The Emperor’s perfect map: leadership by numbers

This paper establishes that system-generated data profiles are influencing the work of principals in three Queensland state schools. Drawing upon Foucault’s notions of governance, as well as research emphasising performative cultures and the importance placed upon numbers and data in education, this paper uses the tale of the Emperor’s map as a metaphor to explore the way principals’ work is being influenced by specific sets of data compiled by the department. These data profiles are representative of external accountabilities and high stakes testing regimes, as seen in systems that have adopted neoliberal policies which attempt to quantify the work being undertaken in schools. The paper demonstrates that principals are being constructed in part by discourses from a system that emphasises these system-generated performance data as a driver for school improvement.     

Heroes of resiliency and reciprocity: teachers’ supporting role for reconceptualizing superhero play in early childhood settings

Superhero play is a specialised form of fantasy play with considerable appeal to young children. During superhero play, children have opportunities to pretend and often to play different types of roles within a safe and caring environment. When guided appropriately in an early childhood classroom, superhero play gives young children opportunities to gain a sense of mastery and empowerment as well as developmentally appropriate benefits by improving language skills, problem-solving and cooperation with peers. By recognising and modelling the characteristics of resiliency and promoting kindness with peers during superhero play, teachers can encourage children to be kind and resilient heroes to classroom friends. As today’s classrooms increasingly include diverse members, it is important for young children to understand and appreciate the peers they play and learn with at school. The result may be a richer learning experience and may break down barriers that can produce unfairness, bullying and aggressive behaviours. This article explores the essence of superhero fantasy play along with its benefits for young children. In addition, the article examines the challenge of superhero play in classrooms for early childhood educators by exploring teachers’ roles in play. A new pedagogy for supporting superhero play is introduced, addressing spiritual and educational concerns by suggesting ways in which teachers can increase resiliency, encourage new friendships and build classroom community among peers during play and classroom activities.     

Boundary Crossing and the Professional Learning of Teacher Educators in New International Contexts

In this collaborative self-study, two teacher educators examine their experiences of working in new international contexts and the impact of those experiences on their professional learning and identities. Mandi moved from a major research university in one country to another, while Judy co-led a group of pre-service teachers on an international practicum for three weeks each year for three years. Using the concept of boundary crossing as a theoretical and analytical framework, each teacher educator identified a boundary-related critical incident or experience that occurred during her work in new international contexts. Through individual and collaborative analysis of their critical incidents, they found that working as a teacher educator in new international contexts involves the crossing and re-crossing of multiple personal, professional, linguistic and cultural boundaries. Working in these boundary spaces involved learning how to negotiate new kinds of relationships with colleagues and students, manage changed roles and responsibilities and, ultimately, a search for a renewed sense of self, as each sought to understand herself differently within a new professional context.     

Challenging ideological environments: international teachers’ experiences in an outside-of-country teacher training programme

Teacher training for developing nation contexts is often conducted in short, intensive inside and outside-of-country programmes. Concerns have been raised in relation to the uncritical take-up of the western-centric material provided by these programmes, which are usually funded by national and international government organizations. This paper explores an approach used in an outside-of-country teacher training programme funded by an Australian government grant. The research focused on teacher trainers from the Monastic education system and their reflections on whether critical literacy approaches could be incorporated into curriculum in Myanmar. It used a Bakhtinian framework to analyse the teacher trainers’ ideological environments and their hybridizations of critical literacy discourses for their own contexts. It was found that while the teacher trainers were passionate about the worth of developing critical literacy skills for their teachers and pupils, they struggled with a range of constraints that existed for them within their country. The research illustrated the importance of providing spaces for participants in programmes such as these to critically reflect on the relevance of non-government organization (NGO) and international non-government organization (INGO) training programmes, especially in light of the multiple challenges that are a part of their everyday lives.     

Adolescent caregiving success as a predictor of social functioning from ages 13 to 33

Adolescent success providing satisfying support in response to a close friend's call in a caregiving task was examined as a potentially fundamental developmental competence likely to predict future social functioning, adult caregiving security, and physical health. Adolescents (86 males, 98 females; 58% White, 29% African American, 8% mixed race/ethnicity, 5% other) were followed from ages 13 to 33 (1998–2021) using multiple methods and reporters. Early caregiving success was found to predict greater self- and partner-reported caregiving security, lower negativity in adult relationships, and higher adult vagal tone. Results are interpreted as advancing our understanding beyond simply recognizing that adolescent friendships have long-term import, to now identifying specific capacities within friendships that are linked to longer-term outcomes.     

The history curriculum and its personal connection to students from minority ethnic backgrounds

Whereas history is seen by some as crucial in developing a sense of identity and fostering social cohesion, it is however, often based around narrowly nationalistic views of the past, and yet little is known about how students relate to the past they are taught. Thus, this paper focuses on the history curriculum and the ways in which students aged 12–14, from different ethnic backgrounds, relate to it. Moreover, the small-scale study which enabled this paper, focused, in particular, on whether students enjoyed and valued history and whether they felt any sense of personal connection to the topics studied. Drawing on survey data collected from 102 students and focus group discussions with 42 students, from two high schools, the findings indicate that although many students enjoy history, they fail to fully understand its value. Additionally most students, especially those from minority ethnic backgrounds, feel a lack of personal connection to the past, as they do not see themselves in the history they are taught.     

Results of a Pilot Study to Investigate Community College Student Perceptions of the Value of an Online Health-Risk Reduction Program

Health is associated with academic success. Universal, web-based interventions to reduce risks associated with alcohol and other drug use have been found to be effective at changing four-year college students’ health behaviors. An online health program may also be well-suited to a community college population, as it can reach students off campus and can be accessed at times that are convenient for students. The purpose of the current paper is to report the results of a community college student evaluation of a fully-developed, online health risk reduction program. One hundred and thirty four students evaluated the program. Students perceived the program to be successful at addressing college health and wellness issues, and they considered it a tool that could help students make a healthy adjustment to college. A universal, online, health-risk reduction program may have the potential to be a useful component of a community college's overall prevention strategy.     

Integrating Language,Literacy, and Academic Development: Alternatives to Traditional English as a Second Language and Remedial English for Language Minority Students in Community Colleges

This article argues for the importance of integrating a focus on language, literacy, and academic development for United States-educated language minority (US-LM) students, sometimes called Generation 1.5. It describes four initiatives at community colleges in California that aim to do so. US-LM students have completed some K–12 schooling in the United States, but their English is considered by community college faculty, staff, or assessment measures to be inadequate for college-level instruction. Although enacting effective language and literacy support for Generation 1.5 has centered on debates about whether these students belong in English as a Second Language (ESL) or remedial English courses, how they can best be identified and tested, or whether they should be taught in separate classes, we argue that more fundamental shifts are needed. Instead of conceiving of students’ language and literacy development solely in terms of progress through ESL or remedial English sequences, educators designing support for US-LM students must also consider larger contexts of students’ academic progress, promoting students’ development of language and literacy for success in academic and professional settings as well as progress toward completing credits required for associate degrees, certificates, and transfer to four-year institutions.     

Externalizing Problems in Two-Year-Olds: Implications for Patterns of Social Behavior and Peers' Responses to Aggression

A sample of 48 two-year-old children selected on the basis of parents' responses to two administrations of the Child Behavior Checklist for two to three-year-olds was observed in peer interactions. Twenty-four of these children displayed symptoms of aggressive/destructive (externalizing) problems that were in the borderline clinical range (labelled “high risk”) and 24 children displayed few such symptoms (“low risk”). The children were observed in matched dyads (one high risk and one low risk child) across four tasks designed to vary in the degree of social participation they would elicit from the children. Across all tasks, children in the high risk group displayed significantly and consistently more aggressive behavior than the children in the low risk group. However, these high risk children did not differ from other children in terms of several indices of social and nonsocial play. In addition, when children were classified as high aggressive versus average versus low aggressive on the basis of laboratory behavior, children who displayed high amounts of aggression during the play sessions did not differ from less aggressive children on these indices of social play. Finally, the responses of non-aggressive dyad partners to aggressive acts indicated that children are responsive, in relatively subtle ways, to aggression. These results are discussed in terms of the implications of early problematic behavior for later indices of maladjustment that include social competence and peer rejection.     

More about increasing the quality of educational intervention research: A synthesis

A synthesis of the commentaries to our leadoff paper is presented, along with our replies to some of the specific comments offered. When the original analysis and the commentaries are combined, an exceptionally thorough summary of issues that should be considered by intervention researchers emerges. We hope this set of issues will be useful to the educational research community.A draft of this synthesis was circulated among the commentators in this special issue, with a request to determine whether their views were represented fairly. There were few reservations expressed, and in every case when a concern was expressed, we concluded on review that slight adjustment was required to present the commentator's perspective more clearly and/or fairly, and we attempted to do so.