Preschool Directors’ Attitudes Towards the Integration of Children with Disabilities Into Regular Preschools in New South Wales

THE ATTITUDES of preschool directors in New South Wales towards the integration of children with disabilities were surveyed using a questionnaire that had been developed in early studies in this area. Analysis of data showed that directors were most positive about children with mild impairments, for whom they felt they had appropriate training and resources. They were least positive about children who required additional help that was outside their regular duties. Skills required by teachers and directors involved in integration included general competence, knowledge of specialised techniques that are required and an ability to work with therapists, special advisors and other support staff. Directors who had postgraduate qualifications and those from community preschools tended to be more positive about integration than other groups. Overall, it was concluded that integration is most likely to be successful if children are placed in centres where staff are positive and feel they have the necessary skills.     

Reframing transitions to school as continuity practices: the role of practice architectures

This paper makes a case for conceptualising transitions from the before school sector to the compulsory years of schooling as continuity practices. It begins by presenting an overview and critique of constructions of transitions to school that contribute to contemporary discourses and agendas (e.g. the conflation of transitions and readiness). Then recent international trends in understanding transitions as continuity are analysed and synthesised into three broad categories: structural, developmental and contextual continuities. These categories are subsequently used to develop a conceptual model for reframing transitions. The model is then used to first, examine a snapshot of familiar Australian transitions practices; second, highlight the interdependence of the practices and the sites in which they are enacted; and third, support the argument to reframe transitions as continuity practices. Finally, contributions the paper makes to transitions to school theory, research and practice are explicated.     

Student Teachers’ Beliefs and a Changing Teacher Role

This article discusses the encounters between the changing expectations on the teacher role, teacher education and Swedish student teachers’ beliefs about their role as teachers, with special emphasis on the socialisation process of the pupils and the teacher's possible influence on it. The discussion is based on two empirical studies among Swedish compulsory school student teachers (M. von Wright, (1996) Propedeusis? Om motet mellan lärarstuderande och lärarutbildningen, in: Grundskollärarutbüdningen 1995. En utvärdering. Högskoleverkets rapportserie 1996:1 R.; M. von Wright (1997) Socialisationsprocessen. Metaforer och synsätt hos blivande lärare. Licentiatuppsats. Lärarhögskolan i Stockholm). The results show that student teachers when they enter their education on the one hand tend to carry with them explicit expectations which strongly reflect the values of what is considered pedagogically correct. At the same time students express implicit beliefs and underlying conceptions of human development, which in many cases are incoherent. During teacher education the pedagogically correct beliefs might become replaced, but implicit beliefs as affinity to certain pedagogical discourses are not changed or brought to awareness unless they are seriously challenged and problematised. Yet these beliefs direct the students’ attention. Changing demands on the teacher role bring about expectations on a shift in thinking about teaching and learning. Teacher education and educators can play important roles in making the students aware of their everyday beliefs and eventually change them.     

Exploring metacognitive strategy use during note-taking for students with learning disabilities

This mixed-methods study analysed over 200 interviews from 20 seventh-grade students with learning disabilities (LD). Students were instructed how to use a note-taking intervention during science lectures. The interview analyses were supported by pre- and post-intervention quantitative data. Data suggest that the intervention helped students identify important information; systematised the process of listening to, interpreting and using that information; and offered students a means by which to organise the information they were hearing. A discussion about metacognition and attention explores how these processes altered students’ awareness of their own learning, as well as how they equipped students with a new strategy for holding onto and translating information from their science lectures into a useful set of notes. These findings have implications for how theorists conceptualise the relationship between metacognition and attention and how teachers use scaffolding to support the learning of students with LD.     

Accuracy of Measurement in the Context of Mathematics National Curriculum Tests in England for Ethnic Minority Pupils and Pupils Who Speak English as an Additional Language

Research has suggested that inappropriate or misfitting response patterns may have detrimental effects on the quality and validity of measurement. It has been suggested that factors like language and ethnic background are related to the generation of misfitting response patterns, but the empirical research on this is rather poor. This research analyzes data from three testing cycles of the National Curriculum tests in mathematics in England using the Rasch model. It was found that pupils having English as an additional language and pupils belonging to ethnic minorities are significantly more likely to generate aberrant response patterns. However, within the groups of pupils belonging to ethnic minorities, those who speak English as an additional language are not significantly more likely to generate misfitting response patterns. This may indicate that the ethnic background effect is more significant than the effect of the first language spoken. The results suggest that pupils having English as an additional language and pupils belonging to ethnic minorities are mismeasured significantly more than the remainder of pupils by taking the mathematics National Curriculum tests. More research is needed to generalize the results to other subjects and contexts.     

‘I love a curry’: student-teacher discourse around ‘race’ and ethnicity at a UK university

This paper presents aspects of a small scale study that considered student teachers’ language and discourse around race and ethnicity at a university in the northwest of England. The first part of the paper critiques current education-related policy, context and practice to situate the research and then draws upon aspects of critical race theory and whiteness theory as frames of reference. In the research, 250 student-teachers completed questionnaires that invited responses to statements about race and ethnicity and this was followed by two semi-structured group interviews. A discourse analysis approach was taken to analyse the language used in the questionnaire responses and, in particular, the group interviews. Recurrent discursive configurations were characterised by language that signified othering, correct knowledge, personalisation and discomfort. Hesitations and silences during group discussions perhaps intimated thinking time and also maybe a reluctance to talk about aspects of race and ethnicity, and what was not said remains significant. It is suggested that a reconstruction of a teacher/educator subjectivity that fosters self-reflection on values and racial positioning, is needed in teacher education, alongside critical examination of the silences and discomfort surrounding race and ethnicity.     

Views from the Margins: News Coverage of Women in Abortion Protests, 1960–2006

This study links two traditionally marginalized groups in media coverage: women and protesters. Both have generally been found to be underrepresented and misrepresented in mainstream news coverage. Employing a content analysis of abortion protest coverage over 46 years, this study assesses the impact of protesters' goals and tactics on the proportion of women in news coverage. Results indicate that female mentions were more likely to appear when protesters supported the status quo and when protesters were treated more favorably in coverage. Overall, however, the focus on men as sources over women as sources remained quite apparent. Implications for news treatment of women in protest coverage are discussed.     

The Role of Exemplification in Shaping Third-Person Perceptions and Support for Restrictions on Video Games

The origins of third-person perceptions remain uncertain, with most research focusing on psychological mechanisms. We investigate whether media content might also play a role, using a 2 × 2 experiment presenting a single story describing video games as harmful or harmless and using either research and statistics or a specific anecdotal exemplar to illustrate this claim. Results show perceived effects on others are influenced by the use of an exemplar but do not show an effect for explicitly describing games as harmful. The findings suggest that media may influence third-person perceptions and subsequent support for censorship in previously unexplored ways.     

SCHOOL INTEGRATION IN ENGLAND

Following is the text of a memorandum prepared in January, 1970, for submission to members of the Select Subcommittee on Education of the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Education and Labor. These Congressmen visited Israel during the same month.