Context,Participation and Discourse: The Role of the Communities of Practice Concept in Understanding Farmer Decision-Making

Abstract

This article contributes to the study of decision-making processes both at a farm systems level and at the level of agricultural research in partnership with commercial farms. It also highlights the way in which adoption and adaptation of innovation occurs in a socially rich context with information, group formation and connectivity converging to create a complex learning environment.

Design/methodology/approach. The methodology used in this research centres on the Communities of Practice (CoP) theoretical framework augmented by Gramsci's notion of Intellectual Communities and discursive analysis. A dairy farming systems project operating in Australia (3030 Project) provided the context for our study.

Findings. The group structures within the 3030 Project constitute CoP in which innovation is evolved, adopted and adapted. This process involves socially negotiated learning which is both processual and highly contextual. Discursive dialects are formed and interact within these CoP at the level of decision-making and can be analysed in context to further our understanding of the way in which farmers participate in learning opportunities and negotiate innovation.

Practical implications. This theoretical framework can be used to enhance the learning capabilities of these groups by developing a better understanding of how discourse is used to successfully transfer knowledge effectively and with authority.

Originality/value. The 3030 Project provided a unique opportunity for a comparative analysis of on-farm and research-based decision-making processes in a ‘real time’ situation from a multi-scale perspective.     

Interpreting Menchu's account: Sociocultural and linguistic contexts

This article provides a broader theoretical and sociohistoricalcontext in which to explore possible interpretations of Rigoberta Menchu's account regarding the atrocities committed against the Mayan people of the Altiplano in Guatemala. By focusing on the larger context, I attempt to bring attention to the need for a better understanding of ethnographic research based not on secondary sources but on first-hand data systematically collected in field-based settings. Such fieldwork requires that we take into consideration the language and culture of the people under study in order to arrive at credible interpretations of their statements.     

Linking practice and theory using Engaged Scholarship

ABSTRACT

This paper reports on a study aiming to develop theory and improve practice within an Engineering Education context. The focus is on the development of students’ graduate-level work skills during Higher Education programmes and a specific practice example provided an ideal study opportunity. Engaged Scholarship, a research approach from Management Science, was selected as it provided a way to study practice that can generate both theoretical and practical knowledge. This paper summarises the philosophical underpinnings of the approach and sets out the strengths and challenges in applying it. The research design is then evaluated, concluding that the design is internally consistent and suitable for this study. The authors then reflect on implementation, provide examples of findings and discuss some of the practical challenges encountered. Practice improvements implemented to date include improvements to reflection activities and skills definition, and a theory of developing work skills in HE programmes is emerging.     

School-to-school support within a competitive education system: views from the inside

ABSTRACT

This paper draws on evidence from a study carried out in England to explore how schools can support one another’s improvement within a policy context that emphasises competition. The findings offer some reasons to be optimistic, and are suggestive of the capacity and potential of the school system in England to “self-improve” through collaborative means. However, light is also thrown on a number of barriers that need to be overcome to make such an approach work. The paper argues that developing a greater understanding of the social complexities involved in school-to-school support requires research that takes account of the views of those involved. With this in mind, the paper reflects on the experiences of a group of school leaders in England, leading to lessons that are likely to be relevant to those in other national contexts where competition is seen as a driver for school improvement.     

Discoursing Education Reforms: A Case Study of Post-Handover Education Development in Hong Kong

Abstract

This study adopted a discursive institutional framework to examine how teachers make sense of and understand transformation in their work and workplace during education reforms. Examination of this process is highly significant because it helps us to understand the often misplaced emphasis on workload in analysis of teachers’ work pressure in public and academic discussions, which might not reflect the whole picture. In-depth interviews were used to obtain information from the teachers’ perspective as front-line practitioners in the education institution. The study identified the discursive processes contributing to the institutionalization of new ideas and practices introduced during education reforms. This article argues that through situating teachers’ response to the reform in the relevant sociohistorical context, we can better delineate how meaning negotiation is possible in the moment of institutional change.     

Academic development through a negotiated curriculum

Abstract

This paper examines the use of curriculum negotiation in programmes designed to prepare academics for their teaching role, arguing that this is an effective way to meet growing demands for professionalism in higher education teaching. A postgraduate certificate course which has been developed and evaluated by the authors for three years constitutes a case study through which the issues are examined. The course is based on nine basic principles derived from the literature on teaching and learning in academic contexts. These principles provide a framework for discussing the course and the responses of its participants. Implications of this case study for the wider use of negotiation as a way of developing the teaching professionalism of academics from a wide range of disciplinary contexts are then discussed.     

Can children with severe learning difficulties be educated in ordinary schools?

Abstract

The education of all children in ordinary schools is now the central question of special education and of education itself. The integration debate has essentially developed along moral and ideological lines, with access to mainstream schools seen as a basic right of all children.

Whatever the moral or political commitment to integration, the unique needs of the individual child should not be sacrificed on the altar of ideology, however powerful. For this reason alone, it is important to confront and seek to overcome the serious obstacles which stand in the way of educational integration.

This paper discusses issues relating to the education of a group of children whose needs are thought to be the most difficult to meet within ordinary schools. Following a summary of the research literature and an account of individual integration schemes, an organisational model is presented which could meet the needs of all children with severe learning difficulties within an ordinary school context.     

Academic Publishing in English: Exploring Linguistic Privilege and Scholars’ Trajectories

ABSTRACT

This paper explores the trajectories of six young academics (early-stage researchers) currently active in the context of Swedish academia in two different fields: English Linguistics and Political Science. Through a series of narrative interviews, the analysis investigates the development of their scholarly work, the relationship with their texts, and the negotiation of their position as contributors to their academic field. The paper discusses issues of language attitudinal and ideological nature, emphasising the need to focus on writers, rather than texts. The discussion revolves around the role of access to scholarly networks and to quality publication outlets as some of the key factors in shaping their development as young scholars and enabling opportunities to publish in highly-ranked journals. The goal of the article is to contextualise and problematize the notion of “privilege” that is customarily attributed to L1 English-speaking scholars, and to provide a more nuanced understanding of how young academics tackle the publishing enterprise.     

The Validity and Value of National Vocational Qualifications: the case of purchasing

Abstract

This paper outlines the process through which competence‐based National Vocational Qualifications in Purchasing have been developed against the context of criticisms of the concept itself and the methodology adopted. It is argued that the validity of such qualifications lies in practitioner involvement in their development and assessment. They also have value through their incorporation in organisational personnel selection and development processes. Ultimately, however, their validity and value remain to be established through empirical research.     

Students’ writing and reading preferences in a paperless classroom

ABSTRACT

This study took place in a school which adopted a “paperless classroom” policy. The purpose of the study was to examine whether students who learn in a paperless classroom really prefer reading and writing on computers rather than on paper and whether their preferences differ according to contextual conditions and personal differences. The findings show that students’ reading and writing preferences depended on the context in which the reading or writing was performed. The boys preferred to read and write on the computer significantly more than girls. Conversely, the girls’ handwriting skills and preference for handwriting were higher than the boys’. Reading and writing on computer was found to be favored among strong students, while weak students tended to prefer using paper. This research also revealed a rapid decrease in favoring computer over paper in both reading and writing over time. Students who had experienced the paperless classroom policy in this school for three years were less supportive of the use of computers for reading and writing than younger students.     

Under-tapped potential: practitioner research as a vehicle for widening participation

Abstract

Practitioners working to widen participation to universities in England are an increasingly important and professionally diverse group but surprisingly absent from the academic literature and lacking in access to bespoke professional development pathways in HE. In England current approaches within policy and research also tend to position them as gatherers of evidence with a mission to inform change rather than developing their capacity to be(come) agents of change in their own right. Drawing on the perspectives of three widening participation practitioners who had recently completed a research-based MA, this paper explores the opportunity that this provided to illuminate the complexities encountered in routine practice, contributing to positive change. Rather than being methodologically inferior, practitioner research emerged as highly complementary and in the case of WP its transformative potential is currently hugely under-tapped.     

Multi-site ethnography,hypermedia and the productive hazards of digital methods: a struggle for liveness

This article explores the possibilities and frustrations of using digital methods in a multi-sited ethnographic research project. The project, Urban School Performances: The interplay, through live and digital drama, of local-global knowledge about student engagement, is a study of youth and teachers in drama classrooms in contexts of schooling marked as ‘disadvantaged’ in research sites in Toronto (Canada), Lucknow (India), Taipei (Taiwan) and Boston (USA). The authors first outline the place of digital methods in the research, describing how software such as Adobe Connect and Survey Monkey, as well as a project Wiki and blog, enabled some virtual communication among and within research sites. They go on to suggest that their experience with these methods exposed the significant limitations of the technology, but also that coming up against these limitations posed useful questions about the nature of specific research methods and about the overall priorities of the study. As an example, the article focuses on how digital methods have usefully complicated available conceptions of ‘liveness’, an important dimension both of live performance and of ethnographic fieldwork. Despite their skepticism about the promise of new technologies, the authors conclude that their experience valuably relocated research analysis from post-facto interpretation to an ongoing negotiation with method in the field.     

Exploring halaqah as research method: a tentative approach to developing Islamic research principles within a critical ‘indigenous’ framework

This paper explores a traditional Islamic pedagogy known as halaqah as a potentially useful authentic research method and contributes to discourses about critical and indigenous research methodologies through an analysis of Islamization of Knowledge and other ‘critical indigenous’ movements amongst Muslims. Islamic research principles are tentatively proposed and then used to assess the effectiveness of halaqah as an authentic Islamic research method through analysis of a small qualitative study. The study involved Muslim mother-teachers participating in halaqah to collaboratively reflect on their work as holistic Islamic educators who are developing a ‘critical indigenous’ education to meet the needs of Muslim children in contemporary Britain. This paper argues that halaqah is a more authentic research method in this study than a group interview or focus group as it enabled participants to articulate themselves within their own epistemological and ontological context and engage in critical reflection within an Islamic paradigm.     

What can evidence-use in practice learn from evidence-use in policy?

Abstract

Background: This paper approaches evidence-informed practice from the perspective of evidence-informed policy-making. Using the findings of a recent study of evidence-use by educational policy-makers to raise questions about evidence-use by educational practitioners, it seeks to explore what such a study might tell us about how to understand and improve evidence-use by educational practitioners.

Purpose: The paper aims, therefore, to identify potential connections, shared insights and common issues between evidence-use in policy and evidence-use in practice. It does this by focusing on two specific areas: the nature of the evidence (i.e. what evidence is used) and the nature of the use (i.e. how evidence is used). The paper outlines what was found about each of these aspects of evidence-use in policy, and then considers what questions and issues these findings might raise for evidence-use in educational practice.

Sample: The empirical study on which this paper is based was an in-depth study of the use of evidence within educational policy development in Australia. It focused on the development of three specific education policies within one Australian state education department and involved interviews with 25 policy-makers who were actively involved in the development of these policies.

Design and methods: The policy-based study involved the following data collection processes: (i) in-depth semi-structured interviews with 25 policy-makers who were involved in the development of the selected policies; (ii) documentary analysis of policy documents, background research reports and other relevant papers relating to the selected policies; (iii) unstructured observation (where possible) of meetings and events connected with the development of the selected policies; and (iv) feedback from 40 wider policy staff who took part in a verification workshop to discuss the project’s emerging findings.

Findings: Drawing on the findings from the original policy study, two areas of potential connection to evidence-use in practice are explored. First, in relation to ‘varieties of evidence and uses’, the negotiation of diverse evidence types and the potential for using evidence in multiple and varied ways appear to be features of evidence-use that are common to educational policy-makers as well as educational practitioners. Secondly, in relation to ‘narrowness of evidence sources’, there is potential for both policy-makers and practitioners to use a narrow (rather than broad) selection of evidence, due to a tendency to work with certain evidence types as a starting point (e.g. performance data) and a tendency to draw on certain evidence sources more frequently (e.g. well-known, familiar research sources).

Conclusions: This paper emphasises: (i) the need for more integrated (or joined-up) understandings of evidence-use across contexts of practice and contexts of policy; (ii) the importance of continued efforts to understand and represent evidence-use more effectively within educational practices; and (iii) the value of paying careful attention to the quality and qualities of evidence-use within and across the different settings of educational practice and policy.     

Understanding Learning Cities as discursive,material and affective infrastructures

ABSTRACT

Cities around the world are increasingly developing city-wide lifelong learning strategies to promote individual and civic adaptation to major economic, technological, and environmental challenges. Such initiatives, however, have not yet received commensurate research attention from education researchers and it is not yet clear that we have the theoretical or methodological tools to research the complexity of learning at a city scale. This paper attempts to outline one approach that might respond to this challenge by drawing on the concept of ‘lively infrastructure’ from urban studies. Based on 11 months of detailed ethnographic fieldwork in the city of Bristol, the paper draws on this concept to trace how learning infrastructures are produced, accessed, and reshaped by individuals and serve to provision particular forms of learning in the city. In so doing, the paper argues that learning infrastructures need to be understood as discursive, material, and affective; as deeply interconnected with other city infrastructures, particularly childcare and transport; and as capable of morphing to create both radical new forms of learning activity as well as consolidating existing practices of exclusion and inequality.     

Exploring the views and beliefs of parents of typically developing children about inclusion and inclusive education

Background: The inclusion of pupils with special educational needs and disabilities (SENDs) in regular classrooms has been identified as a high priority in many policy documents published by both European and international organisations. Its implementation, however, is influenced by a number of factors, some of which are directly related to the participation and attitudes of different stakeholders, including parents of typically developing children. Parents, as a social group, can act in favour of inclusion or they can support more segregated educational environments.

Purpose: The aim of this study was to explore, in a Greek context, the views and beliefs of parents of typically developing children about different aspects of the education of children with disabilities, with a particular focus on inclusion and inclusive education.

Method: Interviews were held with 40 Greek parents representing 40 typically developing school-aged children who were educated in six different primary education schools, from the broader area of central Greece. All of the children, at the time of the study, were educated in mainstream classes, in which an in-classroom support system was applied. Open-ended interview questions focused on parents’ views and beliefs about the implementation of inclusive educational programmes. Data were analysed according to the principles of an inductive data-driven approach.

Findings: The research findings indicate that most of the participant parents did not feel informed about specific school policy practices relevant to inclusive education; they were not aware of the notion of ‘inclusion’ or approached inclusion from an integrationist point of view. Within this context, they hold positive to neutral attitudes towards inclusion, on the basis that a child with SENDs can cope with the school requirements.

Conclusions: This small-scale, exploratory research study suggests the importance of informing and involving parents of typically developing children in efforts to promote more inclusive practices.     

Access to higher education in South Africa: expanding capabilities in and through an undergraduate photovoice project

ABSTRACT

There is a gap in research on access to universities in South Africa. The research that exists focuses on quantitative methodologies, although some qualitative studies are now emerging. These research methodologies, although necessary and substantial for the development of equity measures and policies, might be less successful in their impact on the local context, on research participants and in expanding what counts as knowledge in the university. In this paper, participatory research, which has not been used to research access, is explored. The paper seeks to go beyond the instrumentalization of research participants – especially those from low-income households – highlighting the potential of using multi-strategy research, in which participatory elements are included as a way to foster both participants’ human development and local impact. Drawing on a research project on access to higher education in South Africa, the paper demonstrates that by including participatory elements (in this case photovoice) has the potential to operationalize Appadurai’s notion of the ‘right to research’ among undergraduates. Using data, including processes, observations, workshops, interviews, and visual narratives from a participatory photovoice project, the findings highlight how methodological plurality creates space for locally and relevant knowledge production, challenging epistemic barriers and fostering human development among the research participants.     

University supervisors and preservice teachers: Clarifying roles and negotiating relationships

Abstract

We focus on the preservice teacher‐university supervisor relationship within the context of field experiences to explore the general question, “How can we, as university teacher educators, better assist preservice teachers in their development through field experiences?” Our discussion is based on: reflective accounts of preservice teachers written before, during, and following periods of field experience; our experiences as teachers and teacher educators, which include being faculty supervisors; and on research on the role of the university supervisor in field experiences. We first describe some typical perceptions associated with the preservice teacher‐university supervisor relationship, and then go on to suggest some specific ways to enhance the understanding that preservice teachers have of the roles of university supervisors and, hence, to facilitate the negotiation and development of productive preservice teacher‐university supervisor relationships.     

Testing Extension Services through AKAP Models

Abstract

Purpose: The aim of the paper is to analyse the attitude of Italian farms in gaining access to agricultural extension services (AES).

Design/methodology/approach: The ways Italian farms use AES are described through the AKAP (Awareness, Knowledge, Adoption, Product) sequence. This article investigated the AKAP sequence by submitting a questionnaire to a sample of Italian farms, providing questions on each step of the sequence.

Findings: The results confirm the validity of the model and the necessity to evaluate AES in each phase of the sequence, through an in-depth analysis of the possible motivation for not adopting them.

Practical implications: The functional repositioning of agriculture redefines the role of the farm, by introducing new possibilities of production and by fostering multifunctional activities. In this context, new tasks for AES emerge, aiming at sustaining farm development along either sectorial or territorial paths. Difficulties in adopting AES call for both fostering higher levels of access to services on behalf of farms and the adequate supply of services to farms' new needs.

Originality/value: AKAP models have been prevailingly used in developing countries to evaluate the efficacy of extension in increasing agricultural productivity. This article demonstrates how this model could be of help in developed agriculture too in performing new lines of development rooted in the new models of multifunctional agriculture.     

Transactional distance theory and total quality management in open and distance learning

Abstract

Although our perceptions regarding distance education (DE) have changed significantly, there still remains a perceived lack of quality in the development, management and delivery of DE programmes. Unfortunately, DE offered in developing countries depends largely on first and second-generation delivery modes and relies heavily on print as form of information dissemination. Thus, technological drawbacks are often hailed as the main reason for such setbacks. This article discusses the findings of a comparative study involving an education programme that runs as both a contact and a distance programme. The assessment indices include access, delivery and output, while the Transactional Distance Theory is adopted to ascertain the extent to which the theory accounts for excellence in a given programme. Findings clearly support the importance of the relationships between dialogue, structure and autonomy. However, the researchers proffer that the Transactional Distance Theory should apply not just to learning material, but to the totality of a given programme. Finally, suggestions on enhancing the total quality of programmes in this context include: the introduction of generic courses; provision of bursaries; introduction and decentralisation of pre-orientation programmes, provision of quality learning material; and workable tutoring and counseling systems.