Dutch non-affiliated pre-vocational pupils,their world view and religious education

Abstract

More and more, Dutch adolescents are no longer affiliated with or involved in institutionalised religious world views. This development raises questions on how religion is treated and taught in secondary schools in the Netherlands. In order to reconsider religious education within these schools, closer insights into this particular, growing, group of pupils is needed. Therefore, the aim of the current study was to gain knowledge on how pupils from third-grade pre-vocational secondary education [In Dutch: vmbo], who are not affiliated with or involved in an organised world view, perceive the way their world view is being shaped. Ten pupils (14–16 years old) were interviewed about their world view formation process and about potential influential factors. The results showed that pupils emphasised that they are in charge of their world view formation process. Based on trust, they choose their own norms and values and answers to life questions from various sources. Religious education in school seemed only influential if pupils can relate the content of lessons to questions and experiences they have in their own lives. Findings suggest rethinking the content and the role of teachers of religious education in school in light of what non-affiliated pupils learn about world view at from home and other sources.     

How do teachers learn in the workplace? An examination of teacher learning activities

In this study, two data collection instruments were used to examine how Dutch secondary school teachers learn in the workplace. Firstly, they completed a questionnaire on their preferences for learning activities on two occasions. Secondly, during the intermediate period, they reported learning experiences in digital logs. Results of both instruments indicate that teachers often learn by critical individual reflection and by involving colleagues in particular challenging or problematic situations. An additional finding concerns the reporting of sequences of learning activities in the digital logs which is clearly different from the focus on single learning activities as found in most literature and as used in the questionnaire. Furthermore, the digital logs provided a fine‐tuning of the concepts of ‘involvement of colleagues’ and ‘experimentation’ in relation to teacher learning. The study concludes with a critical reflection on both data collection instruments. Finally, implications for future research on how teachers learn are discussed.     

Sloth, Silence, and Concentration: The Reader Between Letter and Spirit

In current-day criticisms of consumer culture as well as of the performativity culture of the work place, the originally religious concept of the vice of acedia or sloth is reinterpreted as a virtue. Art, especially poetry, is put to the fore in that connection. The image of the reader is addressed when the question of the relationship between poetics and religion is under discussion. The observation of the decline of reading has often been part of forms of cultural criticism and pessimism. Empirical research from the Netherlands over a few decades as to the free time spent in reading as compared to other leisure activities, is reviewed. The pattern emerges that not reading as such, but reading books is losing ground. The “Cultural Citizen” of present, as characterized by the Dutch Culture Council in 2007, is involved in so many diverging leisure activities, that the time and quiet needed for the time-honoured pastime of reading is lacking. The article then discusses the question whether there is a relationship between poetics and religion as to their imminent concentration and contemplation. An intrinsic relation between poetry and reading on the one hand and religion and transcendence on the other, is advocated by the famous British literary theorist George Steiner and by the Dutch essayist Jan Oegema. Steiner distinguishes five categories of solitude in his Grammars of Creation (2001). These categories are explored in order to test the validity of the idea that the seeking of solitude and concentration necessary for reading, eventually leads to spiritual and religious experience. This idea is rejected. In conclusion, reading is, after the fashion of the novelist Milan Kundera, tied to the experience, not of a transcendent unity, but rather of a polyphony of human voices.     

Nothing but the Facts?

This paper seeks to understand how journalists deal with storytelling and truth-seeking in their daily news practice. While storytelling is usually studied through texts, we approached it from a practice perspective, combining data from three ethnographic studies in which 36 beat reporters and 13 journalistic storytelling experts were extensively interviewed. Because of the emphasis journalists place on “finding out the truth” in public discourses, it is tempting for academics to present them as naive truth-seekers. However, by means of an interpretative repertoire analysis of their “practice” discourses, we seek to enlarge the discursive space to talk about the supposed tension between story and reality. Although departing from the idea that all news making is storytelling, the interviewed journalists consider news making and storytelling as distinct—and sometimes opposing—practices. These professional practices serve as the framework around which five storytelling repertoires are organized.     

A dialogical approach to conceptualizing teacher identity

In recent attempts to address the notion of teacher identity, scholars have stressed how identity is dynamically evolving, intrinsically related to others, and consists of multiple identities. Though these postmodern characterizations represent radically new perceptions of identity, they are not extensively discussed in relation to previous assumptions on singularity or sameness of teacher identity. The emerging theory of dialogical self in psychology offers a more elaborate approach to teacher identity, conceived of as both unitary and multiple, both continuous and discontinuous, and both individual and social. Based on this approach, teacher identity is re-defined and implications for research are identified.     

Exploring dynamics and strategies of niche protection

This paper focuses on the processes and strategies of advocates and opponents in creating, maintaining and/or contesting the protective spaces in which ‘urgently needed’ but ‘risky’ pharmaceutical innovations are managed. Drawing on transition literature and recent work on niche protection, this paper adds to the conceptualisation and empirical grounding of niche protection by studying the dynamics of protection, in particular the different phases of niche development. Moreover, the links between niche protection processes and protection strategies pursued by niche players are explored. Dynamics of niche protection are explored in two case studies: the monitoring of treatments for HIV and of a vaccination against pandemic influenza. We conclude that niche protection depends on interactions between network building, empowerment activities and the construction of a positive niche narrative vis-à-vis anti-narratives raised by actors outside the niche. Furthermore, the nature of learning within a niche and the niche's robustness are determined by whether the strategies are predominantly accommodating or restrictive.     

Cross‐Validated Prediction of Academic Performance of First‐Year University Students: Identifying Risk Factors in a Nonselective Environment

Early prediction of academic performance is important for student support. The authors explored, in a multivariate approach, whether pre‐entry data (e.g., high school study results, preparative activities, expectations, capabilities, motivation, and attitude) could predict university students’ first‐year academic performance. Preregistered applicants for a bachelor's program filled out an intake questionnaire before study entry. Outcome data (first‐year grade point average, course credits, and attrition) were obtained 1 year later. Prediction accuracy was assessed by cross‐validation. Students who performed better in preparatory education, followed a conventional educational path before entering, and expected to spend more time on a program‐related organization performed better during their first year at university. Concrete preuniversity behaviors were more predictive than psychological attributions such as self‐efficacy. Students with a “love of learning” performed better than leisure‐oriented students. The intake questionnaire may be used for identifying up front who may need additional support, but is not suitable for student selection.     

Financing special needs and inclusive education – from Salamanca to the present

ABSTRACT

The focus of this paper is upon an examination of the ‘direction of travel’ in European countries from special needs education to inclusive education – a development influenced by the Salamanca Statement. The 1994 Salamanca Statement argued that inclusive schools provide ‘an effective education for the majority of children and improve the efficiency and ultimately the cost-effectiveness of the entire education system’ (ix). Underpinning this assertion are issues around special needs and inclusive education are financed. The paper will examine the degree to which the critical issue of financing has – or has not – changed across European countries since Salamanca. This examination takes retrospective look at key issues identified in the European Agency 1999 study of funding models for special education in 17 European countries, compared and contrasted with those identified in a 2016 study of approaches to funding inclusive education in 18 European countries. This paper argues that the essential issues underpinning their financing mechanisms have changed very little. For many European countries, changing systems of financing of inclusive education can still be seen as a key lever for achieving the goal of more widespread inclusion of learners with special educational needs, as outlined in the 1994 Salamanca Statement.     

A narrative analysis of a teacher educator’s professional learning journey

This article reports on a narrative analysis of one teacher educator’s learning journey in a two-year professional development project. Professional development is conceived of as the complex learning processes resulting from the meaningful interactions between the individual teacher educator and his/her working context. Our analysis indicates that the capacity to manage such interactions contributes strongly to teacher educators’ experience of vulnerability. We analytically describe three strategies (building positive self-esteem, sustaining moral commitment and purpose, and strategical compliance) to cope with this vulnerability and their impact on processes of professional development as well as the outcomes of it. Understanding the role of the working context – and vulnerability as a structural characteristic of that context – in professional development processes adds to existing knowledge of teacher educators’ professional lives and development.