The role of school leadership in the implementation of the Transition Year Programme in Ireland

Introducing an educational innovation into any school context involves some challenge to existing practices. Transition Year is an innovative, optional, one-year programme taken by approximately half the 15–16-year age cohort in schools in the Republic of Ireland. Based on data from an extensive study of TY operating in six different schools, programme co-ordinators and school principals are identified as having key roles in the successful implementation of TY. However, exercising the collegiality both roles demand goes against established cultures of isolated individualism in Irish schools. Furthermore, maintaining TY's coherence and integrity in the face of threats from more established programmes offers particular challenges. For this innovation to be successful, active curriculum leadership by school principals is seen as crucial. The paper interrogates the evidence through the lens of the 2008 OECD study on school leadership and poses questions about the relevance and value of the OECD perspective.     

Developing a Common Model? Comparing Effective School Improvement Across European Countries

Applicability of research models across contexts is often viewed as desirable. This article discusses 6 issues faced by members of the Effective School Improvement (ESI) project research teams as they explored themes emerging in case studies carried out in 8 different countries, as part of a process of trying to generate a model that would be valid and applicable across contexts. After posing questions that need further resolution, the conclusion at this particular stage of the research was that caution was advisable before transferring the findings from one context to another.     

Curriculating Powerful Knowledge for Public Managers and Administrators

Abstract

Public Management and Public Administration are important professions for an emerging democracy such as South Africa. They operate as the interface between state and public and are responsible for enacting many of the government's policies and social initiatives. Concerns about a lack of capacity in the sector suggest that those in these roles may be unable to meet the demands of the workplace. This article reports on a study that responded to calls for the curriculum to address such concerns by interrogating the knowledge structures of Public Management and Public Administration programmes in higher education. Interviews, textbooks and course guides were analysed to illuminate the forms of knowledge being legitimated in curricula. The study found that the focus on knowledge, skills and processes might be at the expense of a focus on the development of particular attributes or dispositions in the knowers. Furthermore, the knowledge level focus was limited in that it was highly contextualised and “light” on theory, raising questions about the acquisition of powerful knowledge needed for good governance and critical engagement in the public sector. The study recommends that both programmes include more conceptual knowledge; exposure to critical powerful forms of knowledge; and the development of particular attributes and dispositions.     

Internal review and self-evaluation — the chosen route to school improvement in ireland?

In recent years there has been an intense debate in many countries concerning the best approach to improving schools. The various methods being tried might be reasonably seen as constituting a continuum ranging from strict external control and inspection at one end, to self-evaluation and internal regulation at the other. In practice, most education systems appear to be moving towards a combination of these methods, involving a degree of external monitors of internal self-evaluation mechanisms. This article analyses the gradual emergence in the Irish education system of such an accommodation. It charts the increased emphasis being placed upon school self-evaluation and argues that it does constitute the best way forward. However, it also highlights a major lacuna at the heart of the emerging system, namely the lack of firm data on which schools can really base effective improvement strategies.     

Enhancing Teacher Preparation and Improving Faculty Teaching Skills: Lessons Learned from Implementing “Science That Matters” a Standards Based Interdisciplinary Science Course Sequence

In a highly collaborative process we developed an introductory science course sequence to improve science literacy especially among future elementary and middle school education majors. The materials and course features were designed using the results of research on teaching and learning to provide a rigorous, relevant and engaging, standard based science experience. More than ten years of combined planning, development, implementation and assessment of this college science course sequence for nonmajors/future teachers has provided significant insights and success in achieving our goal. This paper describes the history and iterative nature of our ongoing improvements, changes in faculty instructional practice, strategies used to overcome student resistance, significant student learning outcomes, support structures for faculty, and the essential and informative role of assessment in improving the outcomes. Our experience with diverse institutions, students and faculty provides the basis for the lessons we have learned and should be of help to others involved in advancing science education.     

The Experiences of International and Local Students at Three Australian Universities

In 1992 international fee‐paying and local students currently enrolled at the three tertiary institutions in South Australia were surveyed by a common questionnaire on students’ study‐related and personal experiences, and issues related to students’ choice and subsequent evaluation of their institution. The breadth of the student sample and the comparative data the questionnaire generated present an overarching view of the experiences and evaluations of a diverse range of university students.

The results of the survey show that while international students experience more problems, and experience them to a more serious degree than their Australian counterparts, the nature of the issues which are of most concern are generally shared. These are concerns about financial issues such as access to Austudy for local students, and the level of fees for international students and the ability to find part‐time work for both groups. The other broad group of issues of concern was study related: workload, fear of failure, loss of motivation, doubts about academic ability, nervousness and tension. Notably, in spite of the differences ‐between the three institutions – the University of Adelaide representing a ‘traditional’ university, Flinders University of South Australia, a ‘1960s’ university and the University of South Australia a ‘post‐1987’ university – the student responses across the three institutions were remarkably similar.

In terms of student evaluations of the quality of the education and services provided, Australian students were consistently more likely to rate aspects of teaching more positively than their international counterparts, but for both groups it was evident, particularly in their comments, that aspects of teaching such as the quality of lectures, accessibility of staff, availability of resources and staff: student ratios were of major concern.

The findings lead to the recommendations that universities could improve both local and international student experience by providing clear information about courses and course expectations, by the provision of effective feedback on assignments, by embedding the teaching of academic skills within courses, by increasing course flexibility to enable students to balance study and earning demands, and by ensuring that student support services are adequately resourced.     

Youth Voice,Civic Engagement and Failure in Participatory Action Research

In this article, we tell the story of a changing urban landscape through the eyes of the youth we work with in an ongoing after-school program and community-based research project rooted in Photovoice methodology. In particular, we focus on the work that, over the 6 years of our time with youth, has “ended up on the cutting room floor” (Paris and Winn (eds) Humanizing research: decolonizing qualitative inquiry with youth and communities. SAGE Publications, Thousand Oaks, 2014, p. xix). This attention to the work that has fallen through the cracks is a move to engage the central tenets of Humanizing Research, but it’s also a call to think critically with and through the failures that emerge in work with youth. We attend specifically to an ongoing failure in our work as a way to think about the kinds of promises that are often made and broken in participatory action research. In doing so, we tease out the implications of our work with youth and the steps community-based researchers can take to navigate the challenges that can impede the goals of fostering meaningful change.