Playing it down/playing it up: girls’ strategic negotiations of academic success

Through the lens of post-structural agency, this article focuses on how self-identified smart girls strategically negotiate their academic identities within the gendered terrain of the school. Based on interviews with 51 smart high school girls in Canada, our analysis complicates current narrative of girls’ easy achievement in school. Participants discussed balancing the hazards of being overly academic with the rewards of academic success. In response to this tension, girls carefully and consciously performed ‘smart girlhood’, drawing on resources that are more available to some girls than others, and indicating that girls’ academic success is neither easily embraced nor unambivalently accepted.     

Writing to it: creative engagements with writing practice in and with the not yet known in today’s academy

We have developed an approach to collaborative-writing-as-inquiry that we sometimes refer to as ‘between the twos’. Increasingly, we came to understand that the only way to continue in our process was to ‘write to it’; whatever the question, the query or the problem, it was this inducement – ‘write to it’ – that led to new experimentations and the indeterminate rhythms and refrains of the multiple that were often present in the agonistics of our practice. This is how we have been living intra-actively with desire within and against the traditional representations of research and pedagogic practice in higher education in recent years. In offering opportunities for bringing non-totalising modes of sensing to life within Deleuze and Guattari’s experimental and creative originations, and in the multiplicity and the vibrant potentialities of always becoming, we make claims for new, creatively productive writing practices in the university of the future.     

Promoting the development of a supportive learning environment through action research from the ‘middle out’

This paper reports on a case study of a supportive learning environment initiative (SLEI) for students on health and social care undergraduate programmes in one English university. It involved the development of small scale support projects that are firmly grounded in the outcomes of prior research as well as the ongoing experience of students and staff at the institution. The paper begins by identifying common themes which point towards principles and strategies for educational change though a brief review of three concepts that are central to the initiative: ‘action research’, the ‘learning environment’ and ‘change management’. The account of the SLEI focuses on some of the processes of change management that were deployed and the subsequent discussion draws on the theoretical review to reflect critically on possible lessons for the promotion and management of localised change in higher education.     

A double win: practice and participation in an action learning facilitators’ set

This account of practice shares insights from past and present members of a self-facilitating action learning set, where each of the members is an action learning facilitator. Motivations for joining the set encompassed the opportunity to ‘practice what you preach’ by being a set member as well as a facilitator, the potential to refine and develop facilitation practices in a safe environment and space for personal development.     

Improving preservice teachers’ scientific argumentative writing through epistemic practices: a learning progression approach

Improving preservice teachers’ argumentative competence is a social and educational imperative. This study focuses on the contribution of a sequence of learning tasks, designed as epistemic practices and following a learning progression approach, to enhancing student teachers’ scientific argumentative writing. The participants were 47 preservice primary teachers who enrolled in a Developmental Psychology course, and one lecturer. Preservice teachers progressively acquired the vast majority of aspects involved in scientific argumentative writing. The most important difficulties experienced by the preservice teachers revolved around intertextuality and the creation of theses. Key conclusions on this teacher education experience are presented in the final section of the paper.     

Improving teachers’ pedagogical and instructional practice through action research: potential and problems

This conceptual paper reviews the extant literature on action research/teacher led inquiry and answers the question: How and in what circumstances can action research improve teachers’ classroom practice and therefore what might be the implications for school improvement? A critical analysis of the nature and purpose of action research as a mechanism for school improvement is explored via close examination of definitions, the characteristics of action research and models of action research. From the literature reviewed, it is noted that action research, whether conducted individually or collaboratively, has been found to contribute to teachers’ ability to investigate their practice with a view to improving students’ outcomes and for school improvement. Nevertheless, the success of action research is predicated on a number of conditions such as motivation, trust, mutual respect, and resources, particularly time spent within the situational context. Additionally, in educational contexts, action research is generally externally mandated, and tends to take place as a fulfillment for programs of higher education which are targeted at improving practice in settings such as schools and classrooms. Under these circumstances action research does lead to school and classroom improvement. Still, these circumstances can be called ideal and as such the question of institutionalizing action research as part of the routine of schools globally remains a challenge. Still, however, action research has the potential for improvement at both the individual and institutional level once the conditions are right.     

Addressing contradictions in teachers’ practice through professional learning: an activity theory perspective

ABSTRACT

This case study focuses on the professional learning of 38 K-9 teachers who engaged in a professional development (PD) programme in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) through collaborative action research (CAR). Through the lens of CHAT or Cultural-Historical Activity Theory, the author examined what teachers were learning, the contextual factors that influenced their learning and classroom practice, and the outcomes of this PD initiative. The changing activity system of the teachers is described, as well as how they addressed contradictions in their practice. Addressing these contradictions resulted in an expansion of their object and professional growth. The study contributes to a growing body of research in teacher education which applies CHAT as a conceptual framework to understand teacher professional learning and how interactions among activity system components influence teachers’ development and practice.     

‘Getting it Write’ in social work: exploring the value of writing in academia to writing for professional practice

Writing plays a central role in social work practice and in the qualifying programmes studied by student social workers. The research on which this paper is based explores the value of writing undertaken in higher education to writing for professional practice in social work. Drawing on data sources from a ‘text oriented ethnography’, this paper explores the reflections of five recently qualified social workers making the transition from academic to professional practice. The significance of this study is heightened as social work practice and education are undergoing significant review at the time of writing. This review has identified the role of writing as important in both academic and practice domains. The paper suggests that there is currently no clear progressive link between academic writing in social work and the writing in practice required of graduate social workers. This paper offers some reflections on the implicit and explicit value of writing in an academic context to writing in professional practice.     

Study of a self-managed action learning set: what makes it last 14 years?

What contributes to longevity in an action learning (AL) set? What holds it together over a long period? The article relates the chronology and reasons why a self-managed set has flourished when so many sets of voluntary membership peter out. Major attributes of successful longevity are the adherence to strong ground rules and disciplined recruitment. The author, a member of the set, uses anecdotal data from interviews of existing and former set members to narrate picture of a group of action learners who attend set meetings regularly and enthusiastically. Another cause of longevity is the flexible employment of AL process serving the needs of professionally qualified people unstintingly learning from, and caring for, each other.     

Bourdieu’s habitus and field: implications on the practice and theory of critical action learning

This paper considers the logic of practice of the French sociologist Pierre Bourdieu in relation to critical action learning: in particular habitus which is co-created with field and the interplay amongst the two in the form of misrecognition and risk. We draw on interviews with participants who have experienced action learning as part of an NHS leadership programme. We argue that Bourdieu provides helpful ways of understanding and explaining the complex processes of social interactions which are centre stage in action learning – especially the ‘social friction’ through which action learners gain new insights and new prompts to action in their workplace from learning set members. These insights can support action learning practitioners keen to explore their own practice.     

Reflections on ‘creative’ action learning in business education: some issues in its theory and practice

The purpose of this paper is to consider some issues in the uses of what we have termed ‘creative’ action learning in a business education context, and to review some aspects of its practice. A review of the literature, including its use in higher education, is followed by a case illustration of its use in a UK business school with predominantly international students. Action learning is principally thought of as a human resource development practice and is widely used in a variety of public and private sector organisations. The focus here, however, is on the use of action learning in a business school setting and the application of specific creative thinking tools, in order to explore its potential for developing collaborative peer learning and support.     

Integration of learning for refugee and migrant students: VET teachers’ practices through practice theory lens

The study reported here used a practice theory lens to understand vocational education and training (VET) teachers’ current practices in supporting integration of learning in educational institutions and workplaces – specifically for refugee and migrant students. A case study was conducted with 10 teachers delivering aged care programmes in South East Queensland, Australia and in a municipality in West Sweden. During in-depth interviews teachers explained the enabling and challenging aspects of their practice, and specific strategies they used to support students with integration of learning in the two main sites. Analyses of data concentrated on understanding three types of arrangements in the practice architectures at the two learning sites. Teachers extended their everyday pedagogical approaches to support integration of learning and meet the specific needs of refugee and migrant students. Their teaching comprised interdependent practices of VET and aged care in two settings, each with distinct ecologies of practice. Their narratives reflect contestations between practice traditions of aged care practices in Australia and Sweden, and students’ understandings and reflections of practices in their birth countries. We conclude that teacher training and adjustments to these arrangements can bridge contestations between the enacted and experienced curriculum in the two sites.     

‘I have no English friends’: some observations on the practice of action learning with international business students

This account reports on some experiences of facilitating action learning with international business students. Interest in international student learning and the international student experience is significant and increasing with a considerable range of literature on the subject. Some of this literature is concerned with the perceived ‘problems’ or ‘deficits’ which international learners are said to bring to the UK university experience. Elsewhere the benefits which international students bring to the learning process are more positively highlighted. This paper describes some of the experiences derived from implementing action learning with a number of sets of international postgraduate business and management students in an HE business school setting. Specifically, it considers how educational, learning and cultural differences, expectations and assumptions influence the student experience, and how collaborative learning can be developed.     

Investigating the curriculum through assessment practice in higher education: the value of a ‘learning cultures’ approach

It is widely acknowledged that the curriculum and knowledge in higher education (HE) are especially visible through (and often constructed by) assessment practices. If this is the case, it matters greatly what perspectives and theoretical tools are brought to bear on the task of understanding these practices. Having briefly set out three perspectives on assessment in HE (the technical, humanist and interactionist), this paper introduces a ‘learning cultures’ perspective, drawing upon the work of Bourdieu, developed as part of a recent research project on English Further Education. The application of this perspective in HE is introduced through a vignette outlining a recent assessment episode and notes on how it may be explored. The paper argues that whilst some contemporary work on HE assessment incorporates elements of a cultural perspective, there are potential practical benefits to a more thoroughgoing adoption of a ‘learning cultures’ approach.     

“Just like us”: Increasing awareness,prompting action and combating ageism through a critical intergenerational service learning project

In the Through their Eyes Project health sciences students are partnered with older adults to explore and assess the age-friendliness of their neighborhood. Using an innovative data collection tool – ‘moving interviews’ – these intergenerational research teams learn about the community and each other by traveling, observing, and discussing these landscapes together. The research project culminates in a community forum where findings are presented to government officials, the housing association and aging organizations. In addition to completing the research project, students are required to keep a journal to reflect on their experience.

The purpose of this study was to explore students experience participating in a critical intergenerational service learning project. Two research questions guided this inquiry: What was the experience for students and, what elements of the project are important to that experience?

Student journals collected over 5 years from 191 students comprised the data for this study. Data were analyzed using a 6-phase thematic analysis process.

Two key findings related to student experience emerged from the study: increased awareness and prompted to action. Elements of the course found significant to this experience included an aging simulation activity and the specific design of the project.

The paper concludes with suggestions for developing and integrating critical service-learning pedagogy into gerontological education.     

Looking at lived experiences of self‐advocacy through gendered eyes: becoming femme fatale with/out ‘learning difficulties’

In this article, we attempt to intersect the interdisciplinary characters of disability studies and gender studies, in order to make sense of the activism and lived knowledge of/with two women with the label of ‘learning difficulties’. Inspired by Deleuze and Guattari’s anti‐essentialist notion of devenirs‐particules, we find our multiple selves involved in cross‐cutting relational storytelling, as such destabilising essentialist, biological determinism towards women with/out the label of ‘learning difficulties’. Thus in becoming femme(s) fatale(s), we make the most of a science capable of grasping the continual interplay between agency, structure and context, creating a ‘becoming space’ where we, as activists with our academic allies, can think and act with one another.     

Learning progressions from a sociocultural perspective: response to “co-constructing cultural landscapes for disciplinary learning in and out of school: the next generation science standards and learning progressions in action”

This article discusses a case for a different, socio-cultural way of looking at learning progressions as treated in the next generation science standards (NGSS) as described by Ralph Cordova and Phyllis Balcerzak’s paper “Co-constructing cultural landscapes for disciplinary learning in and out of school: the next generation science standards and learning progressions in action”. The paper is interesting for a number of reasons, and in this response I will identify different aspects of the paper and link the points made to my own research, and that of colleagues, as complementary perspectives. First, the way that the science curriculum is conceived as an expanding experience that moves from the classroom into the community, across subjects, and across time, links to theoretical positions on disciplinary literacies and notions of learning as apprenticeship into the discursive tools, or ‘habits of mind’ as the authors put it, that underpin disciplinary practice. Second, the formulation of progression through widening communities of practice is a strong feature of the paper, and shows how children take on the role of scientists through this expanding exposure. I will link this approach to some of our own work with school—community science partnerships, drawing on the construct of boundary crossing to tease out relations between school science and professional practice. Third, the demonstration of the expansion of the children’s view of what scientists do is well documented in the paper, illustrated by Figure 13 for instance. However I will, in this response, try to draw out and respond to what the paper is saying about the nature of progression; what the progression consists of, over what temporal or spatial dimensions it progresses, and how it can productively frame curriculum processes.     

‘Building up speed’, ‘trying to break free’, ‘pushing it through the pipe’: using metaphor to explore early career STEM researchers’ grant writing capability

This study demonstrates the use of metaphor analysis in needs assessment for developmental support and shows how it can be used to critically examine assumptions in the literature about the ways emerging researchers conceptualize their career trajectory. We investigated the professional development needs of a group of science, technology, engineering and mathematics early career researchers, to provide them with better grant writing support. Conceptual metaphor theory was used to explore interview data, in part to identify where training design could be modified. In the case of the group under investigation, close metaphoric analysis presented a richly embodied view of our participants’ research activity and suggested ways to provide a stronger focus on strategic and processual aspects of grant writing in such settings.