Generous reading: Discovering dialogic voices in writing

This paper describes an approach to the assessment of EAL written composition in the primary school. It draws upon related work in literacy as social practice and socio‐linguistic approaches to language learning to develop an approach to writing assessment that builds upon students’ linguistic strengths and traces their written words to sources in the immediate context and wider world. Following Joseph Tobin (2000) this approach is described as generous reading. Generous reading references poststructuralist literary theory through a focus on close reading of texts using a multidisciplinary approach. This paper describes the purpose, theory, and methods for generous reading followed by examples and a discussion of implications for instruction and assessment.     

Finding our inner voices: Rediscovering scholarship

This essay explores the need to reconsider how we define, reward, and support scholarship, and the philosophical foundation of what a scholar really is. Noting that only 10 to 15% of the professoriate regularly publish, the author questions if some faculty become stymied and distanced from their work because of the gap that exists between what they want to do and what their institutions expect them to do. Could more faculty find their voices as scholars and public intellectuals if universities and colleges ascribed more value to the scholarships of teaching, practice, and service? The surprising results of a survey of members of the Professional and Organizational Development Network in Higher Education are included.     

Engaging to transform: Hearing black women's voices

Denzin & Lincoln (1994) define five historical moments in qualitative research and present ideas for future moments that focus on dialogue and storytelling of lived experiences in locally situated communities. Our learning community (teacher and students) in an introductory graduate qualitative research course listened to each others' talk on black feminist writings. I used students' reflections to begin to define a powerful moment for the future of qualitative research, the "crisis of de-communitization." This crisis reveals that globalization, environmental degradation, and economic exploitation are eroding the framework for care and nurture in our local communities. Therefore, it invites qualitative researchers to become engaged pedagogues within our communities to create spaces for "honest talk" that opens our hearts and minds to the pains and joys of social diversity. In this moment, qualitative researchers are challenged to write through the lens of difference by committing to four major components that define ways to move out of the crisis: eros, morality, empowerment, and transformation.     

倾听你的声音

告诉自己“所有的人都会笑话我”或“我要失败了”,你的自信心就会枯萎。如果你认为你能或者你认为你不能——那你想什么就是什么。     

Hearing children's voices in the early years

In this article Hannah Mortimer explores how even very young children can be consulted and included when planning for their education and needs. This allows early years practitioners to ensure that the children they support have equal opportunities, feel involved and successful in their learning and play, and are given activities and interventions to suit their interests and strengths. Various approaches are described here for including young children with special educational needs (SEN) and other disabilities in their foundation stage education. These include observation and interpretation, talk‐through approaches, play‐based assessment and intervention, use of art‐work, role play and stories, welcome profiles and personal records, increasing all children's awareness of SEN and developing inclusive and enjoyable approaches for everybody.     

Hear our voices: Student teachers' experiences during practical teaching

Abstract

Practical teaching forms an integral part of teacher training. Teacher education programmes at the University of South Africa (Unisa) are no exception. However, there are two sides to this coin. On the one side, research studies led to the conclusion that teaching practice is a valued and a very necessary part of teacher education for students to become competent teachers. On the other side, it was also concluded that teaching practice was less than satisfactory because of deficiencies in the quality of supervisor teachers and in the application of theory in practice. Given the critical importance of practical teacher education, there has been a concern among lecturers at Unisa about how student teachers experience their teaching practice periods. A survey based on two unstructured questions and open-ended semistructured questions as a data collection instrument was undertaken with a sample population of third-year teacher training students to determine the negative and positive experiences of student teachers during their teaching practice. It was evident from the findings that the most outstanding positive experience of the student teachers concerned was the support system offered to them by the supervisor teacher. Negative experiences included exposure to bad discipline in the classrooms and the enlistment of students as cover teachers, thus precluding the presentation of lessons as planned. These findings compelled the researchers to prepare students during their training more thoroughly for what they might experience while doing their teaching practice.     

Personal voices in higher education: A digital storytelling experience for pre-service teachers

Digital storytelling (DST) has recently emerged as a new tool in instructional environments. DST involves the combination of media and technology with traditional storytelling to help students learn. This paper examines the use of DST in a university course and pre-service teachers’ perceptions of their learning experiences using this tool. Thirty-eight pre-service teachers participated in the study, in which DST was employed as a learning activity. In the course, the participants created personal digital stories about their careers. Both qualitative and quantitative research methods were used for data collection and analysis. The findings indicate that DST is very useful for learning. The pre-service teachers perceived DST as an attractive way to share ideas and feelings, and valuable for using in lessons. DST served as a practical learning tool to present the students’ personal experiences to others, and the process encouraged emotional interactions. Implications regarding these findings are discussed.     

Silencing of voices in a Swedish science classroom

From a sociocultural perspective, I discuss data from a Swedish science classroom presented in María Gómez’s article “Student Explanations of their Science Teachers’ Assessments, Grading Practices, and How they learn Science”. In this discussion, I focus on the need to change existing conceptions of assessment in the teaching and learning of science. Next, I talk about the importance of taking into consideration the dialectic between agency and passivity as filters in order to understand what student silence may signify in science classes as well as in relation to their perceptions of assessment. I conclude with the importance of the teacher’s role in developing formative assessment, along with the challenges in developing assessments which transform science education into a relevant field of knowledge for both students and society at large.     

Problematising formative assessment in an undeveloped region of China: voices from practitioners

Educational Assessment, Evaluation and Accountability - Despite the widely acknowledged pro-learning function of formative assessment and its wide adoption around the globe, the gaps between policy...     

Encouraging voices: listening to young people who have been marginalised

When provided with an opportunity to reflect upon their experiences of education, young people can often offer insights into those procedures and actions which have either supported or inhibited learning. In this article Richard Rose and Michael Shevlin describe how a team of researchers came together with a group of young people from marginalized communities, including those with disabilities, from refugee families or from ethnic minorities to explore the ways in which they had been included or excluded by the education system. The project described involved a team of people drawn from the UK and the Republic of Ireland. Their work focused upon the experiences of young people who were concerned to tell their stories and, in so doing, inform teachers and education policy makers about the steps which may be taken to enable the inclusion agenda to be more thoughtfully addressed.     

From hearing voices to engaging in dialogue: problematising student participation in school improvement

This article explores the value of student voice to school improvement, suggesting that it is often assumed to be a good thing. The article describes six trends that have contributed to this unexamined assumption. It is suggested that two dimensions of any claim that student voice can contribute to school improvement need to be analysed: the degree to which students are regarded as being active in participation in school life, and the purposed for which their voice is being used. A distinction is drawn between those that are for community purposes, such as the improvement of learning, and institutional purposes such as improvement in the appearance of the school. The various ways in which student voice can be used to coerce teachers of students into compliance are identified. An analytic matrix is presented. A dialogic model is proposed as the form of participation that will contribute most towards improvement. The article concludes with accounts of three projects in which student participation has been encouraged through dialogue about learning.     

Developing learner autonomy in the language class in Turkey: voices from the classroom

This article draws on qualitative interview data from a case study of an English teacher in Turkey. It explores the implementation of learner autonomy in English as a foreign language classroom and identifies the challenges, such as students’ negative attitudes towards classroom practices, dissatisfaction with the language learning activities and lack of motivation among the students, the teacher encountered while promoting learner autonomy. The main purpose of the paper is to analyse the issues that have emerged during the process of implementing learner autonomy in language learning with specific reference to the case study conducted and to discuss the themes relevant to its classroom practice.     

Learning on the go: voices of highly mobile urban students

Highly mobile students experience schools and learning in different ways than their more stable peers. Repeated transfers result in discontinuity of instruction and relationships with teachers and peers. Interviews with transient urban students in grades 9–12 reveal the issues they face upon their arrival and afterward. Mobile students give insight into perceptions of teacher practice, peer-group induction, receptivity to classroom instruction, and classroom and administrative practices. Findings include fear, loneliness, embarrassment, and anxiety in new settings or when faced with another school change. While students expressed achievement concerns, peer social and emotional concerns were primary immediately following enrollment in a new school. Students found themselves unable to focus on academic studies until they could secure a peer group with which to interact. Implications for high-mobility schools include the need for structures providing transitional services and community-building environments to counteract the negative academic and developmental effects of frequent mobility.     

Model minority,self-perception and schooling: multiple voices of Korean students in China

Koreans have been successful in nesting their educational achievement in places like China, where they have earned the title of the “model minority”, due primarily to their educational success. Drawing on data from ethnographic research on fourth-grade Korean students in a bilingual Korean school, this article examines the relationship between student self-perception and attitude towards schooling underlying the model minority stereotype. Research results lead us to argue that ethnic Korean students in China do not have a shared self-perception, and so do not share a homogeneous attitude towards schooling, contrary to the stereotype of them as a monolithic group with high educational levels and shared attitudes towards learning. This article emphasizes the need to re-examine the model minority stereotype and its cultural ecological theory, and to include the voices of ethnic Korean students in the analysis of the model minority stereotype at a time of transition and change.     

Towards equality: the voices of young disabled people in Disability Rights Commission research

Increased participation and success in education for disabled people will improve their social inclusion and benefit society in general. In this article Louca‐Mai Wilson discusses Disability Rights Commission research on education and its implications for policy and practice. Research findings are considered in relation to the need for the voices of young disabled people to be heard in research, policy and planning. A key finding was that young disabled people want to be regarded and treated as equal to their peers, with the same rights of access and educational opportunity. But schools and educational establishments vary in their willingness and capacity to address and remove existing access barriers. Inclusion is a key issue for many young disabled people; many feel isolated at school and college and often have lower expectations about their future than their non‐disabled peers. Inclusive practice and participation are key to ensuring that disability equality in education is achieved.