The Irish Church Disestablishment Act (1869) and the general synod of the Church of Ireland (1871): the art and structure of educational reform

Historians have observed that the period 1860–1890 was educationally progressive. This paper identifies the renaissance with the creation of the General Synod of the Church of Ireland in the aftermath of Church Disestablishment. Disestablishment legislation facilitated the inclusion of the laity in Synod. The paper argues that the lay-clerical dynamic generated educational reform at all levels of provision. Post-Reformation denominational divisions qualify the discussion. The structure of Synod – General Synod, Diocesan Synods, Boards of Education and Education Committees – was the outcome of an intense debate as the post-Disestablishment Church of Ireland sought to reinvent itself. The ‘art’ of the title refers to Synod’s adroit use of this structure in promoting educational reform that mitigated tensions surrounding the religious-secular conflict which characterised Irish post-Famine modernisation. Synod’s role as agent of educational reform constitutes the theme. The paper aims to contribute to what, regretfully, remains an undeveloped historiography.     

Progress and the people: histories of mass education and conceptions of Britishness, 1870–1914

ABSTRACT

This article argues that the history of mass education as it was written in Great Britain between 1870 and 1914 became an important site for debating what it meant to be British and the nature of progress. In particular, it explores different perspectives on when and where to begin a history of mass education, whom or what to make central to it, and what guidance the past offered for the future. Disagreements over these seemingly narrow questions reflected broader disagreements about what it meant to be British (including whether there was a deep-seated national character at all); the nature of the union; and how and why progress happened.     

Young people’s and parent’s perceptions of managed moves

The current research aimed to increase understanding of the experiences of young people and their parents of managed moves, what contributed to success and the nature of the challenges experienced. The study was conducted in one English Local Authority, where five young people and their parents were interviewed. Five superordinate themes emerged from the interviews, relating to: the initial process (people, trail period, managed moves as a positive solution); the reasons for the move (bullying/social isolation, breakdown in relationships with staff); conceptions of success (happiness, improved self-perceptions, learning and progress), factors contributing to success (fresh start/clean slate; home–school communication; pastoral support, school suitability) and problems arising (moving a problem, narratives around young people, timing and family stress). The findings are discussed in relation to implications for practice.     

Drug-induced renal Fanconi syndrome: A case report

The renal Fanconi syndrome which results from renal tubular dysfunction can be either associated with various inbom errors of metabolism or acquired from various etiology. We report a case of gentamycin-induced Fanconi syndrome in a 4-month old infant who presented with aminoaciduria, glucosuria, phosphaturia and compensated metabolic acidosis.     

Building parallel corpora by automatic title alignment using length-based and text-based approaches

Cross-lingual semantic interoperability has drawn significant attention in recent digital library and World Wide Web research as the information in languages other than English has grown exponentially. Cross-lingual information retrieval (CLIR) across different European languages, such as English, Spanish, and French, has been widely explored; however, CLIR across European languages and Oriental languages is still in the initial stage. To cross language boundary, corpus-based approach is promising to overcome the limitation of the knowledge-based and controlled vocabulary approaches but collecting parallel corpora between European language and Oriental language is not an easy task. Length-based and text-based approaches are two major approaches to align parallel documents. In this paper, we investigate several techniques using these approaches and compare their performances in aligning English and Chinese titles of parallel documents available on the Web.     

Effects of national policies on teachers' sense of professionalism: findings from an empirical study in Portugal and in England

This paper reports on research aimed at investigating the ways in which teachers in Portugal and in England are experiencing recent changes in the policy environment which have affected their sense of professionalism and their professional identity. Data were collected through questionnaires and focus group interviews. Findings suggest the existence of some strengths in teachers' views on their professionalism, namely the importance of vocationalism, continuing learning and collaborative cultures, the relevance of project‐oriented work at school and an integrated perspective of the curriculum. However, a number of limitations also emerged, such as feelings of ambivalence and conflict, associated with increased bureaucracy, qualities of school leadership, cultures of loneliness and the lack of understanding and ownership of the process of change.

Cet article rend compte des données sur une étude réalisée au Portugal et en Angleterre sur la manière dont les enseignants des deux pays vivent les plus récents changements dans leur travail en résultat des politiques nationales. Plus concrètement, l'étude a analysé la manière dont les enseignants des deux pays caractérisent leur professionnalisme et leur identité professionnelle. Les données ont été recueillies à travers des questionnaires et des entretiens en groupe. Les résultats suggèrent quelques points forts, notamment l'importance du sentiment de vocation, de l'apprentissage continu, des cultures de collaboration et du travail de projet ainsi qu'une perspective intégrée du curriculum. Par contre, les points plus faibles ont été les sentiments d'ambivalence et de conflit, ainsi que la bureaucratie, la culture de solitude et l'absence de compréhension du processus de changement.

El artículo se basa en un estudio realizado por las Universidades del Minho (Portugal) y Nottingham (Inglaterra) sobre la forma como los profesores de los dos países han reaccionado a los recientes cambios en la política curricular, bien como sobre sus implicaciones en su profesionalismo y su identidad. Los datos fueron recogidos a través de cuestionario y entrevista de grupo. La lectura que surge de los datos indica un conjunto de puntos fuertes en la definición del profesionalismo de los profesores, especialmente la importancia atribuida al aprendizaje continuo y a las culturas de colaboración, así como la importancia del trabajo de proyecto y un entendimiento más amplio de los papeles de la escuela y de los profesores. Sin embargo, también surgieron algunas limitaciones, sobretodo en lo que respecta a sentimientos de alguna manera ambivalentes y conflictivos, determinados por el aumento de la burocracia, de la cultura individualista y la falta de comprensión y asimilación de los procesos de cambio.

Dieser Artikel berichtet über eine Studie, welche untersucht hat, inwiefern Lehrer aus Portugal und England die jüngsten Veränderungen im politischen Umfeld erleben, und inwiefern sich diese Veränderungen auf die berufliche Einstellung und Identität der Lehrer auswirken. Die Daten wurden durch Fragebögen und Fokusgruppeninterviews erhoben. Die Untersuchungsergebnisse zeigen, dass die Lehrer ihre Weiterbildung und Mitarbeitskultur, projektorientierte Schularbeit, eine integrierte Perspektive des Curriculums und ein breites Verständnis für die Schule und für die Lehrerarbeit als wichtig erachten. Es wurden jedoch auch einige Schwachpunkte identifiziert, wie beispielsweise mit erhöhtem Bürokratismus verbundene Ambivalenz‐ und Konfliktgefühle, Einsamkeitskultur, sowie Verständnislosigkeit gegenüber dem Veränderungsvorgang.