The mediating role of social relationships in the association of adolescents’ individual school self-concept and their school engagement,belonging and helplessness in school

It is well known that teachers frequently observe a decline in the scholastic motivation of many adolescent students, which in turn is often associated with a decline in students’ individual school self-concept. In contrast, less is known about the association between students’ individual school self-concept and school engagement, or the related concepts of school belonging and helplessness in school. The current study explored social relationships as mediators in the association between individual school self-concept and adolescents’ school engagement, belonging to school and helplessness in school in a large sample of 7th and 8th grade students (N?=?1088; M_Age?=?13.7) in secondary schools in Brandenburg, Germany. The results of two structural equation models showed that the teacher–student relationship mediated the association between individual school self-concept and school engagement, belonging to school and helplessness in school, respectively. In contrast, the student–student relationship did not mediate any of these associations.     

A charity school in the nineteenth century: Old Swinford hospital school, 1815–1914

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The Sociology of Educational Ideas. By Julia Evetts. Pp. via, 168. London: Routledge &; Kegan Paul, 1973. £2.50.

Class, Culture and the Curriculum. By Denis Lawton. Pp. ix, 124. London: Routledge &; Kegan Paul, 1975. Cloth £3.00. Paperback £1.25.

Ideology and the Imagination. By Fred Inglis. Pp. 244. London: Cambridge University Press, 1975. £4.90 hard cover. £2.00 paperback.

Handbook on Curriculum Development. By Centre for Educational Research and Innovation. Pp. 179. Paris: OECD, 1975. £2.80.

Looking at Innovation: two approaches to educational reasearch. P. Sheldrake and S. Berry. NFER Publishing Company Ltd., 1975.

The Sciences, the Humanities and the Technological Threat. Edited by W. Roy Niblett. Pp. xiv, 168. London: University of London Press, 1975. £3.80.     

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.     

Embracing Jewish day school education in England, 1965–1979

Between 1965 and 1979 the demand for places at Jewish day schools in England rose dramatically. In the preceding decades, most parents sent their children to state non‐denominational schools, showing little interest in providing their children with a solid Jewish education. Sunday or after‐school Hebrew classes, rarely extending beyond Bar/Bat Mitzvah age, sufficed. Yet beginning in the mid‐1960s, parents evinced increasing enthusiasm for Jewish day schools, both primary and secondary. This phenomenon has been attributed to various factors, such as the changing ethnic mix at state schools and Anglo‐Jewry’s communal pride after the Six‐Day War. It is argued in this article that the major concern of Jewish parents was academic achievement. Upon the introduction of the non‐selective comprehensive schools, parents fled the non‐denominational state system, preferring voluntary aided Jewish day schools, or, for those who could afford them, private schools.     

Students’ motivational beliefs in science learning,school motivational contexts,and science achievement in Taiwan

ABSTRACT

Taiwanese students are featured as having high academic achievement but low motivational beliefs according to the serial results of the Trends in Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS). Moreover, given that the role of context has become more important in the development of academic motivation theory, this study aimed to examine the relationship between motivational beliefs and science achievement at both the student and school levels. Based on the Expectancy-Value Theory, the three motivational beliefs, namely self-concept, intrinsic value, and utility value, were the focuses of this study. The two-level hierarchical linear model was used to analyse the Taiwanese TIMSS 2011 eighth-grade student data. The results indicated that each motivational belief had a positive predictive effect on science achievement. Additionally, a positive school contextual effect of self-concept on science achievement was identified. Furthermore, school-mean utility value had a negative moderating effect on the relationship between utility value and science achievement. In conclusion, this study sheds light on the functioning of motivational beliefs in science learning among Taiwanese adolescents with consideration of the school motivational contexts.     

‘The best school for my child?’ Positions,dispositions and inequalities in school choice in the city of Barcelona

This article deals with the discourses and practices employed by families involved in school choice processes in the city of Barcelona (Spain). It draws upon a study conducted by the authors in 2008/09, and it is based on surveys completed by a representative sample made up of 3245 families, as well as 60 in-depth interviews with families with children at the age of commencing universal pre-primary education (three years old). Firstly, the article focuses on the types of concerns and pressures that families experience when choosing a school for their child. Secondly, we analyse the level and type of knowledge that parents have at their disposal about the field of school choice, as well as how they use and benefit from available information channels. Finally, we identify three unequal positions in which families find themselves when negotiating the field of school choice: ‘maximising’, ‘guaranteeing’ and ‘displaced’. These positions are, in turn, directly related to families’ locations in the social structure, which are also unequal.     

Leading professional learning in an Australian secondary school through school‐university partnerships

As the limitations of one‐off and disconnected professional learning programs for teachers are recognised, there is widespread interest in building learning communities and professional learning teams within schools. When considering how to build local learning communities, school and university partnerships are seen as offering rich possibilities for transformative professional action. Set in the context of the international agenda of “Education For All” (UNESCO, 2005 UNESCO. (2005). Education for all: Global monitoring project. Retrieved January 8, 2007, from http://portal.unesco.org/education/en/ev.php‐URL_ID=36004&URL_DO=DO_TOPIC&URL_SECTION=201.html (http://portal.unesco.org/education/en/ev.php-URL_ID=36004&URL_DO=DO_TOPIC&URL_SECTION=201.html)  [Google Scholar]) a model of sustained on‐going professional learning, developed in one large secondary school in Australia, is analysed. The social practices that generate action and participation for partnership members are then scrutinised for the legitimacy of school‐university partnerships and the contribution to enhancing teacher learning.     

New roles,old stereotypes – developing a school workforce in English schools

In this paper, the author explores the development of school staff who are employed to support pupils in the classroom, specifically the teaching assistant/higher level teaching assistant role. These roles have undergone considerable change following the introduction of Workforce Reform and Remodelling in English schools and the National Agreement. In practice, the introduction of this agreement into schools appears to have a powerful gendered aspect which limits choice and agency for individuals and prevents the development of a coherent workforce. I argue that the discourse of maternality within which the school support role has evolved supposes a level of self-sacrifice and conscientiousness which is gendered and conceals the exploitative nature of the role in terms of poor pay and career prospects. Furthermore, the growth of support staff in English schools to undertake roles previously assigned to teachers has had the effect of disaggregating and de-professionalising the teacher role and weakening the traditional job boundaries which defined the work of support staff.     

Partnership,participation and parental disillusionment in home–school contacts: a study in two schools in Norway

This small‐scale study investigates the origins of parental disillusionment with school, with a focus on the extent to which disillusionment is related to the level and quality of partnership between parents and teachers. It also compares the reactions of parents when teachers take the initiative in contacting them about a child's learning or social problems with those of teachers when parents contact them. Sixteen pairs of parents and teachers who had met to discuss such problems agreed to take part in separate interviews. At least at the outset, partnership was consistently more effective when teachers initiated the contact than when parents initiated it. Initial tensions in the relationship could be reduced when either a parent or a teacher took action to improve the relationship. Parental disillusionment occurred in only three cases, where neither parent nor teacher could see their way to any compromise.     

Secondary school students’ perceptions of, and the factors influencing their decision-making in relation to, VET in schools

This paper addresses the issue of Vocational Education and Training in Schools — an issue that has recently attracted significant political attention particularly in light of current national skills shortage in Australia. Specifically, it investigates secondary school students’ perceptions of VET in Schools [VETiS]. It also explores the factors influencing their decision-making in relation to VETiS — that is, why one might choose, or choose not, to enrol in a VETiS course of study. In view of the findings presented, the paper argues that VET, and more particularly VETiS, is experiencing an “image problem” — one underscored by the need for curriculum design and delivery reform — and suggests that there is much work still to be done on the VET agenda.     

The politics of collaboration: discourse,identities, and power in a school–university partnership in Hong Kong

This article reports on how teacher educators from a university, acting as facilitators, supported teachers in conducting a school-based action research project as a practice of professional development in the context of reform in language assessment in Hong Kong. In particular, the article problematises how the facilitators and teachers negotiated and managed identities whilst being engaged in a collaborative action research project. Data were collected from semi-structured interviews. Critical discourse analysis was used to examine the textual data. A key finding was that identities were neither fixed nor finite in the context of collaboration, but were negotiated within and against a range of contextually salient discourses. A major contribution of the article lies in its examination of the complexities of negotiating identities when educators from two different institutional cultures collaborate. The article suggests that collaboration has to be understood within broader sociocultural contexts to identify the interplay of forces that shape relations, identities, and practices constructed.     

Do comprehensive school teachers perceive themselves as active professional agents in school reforms?

This article focuses on exploring comprehensive school teachers’ professional agency in the context of the most recent school reforms in Finland (i.e., developing undivided basic education). In this article, the emphasis is on analyzing the premises on which teachers view themselves and their work in terms of developing their own school, catalyzed by the national school reform. Teachers’ perceptions and the relation between their perceptions of the development work and their educational backgrounds were empirically examined by means of essays entitled “Remembering the Future.” Results suggested that both teachers’ perceptions of undivided basic education and their perceptions of themselves in the development process varied considerably. Further investigation showed that teachers’ perceptions of the reform and of themselves within the reforms were interrelated. More specifically, perceiving oneself as an active subject in the development work seemed to promote a holistic and functional perception of the object of the development. On the basis of the results, it seems that as highly educated professionals, teachers were very capable of identifying and analyzing what should be changed in schools and/or the school districts. However, a challenge for the teachers’ active professional agency in educational reforms seems to be the lack of shared and informed assumptions of how change can be brought about.     

Motivation theory in the school context: differences in preservice and practicing teachers’ experience,opinion, and knowledge

European Journal of Psychology of Education - Preservice teachers should learn about motivation theory during their university studies in order to be able to motivate their students in their future...     

Leading a school through change – principals’ hands-on leadership strategies in school reform

Principal’s hands-on strategies reflecting their theories of changing have a substantial effect on the development of their schools and on how the large-scale reform takes root. The study explores five comprehensive school principals’ leadership strategies during a large-scale school reform in Finland. The principals’ strategies in the middle of reform acknowledged the process nature of leading and involved coherence-making. The inclusive and learning-oriented strategies were applied quite consistently in terms of the horizontal, but not so much in the vertical coherence-making. Exclusive strategies we used to decrease teachers’ workload. Principals’ theories of changing seem to focus on creating and protecting teachers’ opportunities for meaningful learning.     

ADHD in schools: prevalence,multi‐professional involvements and school training needs in an LEA

As part of research undertaken by the first author, a survey of schools was carried out in one local education authority (LEA) in order to gather information about pupils diagnosed with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). All mainstream and special schools and pupil referral units were approached and a response rate of 94% was achieved. In 151 schools there were 413 pupils reported as being formally diagnosed with ADHD. The survey results include details of prevalence, the balance of gender, age and special educational need (SEN) Code of Practice levels, issues of diagnosis and medication, co‐morbidity and school training needs. In addition, responses from two ADHD study days, one held during the survey data collection phase and the second following dissemination of the results, provided supplementary information regarding school training needs. Implications for inclusive educational practice are discussed with reference to: prevalence rates; multi‐professional identification, assessment and management of the disorder; the need for and nature of the training schools require.     

Technical knowledge in a technical society: elementary school technology education in Sweden, 1919–1928

The aim of this article is to identify a technical domain of knowledge in the curriculum of the Swedish elementary school and views on elementary school technology of two interest groups – school teachers and engineers. Gradually during the early to mid‐1920s there was increased technical content in the Swedish elementary school, if we look at the new curriculum, in‐service education and stakeholders’ views. The main reasons for this were, first of all, that the first decades of the twentieth century witnessed industrial growth with accompanying technification of large parts of society including the school. Second, the curriculum of 1919 had a broader technical content than earlier curricula, and thus mirrored the societal changes. Third, vocational secondary schools led to new requirements in respect of elementary technology education. Representatives of the Government were prime movers in enhancing the significance of technology in school together with teachers, while engineers generally showed little interest.     

The Chinese high school student’s stress in the school and academic achievement

In a sample of 466 Chinese high school students, we examined the relationships between Chinese high school students’ stress in the school and their academic achievements. Regression mixture modelling identified two different classes of the effects of Chinese high school students’ stress on their academic achievements. One class contained 87% of the students. In this class, the students’ stress negatively predicted their academic achievements. For the other 13% of the students, their stress did not predict their academic achievements. Furthermore, we found that gender did not moderate the relationships between Chinese high school students’ stress in the school and their academic achievements.     

Student planners in school and out of school: who is managing whom?

This paper examines the use of student planners (agendas) with elementary school students. It asks how teachers, students and parents in two classrooms engage in the literacy practice of using student planners. A literacy object originally introduced to manage schoolwork in and out of school for students with learning difficulties, planners are now used widely in school districts across North America. In this cross‐case analysis, planners are shown to be used for a number of functions beyond organising students’ schoolwork. The student planners were tools through which teachers, parents and publishers extended their spheres of influence – objects used to manage others when an individual was not physically present to do so and objects used to gain entry to the classrooms and homes for particular purposes.     

What did I do in school today?

Rina went to school 1 she was six yearsold.She liked her first day 2 .Her teacher,Miss Yates,was very nice,and 3 in her classwere 4 ,too.But at the end of the secondday,when the other children 5 the class-room,Rina stayed behind and waited.