Governing software: networks,databases and algorithmic power in the digital governance of public education

This article examines the emergence of ‘digital governance’ in public education in England. Drawing on and combining concepts from software studies, policy and political studies, it identifies some specific approaches to digital governance facilitated by network-based communications and database-driven information processing software that are being discursively promoted in education by cross-sectoral intermediary organizations. Such intermediaries, including National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts, Demos, the Innovation Unit, the Education Foundation and the Nominet Trust, are increasingly seeking to participate in new digitally mediated forms of educational governance. Through their promotion of network-based pedagogies and database-driven analytics software, these organizations are seeking to delegate educational decision-making to socio-algorithmic forms of power that have the capacity to predict, govern and activate learners' capacities and subjectivities.     

Comparison of two test methods for VIS: paper-pencil test and CAT*

This paper examines listening comprehension skills of visually impaired students (VIS) using computerised adaptive testing (CAT) and reader-assisted paper-pencil testing (raPPT) and student views about them. Explanatory mixed method design was used in this study. Sample is comprised of 51 VIS, in 7th and 8th grades. 9 of these students were interviewed for determining student views about tests. Results indicated that scores obtained from CAT are significantly lower than scores obtained from raPPT. Additionally, a positive and high correlation was found between scores of CAT and raPPT. This result suggests that similar ability estimations were made by CAT and raPPT. Another finding is CAT made more reliable predictions, and was completed in shorter duration using fewer items. In qualitative part, student views were gathered through interviews and content analysis revealed three themes as technical features, test features, and psychological effects. In general, students reported positive views about CAT. VIS prefer CAT due to its listening/control options, shorter test durations, clarity of reading, and fairness of test, elimination of dependency to reader. Study provides implications for test developers and test-users to consider CAT as a multi-accommodation for VIS through its advantages.     

Disproportionality in special education: identifying children with emotional behavioural difficulties in Irish primary schools

Within categories of special educational needs, emotional and behavioural difficulties have received much attention in recent years, particularly in relation to their definition and identification by parents and teachers. This paper stems from previous research which highlights how children from disadvantaged backgrounds and those attending schools designated as socio-economically disadvantaged are significantly more likely than their peers to be identified as having a special educational need of a non-normative type such as emotional behavioural difficulty (EBD). Using data from the Growing Up in Ireland study, it examines whether the EBD identified by teachers or within certain schools is matched by the child’s own performance on an internationally validated emotional and mental health measure – the Piers–Harris. Findings show that overall self-reported social emotional well-being bears a strong relationship to the probability of being identified with an EBD. However, boys, children from economically inactive and one-parent households and children attending the most disadvantaged school contexts are more likely to be identified with having an EBD, even after taking into account their social background characteristics and their scoring on the Piers–Harris measure. These findings suggest that the subjective nature of EBD identification is resulting in a disproportionate number of these children being identified with EBD. The implications of this study are explored for existing disability/SEN classification systems, school-wide intervention models and the impact on individual students labelled as EBD. Overall, the findings pose searching questions about the validity of employing SEN classification systems in deciding eligibility and types of appropriate provision.     

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数据赋能有助于构建化解基层治理模糊性困境的有效机制。基于对苏州市姑苏区“城运平台”这一数据赋能典型案例的考察,将数据赋能基层治理的核心机制提炼为“全要素清晰化”：通过对前沿数字技术的深度应用,基层政府的数据汲取、数据感知和数据认知能力得到显著增强;得益于基层政府对数据汲取、数据感知和数据认知能力的组合式运用,基层治理中的治理对象、治理主体、治理资源、治理过程和治理结果等各项要素也由模糊转向清晰。“全要素清晰化”背后隐含的是基于事件牵引的无缝隙治理逻辑和基于数实融合的敏捷治理逻辑。

     

The role of the special needs assistant supporting pupils with special educational needs in Irish mainstream primary schools

In this article the author describes a small‐scale study into the role of the special needs assistant (SNA) supporting the inclusion of pupils with learning difficulties in the Irish Republic. The findings regarding the perspectives of teachers, principals, SNAs, pupils supported by SNAs and their parents on the support offered to three pupils are also described. The actual (as distinct from the prescribed) role of SNAs, including the issue of SNAs working in a general rather than a pupil‐specific capacity, and the nature of the SNA‐teacher relationship are discussed. The main findings emerging from the data were that the role of the SNA is one of both education and care and that SNAs are a welcome support for inclusion. Issues emerging from the study include the need for effective communication and planning, shared understanding of the role and responsibilities of SNAs and ongoing monitoring of the way in which support is provided.     

Virtual realities in environmental education: the project LAKE

This article proposes the use of virtual realities (VR) in environmental education. It also presents the first results of an application to the phenomenon of eutrophication in lakes. Although our virtual environments are not immersive, they give the opportunity to students and educators to develop their own worlds and understand the population dynamics in a lake. The learning environment can be manipulated and controlled in a powerful way, enhancing students experiences leading to knowledge construction, and sensitizing students to current environmental problems. Our pedagogical approach is to build a theoretical model for virtual learning environments, expanding constructivism and combining it with experiential learning. Our operational and practical approach is to exploit the characteristics of desktop VR systems in virtual learning environments     

School desegregation in Hong Kong: non-Chinese linguistic minority students' challenges to learning Chinese in mainstream schools

The enactment of the revised School Places Allocation Systems at the compulsory stage in 2004 had the aim of desegregating Hong Kong's non-Chinese linguistic minority (NCLM) students by including them into ethnic Chinese-dominated mainstream primary and secondary schools. Because of the presumed cause-consequence relationship between “desegregated” school participation and academic achievement, in specific second language Chinese (CSL) acquisition, the challenges that such students face in participating in mainstream education and learning Chinese, no doubt, deserve to be examined. This qualitative study conducted in-depth interviews with 18 secondary students of South Asian/Southeast Asian minority backgrounds enrolled in mainstream schools. Drawing on both cultural and institutional paradigms of explanation for educational achievement, we argue that the reasons inhibiting the minority students' academic involvement are not simply their linguistic challenges but also the institutional constraints in the mainstream education system unique to this population. This study calls for a shift in school desegregation arrangement from one focusing narrowly on physical desegregation to a more comprehensive set of policies that embrace the institutional factors including teacher expectation, resource availability, and bilingual support, crucial to reduce racial differences in achievement.     

Supporting all children to reach their potential: practitioner perspectives on creating an inclusive school environment

This paper explores practitioner perspectives on effective inclusion within a school environment. Inclusion within school settings is more than children with a range of needs, including special educational needs (SEN) being taught together within a classroom. It is important that a school community recognises the uniqueness of each child and works together to address those individual needs, helping the child to reach their full potential. Data was gathered through interviews from fourteen members of teaching and support staff within one primary school in the North of England, identified by the Office for Standards in Education (Ofsted) as being an inclusive school. Findings report that in order to make inclusion effective for all children, practitioners acknowledged the importance of collaborative practice within the school, with outside agencies and parent partnership. A number of barriers to effective inclusion were also highlighted, including inadequate pre-service training, the national curriculum, mandatory testing at the end of key stages and school funding.     

The last place to look: the place of pupil councils within citizen participation in Scottish schools

This article critically examines pupil councils as a means of developing pupils’ citizenship participation. It draws on findings across two research projects. The first study is a mixed method study commissioned by Learning and Teaching Scotland (LTS) that reviews the range of participatory activities in Scottish schools and their contribution to Scotland’s major curriculum revision, the Curriculum for Excellence (CFE). The second is a longer ethnographic study examining young people’s experience of participation projects in more detail. The findings lend strength to the argument that pupil councils as a stand-alone approach are not an effective means of citizenship participation. When pupil councils are complemented by other participation activity across spheres of school interaction, young people’s understanding of and interest in participation can be greatly enhanced. The article examines the cross curricular linkages schools are making, the barriers that impede such linkages and the benefits derived from successful coordinated approaches in light of criteria for ‘graduated participation’ developed through decades of work internationally on children’s participation.     

From child study to efficiency: district administrators and the use of testing in the Chicago public schools, 1899 to 1928

Historians have documented the dramatic battle over the mass introduction of IQ testing waged by Chicago’s unionised teachers in 1924 against Superintendent McAndrew and the Chicago Board of Education. The efforts of Chicago’s mid‐level district administrators and their work with principals and teachers to address the real and perceived differences of the students pouring into classrooms in this era have garnered less consideration. Examining the work of district administrators responsible for the educational programmes intended to manage “backward”, “subnormal” and “feeble‐minded” children provides a rich case to analyse how these district administrators made use of the emerging field of testing to address the educational issues they confronted. The use of testing in Chicago’s schools during the early twentieth century represents a moment when the line between administrative and pedagogical progressives appeared unclear and illustrates the complexity of educators’ pedagogic beliefs and practices. It offers examples of educators making use of educational testing and resisting it. This study analyses the reports of Chicago’s district administrators and superintendents, who often identified as progressive educators. These administrators seemed able to question the use of testing at least in part because of the vibrant progressive reform movement that existed in Chicago during this era. Indeed, although teacher resistance complicated the use of testing on a wide scale in Chicago, the early concerns of these mid‐level district administrators in the 1910s proved critical to keeping intelligence testing at bay until the mid‐1920s.     

Departing from the beaten path: international schools in China as a response to discrimination and academic failure in the Chinese educational system

International schools are commonly depicted in the academic literature and popular press as offering elite educational credentials to an elite, oftentimes international, student body. In this paper, I draw on a case study of a Canadian international school to argue that a new form of international school is emerging in China – one that offers a haven for domestic students from certain competitive and discriminatory features of the Chinese educational system. Fieldwork was conducted at a Canadian curriculum high school for Chinese citizens in Beijing. Most students at the school were internal migrants or children of China’s ‘new rich’ entrepreneurial class; that is, their families had economic resources but occupied precarious social positions in contemporary Chinese society. Analyses reveal that the international school offers a pathway to obtain baseline academic credentials in the absence of other opportunities for progress in the Chinese educational system. Together with evidence of dramatic growth in international schools and tracks in China, this case study suggests the emergence of a new type of international education programme that departs from a picture of international education as ‘elite’ in terms of student body, academic environment, and expected educational trajectories of graduates. The paper also develops our understanding of class and educational strategies in contemporary China.     

数字教育电视节目的设计与传播策略分析——借鉴韩国电视剧的成功经验

数字教育电视节目作为一种有效的现代教学手段,在现代教育和培训中发挥着重要的作用。首先对教育电视节目的类型作出了划分,接着借鉴韩国电视剧的成功经验,并将其与国内的教育电视节目作比较分析,提出教育电视节目的设计策略,最后提出传播策略,以期为国内数字教育电视的发展提供有益借鉴。     

以评促建:构建教师发展学校建设长效机制的路径——浙江省的经验与反思

科学有效的评价体系可为教师发展学校建设提供目标与动力,以评促建是构建教师发展学校建设长效机制的有效路径.浙江省通过政府部门、高校与中小学多元主体的协同合作,在标准化评价指标的指导下,以自评与他评相结合的方式,对教师发展学校的协同合作、组织管理、资源保障、课程建设几方面进行评价,在以评促建方面积累了诸多经验.但其中也逐渐暴露出一些问题,如第三方评价对评价结果客观性的消极影响、评价工具不够完善、评价内容不够全面、评价过程过于烦琐和不够深入等问题.未来可从完善第三方评价、改良评价工具、丰富评价内容、优化评价方式等方面着手,推动教师发展学校长效运行.     

Learning through observations: the potential of collective worship in primary schools

This article reports the learning achieved by a group of trainee teachers about acts of collective worship (CW) organised in English primary schools. Using data gathered from non-participant observation questionnaires, it describes, from the viewpoint of observers, three main findings related to children and their learning, the position of CW in primary schools and their own learning about it. The findings reveal that children learn, among other things, values, dispositions, morals and issues connected to their self-esteem, reflection, prayer and spirituality. Participants consider these to be attempts to empower children to be active in out-of-school contexts. The data suggest that these trainees think that CW has a place in primary schools as it holds many benefits for the children, school and wider community. In terms of their own learning, the data shows that they learnt about the purpose and value of CW, their professionalism and the practice within their respective schools.     

Usages and impacts of the integration of information and communication technologies (ICTs) in elementary classrooms: case study of Swedish municipality schools

During recent years, many schools have started to implement information and communication technologies (ICTs)-based learning devices (such as laptops, tablets, mobile phones, and active boards) in the classroom settings in order to increase learning outcomes. The aim of this study is to find which activities and outcomes are evident in the usages of computing devices and how those devices aid elementary-level students in their learning activities. The study includes five overt participant observations at some schools in a Swedish municipality including unstructured interviews and explains the findings through activity theory and the Alberta Education Framework for Student Learning . The major activities found were dealing with the (1) educational application assignments, (2) storytelling, (3) report writing and (4) practical interaction assignments. We concluded that ICTs aid students in becoming more concentrated, focus driven, engaged and amused, thus learning becomes more interesting.     

Sexuality education in South African schools: deconstructing the dominant response to young people’s sexualities in contemporary schooling contexts

ABSTRACT

South African schools are tasked with providing sexuality education through the Life Orientation curriculum as a means of challenging continued high rates of HIV, unwanted pregnancy and gender-based violence. While in theory schools are well positioned to provide appropriate knowledge for reproductive health and navigating sexual challenges within a gender justice framework, research on sexuality education in South African schools indicates that this is not the reality in practice. This paper draws on a growing body of qualitative studies, with both educators and learners in South African schools, to understand the issues undermining the goal of a critical and social justice pedagogy of sexuality in Life Orientation classrooms. We argue that sexuality education has been deployed to regulate and discipline young sexualities, reinforce and perpetuate gender binarisms and heteronormativity, re-establish global northern family values of the nuclear family within a pro-family discourse, and represent continued assumptions of adult authority in a civilising mission over young people. We suggest that the failure to make critical use of Life Orientation is linked to the dominance of ‘expert’-based didactic pedagogy, and argue the possibilities of sexuality education as a productive space for young people’s active participation and agency in making meaning of gender and sexualities.     

Becoming a teacher: the thoughts of undergraduates training to work in Primary Education and ideas for their university education

ABSTRACT

What makes a good teacher and what motivates a person to want to teach are timeless questions that concern us all. This study focuses on those who are currently training to become teachers, more specifically undergraduates studying a degree in Primary Education in the universities of Catalonia. It adopts a quantitative methodology based on a self-administered questionnaire conducted with a representative sample. Participants’ open-ended responses are recorded and codified. Three main categories are constructed: personal, authentic teacher; the teacher as story teller; and, the teacher as motivator of learning. Results highlight important differences between these categories, extolling above all the authentic, personal teacher, who leaves a mark thanks to their character and way of being. This, together with other findings, raises various considerations for the university training of future teachers.     

Mentors, Collaborators, Worlds or Wooden Legs: Some Images of the Role of Computers in Educational Contexts

For most users, including students, the choice of interface metaphors defines the nature, purpose and capabilities of both the computer and its software. In educational contexts the choice of interface metaphors includes consideration of beliefs and theories concerning the nature and purpose of education and the way in which learning takes place. These understandings are modified over time, resulting in changes to the types of metaphors which are felt to be appropriate for educational software. In addition to the choices made deliberately by software designers, most metaphors carry with them a legacy of extraneous understandings or entailments which may not necessarily be in keeping with their intended purposes.This article critically examines a selection of the most common and arguably the most influential of those broader metaphorical conceptions concerning the role of the computer in the classroom which have been responsible for setting the tone of student- com puter interaction. © IFIP, published by Kluwer Academic Publishers     

Teacher Leadership in Practice: Mapping the Negotiation of the Position of the Special Educational Needs Coordinator in Schools

Special needs care has taken on a substantial evolution within education. Special educational needs coordinators (SENCOs) are no longer considered to provide individual guidance to students but to support and professionalize regular teachers in fulfilling special needs care in their classroom. In doing so, they act as teacher leaders. Many concerns are raised about how teacher leadership may interfere with the existing working relationships in schools. In this study, we use Positioning Theory as a theoretical approach to obtain an in-depth understanding of how the position of the SENCO and the responsibilities attached to this position are negotiated within the school. The findings illustrate that SENCOs received the legitimacy to act as teacher leaders when their expertise was recognized, when teachers perceived their task as first-line helpers, and when school principals were willing to release power.