Rural schools,social capital and the Big Society: a theoretical and empirical exposition

The paper commences with a theoretical exposition of the current UK government's policy commitment to the idealised notion of the Big Society and the social capital currency underpinning its formation. The paper positions this debate in relation to the rural and adopts an ethnographically‐informed methodological approach to provide an in‐depth look at two contrasting English rural primary schools and their relationship with their village communities. The empirical investigation seeks to explore the extent to which the potential for building social capital is evidenced in current rural school–community relations within these two locales. The findings reveal a highly differentiated countryside in which any attempt to essentialise the abilities of rural schools to generate social capital in order to build the Big Society should be avoided.     

The Effects of Contingent Teacher Praise,as Specified by Canter's Assertive Discipline Programme,on Children's On‐task Behaviour

The purpose of this study was to examine the effectiveness of contingent teacher praise, as specified by Canter's Assertive Discipline programme, on children's on‐task behaviour. In Western Australian primary schools (and in an increasing number of British schools) Canter's programme is widely used. However, while there are many anecdotal reports of its effectiveness there is a relative absence of well controlled research studies reporting objective data. In the present study, three teachers from three separate primary schools and eight randomly selected children from each of their classes were systematically observed. Continuous data collection indicated that following training in the appropriate use of praise, as specified by Canter, all three teachers successfully increased their rates of praising. Of the 24 children, all but one evidenced increases in levels of on‐task behaviour. However, observations conducted during a follow‐up phase revealed reductions in the use of praise by the teachers and in some levels of on‐task behaviour.     

Markets,Ideologies and Primary Initial Teacher Education

ABSTRACT

The British government's proposals for the reform of primary initial teacher education (ITE), including the transfer of major responsibility to schools, are examined in the context of their plans for more centralised control over the curriculum and the imposition of traditional methods of teaching. A model of appropriate objectives for school‐based primary ITE is outlined and an alternative concept of partnership based on co‐operation between higher education institutions and schools put forward. Implications of the reforms for primary schools are considered. In an attempt to make sense of the government's proposals, the apparent contradiction between its commitment to an educational market and the actual concentration of power in its own hands is explored. The reforms are shown to be part of a sustained attack on education professionals, and to illustrate how market relations may be used to promote the dominance of the central state by fragmenting opposition.     

‘Hardly Neutral Players’: Australia's role in liberalising trade in education services

In this paper we explore the avowedly partisan stance of Australia regarding trade in education services, the government's enthusiastic approach to market liberalisation through GATS, and its response to the concerns of vocal critics including academic and student unions. Education is a major export enterprise for Australia, both onshore and offshore. Education is publicly referred to as an ‘industry’ as often as a ‘sector’, and institutions behave in an aggressively market‐oriented manner unthinkable two decades ago. While other major education exporters, including the EU, US and Canada, have showed flagging commitment to pursuing trade liberalisation in education due to opposition from the academic community and little pressure from the ‘industry’ for such an approach, Australia and New Zealand have come to represent the most ardent supporters of free trade in education. The Australian government's approach has involved making changes to its domestic education regulations to ensure they are consistent with market liberalisation, and facilitating the exploration of concerns through various international forums, including APEC, the WTO and OECD. Issues such as quality assurance, consumer protection, and public subsidies remain high on the list of matters for further debate.     

Weaving the threads of meaning: a characteristic of children's spirituality and its implications for religious education

Although well documented from a British perspective, empirical research exploring the spiritual lives of primary school children in the Australian context is a field in which scholarship is beginning to emerge. This article reports on one particular finding which emerged from an Australian study seeking to identify some characteristics of children's spirituality in Catholic primary schools. The characteristic has been termed weaving the threads of meaning. It describes the way in which the children who participated in this study appeared to use their sense of wonder as a means of expressing their spirituality by piecing together a worldview based around their attempts at meaning making. This article argues that the existence of this characteristic presents a challenge for religious education, in particular for those programmes which operate within faith schools where the Christian narrative forms a source of the authoritative wisdom to be handed on to its students.     

Addressing individual difficulties in reading: issues relating to Reading Recovery and Pause,Prompt, Praise

Recently the DfES has issued guidance on ways to address the needs of students who experience difficulties in literacy through Wave Three provision in the National Literacy Strategy ( DfES, 2002 ). This guidance raises the issue of what kind of programmes might be initiated in mainstream schools that will improve what is available generally for pupils who experience difficulties. The original Literacy Taskforce report (1997) named Reading Recovery (RR) as one programme suitable for this purpose. It is not the only programme with 'proven' efficacy, however. This article compares RR and another New Zealand‐based programme, Pause, Prompt, Praise (PPP) with which it has a number of characteristics in common, in order to examine particular issues which are important to ensure that a particular programme can meet individual children's literacy needs and also have the potential for adoption by LEAs and schools in the current national curricular context. These issues are the underpinning rationales, assumptions about the reading process and questions of resources, ownership and control ( Openshaw et al., 2002 ).     

Mapping out the ICT integration terrain in the school context: identifying the challenges in an innovative project

This article discusses the research findings from the start-up phase of an innovative information and communication technology (ICT) project focused on ICT integration as a complex process involving many factors such as leadership, school readiness and organisational culture. Known locally as Hermes, the project's core objective was to provide an improved and ‘trouble-free’ ICT infrastructure for schools using thin client technology and a wireless broadband network, which would be managed centrally rather than locally. It was anticipated that this solution would help remove the barriers associated with ICT integration caused by technical issues. Based on an in-depth study of innovation adoption in eight schools involving a survey (n=119 teachers) and interviews (n=60 teachers), the study portrays a picture of the ICT integration patterns prior to and during the Hermes intervention in terms of schools' ICT readiness, leadership and vision. This small scale study can help us understand first- and second-order barriers to ICT integration in schools. In particular, this study informs us about the ecology of schools and ICT-based innovation, innovation scalability and contributes to a critical study of educational technology via a context-rich account of how educational technology is actually being mediated, rather than an idealised account of how technology could be used.     

澳大利亚私立高等教育机构监管政策 变迁的历史沿革与特点分析

澳大利亚政府对私立高等教育机构监管政策变迁的历史轨迹与公立高等教育占主导地位的国家有诸多相似之处，都经历过从“排斥”或者说“边缘化”到“被动接受”再到“标准化引领”的过程。该文从历史演进的视角慎思澳大利亚政府对私立高等教育监管政策变迁的动因与导向，进而总结澳大利亚政府监管政策的特点：通过间接管理方式控制私立高等教育机构逐利行为的度；通过诱致性制度强化公私立高等教育机构的竞争与合作；通过分类资助引导私立高等教育机构质量优先发展。     

Education during political transition in Poland

The article presents a comparative analysis of education in communist and post-communist Poland, based upon fieldwork in schools in Lodz in 1993 compared with earlier research in such schools in 1988. Some of the observed changes were a direct result of the change in the government's political ideology — notably the teaching of history, social studies and religious education; some were a response to the changing economic structure in Poland brought about by the transition from a centrally planned economy to a free market one; and some were a response to a deepening economic crisis associated with structural adjustment policies, but where the mode of response was facilitated by a free market ideology.     

Recent developments in HIV/AIDS prevention for Russian adolescents

This article reports on the educator qualities that are valued by Australian teachers involved in sexuality education in high schools. Focus groups were conducted with school sexuality education teachers in 19 high schools in five Australian states. Data indicated that teachers valued being trustworthy, being open and honest, being willing to listen, having a sense of humour, and being able to relate to the students, especially being able to relate in a trustworthy and confidential way. Also valued were being comfortable with one's own sexuality, being approachable and being flexible. These qualities are similar to those recommended in the literature in the 1970s and 1980s and correspond closely to the qualities sought by today's high school students. Australian schoolteachers currently enjoy a positive climate for teaching sexuality education, as do many European schoolteachers. This contrasts with the climate for many American teachers where Abstinence Until Marriage programme requirements place many restrictions on what can be taught and may compromise the expression of teacher qualities such as being non-judgemental, flexible, open and honest. The findings have implications for teacher professional development, pre-service teacher education training, and the selection of teachers to teach sexuality education.     

From a ‘Sketchy Policy’ to a ‘Workable Scheme’: the DES and grant‐maintained schools

ABSTRACT

This paper examines how initial proposals for grant‐maintained (GM) schools were developed by the Department of Education and Science (DES) as it took them forward into legislation. Drawing on interviews conducted with officials involved in creating a statutory framework for GM schools, the paper addresses wider issues of policy generation including the extent to which civil servants influence the content of education policy. In the case of GM schools policy, this study suggests that the DES developed the original policy proposals in ways unforeseen by its early advocates. It concludes by reviewing the significance of recent changes to the policy and argues that these have to be interpreted in light of the government's ideological commitment to bring ‘market principles’ to the education service.     

WHO SHOULD GO TO COLLEGE

Empirical research exploring the spiritual lives of young children in Australia is a field in which scholarship is beginning to emerge. This article reports on one particular finding that emerged from an Australian study seeking to identify some characteristics of children's spirituality in Catholic primary schools. The characteristic has been termed spiritual questing, and pertains to the way in which these children were spiritual seekers, finding authentic ways of connecting with self, others, the world, and with God. In the light of the emergence of this characteristic, this article presents some implications for religious education in faith contexts for nurturing children's spirituality.     

Using solution focused brief therapy in individual referrals for bullying

The authors work in a city local education authority Special Educational Needs Support Service with an Anti-Bullying Project that continues to develop effective approaches to dealing with bullying in schools. This paper describes the project's use of Solution Focused Brief Therapy (SFBT) and reports on the outcomes of a large number of interventions, particularly with pupils of secondary school age. The support group approach, developed within this project and published in Educational Psychology in Practice, is referred to in the government's anti-bullying pack as a key strategy. The authors show that SFBT provides another effective strategy to support pupils vulnerable to bullying in both primary and secondary schools.     

Towards a world in which many worlds fit?: Zapatista autonomous education as an alternative means of development

This paper examines the Zapatista schools which arose in 1996 in the state of Chiapas in Mexico as a pillar of Zapatista autonomy and also as a result of the indigenous communities’ dissatisfaction with the government's bilingual education programme. Based on ethnographic field work, the author reveals the objectives of the schools as being the protection of indigenous culture, values, languages and rights, the promotion of sexual equality, the gearing of education towards the rural context and the strengthening of communities’ independence of external organisations. The author finds that despite the political, financial and didactic obstacles they face, the schools are succeeding in making progress in fulfilling their objectives and building an alternative to the neoliberal development model.     

Achievement of Black Caribbean pupils: good practice in Lambeth schools

The aim of this research article is to investigate how pupils from Black Caribbean backgrounds are helped to achieve high standards in British schools and to identify a number of significant common themes for success in raising the achievement. It draws evidence of good practice from 13 case study schools in the local education authority (LEA). The main findings of the research carried out show that Key Stage 2 (KS2) and General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE) results have improved significantly in the case study schools in the last seven years and all schools are performing above national average with Black Caribbean pupils. The study has also identified a number of good practices in successful schools. Among the key features that contribute to the success in the case study schools for raising the achievement of Black Caribbean are: strong leadership with emphasis on raising expectations for all pupils and teachers; the use of performance data for school self‐evaluation and tracking pupils' performance; a commitment to creating a mesmerising curriculum where teachers use their creative intuition to deepen the quality of pupils' learning; a highly inclusive curriculum that meets the needs of Black Caribbean pupils; a strong link with the community and a clear commitment to parents' involvement; good and well coordinated support to Black Caribbean pupils through extensive use of learning mentors and role models; an inclusive curriculum and a strong commitment to equal opportunities with a clear stand on racism. This article discusses in detail these good practices and pattern of KS2 and GCSE performance by ethnicity to illustrate difference in attainment. Overall, the finding of this case study LEA confirms that in good schools Black Caribbean pupils do well and buck the national trend against all odds. The reasons for this success story are all to do with education provided in the LEA and schools. The implications of the research for all concerned with school improvement receive much attention.     

Transformative Partnerships: Designing School‐Based Visual Arts Outreach Programmes

Partnerships between informal learning environments and schools have been cited as an innovative, effective way for museums, galleries and schools to work together to enrich classroom curricula, support student success, and facilitate the utilisation of available community museum and cultural resources. This article reports on findings from a multi‐year, exploratory arts outreach programme for 31 elementary and secondary visual art educators from a rural school district in the American South. The outreach programme was conceived in partnership with faculty from the neighbouring university's art department, school of education and university art gallery. Utilising a partnership framework, the travelling exhibit was developed through a collaborative research relationship with the participating visual art educators. Findings from this programme indicate that travelling exhibits can be an effective mode of programme delivery for informal learning environments while also supporting the content needs for classroom arts educators if the programme stresses transformative partnerships across all invested parties.     

Cast the net a little wider: Australian aid in the South Pacific

This article examines the development of Australia's bilateral aid programme to higher education in the South Pacific, specifically at the University of the South Pacific (USP). The premise is primarily historical, focusing on the important decades of USP's expansion and Australian aid policy development in the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s. This article briefly examines current challenges for donor and recipient. Both historical and current perspectives are fundamental to understanding key issues about aid in the South Pacific. Australian aid priorities have ranged from the explicitly political and security focused, to priorities of education and welfare. This article is timely given Australia's continued influence in the South Pacific.