Ethically scaling up interventions in educational development: a case for collaborative multi-sited ethnographic research

Educational interventions are often administered at scale in diverse settings as part of international development programmes. Their implementation is subject to a linear process that begins with finding out ‘what works’ at a local level, frequently through the use of randomised controlled trials, and continues with rolling out the intervention to the whole population at a national or even transnational level. This process often fails to consider the role cultural, political, and historical factors play in the perceived success of the local intervention, which can compromise both the impact and the ethics of at-scale implementation. To help address this issue, this paper argues for a definition of scalability that incorporates the ethics of the practice of scaling. It points to the potential of collaborative multi-sited ethnographic research to identify nuanced understandings of the different ethics systems endogenous to individual sites of implementation, in lieu of the universalising notions of ethics that are embedded in mainstream, linear notions of scalability. In so doing, it makes the case for multi-sited critical ethnography as a methodology of choice in researching the scalability of interventions in the context of development projects in the ‘Global South’.     

Building up capabilities of educational administrators in India

Since independence in 1947, India has made a rapid development in all spheres, more particularly in the field of education. With the national commitment to provide educational opportunity to all citizens of the country and the highest priority given to the programme of universalisation of elementary education, the educational facilities have increased considerably over the years. Special attention is being paid to provide education to girls and to the children of the weaker sections of the community. Besides formal education, non-formal channels of education are also being exploited.This has increased the responsibilities of educational administrators manifold. The complexity and enormity of the tasks that they have to perform, the quality of leadership that they have to possess, the horizontal and vertical linkages that they have to establish within and outside the Education Department, and the managerial role that they have to discharge in order that the resources are effectively mobilised and utilised, have made it incumbent upon them to be familiar with the latest techniques of planning and management.The National Institute of Educational Planning and Administration (NIEPA) which is a specialised Central Institution for advanced training of key educational personnel has for the past two decades been playing an important role in building up the capabilities of different kinds of educational functionaries and serving as a catalytic agent for change.The need for training of educational administrators of all levels is now well recognised in India. In a developing country where there are certain aspirations of students, teachers, parents and community about education and where quantity, quality and equity all play a vital role, the development of professional skills in the educational administrators assumes great importance. Such a training not only leads to human resource development and an increase in the productivity of the officers but it also helps in the speedy realisation of the targets of educational and social development.     

Teacher Education,Learning and the Information Generation: the progression and evolution of educational computing against a background of change

ABSTRACT

Educational computing has evolved through three stages: topicality, surrogacy and progression; each new stage building onto, rather than replacing, existing practice. At ULTRALAB, Anglia Polytechnic University's Learning Technology Research Centre, work on the design and application of multimedia learning environments has identified three categories of use for interactive multimedia: narrative, interactive and participative. The evolution to a fourth stage of educational computing requires an emphasis on participative media, radical pedagogic change enabled by technological innovation, and recognition/incorporation of the emergent capabilities of learners whose information diet and menu are products of the information age. Teacher education is uniquely placed to support the development of participative media, to define the particular needs of the learning environment and to diminish the deficiency model of the learner.     

Teacher learning communities and educational change in Scotland: The Highland experience

This article discusses the issue of the sustainability of educational change in the light of findings from research undertaken in tandem with a development project initiated by a Scottish Education Authority, The Highland Council. The paper reviews some of the key themes that have emerged from recent literature on educational change, before drawing on the project data to address two key issues: the factors that have helped to promote and sustain changes within the schools; and the barriers to innovation experienced in these schools. We conclude the article by identifying a range of considerations that should be taken into account by those seeking to innovate and we suggest that, while the Highland model for change has enjoyed a degree of success in inculcating change, more needs to be done to address systemic issues, such as the pervasive influence of a narrow attainment agenda in shaping classroom practice.     

Teacher receptivity to system-wide curriculum reform in the initiation stage: a Chinese perspective

Few studies deal with teachers’ receptivity in the initiation stage of educational change, especially in a non-western cultural context like Mainland China. This study aims at investigating teachers’ receptivity to the system-wide curriculum reform of the senior secondary education in the initiation stage and understanding the factors influencing teachers’ receptivity in Mainland China. Questionnaire survey with open-ended question (n = 763) is employed to explore teachers’ receptivity in four selected experimental provinces, i.e., the first group of provinces which are selected by Ministry of Education to implement the curriculum reform. Results indicate teachers have positive attitudes and behavioral intentions toward promoting the curriculum reform of senior secondary education, and they consider the reform is valuable but difficult to carry out. The existing theoretical model can explain teachers’ behavioral intentions quite well, but its predicting ability to teachers’ general attitudes is limited, which indicates some new variables that need to be considered, too. Implications of this study and suggestions for future research are also discussed in the article.     

Planned educational change in Japan: the case of elementary science instruction

Available evidence suggests that Japanese elementary science education has shifted, in recent decades, away from lecture‐style, rote ‘teaching as telling’ toward ‘teaching for understanding’. How has this change been accomplished? Drawing on our ongoing study of innovations in Japanese elementary science instruction, we describe three features of the Japanese system that may facilitate planned change. First, we describe Japan's broad national goals for elementary education and the alignment of textbooks with these goals. We point out that Japan's national goals focus on the whole child (social, ethical and intellectual development), a breadth which, we speculate, may reduce the kind of pendulum swings between goals of academic and social development that have plagued some other countries’ educational policies. In addition, we note that the national goals are abstract and are translated into classroom practice through the collaborative work of teachers. Second, we describe three routes through which the national goals are translated into classroom practice: research lessons, teachers’ research groups, and national elementary schools. Finally, we speculate on some elements of the educational context (for example, collaborative habits and norms, beliefs about the pace and nature of change, and the practice of self‐critical reflection) that may support planned educational change in Japan.     

Missing children in educational research: investigating school-based versus household-based assessments in India

Including all children in large-scale educational studies is a pressing concern. Omitting certain types of children from studies can lead to skewed findings that promote inaccuracies about learning levels or educational quality. Increasingly, assessments are a method for investigating the quality of education systems, but national assessments are typically conducted in classrooms and may fail to accurately represent a country’s full range of children. Alternatively, households can be a site for testing or collecting data on children’s learning. Analysing the quantitative data from two studies in India that use both household-based and school-based methods alongside data from Government of India sources, the issues with child representation in school-based assessments are examined, and the benefits of household-based research as an alternative are explored.     

Contexts of educational policy change in Botswana and South Africa

This article examines how different histories and contexts of political and educational change in Botswana and South Africa have shaped the more regular classroom practice observed in Botswana. It does this through an interpretive synthesis and comparison of four key moments of educational change in Botswana and South Africa during the twentieth century, followed by an examination of more recent curriculum and assessment, teacher education, supervision, and evaluation policy in each country. The article highlights differences in decolonization processes and similarities in economic conditions and spending on education. It shows that processes of educational change have been and continue to be marked by the respectively different histories of gradual and incremental change on the one hand, and rapid, disruptive change on the other. And while recent curriculum and assessment policies show convergence with one another, this is less the case with teacher policies and processes.     

Teacher learning in the context of educational innovation: Learning activities and learning outcomes of experienced teachers

This longitudinal study was aimed at increasing our understanding of how teachers learn. It was conducted within a national innovation programme in secondary education. During one year 94 teachers reported six learning experiences using digital logs. The learning experiences were content-analysed in terms of learning activities and learning outcomes. The former comprised six main categories, namely experimenting, considering own practice, getting ideas from others, experiencing friction, struggling not to revert to old ways, and avoiding learning—the first two categories being reported most frequently. Reported learning outcomes referred to changes in knowledge and beliefs, emotions, practices, and intentions for practice, with changes in knowledge and beliefs being reported most frequently and changes in teaching practices being reported rarely. Learning activities were associated significantly with all measures of learning outcomes. Type of learning environment was significantly associated with learning activities and learning outcomes. Results are discussed with respect to ways of fostering teacher learning.     

Constraints to change in traditional educational systems: Lessons from the Chilean case

Educators from developed countries arrive in the third world with a set of recipes large enough to cope with all the problems of the country they want to help. Their advice, however, is usually not taken into account. The present paper describes the main constraints limiting innovation in the Chilean case. It is hoped that a better understanding of the functioning of this school system (representing the actual situation in more than 90% of the less developed countries) will help those experts to design more realistic proposals.

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Résumé Les éducateurs des pays développés offrent au Tiers-Monde toute une série de formules suffisamment élaborées pour remédier aux difficultés que rencontre le pays auquel ils viennent en aide. Il reste que ces éducateurs ne sont pas toujours écoutés. La présente communication décrit les principaux obstacles qui se dressent lors des tentatives d'innovation au Chili. Le fonctionnement du système éducatif Chilien est représentatif de la situation réelle qui prévaut dans plus de 90% des pays en voie de développement et l'on espère qu'une meilleure compréhension de ce système aidera les spécialistes en question à élaborer des projets plus réalistes.

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I have benefited greatly from advice and criticism from many friends, especially Russell Davis, Noel McCinn, Joseph Farrell, Sister María José Tresch, Richard Durstine, and Jane Hobson. I am grateful to all colleagues participating in the experiment.     

Decentralisation of educational planning in India: The case of the district primary education programme

Decentralisation of educational planning continues to be a major concern in India. The District Primary Education Programme (DPEP) is one of the recent efforts in this direction. This paper closely scrutinises various steps initiated under the DPEP to promote decentralisation of educational planning in India. The analysis in this paper shows that the DPEP initiatives have succeeded in overcoming existing constraints on decentralisation by developing planning machinery and competency and by ensuring resource availability at the district level. The DPEP experience also shows that centralised decision making in certain areas in the initial stages may become necessary to promote decentralisation efforts in the long-run. However, to sustain the decentralisation process, it is important to progressively reduce the domains of centralised decision making.     

Inclusive education policies and the feasibility of educational change: the case of Cyprus

Given the ecumenical pleas and legislative imperatives for more inclusive educational policy and practice, Cyprus has been steadfastly heading towards the realignment of its educational legislation towards a more inclusive discourse. This has been especially true after the implacable criticisms that the UNESCO report cast on the Cyprus educational system in 1997. After that there were, among other things, co‐ordinated efforts to accelerate the voting of the 1999 Special Educational Law that proclaimed the rights of disabled children to be educated along with their peers in mainstream classrooms. It is evident, however, that by no means can the theorisation of educational change be confined to the legislative attempts and their consequences. Rather, the attempts towards educational change should encompass the structural as well as the ideological bases upon which the education system is predicated. The official legislation constitutes a single parameter of the entangled network of interconnections and interdependencies underpinning special education policy and practice. Change is based on an array of factors permeating both agents and structures in the constitution of historical periods.     

Capacity-building for educational managers in South Africa: a case study of the Mpumalanga Province

Wide-ranging changes in the education system have rendered many serving school principals ineffective in the management of their schools. Many of these serving principals lack basic management training prior to and after their entry into headship. Changes in education thus increase their problems and this causes untold harm to the education of the learners. This research deals with the quantitative data and qualitative analysis about the perceptions of 172 principals and 28 district/circuit managers in the Mpumalanga Province on their satisfaction with the programme and its effectiveness in facilitating learning.Questionnaires were used to gather the above data that was subsequently analysed using mean scores, frequencies and percentages. Responses from open-ended questions, in addition to the structured questionnaires, were recorded and categorised for the purpose of qualitative analysis.Results of the research show that principals and district/circuit managers were satisfied to very satisfied with the quality and adequacy of their training and agreed that the training was effective to very effective. A general tendency of higher mean scores among district/circuit managers than among principals was observed. Findings from the qualitative analysis supported and elaborated on the findings of the quantitative data.     

Social differentiation in the horizontal transfer of knowledge: A case study from South India

Abstract

The paper discusses the experiences of a project on the horizontal transfer of knowledge in South India. The results show the need to develop sensitivity to the prevailing structural differences in the local situation.     

The impact of educational research: Teacher knowledge in action

In this paper I argue against a dominant view that social planning, supported by strategically located and tightly controlled research and development, is delivered from above and enacted downwards by the education system. As such the paper argues against a view taken by many theorists/politicians and reinforced by the major components of the educational bureaucracy. The Impact of Educational Research produces a warrant for an alternative form of thinking about the deeper forces of contemporary change including the ways that individuals are culturally formed and how they relate to each other. Understood this way, classrooms and schools are sites where new meanings and understandings are created and shared. The paper concludes with a call for consideration of new ways of understanding and discussing the context of change that educational research relates to.     

教育生态学视野下的教师专业发展

在当前的教育实践中，教师作为新课程改革的最终执行者，其职业状态和生存状态没有引起人们足够的重视。文章从教育生态学的角度来说明教育应该深入分析教师发展问题，为教师专业发展提供更多的机会，从而实现教师的可持续发展，提升教师的生命质量与价值。     

The Development of Professional Learning Communities and Their Teacher Leaders: An Activity Systems Analysis

Professional learning communities can be effective vehicles for teacher learning and instructional improvement, partly because they help change professional culture. However, little is known about how these changes occur. We used activity systems analysis to investigate the development of professional learning communities and their teacher leaders (N = 9) based on interviews and observations over 2 years. Activity systems analysis enables researchers to understand change within complex qualitative data sets by finding systemic relations within the activity, specifying contradictions in the system, and explicating outcomes. The resulting activity system illuminates the transformation of a mostly private, autonomous, and egalitarian culture to one of nascent collaboration, reflection, and shared values, as well as teacher leaders’ development of agency.     

Boundary objects and curriculum change: the case of integrated versus subject-based teaching

The article examines the stability and success of ideas within pedagogical discourses. Why do certain ideas attract actors and how does change come about? These general questions are dealt with through considering the example of the swift spread of an interdisciplinary idea, arbetsområde (translated to ‘spheres of work’) in the process of a Swedish national curriculum reform 1966–1967. How did it manage to become such a central concept in the curriculum? The article uses the concept of the boundary object in order to understand the popularity of the ‘spheres of work’ concept. Boundary objects have normally been used to explain the rigidity of science, and how the heterogeneity of different actors normally involved in the production of scientific knowledge can be coordinated and result in generalizable findings. However, lately, they have been applied to the field of curriculum studies. In this study, a boundary object pinpoints the fact that curricular solutions can be about coordinating different types of actors with different stakes in the making of a curriculum.