How multicultural is the school in “multicultural society”? A Belgian case study

The competition for efficiency that governs the production of goods and services throughout the world is in part determined by the structure of the non-man-made material world. Not all techniques are equally efficient. Formal education in complex societies is trying to stay attuned to the system of production and the labor market. The compulsory use of languages and the school curricula are powerful tools which regulate the distribution of culture and the hierarchy of ethnic groups in multi-ethnic societies. Most elements of immigrant culture which are not in harmony with the school culture or with the preferences of the labor market are eroded. What is emerging is not an egalitarian “multicultural society” in the true sense of the word but a stratified multi-ethnic society with a flourish of cultural ethnic markers.     

What is not working in working memory of children with literacy disorders? Evidence from a three-year-longitudinal study

The goals of this study were to explore the deficits in working memory associated with literacy disorders (i.e. developmental disorders of reading and/or spelling) and the developmental trajectories of these working memory deficits. The performance of 28 children with literacy disorders was compared to a non-disabled control group with the same group size at five bi-annual times of measurement in a three-year-longitudinal study beginning at the end of primary school (9.5 years of age). Storage capacity and central-executive working memory were assessed in phonological and visual-spatial modalities, the latter under static and dynamic conditions. Overall, children with literacy disorders were outperformed by their typical developing peers in all phonological and in dynamic visual-spatial storage and central-executive tasks except for the static visual-spatial storage task. Results at single times of measurement revealed that the most consistent deficit was found in the storage capacity of the phonological loop. An additional central-executive impairment is supported by low backward spans. The causes for output deficits in dynamic visual-spatial tasks and good performance under static visual-spatial condition are discussed.     

Hanging in or shaping a future: defining a role for vocationally related learning in a ‘knowledge’ society

This paper explores the ‘joined‐up thinking’ and attempts at ‘joined‐up working’ that policy architects recommend for the successful operationalization of the New Deal for 18–24 year olds. In particular, it examines the difficulties arising around the full‐time education and training option. The research project reports upon the ‘implementation gaps’, in particular the workings of Employment Service Personnel and College staff who strive to interpret and work within the relevant policy guidance for the New Deal for Young People (NDYP). The paper draws upon semi‐structured interviews and documentary analysis from a qualitative case study in South Wales to describe the interaction and articulation of the ‘main players’ who facilitate New Deal education and training options. Centralized and mandatory programmes like the New Deal for Young People which aims to be integrative and ameliorative, but which are framed within a strong sanctioning policy, have created tensions between those professionals trying to work in a ‘joined‐up’ manner. The guidance, educative, and social work elements which contribute to a positive learner/trainee identity are at odds with the surveillance and policing roles involved in monitoring claimant participation. FE staff who facilitate and manage the ‘New Deal’ full time education and training option emerge as a seriously challenged group, which has to forge workable and practical applications of a policy which somewhat undermines notions of a learning society and lifelong learning.     

Towards a learning or a certified society? Contradictions in the New Labour modernization of lifelong learning

This paper examines the ‘Learning Society’ goal espoused by the new Labour government and inherited from preceding Conservative administrations. Section one notes the wide‐ranging consensus on this Learning Society target. Agreement reaches further than education and training (learning) policy to include other areas of policy associated with the proposed reform of the welfare state. Whether the social and administrative changes under previous Conservative governments ‐ changes that can be conceptualized in different ways the paper briefly indicates ‐ amount to the end of the welfare state is discussed in section two. The position of post‐compulsory or ‘lifelong’ learning in relation to compulsory or ‘foundation’ learning in the new ‘post‐welfare’ or Contracting State is then discussed in section three. Contradictions in New Labour's programme of modernizing lifelong learning are exposed. In conclusion, the question is posed how far a New Labour government will be prepared to reverse previous Conservative substitution of the market for representative democracy in the new type of Contracting State, or whether it will merely extend and further consolidate it. Throughout, evidence is presented, particularly from post‐compulsory education and training, to argue that the new government is bent upon pursuing the latter option.     

Are mathematics disabilities due to a domain-general or a domain-specific working memory deficit?

The relationship between verbal and visual-spatial working memory and mathematical computation skill was examined in children and adults with and without disabilities in mathematics. A hierarchical regression analysis showed that, when partialing for the influence of reading ability, age, and gender, mathematical computation was better predicted by verbal than by visual-spatial working memory. Furthermore, the results showed that the relationship between mathematics ability and working memory were not significantly moderated by age but were stable across a broad age span. We concluded that, regardless of age, deficits in mathematics are mediated by both a domain-general and a domain-specific working memory system.     

RPL for accreditation in higher education – As a process of mutual understanding or merely lifeworld colonisation?

This article focuses on a process of recognition of prior learning (RPL) in higher education. It is based on experiences from a project carried out in collaboration between the University of Lund, Linköping University and two trade unions in Sweden. The aim of the project was to find ways of recognising prior learning for accreditation of course credits at university level. In the project and its analysis, Habermas’ theory of communicative action was used as theoretical underpinning. During the project we carried out a thematic analysis based on interviews. The analysis suggested that the participants had a mystified view of higher education that RPL must be considered a learning process and that the participants’ prior learning can be characterised as practical wisdom. These themes guided the development of the project. In a retrospective analysis, language proficiency seemed to play a significant role for the outcome of the process. The conclusion suggests that a more fair and valid assessment of the participant’s prior learning could be accomplished by focusing on RPL as a process of mutual understanding. However, a critical appraisal of the process suggests that RPL for accreditation is problematic and could be seen as a colonisation of the lifeworld.     

Embedded yet separate: tensions in voluntary sector working to support mental health in state‐run schools

The policy agenda of the UK government has repositioned the voluntary sector as a key player in the delivery of locally responsive, ‘bottom up’ services to address the complex problems of social exclusion, reaching out to sectors of the community which are beyond the grasp of traditional state or market providers. This has drawn many voluntary sector organizations into new forms of partnership with statutory bodies. This article draws from a Scottish study to explore the role of voluntary sector organizations working in schools to support the mental well‐being of children and young people. A framework to interrogate the data from case studies is provided by the Scottish Executive, who rehearse four main advantages of such partnerships between state and the voluntary sector. The article concludes that whilst voluntary sector organizations can and do deliver support to children and young people in innovative ways on the margins of school life, the power differential within the school structure makes their position too vulnerable to bring about quick or substantial change.     

Learning trajectories: travelling towards a learning society? 1

This paper uses the results of a large‐scale study of patterns of participation in post‐compulsory education and training over the past 50 years to identify some of the social determinants of adult participation in formal learning experiences. The patterns of participation are presented in the form of predictable lifelong ‘trajectories’, and the predictability of these patterns of participation is as important a finding as their determinants. The key predictors themselves can be discerned quite early in an individuals life since they comprise the period in which the person was born, their place of birth and subsequent migration patterns, their gender, their family background, their experience of initial schooling, and the interactions between them. The patterns of participation and their changes over time are used to reinforce doubts about the wisdom of seeing a Learning Society as simply a worthwhile future goal, towards the implementation of which current policy is directed, and towards which the UK is travelling in linear fashion by apparently increasing opportunities for, while removing barriers to, lifelong participation.

     

Monitoring comprehension in a foreign language: Trait or skill?

Metacognition and Learning - Success in higher education is highly dependent on students’ ability to efficiently read and comprehend large amounts of text in the speaker’s first/native...     

Parental entrepreneurship in public education: a social force or a policy problem?

Parental involvement in public education is an expression of joint responsibility between parents and the state in which parents are expected to comply with current educational policy. Moreover, parents are often perceived as reactive, whereas the educational administration is seen as proactive, mainly by reducing barriers and establishing mechanisms for parental involvement. Referring to proactive involvement in which parents practice noncompliance while fighting the system, this study conceptualizes ‘parental entrepreneurship.’ The practical aspects of parental entrepreneurship are analyzed based on three well-known manifestations: homeschooling, the integration of children with special needs, and parental cooperatives within early childhood education and care. Parental entrepreneurship further exemplifies the blurry boundaries between parents and administration as regards children’s education and demonstrates that the entrepreneurial role parents may play in reforming formal public education. Parental entrepreneurship also illuminates the ongoing renegotiation of the foundations of the social contract between parents and the government, primarily in relation to professionalism, legitimacy, and authority.     

Conscientious withdrawal from religious education in Scotland: anachronism or necessary right?

This paper considers the right of parental withdrawal from the statutory subject Religious Education (RE) in Scottish primary and secondary schools. The background, history and current legislative situation relating to this right are considered, as well as current discussions and debates about this issue. The intentions are to establish how often and for what reasons parents opt to withdraw their children, as well as to investigate how schools and local authorities respond to requests for withdrawal. This research is informed by a survey of primary and secondary schools within two local authorities in particular. It emerges that there are relatively few cases of withdrawal. A majority of participating schools argued for the abolition of this right.     

A subgroup analysis of working memory in children with reading disabilities: domain-general or domain-specific deficiency?

The purpose of this study was to investigate whether changes in working memory (WM) of children with reading disabilities (RD) were related to a domain-specific or a domain-general system. Based on Daneman and Carpenter's (1980) Sentence Listening Span task, children were subgrouped into a group of high executive processing (high listening span) children without RD, a group of low executive processing (low listening span) children with RD, and a group of children with and without RD matched on executive processing (moderate listening span). Subgroups were compared on phonological, visual-spatial, and semantic WM tasks across initial (no probes or cues), gain (cues that bring performance to an asymptotic level), and maintenance conditions (asymptotic conditions without cues). The results showed that (a) children without RD high in executive processing ability outperformed all other subgroups, (b) the RD subgroup low in executive processing performed poorly relative to all other subgroups across task and memory conditions, (c) children with and without RD matched on executive processing were comparable in WM span and changes in WM for all tasks, and (d) WM performance of children with RD was a strong linear function of the high executive processing group, suggesting that the nature or the specific componential makeup of the tasks are not the main contributors to WM performance. Taken together, the results suggest that a domain-general system may partially contribute to poor WM in children with RD, and that this system may operate independently of their reading deficits.     

Poor Reading: A Deficit in Skill-Automatization or a Phonological Deficit?

This study examined whether the characteristic reading speed impairment of German dyslexic children results from a general skill-automatization deficit sensu Nicolson and Fawcett (1990) or from more specific deficits in visual naming speed and phonological skills. The hypothesized skill-automatization deficit was assessed by balancing, peg moving, and visual search. Rapid "automatized" naming tasks served as measures of impaired visual naming speed, and the phonological deficit was assessed by speech perception, phonological sensitivity, and phonological memory tasks. Dyslexic German children and age-matched control children (all boys) were tested at the end of Grade 2 and as participants of a longitudinal study also at the beginning of Grade 1. No evidence for a skill-automatization deficit was found, as the dyslexic children did not differ at all on the balancing tasks and little on the other nonverbal skill tasks. However, the dyslexic children showed impaired visual naming speed and impaired phonological memory performance that were observed not only in Grade 2 but also before learning to read. Overall, the findings support the conclusion that, even in regular orthographies, difficulties in learning to read are due to a phonological deficit and not to a general skill-automatization deficit.     

School funding formulae: designed to create a learning society?

The right to education depends upon a willingness to finance education fairly. Addressing the difference in educational achievement between learners of different backgrounds is a key aspect of fairness. Framed by contemporary neoliberal policies around marketisation and competitiveness, this paper examines fairness in the education finance policy (EFP) of three jurisdictions in England, Israel and Oklahoma. Using a comparative analysis of school funding formulae and an international survey on the perceptions of local policy actors, the de jure and the de facto EFPs are examined. Our findings reveal de jure policies attempting to address fairness through integrating different student background characteristics. However, variability is evident in the extent to which the de facto policies align with an aspiration for fairness. This is linked to the marketisation of education in each jurisdiction. We conclude that weightings of students’ background characteristics can only be one feature in policy interventions orientated towards bringing about social equity.