Success Without ‘A’ Pass: an Educational Experiment Revisited

In 1963, the University of Sussex inaugurated an innovative Early Leavers Scheme in response to two government reports which confirmed that it was still the norm for talented working‐class children to leave school aged 15 or 16 and indicated that the hopes of the 1944 Education Act were as yet unfulfilled. This article explores what the scheme has meant to some of the people who got to university because of it. Research on relevant documentation of the scheme and its outcomes held in the University of Sussex archives and information gathered from four people admitted to the scheme and its impact on them inform this article. The scheme is contextualised with relevant policy documents, government reports and academic publications to provide a framework for the accounts of those who took part in it and it is tentatively suggested that these have implications for higher education policy today.     

Teachers' and At‐Risk Students' Stimulated Recall of Instruction

Abstract

Using the stimulated recall of instruction methodology, we interviewed teachers and students at risk for referral to special education about their perceptions, judgments, and decision making during the course of instruction. The results of the teacher interviews suggest that teachers respond to complex collections of student cues in their decision making about students. Teachers described themselves as more frequently monitoring the at‐risk students, although their attempts to modify instruction consisted primarily of attempts to motivate these students. The at‐risk students indicated awareness that they are experiencing difficulty in class, had somewhat less understanding of how teachers attempt to help them, and responded with anger and frustration to their learning problems.     

Critically reflexive dialogue and praxis: Academic/practitioner reflections throughout a formative evaluation of Circles® USA

Reflections about the use of critically reflexive praxis by academic/practitioners are offered based on a case study of a formative evaluation of Circles^® USA, a nonprofit organization coordinating initiatives across the U.S. working to move families out of poverty. Critically reflexive praxis is theorized as featuring several themes including acknowledging different levels of context, critical dialogue with collaborators, engaging cultural difference and intersectionalities, problematizing power relations and relationships among researchers and collaborators, and occurring throughout the research project. Examples of critical dialogic reflexivity and navigating common tensions that emerge throughout such community engagement projects are detailed during three phases: planning and design; fieldwork and interviews; and outcomes, applications, and implications.