The school curriculum for ethnic minority pupils: A contribution to a debate

This paper discusses some of the canicular needs of children of migrant parents in the United Kingdom (in particular those of South Asian and West Indian origins), against the background of current provision. The author argues the merits of a cultural accommodation strategy and outlines the human rights model of education which that strategy implies. He then analyses three major problem areas faced by children of migrant workers: conflicts of identity, communication difficulties, and unequal access to employment opportunities. In a final section, tentative but practical suggestions are given of how the school curriculum can address these problems.

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Zusammenfassung In diesem Artikel stellt der Verfasser die curricularen Bedürfnisse von Gastarbeiterkindern (besonders denen südasiatischer und westindischer Herkunft) im Vereinigten Königreich dem gegenwärtigen Angebot gegenüber. Er befürwortet eine Strategie der kulturellen Akkommodation und skizziert ein dieser Strategie entsprechendes Menschenrechts -Modell für Schulerziehung. Darauf analysiert er drei Hauptproblemgebiete von Gastarbeiterkindern: Identitätskonflikte, Kommunikationsschwierigkeiten und ungleicher Zugang zu Beschäftigungsmöglichkeiten. Im letzten Teil macht er einige praktische Vorschläge, wie das Schulcurriculum diese Probleme angehen könnte.

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Résumé Cet article traite des besoins caniculaires des enfants d'immigrants au Royaume-Uni (particulièrement ceux qui sont originaires des Indes Occidentales et du Sud Asiatique) en fonction des prestations éducationnelles courantes. L'auteur démontre les mérites d'une stratégie d'acclimatation culturelle et trace dans les grandes lignes le modèle d'éducation droits de l'homme qu'implique cette stratégie. Il analyse alors trois catégories de problèmes majeurs qui confrontent les enfants des travailleurs étrangers: conflits d'identité, difficultés de communication et inégalité des chances d'accès à l'emploi. L'auteur termine en montrant, par des suggestions d'ordre pratique, comment le curriculum peut s'attaquer à ces problèmes.

     

Understanding experience better in educational contexts: the phenomenology of embodied subjectivity

ABSTRACT

The authors consider in this critical paper that claims that human agents experience things-in-the-world as the same are deeply flawed as these accounts misconstrue and fail to appreciate the phenomenology of embodied subjectivity. To overcome these complex problems they outline how phenomenology can reach beyond positivist and standardised approaches to classroom learning and assessment and offer a broader and more encouraging perspective. They consider that the naturalistic account of subjectivity advanced by Merleau-Ponty provides a theoretically sound basis for understanding experiences better and for embodiment to become more central to educational aims. In developing their position they detail how recognising changes in Merleau-Ponty’s thinking over time are crucial for appreciating the nature of embodied subjectivity. Thereafter, they highlight and exemplify how practical approaches based on a phenomenological reduction of seeking, sensing and seeing could enhance the centrality of embodied subjectivity in contemporary education.     

Bridging the Divide: A comparative analysis of articles in higher education journals published inside and outside North America

Articles published in three leading North American higher education journals during the year 2000 are compared with those published in three leading, English language, non-North American higher education journals (and with a larger sample of fourteen such journals). The comparison focuses on the location of their authors, the themes researched, the levels at which the analyses are pitched, the methods and methodologies employed, and the explicitness of both methodological and theoretical engagement. Compared to the non-North American sample, the North American articles evidence a dominance of North American-based authors, a greater focus on the student experience, and on institutional and national level studies, and a much stronger emphasis on multivariate analysis as a method. Articles in the North American sample were also more likely to be both methodologically and theoretically explicit. Possible reasons for the divergent patterns observed are identified and discussed.     

“It's a Difficult Matter”1: Historical perspectives on the enduring problem of the practicum in teacher preparation

Current reviews of teacher education pay considerable attention to problems associated with the practicum, and often claim to propose major changes in order to improve the quality of new graduates. Many of the problems they address concerning the practicum and its relation to the ‘theoretical’ component of programs are longstanding, and have been the focus of sustained critique and consequent ongoing modification. Between 1900 and 1950 teacher educators and administrators in England and Australia sought to develop programs that balanced and integrated theory and practice, supported by a range of teaching and administrative procedures. They identified a range of problems in staffing, curriculum and pedagogy, school placements and supervision, and explored a wide range of possible solutions to those problems from minor adjustments to substantial reconceptualisations of whole programs. However, many such solutions generated further problems of their own. The analysis of the history of the practicum in teacher preparation indicates how firmly contemporary proposals are embedded within the framework of assumptions and approaches that have shaped teacher education for over a century.     

Developmental skills related to writing and reading acquisition in the intermediate grades

Multiple measures of the fine motor system, the orthographic system, the phonological system, the working memory system, the verbal intelligence system, the writing system, and the reading system were administered to 300 students in grades 4, 5, and 6. Results showed that the writing system and the reading system share many of the same orthographic, phonological, and working memory sub-processes but thepatterns of concurrent relation between these sub-processes and writing and between these subprocesses and reading differ. These results are consistent with the view that writing and reading draw upon the same as well as unique cognitive systems.     

Outcome status of students with learning disabilities at ages 21 and 24

This study investigated whether the presence of learning disabilities (LD) at age 10 was related to later schooling, employment, income, receipt of public aid, involvement in crime, and feeling of victimization at ages 21 and 24. Confidential self-report data were collected in a prospective, longitudinal panel study from a sample of 571 students, of whom 60 (10.5%) were children with LD. After controlling for gender, ethnicity, and socioeconomic status, the following results were obtained: The highest postsecondary school attainment for young adults with LD was not significantly different from that of their peers without LD, both at age 21 and age 24. The rate of employment and amount of earned income of young adults with LD were not significantly lower than those of their peers without LD both at age 21 and age 24. Young adults with LD were not significantly different from their peers without LD at age 21 and age 24 with respect to having children, but young adults with LD received significantly more public aid (such as food stamps, supplemental security income, and unemployment compensation) at age 21 but not at age 24. Young adults with LD were not significantly different from their peers without LD in committing crimes or feeling victimized at age 21 and age 24.