Black students and private schooling

Conclusions As black students move into private schools at greater rates, a number of questions are raised. To what extent and under what conditions is a private school education better than a public school education for black students? What are the social and educational benefits and costs of being educated in a largely white environment? And what will be the benefits and costs as private schools themselves become increasingly black? Are the economic sacrifices made by black families to send their children to private school worth it to the individual child—to the black community?     

Choosing non-government secondary schooling

This paper tests a model of non-Government secondary school choice among the subjects of a longitudinal study of career commencement. The results show that the socio-economic advantages of upper middle class origins, already a factor in these subjects remaining at school, may repeat their effects in terms of Independent secondary school choice for possible children. The choice of Catholic schooling seems motivated by other concerns, though we demonstrate a sizeable drift from the Catholic school sector to the Independent school sector. The choice of Catholic secondary schooling is bound up largely with being Roman Catholic and carrying on a tradition of attendance at such schools, especially among men.     

Transnational families,ICTs and mobile learning

This article focuses on findings from an Economic and Social Research Council study in England about the uses of information and communication technologies (ICTs) among 15 highly mobile migrant workers within their transnational families. Using an extended case study approach including ethnographic methods and a thematic analysis, patterns appeared about learning within transnational families using ICTs. The findings were that their mobile learning was: (1) infused with caring; (2) multi-directional and involved multiple members; (3) translated tacit knowledge; and (4) enabled linguistic gifting. Implications for lifelong education centre on practice and policies that build on how transnational families communicate using ICTs. The study conclusions focus on the complexities of mobile learning within these families, showing that they are difficult to capture, but nonetheless important.     

International students in the first years of senior secondary schooling in Australia: Longing for belonging

Most research on international students’ experiences has focused on tertiary settings and consistently shows that this cohort negotiates significant risks during their time abroad. This paper draws on data from the first year of a three-year Australian Research Council funded study to address the un(der)examined cohort of young people who complete their secondary school education as international students and temporary sojourners in Australia. We analyse the data from the initial interviews undertaken with 60 Year 10 international students during their first year of the senior secondary schooling. Drawing upon the theoretical resources associated with the politics of belonging, we ask if, and in what ways, students felt themselves to be marked as ‘other’ to constructed educational and social norms. We note the significant role that online activity played in helping students deal with feelings of disconnect and exclusion.     

The placement of secondary school students with Statements of special educational needs in the more diversified system of English secondary schooling

This article examines the pattern of placement of students with significant special educational needs at Statement and School Action Plus levels in English secondary schools, comparing sponsored and converter academies, maintained schools and the newly created free schools, studio schools and university technical colleges for 2013 and 2014. The analysis shows a clear pattern of differences: converter academies (which are governed by their own governing body) had significantly lower proportions of students with significant special educational needs overall than maintained (those remaining under local authority management) and sponsored academies (those considered to be weak/failing schools forced to become academies with outside sponsors that oversee the schools). There was a similar pattern of findings for most areas of special educational needs, except visual impairment and autistic spectrum disorder. The pattern of placement of students with Statements in the newly created free schools also showed that some free schools have unusually high proportions of students with special educational needs. These findings are discussed in terms of the increasing stratification of English secondary schools and the potential of small secondary schools to be more inclusive.     

Perpetrating disaffection: schooling as an international problem

This paper argues that, despite evidence of widespread disaffection, school is often regarded as the default position for educational provision, a given good. If there is disaffection with, and resistance to, schooling, then it is pupils and parents that are the problem, not school itself. Yet there is considerable evidence that schooling does not necessarily or automatically benefit either society as a whole or the individuals who attend and that, as a result, it creates disaffection with itself. Rejection of schooling is therefore very far from being an irrational or ill‐considered act. The paper reviews evidence supporting this argument including both the failure of schools to protect young people from danger and violence and also their direct role in actively perpetrating violence and threatening the safety of those they are there to protect. The paper ends by arguing that disaffection with schooling stems from its fundamental nature and purposes which have been shaped by its historical origins. While schooling remains as it is, disaffection and resistance will continue to be an inbuilt and often logical response.     

The social impact of schooling on students with dyslexia: A systematic review of the qualitative research on the primary and secondary education of dyslexic students

This systematic review of the qualitative research on the formal school education of children with dyslexia addresses three main questions: 1) What is known about the educational experiences of children with dyslexia? 2) What is known about the role that parents/guardians play in their child's schooling? 3) What is known about the role of teachers and administrators in supporting children with Dyslexia? Student and parent-focused studies indicate little awareness of and support for dyslexia in schools, and a strong reliance on parental support. Limited understanding of dyslexia, lack of training, and communication issues were identified as key themes in the small number of teacher-focused studies. The analysis points to a majority of studies not having a firm theoretical grounding and the neglect of teachers and school administrator's perspectives as central issues in the reviewed research. Based on these findings, it is argued that to further understandings of the systematic effects of schools' responses to dyslexic students, research should draw more heavily on socio-cultural models of disability.     

Immigration and supplementary ethnic schooling: Ukrainian students in Portugal

Immigration from Eastern European countries to Portugal is a recent phenomenon. Within the last decade, economic migrants from Ukraine, Russia, Romania and Moldova set up a number of supplementary schools across the country. No academic attention has been given to the phenomenon of supplementary ethnic schools in Portugal, whilst there is a growing interest in and beyond Europe in the ways they serve as cultural, social and political sources for identity negotiation, and structures for social capital formation in migrant communities. This study addresses this gap in knowledge. Drawing on a survey completed by 184 students between the ages of 12 and 20, attending eight Ukrainian supplementary schools, this paper contributes to wider international research through its mapping of the population of Ukrainian schools in Portugal and examining students’ reasons for attendance, highlighting both positive and negative aspects of their experiences. Recommendations are made for schools in light of the findings.     

Towards a rural sociological imagination: ethnography and schooling in mobile modernity

In 1959, C. Wright Mills coined the phrase ‘the sociological imagination’ to offer a critical assessment of a discipline he saw descending into a technical or abstract empiricist practice that he feared would ultimately deepen human alienation and oppression. Mills positioned the sociologist as a careful, critical scholar working in the space between biography and history. In this paper, I offer a meta-ethnographic analysis of several recent critical ethnographies in the rural sociology of education using my own experience as a rural education ethnographer to frame the analysis. I argue that critical ethnographic work is crucial to developing educational analysis that is attuned to the nuances of place and the kind of metrocentric analysis that effectively ‘traps’ rural places in larger structural educational reform narratives.     

The private direct cost of secondary schooling in Tanzania

This paper presents data relevant to discussions on the financing of secondary education in Tanzania. The issue of financing is important because expansion in public schools is severely limited by budgetary constraints, high unit costs, and the fact that no part of public expenditures is currently recovered through fees. Given the financing difficulties, it may now be appropriate to reconsider the role of fees as a means of mobilizing private resources to supplement government funds. A prior question, however, is whether or not households already incur a significant cost even in the absence of fees, and further, whether or not they are willing to bear additional charges. The empirical analysis for Tanzania shows that although students pay no fees, their school related expenditure is in fact quite substantial, amounting in 1981 to US$139 for state students, and US$439 (including US$242 for fees) for private students. The results also show that students' expenditures vary more by enrollment characteristics than by family background, suggesting that given the substantial expenses involved, students do not spend more or less than what is necessary, regardless of their background. The large proportion of privately enrolled students in Tanzania indicates, however, that wealthier parents are both willing and able to bear a substantial user charge. A possible implication of these results is that user charges for public secondary education could potentially play an important role in mobilizing private household resources for the sector. Their actual relevance in Tanzania needs, however, to be confirmed by additional research.     

Stuck and sticky in mobile academia: reconfiguring the im/mobility binary

Dominant maternal ideologies impinge upon the career progression of academic mothers and non-mothers. Using “narratology” as a theoretical lens, this article offers insights into the working lives of academic mothers and non-mothers by drawing upon narratives collected by phenomenologically interviewing Palestinian women academics working at Palestinian universities. The analysis of the emerging persistent narratives shows that, as women, both mothers and non-mothers are influenced by socially constructed notions of “motherhood” and are accordingly put at a disadvantage within academia. In Palestine’s conservative, patriarchal context, academic non-mothers are expected to shoulder the burden of care within their families and to extend their mothering capacity to their students and co-workers. Furthermore, this study contributes to the contemporary debates on the tensions that exist between the prevailing discourses of the “altruistic mother” and the “career woman,” as well as the institutional demands that restrict women’s ability to simultaneously fulfill their work expectations and domestic roles.

     

A critical consideration of the changing conditions of schooling for students with disabilities in Greece and the fragility of international in local contexts

ABSTRACT

The Salamanca Statement is held as a high-water mark in the history of the global development of inclusive education. It represented agreements bringing together representatives from 92 governments and 25 international organisations to advocate for a more inclusive education for students with disabilities. Since 1994 the Salamanca Statement has been referred to by international education organisations, national education jurisdictions, and disability advocacy organisations as a foundation for progressing inclusive education. In this respect the Salamanca Statement has been important for the inclusive education and Education for All [UNESCO 1998. From Special Needs Education to Education for All: Discussion Paper for the International Consultative Forum on Education for All. Paris: UNESCO] movements. However, international agreements and conventions are fragile in the face of local contingencies and become difficult to apply. We examine the case of inclusive education in Greece to reflect on this complex relationship between international aspirations and the real politic of individual nation states. Greece, like other nations, has embraced the discourse of inclusive education and its successive governments can demonstrate policy activity and public expenditure on the education of disabled students. This is remarkable in a climate of ‘crisis’ and ‘austerity’ where the only investment in the teaching workforce is in the area of inclusive education. However, is Greek education more inclusive in practice as well as rhetoric?     

The costs of secondary schooling in developing countries; patterns and prospects

This research is concerned with the problems that may arise in paying for the costs of secondary school places in developing countries, which have experienced a rapid increase in primary school enrolments since the World Conference on Education for All at Jomtien. Many, but not all, of these countries are in sub-Saharan Africa. Case studies are being conducted six African and Asian countries. The basic argument is that cost structures, which may have been appropriate for systems that had low gross enrolment ratios and modest transition rates from primary to secondary are unlikely to be sustainable as enrolments become universalised. The challenge is to identify opportunities to expand quality secondary schooling to meet new needs while reducing costs to levels which can be afforded. Access to and quality of secondary schooling is likely to dominate the educational planning agenda in many developing countries in the early part of the twenty-first century.     

Counselling expectations of international students

International students not only face the normal adjustment problems of young adulthood but also the adjustment to a different culture. A random sample of 100 colleges and universities was contacted. International students enrolled at the institutions completed a questionnaire designed to assess the counselling preferences of international students. Results are discussed in terms of desirable counsellor characteristics and implications for counsellor training. Suggestions are made for facilitating counselling with international students.     

Understanding the reorganization of secondary schooling: a political games approach

This paper focuses on the reorganization of secondary education in a small town in England. It conceptualizes the six headteachers of the secondary schools in the town, and the Director of Education, as social actors, or players, engaged in transactional games situations during that reorganization, and shows that the political changes which transformed the public sector education provision also created the conditions in which such games can flourish. The theoretical underpinning of the research is outlined, and the reorganisation is interpreted as seven concurrent transactional games played within the boundaries of a limiting political framework. A detailed ethnographic explanation of one of the games is then used to illustrate and explain the social interactions of the players as they competed for professional and personal prizes on up to four different stages. Access to power, which derived from political structures at the national and local levels, was a key requirement in securing prizes. Power was differentially distributed between the players, and some of the changes which occurred during the timespan of the reorganization had the potential to alter each player's access to power. This offered the possibility of changing the games and altering the prizes.