The Stratification of Youth Training∗

Abstract

This article is based on surveys in 1988 among representative samples totalling 4,247 16‐19 year olds from four areas (Kirkcaldy, Liverpool, Sheffield and Swindon), of whom 1,562 had some experience of Youth Training (YT). The young people's likelihood of entering YT depended primarily on their educational qualifications and where they lived. Trainees’ chances of being kept on by the firms where they were trained depended mainly on their types of schemes and their performances during training, indicated by whether or not they earned any additional qualifications. The chances of those not retained moving immediately to jobs with other firms were more dependent on their school‐leaving qualifications and where they lived. The authors interpret their evidence to argue that employers’ uses of YT in the late‐1980s were creating increasingly clear divisions between sponsorship, contest and warehousing sectors.

     

The Implications of School‐Leaver Unemployment for Careers Education in Schools

’In particular I would urge that the Irish school system of the future should give freedom—freedom to the individual school, freedom to the individual teacher, freedom as far as may be to the individual pupiV. (Padraig H. Pearse [1916] Irish patriot, poet and educationist.)     

“No,We Should Do It”: Youth Training Youth in Activist Research Methods

The Urban Review - This article explores a 9-month process of youth research capacity-building, beginning with the training of high school and college aged researchers in qualitative methodologies...     

Psychological Health and Youth Unemployment in Rural Canada: A Case for ‘Generation X'?

Abstract

This paper reports findings on psychological well‐being among unemployed youth on the Great Northern peninsula of Newfoundland, an isolated and economically marginal region in Eastern Canada. Results show that while high levels of unemployment are not associated with alarming levels of psychological distress, variations in psychological well‐being are explained by coping strategies that involve employment commitment. These effects are shown to be mediated through a process involving dimensions of state policy, life course, regional labour market, and gender.     

Tensions in Teacher Training for School Effectiveness: The Case of Pakistan∗

While research on school effectiveness is growing internationally, its impact on the training of teachers is not clear. Taking Pakistan as a case study, this paper reports an investigation of how far trainees, tutors and practising teachers felt that training matched the researched ‘factors’ linked to successful schools. Fewer than half the practising teachers felt well prepared; but there was not always agreement within or between the three groups about what elements of ‘effectiveness’ should be included, except that the training should be more ‘practical’. The hidden curriculum of the training institution was found to be based on authoritarian transmission methods and on rote learning of traditional syllabi, so that trainees were neither exposed to newer ideas about effective teaching, nor experienced for themselves the self‐direction and critical analysis essential for future organisational development. The culture and conditions surrounding teaching also militated against the notion of ‘the reflective practitioner’.     

Teacher‐Training: The Voice of Recent,Substantial and Relevant Experience

Summary

Profiling is becoming increasingly accepted at all levels of education. This paper explores the principles and practice of profiling in initial teacher eduation. The first sections of the paper deal with an explanation of the profiling movement and its perceived potential advantages and weaknesses. An account of practice in one University Department of Educational Studies is then given. Data was gathered over the period of one academic year which allows for comments to be made about the construction and use of a profile. Recommendations are made which focus attention on the need to handle the statements of competence which have recently been issued by the DfE with great sensitivity.     

The Flipped Classroom in Training and Development: Fad or the Future?

This article provides an overview of the characteristics of the flipped classroom, discusses the foundations of this innovative instructional model, and analyzes the possibility of adoption and application to corporate learning platforms. The article assesses whether the flipped classroom is simply a temporary trend in education and learning or has the potential to truly revolutionize instructional design and delivery in the realm of training and development.     

The EC Discourse on Vocational Training: How a ‘Common Vocational Training Policy’ Turned into a Lifelong Learning Strategy

This article traces the EC vocational training policy historically and describes the discursive alignments which brought the policy from a ‘common vocational training policy’ as laid down in Article 128, in the Treaty of Rome to the Lisbon Lifelong Learning strategy. The argument is that vocational training has served as a lever for the gradual expansion of the policy field into both general and higher education and for the establishment of a European discourse on Lifelong Learning. In the article, Ball’s concept of “policy as discourse” is used to identify the changing spaces of possibility within EC vocational training policy (Ball, What is policy? Texts, trajectories and toolboxes. Discourse, 13(2), 1993).     

The Effects of Teachers’ Training on Pupils’ Achievement: The Case of Elementary Schools in France

This investigation examines the effects of teachers’ training on pupils’ achievement in French and mathematics. The aim of the research is to compare the effectiveness of three samples of elementary school teachers with different levels of experience and training. Using a multilevel model, the results demonstrate that training enhances the effectiveness of novice teachers. In addition, experience was also found to have a positive effect. Neither training nor experience have a significant effect on equity, defined as the capacity of reducing the initial gap between high and low achieving pupils.     

The Tech Trajectory: Examining the Role of College Environments in Shaping Students’ Interest in Computing Careers

Research in Higher Education - Computing career opportunities are increasing across all sectors of the U.S. economy, yet there remains a serious shortage of college graduates to fill these jobs....     

The Effectiveness of a Faculty Training Programme: Long‐term and institutional impact

Long‐term influences of educational development initiatives for novice faculty members are seldom studied in a systematic way. In this exploratory study the long‐term individual and institutional impact of a novice faculty training programme at the University of Antwerp (Belgium) was evaluated, using a written survey with open questions. The results revealed that 2 years after finishing the programme the respondents still referred to the programme as a means of explaining changes in their day‐to‐day teaching practice. No firm relationship could be established between the strength of individual impact and the extent to which respondents also felt inclined to change things at the institutional level. The data suggests that the long‐term impact of the programme depends mainly on contextual elements. The article further discusses implications for the design of faculty training as well as perspectives for further research.

Onderzoek naar de invloed op lange termijn van onderwijskundige professionalisering voor beginnende docenten is schaars. Dit artikel bespreekt de resultaten van een exploratieve studie over de lange termijn invloed van een opleiding voor beginnende docenten aan de universiteit van Antwerpen (België). Met behulp van een schriftelijke vragenlijst met open vragen werd de invloed van de opleiding op individueel en institutioneel niveau nagegaan. De resultaten tonen aan dat de respondenten twee jaar na datum nog steeds naar de opleiding verwijzen wanneer zij veranderingen in hun dagelijkse onderwijspraktijk duiden. Vastgesteld werd dat docenten die getuigen van sterke veranderingen in hun onderwijsopvattingen, ook meer omvattende veranderingen in hun praktijk beschrijven. Er werd geen verband gevonden tussen de sterkte van de veranderingen op individueel niveau en de mate waarin docenten zich geroepen voelden om veranderingen op institutioneel niveau teweeg te brengen. De resultaten laten vermoeden dat de lange termijn invloed van de opleiding vooral afhangt van contextfactoren. Het artikel gaat in op de implicaties van de bevindingen voor het ontwerp van onderwijskundige professionalisering en op de uitdagingen voor verder onderzoek.

L'influence à long terme des initiatives de développement pédagogique destinées aux enseignants universitaires en début de carrière est rarement étudiée de façon systématique. Dans le cadre de cette étude exploratoire, l'impact à long terme et pour l'institution d'un programme de formation pour les nouveaux enseignants donné à l'Université d'Anvers (Belgique) a été évalué à l'aide d'un questionnaire écrit comportant des questions ouvertes. Les résultats tendent à démontrer que, même deux ans après avoir complété le programme, les répondants faisaient toujours référence au programme pour expliquer les changements survenus dans leur pratique quotidienne d'enseignement. Bien que les changements comportementaux correspondent à l'étendue du changement en matière de conceptions de l'enseignement, aucune relation nette n'a pu être établie entre l'impact institutionnel et la vigueur de l'impact individuel. Les données tendent à démontrer que l'impact à long terme du programme dépend principalement d'éléments contextuels. L'article présente aussi des éléments de discussion relatifs au design d'activités de formation pour les enseignants, de même que de nouvelles perspectives de recherche.     

The Strategic Management of Information: an Essential Element in the Training of Engineers∗

Why should engineering students be trained in the effective use of information sources? How can this education and training be integrated into the curriculum within technical universities? What role can information specialists and librarians play for training future engineers in this field of information mastery?

This paper introduces a debate which is largely developed in some countries, specially in France, within the French Grandes Ecoles     

The Emperor’s perfect map: leadership by numbers

This paper establishes that system-generated data profiles are influencing the work of principals in three Queensland state schools. Drawing upon Foucault’s notions of governance, as well as research emphasising performative cultures and the importance placed upon numbers and data in education, this paper uses the tale of the Emperor’s map as a metaphor to explore the way principals’ work is being influenced by specific sets of data compiled by the department. These data profiles are representative of external accountabilities and high stakes testing regimes, as seen in systems that have adopted neoliberal policies which attempt to quantify the work being undertaken in schools. The paper demonstrates that principals are being constructed in part by discourses from a system that emphasises these system-generated performance data as a driver for school improvement.     

How Does Racial Context Matter?: Family Preparation-for-Bias Messages and Racial Coping Reported by Black Youth

Black families and youth likely consider specific racial discriminatory situations in preparation-for-bias messages and racial coping responses. Our study investigated coping responses embedded in youth-reported Black families’ preparation-for-bias messages and youths’ proactive coping responses to specific racially discriminatory situations—teachers’ negative expectations, store employees’ hyper-monitoring and police harassment. Gender and racial discrimination experience differences were considered along with relations between messages and coping. Our investigation was guided by the integrated-developmental, transactional/ecological, intersectionality, and Phenomenological Variant of Ecological Systems Theory theoretical frameworks. We conducted cluster analyses using data from 117 Black youth aged 13–14 to identify situation-specific family messages and youth coping responses. Families’ messages and youths’ responses varied in content and frequency based on the specific discriminatory situation, which suggests consideration of context.     

The Structure of Attitudes Towards Israel‐Diaspora Relations Among Diaspora Youth Leaders: An Empirical Analysis

The goals of this study are to describe the motivations and aims of young Israelis for choosing Reform rabbinical studies and to explore how the Israeli and Reform contexts are manifested in students’ motivations and aims. This question was examined by a study of the personal background, the decision-making process, and the motivations of 10 students in the Reform rabbinical program at the Jerusalem campus of Hebrew Union College (HUC). Though most of the students’ exposure to Reform Judaism occurred following an encounter with North American Reform Jewry, the choice of rabbinical studies was described by most of the participants as the result of a sense of incongruity between the personal, cultural, and professional dimensions of their lives.