Disjunctured reciprocity: paradoxes of community-school relationship in Nepal

ABSTRACT

Community-based school governance has been promoted as a popular policy for decentralisation of education around the world. Within this policy, schools are expected to create institutional spaces such as School Management Committees with an assumption of reciprocal relation between school and community. This article questions the simplistic assumption through an ethnographic study of community-school relationship in Nepal. While these relationships may conflict with the kind of reciprocity assumed in school governance policies, we argue that this disjunctured reciprocity, firstly, reflects the gap between policy blueprints and action, and, secondly, reveals the competing logics of community-school relations which remain unacknowledged.     

Clergy’s Views of the Relationship between Science and Religious Faith and the Implications for Science Education

Since many teachers and students recognize other kinds of knowledge (faith) based on other ways of knowing, consideration of these realities is appropriate for the science education community. Understanding the multitude of ways that clergy view relationships between science and faith (i.e. alternative ways of knowing) would assist in understanding various ways that people address complex issues arising from ideas about science and faith. We administered a questionnaire composed of multiple-choice and short answer items to 63 United Methodist ministers. Findings included (1) that formal, organized faith contexts (e.g. church services) serve as informal science education opportunities, (2) participants demonstrated considerable diversity regarding the types of relationships developed between science and faith, and (3) participants recognized a need exists for better understandings of science and its relationship to faith for them, their colleagues, and their congregations.

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Strengths-based blended personalized learning: An impact study using virtual comparison group

Abstract

This study describes a strengths-based blended personalized learning model, the implementation of the model over a 4-year period, and the results of an impact study focused on measuring its effectiveness. The model includes many commonly-used features of personalized learning, including (a) competency-based progressions, (b) flexible learning environments, (c) personal learning paths, (d) frequently updated student profiles, and (e) frequent informal and formal measurement. However, it differs from other personalized learning models by including a focus on strengths-based learning. Strengths-based learning identifies and builds upon students’ strengths, supporting their ability to make informed decisions when setting goals and choosing and implementing learning experiences. The longitudinal study took place in a diverse mid-size pre-K to Grade 8 school district in California. The findings suggest that the strengths-based blended personalized learning model is effective in supporting student learning in the academic areas of mathematics, reading, and language usage. Over the 3-year period in which the intervention was gradually implemented, and one year of full implementation, students significantly outpaced their matched student counterparts in all subject areas. The results of the current study further the growing literature in the field of personalized learning by contributing learnings and evidence related to a successful personalized learning model.     

Pedagogical Bricoleurs and Bricolage Researchers: The case of Religious Education

This article reconceptualises school teachers and pupils respectively as ‘pedagogical bricoleurs’ and ‘bricolage researchers’ who utilise a multiplicity of theories, concepts, methodologies and pedagogies in teaching and/or researching. This reconceptualisation is based on a coalescence of generic curricular and pedagogical principles promoting dialogic, critical and enquiry-based learning. Innovative proposals for reconceptualising the aims, contents and methods of multi-faith Religious Education in English state-maintained schools without a religious affiliation are described, so as to provide an instance of and occasion for the implications of these theories and concepts of learning. With the aim of initiating pupils into the communities of academic enquiry concerned with theology and religious studies, the ‘RE-searchers approach’ to multi-faith Religious Education in primary schools (5–11 year olds) is cited as a highly innovative means of converting these curricular and pedagogical principles and proposals into practical classroom procedures. These procedures are characterised by multi-, inter- and supra-disciplinarity; notions of eclecticism, emergence, flexibility and plurality; and theoretical and conceptual complexity, contestation and context-dependence.     

Education for all and the new development compact

Over the past decade, the achievement of universal primary education, under the somewhat misleading rubric of ‘Education for All’ (EFA), has steadily built momentum in international forums as a focus for discussion and action. The present study looks critically at the evolution of consensus about EFA within the international community. The first section of this contribution provides an overview of ‘education for development’ in the form in which it has been inherited from the 20th century. The second describes what has changed in the context, rhetoric and practice of such ‘education for development’. The final section reflects on two questions: ‘Why has EFA now moved beyond international rhetoric to action?’; and ‘What can our experience with EFA tell us about the prospects for multilateralism and global governance in the 21st century?’     

Short Danish Version of the Tools for Early Assessment in Math (TEAM) for 3–6-Year-Olds

Sound assessment tools are needed to evaluate effects of mathematics interventions that familiarize children with early mathematics concepts before they enter the formal school system. We developed a short version of an existing early mathematics tool based on analyses of data collected in a nationally representative Danish sample. Research findings: The Danish adaptation and development process of the Tools for Early Assessment in Math (TEAM) for children aged 3?6 years was carried out in four steps: (a) choosing and translating relevant items, (b) conducting a pilot study, (c) testing items in a representative sample of Danish children aged 3?6 years (n = 5,621), and (d) analyses based on Rasch models. The process resulted in a final 19-item version—the DK-TEAM (final)—that has no differential item functioning relative to age and gender and is sensitive to the full range of abilities. The great majority of the children viewed the test as enjoyable. Practice or Policy: The DK-TEAM (final) appears to be broadly applicable for young Danish children, though the modest reliability at 3 years (which may be remediable by adding easy items) should be kept in mind.     

Ethnocentric perception of childrearing practices in protective services

The protective services system in the United States may be committing a form of institutional abuse of minority families if the professionals who work in that system are not sufficiently well versed in the unique childrearing practices of each culture in the communities the system represents. It is easy for misunderstandings to occur from an ethnocentric perspective, and these misunderstandings are unlikely to be in the minority group's favor. Although there is wide agreement that this represents a problem, there is not enough information readily available to allow protective service professionals to adopt a cross-cultural perspective in conducting their work. To discover some of the possible misunderstandings by the dominant American culture of subculture childrearing practices, this study was conducted through in-person interviews with members of six minority groups, Mexican-, Japanese-, Vietnamese-, Filipino- and Samoan-Americans and Blackfeet Indians, in three communities in conjunction with an evaluation of child abuse prevention demonstration projects. The themes of delegating responsibility to children and issues of dominance and submission emerged as areas for awareness and sensitivity on the part of child protective services.     

Multi‐dimensional evaluation for module improvement: a mathematics‐based case study

Due to a poor module evaluation, mediocre student grades and a difficult teaching experience in lectures, the Data Analysis section of a first year core module, Research Methods for Social Sciences (RMSS), offered at the University of KwaZulu‐Natal in South Africa, was completely revised. In order to review the effectiveness of these changes in terms of student learning, a wide range of formative and summative evaluation methods were implemented. These indicated that module revision had largely been successful, although a number of areas for further improvement were highlighted. An analysis of the nature of the feedback of each method emphasised the importance of using a multi‐dimensional approach as a means of obtaining reliable, authentic and valid data. Based on the findings of the study a procedural framework for module evaluation that considers issues such as purpose, sources of information, timing, methods, resource availability, implementation, action and critical reflection, is proposed.     

Impact of an in-service training in neurocognitive insights on teacher stress,teacher professionalism and teacher student relationships

The stressful nature of the teaching profession is recognised worldwide. Consistent with the recent international attention regarding the connection between neurocognition and education, the study ‘Learn2be@school’ introduced a training for teachers about the occurrence of stress and the relationship between human behaviour and the functioning of the human brain. This study investigates whether neurocognitive insights contribute to stress reduction in the professional and personal functioning of teachers, and focuses more specifically on the impact of the training on their attitudes (attitude level), understanding (knowledge level) and handling (application level) of complex stress situations. Using a quasi-experimental study design with 12 participants and 28 non-participants, data were gathered twice through the use of vignettes and in-depth interviews. The results indicated an impact of the training, not only on the stress experienced by teachers in their professional and personal functioning, but also at the level of the teacher–student relationship and team functioning.