Continuous Absenteeism among Teachers Living with HIV/AIDS: Perceptions of School Principals

Abstract

Education is an indispensable tool for total economic emancipation in Africa and elsewhere. Thus, it is a great cause for concern that teachers, who are the main drivers of education, are so strongly affected by HIV/AIDS. A large part of the profound impact of HIV/AIDS is felt in education and threatens the quality of education. The study reported on examined how principals are managing the challenges caused by absenteeism among teachers living with HIV/AIDS. A narrative inquiry design situated in the qualitative research approach was used together with narrative interviews to elicit qualitative data. The study was embedded within the social constructivist paradigm. Transformational leadership and ethics of care formed the theoretical framework of the study. The qualitative content analysis was used to analyse the data. The key findings reveal how principals maintain quality of instructional effectiveness through substituting sick and absent teachers using a relief system. They also support, empower and advise teachers. Principals should be provided with support from the Department of Education (DoE) to replace teachers timeously before teaching and learning are disrupted.     

Mark Sadoski and Allan Paivio. 2001. Imagery and text: A dual coding theory of reading and writing

Reading and Writing -     

The problematic place of a woman physical education instructor: an historical case study

In this article the author's problematize the position of women in state school physical education, focusing in particular on the ‘instructors’ who were appointed to work with women teachers and senior girls, and prepare trainees at the Teachers College in South Australia. In exploring this little researched area, the article explores shifting representations of the woman ‘instructor’ from the 1920s to the late 1940s, highlighting the interplay of key discourses associated with age, gender, marital status, character, disciplinarity and physical activity. In addition, the authors explicate ways in which these discourses were interwoven in the career of May Cleggett, who for most of the period was the only woman physical education instructor in South Australian state schools.     

Providing High-Quality Support Services to Home-Based Child Care: A Conceptual Model and Literature Review

ABSTRACT

Research Findings: Home-based child care accounts for a significant proportion of nonparental child care arrangements for young children in the United States. Yet the early care and education field lacks clear models or pathways for how to improve quality in these settings. The conceptual model presented here articulates the components of high-quality support to child care providers; related factors; and hypothesized provider, family, and child outcomes. The model is based on a literature review of research on home-based child care, home visiting, early childhood mental health consultation, coaching, and family services. We hypothesize that high-quality support to home-based child care that offers relationship-based services focused on quality caregiving (individual home visiting and group supports such as training and networking) and sustainability (materials, equipment, referrals) is most likely to positively impact quality caregiving for children and families. Practice or Policy: Current federal efforts and policy initiatives to increase the supply and quality of infant–toddler child care focus on the development of systems that support home-based providers. The conceptual model of high-quality support described here will inform future program development and research on how to improve quality in home-based child care for the millions of low-income children in these settings.     

Gender Roles at Home and School

Parents of 116 first‐year pupils at an urban comprehensive school were studied by questionnaire and interview. They were asked about their educational and occupational aspirations for their children, their views on sexual equality and their children's out‐of‐school activities. Educational aspirations were found to be high, with little differentiation between the sexes. Parents were enthusiastic about their daughters studying physical science and neutral about craft subjects. Occupational aspirations were also high and although they tended to be sex‐stereotyped, parents were found to be generally supportive of non‐traditional choices. Class differences were few. Most parents were in favour of working mothers, equal pay and men helping with housework. However these egalitarian attitudes coexisted with more traditional assumptions about male breadwinners and a woman's main responsibility being to her children. Parents’ own domestic labour and that which they required of their children was strongly sex‐stereotyped. The messages which children receive about gender from their homes are contradictory, but not as uniformly traditional as many teachers assume.     

Partnership in Action: Introducing family‐based intervention for children with disability in urban slums of Kolkata,India

This paper presents the processes and findings of a three‐year action research project implemented in a small number of urban slums in the city of Kolkata (previously known as Calcutta), the capital of the state of West Bengal in Eastern India. The project involved partnership between an established institute for cerebral palsy in Kolkata, two United Kingdom (UK) universities and three non‐government organisations working on community development in the urban slums of Kolkata. These diverse groups working jointly were able to reach low‐income, disadvantaged families with low literacy skills, providing individualised home‐based intervention for their child with disabilities.     

Professional development in inquiry‐based science for elementary teachers of diverse student groups

As part of a larger project aimed at promoting science and literacy for culturally and linguistically diverse elementary students, this study has two objectives: (a) to describe teachers' initial beliefs and practices about inquiry‐based science and (b) to examine the impact of the professional development intervention (primarily through instructional units and teacher workshops) on teachers' beliefs and practices related to inquiry‐based science. The research involved 53 third‐ and fourth‐grade teachers at six elementary schools in a large urban school district. At the end of the school year, teachers reported enhanced knowledge of science content and stronger beliefs about the importance of science instruction with diverse student groups, although their actual practices did not change significantly. Based on the results of this first year of implementation as part of a 3‐year longitudinal design, implications for professional development and further research are discussed. © 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 41: 1021–1043, 2004     

Assessment in a Rwandan higher education institution: a quest for aligned assessment to promote socio-economic transformation

Assessment in institutions of higher learning has been researched worldwide. However, there are gaps in research exploring the implications of assessment practices for learners’ access to the kind of knowledge enabling them to participate in their communities’ socio-economic transformation. This is the case in the African Great Lakes region, including Rwanda. This paper investigated the assessment practices at the University of Rwanda-College of Education to establish whether they enable students to access powerful knowledge for socio-economic transformation, which promotes critical thinking and creativity, or the knowledge of the powerful, which promotes memorization of knowledge produced by experts. The study adopted mixed methods, where 361 questions from 20 examinations papers for 2014/2015 and 2015/2016 academic years were analysed using Bloom’s revised taxonomy. Interviews with lecturers and group discussions with students were conducted. The findings revealed that assessment practices heavily encourage the knowledge of the powerful, with limited focus on the socio-economic transformative knowledge. Such practices are unlikely to lead to national socioeconomic transformation, which the government expects from education. The paper recommends revisiting assessment practices in Rwandan higher education to instil in the graduates the required knowledge for active contribution to socio-economic transformation.     

Addressing Social Difference with Prospective Teachers Who Want “To Make a Difference”

This paper focuses on a cohort of B.Ed. students' understandings about social difference and social justice as recorded in their professional journals in the first semester of third year. It shows that their reasons for choosing teaching as a career, reflections on their school experiences and discussions about future students are grounded in the culture of individualism that is commonplace in Australian society. However, some also acknowledge that class, race, gender and ethnicity shape their lives and their future students' worlds. Furthermore, most were prepared to engage with social justice in their professional journals. Keeping these findings in mind, the paper identifies discursive spaces where teacher educators might work with prospective teachers to promote critical reflection about social difference and facilitate a commitment to social justice in education.     

Beyond centre and periphery: transnationalism in two teacher/suffragettes' work

Oliveira Salazar’s accession to the government followed the military coup of 1926, which put an end to the period of democratic republican life. The Constitution approved in 1933 defined the new regime, which came to be known as ‘Estado Novo’. Ideologically sustained by an anti‐liberal concept of Catholicism, this political regime would grant Portuguese women not only the right to vote – never obtained during the First Republic, despite feminist claims – and would also ensure them a seat in the National Assembly. Bearing in mind the interventions of women deputies throughout three legislations (1935–1945), we propose to draw a framework of feminine participation in the political sphere by examining their speeches on education and teaching with regard to gender categories. We must admit that those women to whom the Chief granted power to act assumed that power and became protagonists of the construction of the ‘Estado Novo’ woman.