Family learning and the socio-spatial practice of ‘supportive’ power

Family learning has been an important mode of education deployed by governments in the United Kingdom over the past 20 years, and is positioned at the nexus of various social policy areas whose focus stretch beyond education. Drawing on qualitative research exploring mothers’ participation in seven different family learning programmes across West London, this paper looks at how this type of education is mobilised; that is, how mothers are ‘encouraged’ to participate and benefit from this type of programme. Framed by a neo-liberal policy climate and Foucauldian writings on governmentality and surveillance, we explore how participating mothers are carefully ‘targeted’ for this type of learning through their children and through school/ nursery spaces, and how programmes themselves then operate as a supportive social space aimed at facilitating social networks, friendship and personal development linked to positions of gender, ethnicity, class and migrant status. It is the socio-spatial workings of ‘supportive’ power and power relations that enable family learning to be mobilised that ensures its popularity as a social policy initiative.     

The role of the ‘professional community’ in action research

The article argues that collective learning plays an important role in the practice of teacher research, which has not yet been adequately dealt with in its theory. Lave & Wenger's (1991) theory of ‘Situated Learning’ is examined as an example for a conceptualisation of collective learning. In the concluding section, some provisions for ‘learning in communities’ in the practice of teacher research are discussed. Although the argument is made for the teaching profession, it is assumed that it also has some bearing on action research in other professions.     

Discomfort as a means of pre-service teachers’ professional development – an action research as part of the ‘Research Literacy’ course

This paper focus on defining a research question while conducting action research among third-year students attending a course on Research Literacy at a teacher education college. This paper discusses the process of preparing for and conducting action research among third-year students attending a course on Research Literacy at a teacher education college. The students were asked to conduct an action research on their classroom activities. The aim of this article is to present the process and pinpointing the discomfort of the students in formulating a research question suited to action research thanks to two prerequisite conditions: the ‘safe space’ and the ‘tender spot’. The research findings illustrate that the students had difficulty defining their ‘tender spot’. It was necessary to create a ‘safe space’. Furthermore, the findings show that the ‘tender spot’ issues were associated with disciplinary content far more than with generic lesson management or classroom management issues. The approach discussed here is leading to positive change and it may be that this professional development tool can facilitate the induction of novice teachers everywhere.     

Students’ development of socio-scientific reasoning in a mobile augmented reality learning environment

In this study we investigated how a newly developed learning environment that integrates mobile augmented reality (AR) technology supported students’ socio-scientific reasoning (SSR). Drawing upon the reasoned action theory, we consider the roles of students’ attitudes toward SSR before learning, and their cognitive and emotional engagement during learning in the students’ actual performance of SSR. The implementation results indicate the impact of the learning environment on students’ scientific knowledge and attitude change. Moreover, we identified a significant path of how the students developed their SSR by the interactions among their attitude toward SSR, and their cognitive and emotional engagement in the mobile AR learning environment. On the other hand, the students’ post-learning attitudes toward SSR were dominated by their pre-learning attitudes. Implications and suggestions are discussed.     

Teachers’ learning in a research and development work project

This article focuses on teachers’ learning in a research and development (R&D) work project. The teachers are working in a lower secondary school, and the cooperation between them and the researcher lasted for two years. The aim of this article is to show what teachers can learn and how they can learn during such a project. In the qualitative study conducted within this R&D project, observations, reflection dialogues and log‐book entries were key data collection strategies. This material shows that teachers want to reflect together to learn, but both the form and content of these collective reflections have a major impact on their learning. Before the teachers are ready to challenge each other, they have to have confidence in each other. Once they have this confidence, the form of the reflection dialogues can change. During the R&D work the teachers learn how reflections become part of the planning process for their next teaching sessions, and after a while theories become a tool that can help them with their reflections.     

Characteristics of the research supervision of postgraduate teachers’ action research

Today, many institutions of higher education support students in conducting practice-oriented research. This research refers to a broad array of approaches geared toward practitioners’ practice. The supervision of such research is of crucial importance, but little is known about its nature and characteristics. This study examined what research supervisors and postgraduate, in-service teacher students perceive are key elements of successful action research supervision. Four action research supervisors and eight postgraduate students were interviewed. Data were analysed by using theory and empirical data. Findings reveal 24 key elements of action research supervision, which refer to supervisors’ (1) skills in supporting knowledge development through and about action research and creating a supportive environment for developing knowledge, (2) knowledge and expertise in supervising action research, (3) attitude in the supervision of action research and (4) the motives driving supervisors’ actions in the student-supervisor relationship.     

‘It is the research of self experience’: feeling the value in action research

This article tells the story of an attempt to bring about major educational reform of the curriculum and educational values in Kazakhstan, using action research as part of that process. The article begins with a brief and selective review of the literature on aspects of emotion and moves to an account of the context and history of the reforms, before focusing on the ‘self experience’ of the participants and the authors. Emotion, its centrality and the interrelationship of three areas – the nature of teaching and teacher learning, the process of change and the experience of research – are explored in relation to reform and action research. The paper concludes with a reflection on the implications for the use of action research as a strategy for reform.     

Re-defining ‘learning about religion’ and ‘learning from religion’: a study of policy change

The study of how policy processes shape religious education as a curriculum subject, rather than within faith schooling, is relatively unexplored. This paper applies a policy analysis perspective to an important distinction in non-confessional English religious education, which has also been adopted internationally: ‘learning about religion’ and ‘learning from religion’. The changing nature of the distinction in English policy documents from 1994 is examined in the light of three main voices of influence on educational policy: neo-conservatives, neo-liberals and progressives. These changes are also analysed through three policy contexts: influence, text production and practice. Revisions to policy wording are interpreted in the light of this theory, showing the growing significance of neo-liberalism, and the nature of compromise, amendment and ambiguity. The implications for an understanding of the inter-relationship between policy, pedagogy and practice are then considered.     

Reimagining gender through policy development: the case of a ‘single-sex’ educational organisation

In 2005, a feminist educational organisation in the USA for young women, ages 14–21, adopted a policy in order to clarify their target constituency of girls and young women. The policy defined ‘girls and young women’ not as a designation associated with fixed biological sex, but instead as a self-determined identity label creating an explicit policy of inclusion to gender non-conforming students, including transgender youth, who self-identified as ‘girls’ or ‘young women’. This article traces the series of influences that prompted the development of the policy, as well as the learning curves for this feminist educational all-girls’ community, and the discussions that led to both the unanimous adoption of the policy and a subsequent larger cultural shift within the organisation. This analysis seeks to add to an understanding and exploration of policies that address the de facto exclusion of gender non-conforming, intersex, and transgender youth from gender-based educational settings.     

Students’ perceptions of a blended web-based learning environment

The enhanced accessibility, affordability and capability of the Internet has created enormous possibilities in terms of designing, developing and implementing innovative teaching methods in the classroom. As existing pedagogies are revamped and new ones are added, there is a need to assess the effectiveness of these approaches from the students’ perspective. For more than three decades, proven qualitative and quantitative research methods associated with learning environments research have yielded productive results for educators. This article presents the findings of a study in which Getsmart, a teacher-designed website, was blended into science and physics lessons at an Australian high school. Students’ perceptions of this environment were investigated, together with differences in the perceptions of students in junior and senior years of schooling. The article also explores the impact of teachers in such an environment. The investigation undertaken in this study also gave an indication of how effective Getsmart was as a teaching model in such environments.     

Routes through higher education: BME students and the development of a ‘specialisation of consciousness’

With changing demographics and the advent of mass higher education, there has been a significant impact on graduate transitions which has led to greater inequalities in access to social support during the transitionary period between undergraduate study and entrance into the labour market. This article explores the experiences of students in their final year of undergraduate study by drawing on 43 interviews with Black and Minority Ethnic (BME) students. Using Bourdieu, we argue that BME students preparing to enter the labour market display a ‘specialisation of consciousness’: a set of practices framed by their prior background and experience, choice of university and the support derived from attending university. ‘Specialisation of consciousness’ is an ongoing process in which BME students identify and understand racial inequalities in higher education and accept the limiting consequences these have on transitions into the labour market or further study.     

‘Out of the Box’ leadership: action research towards school improvement

The contribution of Action Research (AR) to school improvement is well-documented. This study records the accounts of two primary school leaders, involved in AR projects that focused on the development of students’ oral communication skills. Drawing data from diaries with fieldnotes and systematic reflections, the study presents leaders’ experiences, as they translated feedback into modifications and redefinitions to bring about change. Despite difficulties encountered, the leaders acknowledged the value of collaborative school-based enquiry for teachers, students and themselves, mainly reflecting notions of catalytic and democratic validity. The paper highlights that AR as a tool for individual and school improvement, can enhance understandings of school performance and empower participants to focus on school outcomes in an educational context that does not implement accountability measures. AR can certainly help principals in Cyprus reconceptualise and rediscover their pedagogical role as instructional leaders to improve teaching and learning. Yet, to address outcome and process validity, the paper argues about the need for evaluative tools.