Outdoor experiences and sustainability

Positive outdoor teaching and learning experiences and sound pedagogical approaches undoubtedly have contributed towards an understanding of environmental sustainability but it is not always clear how, and to what extent, education can translate into action. This article argues, with reference to social learning theory, that role modelling, mentoring and sustainable practice, by outdoor educators and using outdoor experiences, can contribute to pro-environmental action by offering an array of possibilities to engender pro-environmental behaviour. Pro-environmental behaviour is situated on the spectrum towards the realisation of a sustainable ‘lifestyle’, which implies a stronger and more committed intent, but might constitute too radical a shift with implied structural change. Using Cooper’s theoretical framework of ‘awareness, empowerment and commitment’, the place of role modelling through long-term mentoring in real, lived, outdoor environments that embrace pro-environmental behaviour is illustrated but further empirical research is required to substantiate the evidence base.     

Measuring poly-victimization using the Juvenile Victimization Questionnaire

OBJECTIVE: Children who experience multiple victimizations (referred to in this paper as poly-victims) need to be identified because they are at particularly high risk of additional victimization and traumatic psychological effects. This paper compares alternative ways of identifying such children using questions from the Juvenile Victimization Questionnaire (JVQ). METHODS: The JVQ was administered in a national random digit dial telephone survey about the experiences of 2,030 children. The victimizations of children 10-17 years old were assessed through youth self-report on the JVQ and the victimizations of children 2-9 assessed through JVQ caregiver proxy report. RESULTS: Twenty-two percent of the children in this sample had experienced four or more different kinds of victimizations in separate incidents (what we term poly-victimization) within the previous year. Such poly-victimization was highly associated with traumatic symptomatology. Several ways of identifying poly-victims with the JVQ produced roughly equivalent results: a simple count using the 34 victimizations screeners, a count using a reduced set of only 12 screeners, and the original poly-victimization measure using follow-up questions to identify victimizations occurring during different episodes. CONCLUSION: Researchers and clinicians should be taking steps to identify poly-victims within the populations with which they work and have several alternative ways of doing so.     

Bottling fog? The quest for instructional management

Elsewhere, the authors have unpacked instructional leadership and have documented that such leadership is associated with more effective schools. Indeed, there has been for a considerable time nearly universal acceptance that learning-centered leadership should provide the central platform on which leadership is enacted. In this paper, a less sanguine narrative is provided on instructional management. Specifically, it documents that for all the evidence and recognition of importance, learning-focused leadership remains a small domain of action for leaders at the school and district levels. It then focuses on both the culture of the profession of school administration and the nature of schooling to explain why in the face of considerable energy and effort only marginal improvements have been realized in deepening instructional leadership. It closes with an analysis of possible paths going forward.     

Orientations to research higher degree supervision

This study examines the beliefs of supervisors and PhD candidates about higher degree supervision and three other academic domains: research; teaching; and learning. Interview data from 34 participants were categorised into four distinctive orientations to supervision, each consisting of a network (plexus) of beliefs about the four domains. Although each orientation comprised many beliefs, the orientations clearly differed in terms of two broad distinctions: whether the supervisor should direct and take responsibility for the research (controlling beliefs) or should guide the process (guiding beliefs), and whether the focus of supervision should be more upon the research tasks to be completed (task-focussed beliefs) or upon the development of the candidates (person-focussed beliefs). These distinctions, plus the types of interconnections between the beliefs comprising each orientation, support the conclusion that beliefs about teaching are central to each orientation, even though supervision is intimately concerned with research.     

Parents' Reactions to Children's Negative Emotions: Relations to Children's Social Competence and Comforting Behavior

The purpose of this study was to examine the relations of mothers' and fathers' reported emotion-related practices to parents' and teachers' reports of third-to sixth-grade children's social skills, popularity, and coping, as well as the quantity and quality of children's comforting of an infant. Mothers' problem-focused reactions tended to be positively associated with children's social functioning and coping, whereas maternal minimizing reactions tended to be linked to lower levels of social competence and high levels of avoidant coping. There were few findings for fathers' reactions, although fathers reported fewer problem-focused reactions with socially competent, in contrast to less competent, daughters. Emotion-focused and problem-focused maternal reactions, as well as encouragement of the expression of emotion, were associated with boys' children's comforting behavior, although a moderate level of maternal encouragement of the expression of emotion was associated with quality of girls' comforting.     

Schools as sanctuaries: A systematic review of contextual factors which contribute to student retention in alternative education

Early school leaving is an international concern. Previous research indicates that the school context contributes to early school leaving. This systematic review is aimed to gather marginalised young peoples’ perceptions concerning contextual factors that contributed to and interfered with their decisions to stay in alternative education. Twenty-three databases and reference lists of reviews were searched, eliciting 1586 studies, which were then screened. Data from 24 mixed-methods studies that met the inclusion criteria were extracted and synthesised. Findings suggested that alternative schools which provided a sanctuary for students increased student engagement. Schools were sanctuaries when they offered physical, emotional and psychological safe spaces; fostered a sense of community; enabled students to affirm their racial/ethnic pride and employed flexible behavioural supports. Implications for practice and research are discussed.