Mini‐Enterprise in Schools: The Pupils’ Experience

Abstract

Mini‐enterprise in schools is the most tangible manifestation of ‘education for enteprise’. Despite its growing presence in schools, and diverse views about its potential impact, little is known about how pupils experience such activity. Findings suggest that interpersonal learning objectives are achieved effectively through mini‐enterprise but more narrow economic goals (such as fostering positive attitudes towards self‐employment) may not be. This paper sets out the pupils’ perspective on mini‐enterprise in schools and raises questions about current models of practice.     

Equal Treatment and Cultural Difference in Multi‐ethnic Schools: a critique of the teacher ethnocentrism theory

ABSTRACT

This paper considers claims that students from minority ethnic backgrounds are treated less favourably than their white peers in schools because their teachers make negative, ethnocentric judgements of their behaviour. The paper challenges the empirical basis of these claims and the implicit model of good practice on which they are based. It goes on to examine some of the implications for teacher practice of this discussion. The aim is to try to clarify the meaning of equality of treatment in schools, a right we expect all citizens to enjoy, and to examine the way this principle should be operationalised by teachers in multi‐ethnic schools.     

The Effect of Flemish Eco‐Schools on Student Environmental Knowledge,Attitudes, and Affect

Eco‐schools aim to improve the environment through direct and indirect effects. Direct effects are those that result from the implementation of an environmental management system. Indirect effects are educational gains. The current study examines the effectiveness of eco‐schools concerning three student outcomes: (1) environmental knowledge, (2) environmental attitudes, and (3) environmental affect. The study includes 1287, 10–12‐year‐olds from 59 schools (38 eco‐schools and 21 control schools). Multivariate multilevel regression analyses show that eco‐schools mainly influence their students' environmental knowledge; they do not influence environmental affect. Eco‐school students, furthermore, have equal preservation attitudes and lower utilization attitudes, as compared to control‐school students. The implications of these results for research and practice are discussed.     

The Free Schools “Riddle”: Between traditional social democratic,neo‐liberal and multicultural tenets

The question of what role free schools should perform in the Swedish educational system has been a contested subject between three ideological, theoretical, political and policy tenets. The first, “contribution to pedagogical diversity in a controlled school market” reflects a traditional social democratic view. The second, “contribution to a better education on a competitive school market” reflects a neo‐liberal approach. The third tenet, “contribution to the maintenance of groups' and individuals' cultural and religious identity” reflects a multicultural view insisting on the thesis that a family's cultural and religious identity should be a steering motive for the school choice. The aim of this article is to take a closer look at what the three tenets that constitute the “riddle” contain—including their claims, responses to critics, arguments and empirical evidence—and to discuss some of their practical impacts on the shaping of educational policy.     

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.)     

A‐level Results in Comprehensive Schools: the COMBSE project,Year 1

Abstract

This analysis of A‐level English and Mathematics results from ten comprehensive schools in the north‐east represents some of the work done in the first year of a ‘school effects’ study entitled the COMBSE project ('Confidential, Measurement‐Based, Self‐Evaluation'). The project enables participating schools to compare their A‐level results with those of similar schodls. In an attempt to take account of differences in intakes to the schools, data were collected for a wide range of variables expected to relate to A‐level grades: prior achievement, socio‐economic status, class size, teacher characteristics and time variables such as time allocated and time reportedly spent on homework. However, once an index based on an average O‐level grade was computed, other variables contributed little or nothing to the prediction of A‐level grades.

Some findings ran counter to the general pattern of effects in the literature. For example, a negative correlation between time spent on homework and grades achieved, and smaller classes obtaining lower residual gains than larger classes in English, though not in Mathematics. Two issues were raised: is the 30% failure rate reasonable and should A‐level Mathematics be so much more difficult to pass than A‐level English?     

Equal Opportunities and Post‐Sixteen Education: strategies for institutional change,possibilities and constraints

In this paper we describe findings from a research project in the South West of England that enquired into the impact of the changing requirements of programmes leading to teaching qualifications in the FE sector. We utilise the metaphor of ‘learning journey’ as a heuristic to discuss the professional formation of student teachers in training. In so doing, we challenge oversimplified models and assumptions of progress and learning as a linear progression by demonstrating the complexity of student transitions during professional formation.     

The Success of Schools in Implementing Eight Restructuring Designs: A Synthesis of First‐Year Evaluation Outcomes

In the UK there has been strong governmental pressure on schools to adopt a technicist‐rational approach to management. This paper reports an investigation of the relationship between the efficiency of resource management and school effectiveness using data from 117 secondary school inspection reports undertaken by the Office for Standards in Education (OFSTED). School effectiveness is assessed in terms of qualitative and quantitative measures of the quality of learning and teaching reported by inspectors. Quantitative indicators of the extent to which schools are assessed as ‘efficient’ in managing resources were derived. Statistical analysis suggests a positive association between school effectiveness and rational management practice.