Using sense to make sense of art: young children in art galleries

This paper reflects on a collaborative project between Manchester City Art Gallery and Manchester Metropolitan University (2003–2004). The project's aim was to attract very young children and their families to the gallery. This paper will not report directly on the research methods used or the outcomes of the project but, rather, will explore questions raised about art galleries and art education in relation to young children. It will ask if it is possible to use art education as a tool for thinking about the world, rather than as a vehicle for expressing a pre‐existing and unitary self, or for representing a pre‐existing and unitary reality. Merleau‐Ponty's philosophy of perception will be used to assist in this attempt to open up current notions of art education, and the art gallery space.     

Connecting the dots: An exploration of how pre-service special education teachers make sense of disability and diversity

Although teacher education standards address preparing candidates to serve diverse learners, minimal guidance is available concerning specific program components and their influence on candidates' growth and development. Through constant comparative analysis of end-of-semester reflections, this exploratory, qualitative study investigated preservice special educators’ developing perceptions about disability and cultural and linguistic diversity following field experiences aligned with courses. Participants reported a growing awareness of themselves, students they encountered, and the intersectionality between diversity and disability. Further, their insights reflected recognition of the combined influence of coursework, fieldwork, and opportunities for supported reflection. Implications for research and program development are offered.     

Beyond school inclusion: secondary school and preparing for labour market inclusion for young people with disabilities in Spain

Research analysing good practices in the area of labour market inclusion for people with disabilities shows that the role of the secondary school is fundamental in improving employment opportunities. The aim of this article is to analyse to what extent secondary education in Spain prepares young people with learning difficulties for later inclusion in society and the labour market. Results from studies into good practices in secondary education have established which educational characteristics to take into account for pupils' transition to working life and the need for the school to lead this process. We contrast these results with the current situation in Spain by comprehensively analysing how current secondary education is facing up to the challenges of labour market inclusion for young people with disabilities. Following this, we propose guidelines for the improvement of educational practices in secondary education so as to foster opportunities for labour market participation, from an inclusive viewpoint, for young people with learning disabilities.     

Instructional design learners make sense of theory: a collaborative autoethnography

Educational technology research and development - Understanding theory is essential to instructional design (ID) research and practice; however, novice designers struggle to make sense of...     

研究生院核心竞争力及其提升途径研究

增强我国研究生院竞争力,关键在于培育和提升研究生核心竞争力。研究生院核心竞争力主要决定于其制度创新能力、管理创新能力和知识创新能力,因此加强这几项创新能力是提升我国研究生院核心竞争力的主要途径。     

Learning science through contexts: helping pupils make sense of everyday situations

The study explores ways in which Swazi junior secondary school pupils who have been taught a contextualized science course deal with everyday science-based situations. In particular, this paper documents pupils' written explanations of everyday actions in terms of an awareness of the social and economic implications of science; their skills in designing an experiment to solve an everyday dilemma; and their abilities to draw on relevant science concepts to solve everyday problems. For all responses, pupils are asked to indicate the source of the knowledge they draw on. The findings show that considerably less than half of the sample display any of these abilities. A large majority of those displaying experimental design skills claim to have gained these from school science but only a minority of those showing social and economic awareness and problem solving skills relate these to school science education. Suggestions are made to increase the effectiveness of contextualized teaching in dealing with everyday situations.     

Sex division of labour in Syrian school textbooks

The sexist division of labour, particularly in the occupational sector, which is believed to be more eminent in developing countries than in the developed ones, is reinforced by school textbooks. This state of affairs is hampering sex-role equality on the way to emancipation. Various Syrian school textbooks have been scrutinized and proved to be malebiased in content and language. Despite quantitative growth of education, the emancipatory quality of the school textbooks leaves much to be desired. The government has had the chance since 1963 to produce textbooks conductive to its promise of sex-role equality in education. The textbooks portray males for a bustling world of decision making, while conditioning the females to seek fulfilment in the background where servitude and support are the only requirement. Females are derogated and victimized. These contents, which are internalized at school and reproduced in society, certainly do not serve development. The exclusion of one-half of the population from contributing to the tasks of development is a waste of human talent which no society can afford. Furthermore, the sexist portrayal of females in Syrian textbooks is a pale reflection of Arab women in Arab history and literature.     

Wellbeing: How we make sense of it and what this means for teachers

In this paper, the authors discuss their grounded research carried out with teachers about the wellbeing of teachers. They explore the importance of making the concept of wellbeing more intimate and consider hedonic and eudaimonic ways of looking at wellbeing. They present a model of layered reflection which illuminates key factors that have an impact on the wellbeing of teachers.     

Gossip,drama, and technology: how South Asian American young women negotiate gender on and offline

Gossip, defined as evaluative talk about a third party, is a powerful tool for establishing in- and out-group norms and determining belonging. Drama, a form of gossip that is evolving in online spaces, is the process of fighting back against gossip and rumors designed to isolate and ostracise. While literature commonly portrays women as victims or perpetrators of gossip and drama, it rarely examines the potential for evaluative talk as a form of resistance. This article presents a case study of how one young Bangladeshi-American woman uses both gossip and drama to both resist oppressive gender norms and to reinforce her ideas about gender, faith, and culture. Drawing on ethnographic interview data, the paper seeks to elucidate how young women use social network sites like Facebook to negotiate gendered norms associated with individual and collective identity in immigrant communities.     

Entry into labour: The experience of young adults in Brazil

This study focuses on the experience of young adults employed in the tertiary sector in Brasília. The results show that young people are prepared for work by on-the-job training and nonformal education; schooling is mainly an indicator of trainability. Entry into the labour force reinforces social differences in family background and schooling. The results tend to support the moderate version of classical theory with regard to the nature of school/work relationships. In the context of the conflict paradigm, the data run contrary to both reproductionism and the radical critique of this view. From the comparative standpoint youth is an underprivileged group in the labour market, regardless of sex, socioeconomic status and country of residence. Despite these variations, societies are stratified by age groups.

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Zusammenfassung Diese Studie konzentriert sich auf die Erfahrungen junger, im Dienstleistungsbereich beschäftigter Erwachsener in Brasilia. Die Ergebnisse zeigen, daß junge Leute durch praktische Ausbildung im Betrieb und nichtformelle Erziehung auf ihre Arbeit vorbereitet werden; der Schulunterricht gibt hauptsächlich Hinweise auf die Lernfähigkeit. Der Eintritt in die Arbeitswelt verstärkt die im familiären Bereich und hinsichtlich der Schulbildung bestehenden sozialen Unterschiede. Die Ergebnisse tendieren dazu, die gemäßigte Version der klassischen Theorie im Hinblick auf die Art der Beziehungen zwischen Schule und Arbeit zu unterstützen. Im Zusammenhang mit dem Konfliktparadigma, stehen die Daten sowohl einer Spiegelung als auch einer radikalen Kritik an dieser Auffassung entgegen. Vom vergleichenden Standpunkt aus ist die Jugend eine unterpriviligierte Gruppe auf dem Arbeitsmarkt ungeachtet des Geschlechts, des sozialökonomischen Status' und Aufenthaltslandes. Abgesehen von diesen Variationen sind die Gesellschaften nach Altersgruppen geschichtet.

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Résumé Cette étude se focalise sur les expériences faites par de jeunes adultes à Brasília dans le secteur tertiaire. Les résultats obtenus montrent que la formation en cours d'emploi et l'éducation non formelle préparent les jeunes au travail, que la scolarité est essentiellement un indicateur d'éducabilité. L'entrée dans la vie active renforce les différences sociales basées sur le milieu familial et la scolarité. Les résultats tendent à appuyer la version modérée de la théorie classique concernant la nature du rapport école/travail. Dans le contexte du paradigme conflictuel, les données vont à l'encontre du reproductionnisme et de la critique radicale de cette vue. Du point de vue comparatif, les jeunes forment un groupe défavorisé sur le marché de l'emploi, indifféremment de leur sexe, de leur statut socio-économique et de leur leiu de résidence. Malgré ces variations, les sociétés sont divisées en groupes d'âge.

     

Invisible labour: home–school relations and the front office

When school front offices are mentioned in research on schools and their relations with the community, it is often to describe how parents/carers and the public are treated officiously and/or inappropriately. In professional development materials, schools are urged to improve communication, and occasionally directed to consider the practices of the front office staff. Yet when schools send out information to parents/carers, the school office is usually the place to which all queries are directed. However, there is almost no detailed research that looks at what actually happens in this place. In this paper we draw on a small‐scale commissioned research project which began to fill this gap. In seeking to reread our data and push further on analysis, we have come to realize that those who work in school front offices are women whose physical and emotional labour is not only rendered largely invisible in a wide range of literatures relating to home–school relations but is also inadequately recognized through recruitment practices, professional development and remuneration. We suggest that there needs to be further research into the high energy, multitasking, nurturing work that goes on in school front offices.     

Conversations with children: making sense of marginalization in primary school settings

This paper engages with the issue of marginalization, in relation to the notion of inclusive education, that might be experienced by children within primary school settings. The discussion draws on understandings gained through an ethnographic study that took place in one primary school in Cyprus, with 227 children enrolled (aged 5 years 8 months to 12 years) over the period of five months. Particular emphasis was given to the idea of listening to children in order to better understand notions of marginalization, and therefore of inclusive education. Hence children’s voices were at the centre of this study and, in particular, they played a significant role in the process of identifying pupils who were possibly experiencing marginalization in the particular school setting. A total of 31 children were identified as possibly experiencing marginalization. Through the process of carrying out the research and analysing the data, marginalization came to be conceptualized in four different ways within a primary school context: when a child is experiencing some kind of marginalization and this is recognized by almost everybody including himself/herself; when a child is feeling that he/she is experiencing marginalization, while most others do not recognize this; when a child is found in what appear to be marginalized situations but does not feel it, or does not view it as marginalization; and, finally, when a child is experiencing marginalization but does not admit it. It is argued that marginalization in school contexts is a complex, multifaceted process, and that educators should take this understanding into account in order to successfully include all children.     

Gandhi and Mao on manual labour in the school: A retrospective analysis

Mahatma Gandhi's views on relating the world of formal education to the world of work were developed first in his experimental ‘Tolstoy Farm’ in South Africa. On his return to India, Gandhi insisted that a required manual labour component in the curriculum would help regenerate India's village economy, develop in India's children a deeper understanding of India's cultural roots, motivate children to relate ‘book learning’ to life in society, and destroy invidious caste distinctions. The major proposals and suggestions in Gandhi's writing will be discussed in the context of his hopes for using schooling as an agent of progress in India. Mao Ze-Dong's views, on the other hand, were developed in the context of his Yenan experience in the 1930s, i.e. the decision to consolidate a power base in the interior of China before waging a class war against the landlords and capitalists of China. Mao's views were also, to some extent, rooted in the Chinese reality of stagnant, poverty-stricken rural areas. But, Mao's writings indicate that Marxist hopes to relate theory and practice (as understood in dialectical materialism) and to ensure that everyone participated in mental as well as manual labour in a socialist society had led him to formulate his proposals. Both Gandhi's and Mao's views and proposals have been more or less abandoned in India and China respectively. The similar and dissimilar reasons which led to such a fate are examined in this retrospective analysis.     

Student researchers in the middle: using visual images to make sense of inclusive education

Using 'visual narrative' theoretically and practically, this paper explores issues of inclusive education, during a period of curriculum reform and renewal in Australia. In Australia, the middle years of schooling, Years 5 to 9, are well researched and known as a period when students disengage with learning and participation in schooling. Research in the middle years affirms the importance of engaging with 'student voice'. In this special edition, we are aiming to highlight how the use of visual imagery can be a rich source of understanding, illustrating students' self-knowledge of schooling. Methodologically we refer to our research approach as 'visual narrative'. Other writers in this edition use the term 'photo voice'. For researchers it is important to highlight the differing orientations that 'visual narrative' and 'photo voice' signify. The terms are not mutually exclusive but highlight differing research possibilities and emphasis. Our argument, through the use of visual narrative produced by middle years' students, is that visual texts open out some innovative possibilities for understanding inclusive education and supporting new relationships with our research community. Such approaches are not new; however, in a field such as special education that purports to support marginalised groups, liberatory research methods are under-represented. This paper aims to open out these discussions and provide a way forwards for teachers and researchers interested in breaking apart why it is that inclusive education remains a never-ending struggle.     

Misalignment between post-secondary education demand and labour market supply: Preliminary insight from young adults on the evolving school to work transition

Most research on labour market outcomes and higher education finds a positive relationship. This qualitative research sought to better understand how higher educational attainment contributes to employment outcomes from a subsample (n = 15) of a larger study (N = 36) on youth labour market attachment among minority, low socioeconomic status young adults. Respondents described: (1) Employment opportunities not being aligned to the educational background of some young adults; and (2) there were no direct links between educational institutions and the labour market in supporting successful employment. These findings suggest a misalignment between educational demand and labour market supply.     

Pregnancy and diabetes: how women handle the challenges

In order to optimize the possibilities for the birth of a healthy child, pregnant women with type 1 diabetes mellitus (type 1 DM) work hard to achieve normoglycemia. In the research presented here, pregnant, diabetic women's experiences of dealing with life circumstances are summarized as a construct of duality: "to master or to be enslaved." The overall experience of challenges and managing is understood to depend on the individual woman's identity, attitude, and resources including health professionals and social environment. Health professionals in antenatal care have a special responsibility to give care that not only optimizes the biological possibility for a healthy child to be born but also supports the woman with type 1 DM to master the situation and, thus, promote her health, well-being, and motherhood.