The children's centre teacher role: developing practice in the private,voluntary and independent sector

This study assessed the impact of the role of the teacher in two children's centres in England and identified some of the supporting and limiting factors that influenced outcomes. The teachers worked across several settings in the private, voluntary and independent (PVI) sector, with the aim of enhancing early years practice and practitioner confidence. A conceptual framework was devised to model the impact of the teacher role based on Leithwood and Levin (2005 Leithwood K, Levin B. 2005. Assessing school leader and leadership programme effects on pupil learning. DfES Research Report 662. http://www.dfes.gov.uk/research/data/uploadfiles/RR662.pdf (accessed December 2006) [Google Scholar]). Teachers were found to bring vital professional knowledge and experience to the role and delivered their methods through a range of leadership styles as identified in the literature. Teachers were successful in developing practice and staff confidence in settings; this also impacted positively on outcomes for children. However, success was dependent on a number of moderating factors, including sector‐related factors such as the qualifications of staff. Implications for policy and practice are discussed.     

Student and tutor perceptions of effective tutoring in distance education

Questionnaire responses of 457 students and 602 tutors were used to investigate conceptions of a ‘good tutor.’ In each case, factor analysis identified scales that reflected key constructs; cluster analysis identified subgroups with different patterns of scale scores; and discriminant analysis determined the scales that contributed the most to differences among the clusters. Both sets of data yielded conceptions of tutoring that were described as task‐oriented and student‐oriented, respectively. The students’ data yielded an additional, career‐oriented conception. The tutors’ data yielded two additional conceptions that were described as knowledge‐oriented and impersonal, respectively. The distribution of the tutors’ conceptions (but not that of the students’ conceptions) varied across different faculties, suggesting that tutors from different disciplines have different beliefs about effective tutoring. The study suggests that both tutors and students would benefit from having a better appreciation of the importance of support in facilitating learning.     

Rearranging pigeonholes: interrupting the ethnic hierarchy of a school's workforce

Increasing the cultural and linguistic diversity of the teaching workforce in Australia was a key recommendation of the House of Representatives Standing Committee Inquiry into Teacher Education in their report, Top of the Class (written by L. Hartsuyker Hartsuyker, L. 2007. Top of the class: Report of the inquiry into teacher education, (Report by the House of Representatives Standing Committee on Education and Vocational Training) Canberra, Australia: The Parliament of the Commonwealth of Australia.  [Google Scholar]). The report reflects findings from national and international research that support the need to increase the diversity of the teaching profession as a means to improve student outcomes, particularly given the increasingly diverse make-up of student populations. The Hartsuyker Report also notes, as a “national concern”, the relatively low enrolment of World English-speaking (WES) students in Australian teacher education courses and calls for targeted funding by the federal government for further research into why this is the case (as discussed by J. Han and M. Singh in 2007 Han, J. and Singh, M. 2007b. Getting World English speaking student teachers to the top of the class: Making hope for ethno-cultural diversity in teacher education robust. Asia-Pacific Journal of Teacher Education, 35(3): 291–309. [Taylor & Francis Online], [Web of Science ®] [Google Scholar]). This paper seeks to add to current research on the attraction and retention of WES students into Initial Teacher Education (ITE) programmes in Australia. It does so by relating some of the key findings from a case study of three WES Education Assistants, originally from Malaysia, who retrained to become teachers through an ITE programme at an Australian university. Significantly, as a result of a partnership developed between a school and a university, they entered the programme through an alternative access course, were awarded Recognition of Prior Learning for their work experience, and were able to remain in their community while studying externally. They were also provided ongoing mentoring support by the teaching staff and myself as programme co-ordinator. This paper aims to add to current research in this field by identifying the key driving and restraining forces that impacted on their ability to become teachers via an Australian ITE programme.     

Resilience Among Children Exposed to Domestic Violence: The Role of Risk and Protective Factors

Individual and family characteristics that predict resilience among children exposed to domestic violence (DV) were examined. Mother–child dyads ( n  =   190) were assessed when the children were 2, 3, and 4 years of age. DV-exposed children were 3.7 times more likely than nonexposed children to develop internalizing or externalizing problems. However, 54% of DV-exposed children maintained positive adaptation and were characterized by easy temperament (odds ratio [OR] = .39, d  = .52) and nondepressed mothers (OR = 1.14, d  = .07), as compared to their nonresilient counterparts. Chronic DV was associated with maternal depression, difficult child temperament, and internalizing or externalizing symptoms. Results underscore heterogeneous outcomes among DV-exposed children and the influence of individual and family characteristics on children's adaptation.     

Bubbles & Squat – did Dionysus just sneak into the fitness centre?

A Danish fitness chain recently introduced a new concept called Bubbles & Squat. Here, fitness training is combined with free champagne and music. In this paper, we examine this new way of bringing parties, alcohol and physical culture together by exploring the possible meaning of it through existential philosophical analysis. We draw in particular on Nietzsche’s distinction between the Apolline and the Dionysiac, as well as his account of great health. On this basis, we analyse Bubbles & Squat as a case of Dionysiac intoxication, excess and ecstasy sneaking into contemporary Apolline fitness culture. In the last part of the paper, we raise the question if adding parties and bubbles to fitness training may, perhaps paradoxically, be healthy for the participants in an existential sense because it contributes to existential balance between the Dionysiac and the Apolline. We conclude that the philosophical framework presented in this paper can contribute to a new understanding of a general physical cultural phenomenon that the case of Bubbles & Squat represents.     

Coping by Copying? Higher education institutions’ student recruitment strategies

Growing national and international competition for students puts pressure on higher education institutions (HEIs) to develop marketing and student recruitment strategies; these are also driven by financial stress caused by performance-based funding mechanisms. In this paper we explore Norwegian HEIs’ student recruitment strategies. What type of student recruitment strategies do HEIs develop? How are the strategies linked to the institutions’ student market position? We combine qualitative research strategies including in-depth interviews and document analysis with quantitative analyses of the student market positions of different types of institutions in Norway.