Nitpicking: An Exploration of the Marginalization of Gender Equity in Urban School Research and Reform

The Urban Review - Why has gender been marginalized as a consideration in decisions about how conditions in urban schools should be improved? To answer this question I examine research about home...     

谈我国女童教育公平问题

教育公平包括教育权利平等与教育机会均等两个方面。我国经过半个世纪的不懈努力，确立了女童平等的受教育权，确保女童教育机会均等。随着社会的发展，我国女童教育将进入一个新的发展时期。     

少数民族贫困地区大龄女童辍学问题追踪研究

近几年,少数民族贫困地区女童教育研究转向了对大龄女童(10～12岁)辍学问题及辍学的多因素综合治理方面.少数民族大龄女童辍学率高,主要原因是她们已经成为家里的劳动力或后备劳动力,通过她们的劳动或外出打工来支撑贫困的家庭及继续弟妹的学业.农村实行"两免一补"政策后,这一问题有了一定的缓解,但不能从根本上解决.为此,建议通过设立民族教育发展专项基金或发展特区的政策,从根本上解决民族教育的这一难点问题.     

公众参与：美国中小学教育亮点

公众参与是美国中小学教育的重要特征。公众参与使得教育与社会广泛联系,并在服务对象、培养目标、教育内容等方面表现出立体性、灵活性和适应性。公众参与形式灵活,内容广泛,全面影响着美国中小学教育政策的制定、课程开发、学校管理以及教学质量的监督与评价等各个环节。文章主要对美国公众参与教育现象进行分析,以期为我国中小学教育的健康发展提供有益的启示。     

An Australian perspective on school leadership preparation and development: credentials or self-management?

This paper provides a review of school leadership preparation and development in Australia through considering the requirements for becoming a principal, how leadership preparation and development occurs, and consideration of recent developments to provide an Australian standard for school leaders. Australian educators have relied mostly on a self-identification and self-managed system in which individuals decide that they want to pursue leadership opportunities and then seek out the support and experiences to help them. Support is available and provided through system, university, and service organization programmes, and the support of colleagues and senior leaders in schools. Whilst there is an extensive range of support provided by systems, universities and service organizations, there is little evidence of their impact on schools. At the school level there needs to be far greater support in identifying and developing leaders. Developments in creating a national leadership standard might lead to some type of credentialing programme that could allow individuals to benchmark their development, and ensure that preparation and support programmes are of the highest quality. An alternative view is to reinforce greater individual responsibility for leadership development and career progress, encourage schools and systems to focus less on individual leadership and more on collective leadership, and consider more innovative ways of providing leadership development.     

农村初中女生性别教育的文化障碍及其对策

农村初中女生性别教育应立足于相应的性别文化之上。以＂男性为主导＂的性别文化,制约着农村初中女生性别教育的顺利开展。因此,树立女生主体意识的性别教育理念,建构体现男女平等的性别教育课程内容,建立突出性别关怀的性别教育评价体系,走一条性别文化的重建之路,就成为推动农村初中女生性别教育健康发展的关键。     

Perceived physical competence,enjoyment and effort in same‐sex and coeducational physical education classes

Perceived competence is a key motivational determinant of physical activity behaviours in adolescents, and motivational determinants are influenced by the class environment. The purpose of this study was to investigate levels of perceived physical competence, enjoyment and effort in class, focusing on gender and class‐type differences. Participants were 546 adolescents (289 males, 257 females) who were in same‐sex or coeducational physical education classes. The Hierarchical Physical Competence Scale (HPCS) and questionnaire measures of enjoyment and effort in classes were used to investigate students’ perceptions. Results of 2 × 2 multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) indicated that students’ perceptions of physical competence, enjoyment and effort in classes differed according to gender and class type, but these differences must be viewed in light of strong interaction effects. That is, female students reported more positive and adaptive perceptions in same‐sex classes and were more affected by class type than were male students.     

Culture,gender and school leadership: school leaders' self-perceptions in China

Since the 1980s, numerous studies have demonstrated the influences of culture and gender on leadership, including school leadership. Such studies have been criticised, however, for being dominated by Anglo-American paradigms and frameworks and for under-exploring the roles of culture and gender on leadership in non-Western societies. With reference to China, this paper focuses on the relationship between gender and school leadership and explores gender differences between Chinese male and female school leaders in their leadership orientations. The study adopted a mixed methodology of a questionnaire survey and individual interviews to solicit Chinese school leaders' views in 2008. The study finds mixed patterns of gender differences in Chinese school leadership, including stereotypical, non-stereotypical and no differences. This paper argues that these patterns can be interpreted as resulting from the dynamic interplay among traditional Chinese culture, contemporary political context and organisational settings into which Chinese school leaders are socialised and in which their leadership styles and behaviours are shaped and leadership is exercised.     

The Local Context and the Legacy of the Past

This paper draws upon interviews with eight headteachers in ‘Northern LEA’, and examines (a) how the heads perceived their role in relation to the current period of rapid educational change, and (b) how they sought to cope with the increasingly difficult demands which they faced. The consequences of the current situation are considered in relation to a qualitative understanding of ‘high performance’ which recognises the situational complexity of the school as an organisation.

The heads made use of many sources of support; the most important were a network of informal contacts with other headteachers and an increase in the involvement of senior management team colleagues in the stresses and responsibilities of management. The paper concludes that despite the efforts of the heads themselves, the consequences of resource cuts and the Education Reform Act 1988 are likely to make the achievement and management of high performance increasingly difficult.     

Native American Adolescent Career Development

Within the framework of Social Cognitive Career (SCCT; Lent, Brown, & Hackett, 1994, 2000), this study examined the associations among career interests, career efficacy expectations, gender, and perceived parent support among Native American and Caucasian middle school adolescents. Consistent with previous research, results indicated that Native American young people had greater interests in Realistic and Conventional occupations, and in occupations that typically require a high-school diploma, a trade school certificate, or 2 years of post high-school education. However, contrary to previous findings, they had as great a range of interests in and self-efficacy expectations for Investigative, Artistic, Social, and Enterprising occupations as Caucasian adolescents, and similarly high levels of interests, efficacy, and perceived parent support for careers typically requiring 4 or more years of post-high school education.     

Improving pre‐service teacher learning through peer teaching: process,people and product1

This research investigates the perceptions of first‐year Bachelor of Teaching students (primary and secondary) and Diploma of Education students (secondary) about their peer teaching experience in a postgraduate subject called Curriculum and Assessment. Peer teaching is a learner‐centred approach to teaching and learning that is intended to provide significant benefits for learners' knowledge, skills and metacognition. However, concerns have been raised over the quality of the learning and teaching and the risks associated with such a pedagogy. In the present study, student responses to questionnaires and semi‐structured interviews were analysed, using a mixed methods approach, with respect to three broad and somewhat interconnected categories: process, people and product. These responses suggested a wide range of reactions to peer teaching, but overall students feel they benefited from the experience. The findings of this study should be of interest to lecturers and students in pre‐service teacher education courses, especially. Knowledge about peer teaching, learning and assessment would be especially valuable for both education lecturers and beginning teachers seeking to design and manage learner‐centred pedagogy in their own primary, secondary and tertiary classrooms. However, the results of this research would have far‐reaching appeal for all teaching and learning contexts.     

家庭教育资源分配的性别差异问题--来自三都水族村寨的个案调查

在对贵州省三都水族自治县苗草村开展的个案调查中发现:家庭内部教育资源分配差异是导致女童失辍学的主要原因。这种分配差异主要表现在教育投资等物质资源以及家长对男女童的教育观念等人文资源的分配差异。家庭的社会经济地位、家庭内部男女地位结构等因素与教育资源分配的性别差异形成有极大关系。     

School leadership for equity: lessons from the literature

Responding to Thrupp's [2003. “The School Leadership Literature in Managerialist Times: Exploring the Problem of Textual Apologism.” School Leadership & Management: Formerly School Organisation 23 (2): 169] call for writers on school leadership to offer ‘analyses which provide more critical messages about social inequality and neoliberal and managerialist policies’ we use Foucault's [2000. “The Subject and Power.” In Michel Foucault: Power, edited by J. D. Faubion, 326–348. London: Penguin Books] theory of power to ask what lessons we might learn from the literature on school leadership for equity. We begin by offering a definition of neoliberalism; new managerialism; leadership and equity, with the aim of revealing the relationship between the macropolitical discourse of neoliberalism and the actions of school leaders in the micropolitical arena of schools. In so doing, we examine some of the literature on school leadership for equity that post-dates Thrupp's [2003. “The School Leadership Literature in Managerialist Times: Exploring the Problem of Textual Apologism.” School Leadership & Management: Formerly School Organisation 23 (2): 149–172] analysis, seeking evidence of critical engagement with/resistance to neoliberal policy. We identify three approaches to leadership for equity that have been used to enhance equity in schools internationally: (i) critical reflection; (ii) the cultivation of a ‘common vision’ of equity and (iii) ‘transforming dialogue’. We consider if such initiatives avoid the hegemonic trap of neoliberalism, which captures and disarms would be opponents of new managerial policy. We conclude by arguing that, in spite of the dominance of neoliberalism, head teachers have the power to speak up, and speak out, against social injustice.     

“Brains before ‘beauty’?” High achieving girls,school and gender identities

In recent years educational policy on gender and achievement has concentrated on boys' underachievement, frequently comparing it with the academic success of girls. This has encouraged a perception of girls as the “winners” of the educational stakes and assumes that they no longer experience the kinds of gender inequalities identified in earlier studies. However, trying to balance academic achievement with being seen as a “proper girl” presents girls with difficult challenges, particularly in terms of being accepted and approved of by classmates and securing the attention of teachers. This paper explores the views of a group of high achieving 12‐ to 13‐year‐old girls who indicate that being regarded as “clever” continues to be negotiated within acceptable frameworks of femininity.     

问责制时代美国学校领导发展的变革

自20世纪90年代以来,美国基础教育改革的重要特征之一就是越来越严格地推行问责制。问责制对美国的学校领导者提出了新的要求和挑战,极大地推动了美国学校领导发展的变革。这些变革主要包括:确立新的学校领导标准;提高入学标准;实施实践性教学策略;建立强有力的实习制度;大力发展在职学习。     

我国中学生责任心特点初步研究

采用具有较好信度和效度指标的中学生责任心量表,对重庆、成都、绵阳三城市的1009名中学生进行测试。结果表明：（1）中学生的责任心水平总体较好;（2）中学生责任心在年级上呈现起伏波动的特点;（3）女中学生在他人义务责任心、集体义务责任心、家庭义务责任心和集体过失责任心等因子上优于男中学生。     

Evolving policy paradigms of middle leadership in Scottish and Irish education: implications for middle leadership professional development

ABSTRACT

Middle leadership is a dynamic area of policy in Scottish and Irish education to build leadership capacity. This article reports on a critical policy analysis of sequential sets of Scottish and Irish policy on middle leadership to identify codes of meaning. Two aspects are reported: (1) constructions of the purposes of middle leadership and (2) key themes in changing policy paradigms. While there is a development of policy ideas from delegated tasks to management functions to leadership for learning, there is little on the practice of leading learning. The findings are reviewed to identify issues related to middle leadership professional development.     

渐变调适:理解与实践教育中分布式领导的关键

分布式领导因强调"领导并非集中在居于正式职位上的个体"而为越来越多的研究者、政策制定者和实践者所接纳。本文认为,应该采用一种渐变调适的视角对其加以理解。分布式领导是一个从正式领导向非正式领导不断卷入的渐变过程,需要重新理解正式领导及组织架构在分布式领导实践中的作用;分布式领导实践须与学校实际情境结合,根据学校发展对领导力的需求和组织成员的准备状态进行调适。     

美国当代中小学科学教育改革:政策、理念与行动

20世纪60年代,美国推行了注重学科知识结构的课程改革运动;80年代以后,美国通过推行STS教育而努力对传统科学课程进行重建;2000年以来,美国为保持在全球范围内的领先地位,开始推行STEM教育。半个世纪以来,美国当代科学教育的发展实现了政策、理念和行动的有机整合,通过持续改革而提升了对科学的本质及科学教育内涵的认识,这一切对于我国的科学教育改革无疑具有借鉴和启发意义。