Principals of audit: testing,data and ‘implicated advocacy’

Historically, school leaders have occupied a somewhat ambiguous position within networks of power. On the one hand, they appear to be celebrated as what Ball (2003 Ball, S., 2003. The teacher's soul and the terrors of performativity. Journal of education policy, 18 (2), 215–228.[Taylor &; Francis Online], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]) has termed the ‘new hero of educational reform'; on the other, they are often ‘held to account’ through those same performative processes and technologies. These have become compelling in schools and principals are ‘doubly bound’ through this. Adopting a Foucauldian notion of discursive production, this paper addresses the ways that the discursive ‘field’ of ‘principal’ (within larger regimes of truth such as schools, leadership, quality and efficiency) is produced. It explores how individual principals understand their roles and ethics within those practices of audit emerging in school governance, and how their self-regulation is constituted through NAPLAN – the National Assessment Program, Literacy and Numeracy. A key effect of NAPLAN has been the rise of auditing practices that change how education is valued. Open-ended interviews with 13 primary and secondary school principals from Western Australia, South Australia and New South Wales asked how they perceived NAPLAN's impact on their work, their relationships within their school community and their ethical practice.     

Comparative analysis of expectancies of efficacy in in-service and prospective teachers

This study examines the beliefs about effective teaching in student teachers and inservice teachers. We constructed a measurement composed of an adaptation in Spanish of the Gibson and Dembo's (1984. Teacher efficacy: A construct validation. Journal of Educational Psychology, 76, 569–582). Teacher Efficacy Scale and of the items included in Emmer and Hickman's (1991. Teacher efficacy in classroom management and discipline. Educational and Psychological Measurement, 51, 755–765) “classroom management/discipline efficacy” dimension. A total of 339 participants took part in the study. The factor analysis carried out of the results obtained showed three principal factors: classroom management/discipline efficacy, personal teaching efficacy and general teaching efficacy. Analyses which compared efficacy expectancies showed significant differences in the management and discipline dimension in favour of the group of working teachers, whereas an opposite pattern emerged in the general teaching dimension. In addition, there were differences in the management/discipline dimension in terms of the number of years’ experience in the group of inservice teachers. The interpretation of the results is expressed in terms of the Bandura's perceived self-efficacy theory. We also indicate some implications that the analysis of these expectancies may have for the training and professional development of teachers, and we suggest lines for future research.     

Assessment of health-care professionals’ knowledge and attitudes on sexuality and aging: an integrative review

ABSTRACT

This study aims to establish an understanding of (a) health-care professionals’ knowledge and attitudes; and (b) tools used to assess sexuality in older people living with/(out) dementia and those identified as lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans, or intersex (LGBTI) individuals. An integrative review of the literature, as registered on the PROSPERO international Prospective Register of Systematic Reviews (CRD42019129589), was conducted. A comprehensive and systematic literature search was performed for the period between 2009 to 2019 across eight electronic databases: CINAHL, PubMed, MEDLINE, Web of Science, Cochrane library, Embase, PsycINFO, and Scopus, together with a manual search of reference lists. Screening of titles, abstracts, and full texts of eligible studies plus quality appraisal (using the Mixed Methods Appraisal Tool) were independently conducted by two reviewers with disagreements resolved via discussion with a third reviewer. Nineteen articles were reviewed with three themes identified from the synthesis: 1) varying knowledge and attitudes amongst health-care professionals; 2) needs for professional development opportunities and support from workplace and 3) lack of recent validated tools to assess knowledge and attitudes. Health-care professionals’ knowledge and attitudes toward sexuality in older people living with/(out) dementia and those identified as LGBTI individuals are varying. Sexuality education and professional development training are needed to enhance their knowledge and attitudes and build skills in order to manage sexuality concerns. Current assessment tools are inadequate, highlighting the need for an appropriate assessment tool to be developed.     

Child and adolescent abuse and subsequent victimization: a prospective study

OBJECTIVE: We investigated the possible reciprocal relationship between victimization experiences and psychological functioning by assessing abuse experiences in childhood, adolescence, and during a 2-month follow-up period. METHOD: At the beginning of the study (Time 1), abuse histories, trauma and depressive symptoms, and interpersonal functioning were assessed in 551 college women. Subsequent victimization experiences and psychological outcomes were assessed at the follow-up (Time 2). RESULTS: Path analyses indicated that verbal abuse by the mother and father were predictive of various psychological outcomes as measured at Time 1 and emerged as the only significant predictors of adolescent dating violence. Adolescent dating violence subsequently predicted the experience of dating violence during the 2-month follow-up period. Paternal physical abuse predicted adolescent sexual victimization which subsequently predicted all symptom measures at Time 1. Conversely, the experience of adolescent physical dating violence was not predictive of any of the symptom measures at Time 1. For those women who experienced dating violence during the follow-up, however, the severity of their abusive experiences was related to both depression and interpersonal problems assessed at Time 2. In comparison, for those women who experienced sexual victimization during the follow-up period, the severity of their abusive experiences was related to trauma symptoms. Interpersonal problems emerged as both an aftereffect of adolescent sexual victimization experience and a predictor of a subsequent sexual victimization experience during the follow-up. CONCLUSIONS: Given that emotional abuse emerged as a predictor of adolescent dating violence and psychological outcomes, researchers and clinicians need to continue to explore this problem. Further, it is important to assess how interpersonal problems contribute to the risk of subsequent sexual victimization and to try to break the cycle between adolescent abuse experiences and subsequent physical and sexual assaults.     

Personal construct systems in vocational development and information-processing

Greg J. Neimeyer is Associate Professor, Department of Psychology, University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida 32611.     

Doing time in the sociology of education

Abstract

This article is both an editorial introduction for this special issue and a distinctive contribution in its own right. The article seeks to extend a dynamic and multiple conception of time to the sociology of education to think beyond the clock time associated with modernity and industrialisation. This need is illustrated through an account and critique of E.P. Thompson’s canonical account of clock time. The article argues that this construction of clock time implicitly frames most work in the sociology of education. The concept of ‘timespace’ offers a way to go beyond both clock time and the current ‘spatial turn’ in the sociology of education that prioritises space over time. It is shown how computerisation also ushers in a new temporality, which works simultaneously with clock time and perhaps presages the move from a disciplinary to control society. The article accepts that there are multiple and dynamic temporalities and correlatively supports a working together of historical and sociological imaginations towards a sociology of education that acknowledges and works with multiple temporalities, empirically, methodologically, theoretically and in research writing.     

Research paradigm choices made by postgraduate students with Pacific education research interests in New Zealand

This paper explores the nature of postgraduate research in the broad area of Pacific education completed in New Zealand universities. First, a number of basic trends are identified in terms of institutional affiliation, area of educational research, MA and PhD balance, growth over time, national/ethnic focus and the expected beneficiaries of the research. Secondly, and more significantly, trends in the theorisation of Pacific postgraduate education research are identified using a positivist-interpetivist-emancipationist-deconstructivist paradigm typology as a basis for analysis, in particular the degree to which the latter two research perspectives have been embraced. It is argued that research done within emancipationist and deconstructionist paradigms has the most socially transformative potential. The completion of socially transformative educational research is significant given increasing calls from within Pacific communities to decolonise and re-indigenise both educational research agendas as well as systems of Pacific primary and secondary schooling influenced by educational research. The paper demonstrates, however, that very little emancipationary and deconstructivist education research has been completed. This apparent mismatch is explored in the light of the wider competing educational discourses of Pacific colonisation and indigenisation.     

Morphological and biochemical responses of Oryza sativa L. (cultivar MR219) to ion beam irradiation

Objective

Heavy ion beam, which has emerged as a new mutagen in the mutation breeding of crops and ornamental plants, is expected to result in the induction of novel mutations. This study investigates the morphological and biochemical responses of Oryza sativa toward different doses of carbon ion beam irradiation.

Methods

In this study, the dry seeds of O. sativa were irradiated at 0, 20, 40, 60, 80, 100, and 120 Gy, followed by in-vitro germination under controlled conditions. Morphological and biochemical studies were conducted to investigate the morphological and physiological responses of O. sativa towards ion beam irradiation.

Results

The study demonstrated that low doses (10 Gy) of ion beam have a stimulating effect on the height, root length, and fresh weight of the plantlets but not on the number of leaves. Meanwhile, doses higher than 10 Gy caused reductions in all the morphological parameters studied as compared to the control samples. The highest total soluble protein content [(2.11±0.47) mg/g FW] was observed in plantlets irradiated at 20 Gy. All irradiated plantlets were found to have 0.85% to 58.32% higher specific activity of peroxidase as compared to the control samples. The present study also revealed that low doses of ion beam (10 and 20 Gy) had negligible effect on the total chlorophyll content of O. sativa plantlets while 40 Gy had a stimulating effect on the chlorophyll content. Plantlets irradiated between 40 to 120 Gy were shown to be 0.38% to 9.98% higher in total soluble nitrogen content which, however, was not significantly different from the control samples.

Conclusions

Carbon ion beam irradiation administered at low to moderate doses of 10 to 40 Gy may induce O. sativa mutants with superior characteristics.