‘Tell me your story!’ – Making the ‘Other’ Visible through the Development of Collaborative Visual Narratives

This article reports on the findings of a series of participatory video art/documentary workshops designed and implemented to enhance understanding and collaboration between teenagers of diverse cultural backgrounds in the city of Pafos in the Republic of Cyprus. This research initiative was part of The Alien Trail (2017); a photographic project that explored the everyday life of refugees and migrants currently living in the island through the images of four distinguished photographers: Antoine D’Agata, Nikos Economopoulos, Bieke Depoorter and Nicolas Iordanou (Project Creator). The workshops were co‐designed by artists, educators and anthropologists in order to promote visual and multimodal communication amongst participants through short video and documentary making and collaborative drawing sessions. The findings of this practice highlight that teenagers were able to develop empathy and understanding by discussing and sharing meaning through exploring each other’s visual narratives.     

Learning about literacy: Children’s versions of the Literacy Hour

This article reports on an enquiry into the responses of a class of Year 1 children, aged 5‐6 years, to the first eight months of the National Literacy Strategy (NLS). Children were given incomplete drawings to represent the four parts of the Literacy Hour. In completing the drawings the children made their own interpretations of the Literacy Hour. They could choose to write thought or speech bubbles, draw faces and expressions, make written or dictated comments about the teacher and the children portrayed. The methodology enabled these young children to articulate detailed responses to their experience of a particular style of teaching. Each child documented a range of attitudes to and feelings about whole class teaching, group work and the plenary session. These insights, which were often challenging, put the emotional dimension of learning at the centre of their experiences of the NLS.     

The State of Play: Children’s Oral Culture,Literacy and Learning

This paper looks at the experiences of student teachers in relation to the oral culture of the playground. It suggests that in the year in which the National Literacy Strategy is being implemented, the language and lore of the playground remind us that there are a number of alternative literacies that children have access to outside the classroom. Student teachers recording these, saw ways in which children’s personal literacies might complement school literacy.     

Revisiting the Emergence of Young Children’s Literacy: One Child Tells Her Story

This article explores the progression of one child’s literacy from 4 months to 38 months. The emergence of literate behaviour is interpreted in the light of current theories such as those of Halliday and Dyson. One of the most significant aspects of this emergence is shown to be interaction with others in authentic literacy activities, a feature which has a number of implications for teachers and researchers alike.     

Children’s use of drawing as a pre-writing strategy

In this study the writing products of 60 third-grade students, who drew before writing a story on a self-selected topic, was compared with the writing products of 59 third-grade students who wrote without drawing. The students in the group which drew before writing tended to produce more words, more sentences and more idea units, and their overall writing performance was higher than the students who wrote without drawing. These findings were consistent for boys as well as girls. Implications for writing research and instruction are discussed.     

Children’s Responses to Interparental Conflict: A Meta‐Analysis of Their Associations With Child Adjustment

A meta‐analysis examined the relations between children’s adjustment and children’s cognitive, affective, behavioral, and physiological responses to interparental conflict. Studies included children between 5 and 19 years of age. Moderate effect sizes were found for the associations between cognitions and internalizing and externalizing behavior problems and self‐esteem problems, negative affect and behavioral responses and internalizing behavior problems, and behavioral responses and self‐esteem problems. Small to moderate effect sizes were found for the associations between cognitions and relational problems, negative affect and behavioral responses and externalizing behavior problems, and physiological reactions and internalizing and externalizing behavior problems. Effect sizes were, with 1 exception, larger for internalizing than for externalizing behavior problems. Age significantly moderated the majority of effect sizes.     

Adrenocortical Underpinnings of Children’s Psychological Reactivity to Interparental Conflict

This study examined interrelationships among children’s cortisol reactivity and their psychological reactivity to interparental conflict in a sample of 208 first graders (mean age = 6.6 years). Assessments of children’s psychological reactivity to conflict distinguished among their distress, hostile, and involvement responses across multiple methods (i.e., observation, questionnaire) and informants (i.e., observer, parent). Relative to other forms of conflict reactivity, children’s distress responses to interparental conflict were consistent, unique predictors of their elevated cortisol reactivity to interparental conflict even after inclusion of demographic factors as moderators and covariates. Moderator analyses further revealed that associations between distress and elevated cortisol levels in response to interparental conflict were particularly pronounced when children exhibited high levels of involvement in conflicts.     

From ‘consulting pupils’ to ‘pupils as researchers’: a situated case narrative

Schools in England are now being encouraged to ‘personalise’ the curriculum and to consult students about teaching and learning. This article reports on an evaluation of one high school which is working hard to increase student subject choice, introduce integrated curriculum in the middle years and to improve teaching and learning while maintaining a commitment to inclusive and equitable comprehensive education. The authors worked with a small group of students as consultants to develop a ‘student's‐eye’ set of evaluative categories in a school‐wide student survey. They also conducted teacher, student and governor interviews, lesson and meeting observations, and student ‘mind‐mapping’ exercises. In this article, in the light of the findings, the authors discuss the processes they used to work jointly with the student research team, and how they moved from pupils‐as‐consultants to pupils‐as‐researchers, a potentially more transformative/disruptive practice. They query the notion of ‘authentic student voice’ and show it as discursive and heterogeneous: they thus suggest that both a standards and a rights framings of student voice must be regarded critically.     

Being ‘nuff’ and ‘scudding class’: exploring girls’ and boys’ perceptions of popularity,gender and achievement in Antiguan secondary schools

This paper will report on the findings from classroom observations and focus group discussions conducted on the topic of popularity and fitting in at school with girls and boys from four government secondary schools in Antigua. The findings show that whilst boys did experience difficulties negotiating academic success and acceptable masculinities, the consensus was that popularity was associated with low achievement for both girls and boys. However, there was evidence that some girls were able to work hard and maintain better peer relations than other high achieving students, but that this ‘balancing’ required conformity to hetero‐feminine norms as well as the espousal of rigid views about what girls can and can't do. This suggests that real equality is far from being reached.     

‘Being dyslexic doesn't make me less of a teacher’. School placement experiences of student teachers with dyslexia: strengths,challenges and a model for support

This research investigated the school practice placement experiences of six student teachers with dyslexia representing each year of a 3‐year initial teacher training course at a UK university. Placement performance and outcome has enormous implications for student teachers in demonstrating their professional competence and ability to meet the Training and Development Agency for Schools Professional Standards for Teachers and obtain qualified teacher status. The research focused thematically on student strengths, challenges and management strategies using a case research approach. Findings indicate student teachers with dyslexia bring unacknowledged strengths to placements but face a number of challenges despite proactive adoption of management strategies. A model of placement support to enhance student effectiveness has been developed. Conclusions indicate the importance of listening to the student's voice to understand individual placement requirements and co‐ordinate and implement specific reasonable adjustments as required by UK legislation 1 .     

‘Drawing Out’ ‐ a Humanist Approach to Drawing

Over the past twenty‐five years as an art teacher I have sought answers to three questions: 1. In what ways and to what extent can drawing practice explore both conscious and unconscious thought processes? 2. In what ways can the participant individuate his or her experience through the practice of drawing? 3. In what ways can drawing form a dialogue between personal philosophy and experience? Refering to my own experience and pedagogy I define some of the historical, pschological and philosophical contexts for my perception of drawing, including comments from my students, in the process making no special distinction between child and adult art. I have studied the evolution of pupil’s drawing practices and particularly those of my own children, as they assert their own perceptions and responses to experience, conceptualising feelings both sensuous and emotional through telling stories and defining realities. Throughout history the will to draw has persisted, its function differing and changing through time and cultural contexts. Beuys commented that everyone can be an artist, if they want to be; can anyone really afford not to draw?     

Middle School Children's Responses to Enid Blyton in ‘The Bradford Book Flood Experiment’

During‘The Bradford Book Flood Experiment’(1976–80), a longitudinal record was kept of the reading of one year-group of children in each of four middle schools in predominantly working-class areas. The children's choices of, and responses to, books were recorded on reading record forms, questionnaires which were completed by the children each time they read a book. Subsequently, it was possible to isolate responses to books written by Enid Blyton and compare responses to these books with responses to all the other authors together (i.e., to an‘average’other author). The chi-square test of significance was applied throughout. It was found that children responded more favourably to Enid Blyton in response to every question, the differences being statistically significant in every instance. Children's reasons for choice of books by Enid Blyton are quoted and categorized. An attempt is made to analyse the reasons for Enid Blyton's popularity.     

‘THIS is Produced by a Brain‐Process!’ Wittgenstein,Transparency and Psychology Today

This paper examines sections of Wittgenstein's Philosophical Investigations with a view to exposing trail‐effects of psychology in educational and social practice today. These are seen in understandings of the relations between mind and body, and language and thought, and their influence is identified in such contemporary preoccupations as accounting transparency and the new science of happiness. A Wittgensteinian critique is offered, with attention paid to the idea that ‘nothing is hidden’. Finally a question is raised as to how far it is the imperviousness of these practices to criticism that is the key to understanding them.     

Finding ‘my kind of teaching’: How a drama project became a teacher’s expressive teaching moment

This case study examines how a teacher defined ‘my kind of teaching’. We focus on a dramatic production of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and frame the teacher’s discussion with Dewey’s significant moments of experience. Findings indicate the teacher shifted her role to a facilitator position, learned alongside her students, and connected her past experiences with acting. Implications point to expressive teaching moments as experiences in which teachers might extend state‐mandated curricula, connect with their personal lives, and find delight in teaching.     

‘Studies have shown that …’ how to read a statistical study

This article provides some background for a classroom discussion of statistical research studies. The history of cigarettes and warning labels in the USA is reviewed here in order to demonstrate the challenges of statistical research and communication.     

Exploring the Probabilities of ‘Who Wants to be a Millionaire?’

This article discusses three probabilistic scenarios based on the television game show ‘Who Wants to be a Millionaire?’. These situations provide motivational opportunities for high‐school students to explore the concepts of expected value, permutations and independent events.     

‘A place of their own’: creating a classroom ‘third space’ to support a continuum of text construction between home and school

This paper uses aspects of ‘third space’ theory to support the use of site‐based classroom role play as a means of ensuring continuity of text construction between home and school. A hypothetical continuum of text construction between home and school is described, and it is suggested that schools wishing to support this continuum might consider incorporating some home‐type contexts and pedagogies into classroom practice. A model of site‐based role play is described that aims to do this by setting up an actual third space in primary classrooms, together with some of the educational outcomes of the model's implementation. Implications for schools and family learning programmes are briefly discussed. In conclusion, the paper argues that if we want curriculum continuity between home and school, we need to create ‘third spaces’ in schools that bring together the experiences and pedagogies of both.     

‘Shoot for the moon!’ Students' identities as writers in the context of the classroom

A study of students' identities as writers was carried out in the classroom of a New Zealand primary teacher who had been formally identified by a national body of teachers as having excellent practice in supporting literacy acquisition. The researchers, Professor Janice Wearmouth, from the University of Bedfordshire, Mere Berryman, from the University of Waikato, New Zealand, and Lisa Whittle, from the Department of Conservation, Wellington, New Zealand, aimed to compare high and low literacy achievers' identities as writers within the context of this teacher's pedagogy and the learning environment of her classroom. The researchers concluded that all students, both high and low achievers, were developing very positive writing identities in a context where the teacher's method of supporting her students' writing was very well planned through a process‐writing approach. This teacher had a very high degree of subject and pedagogical content knowledge and an acute awareness of her students' literacy learning needs. Her approach had an immediacy of responsiveness in relation to every student's learning and, above all, had recognition of the overwhelming importance of positive relationships in the classroom, teacher to student and peer to peer.     

‘The teacher said I'm thick!’ Experiences of children with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder within a school setting

Children and young people who have been diagnosed with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) can often experience difficulties within an education setting. ADHD can impact upon their educational achievements and subsequent future employment. This paper draws upon data gathered from a small scale study and has sought to elicit the ‘voice’ of young people who have ADHD and their experience within a school setting. Findings of this study indicate that there is a need for teachers to be more informed about the impact that ADHD can have on a pupil and teachers need to develop positive strategies to support these individuals within the classroom. Ideally, adequate training around ADHD should begin within initial teacher training prior to entering the teaching profession.