Disrupting Bias Without Trainings: The Effect of Equity Advocates on Faculty Search Committees

Innovative Higher Education - Many institutions of higher education have implemented workshops for hiring committee members to familiarize them with the pernicious effects of implicit bias and how...     

Evaluating large‐scale interactive radio programmes

This article focuses on the challenges involved in conducting evaluations of interactive radio programmes in South Africa with large numbers of schools, teachers, and learners. It focuses on the role such large‐scale evaluation has played during the South African radio learning programme’s development stage, as well as during its subsequent sustained implementation phase. The model evolved for evaluation of interactive radio instruction is based within the context of a shoestring/real‐world evaluation tradition, where funding for internal evaluation has been limited over the period of the programme’s development to scale, necessitating focused use of resources in a longitudinal evaluation design. The evaluation approach is participatory and multimethod, linking the requirements of external summative evaluation conducted for accountability, with data yielded by internal (formative and developmental) evaluation. This is done through internal and formative evaluative studies of limited scope, combined with developmental classroom‐based evaluation based on the logic of project team members working with teachers to promote the programme’s self‐evaluative capacity.     

Raising awareness of campus diversity and inclusion: Transformationally teaching diversity through narratives of campus experiences and simulated problem solving

ABSTRACT

Courses: Organizational Communication, Intercultural Communication

Objectives: This activity encourages students to learn collaboratively about diversity through the sharing of student experiences; deepen and complicate their understanding of organizational diversity; and enhance their ability to apply course material to increasingly complex organizational environments.     

Supporting African refugees in Greater Western Sydney: a critical ethnography of after-school homework tutoring centres

This paper discusses the Refugee Action Support Partnership Project between the University of Western Sydney, The Australian Literacy and Numeracy Foundation and the NSW-Department of Education and Training (DET). The critical ethnographic method is used to evaluate the after-school homework tutoring centres as a vehicle of literacy development and youth transitions. Given the nature of strife and unrest in the African Continent, refugee children may have been unable to attend school before coming to Australia, or obtained only interrupted schooling at best. Since parents are unfamiliar with the education system and because many do not speak English, they cannot help their children as they would wish to, and children may be left to deal with difficulties alone. The School of Education at UWS offers service learning programs like the after-school homework tutoring centres, to deliver effective and sustainable support to schools so that refugee students can feel safe and begin to learn.     

Capturing the Transformation and Dynamic Nature of an Elementary Teacher Candidate’s Identity Development as a Teacher of Science

This study examines the transformation and dynamic nature of one teacher candidate’s (Susan) identity as a learner and teacher of science throughout an innovative science methods course. The goal of this paper is to use theoretically derived themes grounded in cultural-historical activity theory (CHAT) and situated learning theory to determine the ways in which Susan’s identity as a learner and teacher of science was influenced by her experiences in the course, and to describe how she made meaning of her transformative process. The following are the three theoretical themes: (1) learning contributes to identity development, (2) identity development is a dialogical process that occurs between individuals, not within individuals, and (3) social practice leads to transformations and transformations lead to the creation of new social practices. Within each theme, specific experiences in the science methods course are identified that influenced Susan’s identity development as a teacher of science. Knowing how context and experiences influence identity development can inform design decisions concerning teacher education programs, courses, and experiences for candidates.     

An analysis of Grade 11 learners’ levels of understanding of functions in terms of APOS theory

This article reports on a study of six Grade 11 learners’ levels of understanding of concepts related to the function definition and representation. Task-based clinical interviews were used to elicit the learners’ interpretations and reasoning when working with these function-related concepts. Indicators for Action–Process–Object–Schema (APOS) theory conception levels were formulated and used to categorise learners’ written and interview responses into conception levels of understanding of the function concept. According to the South African Curriculum Assessment Policy Statement (CAPS) curriculum, Grade 11 learners are expected to be operating at the object and schema levels after instruction. however, the results indicated that learners were operating at the action and process levels as their understanding was characterised by vague definitions of function-related concepts and memorisation of procedures for translating between symbolic and graphical representations.     

The value of non‐participation in higher education

The paper seeks to link the structural and the institutional to learning outcomes in order to articulate a research agenda capable of evaluating the impact of consumerism on learning and teaching in higher education. Consumerist mechanisms are situated in the context of quasi‐market and new managerial regulatory frameworks and concepts developed by Pierre Bourdieu are drawn on to establish a theoretical model of the uneven impact of consumerism across different types of universities. Empirical studies, conducted in a variety of national settings, are outlined to confirm the plausibility of the model. The possible interactions between first, changes in academic identity, teaching and the curriculum; and secondly, on student identities and their impact on teaching and assessment and their consequent learning outcomes, are outlined. Some important questions about the consequences for the labour market are also raised. The paper hypothesizes that attempts to restructure pedagogical cultures and identities to comply with consumerist frameworks may unintentionally deter innovation, promote passive and instrumental attitudes to learning, threaten academic standards and further entrench academic privilege. The paper concludes by outlining key areas that require investigation in order to address some of the problems posed by consumerism in a mass higher education system.