Adolescents’ preparedness and motivation across the transition to post-comprehensive education

This longitudinal study aims to test the concept of transition preparedness in the context of educational transitions. The study investigates how adolescents’ transition preparedness, conceptualized as their self-efficacy beliefs and their inoculation against setbacks, before an educational transition affect the adolescents’ school value and effort related to educational goals after the transition through the effects on achievement goal orientations. Student data from three waves of a longitudinal study are used, first collected in 2004 (before the students’ transition from comprehensive school to upper secondary education) and then collected twice after the transition. The students included in the analyses are those who participated at all three measurement points (N = 588; 49.5% girls; age M_T1 = 15.01, SD = 0.13). Longitudinal structural equation modeling revealed that adolescents’ self-efficacy beliefs (Time 1) positively predicted school value and effort (Time 3) through their effect on mastery goal orientation (Time 2). Furthermore, self-efficacy moderated the relation between performance-approach goal orientation (Time 1) on school value (Time 2). Results are discussed in terms of their relevance for enhancing adolescents’ adaptive motivational development across educational transitions.     

Re‐imagining and rescripting the future of education: global knowledge economy discourses and the challenge to education systems

Using critical discourse analysis as a methodology for analysis, this paper sets out the nature and form of the challenges directed to the compulsory schooling sector by the knowledge economy that is contained in key policy and related documents put out by the OECD, the World Bank and the UK government. The OECD and the World Bank’s policy agendas are increasingly important in setting policy and programme agendas for the developed and developing countries respectively; however there are important differences between the two institutions regarding how education should be redesigned. The World Bank’s redesign of education favours the market and individualism as the means for developing knowledge and skills for the knowledge economy. The OECD, however, while concerned with human capital formation, rejects the market model in favour of an institutionally embedded liberalism to overcome the problems posed by tacit knowledge. The UK, on the other hand, has promoted the idea of personalized learning. The paper suggests that this idea is particularly problematic for developing a system of innovation for the economy that is dependent on high levels of social interaction.

The first half of the twenty‐first century will, I believe, be far more difficult, more unsettling, and yet more open than anything we have known in the twentieth century. I say this on three premises; none of which I have time to argue here. The first is that historical systems, like all systems, have finite lives. They have beginnings, a long development and finally, as they move far from equilibrium and reach points of bifurcation, a demise. The second premise is that two things are true at these points of bifurcation; small inputs have large outputs (as opposed to times of the normal development of the system, when large inputs have small outputs); and the outcome of such bifurcation is inherently indeterminate. The third premise is that the modern world system as a historical system has entered into a terminal crisis and is unlikely to exist in 50 years. However, since its outcome is so uncertain, we do not know whether the resulting system (or systems) will be better or worse than the one in which we are living, but we do know that the period of transition will be a terrible time of troubles, since the stakes of the transition are so high, the outcome so uncertain, and the ability of small impacts to affect the outcome so great. (Wallerstein, 1999, p. 1)     

Recognition and Toleration: Conflicting approaches to diversity in education?

Recognition and toleration are ways of relating to the diversity characteristic of multicultural societies. The article concerns the possible meanings of toleration and recognition, and the conflict that is often claimed to exist between these two approaches to diversity. Different forms or interpretations of recognition and toleration are considered, confusing and problematic uses of the terms are noted, and the compatibility of toleration and recognition is discussed. The article argues that there is a range of legitimate and importantly different conceptions of both toleration and recognition that are often not clearly distinguished, and that compatibility varies across this range and depending on what one considers the conceptions in relation to.     

British bi-lateral assistance to education: How much,to whom,and why?

This paper describes the magnitude of British bi-lateral support for educational development and develops an analysis of recent patterns of disbursement.¹ Educational assistance was given to 111 countries between 1989 and 1991. Sub-Saharan African countries received more than other regions and most of the disbursement for education that was classified by sector was directed towards higher education. Amongst major recipient countries more educational assistance per capita tends to be given to countries with relatively greater Gross National Products per Capita and Human Development Indices, smaller populations, higher Gross Enrolment Ratios and smaller gender disparities in enrolments at primary level, and those which spend a greater proportion of GNP on education. The paper explores possible reasons for what is observed and the tensions between over-arching assistance policy and actual disbursement patterns. Concluding remarks draw together some of the main observations and suggest issues for further consideration.     

Preschool teachers’ beliefs and practices related to child-centred education in Turkey

This study describes the beliefs, self-reported practices and actual practices related to child-centred education of five female preschool teachers in Ankara, Turkey, and assesses the consistency between the participants’ beliefs and practices. Data were collected through interviews, classroom observations and document review. The results indicated that the participant teachers’ beliefs and practices as expressed through instructional activities, relationships, behaviour management, assessment, parental involvement and self-reporting were partially parallel to the child-centred education philosophy. Also, there was only partial consistency between teachers’ beliefs about, self-reported practices of and actual practices of child-centred education.     

Unequal partners? Networks,centrality, and aid to international education

Following the 2005 Paris Declaration on Aid Effectiveness, international development policy discourses have focused on partnership as an overarching principle. With a focus on participation and non-hierarchical relationships, new partnerships aim to reconstitute the aid relationship in a way that obviates power inequality and hegemony. However, empirical studies of these partnerships are scarce. This paper uses social network analysis to analyse relationships between organisations involved in prominent partnerships for education in international development. Our analysis of an original dataset demonstrates that bilateral donors, civil society organisations, and international organisations are most likely to occupy central positions in this network, meaning that they enjoy high levels of connectivity to many organisations. Literature on international networks suggests that these organisations would therefore shape the flow of information and ideas between organisations, influence the distribution of resources among members, and determine normative preferences of the partnerships. In contrast, recipient governments, private businesses, and universities occupy peripheral positions. We contextualise these findings with respect to literature on aid in international education and privatisation in the political economy of educational development.     

Financing special needs and inclusive education – from Salamanca to the present

ABSTRACT

The focus of this paper is upon an examination of the ‘direction of travel’ in European countries from special needs education to inclusive education – a development influenced by the Salamanca Statement. The 1994 Salamanca Statement argued that inclusive schools provide ‘an effective education for the majority of children and improve the efficiency and ultimately the cost-effectiveness of the entire education system’ (ix). Underpinning this assertion are issues around special needs and inclusive education are financed. The paper will examine the degree to which the critical issue of financing has – or has not – changed across European countries since Salamanca. This examination takes retrospective look at key issues identified in the European Agency 1999 study of funding models for special education in 17 European countries, compared and contrasted with those identified in a 2016 study of approaches to funding inclusive education in 18 European countries. This paper argues that the essential issues underpinning their financing mechanisms have changed very little. For many European countries, changing systems of financing of inclusive education can still be seen as a key lever for achieving the goal of more widespread inclusion of learners with special educational needs, as outlined in the 1994 Salamanca Statement.     

Learner identities in vocational education and training – from school to apprenticeship

The aim of this paper is to describe changing learner identities and trajectories of identification that take place among vocational education and training (VET) apprentices in Norway. This paper describes 23 young, male VET students’ learner identities in compulsory school (age 7–15) in comparison to their learner identities in VET apprenticeships (age 18–21), based on analyses of a set of biographical interviews about their schooling experiences. More specifically, the analysis describes changes in interviewees’ learner identities in their transition from school to apprenticeship. The analysis reveals that their narratives of being a student in school involved wounding educational experiences, such as negative student-teacher relationships, and feelings of failure and disengagement. At school, the participants’ learner identities were positional identities created in the shadow of the figured world of school, leading the students to individualised withdrawal. The narratives of their apprenticeship was characterised by a sense of belonging, feelings of equality to peers, independence and adulthood. The ‘adult working man’ identity is a disguised learning identity, in that it breaks with the wounded learner identity of the ‘failing student’ and thereby creates opportunities for active learning for apprentices, both as individuals and members of communities of practice.     

Reforming Lao teacher education to include females and ethnic minorities – exploring possibilities and constraints

This article explores possibilities and constraints for the inclusion of female and ethnic minority students in Lao education in order to provide education for all. Females and ethnic minorities have traditionally been disadvantaged in Lao education and reforms for the inclusion of these groups are therefore welcome. The article provides rich information about how teachers and students in four teacher training institutions in Lao PDR experience inclusionary reform. The results show that inclusion strategies benefit both female and ethnic minority students, but in different ways. Female students from the majority ethnic group generally benefitted from the allowance for individual learning, since this provided space for them to act outside of gendered expectations. Ethnic minority students, however, benefitted more from the opportunity to work in smaller group settings, since they could receive support from other students, especially in language, which often proved to be a constraint for students with a different first language from the language of instruction. Although there are positive developments regarding the inclusion of females and ethnic minorities, there is still need to further develop and strengthen these efforts in order to support the continued inclusion of disadvantaged groups in Lao society.     

Priorities for primary education? From subjects to life-skills and children's social and emotional development

To what needs and purposes should the primary curriculum be chiefly directed in the coming decades? In a first step towards revising the primary curriculum, the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment (NCCA) invited responses to an open online call to ‘have your say’ on priorities for primary education. Respondents were asked to share their views in 100 words or less. Six priorities for primary education were identified across the 960 responses. These focused on developing children's life-skills; communication skills; well-being; literacy and numeracy skills; motivation and engagement; and their sense of identity and belonging. Across the priorities, there is recognition that skills learned in the primary years are related to one another and the extent to which children develop these is likely to have wide-ranging effects on their future experience as learners. Findings call for a revision of traditional, content-based curriculum subjects towards a better alignment with the needs of today's primary school children beginning with a more explicit focus on life-skills, and children's social and emotional development. Finally, we note the common ground across early childhood, primary and post-primary sectors and highlight the potential to align our values and vision for children and young people's education from the earliest years through adulthood.     

Students’ self-worth protection and approaches to learning in higher education: predictors and consequences

The aim of this study was to test a process model of students’ learning in higher education, linking anxiety, course experience (positive and negative), self-worth protection (SWP) (self-handicapping, defensive expectations, reflectivity), student approach to learning (SAL) (deep/surface), and achievement. Path and bootstrap analyses of data from 899 first-year university students showed that anxiety significantly predicted all SWP strategies and that positive course experience negatively predicted defensive expectations, whereas negative course experience was linked to higher levels of self-handicapping and reflectivity. Deep approach was linked negatively to self-handicapping and positively to reflectivity, whereas surface approach was associated positively with both self-handicapping and defensive expectations. Finally, deep approach positively predicted achievement and partially mediated the effect of self-handicapping on achievement. These findings support the validity of linking SWP with SAL and demonstrate meaningful connections between these and the anxiety and course experience of students. Implications for theory and practice are discussed.     

Who aspires to higher education? Axes of inequality,values of education and higher education aspirations in secondary schools in Luxembourg and the Swiss Canton of Bern

This article reports a study that investigated secondary school students’ higher education aspirations (towards university studies, ISCED 6 and above) and how these differ between student groups as well as how these are impacted by values of education. Panel data of more than 300 secondary school students in two countries, Luxembourg and Switzerland (the Swiss Canton of Bern) was analysed. Schools are structured differently in the education systems of Luxembourg and the Swiss Canton of Bern. The results of our analysis show that students in the Luxembourgish sample more often aspire to higher education than in the Swiss sample. Disparities in higher education aspirations were also more pronounced in the Luxembourgish sample, boys and students from families of low socio‐economic status (SES) were less likely to aspire to higher education. While the effects of values of education are generally scarce, stimulation in terms of anticipated enjoyment and interest derived from participation in higher education seems to have a positive effect on higher education aspirations.     

The Norden Associations and international efforts to change history education, 1919–1970: international organisations,education, and hegemonic nationalism

During the interwar period, a number of organisations started to look into education as part of an attempt to understand how nationalism was fuelled through education and to what extent it had forced the outbreak of the Great War. In response to nationalism and a perceived need for reformation of national narratives, the school subjects of history and geography became the primary suspects as advocates of chauvinism and militarism. In 1919, associations for the promotion of understanding and cooperation between the Scandinavian countries – the Norden Associations [föreningarna Norden] – began investigating history textbooks. This revision of textbooks was expanded in the 1930s to explore, assess, and develop the entire teaching of history in the Nordic countries. The Norden Associations converged on many levels with the disparate international movements for educational change. This article presents the Norden Associations as part of a process of hegemonic isomorphism in which cultural hegemony set the institutional boundaries within which the organisations could work in order to attain legitimacy. The article demonstrates how an organisation with a specific political agenda, and with only limited international objectives came to be – not only a part of – but, to some extent, an organisational role model for loftier efforts aimed at global and cosmopolitan history teachings.     

A dangerous idea? Freedom,children and the capability approach to education

This article begins by observing how education is currently appreciated primarily for its utility value, a view informed by utilitarianism and neoclassical economic theory. A critique of that framing is offered and an alternative way of valuing education informed by a Capabilities Approach is presented. In doing so, I also observe that while key proponents of the Capabilities Approach promote the idea of freedom, they deny it to children and some young people. The argument they present is that in the hands of children, freedom destroys their capabilities because they lack capacity for good judgment and therefore should only make minor decisions. The focus should be on adulthood because only at that stage can we exercise good judgment and exercise freedom properly. I explain why this view limits the application of Capabilities Approach, why it is problematic and offer a way of overcoming that constraint.     

Do alternative teacher education programs manage to attract different candidates and students?

During 2009, three alternative teacher retraining programs in English as a Foreign Language, mathematics and biology were launched for the first time in one of Israel’s largest teacher education colleges. The programs, which offered varied economic incentives to participants, were initiated by the state owing to shortages of teachers in these disciplines and the economic crisis in the hi-tech industry. After hundreds of candidates responded to the program’s advertisement, 90 candidates were accepted and enrolled following rigorous screening. The purpose of the research reported here was to examine the demographic, academic and occupational profiles of the candidates and students in each of the three programs in comparison with applicants and students in traditional teacher education retraining programs. The research population included a total of 611 candidates who had applied to all the teacher retraining programs offered in 2009. The study’s findings indicate that not only did the alternative programs make the teaching profession more accessible to potential candidates; they also attracted students with impressive demographic, academic and occupational profiles that varied considerably from the profiles of the students in the traditional programs. Longitudinal follow-up studies are needed to investigate the adjustment, success and retention rates of these new teachers in the educational system.     

E‐learning in higher education: some key aspects and their relationship to approaches to study

While there has been systematic and on‐going research into e‐learning in universities for over two decades, there has been comparatively less evidence‐based research into how key aspects of e‐learning are internally constituted from a student perspective and how these aspects might be related to university students’ learning experiences. The purpose of this paper is to explore key aspects of e‐learning that might be related to university student approaches to study, so that a better understanding of the internal structure of these aspects is achieved. Student responses to surveys are analysed at the level of each item to identify which items made the most sense to over 200 third‐year economics students. Data was also analysed both at the variable level, to identify which items coalesce to determine the structure of e‐learning variables, and at the student level, to see if there were groups of students in the sample that shared similar experiences of e‐learning when it was used to support a predominately campus‐based learning experience. The results suggest several implications for improving particular aspects of the student experience of e‐learning when it is used to support a campus‐based experience.