‘Seeing’ into the past and ‘looking’ forward to the future: visual methods and gender and education research

A small number of attempts have been made to take stock of the field of gender and education, though very few have taken methodology as their explicit focus. We seek to stimulate such discussion in this article by taking stock of the use of visual methods in gender and education research (particularly participatory and image-based methods). We undertake this exercise by looking at the claims researchers have made about the ways in which visual methods have advanced gender and education research, and by examining how these methods have been employed in research. We argue that the visual has become somewhat invisible in accounts of gender and education research. We conclude by considering different ways in which we might develop image-based research in the future.     

Examining the Structural Relationship of Chronic Illness,Physical Function,Life Satisfaction,and Social Support in the Development of Depression Among Filipino Elderly in Institutionalized Settings

Considering the increasing prevalence of chronic illness in the Filipino elderly, this study seeks to test a model that describes the relationship between chronic illness and depression and how this link might interact with physical functioning, life satisfaction, and social support. Structural equation modeling was used to examine the causalities among these variables. With the participation of 151 respondents, data were gathered using a five-part instrument consisting of the robotfoto, Katz Index of Independence in Activities of Daily Living, Life Satisfaction Checklist, Social Support Scale, and Geriatric Depression Scale. Data were analyzed using AMOS version 19. Results showed that the duration and number of present chronic illness will not lead to an increase in social support, although those things proved to have a negative effect on physical functioning and life satisfaction. Social support from the family also showed to have a direct impact on life satisfaction while social support from the caregivers revealed a negative effect on physical functioning. Life satisfaction had a negative influence on depression while other suggested variables have no impact on depression at all. Through this model examining the variables relating to depression, holistic care must be provided to manage not only the medical conditions of the elderly but also their physical, social, and psychological well-being.     

National qualifications in Scotland: A lightning rod for public concern about equity during the pandemic

Scotland, traditionally, has high levels of confidence in teachers. Fairness and justice are key concepts in policy and practice in Scottish education. For more than 100 years, the high-stakes assessment system in Scotland, with the Scottish Higher qualification at its heart, has been crucial to that sense of opportunity and justice. However, in 2019–2020, public confidence in high-stakes assessment in Scotland, as in other United Kingdom countries, was dented. In Scotland, the Covid-19 pandemic meant that schools were closed, teachers provided online learning opportunities for pupils working at home and, for the first time in 130 years, it was not possible to run national examinations. To ensure that learners were not further disadvantaged, alternative approaches to gathering evidence for qualifications were instigated. However, these results were challenged as socially unjust and the results that had been nationally moderated were replaced by results based on locally moderated teachers' professional judgement. As Scotland looks to qualifications beyond Covid-19, trust must be re-built. This article reports on a participative research project that sought to understand public perceptions of standards and fairness across a range of key communities following this experience. Drawing on both qualitative and quantitative data, we analyse factors which affected trust in National Qualifications under the pandemic. The evidence suggests that when considering what matters for qualifications to be trusted, technocratic solutions are likely to be rejected by stakeholders. Understanding and responding to what led to the mistrust of qualifications in Scotland will be crucial to inform its future qualifications system.     

Age and Gender Differences in Children's Self- and Task Perceptions during Elementary School

We examined the development of children's self- and task perceptions during the elementary school years. 865 first-, second-, and fourth-grade children (ages 7–10) completed questionnaires assessing their perceptions of competence in, and valuing of, activities in several activity domains (math, reading, sports, and instrumental music). Factor analyses showed that even the first graders had differentiated self-beliefs for the various activities. These analyses also indicated that children's competence beliefs and subjective task values formed distinct factors. Analyses assessing age and gender differences in children's beliefs showed that for all the activities except sports, younger children's (particularly the first graders) perceptions of competence and subjective task values were more positive than the beliefs of the older children. Boys had more positive competence beliefs and values than did girls for sport activities, and more positive competence beliefs for mathematics. Girls had more positive competence beliefs and values than did boys for reading and music activities.     

Imagery as a private audiovisual aid

Mental images are conscious representations of our knowledge of the world. Like audiovisual aids in instructional programs, they can be intentionally and systematically used as the informational base for cognitive operations and as an aid to new learning. They permit one to make judgments, computations, and inferences that depend upon world knowledge. They can be consciously manipulated for problem solving and creative purposes. They can be used as learning and memory aids in numerous tasks, including foreign language learning where they function as a kind of private voix et image program that provides referential contexts for the language in the absence of the referent objects and situations themselves. Experimental evidence is cited to support these claims.     

Adolescent males in New Zealand school choirs: the contradictory business of being in the gender vanguard

School choirs have been stigmatised for adolescent males in New Zealand, resulting in constraints in involvement, bullying, and threat to gender identity. In other national contexts, boys who sing in choirs have experienced a negative stereotype associated with accusations of inferior masculinity, yet little research has probed whether such forces are at play for their New Zealand counterparts. The current study was conducted with a sample of adolescent male school choir members in New Zealand (a country where essentialist gender attitudes have existed). Adolescent male choristers’ perceptions of the gender stereotype, its moderation by cultural context, and how the stigmatised choral domain was negotiated, were explored within a framework of critical masculinities. Such a stereotype and wider implications for gendered structures found in society at large were confirmed. Personal and school-based factors enabling the male choristers’ endurance in a domain that rendered their construction of masculinity subordinate, are discussed.     

School size and effectiveness: Policy implications

For the first 75 years of this century, the only good schools were considered to be large. Today the buzz word is small. Educators who still promote the idea of biggest, largest, or strongest are living in the post-sputnik era, when for national pride we had to be number one. Today small is related to school effectiveness, community and school identity, and individual fullfillment and participation. Big corresponds with school inefficiency, institutional bureaucracy, and personal loneliness.