Cangleska Wakan: The ecology of the sacred circle and the role of tribal colleges and universities

International Review of Education - Indigenous education and philosophy are rooted in the concept of relationality – the relatedness of all things – within the framework of place-based...     

Slipping through the cracks: teachers who miss out on early career support

This paper presents evidence from a nationally representative sample of early career teachers about those likely to miss out on formal support, and the employment conditions associated with this absence of support. It uses survey data from the Staff in Australia’s Schools Survey. Consistent with existing research, our results suggest a relationship between early career teachers with insecure employment and a lack of support. The findings suggest that, for early career teachers, being unsupported is associated with dissatisfaction with professional relationships and career opportunities; and that this dissatisfaction is associated with an intention to leave the profession.     

Social behavior of children in a classroom setting

Forty-two children (25 boys, 17 girls) in two traditional second-grade classrooms were videotaped during normal classroom activity until approximately 50 min of tape was accumulated for each child. A variety of behaviors was then coded on an event recorder, including child-child interactions, general behaviors, and child-teacher interactions. Teacher evaluations expressed as ratings between bipolar adjectives were also obtained. A principal components analysis revealed six distinct factors. The strongest factor was composed of teacher-child interactions. Analyses of variance indicated that sex and birth order differences were limited. Compared to boys, girls engaged in more verbalization with same-sex peers (p < .001) and more cooperation with same-sex peers (p < .05). Teacher's evaluations were not significantly influenced by the sex of the children. Favorable teacher evaluations were clearly associated with the extent to which a child approached and remained in proximity to the teacher.     

The pension subsidy of educational inequality

Public school teachers receive on retirement a pension typically equaling 75% of the average salary earned during the three peak years. While the teachers pay part of the costs of their defined benefit pension through payroll deductions, most of the cost is subsidized by the state. The pension subsidy, a far from neglible component of the per pupil cost of instruction, is particularly high in those school districts that pay high salaries and enjoy low student/teacher ratios. It is a regressive subsidy highly correlated with school district income and wealth. Several alternative reform measures are considered.     

White Skin,Black Friend: A Fanonian application to theorize racial fetish in teacher education

In Black Skin, white masks (1967, Grove Press), Franz Fanon uses a psychoanalytic framework to theorize the inferiority-dependency complex of Black men in response to the colonial racism of white men. Applying his framework in reverse, this theoretical article psychoanalyzes the white psyche and emotionality with respect to the racialization process of whites and their racial attachment to Blackness. Positing that such a process is interconnected with narcissism, humanistic emptiness, and psychosis, this article presents how racial attachment becomes racial fetish. Such a fetish reifies whiteness by accumulating fictive kinships with friends of color; hence, the common parlance of ‘But I have a Black friend!’ The article, then, overlays this theoretical interpretation onto the subject of teacher education in the US, specifically urban teacher education programs that are predominantly comprised of white middle-class females who claim a desire to ‘save’ urban students of color. Ending with the dangers and hopes of a more humanistic friendship, this article offers emotional ways one can self-actualize the racialization process.     

Liability considerations in child welfare: lessons from Canada

OBJECTIVE: Recent years have been fraught with investigations into the deaths of children receiving child welfare services throughout North America, Europe, and Australia. These inquiries have attracted considerable media attention and public outrage. Added to this have been increases in attempts to hold social workers in child welfare responsible for the abuse and deaths of children through the criminal and civil courts. As a result of fears regarding liability, many child welfare professionals are resorting to defensive practice strategies. METHOD: This article reviews recent court decisions and legislation in Canada regarding this issue in order to assess actual risks. RESULTS: Social workers who act according to accepted standards of practice and who in good faith make difficult judgments to the best of their abilities, will not be held to be criminally culpable or civilly negligent. CONCLUSION: It is concluded that child welfare professionals who exercise reasonable caution and engage in good clinical social work practice, good record keeping, effective communication and verification of information, can continue to strive to offer the high quality services to children and their families as they have always done without any serious fear of recrimination.     

A Meta-Level Analysis of the Conduit in Lives Lived and Stories Told

This work begins with reflections on the conduit, and then presents the conduit metaphor as a philosophical and linguistic concept and as an educational idea. Research studies with two teachers and two principals over a sustained period of time are presented, and re-cast in terms of what each reveals about the qualities of the conduit. In the process, each educator's knowledge is featured in its own terms and each school situation is worked through in its own terms. The attributes of the conduit are then distilled through meta-level narrative analysis, and possibilities for the future are imagined.     

Reflections on ‘creative’ action learning in business education: some issues in its theory and practice

The purpose of this paper is to consider some issues in the uses of what we have termed ‘creative’ action learning in a business education context, and to review some aspects of its practice. A review of the literature, including its use in higher education, is followed by a case illustration of its use in a UK business school with predominantly international students. Action learning is principally thought of as a human resource development practice and is widely used in a variety of public and private sector organisations. The focus here, however, is on the use of action learning in a business school setting and the application of specific creative thinking tools, in order to explore its potential for developing collaborative peer learning and support.     

Building capacity in social care: an evaluation of a national programme of action learning facilitator development

This account of practice shares the findings of an evaluation into the impact of a facilitator development programme on participants' knowledge, skills and subsequent practice. The Centre for Action Learning Facilitation was established to develop action learning set advisors and has been working with Skills for Care over the last two years to develop an internal capacity in social work departments to use action learning primarily to support newly qualified staff.