Attitude toward Christianity among secondary school pupils in Northern Ireland: shifts in denominational differences

Background Northern Ireland is a province that remains deeply divided between Protestants and Catholics and maintains a segregated system of schools.

Purpose The research builds on a series of studies conducted in the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s to monitor the attitude toward Christianity of males and females educated in Protestant and Catholic schools.

Sample A sample of 2359 16- to 18-year-old pupils attending Catholic and Protestant schools in Northern Ireland.

Design and methods A random sample of seven Protestant and nine Catholic schools invited all pupils attending their lower and upper sixth-form classes to participate in the survey and to complete the Francis scale of attitude toward Christianity.

Results The data demonstrate that, while males attending Catholic schools maintained a more positive attitude towards Christianity than males attending Protestant schools, females attending Catholic schools reported a less positive attitude toward Christianity than females attending Protestant schools. These findings are compared with studies conducted during the 1970s and 1980s when both males and females attending Catholic schools recorded a more positive attitude toward Christianity than their peers attending Protestant schools.

Conclusions Repeated cross-sectional studies of this nature help to profile the changing religious climate of Northern Ireland.     

A School Principal and Desegregation

There are times for abstract analysis, and times for detailed reporting and commentary about real events. This section is reserved for the latter.     

'Far out man?' gay and bisexual male teachers in the higher education marketplace

As part of a broader study of masculinity in higher education this paper considers the experiences of gay and bisexual male teachers. It examines the ways in which gay and bisexual men construct and manage their identities within a shifting higher education context in which 'new managerialist' discourses appear to be replacing discourses of equity. Gay and bisexual men are variously positioned in relation to the new managerialism. As men they are implicated in the masculinist tendency of market and managerialistic initiatives yet as gay/bisexual men they seem to have much to lose from the implicit political project of the market and the moral shift it signifies. The situation is further complicated in that for some gay and bisexual men new managerialism may offer progressive possibilities in its transformation of the old elitist and exclusive culture of traditional higher education. Through the analysis of in-depth interviews, the paper considers the relationship between gay and bisexual male teachers identity work and the transformative processes and practices within which they are embedded. In particular the paper attempts to understand the men's cultural stances in relation to a notion of an inclusive higher education based on democratic pluralistic values.     

The teaching and learning of pupils in low-attainment sets

This study explored the ways in which schools addressed the needs of pupils in low-attainment class groups, or sets, in the context of multiple and contrary government policy directives and inconclusive research findings about setting. In this article we have focused on school and classroom practices as well as the organisational processes through which low-attaining pupils were identified, grouped and reviewed within schools. The empirical data reported here predominantly refer to case studies involving classroom observations and interviews with teachers, pupils and other staff in 13 schools – both primary and secondary – from four local authorities (LAs).

In the latter part of the article, however, we also draw on survey data collected from a larger sample of schools in 12 LAs in England. Although the study found ample evidence of innovative school practices and efforts by individual teachers aimed at optimising the learning opportunities for children in low-attainment class groups, the findings also raise important questions about some of the processes of set allocation, the lack of mobility between sets, and the over-representation of particular social groups in low-attainment classes. We conclude with a discussion of the implications for equity and inclusion that moves beyond an emphasis on classroom practice to include questions about the in-school processes of social selection and educational mobility for pupils identified as low-attaining.     

Behavioral patterns of Djungarian hamsters: An adaptive profile

Djungarian hamsters (Phodopus sungorus) were observed in a series of laboratory tests, including home cage activity, wheel running, open-field behavior, sexual dimorphism for body mass, copulatory behavior, tonic and dorsal immobility, climbing, digging, nest building, and parental behavior. Fourteen resulting measures were compared with previous results from this laboratory from a variety of muroid species. A cluster of behavioral adaptations emerged with several marked similarities to the behaviors of a group of North American Microtus species, whereas other behaviors appeared to more closely reflect the classification of the hamsters as cricetines. It is suggested thatPhodopus andMicrotus species may have evolved many similar adaptive characteristics in response to shared environmental variables.     

Revisiting the Relationship between Teacher Confirmation and Learning Outcomes: Examining Cultural Differences in Turkish,Chinese, and American Classrooms

This study investigates the relationship between teacher confirmation behaviors (i.e., responding to questions, demonstrating interest, interactive teaching style) and student learning outcomes (i.e., affective learning, student motivation) across three cultures: Turkey, China, and the United States. Results indicates the confirmation-learning relationship was significantly stronger in the United States and China than it was in Turkey. The findings from this study suggest that teacher confirmation is an effective teaching behavior that transcends cultures, yet the magnitude of its importance on student learning appears more relevant in America, and to a lesser extent in China, than it is in Turkey.