Individualism, Diversity and Unity: Goals in Tension in Public Education

This review essay examines three recent books addressing recurring or current controversies in public education. One is historically based, a second focuses on a range of questions, and the third concentrates on the single issue of school choice. All of them, however, may be read against a backdrop of tension among three enduring liberal democratic values: individualism, diversity and unity. Public education is surely aimed at individual success and at preparing future adults to make choices, ideally among a range of opportunities. The existence of a multicultural society and the development of identity politics, however, mean that members of groups often wish to preserve their particular identities despite a common education. Finally, public education has been based on inculcating values that ostensibly we all share in common. Each of these aims may conflict with one or both of the others. Therefore, setting the proper course requires an ongoing attempt to strike the proper balance among them. It is within this framework that I examine these books.     

A Fair Comparison? The Evolution of Methods of Comparability in National Assessment

Comparability is a term used in educational assessment to describe the relative outcomes of one assessment against another. It is investigated in order to inform the Awarding Bodies, centres, candidates and the general public about the extent to which standards are consistent between assessments. The purpose of this paper is to demystify some technical aspects of how national assessment standards are guarded, by making details of these methods of comparability accessible to practitioners, managers, policy makers and researchers. In doing so, the authors review the use and techniques of comparability, describe the methodology currently in use, and discuss its application towards ensuring justice within national assessment.     

Questioning as regulatory work practice: The communicative accomplishment of reliability and safety in the oversight of nuclear power plants

The safety of high hazard systems depends on the organizations that monitor and regulate them, but theorizing of these organizations tends to gloss over the specific communicative practices that comprise organizing for reliability and safety. This article investigates nuclear power plant inspectors’ communicative work practices by studying how asking and answering questions organizes their work. The data include interviews (N?=?29) and shadowing of resident inspectors at six nuclear power plants and a regional office of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission. The analysis of communicative work practices central to inspection work (e.g., interrogating, coordinating interaction, and keeping track) contribute to normative theory of questioning in safety organizing with implications for the communicative study of questioning, work practice, and high hazard systems.     

Having our work cut out! Reflections on the Australian association for research in education and the current state of Australian educational research

This paper provides an overview of themes from the history of the AARE and relates them to current debates around educational research, its methodologies, methods and means of dissemination.     

The Ideology of Health Education in Schools

This paper examines the dominant themes which underlie many of the health education materials used in schools, and explores whether these are the most appropriate if health education is to make a significant contribution to either children's health or their education.

The overall approach to health education is identified as highly individualistic in its emphasis on individual responsibilities, attributes and skills necessary for achieving health. Contradictions, distortions and gaps inherent in this model are revealed. These contribute to identifying this kind of health education as an ideology, which serves least the needs and interests of those children who are likely to experience the greatest ill‐health.

The ways in which this approach is inappropriate for schoolchildren are illustrated by a case study, which compares the drinking experiences of a group of children with the alcohol education materials designed for them.

To conclude, improvements to both health education for slow learners and more generally to health education in schools are discussed. These include the development of an approach which is both child‐centred, and critical in locating individual choices about health within the social, economic and political contexts of local communities and wider society.

     

Risk Taking,Boundary Performance and Intentional School Internet “Misuse”

Whilst the association of risk with schools is predominately a negative one, fostering images of potential dangers, this paper draws upon a socio-cultural counter-discourse to explore the perceived benefits of certain risk taking activities within educational establishments. Using research data on school Internet “misuse” it is argued that some students benefit from engaging in boundary performance. This can be seen as a type of risky behaviour involving low level dangers that offer an escape from tedious routine through public displays of temporarily traversing boundaries. Furthermore, it is maintained that such activity may be a central element in identity construction. It is concluded that the concept of boundary performance has wider applications than merely explaining certain school Internet “misuse”, potentially helping practitioners and policy-makers to think more creatively about the educational process as well as offering insights into other “problematic” behaviour.     

Integrating the Arts and STEM for Gifted Learners

This study investigates the process of identifying high-quality lessons for gifted learners that integrate the arts with science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields. These STEAM lessons have the potential to develop deep thinking, as well as develop creativity and visual–spatial skills that are necessary in the STEM disciplines. Lessons were solicited from teachers through their involvement in national organizations, and 61 lessons were analyzed and reviewed by experts in the arts and STEM fields, as well as master teachers. High-quality lessons provided deep content knowledge in both STEM and arts fields, connections across content areas, specific criteria for assessment, and collaborations between teachers and between students. The findings from this study will be used to further define the evaluation process for STEAM lessons designed for gifted learners and to develop professional development opportunities for teachers of the gifted.     

‘There's a war against our children’: black educational underachievement revisited

This paper focuses on the educational experiences of a group of African Caribbean and mixed ‘race’ young people from the perspectives of their parents. The discussion is set within a national context where children of African Caribbean origin are one of the lowest achieving minority ethnic groups in the UK and are disproportionately one of the highest ethnic groups of children excluded from school. The parents recount a pattern of cumulative negative experiences which for many of the children results in academic underachievement and becoming demotivated to learn, by a system that they feel has rejected them, or imposed exclusion. The story is hardly new but it provides important further evidence that schools need to tackle head‐on factors such as low teacher expectations and negative stereotyping of young black people and their contribution to black underachievement.

I dread to see my children grow. I know not their fate. Where the white girl has one temptation, mine will have many. Where the white boy has every opportunity and protection, mine will have few opportunities and no protection. It does not matter how good or wise my children may be, they are colored. When I have said that, all is said … (Lerner, 1972 Lerner, G., ed. 1972. Black women in white America: a documentary history, New York: Vintage.  [Google Scholar], p. 158, cited in Hill‐Collins, 2000 Hill‐Collins, P. 2000. Black feminist thought , (2nd edn), London and New York: Routledge.  [Google Scholar], p. 196)

I have a dream that my four children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character. (Martin Luther King, Jr, 28 August 1963, cited in Ladson‐Billings, 1994 Ladson‐Billings, G. 1994. The dreamkeepers, San Francisco: Jossey‐Bass Publishers.  [Google Scholar], p. 30)     

Learning activities and interactive videodisc: an exploratory study

This article reports the findings of a small-scale study on pupil use of interactive videodisc. The types of learning activity in which the groups of pupils engaged are identified and the proportion of time spent on each is shown. Patterns in the data are analysed by ability of the pupil group and by the number of sessions in which the videodisc had been used. The discussion focuses on two interesting results: the high proportion of time spent on reading, watching and listening; and the greater statistical differences within groups than between groups of pupils.