ICT, Education, and Visual Impairment

This paper provides an overview of developments in the use of information and communications technology (ICT) in the education of children with a visual impairment. The context is set by summarising the population of children with a visual impairment in this country, and presenting World Health Organisations classification of disability as a criteria by which the relevance of ICT can be measured. Case-studies of the use of different types of educational and access technology are presented and it is argued that information and communications technology has a valuable role in providing opportunities for children with a visual impairment to participate more fully in education.     

Part-time Employment and Performance at A-level

How many sixth-formers have part-time paid employment, and does this affect their performance at A-level? This article describes how one teaching institution set up a project to collect and analyse data in an attempt to find answers to these questions.     

Inclusive educational practices in Kenya: Evidencing practice of itinerant teachers who work with children with visual impairment in local mainstream schools

This article presents a findings from an investigation of the work of 38 specialist itinerant teachers (ITs) supporting the educational inclusion of children with visual impairment in Kenya. The research was designed around a participatory action research framework involving in-country researchers and participants (teachers) working in collaboration with researchers in the United Kingdom. Following an introductory training workshop, participants kept research journals over a 2-month period in which they recorded details of their itinerant duties (including the processes and content of their visits). Findings provide information about local practices of ITs support for children with visual impairment in mainstream schools and raise broader questions about the barriers to learning and development facing children with disabilities in mainstream schools in Kenya and other developing countries.     

Accessed or latent resources? Exploring new secondary science teachers' networks of resources

Although new teachers clearly need resources and support, little is known about the types of resources new science teachers' access during their early years of teaching. To increase knowledge of their needs, the study described in this article focused on the primary resources (i.e., human, material, and social) and secondary resources (i.e., strategic and symbolic) new science teachers' access and how those resources interact in new teachers' instructional contexts. The participants for this qualitative study were 15 new secondary science teachers in the United States, and data sources included a contextual interview, teaching observations, and a follow-up interview. Findings revealed that these teachers had a variety of resources available to them, of which social resources were particularly important. Some resources were not accessed and remained latent resources. In addition, some interactions of resources in the new teachers' context led to the development of the network of resources model to represent how resources can interact in contexts to support a new teacher. This model highlights the importance of considering the interaction of multiple resources in a teaching context.