Hearing Truth from Power? Organisation Theory,School Effectiveness and School Improvement

School effectiveness and school improvement researchers have increasingly looked towards establishing some kind of synergy between their respective fields. However, most recent attempts to create such links have not sufficiently addressed their different perspectives on organisational development and change. School effectiveness research has tended to view organisational development in terms of structural change, while the school improvement field has conversely placed an emphasis upon the cultural dimensions of organisational change. This has resulted in a methodological and theoretical divide that has proved difficult to resolve. This article argues that by incorporating the concept of 'power' into the analysis the two fields can be brought together more successfully. The article suggests that this 'third dimension' provides a bridge between structural and cultural analysis. It also highlights some important research questions that arise out of this tripartite relationship. The article concludes by suggesting that an analysis of power may provide the long awaited conceptual and theoretical fusion sought by both fields.     

Research methodology,education, and theoretical fashions: Constructing a methodology course in an era of deconstruction

In this article a case is made both for the utility of deconstructive questions and also for the danger of taking such questions as a sole or overriding methodological agenda in education. The discussion is mounted by attention to grounded contexts and dilemmas rather than by a commitment to abstract concerns about ''power'' or ''Other'' or ''polyphony of voices.'' The framing dilemma is how one might construct a research methodology course that is not based on positivism, relativism, or a reification of current theory as an enduring answer for students. The article takes two substantive fields of inquiry in education- (1) inequality and access in education and (2) gender and education- to argue that following through some substantive issues for educational research can provide ways of thinking about the relative merits, power, pertinence, and relationships among quantitative, qualitative, and deconstructive agendas. Finally, the article outlines a research methodology course constructed by the author to attempt to put into practical form the assumptionsabout education and research methodology that are argued in this article.     

Reading about Women in World History Textbooks from One Feminist Perspective

The purpose of this study was to analyze the content on women in three secondary school world history textbooks used in the USA from one feminist perspective. The analyses involved recursively reading, coding, and interpreting all of the content pertaining to women across the three texts. The macroanalysis yielded a 16-category coding scheme that reflected the areas most emphasized in the presentation of women's contributions to world history, at least as described in each of the textbooks. The microanalysis was conducted to examine the language used for the content coded 'women's rights' and similarly for that coded 'power', 'fighters', or 'mediators'. The results of this feminist content analysis of world history textbooks signal the importance of teachers and students engaging in reading subtextually and resistantly.     

Rigoberta Menchú and David Stoll: Contending stories

This paper reconnects the major texts, Rigoberta Menchú's autobiographical I, Rigoberta Menchú (Menchu & Debray, 1984) and David Stoll's Rigoberta Menchú and the story of all poor Guatemalans (Stoll, 1999) with the historical contexts and continuities in which they have been and are active. Its interest is in examining them in the connections between popular on-the-ground struggles in Guatemala and the textual representations entered into in ideological struggles in North America. The writer does not dissociate herself from the latter. She takes up her position on the progressive side, recognizing Menchú's story, with all its problems, as speaking from native peoples' experiences of repression and struggles in the highlands of Guatemala. Her interest is in how Stoll's text goes to work on Menchú's, in the implicit historicity of his study that is submerged by his claim to an objective empiricism, and in how his "findings" have been progressively attenuated as they pass through media versions to simplified representations and coffee-shop gossip. While Menchú's story and vivid presence had breached the wall of silence constructed against news of the U.S. involvement in repression in Central America, Stoll repairs the breach by destroying her credibility and the credibility of her story.     

Toward a definition of a Latino family research paradigm

This paper analyzes some of the methodological requisites for a Latino qualitative family research paradigm. The paper explores the philosophical underpinnings, purposes, parameters, and influences of the role of the researcher. Elements of critical race theory, feminist standpoint theory, and Puerto Rican culture and experience are incorporated in the development of the paradigm. Thus, the framework reveals an epistemology that is sensitive to Latino cultural knowledge production and holds an explicit social objective to challenge existing structures, that is, to produce knowledge that presents Latinos as active agents facing constraints or exhibiting resistence behaviors within a social structure. The framework's parameters outline the boundaries all Latino groups share in the United States, such as bicultural identity, Spanish language, and cultural citizenship. The researcher's influence is examined from a Latina (Puerto Rican female) perspective to find some of the continuities and discontinuities that may influence the inherent power dynamic within the researcher informant relationship.     

The ‘[h]unt for new Canadians begins in the classroom*’: the construction and contradictions of Canadian policy discourse on international education

In Canada’s first-ever strategy, international education (IE) is linked to immigration policy with international students (IS) recruited as ‘ideal’ immigrants. This paper engages in policy sociology and Ball's concepts of 'policy as text' and 'policy as discourse' (10). It follows three stages of critical policy discourse analysis. The first a simple tally of the most commonly used words/phrases in the Strategy; the second analyses it using Van Leeuwen’s framework and the third presents results from a study on the perception and experiences of IS, exposing the gap between policy rhetoric and practice. The paper concludes that critical discourse analysis is a powerful tool to uncover policy values/ideologies, identify legitimation strategies and reveal perpetuation of power relations/status quo within Canadian society.     

Friendship and Fandom: Ethnicity,power and gendering readings of the popular

This paper explores the relationships between knowledge of popular culture and power negotiations among young children's friendship groups and derives from a research project on the identity formations of 'mixed race' children. The paper begins with a consideration of existing work on music, ethnicity and cultural identities and how this is implicated in formations of 'imagined communities' (Anderson, 1991, Imagined Communities , Verso). Next, I look at the ways in which this work has been gendered with particular reference to the female music 'fan'. Throughout I use data from my research to show how the children engaged in friendship/power relationships that challenge much of this material. The paper centralises the way readings are used by friends in processes that are implicated in en/gendering identities and identifications - how likes and dislikes are mobilised differently among children who are becoming 'boys' and 'girls' who are friends, through use of the love/loathe discourses. The allegiance work is saturated with and constitutive of relations of power/knowledge which are both painful and pleasurable for children who are differently positioned within networks of learning and cultural expertise.     

Effects of Supervisor Social Influence,Nonverbal Immediacy,and Biological Sex on Subordinates' Perceptions of Job Satisfaction,Liking, and Supervisor Credibility

This study investigated the impact of supervisor biological sex, power use, and nonverbal immediacy on subordinates' satisfaction, liking for the supervisor, and perceptions of the supervisors' credibility. After viewing video scenarios of male and female supervisors engaging in nonverbally immediate (or nonimmediate) and prosocial (or antisocial) power use, subordinates reported perceptions of satisfaction, affect, and credibility. Results of the 2 × 2 × 2 experimental design indicated significant main effects for supervisor prosocial power and nonverbal immediacy. Although there were interaction effects, the variance accounted for was minimal. Supervisor prosocial power use and nonverbal immediacy were positively and significantly related to subordinates' self-reported satisfaction, liking for the supervisor, and work enjoyment. Supervisor biological sex did not show a relationship to any of the criterion variables. This study demonstrates that supervisors should maintain nonverbal immediacy and frame prosocial-type messages to preserve their credibility in the workplace.     

Reactive versus proactive support coordinator roles: an international comparison

The four studies on support teacher roles from the UK, The Netherlands, Spain and Australia, in this issue of the journal, are considered via a comparative analysis. Two perspectives, namely categorical and relational, are applied to identify the main continuities and discontinuities related to basic understandings of special need support in inclusive education development. Within-country differences were found more decisive for support teacher roles than those between countries. Conditions for support teacher roles being reactive or proactive are discussed with reference to mandates; status of power and priorities; and time allocated for coordinating tasks. ‘Scapegoat’ roles for support teachers are also considered. Fostering the concept of inclusive education requires a commitment to whole-school reform. This is also seen as a prerequisite for support coordinators' roles to develop in a more proactive way.     

Thematic continuities: Talking and thinking about adaptation in a socially complex classroom

In this study I rely on sociocultural views of learning and teaching to describe how fifth–sixth‐grade students in a Fostering a Community of Learners (FCL) classroom gradually adopted scientific ideas and language in a socially complex classroom. Students practiced talking science together, using everyday, scientific, and hybrid discourses as they studied endangered species. Students' overarching content themes, or “thematic continuities,” acted as generative scaffolds for developing complex lines of inquiry, leading ultimately to the appropriation of aspects of the biological principle of adaptation. Thematic continuities provided an organizing framework for thinking and talking about previously disconnected science facts, and set the stage for the adaptationist stance. Mixed method data analyses relied on written assessments, in‐depth guided clinical interviews, video and audiotaping of small and large group participant structures, in‐class student work, and ethnographic notes. Data analysis included two discrete levels, the macro (whole and half class) and the intermediate (case study of one small group) to capture both holistic and detailed aspects of dialogue. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 45: 1–30, 2008     

Teacher Reactions to Two Approaches to School-Based Psychological Consultation

One hundred twenty-eight female teachers were classified by degree of dogmatism, locus of control, and teaching experience, and then were randomly assigned to view a videotape of either a 'mental health' consultant or a 'behavioral' consultant. The tapes were originally used in a study by Medway and Forman (1980) who reported that, at least in the early stages of consultation, teachers preferred behavioral consultation over mental health consultation. Our findings are essentially in agreement with those of Medway and Forman and were expressed via significantly higher teacher ratings on scales measuring satisfaction with consultation, teacher strength, and the resolution of the referral problem. Several interaction effects are also discussed.     

Labour,Learning and the Economy: a ‘policy sociology’ perspective

This paper considers Labour's education policy portfolio in two loosely related ways. Firstly, I argue for the need to see the policy continuities between the Conservatives and Labour in an international context and to suggest that in a sense Labour's policies are not specific to Labour at all; they are local manifestations of global policy paradigms. Secondly, I begin to sketch out an argument which suggests that in one key respect Labour's policy thrust is contradictory in its own terms. That is, the over‐riding emphasis on education's role in contributing to economic competitiveness rests on a set of pedagogical strategies the effects of which are actually antithetical to the needs of a ‘high skills’ economy. This contradiction arises in part from an inherited, and ultimately self‐defeating, impoverished view of ‘learning’. I shall also point to some of the effects of performativity in relation to teaching and learning     

Sure start

This paper outlines what is involved in Sure Start, one of New Labour's key social policy interventions. It is argued that there are policy continuities with older redemptive policies which focus on young children. It is also argued that Sure Start could provide a bridgehead for a more socially democratic orientation into early childhood policy.     

The persistence of religion in Germany's modernizing schools,from Empire to Republic

Germany's well‐established, and often envied, public elementary schools of the early twentieth century, encompassing the years from the late German Empire through the Weimar Republic, were both centers of reform pedagogy and sites of persistent confessional religious education. This article uses schoolbooks, curricula and pedagogical literature to examine the relationship between these two educational currents, the first associated with modernity and the second with tradition. The article stresses continuities from Empire to Republic, both in reform pedagogy and in religious curricula, pointing to elements of modernity in the conservative Empire, and to the persistence of tradition amidst the turmoil of the 1920s. In addition, it suggests not only that reform and religion coexisted but that reform of religious instruction helped to maintain its place in the modern school.     

European Identity in the Young and Dutch Students' Images of Germany and the Germans

In discussions on the unification of Europe the concept of 'European identity' looms large. European politicians are particularly anxious that the young generation should develop a European identity. This article poses some epistemological and methodological problems of attitude research concerning Europe and national stereotypes. It presents various qualitative studies to demonstrate the complexity of the concept of national or European identity. The written material and group discussions of Dutch pupils demonstrate, among other things, that children are capable of reflecting on stereotyping mechanisms. The hypothesis is launched that interaction situationsimagined ones (written material) as well as real ones (group discussion)-mitigate negative stereotypes and set reflection in motion. On the basis of the results suggestions are made for educators and politicians in the field of 'European education'.     

Religious Education: The Depth of the Field

This article responds to sociologist Christian Smith's claim that many teenagers today have lost traditional religious faith and instead espouse a new and erroneous faith in God the “Cosmic Therapist.” The author challenges this claim by comparing two of Smith's chief complaints vis-à-vis teen faith to established portraits of adolescent faith. The comparison reveals that despite differences significant continuities exist between adolescent faith “then” and “now,” a finding that underscores the inherently (but not exclusively) developmental nature of religious faith. The article concludes by affirming Christian Religious Education as a dynamic process of bringing “life to faith and faith to life” with humility, compassion, and hope.     

Becoming dishuman: thinking about the human through dis/ability

In this paper, we seek to develop an understanding of the human driven by a commitment to the politics of disability, especially those of people with intellectual disabilities. Our position as family members and allies to people associated with this phenomenon of intellectual disability influences our philosophical conceptions and political responses. This has led us recently to develop a theory of dis/human studies which, we contend, simultaneously acknowledges the possibilities offered by disability to trouble, reshape and re-fashion the human (crip ambitions) while at the same time asserting disabled people's humanity (normative desires). We sketch out four dis/human considerations: (1) dis/autonomy, voice and evacuating the human individual; (2) dis/independence, assemblage and collective humanness; (3) dis/ability politics, self-advocacy and repositioning the human; and (4) dis/family: desiring the normal, embracing the non-normative. We argue that this feeds into the wider project of dis/ability studies, and we conclude that we desire a time when we view life through the prism of the dishuman (note, without the slash).     

School-based Learning: Constraints and limitations in learning from school experience for teaching assistants

The role and numbers of teaching assistants (TAs) in English schools has grown dramatically in recent years. This is associated with professional development which could give access to Qualified Teacher Status. This part-time, school-based route is consistent with the growth of alternative routes into teaching that are based on an 'apprenticeship model of teacher training'. This model is consistent with the dominant model of 'reflective practice' in teacher training. This study of a cohort of students in their first year of a part-time degree programme for TAs examines the role of experience from constructivist and sociocultural perspectives. It concludes that the TAs' social context in school has a significant impact on the potential to learn from experience and this needs to be addressed in the design of such programmes.