Educational influences on young people's support for fundamental British values

In 2014 the British government called on schools to actively promote fundamental British values (FBVs), seeing this as an effective way to prevent the radicalisation of young people. The government considers these values to include democracy, individual liberty, the rule of law and respect for people of different backgrounds and religions. Rather than criticising this policy on theoretical or ideological grounds, as many studies have done, the current article aims to ascertain support for the values labelled as fundamentally British among 23 year olds in England and to assess whether levels of support are associated with educational attainment and distinct educational practices experienced earlier in life. Data from the Citizenship Education Longitudinal Study (CELS) are analysed for these purposes. A multidimensional measure of FBVs is constructed based on policy understandings of the term rather than statistical considerations. The article finds that levels of support for FBVs among 23 year olds are already very high and do not differ between the White British majority and various minority ethnic groups, although the small sample sizes of the latter do not allow for strong conclusions about these differences. Among the educational conditions, educational attainment and particularly track attended appears to be the only influential condition, with those obtaining academic qualifications showing significantly higher support for FBVs than those achieving vocational ones. Adding this variable to the model neutralises the effects of specific programmes or pedagogies experienced during lower secondary, such as citizenship education, an open climate of classroom discussion or school‐based political activities.     

The recession as the site of the exceptional: young people,self-determination and social mobility

This paper examines the importance of ‘self-determination’ and ‘hard work’ found within interviews with a group of young people in Manchester, England. The author suggests that moments of apparent contradiction within the interviews have much to offer, particularly when analysed in relation to discussions of inequality and political economy. Data from this paper show that while the young people mostly spoke about work choices in primarily individualistic ways, they used the recession as a means to acknowledge that acquiring jobs simply cannot just be about ‘choice’ or working hard, but is also configured by the market and structural inequality.     

Ethnicity as social capital: an examination of first-generation,ethnic-minority students at a Canadian university

In this article, we use interview data collected in a four-year longitudinal study of first-generation university students to answer the question: how might the ethnicity of first-generation students impact their university experiences? After briefly examining previous literature written on the educational achievement levels of ethnic-minority Canadians, specifically Asian-Canadians, and on first-generation students, we explain the concept of social capital and how it relates to ethnicity. The findings extracted from the interviews in this paper suggest that, although first-generation students lack general knowledge about university, their ethnic identities serve to ease their disadvantaged positions in university by serving as both bonding and bridging social capital in the form of relationships, peer groups and ethnic clubs.     

(Re)Searching for the development of a conceptual model of education for citizenship in the context of young people’s globalised mobility in higher education

This paper proposes a conceptual model of education for global citizenship by drawing on the literature on international student mobility for higher education. This model outlines the kinds of competencies and forms of consciousness that education for citizenship should focus upon so as to address the economic and moral dilemmas of living in a globalising world. In an integrative review process, this paper identifies the challenges and opportunities that globalised mobility brings to the lives of young people, the mobilities that higher educational institutions are embracing, the mobility motivations of young students in higher education, and the consequences of this globalised mobility for their present and future life.     

Educational leadership and social activism: a call for action

The purpose of this article is to argue for a social activist stance in educational leadership that fundamentally addresses social change and human emancipation. This call for social activism is framed within neoliberal, neoconservative, and authoritarian populist discourses in the USA, which to social justice educators and leaders had devastating effects on education. Empirical data from an activist high school principal, activist university professor, and activist priest reflects their development of political clarity, political capacity, political collaboration, and an ethic of risk. It is suggested that the work of socially active educational leaders needs to be broadened to include such things as public policy advocacy, networking, organising, community development, and scholarship. Finally, the article concludes with a variety of ways educational leaders can demonstrate their social, moral, and political activism as they challenge the status quo, fight for social justice, and come to understand the politicised notion of leadership.     

Performing mundane materiality: Actor-Network Theory,global student mobility and a re/formation of ‘social capital’

ABSTRACT

Social capital is a puzzling actor; made real by its allies. It has been ‘out-there’ in the form of scientific publications for decades. Although some characteristics are common to all elaborations of this theory (networks, trust, and norms), there remains confusion in determining a ‘coherent concept’ of social capital. In this paper, we make use of such ‘incoherence gap’ to open an experimental theoretical and, subsequently, analytical space. Based on empirical research with mobile students and assemblages of non-human actors, the paper offers two investigative gatherings. First, the Bourdieusian approach to ‘social capital’ is discussed, allowing relational ontologies to enter the scene. Second, consideration is given to issues of performativity and the relevance of materiality for empirical social capital investigations. Despite the degree of ontological security social capital has managed to achieve, we question the disregard for the performative role of non-human entities in the context of global student mobility.     

School composition,school culture and socioeconomic inequalities in young people's health: Multi‐level analysis of the Health Behaviour in School‐aged Children (HBSC) survey in Wales

Health inequalities emerge during childhood and youth, before widening in adulthood. Theorising, testing and interrupting the mechanisms through which inequalities are perpetuated and sustained is vital. Schools are viewed as settings through which inequality in young people's health may be addressed, but few studies examine the social processes via which institutional structures reproduce or mitigate health inequalities. Informed by Markham and Aveyard's theory of human functioning and school organisation, including their concept of institutional boundaries, critical theories of marketisation and the concept of micro‐political practices within schools, this paper presents analysis of student survey data (N = 9055) from 82 secondary schools in Wales. It examines the role of socioeconomic composition, social relationships at school and institutional priorities in mitigating or perpetuating health inequality. It finds that affluent schools were most unequal in terms of student health behaviours and subjective wellbeing. In relation to health behaviours, students from affluent families accrue a disproportionate benefit. For wellbeing, students from poorer families reported lower subjective wellbeing where attending more affluent schools. Student–staff relationships appear to be a key mechanism underpinning these effects: poor relationships with staff were predicted by a pupil's position within schools’ socioeconomic hierarchy and associated with worse health outcomes. That is, students from the poorest families reported better relationships with teachers where attending less affluent schools. Universal approaches engaging with these social processes are needed to reduce health inequalities.     

Peer relations and access to capital in the mathematics classroom: a Bourdieusian social network analysis

The aim of this article is to explore the structure of social capital in peer networks and its relation to the unequal access of educational resources within mathematics classrooms. We hypothesise that learners can gain access to mathematics through friendship networks which provide more or less help from peers that might sustain (or curtail) their mathematics learning based on a Bourdieusian framework. We report a social network analysis of mutually-recognised helping within friendship groups. This is complemented by observation and interviews that illustrate how different classrooms have different network structures, positioning learners of different ethnic minorities and genders in significantly different ways regarding access to learning. We argue that friendship networks mediate social capital and access to further cultural capital, and that this may help explain structural differences in attainment. Because ethnicity and gender, inter alia, mediate friendship networks, they also mediate access to capital in the classroom.     

Struggling with capital: a Bourdieusian analysis of educational strategies among internationally mobile middle class families in Sweden

ABSTRACT

Drawing on empirical data regarding educational strategies among internationally mobile families in the Stockholm-Uppsala region, this study questions the notion of a global middle class. First, a quantitative analysis shows that immigrating middle class professionals and their children are few, having marginal impact on the demand for international education. Furthermore, they far from constitute a homogeneous class, instead comprising of fractions opting for different types of schools. A second, qualitative study on capital conversion among mobile families illustrates that even well-educated international movers face serious challenges converting their existing knowledge, skills and contacts into well-informed social, professional and educational strategies in their new context. This suggests the limitations of concepts such as international capital. It is argued that the GMC concept overshadows the fact that social groups within the middle classes have varying degrees of international mobility that constitutes just one dimension of what separates them from each other.     

Pedagogies for the ‘Dis‐engaged’: Diverse Experiences of the Young People’s Arts Award Programme

Art education is often praised for its engaging programmes and inclusive pedagogies, with many initiatives created with the intention of widening access for those who are deemed to be lacking. This article investigates one such programme – the young people’s Arts Award, which is a nationally recognised qualification for young people aged 11–25. I call upon a range of pedagogies in order to critique the Arts Award within the context of informal and alternative education settings in the United Kingdom. Drawing on a 12‐month ethnographic study, the research was conducted across five diverse programmes which included youth work projects and alternative provision. I present two cases – ‘learning to be an artist’ and ‘learning to behave’ – which demonstrate a hierarchy of pedagogy in the application of this programme across these particular contexts. Artists’ Signature Pedagogies are used as an analytical framework to explore the affordances of working with artists through the programme. Further, I engage with the Pedagogy of Poverty to demonstrate that young people who were classified as ‘dis‐engaged’ were more likely to receive lower quality programmes, low‐level work and over‐regulated teaching. I argue that despite changes to the ways that young people access art education, there continues to be unequal opportunities. This finding is significant for not only creative practitioners and youth arts workers, but also arts education policy makers and programmers.     

Class,capital, and competing academic discourse: a critical analysis of the mission/s of American higher education

In this paper, we critically analyze institutional mission statements as discursive texts replete with symbolic meaning, as we believe these texts reveal a great deal about the ways in which higher education remains increasingly stratified. We argue that beneath the generalized rhetoric of institutional mission statements, lie powerful messages seemingly coded with varying forms of class-based academic capital. We further argue that these messages reflect two distinct, competing discourses surrounding the purpose and value of higher education, that parallel the stratification of the larger system itself. Findings reveal evidence of these competing discourses and contribute to larger discussions surrounding educational inequality.     

重温五十载教育技术研究：基于《英国教育技术期刊》的内容分析

本文对《英国教育技术期刊》1970年至2018年第3期刊发的1,777篇研究论文的标题和摘要进行内容分析,反思过去50年教育技术研究。本研究采用Leximancer这种文本挖掘工具分析每一个10年所出现的主要概念和主题,并把它们与《计算机与教育》和《英国教育技术期刊》同期被引率最高的文章的主要概念和主题进行比较。过去50年《英国教育技术期刊》常见主题包括远程教育教与学的发展、教学设计的出现、实践者与学习设计者之间的误解、职前和在职教师教育以及教育工作者和学生接受技术的问题(使用技术的信心、教育工作者和学生的技术技能和机构没有提供培训和融合所需的空间和时间等方面的支持)。本文还针对今后的研究提出建议,包括研究教育工作者专业发展的其他模式和进一步探索理论与政策的作用。     

Why social capital is important for mentoring capacity building of mentors: a case study in Hong Kong

Most studies of school-based mentoring practice have put their key focus on discussions of the professional growth of novice teachers rather than of their mentors. Mentoring practice, however, is also a platform from which mentors can build or enhance their professional competency and capitalize their leadership role as they interact with novice teachers and their colleagues. This is an area which deserves further research attention. Drawing on the concept of social capital, this small-scale qualitative study investigates how mentors can develop or revise their mentoring skills and knowledge while they engage in school-based mentoring practice. Semi-structured interviews and documents were collected from 31 mentors from primary and secondary schools in Hong Kong from 2014 to 2015. Findings of this study firstly show that both bonding social capital and bridging social capital can help mentors develop their mentoring knowledge in different ways. Secondly, bridging social capital can help mentors act as boundary brokers who develop transformative learning by interacting with outside experts. Providing more off-site or cluster-based mentor training programs and mentoring partnership schemes with outside experts could be the way forward to maximize the professional competency of mentors aiming at improving school capacity.     

Dialogue as a catalyst for teacher change: A conceptual analysis

Teacher–teacher dialogue is a central activity within many professional learning programmes. Understanding how and why dialogue works as an effective tool for teacher change is a question, however, that needs more careful probing in the extant literature. In this paper, I draw upon the philosophical theory of practical reason in order to show why and how teacher–teacher dialogue plays such a crucial role in the evolution of teacher practice. This conceptual analysis also builds our understanding as to the kinds of teacher–teacher dialogues that are more likely to be effective at catalysing teacher learning.     

Educational accountability tests,social and legal inclusion approaches to discrimination for students with disability: a national case study from Australia

The UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disability promotes equal and full participation by children in education. Equity of educational access for all students, including students with disability, free from discrimination, is the first-stated national goal of Australian education. Australian federal disability discrimination law, the Disability Discrimination Act 1992, follows the Convention, with the federal Disability Standards for Education 2005 enacting specific requirements for education. This article discusses equity of processes for inclusion of students with disability in Australian educational accountability testing, including international tests in which many countries participate. The conclusion drawn is that equitable inclusion of students with disability in current Australian educational accountability testing is not occurring from a social perspective and is not in principle compliant with law. However, given the reluctance of courts to intervene in education matters and the uncertainty of an outcome in any court consideration, the discussion shows that equitable inclusion in accountability systems is available through policy change rather than expensive, and possibly unsuccessful, legal challenges.     

Experimental analysis of proximity as a social stimulus: Increasing on‐task behavior of an adolescent with autism

Experimental analysis of social stimuli has typically been restricted to the presence or absence of verbal attention. In the present study, an ABAB design was used to assess the influence of proximity as a social stimulus. Close and distant proximity of a familiar adult was systematically manipulated to evaluate the effect of proximity on the on‐task behavior of a 15‐year‐old male with autism. Baseline, experimental analysis, and intervention phases were conducted within a self‐contained classroom. Pronounced effects of distant educator proximity to the participant were evident during both the experimental analysis and intervention, with increased on‐task behavior occurring in the distant condition. Future recommendations for the investigation of proximity as a relevant social stimulus are forwarded. © 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Psychol Schs 42: 189–196, 2005.     

“…If we were cavemen we'd be fine”: Facebook as a catalyst for critical literacy learning by dyslexic sixth‐form students

This article is derived from a study of the use of Facebook as an educational resource by five dyslexic students at a sixth form college in north‐west England. Through a project in which teacher‐researcher and student‐participants co‐constructed a group Facebook page about the students’ scaffolded research into dyslexia, the study examined the educational affordances of a digitally mediated social network. An innovative, flexible, experiential methodology combining action research and case study with an ethnographic approach was devised. This enabled the use of multiple mixed methods, capturing much of the rich complexity of the students’ online and offline interactions with each other and with digital media as they contributed to the group and co‐constructed their group Facebook page. Social perspectives on dyslexia and multiliteracies were used to help interpret the students’ engagement with the social network and thereby deduce its educational potential. The research concludes that as a digitally mediated social network, Facebook engages the students in active, critical learning about and through literacies in a rich and complex semiotic domain. Offline dialogue plays a crucial role. This learning is reciprocally shaped by the students’ developing identities as both dyslexic students and able learners. The findings suggest that social media can have advantageous applications for literacy learning in the classroom. In prompting learning yet remaining unchanged by it, Facebook can be likened to a catalyst.     

Education for children with a chronic health condition: an evidence‐informed approach to policy and practice decision making

Children managing chronic health conditions face many obstacles which can impede their learning during periods of hospitalisation. In one particular hospital, a team of educators deemed it necessary to take a personalised learning approach in order to maintain students’ educational progress, namely making use of individual learning plans (ILPs). This team adopted an evidence‐informed practice (EIP) approach to the issue in order to persuade administrators of the need for change. The successful implementation of the EIP approach led to the inclusion of the ILP form in patients’ medical records, which is thought to be a first for Australia. Although EIP is regarded highly by practitioners and policy makers, there can be difficulties when implementing this approach. This study aims to identify the enabling features that permit EIP to be successfully implemented and to examine the ways in which EIP can lead to improved practice.     

Reflections as near‐peer facilitators of an inquiry project for undergraduate anatomy: Successes and challenges from a term of trial‐and‐error

Near‐peer facilitators (senior students serving as facilitators to their more junior peers) bring a unique student‐based perspective to teaching. With fewer years of teaching experience however, students who become involved in a facilitator role typically develop related skills quickly through a process of trial‐and‐error within the classroom. The aim of this paper is to report on the authors' own experiences and reflections as student near‐peer facilitators for an inquiry‐based project in an undergraduate anatomy course. Three areas of the facilitator experience are explored: (1) offering adequate guidance as facilitators of inquiry, (2) motivating students to engage in the inquiry process, and (3) fostering creativity in learning. A practical framework for providing guidance to students is discussed which offers facilitators a scaffold for asking questions and assisting students through the inquiry process. Considerations for stimulating intrinsic motivations toward inquiry learning are made, paying attention to ways in which facilitators might influence feelings of motivation towards learning. Also, the role of creativity in inquiry learning is explored by highlighting the actions facilitators can take to foster a creative learning environment. Finally, recommendations are made for the development of formalized training programs that aid near‐peer facilitators in the acquisition of facilitation skills before entering into a process of trial‐and‐error within the classroom. Anat Sci Educ. 7: 64–70. © 2013 American Association of Anatomists.