the vital SWOT issues were listed by respondents and in the second stage, they ranked the top eight issues on a Likert scale.

Findings: Uniform curriculum; merit-based admissions; and huge demand and employment prospects were perceived as major strengths. Gaps in curriculum revision and inadequate faculty, colleges and hands-on experience were perceived as key weaknesses. Regular curriculum revisions; novel instructional methods; and single admission tests were important opportunities perceived. Out-dated education model; urban biased admissions; and regional barriers were the major threats perceived.

Practical implication: The SWOT issues identified are similar to those faced by veterinary education programmes in many countries with minor variations.

Originality/value: The findings are of interest for veterinary faculties in developing and under-developed countries to harmonize their veterinary education systems on par with global norms. The related implications for policy and future directions are discussed.     

Becoming a science teacher: First year teachers' approaches to learning about teaching

This paper discusses some of the issues arising from the first year of a longitudinal study into the career development of science teachers. It deals with the influences on, and approaches to, teaching by first year science teachers. Eighteen science graduates who had completed a Diploma in Education in 1990, were interviewed about their first year's teaching experiences. The participants explored issues ranging from the influences on their approach to teaching, student learning, determinants of a good lesson, the role of pre-service teacher training, and teaching as a career. Specializations: Science education, reflective practice, teaching and learning.     

(Re)constructing career education as a socially just practice: An antipodean reflection

The author contends that career education has lost its way, and needs to be (re)located within a critical social justice framework if it is to effectively prepare young people to engage with the social, political and economic discourses that inform the shaping of ‘career(s)’. Relating to the New Zealand context, differing versions of social justice are outlined, the challenges for career education explored, and the potential for change discussed.     

Early career teachers in Australia: a critical policy historiography

Amid the growing ‘teacher quality’ discourse, early career teachers have increasingly been positioned as problematic in Australian education policy discourses over the past decade. This paper uses a critical policy historiography approach to compare representations of early career teachers in two key education policy documents, from the late 1990s and mid-2010s. Starting with the Government response to A Class Act: Inquiry into the Status of the Teaching Profession (1998) and moving to the Government response to Action Now: Classroom Ready Teachers (2015), it explores changing representations in the context of broader shifts in education policy related to teachers’ work over this timeframe. It argues that the early career teacher ‘problem’ is articulated in very different ways in these two timeframes, explores the antecedents of key tenets of the current policy settlement, and, using the theory of practice architectures, considers the implications of these for the preconditions that shape and frame teachers’ work in contemporary times.     

The crisis in academic statistics: an exploration

Abstract

At present, statistics as an academic career is not only experiencing an identity crisis, but is also fighting for survival as a vital and vibrant career choice. Good financial benefits, as well as the increasing demand for applied statisticians, have opened up very attractive career opportunities for statistics graduates, while at the same time eroding the viability of pursuing statistics as an academic teaching profession. As a result, the number of students wishing to teach statistics at universities is dwindling, and the number of vacancies in statistics departments at higher education institutions has increased. This article explores some of the reasons for the above, as well as the impact of the crisis on academic statistics. The article considers possible solutions – like opening the discourse on the future of academic statistics, taking students’ experiences seriously, the Africanisation of the curriculum, the effective use of technologies, ongoing research, and adequate financial reward.     

Westernization and social transformations in Chinese music education, 1895-1949

Editor's note: ’Dear Mum and Dad’ is rather different from the kind of academic article that the Journal usually publishes, in that it is an autobiographical account of one person's educational experiences. The paper tells the story of a young woman's three years as a student at Nottingham University through her letters to her parents written between 1952 and 1955. Memory and reflection engage with this contemporary source to produce both a vivid and humorous reconstruction of student life in the 1950s, and the identification of a set of serious issues concerning gender and higher education. Young middle‐class women at university were involved in learning financial independence, developing communal life in their halls of residence, investigating relationships with male students individually and collectively, and making subject and career choices. This subjective account reminds us that the parameters of the feminine norm were not cultural fixtures of the higher education institutions of the 1950s, to be passed on with the degree certificate. They were explored, contested and renegotiated by the women students themselves.     

Relations of Early Childhood Education Teachers’ Depressive Symptoms,Job-Related Stress,and Professional Motivation to Beliefs About Children and Teaching Practices

Research Findings: This study used teacher questionnaires to investigate the relationships of early childhood education teachers’ depressive symptoms, professional motivation, and job-related stress to their beliefs about children and teaching practices. Teachers (N = 207) were recruited from early childhood education programs in the southern United States. Path analyses showed that teachers who exhibited fewer depressive symptoms were more likely to have a career orientation to their jobs and indicated feeling less job-related stress. Teachers with a career orientation to their jobs were also more likely to have child-centered beliefs and endorse developmentally appropriate teaching practices. Teachers’ job-related stress, however, was not related to beliefs about children or teaching practices. Practice or Policy: These results suggest that teachers’ psychological and job-related well-being are linked to their beliefs about children and teaching practice in early childhood education. It is therefore important to provide support systems and preventive programs for teachers to enhance their well-being.     

Issues and challenges regarding environmental education policy implementation

Abstract

In this article, the authors have chosen to inquire into a topic that has specific relevance to the status and inclusion of environmental education in the curriculum at a stage when the translation of policy into practice stands at the crossroads: the transition of environment as phase organiser to environment as integral to all learning areas. In education praxis, the translation of policy into practice is in the hands of educators and teachers (using the terminology as suggested in this article). The issues and challenges regarding the implementation of environmental education policy as experienced by educators and teachers are identified through examining this phenomenon as portrayed in two case studies where in-service education and training (INSET) in relation to environmental education occurs. This study is one of the first to provide a researched background that identifies issues and challenges that impact on the implementation of environmental policy in formal education contexts.     

Science career aspiration and science capital in China and UK: a comparative study using PISA data

ABSTRACT

The concept of science capital has a growing influence in science education research for understanding young people’s science trajectories. Popularised in the UK, this paper aims to extend and evaluate the applicability of science capital in the context of China by drawing on PISA2015. More specifically, we make use of existing items in the PISA2015 survey as a proxy for operationalising the construct of science capital to explore the science career aspirations and attainments of 15-year-old Chinese and UK students (n?=?23,998). Our findings indicate that science capital has more explanatory power for understanding UK students’ science career aspirations than for Chinese students, where science attainment seems most important. We raise the potential challenge for Chinese students to convert their science capital into scientific self-efficacy and science career aspirations as we highlight the importance of recognising cultural and national differences in operationalising science capital.     

Suitable for Teaching? Applicants' Views on Selection for Initial Teacher Training

Selection for admission to initial teacher training is an interface between the teaching profession and those who aspire to join it. Well-managed selection can communicate a positive image of teaching as a career and can encourage applicants to maintain their interest in joining the profession. In an earlier report [4] issues in selection were considered from the standpoint of Scotland's seven colleges of education. This paper presents the views of applicants to the profession. Its principal focus is the views of candidates who did not subsequently enter on course because either they changed their minds or they were not offered places. To balance this, information gained from a smaller number of applicants who did enroll on a teaching course is also considered. Applicants' views on selection are obviously of importance in obtaining a rounded view of the strengths and weaknesses of current practice.     

Education for Work: A Review Essay of Historical,Cross‐Cultural,and Disciplinary Perspectives on Vocational Education

In this review essay, K. Peter Kuchinke uses three recent publications to consider the question of how to educate young people for work and career. Historically, this question has been central to vocational education, and it is receiving renewed attention in the context of concerns over the ability of schools to provide adequate preparation for occupational roles and career success in a rapidly changing economic landscape. Philip Gonon's Quest for Modern Vocational Education provides a historical account of Georg Kerschensteiner's vision of the role of work as a central subject matter for all students. His approach served as the foundation for the dual system in present‐day Germany. Nancy Hoffman's Schooling in the Workplace contrasts the U.S. system of career preparation for non‐college‐bound students with that of five other OECD nations where workforce and academic preparation are more strongly connected to learning in the workplace. Christopher Winch's Dimensions of Expertise, finally, offers a conceptual analysis of central ideas of vocational knowledge and underscores the important role of learning in the context of practice. The three texts offer historical, comparative, and philosophical analyses of the complex task of preparation for work and challenge education scholars to move the subject matter into the center of contemporary educational theory.     

Education and Policy: Changing Paradigms and Issues

The aim of the article is to consider the treatment of education and policy in the International Review of Education between 1955 and 2001. The article focuses on the changing prominence given to various topics in education and policy in IRE during the period and the way conceptual thinking in this area has changed and developed. An attempt is made to link both the shifts in focus on various educational planning policy themes and issues, and the major paradigm shifts in the area, to the changes in perceived education and policy needs and problems in each decade during the period.     

Education and Policy: Changing Paradigms and Issues

The aim of the article is to consider the treatment of education and policy in the International Review of Education between 1955 and 2001. The article focuses on the changing prominence given to various topics in education and policy in IRE during the period and the way conceptual thinking in this area has changed and developed. An attempt is made to link both the shifts in focus on various educational planning policy themes and issues, and the major paradigm shifts in the area, to the changes in perceived education and policy needs and problems in each decade during the period.     

Insights from teacher leavers: push and pull in career development

This article examines the career pathways of US teacher leavers, individuals who have voluntarily left classroom teaching prior to retirement. Based on the perspective that teachers construct their own career pathways through an ongoing negotiation among intrinsic and extrinsic factors, this research captures the experiences of 24 teacher leavers from geographically diverse regions of the United States. Using life history interviews, this study inquires into individuals’ experiences before, during, and after classroom teaching. Unexpectedly, only one of the 24 individuals initially intended to enter teaching. Data also indicate that teachers’ career pathways were shaped by dynamics pushing and pulling their careers into and out of the classroom. These life history interviews suggest that teachers were pushed and pulled into teaching, pushed and pulled out of teaching, and pushed and pulled around their passions. The trajectories of these teacher leavers, who have now moved into fields as diverse as non-classroom education, medicine, government, and caregiving, suggest important theoretical and practical implications for understanding and shaping teachers’ careers in today’s workforce.     

A Brief History of Workforce Education in Community Colleges

ABSTRACT

Over its 100-year plus history the community college has struggled to make clear its mission. As a comprehensive community college its mission has bounced around to focus on liberal arts, developmental, workforce, community, and general education. In today’s increasingly competitive society with shifting values and changes in power it is likely that workforce education/career and technical education will remain a foundational mission of the community college. Workforce education is strongly supported by state and federal legislators who demonstrate that support with billions of dollars. It is strongly supported by business and industry. And it is strongly supported by parents and students. This brief history captures many of the key issues and developments of the continuing evolution of workforce education in the community college.     

Study-service as a significant factor in career development

The purpose of this paper is to describe the role of the Botswana study-service scheme (Tirelo Setshaba) in the career development of its participants. Study-service is defined as community service used to educate those who participate in contrast to other service programmes where the main objective is to provide manpower e.g. by providing service to the community. First, the existing career development situation in Botswana for senior secondary school students is reviewed and findings from some recent research in this field in the country are presented. Second, the nature of the one year experience gained by Tirelo Setshaba participants is described including the uniqueness of Tirelo Setshaba as compared to other similar schemes in that service takes place before post-secondary education, but with other policies being similar to those developed for university students. Third, the paper presents a rationale for career development assistance for Tirelo Setshaba participants and describes career development material prepared for them. The nature of the scheme, with two or a maximum of four participants assigned to a village, has made it necessary to design a career service for clients who are so widely scattered that the often-used career talks, conventions or one-to-one counselling are impractical. Finally, the paper argues for a proper evaluation of Tirelo Setshaba's impact on career development as the conclusions drawn in the paper are based on limited observations.Senior Research Fellow, National Institute of Development Research and Documentation, University of Botswana. She has served for several years as planning officer with the Ministry of Education in Botswana and as a psychologist (career guidance) in Sweden.Tirelo Setshaba Adviser, Ministry of State President, Botswana. He has long experience from study-service schemes in a number of countries, inter alia Botswana, Nepal and Indonesia.