Children's literacy funds of knowledge in an urban Mexican elementary school: changing the approach

In this article, we share the vernacular literacy practices of a sixth grade students in Mexico City. From a sociocultural, ethnographic perspective and based on the contributions of the sociolinguistics of mobility and funds of knowledge, we describe the experiences and knowledge that children bring with them from home and the community to school, to write and read texts on their own during class. The findings show how they appropriate literacy practices to provide meaning to their reading and writing through the relationship between school and everyday literacy and the continuum between their oralities and literacies. Children construct literacy according to their day-to-day experiences, in and out of the classroom, and embed their literacy practices within their funds of knowledge developed at home with their families. Based on these findings, we question the significance and quintessential role that has been attributed to the school in the teaching of reading and writing, as well as the prevalence of individualistic and rigid approaches to the teaching of reading and writing.     

11 Politics and federal aid to urban school systems: the case of Chapter One

This chapter tracks the early effects of the 1988 amendments to the federal Chapter One programme on the policies and practices of four large urban districts (Atlanta, Chicago, Dade County and Dallas). Specifically, the article analyses reform efforts in the areas of programme co‐ordination, parental involvement, school‐wide projects and school performance accountability. Drawing on an historical analysis of the evolution of relations between the federal government and local school districts since the programme's inception in the 1960s, the authors argue that the apparently only modest impact of the 1988 reforms on the practice of Chapter One programmes to date is a result of a basic conflict between the intent of the reforms (to enhance educational effectiveness) and the political context as it occurs at the local level (an orientation toward bureaucratic and regulatory compliance).     

Leadership and inclusion: a special school perspective

In July 2002, the National College for School Leadership (NCSL) held a 'Leading Edge' seminar focused on the contribution that leaders in special schools can make to the development of Inclusive policies and practices. The day gave colleagues working in specialist contexts an opportunity to share examples and experiences of current initiatives and to speculate about future trends and developments in inclusive education. In this article, Robin Attfield and Chris Williams, Assistant Directors in Programmes and Research respectively at the NCSL, explore the context in which the seminar took place and some of the themes and issues that emerged from discussion on the day. At the end of their paper, they summarise the key messages that the special school leaders who attended the seminar wished to communicate to a wider audience and articulate a further role for leaders in special schools in the development of inclusion.     

变革型领导与学习型学校的构建

建立学习型学校是目前学校管理中比较流行的管理思潮。文章通过对学习型学校以及变革型领导有关概念和特征的分析,认为构建学习型学校需要变革型领导。同时探讨了在构建学习型学校过程中的领导策略:建立学校共同愿景;引领学校组织学习;改革学校组织结构;倡导学校学习型组织文化。     

Professionalizing school governance: the disciplinary effects of school autonomy and inspection on the changing role of school governors

Since the 1980s, state schools in England have been required to ensure transparency and accountability through the use of indicators and templates derived from the private sector and, more recently, globally circulating discourses of ‘good governance’ (an appeal to professional standards, technical expertise, and performance evaluation as mechanisms for improving public service delivery). The rise of academies and free schools (‘state-funded independent schools’) has increased demand for good governance, notably as a means by which to discipline schools, in particular school governors – those tasked with the legal responsibility of holding senior leadership to account for the financial and educational performance of schools. A condition and effect of school autonomy, therefore, is increased monitoring and surveillance of all school governing bodies. In this paper, I demonstrate how these twin processes combine to produce a new modality of state power and intervention; a dominant or organizing principle by which government steer the performance of governors through disciplinary tools of professionalization and inspection, with the aim of achieving the ‘control of control’. To explain these trends, I explore how various established and emerging school governing bodies are (re)constituting themselves to meet demands for good governance.     

Response to enrollment loss and financial decline in urban school systems

The authors summarize research on curriculum-based measurement (CBM) within four strands. They provide an overview of studies demonstrating the psychometric tenability of CBM. They discuss the body of work showing how teachers can use CBM to inform instructional planning. They examine CBM's potential use in evaluating treatment effects. Finally, they summarize work on CBM for the purpose of identifying children who fail to profit from otherwise effective instruction.     

Education research Australia: a changing ecology of knowledge and practice

Processes of national research assessment, such as Excellence in Research for Australia (ERA) are a type of audit technology that confronts and steers established institutional identities and traditions. This nexus between policy and practice drives boundary work that diffracts prevailing policy logics, organisational practices, and habits of mind. We use this notion of ‘boundary work’ as an analytical lens for understanding the nature and effects of ERA in the Australian educational research space. This paper explains the methodology that informed the AARE–ACDE research reported in Strategic Capacity Building for Australian Educational Research. It documents the policy logic of ERA and the way it cuts across the established ecology of educational research, revealing social and symbolic work that is remaking the boundaries of educational research. We report on the historical trajectory of Australian educational research, the way ERA codes research outputs, and how educational researchers are repositioning in this shifting research space. We argue that there are specific loci of boundary work where capacity building in Australian educational research can make a difference to future educational knowledge building.     

浅谈学校非理性管理及其对教师积极性的调动

学校非理性管理是时代的发展和对人的主体意识研究的产物。它以人为中心，以情为主线，符合教师的心态和劳动特点，学校领导要重视非理性管理的探索，重视对教师情感、心态的管理和校长形象的感召，挖掘教师的潜力，调动教师的积极性。     

实训月——一种工学交替教学的实现方式

本文结合深圳信息职业技术学院采取的一种“工学交替”实现方式——“实训月”教学的实践过程,介绍了“实训月”的思路、方法、意义以及与其教学要求相适应的教学管理配套做法,归纳了在不断的改革、探索下继续完善“实训月”的系列措施和取得的成效。     

Meeting the Challenges of Cultural Leadership: The changing role of principals in Thailand

This paper examines the changing role of principals in Thailand using a cultural lens. Global educational trends and new expectations for school improvement have placed Thai principals firmly at the crossroads between tradition and change. The paper proposes several avenues that Thai principals may explore in order to manage the conflicting pressures for stability and change.     

Education and school in the United States: Identity,culture and ecology

Abstract

In this article the special issue dedicated to cultural historical approach and education in the United States is presented, along with a brief review of some of the most relevant matters in the study of education and cultural diversity in that country. Moreover, a mise en scène of the works that make up this special issue is provided, relating them to some of the ideas on education and school behind the sociohistorical or sociocultural approach. Also, an overview is included of the study of immigration from the standpoint of cultural design, and lastly a reflection is made on the importance of an ecological approach to human activity in education.     

Mainstreaming in an urban middle school: Effects of school organization and climate

Mainstreaming in an urban middle school was examined for three years by a participant observer. It was hypothesized that the school's organization and culture would affect mainstreaming. Findings confirmed this hypothesis. Homogeneity of academic classes and the requirement that students fit into academic groups limited access for special education students to classes where they could function academically as the students did in general education. Criteria for selecting students were not delineated; special and general education teachers communicated informally and irregularly about their students' functioning in mainstream classes; and students received little help with their academic mainstream responsibilities. Students from special education were added to regular classes that were already very large and teacher permission was necessary to include a mainstream student in a general education class. Some school factors facilitated mainstreaming. The principal advocated it and supported its implementation. Special education teachers initiated mainstreaming through their social networks in the school. Heterogeneous groups in minor subjects offered classes with a wider range of ability within which special education students could function, and low track homogeneous classes provided environments that were more like special education classes.     

Setting strategic direction in academic institutions: the case of the business school

Setting the strategic direction in academic institutions cannot be fully likened to the same challenge in corporations, due to their essential “product” of value creation. Further, the role of the dean is inherently different from that of the CEO; he does not have the same power. Though a business school and a company are not run in the same way, there is no less of a need for the school to make the strategic choices necessary to achieve an internal balance and to create the kind of value the customer expects. In this article, four approaches to strategy in business schools are proposed in order to ensure that the main missions — research, teaching, and citizenship — of the school are operationally carried out.     

Student school elections and political engagement: A cradle of democracy?

Studies have found that prior involvement in student politics while in school seems to be a good predictor of adult political engagement. While most studies of adults have obtained retrospective data on participation in school elections, there have been few studies of students about this activity. We contribute to this latter relatively unexplored area by reporting the results from a national survey of Australian secondary school students about the relationship between participation in school elections and future intended political engagement activities. We found that voting in school elections is positively related to feeling prepared to vote as an adult, to being committed to vote when 18, to political knowledge, and to engagement in forms of peaceful activism. Running for student government office is related to political knowledge and participation in peaceful activism. These results reinforce the findings of adult retrospective studies, and show that participation in school elections serves as a beneficial experience in the preparation of students for life as an active adult citizen. The implications of these findings for the structure and conduct of student elections in schools are discussed.     

浅谈中学思想政治教育中存在的问题及对策

中学思想政治教育是把中学生培养成社会主义事业的建设者和接班人的重要保证,直接关乎着国家的发展前途和命运.但目前我国中学思想政治教育实效性不强,提高中学思想政治教育的实效,已成为目前思想政治教育工作者应着力探讨的问题之一.