Viewers' Perceptions of Reality Programs

This article describes a series of focus group interviews of young adults about reality programs. The interviews were conducted to investigate audiences' understandings of the nature, realism, and gratifications of the programming category. A central element defining reality programs was the perception that the behavior of the cast members was a reflection of their own will and personality and that their actions had consequences in terms of the outcome of the show. These factors also contributed to perceptions of the shows' realism. Participants reported enjoying the programs because of their humor and their unpredictability, which seemed to contribute to the creation of suspense and to greater involvement. Implications for further research are discussed.     

The Organisation of Staff in Secondary Schools: Headteachers' management structures

Elected primary school parent governors, in this exploratory study, were dismissive of the termly governors’ meeting because they did not recognise its function or accept the relevance of its business. Inhibited from making a worthwhile contribution because of inexperience and the dominance of appointed representatives they sought to meet their responsibilities, as they saw them, by supporting the headteachers or by giving of their time during the school day. They expressed concern about classroom organisation and teaching methods and did not relate them to the broad aims of education they had themselves defined.     

Curriculum Balance,Curriculum Review and Curriculum‐led Staffing: A Response

There are an increasing number of research studies concerned with the realm of middle management in schools. However, few of these studies have adequately defined what might be considered middle management in schools, or have clarified which posts constitute those of middle managers. In addition, these studies have rarely considered the way in which different departmental cultures and structures affect leadership style and departmental performance. This article acknowledges the importance of the role of the head of department in secondary schools in school wide change and outlines some of tensions and dilemmas facing those who manage from the middle. It considers the leadership tensions facing heads of department in secondary schools and points towards the variety of departmental contexts, structures and cultures in which heads of department, or subject leaders operate. The article offers an analysis of the dynamic between leadership and culture within the departmental context. It concludes by suggesting that heads of department have a major contribution to play in managing cultural change at both the department and whole school level.     

Students and sex work in the UK: providers and purchasers

Available evidence suggests that changes in the funding of UK higher education in recent years have been accompanied by an increased student presence in the sex industry, ostensibly for financial reasons and to make ends meet. The current study comprises a sample of students (N = 200) drawn from several universities in the UK. Data were gathered on financial and employment circumstances, a range of measures of psychological well-being, attitudes to sex work, whether respondents were currently engaged in different types of sex work and whether they had participated in utilising a range of sexual services or forms of adult entertainment. Results indicated that around 6% (2.7%–9.3%) of the sample was currently working in the sex industry – in erotic dancing, stripping or escorting, with significant numbers of both male and female students also involved in purchasing and using sexual services. Little evidence was found to link these activities to prior experiences of psychological adversity. The implications of the results are discussed.     

How sex education research methodologies frame GLBTIQ students

The ‘bullied’ gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, intersex and otherwise Queer (GLBTIQ) student is a fairly recent figure in the sexuality education research literature. GLBTIQ students have previously been problematised by sex education research in a range of different ways and have been the subjects of varying methodological interventions. This paper explores how the different ways in which GLBTIQ students have been constructed by research, have been to some extent interdependent on the research questions behind the inquiries and the methodologies and methods employed to explore them. To achieve this, the paper draws on a Foucaultian view of research as discursive and the GLBTIQ subject as an entry point for considering different research discourses. It reviews constructions of GLBTIQ students in past, recent and emerging research projects through post-structuralist reflection on the key research reports, studies and peer-reviewed journal articles that have shaped the field of contemporary research. Rather than asserting a dichotomy between sex education research that contributes to constructions of the ‘deviant homosexual student’ and studies that contribute to ‘bullying victim’ tropes, the paper considers both the usefulness and limitations of the many different types of inquiries being pursued and the diverse constructions of GLBTIQ students they offer. Future research approaches for particular contexts and audiences are identified.     

Elucidating early mechanisms of developmental psychopathology: the case of prenatal smoking and disruptive behavior

There is a robust association between prenatal smoking and disruptive behavior disorders, but little is known about the emergence of such behaviors in early development. The association of prenatal smoking and hypothesized behavioral precursors to disruptive behavior in toddlers (N=93) was tested. Exposed toddlers demonstrated atypical behavioral patterns, including (1) escalating externalizing problems from 18 to 24 months and (2) observed difficulty modulating behavior in response to social cues. Specification of exposure-related behaviors is a first step toward generating testable hypotheses about putative mechanisms of effect. While it remains unclear whether prenatal exposure plays an etiologic role in the emergence of disruptive behavior, atypical exposure-related behavioral patterns are evident in the first years of life and demonstrate developmental coherence.     

The Twentieth Century Is Not Yet Over: Resources for the Remaking of Educational Practice

The article traces some lines of connection between teachers’ efforts to reshape the way that teaching and learning are done in local settings, and larger‐scale shifts and tensions in education policy. The article begins with an account of opposition to the changes that European governments inspired by global policy orthodoxy seek to make in their education systems. It suggests that the intellectual and political resources that supply such opposition were accumulated in most cases in the immediate post‐war period, and replenished in the social conflicts of the 1960s and 1970s. It raises the possibility that these resources are now – save in a largely nostalgic sense – exhausted, and cannot contribute to a remaking of education systems. This notion is tested by exploring the ideas and practices of teachers who, working under the banner of ‘creativity’, are attempting to break away from the standards agenda that they have inherited. In doing so, the article suggests, they may find themselves drawing from social, democratic traditions of education, developed not just in England, but elsewhere in Europe; educational internationalism is not the sole property of policy elites.     

Toleration and Recognition: What should we teach?

Generally we think it good to tolerate and to accord recognition. Yet both are complex phenomena and our teaching must acknowledge and cope with that complexity. We tolerate only what we object to, so our message to students cannot be simply, 'promote the good and prevent the bad'. Much advocacy of toleration is not what it pretends to be. Nor is it entirely clear what sort of conduct should count as intolerant. Sometimes people are at fault for tolerating what they should not, or for tolerating what they should find unexceptionable. So virtue does not always lie with toleration. Tolerance can also seem condescending; should we therefore replace it with recognition? But recognition may not be able to coexist with the disapproval that makes toleration necessary. However, not everything about toleration and recognition is controversial; there are fixed points from which students can grapple with the issues presented by both.