Preaching dynamite: August Spies at the Haymarket trial

This paper examines the dynamite at the 1886 Haymarket Square bombing trial and in the courtroom address of accused bomb conspirator August Spies. The analysis focuses on the crucial object of the Haymarket events—the dynamite bomb—as much as it focuses on Spies's words. I argue that the material presence of dynamite interacted with polysemy and paradox when Spies preached dynamite. Spies delved into the polysemy of the term dynamite by drawing attention to the word's multiple meanings, and he constructed turnaround arguments warranted by dynamite to reverse the accusation of conspiring to commit violence back onto the state.     

Threshold assessment and performance management: modernizing or masculinizing teaching in England?1

The paper reports on aspects of an ESRC project, ‘The impact of Performance Threshold Assessment on teachers' work’ (ESRC R000239286). The paper begins by explaining the nature and technology of Threshold Assessment, and its location nationally within the performance management system recently introduced into schools in England. We review the monitoring procedures adopted for Round 1 of Threshold and draw attention to the limitations of such statistical data as are available. We locate Threshold within recent international developments characterised by managerialism and the culture of performativity that have increasingly come to dominate both the nature of policy‐making and definitions of ‘professionalism’. Drawing on interview material gained from thirteen case studies carried out in primary and secondary schools and in Local Education Authorities, we analyse the ways in which Threshold Assessment carries different significance for women and men teachers, heads and threshold assessors. We conclude that the new policies represent a further step towards the masculinization of education.     

Teacher Education for Research‐based Practice in Expanded Roles: Finland's experience

Preparing teachers for a research‐based professionalism has been the central mission of teacher education in Finland since the mid‐1970s. More recently, as a result of such national policy developments as school‐based curriculum development and local decision‐making, the conception of teachers' work and professionalism has expanded. Drawing on experience within the teacher education programmes at the University of Helsinki and Åbo Akademi University, this paper discusses some of the programmatic issues that these developments have raised in class‐teacher, i.e. “elementary”, teacher education programmes. We focus in particular firstly on the research thesis that is a part of every teacher education programme in Finland, and the hallmark of the research‐based professional ideal; and, secondly on the emerging issues that derive from the need to incorporate the expanded understanding of the teacher's role within the curriculum of teacher education.     

Exploring supplementary education: margins,theories and methods

Existing knowledge of supplementary education, that is education organised and run by political, faith or ethnic groups outside of formal schooling, is patchy. This article is an exploration of the histories of supplementary education in the twentieth century. It is organised into three sections. The article begins by reviewing some existing literature and argues that supplementary education has been a topic of marginal concern for social historians, sociologists and historians of education. This marginal status has often been reflected in the way in which a dominant account of the history of supplementary education has entered the research literature despite a rather selective evidential base. The second section of the article deploys an expansive definition of education, and presents some new historical evidence concerning African Caribbean and Irish supplementary education. A final arguments section reflects on the significance of supplementary education and suggests some topics for a future research agenda.     

Bourdieu,Department Chairs and the Reform of Science Education

Using the insights of the French sociologist, Pierre Bourdieu, this article considers the role of the science department chair in the reform of school science education. Using Bourdieu’s ‘thinking tools’ of ‘field’, ‘habitus’ and ‘capital’, we case study the work of two teachers who both actively pursue the teaching and learning of science as inquiry. One teacher, Dan, has been a department chair since 2000, and has actively encouraged his department to embrace science as inquiry. The other teacher, Leslie, worked for one year in Dan’s department before being transferred to another school where science teaching continues to be more traditional. Our work suggests that there are three crucial considerations for chairs seeking to lead the reform of science teaching within their department. The first of these is the development of a reform-minded habitus, as this appears to be foundational to the capital that can be expended in the leadership of reform. The second is an understanding of how to wield power and position in the promotion of reform. The third is the capacity to operate simultaneously and strategically within, and across, two fields; the departmental field and the larger science education field. This involves downplaying administrative logics, and foregrounding more inquiry-focused logics as a vehicle to challenge traditional science-teaching dispositions—the latter being typically dominated by concerns about curriculum ‘coverage’.     

Deschooling and the Web: Ivan Illich 30 Years On

In 1971 the anarchist philosopher Ivan Illich published a slim volume that advocated the unthinkable: ridding the world of schools. His arguments were so persuasive that the book caused many people to question the assumptions on which we base our ideas of education. Illich advocated the replacement of institutionalised schooling by community-driven "opportunity webs" that would enable learners to be in control of their own learning and teachers to offer their services in an entrepreneurial fashion. As persuasive as his ideas were, they were not really practical given the technology of the 1970s, but perhaps Illich was ahead of his time as today the World Wide Web has created opportunities for both learners and teachers to do exactly what he described. This paper examines Illich's propositions in terms of their antecedents in the free education movements of the past century and their potential in the global anarchy of the World Wide Web. Déscolariser l’école: 30 ans après Illich, le WEb . . . En 1971, le philosophe et anarchiste Ivan Illich, publia son fameux livre "Pour une société sans école" dans lequel il se faisait l'avocat du diable: éradiquer les écoles du monde. Ses arguments étaient À ce point convaincants qu'il amena bien des gens À remettre en cause les conceptions fondamentales sur lesquelles se sont construits nos systèmes éducatifs. Illich prÔnait l'abandon des formes institutionnelles de l'éducation au profit de communautés et de réseaux d'intérêts qui rendraient les élèves autonomes dans leurs apprentissages tandis que les enseignants offriraient leurs services sur un mode entrepreneurial. Bien que convaincantes, ces idées ne connurent aucune mise en oeuvre dans le contexte technologique des années 1970. Sans doute Illich était-il en avance sur son temps ... Mais aujourd'hui le Web crée les conditions pour réaliser ses prédictions en ce qui concerne tant les élèves que les enseignants. Cette contribution analyse le rÔle des propositions d'Illich dans l'histoire des mouvements de l'éducation libre et leur actualité par rapport au mode de fonctionnement non hiérarchique du WWW. Entschulung des Bildungssystems, das Web : 30 Jahre nach Ivan Illich. Der überzeugte Anarchist Ivan Illich gab 1971 ein dünnes Buch heraus, welches das undenkbare befürwortete : Befreiung der Welt von der Schule. Seine Argumente waren so überzeugend, dass das Buch bei vielen Leuten Zweifel an den Annahmen sähte, auf denen unsere Vorstellung von Erziehung basieren. Illich verwarf das institutionalisierte Schulsystem und skizzierte eine Lerngemeinschaft mit einem Netz aus unterschiedlichen Interessen. Dieses Netz würde den Schülern Autonomie in ihrer persönlichen Bildung einräumen, während die Lehrer ihre Dienste in unternehmerischer Art und Weise anbieten. Bei aller Ueberzeugungskraft seiner Ideen, sie waren praktisch mit der Technologie der 70er Jahre jedoch nicht umsetzbar. Ohne Zweifel waren Illichs Ideen ihrer Zeit voraus, denn das World Wide Web bietet nun Schülern als auch Lehrern die Möglichkeit diese Ideen in die Realiät umzusetzen. Dieser Beitrag analisiert Illichs Vorschläge bezüglich der Vorgeschichte von Bewegungen in der freien Bildung, und deren Aktualität in der globalen Anarchie des World Wide Web.     

The impact of placing pupils with special educational needs in mainstream schools on the achievement of their peers

Background Over the past 20 years or so policy and practice on the education of children with special educational needs (SEN) has been aimed at placing increasing numbers of children in a mainstream school environment. Although this policy has been supported in principle by many teachers, parents and local authority officers, there has been much less agreement about whether this principle can be realized in practice, and even if it can, about what the impacts might be on the achievements of pupils with SEN in mainstream schools and, in particular, on their peers.

Purpose This paper discusses the key findings from a systematic review of the literature carried out by the Inclusion Review Group, on behalf of the Evidence for Policy and Practice Information (EPPI)-Centre, the purpose of which was to review research evidence on whether the placement of pupils with special educational needs (SEN) within mainstream schools has an impact on academic and social outcomes for pupils without SEN.

Design and methods The methodology followed the procedures adopted by the EPPI-Centre. Having agreed on the inclusion and exclusion criteria for studies that could be included in the review, an initial pool of 7137 papers were identified through electronic databases. After having screened all their titles and/or abstracts and having marked out possible papers to be included in the review, 119 paper copies were obtained—all of which were read by one or more of the authors of this paper. This led to a further reduction to 26 studies that were subjected to the EPPI data extraction process and synthesis.

Conclusions Overall, the findings suggest that there are no adverse effects on pupils without SEN of including pupils with special needs in mainstream schools, with 81% of the outcomes reporting positive or neutral effects. Despite concerns about the quality of some of the studies that were reviewed and the fact that the great majority were carried out in the USA, these findings should bring some comfort to headteachers, parents and local authority officers around the world at a time when concerns have been raised about the problems that schools face in responding to the twin agenda of becoming more inclusive and, at the same time, raising the achievements of all their pupils.