Higher Education Leadership and Management: From Conflict to Interdependence through Strategic Planning

Institutional leadership and management are two entirely different, yet intimately intertwined, aspects of the overall effective functioning of a higher education institution (HEI). This paper is intended to (1) define and differentiate between the two concepts, (2) critically discuss their importance and vital interdependence, (3) discuss circumstances that can create conflict or compatibility between these concepts, (4) critically examine models of strategic planning and suggest a better approach to this process, and (5) offer suggestions for the improvement of both leadership and management in the context of co-existence within a redefined strategic planning environment.     

Pre-service educators and anti-oppressive pedagogy: interrupting and challenging LGBTQ oppression in schools

There are increasing calls for pre-service educators to be responsive and responsible for anti-homophobic education. This research builds on the ongoing efforts to integrate Positive Space training in our two-year Bachelor of Education programme. We found through a series of focus group and individual interviews that pre-service teachers were aware of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgendered, and Queering/Questioning (LGBTQ) oppression, witnessed it in schools, employed a range of strategies, but also experienced challenges due to power dynamics in schools, and may not have recognised the power of their interruptions. Our findings suggest that Positive Space training is valuable and necessary and needs to continue to be explicitly embedded in core courses so that all pre-service teachers, regardless of their discipline, develop the skills and attitudes necessary to be advocates for LGBTQ individuals.     

Learning at the nanoscale: The impact of students' use of remote microscopy on concepts of viruses,scale, and microscopy

The rapid pace of development is bringing advanced technologies to the World Wide Web (WWW), and, as a result, schools have access to new tools for science investigations. In this exploratory study, we investigated how an educational experience organized around students' use of a WWW‐controllable atomic force microscope (AFM) influenced students' understandings of viruses. The context for the study was a weeklong unit on viruses for two high school biology classes which incorporated student use of the WWW controllable AFM. We also investigated how the haptic (involving kinesthetics and touch) experiences afforded by this tool might influence students' knowledge of viruses, microscopy, and nanometer scale. Fifty students from two high school biology classes participated in a series of instructional activities and pre‐ and postassessments (knowledge test, opinion questionnaire, and interviews). Results showed that students' understandings of microscale, virus morphology, and dimensionality changed as a result of the experiences. Students' conceptions moved from a two‐dimensional textbook‐like image of a virus to a three‐dimensional image of an adenovirus. The results of this preliminary study suggest that the use of the technology as a tool for learning about morphology of materials too small to see may be beneficial. © 2003 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 40: 303–322, 2003     

A cogenerative inquiry using postcolonial theory to envisage culturally inclusive science education

This forum constitutes a cogenerative inquiry using postcolonial theory drawn from the review paper by Zembylas and Avraamidou. Three teacher educators from African, Asian and Caribbean countries reflect on problems confronting their professional practices and consider the prospects of creating culturally inclusive science education. We learn that in Mozambique, Nepal and the Caribbean scientism patrols the borders of science education serving to exclude local epistemological beliefs and discourses and negating culturally contextualized teaching and learning. Despite the diverse cultural hybridities of these countries, science education is disconnected from the daily lives of the majority of their populations, serving inequitably the academic Western-oriented aspirations of an elite group who are “living hybridity but talking scientism.” The discussants explore their autobiographies to reveal core cultural values and beliefs grounded in their non-Western traditions and worldviews but which are in conflict with the Western Modern Worldview (WMW) and thus have no legitimate role in the standard school/college science classroom. They reflect on their hybrid cultural identities and reveal the interplay of multiple selves grounded in both the WMW and non-WMWs and existing in a dialectical tension of managed contradiction in a Third Space. They argue for dialectical logic to illuminate a Third Space wherein students of science education may be empowered to challenge hegemonies of cultural reproduction and examine reflexively their own identities, coming to recognize and reconcile their core cultural beliefs with those of Western modern science, thereby dissipating otherwise strongly delineated cultural borders.

Origins of individual differences in theory of mind: from nature to nurture?

In this study of the origins of individual differences in theory of mind (ToM), the Environmental Risk (E-Risk) Longitudinal Twin Study sample of 1,116 sixty-month-old twin pairs completed a comprehensive battery of ToM tasks. Individual differences in ToM were striking and strongly associated with verbal ability. Behavioral genetic models of the data showed that environmental factors explained the majority of the variance in ToM performance in this sample. Shared environmental influences on verbal ability had a common impact on ToM and explained more than half the phenotypic correlation between these two skills. Possible underlying proximal mechanisms are discussed, including maternal speech and mind-mindedness, sibling interactions, and peer influences.