Counselor Renewal Workshop in Sex Equality

The article discusses a counselor renewal workshop in sex equity that used a variety of experiential activities including material from the ACES Commission on Sex Equality Concerns. Evaluation of the workshop was done in an unique manner through the use of a questionnaire from the handbook prepared by the ACES Commission and through a pretest/posttest consisting of a worksheet and audiotaped vignettes demonstrating sex bias in counseling situations. The workshop appeared to heighten the awareness of the subtlety of sex-biased communication on the part of the counselors and to stimulate their intentions to monitor and to change appropriately their own counseling behaviors in the future.     

Uneasy Hybrids: Psychosocial aspects of becoming educationally successful for working-class young women Correspondence : Helen Lucey,South Bank University,Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences,London Road,London SE1 0AA,UK. E-mail: Luceyh@sbu.ac.uk

Drawing on a longitudinal study of middle-class and working-class girls growing up, this article focuses on those few working-class young women who managed to get to university and face the prospect of a 'professional' career. The authors examine the concept of 'hybridity' as it is used to understand shifts in the constitution of contemporary feminine subjectivities and argue that although hybridity may be a social and cultural fact, in this psychic economy there are no easy hybrids. The authors explore some of the more difficult emotional dynamics in their families that have nevertheless helped sustain their success; of 'never asking for anything', of parents as burdened, of envy, love and pride. Moving into the intellectual domain is a massive shift for working-class young women who do well at school, requiring an internal and external 'makeover'. It is therefore essential to explore the complexities of the losses as well as the gains involved in educational success and upward mobility for working-class young women if we are serious about the project of equality in education. Without a consideration of the psychodynamic processes involved, the deep and enduring failure of the majority of working-class girls and boys will continue unabated.     

Emotional Intelligence: Review of Research and Educational Implications

This article provides a critical review of the research field of emotional intelligence (EI) and examines the usefulness of the construct in the debate on educational policy and practice. The authors examine two approaches to the theory and measurement of EI and summarize the evidence linking EI to life success and academic achievement. Also considered is whether or not EI can be changed or developed, and how it might be facilitated in educational practice. In conclusion, while a distinct construct of EI remains debatable; many of the attributes encompassed by this term do predict that life success and programmes of socio-emotional learning in schools may usefully contribute to the development of these attributes.     

Realising child voice: the development of Cue Cards

There has been lively and continuing interest worldwide about how best to ensure that all children, and, in particular, children with special needs or disabilities, have their views heard. In the UK, successive legislation across children's services has made this increasingly important. Children's views are even a part of the formal evaluation of many services (such as reviews and inspections of peripatetic support services in education). Making such processes ‘real’ rather than token requires that we find effective ways through which all children can share what they feel about their schools, services and provision. This article describes a technique using a small number of card pictures (eight) to prompt ideas about key elements of a narrative. We suggest that this approach, which has been tried and tested in depth in a local authority (as well as in various research projects), has considerable application in teaching and assessment with diverse children and young people across various contexts. We include examples to illustrate the versatility and value of the approach for schools and other services.     

Setting up an Email Peer Support Scheme

This article opens with a review of current research on peer interventions and their capacity to impact on school climate and bystander behaviour, as well as to meet the aims of fostering altruism. The main focus of the article is a study of an email support group in an all-boys school in the United Kingdom. It was set up in response to an incident of physical bullying and after consultation it was found that email was the preferred mode of support. The article discusses the reasons for this and presents details of how the support system was set up and operated, and reports the outcomes. The authors conclude that email provides a good medium for peer support schemes in schools, as it increases anonymity, and reduces concerns about 'grassing'.     

Intrinsic Motivation and Self-esteem in Traditional and Mature Students at a Post-1992 University in the North-east of England

Recent figures have suggested that the composition of the student body is already changing in terms of mature and traditional student learner numbers--while 24% of full time students were over the age of 21 in 1980, this figure rose to 33% by 1996 (Merrill, 1999). Using the Intrinsic Motivation towards Learning Questionnaire (Whitehead, 1984) and the Rosenberg Global Self-Esteem Questionnaire (Rosenberg, 1965), the current study documents the relationship between intrinsic motivation towards learning and self-esteem in traditional and mature students, in order to compare these groups in their approach to learning. Results from sample size of 160 research participants indicated that self-esteem and intrinsic motivation towards learning were significantly associated. Mature women students had the highest intrinsic motivation scores, as well as the highest self-esteem scores in the sample. The findings are discussed in the light of previous research, which suggests that mature women students are vulnerable learners in higher education institutions and the study's conclusion draws attention to the current UK Government policy's commitment to expand student numbers.