Understanding stories of professional formation during early childhood education and care practice placements

Narrative inquiry as a methodological approach enables us to examine how people represent their experiences and selves through storytelling (Chase, S. E. 2005. ‘Narrative Inquiry: Multiple Lenses, Approaches, Voices.’ In The Sage Handbook of Qualitative Research, edited by N. Denzin and Y. Lincoln, 651–679. London: Sage). To understand these constructions, other kinds of knowledge are required. Theories of social life, for example, help to interpret areas which narrative inquiry is good at revealing about human experiences such as the animation of temporality, sociality and place (Clandinin, J., V. Caine, A. Estefan, J. Huber, M. S. Murphy, and P. Steeves. 2015. ‘Places of Practice: Learning to Think Narratively.’ Narrative Works 5 (1). Accessed November 30, 2017. https://journals.lib.unb.ca/index.php/NW/issue/view/1799). Drawing on interviews with practice educators and final-year undergraduate early childhood education and care (ECEC) students in North-West Ireland, this paper considers how narrative inquiry and education theories work together to illuminate key learning experiences of ECEC undergraduate students during 12-week practice placements. In this paper I attempt to show how two education theories – ‘Threshold Concepts’ and ‘Communities of Practice’ – shed light on the nature of these key learning experiences. The paper suggests that narrative inquiry offers an emancipatory research approach by uncovering human and reflective elements of learning journeys made by ECEC students during their practice placements.     

Book reviews

Schwandt, Thomas A. (1997) Qualitative Inquiry: a Dictionary of Terms. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications, Inc. 183 pp. $ 23.95 ISBN‐0–7619–0254–6

VanTassel‐Baska, J. (1998). Excellence in Educating Gifted and Talented Learners, Third Edition with chapters by Camilla Persson Benbow, John F. Feldhusen, Kenneth Seeley, and Linda Kreger Silverman. Denver, CO: Love Publishing Co. (532pp., $58.00 hb, ISBN 0–89108–255–7.

Moore, D.P. and Buttner, E.H. (1997). Women entrepreneurs: Moving beyond the glass ceiling. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, Inc. (262 pp., $19.95 pb, ISBN 0–7619–0464–6)

Tomlinson, C. A. (1999). The differentiated classroom: Responding to the needs of all learners. Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development (132 pp., $21.95 pb, ISBN 0–87120–342–1).     

Voice,post-structural representation and the subjectivity of ‘included’ students

Aligned with the broader movement from structuralism to the post-structuralisms [Lather, P. 2013. “Methodology-21: What Do We Do in the Afterward?” International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education 26 (6): 634–645; St. Pierre, E. A. 2009. “Afterword: Decentering Voice in Qualitative Inquiry.” In Voice in Qualitative Inquiry: Challenging Conventional, Interpretive, and Critical Conceptions in Qualitative Research, edited by A. Y. Jackson and L. A. Mazzei, 221–236. London: Routledge; St. Pierre, E. A. 2013. “The Posts Continue: Becoming.” International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education 26 (6): 646–657], research in disability studies for the past two decades has found ‘the potholes’ [Miller, L., J. B. Whalley, and I. Stronach. 2012. “From Structuralism to Poststructuralism.” In Research Methods in the Social Sciences, edited by B. Somekh and C. Lewin. London: SAGE] of disability rights scholarship. In this paper, I offer a critical research framework in the field of disability studies in education that is theoretical, political and personal. Concentrating on the positioning of disability, I draw on the methodological tools of post-structural representation, subjectivity and constructivist grounded theory to study how discursive practices within (and around) secondary schools shape ‘included’ disabled subjects. In the paper I develop this framework and then demonstrate its application in ongoing research that critically counters the conventions that marginalize particular students in schools.     

From beyond our borders: Other readings on environmentalism and communicative action

Sharon Beder. Global Spin. The Corporate Assault on Environmentalism. White River Junction, VT: Chelsea Green, 1998. 277 pp., $19.95 (paper).

Daniel Faber (Ed.). The Struggle for Ecological Democracy: Environmental Justice Movements in the United States. New York: Guilford, 1998, 366 pp., $18.95 (paper).

Rom Harre, Jens Brockmeier, Peter Muhlhausler. Greenspeak. A Study of Environmental Discourse. Thousand Oaks, CA/London: Sage, 1999, 201 pp., $29.95 (paper).

David Harvey. Justice, Nature, and the Geography of Difference. Oxford, UK: Blackwell Publishers, 1997, 468 pp., $27.95 (paper).

Tom Jagtenberg and David McKie. Eco‐Impacts and the Greening of Postmodernity: New Maps for Communication Studies, Cultural Studies, and Sociology. Thousand Oaks/London: Sage, 1997, 301 pp., $27.95 (paper).

Scott Lash, Bronislaw Szerszynski, and Brian Wynne (Eds.). Risk, Environment and Modernity. London/ Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage, 1996, 294 pp., $24.95 (paper).

Raymond Murphy. Sociology and Nature: Social Action in Context. Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1997, 336 pp., $28.00 (paper).

David Schlosberg. Environmental Justice and the New Pluralism: The Challenge of Difference for Environmentalism. Oxford/New York: Oxford University Press, 1999, 223 pp., $45.00 (cloth).     

Meta-ethnography of autoethnographies: a worked example of the method using educational studies

ABSTRACT

Despite questions about autoethnography in the ethnography and education research family, autoethnography is published in selective peer-reviewed journals in education and in the social and health sciences. Even critics of autoethnographic studies note their ‘rising acceptance in the past 15 years’ [Delamont, S. 2009. “The Only Honest Thing: Autoethnography, Reflexivity and Small Crises in Fieldwork.” Ethnography and Education 4 (1): 51–63]. However, there has been less effort towards qualitative meta-synthesis to learn what other insights might be gained from collections of studies. With the advent of meta-autoethnography [Ellis, C. 2009. Revision: Autoethnographic Reflections of Life and Work. Walnut Creek, CA: Left Coast Press], each author can find a way to synthesise her/his own autoethnographic works, however, synthesising autoethnographies of different authors has received no attention. This article examines a critical, systematic approach to the meta-ethnography of autoethnographies and offers a worked example of the method using educational studies.     

Teacher change and “high-stakes” assessment: what happens to professional development?

This study explored the impact of learning a new instructional practice in a US school district that places great value in a statewide student assessment. Grounded Theory methodology (Strauss & Corbin, 1998, Basics of Qualitative Research: Techniques and procedures for developing grounded theory, 2nd Edition, Sage Publications, Thousand Oaks, CA) was used to analyze interview and observation data from 20 teachers undergoing professional development in a new reading strategy. We found that teaching in a “high-stakes” assessment environment impacts the implementation, fidelity, and sustainability of new teaching methods. Most importantly, our results suggest that some teachers may use “high-stakes” assessments as their primary reference point in which to gauge the merit of innovative teaching practices. Furthermore, decisions regarding which components to implement, how often to use these components, and what materials to utilize in their implementation may be influenced by the preparation for and expected results of these tests.     

An entry into a creative,rhizomatic narrative inquiry into young people’s identity construction

Located in a larger study that attempted to challenge taken-for-granted or homogenizing assumptions about constructions of adolescent identity and to interrogate radically the process of qualitative research in this field [O’ Grady, G. (2012). “Constructing Identities with Young People using Creative Rhizomatic Narrative.” PhD Thesis. Queen’s University Belfast], the paper picks up the narrative of the research journey at a moment of meeting with Kim Etherington, Professor of Narrative Research at the University of Bristol. It opens with the conversation that ensued and my introduction to the figure of the rhizome [Deleuze, G., and F. Guattari. ([1987] 2004). A thousand plateaus: Capitalism and Schizophrenia. Translated by B. Massumi. London: Continuum, 8) which, alongside other poststructuralist ideas, I subsequently used to conceptualize and frame the inquiry. In grappling with the questions posed in our conversation, I hope to make visible three interweaving themes in this paper: My difficulties initially in ‘inhabiting’ the philosophical positions I took up in this creative narrative inquiry; my growing commitment to a form of narrative inquiry that challenges inherited dominant understandings of subjectivity and research methodologies and finally, my encounters with ‘otherness’ in the construction of self/other as a thematic thread that interwove all the narratives of the young people in the larger study.     

Images of thinking in feminist materialisms: ontological divergences and the production of researcher subjectivities

Qualitative feminist studies are much challenged by the contemporary critique of social constructionist postmodernism, as well as the renewed search for the body and materiality. The result is (at least) two diverging research accounts: a renewed feminist materialism, relying on some foundational ontologies and what has been called a new materialist feminist account that constitutes radical ontological rewritings. The aim of this paper is to investigate what kind of researcher subjectivities these different accounts produce for qualitative inquiry. This investigation will be unfolded using an example from a collaborative research process involving 10 PhD students. The example is woven into Deleuze and Guattari’s discussions on the Image of Thought and the three images of thinking outlined in A Thousand Plateaus. The investigation shows that although the aim of our collaborative process was to resist the assumed Cogito/“I” of philosophy and qualitative inquiry, we still got caught up in taken-for-granted images of thinking and doing analysis. A deterritorializing of habits of thinking and practicing in order for new and other researcher subjectivities to emerge required collaborative efforts that put to work a rhizomatic image of thinking and operated from within an ontology of difference.     

Book review

Analyzing social & political change: A casebook of methods. Angela Dale and Richard B. Davies (Eds.), Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage, 1994, x+229 pages.     

Does “teaching presence” exist in online MBA courses?

This paper assesses the construct validity of the dimensions of teaching presence, one of three types of presence articulated in Garrison, Anderson, and Archer's [Garrison, D.R., Anderson, T., and Archer, W. (2000). Critical inquiry in a text-based environment: Computer conferencing in higher education. The Internet and higher education, 2, 87–105.] Community of Inquiry model of online learning. Using items to measure these characteristics developed by Shea and colleagues [Shea, P.J., Fredericksen, E.E., Pickett, A.M., and Pelz, W.E. (2003). A preliminary investigation of “teaching presence” in the SUNY learning network. In J. Bourne and J.C. Moore (Eds.) Elements of quality online education: Practice and direction, 4, 279–312. Needham, MA: Sloan Center for OnLine Education.], a sample of 191 MBA students was used to test the posited model through a structural equation model. The results revealed that dropping some of the measurement items produced a stable model with good fit between the data and the model. This is one of the first studies to establish construct validity for the components of teaching presence, suggesting that it is a valid framework for studying online management education. It also points to the potential of the broader Community of Inquiry model for further research and application in online management education.     

‘Seeing the light.’ Personal epiphanies and moving towards interpretivism; a researcher’s tale of exploring teacher pedagogic practice

Arguably an essential element of a doctoral study is to establish and acknowledge a philosophical worldview. As part of this, researchers need to engage with and challenge their assumptions about the nature of being, the nature of knowledge, and what can be known. Only then can methodological designs, approaches to data analysis, and relationships between researchers and participants be established and situated within a particular research paradigm. Contextualised within a PhD study concerning teacher pedagogic practice, this paper describes the process of abandoning a positivist worldview in favour of interpretivism. The paper describes the process of developing an ethnographically inspired methodology combining practice theory [Kemmis, S., and P. Grootenboer. 2008. “Situating Praxis in Practice.” In Enabling Praxis: Challenges for Education, edited by S. Kemmis, and T. Smith, 37–64. Rotterdam: Sense] and constructivist grounded theory [Charmaz, K. 2006. Constructing Grounded Theory. A Practical Guide Through Qualitative Analysis. London: Sage] to study teacher pedagogic practice. The methodological framework is shared to enable others to use it to provide fresh opportunities to look at specific educational settings in order to explore, understand and enhance teacher practice.     

Asking difficult questions: exploring research methods with children on painful issues

Assumptions about a child's competence to voice an opinion often inhibit efforts to find effective methods for participation. Answers to questions are sought from the significant adults who surround a child [Morris, J. 2003. “Including All Children: Finding Out about the Experiences of Children with Communication and/or Cognitive Impairments.” Children and Society 17: 337–348.]. Indeed, methods that ask adults rather than children about children's lives have often been justified as the only way in which a ‘truth’ [Westcott, H. L., and K. S. Littleton. 2005. “Exploring Meaning in Interviews with Children.” In Researching Children's Experience: Approaches and Methods. London: Sage] may be established as to how it feels to be that child, whatever their age. This stance has been increasingly challenged [Clark, A., and P. Moss 2001. Listening to Young Children the Mosaic Approach. Norwich: National Children's Bureau] with the argument that only by ‘giving them a direct and unfettered voice’ [Winter, K. 2006. “Widening Our Knowledge Concerning Young Looked After Children: The Case for Research Using Sociological Models of Childhood.” Child and Family Social Work 11: 55–64; Winter, K. 2010. “Ascertaining the Perspectives of Young Children in Care: Case Studies using Reality Boxes.” Children and Society: The International Journal of Childhood and Children's Services 61] can children's views be properly sought and represented. Research looking at the experiences of children when they were taken into the care of the local authority meant that some difficult, complex, sometimes painful questions may be asked. In this paper, I explore the development and use of creative, interactive methods with children aged 4–13 that facilitated their participation and avoided causing undue distress. I also debate the importance of engaging with children where their circumstances and past experiences are distressful arguing that a relationship where listening carefully is paramount enables the child's voice to be heard.     

Review section

Structural Equation Modeling: Concepts, Issues, and Applications. Rick H. Hoyle (Ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, 1995, 289 pages.

Statistics as Principled Argument. Robert P. Abelson. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 1995, 198 pages.     

The Development of Giftedness and Talent Across the Life Span. Horowitz,F. D., Subotnik,R. F., & Matthews,D. J. (2009)

Doll, B. and Doll, C. (1997). Bibliotherapy With Young People: Librarians and Mental Health Professionals Working Together. Englewood, Colorado: Libraries Unlimited, Inc., (124 pp., $23.00 Pb, ISBN: 1–56308–407–4)

Ford, D. Y. (1996). Reversing Underachievement Among Gifted Black Students: Promising Practices and Programs. New York, NY: Teachers College Press (236 pp.,$24.95, ISBN‐0–8077–3535–3).

Harris, V.J. (1997). Using Multiethnic Literature in the K‐8 Classroom. Norwood, MA: Christopher‐Gordon Publishers, Inc. (300 pp., SBN 0–926842–60–9).

Ellis, A. and Llewellyn, M. (1997). Dealing with Differences: Taking Action on Class, Race, Gender and Disability. Thousand Oaks, California: Corwin Press, Inc. (158 pp., $24.95 paper, ISBN‐0–8039–6430–7).

Delisle, R. (1997). How to Use Problem‐Based Learning in the Classroom. Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development (107 pp., $12.95 paper, ISBN 0–87120–291–3).

Torp, L., &; Sage, S. (1998). Problems as Possibilities: Problem‐based learning for K‐12 education. Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development (102 pp., $15.95 paper, ISBN 0–87120–297–2)     

The role of inter-professional collaboration in developing inclusive education: experiences of teachers and occupational therapists in Slovenia

This was the first qualitative study of the inclusion of children with special needs into regular schools in Slovenia that focused on inter-professional collaboration and its contributions to the inclusion process. Focus groups and individual interviews were conducted with primary school teachers (N?=?36) and occupational therapists (N?=?9) to explore their personal experiences. Data were analysed using qualitative content analysis (Strauss, A., and J. Corbin. 1998. Basics of Qualitative Research: Techniques and Procedures for Developing Grounded Theory. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage). Two categories pertaining to inter-professional collaboration emerged from the analysis. They described different barriers and strategies that either inhibited or facilitated the cooperation process. The experiences of teachers and occupational therapists differed; however, both professional groups expressed frustration with organisational and systemic factors that often prevented better exchange of knowledge and information. Due to the organisation of work and financial issues, occupational therapists had limited access to the school environment; therefore, they generally showed more eagerness to increase the level of collaboration and their presence at the school. The study also pointed out how the roles of certain professionals are not recognised, suggesting the need for more promotional work. If inclusion in Slovenia is to be fully implemented, collaboration between different professionals working with children with special needs must strengthen. This will require some significant organisational, cultural and also personal transformations.     

Book reviews

Statistical Models for Ordinal Variables. C. C. Clogg and E. S. Shihadeh. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage, 1994, 192 pages.

Graphical Multivariate Analysis with AMOS, EQS and LISREL: A Visual Approach to Covariance Structure Analysis (in Japanese). Yutaka Kano. Kyoto, Japan: Gendai‐Sugakusha, 1997,235 pages.     

Revealing a hidden curriculum of Black women’s erasure in sexual violence prevention policy

This article aims to challenge the framework by which rape and sexual assault prevention in higher education are being constituted by centring Black women’s experiences of sexual violence within a prevention and response policy framework. Numerous research studies exist in the literature regarding the specific experience of sexual violence for Black women within a national context that remains deeply committed to White supremacy [Buchanan, N. T., and A. J. Ormerod. 2002. “Racialized Sexual Harassment in the Lives of African American Women.” Women & Therapy 25 (3/4): 107–124; Crenshaw, K. 1989. “Demarginalizing the Intersection of Race and Sex: A Black Feminist Critique of Antidiscrimination Doctrine, Feminist Theory and Antiracist Politics.” University of Chicago Legal Forum 140: 139–167; Donovan, R., and M. Williams. 2002. “Living at the Intersection: The Effects of Racism and Sexism on Black Rape Survivors.” Women & Therapy 25 (3/4): 95–105; McNair, L. D., and H. A. Neville. 1996. “African American Women Survivors of Sexual Assault: The Intersection of Race and Class.” Women & Therapy 18 (3/4): 107–118; Omolade, B. 1989. “Black Women, Black men, and Tawana Brawley – The Shared Condition.” Harvard Women’s Law Journal 12: 11–23; West, C. 2002. “Battered, Black, and Blue: An Overview of Violence in the Lives of Black Women.” Women & Therapy 25 (3/4): 5–27]. Using the critical pedagogy principle of ‘hidden curriculum’ or how what is directly communicated through educational processes also conveys unstated values, judgments, and regulatory norms, the author analyses the first report of the White House Task Force to Protect Students from Sexual Assault [2014. Not Alone: The First Report of the White House Task Force to Protect Students from Sexual Assault] for race-neutral language that contributes to the silencing of the sexual violence that Black college women experience. The necessity of race-conscious sexual assault policy is discussed.     

Setting theoretical and empirical foundations for assessing scientific inquiry and discovery in educational programs

This study was designed to develop measures of student competence in conducting scientific inquiry. Two assessment techniques were developed. The first measures Scientific Inquiry Capabilities, variables which are indicators of diverse aspects of competence in conducting scientific inquiry. The second measures Scientific Discovery, an indicator of success in attaining scientific concepts as a result of direct investigations into natural phenomena. Thirty‐two high school students were presented with tasks requiring the building and testing of logical–mathematical models of natural phenomena. The relationship between each Scientific Inquiry Capability and success in making discoveries was tested. Several Inquiry Capabilities were identified as strongly correlated with success in Discovery, notably: Proportional Reasoning, the Coordination of Theory with Evidence, and the Disposition to Search for Necessary Underlying Principles. © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 37: 938–962, 2000     

Classroom materials

Social Studies for the Young Child Science for the Young Child Creative Movement for the Developing Child Telling Stories Through Movement by Dorian and Gulland Fearon Pitman Publishers, Inc. 6 Davis Drive Belmont, CA 94002

Friendly Dragons, From the Best In Children's Literature — Level 3, Edited by Dr. Walter Loban and Lillian M. Watklns, Bowmar/Noble Publications Inc., 4563 Colorado, Los Angeles, CA 90039

“Discovering Nature” “Earth Science” Published by Educational Insights. Inc., 20435 S. Tillman Ave., Carson, California 90746

Nutrition: Food and Health, Science and Mankind, Inc., Communications Park, Box 200, White Plains, New York, 10802     

In support of teachers’ learning: specifying and contextualising teacher inquiry as professional practice

Drawing upon research into a case study of teacher inquiry in one school in Queensland, Australia, recent theorising into professional practice, and relevant literature on teachers’ learning, this article reveals the complexity and particularity of teacher inquiry processes in support of teachers’ learning. Specifically, the research reveals how particular actions, dialogue, and relationships collectively constitute a practice of teacher inquiry which seeks to promote substantive teacher-led learning. The research draws upon a group of Year 5 teachers engaged in collective inquiry into their work in what was described as an “Inquiry Cycle” approach in a school in northern Queensland, during a period of support for substantial curriculum reform. The research reveals the Inquiry Cycle approach as characterised by specific actions, dialogue, and relationships – “doings,” “sayings,” and “relatings” – productive of the development of a learning culture focused on significant curriculum reform; overt support for whole-school “explicit” approaches to teachers’ pedagogies; and active/robust critique of data-focused assessment processes. The research reveals necessary texture and detail in support of teachers’ learning, and the specific circumstances and contextual “arrangements” that help constitute this learning.