Just maps: the geography curriculum in English schools

The wider context of this article is the assumption in the social sciences regarding the existence of a dichotomy between truth and objectivity on one hand and constructivism, subjectivism and relativism on the other. The school subject of geography serves as an appropriate focus for examining this assumption. There are three issues facing the school geography curriculum in England for students aged 11–14 (Key Stage 3): the domination of the subject by objectivism and scientism, the threat of impending relativism, and the gap between geography in schools and geography in universities. I draw on Derrida's ideas about the instability of signs, the significance of totalising discourses and the imperative of ethical and political responsibility to question approaches to maps adopted in the Geography National Curriculum policy text and in two different school textbooks. The analysis serves as a springboard for ways in which students can be taught about maps that question cartographic conventions and release chains of traces to reveal their political and ethical substance. I argue that deconstruction and invention challenges the dichotomy and re‐energises school geography. I then consider the wider applicability of the case before ending with a mention of accuracy.     

Implementing a large‐scale reform in secondary schools: the role of the consultant within England’s Secondary National Strategy

This article examines the role of the consultants in secondary schools and local authorities within a large‐scale consultancy‐based reform, the Secondary National Strategy (SNS), in London, UK. The SNS follows a cascade model of implementation in which nationally created initiatives are introduced and supported within local authorities (LA) and schools through LA‐based consultant teams. The article is drawn from a larger interpretive case study that follows the experiences of SNS consultants working within the reform from 2002 to 2006. The article uses semi‐structured interviews to reveal the various and diverse experiences that occur in schools as a result of the introduction of consultants within LAs. The article argues that introducing an SNS consultancy structure to work within LAs and secondary schools created dynamic, complex and shifting effects across secondary schools. While consultants often attempted to create developmental or learning experiences that resonated with teachers’ and departments’ experiences, these activities may also have served to further the institutional control of teachers’ workspaces. These effects are part of the complexities that exist within school change agendas. Exploring these contradictions helps in understanding school change within urban secondary schools.     

论择校与教育公平的追求——从择校政策的演变看我国公立学校体制变革的时代走向

本文以我国政府在基础教育择校问题上的认识及政策演变作为切入口,同时对过去十年中始终纠缠在教育投入不足与治理教育乱收费的中小学择校政策进行全面而深入的审视,以期能在此基础上就新的思维框架提出若干新的建议与对策。     

Residential school placements and disabled children: the contrasting views of local education authorities and of parents

Despite government commitment to the inclusion of children with special educational needs in mainstream schools, significant numbers of disabled children are placed in residential special schools. In the face of a distinct lack of information about the numbers or needs of these children, or about their experiences of living away from home at residential schools, the authors carried out research to examine why disabled children went to residential school, and their experiences of being there. This article focuses on the circumstances leading to a residential school placement, and the decision-making process from the point of view of local education authorities, and of parents. The paper reveals wide variations in the use of residential schools by local authorities, and conflicting views between and within authorities on the suitability of such placements. Parents' experiences are characterised by a lack of support in making very difficult decisions about the best place for their child to be, and a decision-making process dominated by delays, lack of information and conflict.     

Democracy and governance in the local school system

The Labour government showed no interest in extending local democracy in the school system, in spite of a policy rhetoric of local democratic renewal. The Conservative–Liberal Democrat coalition government's localism agenda promotes the autonomy of schools from local authorities without proposing alternative forms of local democracy in the school system. The perspective of this paper is derived from a Gramscian Marxist critique of dominant discourses within the field of urban governance. From this vantage point it examines the research evidence regarding participation in governance within local school systems. It ends by offering an alternative approach towards more democratic participative governance in local school systems based on a recognition of conflicting class interests and the need to re-envision the role of local authorities.     

Religious justification,elitist outcome: are religious schools being used to avoid integration?

Despite ongoing efforts to promote ethnic, racial and socio-economic integration, segregation continues to challenge education administrators and legal scholars. Privileged parents seeking to avoid integration employ various strategies such as attending private schools or buying houses in neighbourhoods with good school. This paper offers a combined empirical and legal research of another such strategy: the resort to religious schools. The research is conducted within one specific context, that of Israeli Religious State Schools. The empirical study examines whether “Torani” religious state schools (a category of religious schools that offer enhanced Jewish studies and a strict religious environment) induce socio-economic segregation. The findings indicate that “Torani” schools are indeed socio-economically segregated and serve children from higher socioeconomic class than regular religious state schools. It also shows that “Torani” schools are less reflective of their surroundings than regular religious state schools, and are more likely to be established by privileged parents in poor areas, where they are dissatisfied with the local state schools. The legal research offers an explanation of how legal regulation can determine whether religious schools will become a means for avoiding integration. Specifically, it points to three areas in which “Torani” schools are regulated differently than regular religious state schools – the rules regarding the establishment of new schools; the rules concerning school funding; and the rules concerning student enrolment – and argues that special treatment meant to protect religious interests is responsible for making “Torani” schools socially segregated.     

School-Based Management as a Factor in School Effectiveness

Advocates of a policy of greater autonomy for schools in the public education system argue that such a policy makes for more effective schools. This article, based on a study carried out in Israel, examines how important the autonomy factor is in influencing school effectiveness as measured by such criteria as teachers' sense of motivation and commitment to the school. While welcoming the trend towards greater autonomy for schools, the author argues that further research is needed before we can formulate any theory concerning the relationship between school autonomy and school effectiveness.     

Secondary modern schools: are their pupils disadvantaged?

There are still 10 English local educational authorities (LEAs) that are wholly selective and a further 10 with some grammar and secondary modern schools. This article examines the academic performance of pupils in secondary modern schools and the funding of these schools using national data sets matching pupils' performance at Key Stage 2 and General Certificate of Education (GCSE) as well as data on funding from Section 52 statements. Students in secondary modern schools gained one less grade on average than equivalent students in comprehensive schools while grammar school pupils obtained five grades more. After taking account of the cost factors and grant entitlements that influence funding per pupil, secondary modern schools in the years 2000/01–2002/03 were funded around £80 less per pupil while grammar school pupils received over £100 more per pupil compared to comprehensive schools. Secondary modern schools were more likely to be in financial deficit than comprehensive and particularly grammar schools. Thus, students are academically disadvantaged by attending secondary modern schools, which in most selective LEAs do not receive sufficient additional funding to offset the depressing effects on attainment of the increased social segregation arising from a selective system.     

The performative shift: middle leadership ‘in the line of fire’

ABSTRACT

State school inspection in Norway is currently changing with targeted schools becoming subject to more complex methods of inquiry. Not only school principals but middle leaders are exposed to this shifting system, for the latter are in the frontline of their schools’ everyday practices. The article examines how state school inspection is used as means of controlling legal compliance, as well as evaluating the formative assessment routines and practices of schools, middle leaders, and individual teachers. Drawing on the concepts of accountability and performativity, field observations of inspectors interrogating department heads in primary education are analysed. The empirical study demonstrates how use of standardised rubrics steer the inspection process in schools, aiming more towards completing on task, rather than supporting middle leaders in their struggle to comply with legal standards. During such interrogation, the department heads comply with the system, and are at the same time open towards the inspectors’ questioning concerning the school’s lack of fully implemented routines.     

体教合作发展五人制足球运动的多元价值分析

目前国内五人制足球联赛的参与主体主要是地方足协和高等院校。在这些参与主体当中存在个别退出的现象。部分有意向加入者也出现内部决策的分歧与摇摆。文章从体育和教育双方立场出发,多角度探讨了我国发展五人制足球运动的现状、前景与条件,就高校教育足球界与体育界通力合作积极推广五人制足球运动的意义、回报、可行性等问题展开多元价值分析,提出通过体教合作开展五人制足球,在足球与高校教育、科研、文化、宣传之间形成共同促进的发展方向。     

Including students with disabilities in Education for All: lessons from Ethiopia

This article addresses the inclusion of students with disabilities into the Education for All and Sustainable Development Goals agenda through a case study of Ethiopia, a country aiming to promote inclusive education amidst rapidly rising school enrolments. The article begins with a review of debates concerning inclusive education in the Global South and the strategy taken by Ethiopia. It then examines how inclusive education is currently being implemented drawing on recent fieldwork at rural and urban schools in Tigray province. Through interviews, participant observation, and focus groups, we found that teachers and school administrators are generally in favour of mainstreaming children with disabilities into ‘normal’ schools. However, insufficient training of teachers and itinerant teachers along with shortages of teaching materials and resources present major challenges to addressing special education needs.     

Market‐oriented school reform in England and Finland: school choice,finance and governance

This paper explores the introduction of market‐oriented reforms into school‐based education in England and Finland. The contexts into which reforms were introduced differed, with a fully comprehensive system being in place in Finland but not in England; the motives were also different; and different trajectories have since been followed. Whilst there are apparent similarities, with choice and diversity having a high political profile in each country, the policy mix varies: two different models can be discerned, with the Finnish reforms being characterised by more regulatory control in relation to school access and choice, but less in relation to the financing of schools by local authorities. It is argued that the mediating role played by local authorities in jurisdictions with high levels of decentralisation means that the legislative framework needs to be taken into account when examining policy implementation and educational outcomes.     

Education policy in an era of neoliberal urbanisation: a case study of Istanbul’s school relocations

This article examines an effort to spatially re-organise urban public schools in the largest city in Turkey. Recently, the Turkish government has made an effort to relocate inner-city public schools in Istanbul to less desirable parts of the city. Analysing how education policy in the country is tied to wider political mechanisms and considering the results of the studies carried out in various parts of the world, this article argues that the interaction between education and urban life in Turkey displays unique characteristics in terms of the populations implicated in the policy change and the spaces transformed as a result. Two salient characteristics are the involvement of the secular middle class and the perception by them that school relocations entail de-secularisation of the city and the education system. The article argues that these characteristics should be conceptualised in the context of particular conjunctures of forces driven by different contradictions.     

A Comparison between Inspection Reports on the Management of School Attendance Throughout the Education Service

This is the first article to compare and contrast the outcomes of Office for Standards in Education (Ofsted) reports on the management of school attendance issues in primary and secondary schools, out-of-school and local education authorities (LEA) provision. The findings indicate that schools and LEAs are judged using very strict criteria based on a school's or LEA's authorized or unauthorized rates of attendance, which are then compared with national norms, targets and Ofsted criteria. By contrast, out-of-school providers, often pupil referral units (PRUs), are given much more latitude despite their more obvious and serious attendance difficulties. This paper presents an insight into the reasons given by Ofsted inspectors for making either their positive or negative judgements on schools', PRUs' or LEAs' performances on the management of their attendance agenda. The implications of these findings are considered and conclusions drawn based on the evidence. Further research will be necessary to compare the findings in this paper with subsequent outcomes given the proposed changes with Ofsted's methodology and criteria for conducting its future inspections.     

The identification of able socially deprived pupils: LEA advice to primary schools

This article examines the advice that local education authorities (LEAs) in England and Wales give to primary schools on the identification of able socially deprived pupils. The research described here is situated within the context of the theoretical literature and central government policy regarding these children. It is noted that identification of able pupils has become more inclusive, although limited research has been undertaken on socially deprived able pupils. The role of central government in supporting these pupils through flagship initiatives such as Excellence in Cities is then analysed and the identification advice that LEAs provide to primary schools is examined. It was found that, whilst LEAs provide systematic and inclusive identification advice, the identification of able socially deprived pupils is only tangentially addressed. The problems associated with the use of checklists by LEAs are examined and the implications of the research are discussed.     

“双园融合”办学模式特色初探

十堰职业技术学院在地方政府的支持下,充分发挥自身的优势,面向地方经济、依托产业、服务产业,以建设省级示范高职院校为契机,通过"政、校、行、企"和谐互动,在校企合作办学模式上开拓创新,探索出了与地方经济联系紧密、与学院自身特点相适应的"双园融合"的办学模式,形成了鲜明的办学特点。     

Dress rehearsal: a Bourdieusian analysis of body work in career portfolio programs

This article examines how career portfolio programs at two secondary schools establish corporeal regimes. Both programs require students to compose portfolios that plot their trajectories through school and into paid work. Prior to graduation, students defend their portfolios before panels of educators and businesspeople. Employing the Bourdieusian concepts of capital and habitus, this article investigates how these programs set up systems that value certain kinds of bodies. Further, it examines how students negotiate these systems and display different kinds of bodies in different kinds of ways. Ultimately, it is argued these disparate bodily performances are read by authorities as indicators of the types of paths students are travelling or should travel into the future.     

Emerging relationships between religious education and citizenship education: teachers’ perceptions and political dilemmas in Cyprus

This article explores the ways in which a group of primary school teachers in Cyprus interprets the relationship between religious and citizenship education. The contextualisation of the meaning of religious education shows the extent to which social, historical and political elements shape teachers’ perceptions about the entanglements between religious and citizenship education. In particular, the present study reveals two important findings – one concerning the conceptualisation of each school subject and their perceived relationship and the other concerning the contextualisation of this relationship in the cultural and political contexts of Cyprus. The findings also reveal important constraints and political dilemmas for the possible trajectories of ‘religious citizenship education’ in Cyprus. The article discusses the implications for curriculum and policy deliberations, as well as further research on ‘religious citizenship education’ in specific cultural and political settings.     

Education for diversity: the role of networking in resisting disabled people’s marginalisation in Bangladesh

This article examines the role networking has played, at local and national levels, in facilitating communication between key actors involved in challenging the marginalisation of disabled people from education and from wider Bangladeshi society. Efforts to promote awareness of the importance of including disabled children in their local schools have gained ground at national level through a complex web of networking relationships, including government departments concerned with education and social welfare, disability-focused NGOs and mainstream development agencies and networks. The article explores the experience of blind people, (in their role as members of self-help groups linked to Community-Based Rehabilitation programmes in rural areas) in supporting disabled children to access their local school, and in ensuring their safety. Some evidence is provided for the role of networking in challenging marginalising policies, in accessing services (including financial benefits), and in resisting marginalisation. In considering this evidence, the authors debate the different forms and meanings of networking in societies which prioritise collectivity and interdependence, rather than individualism.