The ongoing development of an effective model of action learning for use by the busy GP veterinary surgeon

I passionately believe that reflective practice is an essential competency for the busy GP veterinary surgeon to develop throughout their career. Action learning sets would appear to offer a way of promoting this while at the same time helping the GP veterinary surgeon find a way forward with professional issues. In this article I reflect on my own action learning journey to date and how it relates to the ongoing development of an action learning set model that is inspired by the following personal reflections: reflective practice is an essential competency required by the professional so as to ‘get the most out’ of their career; action learning sets are an effective way for the busy professional to use their work-based learning to get on a developing lifelong ladder of postgraduate qualifications for the GP veterinary surgeon; action learning dialogue, inspired by personal and shared issues from within the consulting and operating room, provides effective and ongoing personal learning and professional development opportunities for the GP veterinary surgeon; action learning set membership promotes, encourages and facilitates the understanding by the individual of the importance of making time available on a regular basis to proactively develop their professional competencies throughout their career; issues are very similar within most veterinary practices and that being a member of an action learning set can help the individual to move their issue onwards towards a ‘win-win’ solution.     

What troubles early childhood educators in New Zealand: a 20-year cross-sectional study of ethical difficulties in early childhood practice

For more than 20 years, the New Zealand early childhood (EC) sector has had guidance about how to deal with situations of ethical difficulty in daily practice through the ECE Code of Ethics. This paper reports on three surveys undertaken at 10-year intervals that sought to understand EC educators’ experiences of such situations, and how they addressed them within their EC settings. An analysis of educators’ stories of ethically troubling situations from the three data-sets traced shifts and similarities in the content reported, and in how educators responded to these challenges over the two-decade period. We situate this analysis alongside changes in the New Zealand ECE policy context during the same time frame. We argue that a connection exists between the reported situations and teachers’ responses to them, and changes within the policy and professional context of daily EC practice.     

Inclusive educational leadership to establish a co-operative school cluster trust? Exploring perspectives and making links with leadership for learning

ABSTRACT

One remarkable feature of the contemporary school landscape in England is the number of schools that have chosen the co-operative framework to shape their work and relationships. When a group of schools decides to become a co-operative trust, leadership challenges arise both in the process of establishing an inclusive collaborative cluster and in living out co-operative values. To add to the limited literature on co-operative school leadership, a study in a school cluster trust explored headteachers’, governors’ and teachers’ perspectives and beliefs through interviews, group discussions and questionnaires. These data sources revealed some of the motivations for, benefits of, and strategies to support inter-school collaboration guided by the co-operative values of democracy, solidarity, equality, equity, self-help and self-responsibility. Importantly, a range of perspectives on the extent to which leadership was viewed as, and appeared to be, an inclusive practice undertaken by all members of the cluster was identified. A particular contribution of this work is that it exemplifies resonances between the values and principles of the co-operative movement and those of the Leadership for Learning framework. Since these two models are being increasingly adopted and integrated into a variety of educational settings, the research findings may inform leadership practice more widely.     

Disability hate crime: persecuted for difference

This article briefly discusses the long history of violence towards disabled people which sets the context for an analysis of the modern‐day form of violence known as disability hate crime (DHC). People who look or behave differently to others often find themselves victims of violent crimes. The language used to describe disabled people contributes to their diminished position in society. A brief review of definitions of DHC and exploration of news media coverage of the Pilkington and Askew DHC cases are undertaken. Cultural scapegoating of disabled people is discussed. Disabled people are perceived as contributing to their own victimisation, the lack of support afforded to them by society and the failure of systems meant to protect them. As long as disabled people remain outside mainstream society, they are unlikely to achieve the same levels of respect and protection from crime that other groups in society are afforded.     

Factors in life science textbooks that may deter girls' interest in science

In order to examine factors that may deter girls' interest in science, five seventh-grade life science textbooks were analyzed for sexism in language, images, and curricular content, and for features of activities that have been found to be useful for motivating girls. Although overt sexism was not apparent, subtle forms of sexism in the selection of language, images, and curricular content were found. Activities had some features useful to girls, but other features were seldom included. Teachers may wish to use differences that were found among texts as one basis for text selection.     

A situative metaphor for teacher learning: the case of university tutors learning to grade student coursework

In the continuing concern about academic standards in the higher education sector a great deal of emphasis has been placed on quality assurance procedures rather than on considering how university tutors learn to grade the quality of work produced by students. As part of a larger research project focused on how tutors grade student coursework, this paper offers a new metaphor for such tutor learning, based on a sociocultural perspective. The research project used think‐aloud protocols recorded as university tutors graded student coursework, and this was followed by semi‐structured interviews. The voluntary participants consisted of 25 lecturers in four contrasting domains—humanities, art and design, medicine and teacher education—in three universities, two teaching‐led and one research intensive. We developed a metaphorical framework that helps to understand the work and learning of the lecturers and tested it by applying it to analysis of the tutor interview data. Grading, writing feedback, second marking and moderation are important situated professional learning opportunities for tutors to debate and reach agreement on the academic standard demonstrated by student coursework. The metaphor considers professional learning as interplay between the vertical domain of public knowledge and the horizontal domain of teachers' practical wisdom. The metaphor presented in this paper is proposed for critical consideration and wider use by academics, teachers, academic developers and teacher educators as an aid to better understanding of teacher's professional learning.     

Engaging suppliers in CRM: The role of justice in buyer–supplier relationships

Given the crucial role of suppliers in collaborative supply chains, it is surprising that little attention has been paid to the nature and management of supplier relationships in the implementation of a retailer's Customer Relationship Management (CRM) strategy. To address this gap in the extant literature, the theory of organizational justice is used to explore the extent to which perceived fairness in buyer–supplier relationships supports or inhibits supplier engagement with the CRM process. The rationale is that suppliers who feel fairly treated by key retail customers are more likely to invest resources in the acquisition and use of data central to the retailer's CRM strategy. By empirically testing a conceptual model linking downstream CRM to upstream SRM, the results provide evidence to indicate that customer data use is significantly influenced by perceptions of fairness, particularly with respect to the distribution of rewards, and the transparency of decision-making processes. As a key criticism of CRM centers upon the failure of organizations to exploit the full potential of customer data, the results highlight the usefulness of understanding the relational linkages between buyers and suppliers and the consequential behavior of suppliers in terms of engagement with customer data vital to the success of retailers’ CRM strategies.