A comparative study of attitudes to the aims of practical work in science education in Egypt,Korea and the UK

This paper reports a comparative study of attitudes to the aims of practical work given by science teachers from Egypt, Korea and the UK. The ratings of aims given by specific groups of teachers can be used to characterize those groups. The characterizations can be interpreted from knowledge of the conditions in which teachers work. The choice of aims reflects pedagogic practice. The UK teachers have attitudes to aims for practical that reflect current concerns in the UK for investigations. The Korean teachers show a positivistic attitude to science and aims for practical which can be traced back to the emphasis on factual recall and illustrative practicals. The Egyptian teachers show concerns in their choice of aims for practical work which can be traced back to the lack of practical work in current Egyptian science education. All three groups express a common attitude to the aims of practical work that reflect an acknowledgement of the methods by which scientists make new knowledge. It is conjectured that the differences between the groups of teachers might be best understood using an evolutionary approach to the fit of teachers' ideas to their conditions of work.     

Needing to be ‘in the know’: strategies of subordination used by 10–11‐year‐old schoolboys

It is important for educators to understand the tactics used in subordination between young people if they are going to take effective measures to counter them in their pedagogical practice. The paper explores strategies used by schoolboys aged 10–11 years to subordinate and position boys at the bottom of the pupil hierarchy. The findings are based on data gathered from a year‐long empirical study (between 1998 and 1999) set in three UK junior schools which were differentiated by the social characteristics of their intake. The research emphasizes the role of the body in the construction of masculinity. The hegemonic, or most idealized, form of masculinity at each school was constructed around activity and, in particular, various forms of embodied physicality/athleticism (exemplified through skill, strength, fitness and speed), and boys who did not wish to, or who were unable to, use these resources generally found themselves marginalized and/or subordinated. Many of the subordinated forms were symbolically assimilated to femininity, and the paper proposes that the main strategies of subordination can be summarized under the generic heading of ‘difference’. The final section discusses the pervasive use of homophobia and concludes that it should be conceptualized in terms of gender as well as sex.     

The Origins of Football Debate: The Evidence Mounts, 1841–1851

In response to recent articles by Eric Dunning and Graham Curry, this article presents a wide range of new material from the period 1841 to 1851 in the ‘Origins of Football Debate’, using evidence gleaned from the British Library's digitisation of nineteenth-century newspapers. It responds to the charge that the works of ‘revisionist historians’, John Goulstone, Adrian Harvey and Peter Swain, are misleading and have led to hasty conclusions, and rejects their analysis that argues they are part of an academic community seemingly frantic for working-class influence to the detriment of public schoolboys. The article adds extensive evidence that records a much broader footballing culture across the country in mid-century than previously thought. In so doing, it addresses concerns, which have troubled many scholars, of the alleged disappearance of football in the wider community in the mid-nineteenth century, not least because of the sport's rapid expansion amongst the working and middle classes in the 1870s. The evidence presented does suggest that many forms of football other than folk football or games under the influence of public schools or public schoolboys were played, challenging ‘orthodox’ historian's views surrounding the influence of public schools and public schoolboys on the development of the game.     

How Young Schoolboys Become Somebody: The role of the body in the construction of masculinity

This paper explores the key role of the body in the construction of identity in school boys aged 10-11. The findings are based on data gathered from a 1-year empirical study set in three UK junior schools. I argue that the body is used by the boys as a means of classification, inclusion and differentiation, and is the principal resource to establish status and position within the pupil peer group. The most prevalent and esteemed resource is physicality and athleticism (found particularly in sports and informal playground games), but I also examine how the body is used in tough and intimidating ways, and show how boys construct identities by using their bodies as a social symbol to display items of sports-related and brand-inscribed clothing. Finally, I consider how the body forms a major component in the construction of dominant and subordinated forms of masculinity.     

Education in a Punitive Society: An Introduction

Our society increasingly uses educational institutions to punish our people. We see this in zero tolerance policies, school-based arrests, and alternative schooling for “troublesome youth.” This means that schools are actively engaged in criminalizing our youth than ever before. The introduction offers insight into the broader context of the punitive society where schools and prisons collide.     

EARLY YEARS EDUCATION AND CHILDREN WITH BEHAVIOURAL AND EMOTIONAL DIFFICULTIES: NURTURING PARENTAL INVOLVEMENT?

The involvement of parents in early years education has increasingly been advocated as a strategy for meeting the needs of young emotionally disturbed children. We summarise the ideal of parental involvement in the early years as expressed within recent government initiatives. We also draw on a case study of a nurture group in a primary school situated in an inner‐city area of severe deprivation. Against this background, we explore notions of the involvement of parents as a partnership. We suggest that, in providing education for young children with emotional and behavioural difficulties, the nurturing of parental involvement is inherently problematic.