Integrating art into science education: a survey of science teachers’ practices

ABSTRACT

Numerous case studies suggest that integrating art and science education could engage students with creative projects and encourage students to express science in multitude of ways. However, little is known about art integration practices in everyday science teaching. With a qualitative e-survey, this study explores the art integration of science teachers (n?=?66). A pedagogical model for science teachers’ art integration emerged from a qualitative content analysis conducted on examples of art integration. In the model, art integration is characterised as integration through content and activities. Whilst the links in the content were facilitated either directly between concepts and ideas or indirectly through themes or artefacts, the integration through activity often connected an activity in one domain and a concept, idea or artefact in the other domain with the exception of some activities that could belong to both domains. Moreover, the examples of art integration in everyday classroom did not include expression of emotions often associated with art. In addition, quantitative part of the survey confirmed that integration is infrequent in all mapped areas. The findings of this study have implications for science teacher education that should offer opportunities for more consistent art integration.     

Barriers to environmental education: How do teachers’ perceptions in rural Ecuador fit into a global analysis?

Abstract

We identified 48 barriers to teaching environmental education reported by teachers in global literature and compared frequency to empirical data we collected from rural Ecuador, part of an understudied region and continent. We utilized Q methodology and interviews with 25 (78%) teachers at 6 schools to identify and categorize barriers. Perceptions of barriers ranked by Ecuadorian teachers were statistically classified into three factors: logistical (associated with fieldtrips, time, and money); training and lack of government support; and attitudinal (associated with student disinterest). In contrast, barriers related to student testing and controversial topics were only reported in more developed countries. Results enable region-specific recommendations.     

Moral spaces,the struggle for an intergenerational environmental ethics and the social ecology of families: an ‘other’ form of environmental education

‘Green families’ in Australia were studied so as to shed light on how a more durable, everyday environmental ethic and ecopolitic might slowly be enacted in the intimacy of the home ‘place’ over an extended period of time in rapidly changing socio‐cultural‐ecological conditions. Of particular interest to this study of the green household, or postmodern oikos, was how its proximal ‘moral spaces’ have been nurtured intergenerationally by family members from within the broader global climate of what Zygmunt Bauman refers to as the ‘moral lag’ of postmodernity. Three layers of interpretive findings about the social ecology and family dynamics of this oikos are presented in an effort to provide detailed understandings about families’ eco being, dwelling and becoming. Implications for education for the environment can be gleaned from the ‘best’ ecopedagogical practices found in the home that are ‘other’ than those occurring in the formal education sector. This study adds to the theorizations of ‘social ecology’, ‘experiential education’, ‘ecopedagogy’ and, more generally, the notion of an everyday ‘ecocentrism’, while providing some clues for how environmental education in schools might mirror pedagogical aspects of the postmodern oikos.     

Wellbeing in school gardens – the case of the Gardens for Bellies food and environmental education program

The article explores the role of the outdoor environment in the Gardens for Bellies Danish school garden program in relation to student wellbeing. It is based on exploratory multiple case study research. The study indicates that the school garden program promotes students’ wellbeing through their positive emotions about being outside in the outdoor environment. Garden activities and their relations with peers, garden educators, and teachers seemed to positively affect students’ self-esteem. Over and above the positive social environment, students’ relations with the natural environment seem also to affect their wellbeing as they develop empathy for animals, insects, and plants. Whether this influences their wellbeing, interpersonal relations, and planetary care in the long run after the program is not, however, documented. Not all students thrive in the open, free, and sometimes chaotic space of the garden. However, the majority of students in the program seem to experience a sense of wellbeing.     

Using the communities of practice framework to examine an after‐school environmental education program for Hispanic youth

Environmental education researchers have called for a greater analysis of ‘learning’ in environmental education in relation to contemporary theories and explanatory frameworks of learning. Situated learning, as a prominent example, is a sociocultural theory that contends that learning is a social process that occurs as individuals participate in ‘communities of practice’. This study aims to enhance our understanding of the usefulness and applicability of the communities of practice framework to the analysis of learning in environmental education, focusing on the learning in after‐school environmental education programs for Hispanic youth. Results suggest that the framework can be applied to identify some environmental education programs as communities of practice, characterized by the development of joint enterprise, mutual engagement, and shared repertoire. The framework was also found to be useful in identifying and describing learning as bringing about changes in identity formation as a result of participation in the programs. Finally, we suggest that such programs, due to their free‐choice nature and multiple opportunities for participation, also offer suitable contexts for further research regarding the relevance of sociocultural theories of learning to environmental education practice.     

Evaluating teachers’ self-perceptions of their knowledge and practice after participating in an environmental education professional development program

Building teachers’ confidence in their understanding of nature and encouraging the use of field experiences with students are important factors in increasing environmental awareness in students. A River Runs Through It (ARRT) is an integrated environmental education professional development program, immersed practicing teachers in hands-on field inquiry while providing them with valuable experiences, tools, and support necessary for raising teacher enthusiasm and self-confidence. The authors begin by taking a broad look at environmental education. They then narrow the focus to their environmental education professional development program – ARRT – and the positive knowledge and attitudinal impacts found from allowing teachers to explore local outdoor environments with a support system that aided them in bringing their ARRT experiences into their own classrooms.     

Making a positive impact in rural places: Change agency in the context of school–university–community collaboration in education

International Review of Education -     

A narrative inquiry into the fostering of a teacher-principal’s best-loved self in an online teacher community in China

This study revolves around an organically lived online community of Chinese elementary teachers. The teachers shared their reflective journals and engaged in conversations with the facilitators and also with their peers. Following one participant’s postings over a span of thirteen months helped the research team to narratively explore how the teacher, through reflections and interactions with his other fellow community members, refined his personal practical knowledge and cultivated his best-loved self as a teacher-principal in a rural school in China that lacked learning resources. Highlighted in the discussions are how the participant integrated his personal being with his professional being and eventually became the teacher he wanted to be. This research study adds to the literature about teachers as agents of change. This knowledge contribution, among others related to technology, shows how professional development and the development of teacher identity can be promoted in online teacher knowledge communities. Implications for teacher education are also discussed.     

Encountering education in the rural: migrant women’s perspectives

ABSTRACT

This paper explores migrant women’s encounters with formal and informal education in what can be termed new immigration rural destinations. We ask to what extent educational opportunities are realized in these new destinations. We show that education aspirations may be jeopardized because of the desire to achieve economic goals and thus require remedial action. Specifically, we refer to qualitative data collected in rural (and remote) Boddington in Western Australia, and rural Armagh in Northern Ireland. The paper engages with two interrelated dimensions of this migrant/migration experience. English is not a first language for our participants and we first examine the provision and consumption of informal English Language classes. In doing so, we demonstrate the complex social and cultural dimensions of community-based English language instruction. Second, we attend to migrant mothers’ perceptions of and responses to children’s formal education. We highlight transnational senses of, and tensions around, ‘local/rural’ pedagogies and resultant migrant strategies.     

‘Teaching excellence’ in higher education: a comparative study of English and Australian academics’ perspectives

ABSTRACT

In the current higher education (HE) environment, indicators of ‘teaching excellence’ (TE) are increasingly under the spotlight. The literature offers a wide range of models and perspectives, but also highlights the need for greater (comparative) scrutiny of the perceptions of those at the centre – staff teaching across the disciplines in different countries. This article aims to contribute to ongoing debates by investigating and comparing the views of 120 academic staff teaching in one of two countries – England and Australia – in an attempt to deepen our appreciation of their definitions and understandings. The findings from this two-stage enquiry using online questionnaires and interviews indicate broad commonalities in the ways in which academics define TE, centred on facilitative, interactive pedagogy related to individual professional aspirations; they also reveal widely shared reservations about the term’s legitimacy and institutional/marketised (ab)use. As such, the findings offer policy-makers and institutions useful insights at a time when TE definitions and metrics are growing global pre-occupations.

Abbreviations: teaching excellence (TE); higher education (HE)     

Insights into the value of a ‘stand‐alone’ course for sustainability education

Education for sustainability (EfS) is emerging as an urgent imperative and challenge for higher education. But what exactly does it mean to put sustainability into higher education? How do we bring sustainability themes into university curriculum, across the enormous diversity of academic disciplines? This paper describes the experience of teaching a large ‘stand‐alone’ EfS subject which sits within the professional contexts of the large first‐year cohort undertaking it. We describe the themes, architecture and approach to sustainability education taken in this course and evaluate the learning and assessment activities offered to students. We conclude with reflections on the student experience and feedback, which suggests that while academics build towards a deeply embedded sustainability ethic in higher education, specialist parallel courses have a valuable role to play in the transition to sustainable futures.     

What makes an excellent lecturer? Academics’ perspectives on the discourse of ‘teaching excellence’ in higher education

ABSTRACT

In the context of the Teaching Excellence Framework (TEF), we examine academics’ perspectives on the discourse of ‘teaching excellence’ based on an empirical study with 16 participants from five post-1992 universities. The article reports the findings on academics’ views of the term and concept of ‘teaching excellence’, examples of what ‘teaching excellence’ may look like in practice, whether a distinction between ‘good’, ‘good enough’ and ‘excellent teaching’ can be made, and the measurability of ‘teaching excellence’. The research findings suggest we need a more nuanced inclusive interpretation of ‘teaching excellence’ which recognises the conjoined nature of teaching and research in higher education, and also rebalances a focus on outcome-related measures with understandings of purposes and development of the processes of learning.     

Mature students’ journey into higher education in the UK: an interpretative phenomenological analysis

ABSTRACT

This article reports on issues of diversity in the context of widening participation in global higher education (HE). Mature students represent a third of the HE student population in Australia, Canada, UK and the USA. More research is needed to understand factors that can facilitate or hinder access to HE for this group. The aim of this study was to examine factors that a small group of mature students perceived influenced them as they made the decision to take up HE. Six undergraduate students at a British university who were on track to finish their studies took part in semi-structured interviews. All participants were white and from families with no previous experience of HE. Mean age was 42.7 years (range 35–51), and 50% were female. The interviews were analysed using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis. Through using phenomenological analysis to analyse perceptions of changing motivation and goals during the decision-making process to take up HE, a detailed understanding of the complexity of these change processes was obtained. The analysis offers evidence that mature students experience far-reaching personal and social changes related to their decision to enter HE and adds a novel understanding of these identity-changes. This new insight is of fundamental importance to the field because the novel understanding of mature students’ meaning-making could be used to tailor interventions to facilitate access to HE for mature students.     

Teaching ‘community engagement’ in engineering education for international development: Integration of an interdisciplinary social work curriculum

This article reviews the literature on challenges faced by engineering faculty in educating their students on community-engaged, sustainable technical solutions in developing countries. We review a number of approaches to increasing teaching modules on social and community components of international development education, from adding capstone courses and educational track seminars to integrating content from other disciplines, particularly the social sciences. After summarising recent pedagogical strategies to increase content on community-focused development, we present a case study of how one engineering programme incorporates social work students and faculty to infuse strategies for community engagement in designing and implementing student-led global engineering development projects. We outline how this interdisciplinary pedagogical approach teaches students from the two disciplines to work together in addressing power balances, economic and social issues and overall sustainability of international development projects.     

Towards a ‘critical cultural political economy’ account of the globalising of education

This paper outlines the basis of an alternative theoretical approach to the study of the globalisation of ‘education’ – a Critical, Cultural Political Economy of Education (CCPEE) approach. Our purpose here is to bring this body of concepts – critical, cultural, political, economy – into our interrogation of globalising projects and processes within what we will refer to as the ‘education ensemble’ as the topic of enquiry, whose authoritative, allocative, ideational and feeling structures, properties and practices, emerge from and play into global economic, political and cultural processes In the first half of the paper we introduce and develop the concepts that will underpin our approach. In the second half of the paper we explore the explanatory potential and epistemic gain of a CCPEE approach by examining the different manifestations of the relationship between globalisation as a political, cultural and economic project and an education ensemble. We conclude by reflecting on the possibilities this perspective offers.     

Universal basic education in Nigeria: availability of schools’ infrastructure for effective program implementation

This paper examines the availability and adequacy of schools’ infrastructural facilities for implementation of the Universal Basic Education program in Nigeria. Adopting the ex post facto design, the researchers used existing school data on physical facilities, including a survey of key stakeholders in the education sector. Data analysed revealed inadequacy of physical facilities for effective implementation of the UBE program. It was accordingly recommended that government at the national, state and local levels show better commitment to the implementation of the Universal Basic Education program.     

Basic education in China’s rural areas: a legal obligation or an individual choice?

This study takes a close look at the whole cycle of the 9-yr compulsory education in two communities in north China. It reveals that although there are nearly 100% enrolment and completion rates at the primary level, dropouts constitute a serious problem at the secondary level, thus rendering the 9-yr compulsory schooling an unfinished cycle. Through interviewing 30 dropouts’ families and using rational choice theory as a theoretical framework, the study concludes that the current landscape of rural schooling in the area studied is a result of local people’s rational choices rather than that of the compulsory educational law.     

Developing a critical consciousness of race in place-based environmental education: Franco’s story

Environmental education (EE) has a history of support for critical place-based pedagogy as a means of learning through engagement in space, both cultural and biophysical. In this paper I tell the story of how Franco – a non-white, non-American undergraduate – engaged with local discourses in a watershed-focused EE program in the rural Midwestern US. I examine how the five tenets of critical race theory (CRT) can be used to interpret Franco’s experience, where he encountered multiple instances of racism and xenophobia. I argue that without a critical analysis of race in place-based EE programs, instructors may (a) privilege their own ways of knowing in local settings, (b) rely on ‘grit’ narratives as mechanisms for mediation of racism, and (c) send non-white students home having learned that they cannot effect meaningful change for sustainability. I conclude with recommendations for faculty in predominantly white institutions on how CRT might foster the development of critical consciousness of race in place-based EE programs.