Accent and Linguistic Prejudice within British Teacher Training

Based on the responses of 32 British teachers, I report on a sample of three teachers who were told to modify their accents to varieties deemed more “professional.” The teachers perceive such directives to stem from linguistic prejudice and not merely a need to be understood, and such directives are based on someone else’s standards for “linguistic professionalism.” Ultimately, I wish to engage with policymakers in order to establish what the linguistic reality is for British teachers in terms of accent, and their linguistic rights in the process. This is an issue that goes beyond the British context and can apply to both L1 and L2 teachers, whenever and wherever they are led to believe that their accent, though they are otherwise fully qualified to teach, is a hindrance. Thus, I report on the British context to address what is potentially a much more widespread issue.     

Playing and resisting: rethinking young people's reading cultures

In this paper I will argue that while young adult readers may often be represented through ‘othering’ discourses that see them as ‘passive’, ‘uncritical’ consumers of ‘low‐brow’, ‘throw‐away’ texts, the realities of their reading lives are in fact more subtle, complex and dynamic. The paper explores the discourses about reading, identity and gender that emerged through discussions with groups of young adults, aged between 16 and 19, about their reading habits and practices. These discussions took place as part of a PhD research study of reading and reader identity in the context of further education in the Black Country in the West Midlands. Through these discussions the young adults offered insights into their reading cultures and the ‘functionality’ of their reading practices that contest the kinds of ‘distinction[s]’ that tend to situate them as the defining other to more ‘worthy’ or ‘valuable’ reading cultures and practices. While I will resist the urge to claim that this paper represents the cultures of young adult readers in any real or totalising sense I challenge the kinds of dominant, reductive representations that serve to fix and demonise this group and begin to draw a space within which playfulness and resistance are alternatively offered as ways of being for these readers.     

The behavioural approach in schools: a time for caution revisited

This paper takes as its starting point an examination of the current status of some of the concerns that were raised in the mid‐1980s about methodological problems faced by educational researchers using the behavioural approach in schools. These concerns included the measurement of agreement between observers, the interpretation of raw data extracted, the potential influences of observers and the inherent properties of research designs. Subsequently, some more wide‐ranging concerns are considered, in particular the kinds of behaviour selected for treatment, the lack of analysis of what is involved in teachers’ positive responses to pupils’ behaviour and the relatively uninvestigated effects of teachers’ negative responses. The conclusions are presented as a series of points that are listed, as far as possible, in the order in which they confront the investigator.     

Language Death: A Freirean solution in the heart of the Amazon

‘Language death’ is an undeniable phenomenon of our modern times as languages have started to disappear at an alarming rate. This has led linguists, anthropologists, philosophers and educationists to engage with this issue at various levels in an attempt to try to understand the decline in this rich area of human communication and culture. In this article I refer to some interesting and innovative educational projects in the Amazon region of Brazil, which are revitalizing local languages, cultures and communities. I analyse these projects in the light of some of Paulo Freire’s ideas, particularly his views on conscientization, praxis and contextualization, and will argue that these educational ventures might be viewed as useful templates for other countries and peoples seeking to reverse or avoid ‘language-culture’ death.     

The Indirect Influence of Educational Attainment on Loneliness among Unmarried Older Adults

This investigation examined the indirect influence of past educational attainment on current feelings of loneliness across a sample of unmarried older adults. Participants in this study included 227 community-dwelling individuals, age 65 to 94, who were never-married, divorced, or widowed. The developmental adaptation model (Martin & Martin, 2002 Martin , P. & Martin , M. ( 2002 ). Proximal and distal influences on development: The model of developmental adaptation. Developmental Review , 22 , 78 – 96 .[Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]) was used as a conceptual framework in the evaluation of an integrated path model of loneliness. In particular, this model was used to assess how proximal influences including neuroticism, stress, and social support mediate the association between past educational attainment and loneliness. Results suggest that greater educational attainment in the past appears was directly associated with less neuroticism and stress. Furthermore, neuroticism directly influenced greater loneliness, whereas social support was directly associated with feeling less lonely. Stress only had a weak direct influence on loneliness. Finally, the model supports an indirect link between past educational attainment and loneliness through neuroticism and stress. This influence appeared to be most salient among widowed older adults. Recent experiences associated with greater feelings of anxiety and lower provisions of support increased loneliness among persons who remain unmarried in later life. However, education remains an important resource that may reduce this vulnerability in older unmarried populations. This has implications for providing educational opportunities and learning experiences for older persons who are ever-single or formerly married.     

‘Cruel optimism’: teacher attachment to professionalism in an era of performativity

Abstract

This study provides a critical exploration of the way teachers’ attachment to notions of professionalism may facilitate a process whereby teachers find themselves obliged to enact centralised and local education policies that they do not believe in but are required to implement. The study argues that professionalism involves an entanglement of (past) occupational and (present) organisational discourses and that the remainders of the former facilitate the enactment of the latter. The study draws on Berlant’s notion of cruel optimism to help understand this process, whereby teachers’ attachment to professionalism may assist them in undermining the very values they believe it embodies.     

Gender-blind racism in the experience of schooling and identity formation

Much of the research dealing with education and race has concentrated on the experiences of black males. Research now needs to address the issue of how schools affect the production of black femininities. The aim is to explore how both black males and females adapt to schooling, and school exclusion in particular. Previous theoretical models often situate black women within the stereotype of the ‘superwoman’ and negate the experiences of black females in families that are not female-headed. Previous research also suggests that much of the black male pupil response to schooling is based on the way in which teachers equate disaffection with black masculinity. The study draws on research in schools with pupils aged from 13 to 15 years when observed and interviewed. Many pupils responded to schooling in a way that cut across race and gender. Pupils often attempted to subvert the traditional relationship of teacher as powerful and pupil as powerless, reacting to this relationship through their own racial and gendered backgrounds. It is argued that teachers often speak of black pupils in homogeneous ways when in fact gendered differences exist. The issue of how schools construct blackness is addressed and it is argued that too often this is simply to equate race with masculinity.