Provision for youngsters with autistic spectrum disorders in mainstream schools: what parents say — and what parents want

Relatively little research has focused on parental perceptions and experience of educational provision in mainstream settings for children and young people with autism. Much of that which has been undertaken (and certainly that which is most widely cited) has tended to rely on samples which may not be sufficiently representative. In the study reported here, Philip Whitaker, of the Children and Young People's Service in Northamptonshire sought the views of every parent or carer of a child with an autistic spectrum condition living within one English county. Almost half the parents of the 350 children attending mainstream schools responded to a questionnaire exploring their experiences, views, attitudes and levels of satisfaction. The analysis looks at the differences and similarities between the experiences and views of the 'satisfied' and 'dissatisfied' groups of parents.
Overall, 61% of respondents reported themselves satisfied with the provision being made for their children. The extent to which parents felt that school staff understood (and empathised) with their children's difficulties, and the perceived flexibility of the schools' responses to the children's needs were the factors which most sharply differentiated the two groups of parents. The extent and quality of reciprocal communication between home and school also seemed strongly associated with levels of satisfaction. The two groups of parents shared many concerns, with the schools' role in promoting social development and social relationships emerging as a high priority. Philip Whitaker discusses the implications of these findings for schools and for the development of local authority provision founded in mainstreaming.     

Fostering communication and shared play between mainstream peers and children with autism: approaches, outcomes and experiences

More pupils with autism are now being educated in mainstream settings and inevitably there is increased interest in their interactions with their peers. In this article, Philip Whitaker, of the Educational Psychology Service in Northamptonshire, describes his study of shared play between children with autism and their mainstream peers. The study involved ten youngsters with severe autism, educated in a unit attached to a mainstream school, and a group of volunteer 'peer tutors'. The children met in weekly interaction sessions designed to promote shared play and communication. The peer tutors were provided with some coaching in interaction techniques and the impact of the intervention was evaluated through analysis of video recordings of play sessions made at the beginning and end of the project. The peer tutors and their parents were also interviewed at the end of the project to explore their experiences.
The results Philip Whitaker reports are encouraging. All parents were strongly supportive of their children's participation. All but one of the peer tutors found the experience challenging but rewarding and wanted to continue their involvement beyond the 20-week project. The video evidence revealed that the peer tutors, with relatively limited preparation, were able to engage the youngsters with autism in high and sustained levels of shared play. The frequency of requesting by children with autism increased substantially over the course of the project, although levels of initiation of shared attention remained consistently low. Philip Whitaker concludes his report with a series of suggestions for enhancing the impact of this interesting work.     

School District and University Leadership Development Collaborations: How Do Three Partnerships Line Up With Best Practices?

This article explores the application of Whitaker, King, and Vogel's (2004) best practices for the implementation of partnerships regarding school leadership preparation programs in 3 school district–university collaboratives located in urban settings with large minority student populations. The 3 partnerships studied include the Nashville Metropolitan School District and Vanderbilt University (Nashville, TN), Prince George's County Public Schools and Howard University (Washington, DC, and Upper Marlboro, MD), and the San Diego Unified School District and San Diego State University (San Diego, CA). Five elements of Whitaker's best practices for implementing school district–university school leadership preparation programs were used to determine the extent to which the 3 partnerships were aligned with best practice. Document analysis was used to analyze the materials related to the 3 programs. Findings indicate that the 3 partnerships have successfully implemented 3 of the 5 best practices. Exemplary collaboration has occurred (a) in the development of high-quality curriculum and delivery of instruction and (b) the commitment of the partnerships to provide support to the participants through advising and other forms of assistance.     

Does classic school curriculum contribute to morality? Integrating school curriculum with moral and intellectual education

Phillip Cam recently published a study on the separation between the teaching and learning of classic school curriculum (CSC) on the one hand and morality on the other. He suggests an approach to integrate them. The goal of this article was to suggest a complementary alternative approach, to Cam’s. Based on a MacIntyrean paradigm, I argue that seeing the CSC (such as math, biology, literature and history) as ‘practices’ would also enable that integration. This approach differs from the one proposed by Cam, since it preserves the structure of the CSC. Nevertheless, I will demonstrate how this approach leads to a number of changes in the formation, teaching and learning of school curriculum. As background, I will briefly describe R.S. Peters’ attempt to find an internal justification for the teaching and learning of school curriculum and point to some weaknesses it contains. My proposal can be understood as deriving from the same principle, of another famous educational initiative, Mortimer Adler’s ‘Great Book Project’. Toward the end of the article, I will demonstrate why Adler’s project differs from mine, and why it does not meet the goal of integrating learning school curriculum with moral education.     

飞利浦L9机芯大屏幕彩电典型故障的剖析与检修

通过对飞利浦L9机芯大屏幕彩电的几种典型故障产生机理的深入剖析，并结合本人多年来的维修实践，综合性地总结出几种典型故障的独特有效的检修方案。这套方法对其它机芯的飞利浦彩电的故障排除亦有参考意义。     

《末代独裁》

你听说过安迪·艾明吗？他是二十世纪七十年代统治乌干达的独裁者。在《末代独裁》这部关于非洲统治者的影片中．美国男演员福里斯特·惠特克担任了主演。故事梗概（剧情透露）影片围绕安迪·艾明（福莱斯特·怀特克饰）与一位年轻苏格兰医生尼古拉斯·哥瑞肯（詹姆斯·麦卡沃伊饰）之间虚构的关系展开。哥瑞肯前往乌干达冒险．结果却成了艾明的私人医生。     

从构思作品之外的活动看绘画艺术家创造力的获得

以美国绘画艺术家菲利普·塔菲和珍妮·安东尼为例,分析了其在构思作品之外的活动对创造力获得的影响.认为当艺术家的创作思维处于某种危机状态时,创造力会终止,而采取无定向、无约束的由已知探索未知的思维方式,注意离散思维,可以使其获得无穷的创造力,从而对作品产生意想不到的影响.     

Leveraging insights from mainstream gameplay to inform STEM game design: great idea, but what comes next?

This response to Leah A. Bricker and Phillip Bell??s paper, GodMode is his video game name, examines their assertion that the social nexus of gaming practices is an important factor to consider for those looking to design STEM video games. I propose that we need to go beyond the investigation into which aspects of games play a role in learning, and move on to thinking about how these insights can actually inform game design practice.     

Geography in school and college

Joe Russell Whitaker. Geography in School and College, Bureau of Publications. George Peabody College for Teachers, Nashville, Tennessee, 1948 pp. 116 $1.80     

福莱斯特·怀特克

福莱斯特·怀特克是一位极具天赋的演员,他参演了多部影片。他凭借影片《末代独裁》（2006）里乌干达独裁者安迪·艾明一角获得了奥斯卡奖、金球奖和英国电影电视艺术大奖三项电影界的最高荣誉。让我们一起走近福莱斯特·怀特克。     

Teacher education at the intersection of race and ability

Cultural Studies of Science Education - In this dialogue with Phillip A. Boda’s Conceptualizing the margins into science education praxis: disability as case in point, I would like to...     

新生代当红华裔服装设计师

前辈如安娜.苏(Anna Su)、薇薇安.谭(Vivienne Tam)、薇拉.王(Vera Wang)等,新一代市场化的后辈如亚历山大.王(Alexander Wang),季刚.吴(Jason Wu)、菲利普.林(Phillip Lim)、德里克.林(Derek Lam)、彼得.桑(Peter Som)等,这些当红服装设计师以其华裔的身份、务实的风格等被国际时尚主流圈接纳并引领世界潮流。他们在设计上几乎褪去了华裔背景,多致力成为欧美发达国家本土风格的设计师。除了自身的天赋和努力外,强势的媒体、完善的时装体系、成熟的市场等这些都是他们成功的关键或决定因素。     

A policy sociology reflection on school reform in England: from the ‘Third Way’ to the ‘Big Society’

This article presents a policy sociology reflection on Bernard Barker's book, The Pendulum Swings: Transforming School Reform. The book represents Barker's attempt to intervene in education policy during the lead-up to the 2010 UK general election and is framed by what he imagined might be possible under a new Conservative government. Barker draws inspiration from the Red Tory communitarian position articulated by Phillip Blond. In hindsight, we are less sanguine about these possibilities in the context of the Coalition government and its ongoing response to the ongoing financial crises. Indeed, what has emerged is a rearticulated neo-liberalism in the guise of ‘Big Society’ rhetoric. We agree with Barker's critical deconstruction of the five illusions underpinning New Labour schooling policy, but argue for a broader agenda of redistribution, both in social policy and with respect to schools. Policy needs to recognise and support teachers and good pedagogies, and we also see a pressing need to rethink richer forms of educational accountability. All of this must be located within a politics that pursues a new social imaginary. Nonetheless, we commend Barker's contribution towards post neo-liberal thinking in respect of school policy, specifically in England, but with relevance to other locations and systems.     

Children with autism and peer group support: using 'circles of friends'

Philip Whitaker (Specialist Senior Educational Psychologist, Leicestershire Educational Psychology Service with specialist responsibility in autism) and members of the Leicestershire Autism Outreach Team describe the rationale and process of establishing 'circles of friends' to support seven youngsters with autistic spectrum disorders, six of whom were attending mainstream schools.     

Is Conductive Education Transplantable?

Phillip Bairstow and Professor Raymond Cochrane, Birmingham University, are two of the three authors of the recently published and controversial report, Evaluation of Conductive Education for Children with Cerebral Palsy. They conclude that while parents may continue to press for the local availability of conductive education any attempt to introduce the system, closely modelled on the Peto Institute's provision, will be fraught with difficulties.     

Reviews

Book reviews in this article:
The Technology of Text. Vol 2: Principles for Structuring, Designing and Displaying Text by D H Jonassen.
Video Systems by P D Whitaker and D K Roach.
A First Computer Dictionary by B Samways and T Byrne-Jones.
Teaching Computers to Teach by Esther R Steinberg.     

Global cultural capital and global positional competition: international graduate students’ transnational occupational trajectories

International graduate students’ occupational trajectories have rarely been studied, although many studies exist on their learning experiences in foreign universities. Based on 80 qualitative interviews, this article aims to understand how, where, and why these students obtain jobs in academe and corporations. I focus particularly on Korean professionals who received graduate degrees from US universities and who later obtained jobs in Korea or the United States. The theoretical component of this work is based on two important concepts – global cultural capital and global positional competition – both of which are seen to be based on a global hierarchy of academic degrees and professional knowledge. This study empirically tests and elaborates Phillip Brown’s three rules of inclusion and exclusion in global positional competition. By looking at international students’ transnational occupational trajectories, this study aims to understand how global education, transnational job opportunities, and social inclusion and exclusion interact in diverse ways.     

逃逸疯狂杀手被捕

一名疯狂杀手在前往斯波坎县国际博览会的途中从精神病院医护人员手中逃脱后已经再度被捕，毫发无损。斯波坎县治安官戴夫·里根上尉说47岁的菲利普·阿诺德·保罗是由罗杰·奈特中尉逮捕的，1991年逮捕保罗的也正是这名侦探，并在其逃跑时受了伤。     

An Integrationist Perspective: A Response to “Bias: Thinking about College Student Psychotherapy versus Drug Treatment and Disability”

This article is written as a response to Dr. Leighton Whitaker's article: “Bias: Thinking about College Student Psychotherapy versus Drug Treatment and Disability.” The author attempts to summarize the main arguments made by Dr. Whitaker and to highlight areas of agreement as well as differences. Although the current psychiatric diagnostic nomenclature has its weaknesses, this author makes a case for using the DSM as a starting point of understanding psychopathology, but not an end point. Also, although research data on psychopharmacology trials have concerning funding and design biases, a case is made for seeing medications as a helpful adjunctive treatment for some college-aged patients, but never superseding the need for an empathic therapist–patient relationship.     

Design & Technology: New Directions

The Design and Technology Working Group appointed to advise the Secretary of State on design and technology, and on information technology for ages five to 16 reported in May. The joint comments of the Secretaries of State and the report of the Design and Technology Working Group together form the formal proposals for attainment targets and programmes of study published in June. Phillip Rodbard, associate lecturer in education, Brunel University, and in-service trainer on CDT and special educational needs, discusses the report, on which views need to reach the National Curriculum Council by September 22.