Moving on (part 1): The physics of power and curriculum history

This is the first of two papers that map (dis)continuities in notions of power from Aristotle to Newton to Foucault. They trace the ways in which bio-physical conceptions of power became paraphrased in social science and deployed in educational discourse on the child and curriculum from post-Newtonian times to the present. The analyses suggest that, amid ruptures in the definition, role, location and meaning given 'power' historically in various 'physical' and 'social' cosmologies, the naming of 'power' has been dependent on 'physics', on the theorization of motion across 'Western' sciences. This first paper examines some (dis)continuities in regard to histories of motion and power from Aristotelian 'natural science' to Newtonian mechanics.     

Rethinking the relationship between learner,learning contexts,and technology: a critique and exploration of Archer's morphogenetic approach

The contextualized nature of learning with technology is widely acknowledged in research, but there remains a lack of sound social theorization to conceptualize and understand this contextualization. Giddens' structuration theory has been proposed as an appropriate tool for analysing and understanding human interactions with technologies. Drawing on Archer's critique of structuration theory, this paper critically analyses some of its recent uses in relation to e-learning and discusses their explanatory limitations. As an alternative, the paper proposes the use of Archer's morphogenetic approach and illustrates how it overcomes some of the major analytical weaknesses of structuration theory by enabling engagement with the powers of both structure and human agency without conflating them in a process of ‘mutual constitution’. It suggests that Archer's approach provides central analytical and explanatory significance to the multiple specific social contexts within which any e-learning course exists and the specific social interactions that take place amongst those engaged in it. Although based in e-learning for illustrative purposes, the conclusions drawn from comparison between structuration and morphogenetic approaches have application in the enhanced understanding and theorization of learning situations more generally.     

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.     

Power Struggle,Submission and Partnership: Agency Constructions of Mothers of Children with ADHD Diagnosis in Their Narrated School Involvement

The contemporary education paradigm highlights the interdependency of home and school expertise. This discourse analysis study examines the narrated agentive possibilities of 18 Finnish mothers of children diagnosed with ADHD to influence and be involved in their child's schooling. Mothers' strong involvement endeavor is premised on their expertise concerning ADHD, distrust of teachers' adequate knowledge of and attitude towards their child, and anxiety for their child's wellbeing. However, our analysis reveals a gap between the mothers' narrated potential agency to fight for her child's well-being and their actual capability to be involved as intended, due to unequal institutional power relations between home and school. Educational responsibility, and the promise of recognition the diagnosis holds in educational social practices are discussed.     

Assembling and assessing the 'child-student': The 'child' as a criterion of assessment

The assessment of literacy continues to be the focus of debate. Attention has been given to textual features of students' writing, such as vocabulary, grammar and generic structures. We demonstrate how students' success in school is also dependent on their enactment of the category 'child'. We examine the micro-sociological issue of how students and a teacher interpret and deploy practices appropriate to their status as 'child-student' and 'adult-teacher'. Drawing on work that examines the day-to-day, moment-by-moment enactment of institutional and folk theories of the 'child', we interrogate classroom talk and students' writing for the versions of the 'child' constructed there, the manner in which suppositions about the nature of childhood are enacted, and the implications of normative presumptions about the nature of the 'child' for students' assessment.     

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.     

Early Relationship Quality From Home to School: A Longitudinal Study

The aim of this investigation was to examine the role of social relationships in the home as predictors of social functioning in the first years of school. Longitudinal data gathered on 156 children from urban, low-income families were used to examine the unique contributions of mother-child attachment classification at ages 1 and 2 years, the child's relationship with another adult caregiver, the child's closeness to a sibling, and the child's status in the family relative to siblings between ages 3 and 4 years, to teacher reports of their own relationship to the child and the child's social skills in the classroom and peer relations. The role of family-based relationships as possible protective factors for children at social or demographic risk for problems in school was also tested. Results indicate that quality of different family relationships provides relatively independent and complementary information about early social functioning in school, with more limited evidence for compensatory or protective processes at work.     

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.     

Parental Perceptions of the Use of Internal Sources of Information About Children's Development

This exploratory study examined parental perceptions of the information sources parents use when wanting or needing information about their three-year-old child's motor, social, and cognitive development. Specifically, this study compared parental perceptions of the use of internal information sources (i.e., parents' own intuitions about development, religious beliefs/teachings, and childhood experiences) to perceptions of the use of external information sources (i.e., books, magazines, counselors, etc.). Further, this study examined differences in parental perceptions of use of internal information sources by parent and child gender, and by developmental domain (i.e., information about a child's motor, social, and cognitive development). Sixty mothers and 60 fathers of a three-year-old child completed an information use structured interview. Findings revealed that almost half of the parents reported referring to their own intuitions, religious beliefs/teachings, and/or childhood experiences as sources of information about their child's development. Parents perceived the internal information sources as being used significantly more frequently and as significantly more useful for information about their child's social development than for information about their child's motor and cognitive development.     

Helpful Resources for Childbirth Educators and Parents

In this column, reviewers offer perspectives and comments on a variety of books and CDs that address topics related to the politics of midwifery in the United States, preparing expectant parents for childbirth, babywearing techniques, breastfeeding guides, and a child''s perspective of home birth.     

Orphans of Our Common Worlds

In this article, Therese Lindgren and Magdalena Sjöstrand Öhrfelt compare two discourses that have been influential in the field of early education: the social‐economic and the posthumanist. Studying how the young educable child is articulated in these seemingly contradictory discourses, Lindgren and Sjöstrand Öhrfelt have found that the discourses not only overlap, but, to some extent, they also reinforce each other. Both discourses depict the future as precarious, and along with identifying deficiencies of our time, they seek to justify the need for early intervention in terms of education. The young child is portrayed, on the one hand, as not‐yet‐realized human capital and, on the other, as a site for change and new beginnings. That is, the child figures as the key to a better and more sustainable world. In both discourses, early childhood education and care (ECEC) is depicted as an emancipating project, detaching the child from the child's social and cultural contexts and historical past, making the young educable child an “orphan.”     

The relations of parental supervision,parental school involvement,and child's social competence with school achievement in primary school

The aim of this study was to examine the relation of parental supervision, parental involvement at school and child's social competence with school achievement in primary school. A theoretical model was postulated that predicts direct and indirect effects of parental behaviors on adolescents’ school achievement. Participants were 1,024 adolescents attending Grades 5 through 8 in 20 primary schools in Croatia and one of their parents or guardians. Adolescents completed a scale assessing their self‐perceived social competence and data on their grade point average were collected. Parents completed scales measuring parental supervision and parental involvement at school and they rated their child's social competence. The results of model testing showed that parental behaviors have both direct and indirect effect on adolescents’ school achievement. Greater parental supervision and school involvement have a direct and an indirect, through their effects on child's social competence, positive effects on adolescents’ school achievement.     

Sex education in modern and contemporary China: Interrupted debates across the last century

Since the late 1980s sex education has been widely promoted in the PRC, but this is not the first time in China's modern history that attempts to develop sex education have been made. The present essay traces the development of sex education debates over the last century, identifying the historical, political and social contexts in which they originated. It looks at contemporary sex education as part of a fragmented history characterised by thematic and ideological continuities as well as interruptions. In its focus on contemporary debates, this essay shows that sex education in China is largely dominated by an ‘abstinence only’ approach which remained scarcely questioned until recent times.     

Empowering the Powerful: a discussion of the interrelation of government policies and consumerism with social class factors and the impact of this upon parent interventions in their children's schooling

This paper focuses on parents’ involvement with their child's schooling and the possible influences upon this. At a time when parental involvement is regarded as being highly important to a child's school achievement and given the Government's promotion of the role of parents in education, the conditions should be particularly conducive to involving all parents in this significant role. It will be argued, however, that in spite of increased statutory rights and a changing attitude towards parents by teachers and schools, parents’ social class location continues to have a direct impact upon their ability to intervene in their child's schooling. The paper concludes that increased parental involvement is probably desirable but the nature of this and its operationalisation needs to be carefully thought out.     

The Development of Social Cognition: Preschoolers' Use of Mental State Talk in Peer Conflicts

Research Findings: This research examines preschoolers' use of mental state terms in naturally occurring peer conflicts in the classroom to determine how children use mental state terms for organizing their social interactions. Analyses focus on the types, frequencies, and social interactive functions of mental state terms. Utterances (N = 166) with mental state terms from 124 conflict episodes were analyzed. Children used a number of different mental state terms, want and need being the most frequently used, to index their own and their interlocutors' desires for subtle interactive purposes. Want was paired most often with bids for action, objects, inclusion in a play area, or clarification of another child's mental state. Need was most often used when directing the other child's action or attention, to justify, clarify, or insist on their own action or previous request. Practice or Policy: Findings suggest that children's peer conflicts constitute a rich setting for the active construction of social relationships through the use of utterances with mental state language. This emphasis on peer interactions has the potential to inform new ways of supporting children's self–other development as a foundation for academic success.     

Introducing a Precursor Model of Inheritance to Young Children

This paper reports on a mixed-model case study of designing and implementing a constructivist teaching intervention about reproduction and physical family resemblance for young children. The objective of the study was to explore whether the ways that preschoolers reason about the resemblance between offspring and parents can be improved with a teaching intervention that introduces a rudimentary idea of genes through reproduction. The participants were 60 preschoolers (age 5–5.5 years) from public kindergartens of Patras. The qualitative analysis of their pre- and post semi-structured interviews showed a remarkable improvement in their reasoning, which was found to be statistically significant as well. After the three-part teaching intervention, children appeared to recognize the biological contribution of both parents to a child's creation. Moreover, most of them appeared able to attribute a child's species and body traits to the parental genes passed to the child through reproduction and not to the parents’ or child's intention.     

Play therapy in elementary schools

Because the child's world is a world of action and activity, play therapy provides the psychologist in elementary‐school settings with an opportunity to enter the child's world. In the play therapy relationship, toys are like the child's words and play is the child's language. Therefore, children play out their problems, experiences, concerns, and feelings in a manner that is similar to the process of talk therapy. This article provides practical information for developing a play therapy program, a discussion of the skills needed by the psychologist, how to involve parents and teachers in the treatment process, and a review of impressive effect sizes found in play therapy research studies. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

The internationalization of higher education with Chinese characteristics: Appadurai's ideas explored

The aim of this paper is to explore Appadurai's ideas of global cultural flows in the context of the internationalization of higher education in China. Studies on the internationalization of higher education have increased with the expansion of international activities on university campuses; however, more theoretical analysis in the field is necessary, especially in less studied and rapidly developing countries such as China. Appadurai's theorization may provide new insights into the field because of its background in the changes transforming international student flows: intensified migration and mass mediation. The research data of the paper consist of previous literature and statistical data. The paper focuses first on analysing the general ideas of Appadurai's model and second on one of the scapes of the model, the ideoscape. The paper suggests that Appadurai's ideas of global cultural flows, when expanded through further research and theorization, provide a heuristic framework for analysing the internationalization of higher education in China. The continuing significance of the nation state and the locality of international actions characterize the internationalization of higher education. Furthermore, the ideoscape of the internationalization of higher education has widened because the volume and the range of activities at universities have expanded.     

Middle childhood,poverty, and adjustment: Does social support have an impact?

The present study evaluated 64 children and their primary caregivers who were living in poverty. The children were administered a stress measure, a social support measure, and a measure of self‐esteem. Caregivers completed a stress measure, a measure of child adjustment, and a demographic questionnaire. Social support was not found to moderate the relationship between stress and child outcome. However, social support was found to be one possible mediator of the child's reported stress on their self‐esteem. According to the mediating model, enhancing children's social support may positively influence their self‐esteem. Greater levels of self‐esteem can affect many aspects of children's lives, such as improving school performance and efforts toward achieving goals. Because of the important role that social support can play on children's self‐esteem, social support should be actively promoted through school and community groups and organizations, especially with children from disadvantaged economic situations. © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Social reproduction and education policy

The last half-century of sociology of education is littered with the debris of functionalist theories about social reproduction, inequality and class. This article discusses 'progressive 'and 'conservative 'readings of arguments about social reproduction and explores the consequences for the sociology and the politics of education with reference to supposed 'influence ' and 'audience'. New Labour's embrace of the school effectiveness/improvement movement and the introduction of the Sure Start programme illustrate that while 'social reproduction' is still a concern for sociologists of education, policy-makers have more 'practical' concerns.