‘You just can’t do it like that—it's just wrong!' impressions of French and English trainee primary teachers on exchange placement in primary schools abroad: the value of experiencing the difference

This paper focuses on the European policy initiative to increase the number of teachers able to teach a modern foreign language in primary schools. It particularly focuses on the exchange placement which is an integral part of a training programme run by a university faculty of education in England and an Institut de Formation des Maîtres in France. Through an analysis of interviews with trainees about their placement experiences a number of tensions emerged as trainees' own assumptions about approaches to teaching and learning were challenged. The paper points to the benefits of the placement in both helping trainee teachers reflect upon their own national education culture and language and also understand and appreciate the differences that underlie another educational culture and language.

Cet article cible l'initiative de la politique européenne pour augmenter le nombre d'instituteurs capables d'enseigner une langue étrangère vivante dans les écoles primaires. Il vise en particulier les stages d'échanges qui font parties intégrantes d'un programme de formation mené par une faculté universitaire en Angleterre et par un Institut de Formation des Maîtres. A travers une analyse des entretiens conduits avec les futurs instituteurs à propos de leurs expériences de stages, il est apparu un certain nombre de conflits alors que leurs conceptions personnelles des approches d'enseignement et d'apprentissage ont été contestées. L'article souligne les bénéfices tirés des stages. Ils permettent d'aider les instituteurs en formation à réfléchir sur leur propre culture d'enseignement et sur leur langue. Ils permettent aussi de comprendre et d'apprécier les différences qui sont à la base d'un autre système d'éducation et d'une autre langue.

Diese Arbeit konzentriert sich auf die europäische Initiative, die das Ziel hat, die Anzahl von Fremdsprachlehrern an Grundschulen zu erhöhen. Sie beschreibt in erster Linie die Austausch‐praktika, die im Rahmen der Kooperation zwischen einer erziehungswissenschaftlichen Fakultät in England und einer entsprechenden Institution in Frankreich, dem Institut de Formation des Maîtres, einen wesentlichen Bestandteil der Lehrerausbildung darstellen. Eine Analyse von gezielten Gesprächen mit Praktikanten hat folgendes gezeigt: Spannungen treten während der Praktika zutage, weil die Erwartungen der Praktikanten bezüglich Lehr‐ und Lernmethoden herausgefordert werden. Die Arbeit weist ferner auf die Vorteile des Praktikums hin. Einerseits hilft das Praktikum den Lehrern in der Ausbildung, über ihre eigene nationale pädagogische Kultur und ihre Sprache zu reflektieren. Andererseits hilft ihnen diese Zeit, Unterschiede zu verstehen und Eigenheiten schätzen zu lernen, die einer anderen pädagogischen Kultur und einer anderen Sprache zugrunde liegen.

Este documento enfoca en la iniciativa europea de la política para aumentar el número de maestros capaces de enseñar un idioma extranjero moderno en escuelas primarias. Particularmente enfoca en el intercambio de colocación que es una parte integral del programa de capacitación administrado por una facultad de educación en una universidad en Inglaterra y en un Instituto de Formación de Maestros en Francia. Por un ánalisis de entrevistas con aprendices acerca de sus experiencias de colocación, un número de tensiones surgieron cuando los aprendices se cuestionaron acerca de sus propias supociciones sobre métodos de enseñanaza y aprendizaje. Este documento señala los beneficios de colocación ayudando a los maestros a reflexionar sobre su propia educación, cultura e idioma y también comprender y apreciar las diferencias de otras culturas e idiomas.     

Efficiency in the community college sector: stochastic frontier analysis

This paper estimates technical efficiency scores across the community college sector in the United States. Using stochastic frontier analysis and data from the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System for 2003–2010, we estimate efficiency scores for 950 community colleges and perform a series of sensitivity tests to check for robustness. We find that community colleges have become more efficient over time, but no evidence of economies of scale. We also find significant variation in efficiency across colleges, with only part of this variation explained by exogenous differences by state and across student characteristics.     

First- and second-generation design and engineering students: experience,attainment and factors influencing them to attend university

Challenges for students who are ‘first-in-family’ to attend university have been discussed within widening participation discourse. However, in the UK, ‘first-in-family’ or first-generation students have frequently been conflated with those experiencing poverty or from lower socio-economic groups. This research integrated survey data with assessment data from final-year design and engineering students in a UK university to examine students’ attainment, the influences on why students decide to attend university and students’ experiences during their degree programmes. Analysis of the data showed variations in the reasons for first- and second-generation students wanting to go to university, particularly a significant difference in the influence of parents. First-generation students described significantly less parental influence on the decision to attend university than second- or subsequent-generation students. Smaller differences in students’ experiences and attainment in university were also noted. Whilst first-generation students reported differences in study habits, their attainment was, on average, marginally higher than that of their peers. Building on others’ theoretical work, which suggests the importance of social capital within higher education (HE), this research highlights the difference in social influences on both university application and expectations of university for those with and without a family history of tertiary education. Further research is needed to explore, in larger samples, whether the social influences on individuals’ perception of HE are in turn shaped by whether or not their parents attended university, and further, what impact this may have, not only on degree outcomes but also on the broader benefits typically associated with graduate experience.     

Hyperinstrumentalism and cultural policy: means to an end or an end to meaning?

This paper investigates the implications for cultural policy of the logic of the instrumental view of culture taken to its conclusion. Policy developments that establish sets of justifications and rationales that have nothing to do with the cultural content of the policy concerned, but which arise from a deliberate realignment of policy frameworks, establish a form of hyperinstrumentalism. With hyperinstrumentalism the focus on outcomes and the ends of policy means that cultural policy is only as important as the ends to which it is directed. As such, hyperinstrumentalisation demonstrates the consequences for the sector of conditions where claims about the value of culture are irrelevant to political actors. The paper questions whether sense can be made of this shift as a coherent and strategic political choice, rather than as a simple assault on culture. The case of Northern Ireland’s Department of Culture, Arts and Leisure is used to illustrate this. The authors question whether hyperinstrumentalism undermines the justification for an autonomous domain of cultural policy.     

Patterns of core and generic skill provision in higher education

The study reported here is seeking to gain enhanced understandings of the acquisition and development of core and generic skills in higher education and employment against a backcloth of continued pressure for their effective delivery from employers, government departments, and those responsible for the management and funding of higher education. This pressure appears to have had little impact so far, in part because of tutors' scepticism of the message, the messenger and its vocabulary, and in part because the skills demanded lack clarity, consistency and a recognisable theoretical base. Any empirical attempt to acquire enhanced understandings of practice thus requires the conceptualisation and development of models of generic skills and of course provision. These models are presented together with evidence of their validity, including exemplars of the patterns of course provision identified.