The historiography of British imperial education policy,Part I: India

Colonial education has been controversial and widely divergent interpretations have been offered from contrasting ideological perspectives. British imperial education policy was highly contended during the colonial era and remains a contentious issue amongst many contemporary historians and a critical review of the historiography of the subject is long overdue. British colonial education policy starts in India in 1813, the intention being to promote both Oriental culture and Western science. But a former Director of Public Instruction, writing in the 1920s, claimed that education had done far less for Indian culture than for the material and political progress of India. More recent academic writing about the history of education in British India has been both intermittent and of mixed quality. To date, much of the criticism of British policy appears to have been motivated more by emotion rather than by detailed scholarly analysis and this account argues that more ‘plodding’ in archives is urgently needed at the present time to substantiate, refine or refute the claims of India’s educational historians. This is the first part of a two‐part article, the second of which will deal with Africa and the rest of the colonial Empire.     

REFLECTING ON THE USE OF METAPHOR: TWO PROFESSORS' PROCESSES OF DISCOVERY

This article summarizes the literature concerning the use of visual and textual metaphors and describes outcomes of a project designed to help teacher education candidates begin integrating their personal beliefs about teaching with their growing professional knowledge and emergent practice. By using metaphors, teacher educators have the opportunity to help candidates solidify convictions and meanings and uncover “tacit or unarticulated” beliefs (Clandinin & Connelly, 1995 Clandinin, D. J. and Connelly, F. M. 1995. Teachers' professional knowledge landscapes, New York: Teachers College, Columbia University.  [Google Scholar], p. 6) that can lead to frame conflict (Reddy, 1993 Reddy, M. 1993. “The conduit metaphor: A case of frame conflict in our language about language.”. In Metaphor and thought , 2nd ed., Edited by: Ortony, A. 164–201. Cambridge, , England: Cambridge University Press. [Crossref] , [Google Scholar]), that is, dueling metaphors. For example, there is a frame conflict in the conception of student value in the metaphors of teacher-as-police-officer and teacher-as-gardener. In one metaphor, students are perceived as deficit “others” who must be carefully watched by authorities; in the gardening metaphor, student potential is recognized as “more than” what can be seen on the surface. This article demonstrates how one university faculty explores textual and visual metaphor to encourage discourse among the candidates, other peers, and professors in a school of education. This extended dialogue gives candidates the opportunity to “compare their own characterizations to those of their peers, and depending on the responses of others, either maintain their own construals or bring theirs in line with those of the others” (Petrie & Oshlag, 1993 Petrie, H. and Oshlag, R. 1993. “Metaphor and learning.”. In Metaphor and thought , 2nd ed., Edited by: Ortony, A. 579–609. Cambridge, , England: Cambridge University Press. [Crossref] , [Google Scholar], p. 602). This is the educative process of frame restructuring. As an added benefit of this project, the authors have found that using an artistic format combined with a written explanation of their work requires candidates to become more thoughtful, reflective practitioners.     

Staff Training for Small Businesses — Approaches to Training Needs Analysis and Information Access

Abstract

This paper is designed to encourage discussion on two particular approaches to solving two problems concerning the training of staff in small businesses. It describes ‘The Business Analyst’, a ‘do‐it‐yourself training needs analysis tool intended to be used by managers of small businesses. It has also proved to be a powerful negotiating tool between training providers and managers, and a management aid for training institutions. Secondly, the paper describes the present state of development of a hi‐tech approach to the provision of information about training opportunities.     

Reported Occurrence and Perceptions of Violence in Middle and High Schools

The purpose of this study was to document and compare rates of reported and perceived crime and violence within schools. With highly publicized acts of school violence prevalent in the minds of the American public, there is a perception that schools are unsafe. Reports of school crime and violence from teachers, administrators, and students differ in severity and in nature from what is perceived by the public. Few studies are available on the frequency of these or other types of reported violence or the relationship between actual and perceived violence in schools. Extant data on reported violence in schools from the database of North Carolina were analyzed and compared to data reflecting perceptions of violence. The public perceptions of the types of school crime and violent acts differed greatly from actual occurrences reported by school administrators. Limitations and implications for research and practice are discussed.     

Critical reflections of action research used for professional development in a Middle Eastern Gulf State

This article describes and critically reflects on an action research project used for professional development purposes in a Middle Eastern Gulf State. The aim of the project was to improve professional development experiences for a group of in‐service teacher educators, who were English as Second Language advisers. The initial discussion highlights different ideological and methodological approaches to action research and identifies core characteristics that were framed to evaluate the project. Second, the background to the local context is described followed by the action research project, the methodology and outcomes. Using an evaluative framework, the subsequent discussion describes the successes of this project. These include encouraging reflection in a collaborative environment, promoting a culture of learning and supporting the participant’s reconstruction of professional knowledge situated in practice. Finally, there is a critical reflection around a number of challenges, tensions and questions that emerged from the project, centred on the loss of core democratic values underpinning action research. These concerns highlight power relationships and the ownership and control of research, which become more apparent in mandatory situations and hierarchical contexts.     

Over-education: What influence does the workplace have?

The wage and job satisfaction impacts for over-educated workers have been well-documented; yet little attention has been paid to the consequences for firms. In this paper we examine over-education from the perspective of the workplace. Using linked employer–employee data for the United Kingdom, we derive the standard worker-level penalties on wages and job satisfaction. We then show how over-education rates across workplaces adversely influence workplace pay and workplace labor relations. For individual workers who may be at-risk of over-education, we also distinguish between workforce composition effects and workplace labor practices, such as hiring. The effect of over-education on job satisfaction is particularly strong and its effects are evident at the workplace level. Our results suggest that investigations of over-education at the level of the firm are a promising area of inquiry.     

Sorting out the ethics of propaganda

“Social movement”; is a set of meanings and not an objective phenomenon. We therefore require explanations of “movement”; in rhetoric, not explanations of persuasion in allegedly discrete and objective situations.