Curriculum analysis and education for sustainable development in Iceland

The article explores how the Icelandic public school curriculum for early childhood, compulsory and upper secondary school deals with education for sustainable development. As the curriculum does not often mention the term sustainability, a key with which to investigate signs of education for sustainable development in the three curricula was created. The key encourages a holistic view of sustainable development, where economic, environmental and social factors are not treated as separate entities. It was designed to reflect the goals of the United Nations Decade of Education for Sustainable Development (2005–2014) with research on environmental education and education for sustainable development in mind. The key has seven characteristics: values, opinions and emotions about nature and environment; knowledge contributing to a sensible use of nature; welfare and public health; democracy, participation, and action competence; equality and multicultural issues; global awareness; and finally, economic development and future prospects. Using the key, a variety of signs and indicators that provide a space for teachers and schools to deal with issues of sustainable development were identified.     

Instructor-provided summary infographics to support online learning

Infographics are a visualisation tool that can be used to improve retention, comprehension and appeal of complex concepts. The rise of infographic use in education has facilitated new forms of application and design of these tools. Instructor-provided summary infographics are a new form of infographic, whereby key learning objectives and content are summarised in graphical form at the end of a lesson. However, it is unknown whether these types of infographics can support learning in online environments. This exploratory research investigates student perceptions, retention, applications and activity generation of instructor-provided summary infographics in a massive online learning environment. Using both post-course learner survey data (n = 1,899) and text mining analysis (n = 72,490 words), results present how learners perceived instructor-provided summary infographics as useful and appealing for retaining, clarifying and understanding learning concepts. The research contributes a novel understanding of summary infographics in online learning environments, and supports their use as a design tool for educational delivery in the online space.     

Identity development: what I notice about myself as a teacher

Teacher identity has been recognised as critical to the practice and development of teachers. However, there remains a paucity of scholarship capturing the voice of pre-service teachers’ meaning making of their own development as teachers during initial teacher education. This paper sets out to explore seven pre-service teachers’ meaning making of becoming a teacher. Reflections gathered using autobiographical narratives and teaching metaphors, were prompted by video clips of practice during School Placement. Results suggest that pre-service teachers’ were initially drawn to the physical depiction of what a teacher looks like. Their meaning making then turned towards instances of dissonance between their prior meanings of what it is to be a teacher and their lived experiences of School Placement. These sources of dissonance challenged the pre-service teachers’ ongoing construction of their teacher identity. The findings of this paper are discussed in terms of relevant literature.     

The British State’s production of the Muslim School: A simultaneity of categories of difference analysis

Recently, national populist politics has been translated with the emergence of two overlapping narratives of Islamophobia and anti-EU immigration media discourses. Such discourses have been made highly visible in the increased spike in hate crimes that have been a hidden cost of the national(ist) debate about Britain leaving the European Union (Brexit). This is the context in which we can trace a remarkable shift in the state representation of the schooling of the South Asian/Muslim community and the reclassification from promoting South Asians as central to the future of a modernised multicultural Britain (1970s) to positioning Muslims as a ‘suspect community’ (2020). This article unpacks two cultural moments in the critical exploration of the State production of the Muslim School within a post-Trojan Horse era. First, a national dominant image of the Muslim School operating within the State ascribed ‘no-go’ ethno-religious Muslim neighbourhoods, as a repository of regressive (extreme) Islamist religiosity; thus, reconstructing their religious belief as racialised identities, as they disconnect from British values. Second, the No Outsiders programme, with the accompanying framing of intolerant (Muslim) parents. In this case, the ensuing tension between ‘homophobic Muslims’ and ‘British values’ sets in place a homogenisation of differences. Deploying a simultaneity of categories of difference perspective, we address an underlying discursive re-politicising of South Asian ethnic communities as religious communities, which is resulting in a perpetual negotiation of the meanings attached to being Muslim. This will enable an international application of the article beyond the specific focus on the city of Birmingham, identified in the international media as the Jihadi capital of Europe.     

The effects of headlines and summaries on news comprehension and recall

In two experiments, we attempted to analyze the effects of newspaper article headlines and summaries on final comprehension and recall. During the first experiment, the participants consisted of 117 high school students from the 9th grade, 68 from the 11th grade, 79 first year Psychology students from the Autonoma University of Madrid and 66 fifth year Journalism students from the Complutense University of Madrid. The subjects were randomly required to read a news report in one of the following experimental conditions: (1) the whole news article (headline, summary and text), (2) the headline and text, (3) the summary and text, and (4), the text only. The data from immediate and delayed free recall tasks were recorded. The results showed that the structure of the news article did not influence the recall and that there were differences among groups in the amount and quality of recall. The headline and the summary modified by the use of macrostructural criteria constituted additional elements introduced into the second experiment to provide a contrast with the original headline and summary. The results showed that an improvement in article recall did occur with the modified version in comparison with the original version. These two experiments have confirmed that the aims and criteria of journalists differ from those held by the authors of scientific texts and question whether the reading strategies applied are the same in both cases.     

Languages of instruction in Ireland 1904–1977

Since 1922 governments in the part of Ireland now called the Republic of Ireland have a policy of maintaining and spreading the Irish language. 26.6% of the population declared themselves speakers of Irish at the 1971 census, but probably only 0.98% live in areas where it predominates in everyday communication. No Irish-speaking area survives in Northern Ireland and there are no official figures available to indicate knowledge or use of the language. There has been considerable language development over the past hundred years: vocabulary extension has been steady though somewhat uncoordinated. The spelling and grammar standards of the Dublin Government's Translation staff (published between 1946 and 1961) have become accepted norms in both states. Under British rule teaching Irish in schools was permitted in 1878 and through the medium of Irish in 1904. In the state ruled from Dublin between 1922 and 1960 teacher training and school organisation aimed at establishing a completely Irish-language primary school environment both in Irish speaking and English speaking areas, but since 1965 this policy has been abandoned in practice. At secondary level English is now the sole medium of instruction in the vast majority of schools and the percentage of all-Irish-medium secondary schools is lower than at any time since 1924. The use of Irish at tertiary level is minimal. Administrative lack of commitment to the official policy is a plausible explanation of present trends in the Republic of Ireland. In Northern Ireland Irish is taught as a subject in 13% of the primary schools, 38% of secondary intermediate schools, 39% of grammar schools. There is one private all-Irish primary school. Irish is used as the medium of instruction for Irish language and literature courses at the New University of Ulster.

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Zusammenfassung Seit 1922 verfolgen die Regierungen in dem Teil Irlands, der jetzt Republik Irland heisst, eine Politik der Erhaltung und Verbreitung der irischen Sprache. Bei der Zählung im Jahre 1871 erklärten sich 26,6% der Bevölkerung als irisch-sprechend, obwohl wahrscheinlich nur 0,98% in Gegenden leben, in denen Irisch als Umgangssprache vorherrscht. In Nordirland gibt es keine irisch-sprechenden Gegenden mehr und auch keine offiziellen Zahlenangaben über Kenntnis oder Gebrauch dieser Sprache. Im Laufe der letzten hundert Jahre hat sich diese Sprache beachtlich entwickelt. Ihr Wortschatz hat sich ständig, wenn auch etwas unkoordiniert, vergrössert. Die von der Übersetzungsabteilung der Dubliner Regierung festgelegten und von 1946–1961 veröffentlichten Regeln für Orthographie und Grammatik werden in beiden Ländern als Norm anerkannt. Unter britischer Herrschaft wurde Irisch als Schulfach im Jahre 1878 und als Unterrichtssprache im Jahre 1904 zugelassen. In der Republik Irland zielten zwischen 1922 und 1960 sowohl die Lehrerausbildung als auch die Schulorganisation darauf hin, nicht nur in irisch- sondern auch in englischsprechenden Gegenden die Primarschulen gänzlich auf die irische Sprache umzustellen. In der Praxis ist dieses Ziel jedoch seit 1965 aufgegeben worden. Auf der Sekundarebene ist Englisch jetzt in den meisten Schulen die einzige Unterrichtssprache, und der Anteil der Schulen mit Irisch als alleiniger Unterrichtssprache ist geringer als je seit 1924. Auf der Tertiarebene ist der Gebrauch der irischen Sprache minimal. Mangelndes Engagement der Verwaltung für die offizielle Politik mag als Erklärung der gegenwärtigen Trends in der Republik Irland gelten. In Nordirland wird Irisch als Schulfach in 13% der Primarschulen, 38% der mittleren Sekundarschulen und 39% der Gymnasien gelehrt. Eine einzige private Primarschule hat Irisch als Unterrichtssprache. An der Neuen Universität Ulster wird Irisch als Unterrichtssprache für Lehrgänge in irischer Sprache und Literatur benutzt.

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Résumé Les gouvernements qui se sont succédés, depuis 1922 dans cette partie de l'Irlande appelée désormais République d'Irlande, ont eu pour principe de conserver et de développer la langue irlandaise. Lors du recensement de 1971, 26,6% de la population s'est déclarée de langue irlandaise, mais probablement il n'y a que 0,98% qui vive dans des régions où cette langue soit prédominante dans les communications de la vie quotidienne. Il ne subsiste aucune zone où l'irlandaise soit parlé en Irlande du Nord et il n'existe aucune statistique officielle relative à la connaissance ou à l'utilisation de cette langue. Le langage s'est considérablement développé au cours des cent dernières années: l'accroissement du vocabulaire a été constant malgré quelque défaut de coordination. Les critères orthographiques et grammaticaux du Bureau des Traductions du Gouvernement de Dublin (publiés entre 1946 et 1961) ont été acceptés comme normes tant en Irlande du Nord qu'en République d'Irlande. Sous le régime britannique, l'enseignement de l'irlandais dans les écoles a été autorisé en 1878 et l'enseignement en langue irlandaise autorisé en 1904. Dans l'état relevant du gouvernement de Dublin, la formation des enseignants et l'organisation scolaire, entre 1922 et 1960, visaient à établir un environnement de langue irlandaise au niveau de l'école primaire, tant dans les régions de langue irlandaise que dans celles de langue anglaise, mais depuis 1965 cette politique a été pratiquement abandonnée. Au niveau du secondaire, l'anglais est désormais le seul véhicule de l'enseignement dans une forte majorité des écoles et le pourcentage des écoles secondaires moyennes où l'enseignement est donné en irlandais est plus faible qu'il ne l'a jamais été depuis 1924. L'usage de l'irlandais dans l'enseignement supérieur est minime. Un certain manque d'engagement de la part de l'administration vis à vis de la politique officielle est peut-être l'explication plausible des tendances actuelles en République d'Irlande. En Irlande du Nord, l'irlandais est enseigné en tant que sujet dans 13% des écoles primaires, dans 38% des écoles secondaires moyennes, et dans 39% des lycées. Il existe une seule école privée irlandaise où tout l'enseignement est donné en irlandais. L'irlandais est le véhicule linguistique de l'enseignement de la langue irlandaise et des cours de littérature irlandaise à la New University of Ulster.

     

Boys Bonding: Same-sex friendship,the unconscious and heterosexual discourse

This article aims to explore some of the ways in which the cultural meanings and practices of gender, sexuality and relationships intersect with and are reworked in the same-sex friendships of children aged nine to eleven. Using material from an ethnographic study, it focuses on two boys, Ben and Karl, who identified themselves as best friends. The article argues that, while the boys clearly knew, positioned themselves in and deployed heterosexual discourse, their relationship to this was complex. In particular, they appeared to use it to distance themselves from the feminine and to build their friendship as a pleasurable, intimate and exciting space. The article uses psychoanalytic arguments to explore this material, tentatively suggesting that the boys' access to the cultural practice of 'best friendship' mobilised identifications that both reinforced conventional versions of heterosexual masculinity and questioned these. In particular, the article suggests that the boys' friendship may have involved 'over-inclusive' gender identifications - ones that indicate the existence of boyhood masculinities that are more capacious and flexible than those hegemonic in teenage and adolescent cultures.     

Didactic Restrictions on the Teacher’s Practice: The Case of Limits of Functions in Spanish High Schools

The Anthropological Theory of Didactics describes mathematical activity in terms of mathematical organisations or praxeologies and considers the teacher as the director of the didactic process the students carry out, a process that is structured along six dimensions or didactic moments. This paper begins with an outline of this epistemological and didactic model, which appears as a useful tool for the analysis of mathematical and teaching practices. It is used to identify the main characteristics of the mathematical organisation around the limits of functions as it is proposed to be taught at high school level. The observation of an empirical didactic process will finally show how the internal dynamics of the didactic process is affected by certain mathematical and didactic constraints that significantly determine the teacher’s practice and ultimately the mathematical organisation actually taught.     

State Broadcasting and Minority Languages: the Case of Irish in Ireland

Abstract

The scale and content of minority language programmes in State broadcasting services reflect (a) technical/operational, (b) language planning and (c) ideological considerations. These three elements form the environment within which broadcasting policy is formulated and within which, over time, it changes. Irish language broadcasting in Ireland is discussed from this viewpoint.