Lesbian Teachers Walking the Line between Inclusion and Exposure

In this article it is argued that the effects of an education system that normalises and perpetuates heterosexuality as natural, by positioning lesbian and gay teachers as the ‘natural others’, reduces attempts at equitable visibility through inclusive practice to marginalised silence. Manifestations of the pressure on lesbian and gay teachers to provide evidence of heterosexual credentials as forms of currency for social inclusion are explored through anecdote and artwork. The question of ‘coming out’ as a necessary part of inclusive pedagogy is challenged as the sole means through which heterosexist hegemony may be unsettled as attempts are made to achieve broader inclusiveness in formal institutions of learning.     

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.     

Equity Traps Redux: Inequitable Access to Foreign Language Courses for African American High School Students

Although much of the current educational research literature on achievement gaps has focused on core curricular areas in public schools, few have focused on racially identifiable gaps in non-core areas such as high school foreign languages. These achievement, and thus advancement, gaps often result in the under-representation of students of color in higher level foreign language classes. This can have long-range negative consequences for students, such as lacking the foreign language credits needed for admission into major universities. Thus, in this qualitative study, we researched the perceptions of teachers, counselors, and school leaders at a racially diverse urban high school in central Texas concerning the enrollment, achievement, and advancement of African American students in high school foreign language courses. The results indicate that equity traps—deficit views, racial erasure, and paralogical beliefs and behaviors—advanced over a decade ago (McKenzie &; Scheurich, 2004 McKenzie, K. B., &; Scheurich, J. J. (2004). Equity traps: A useful construct for preparing principals to lead schools that are successful with racially diverse students. Educational Administration Quarterly, 40(5), 601–632.[Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]) are continuing and even thriving among teachers, counselors, and school leaders in public schools. These equity traps contribute to the foreign language achievement gap, resulting in diminished educational opportunities for African American students. Moreover, we propose that an additional equity trap is at play—organizational constraints—which are the structural obstacles that serve to abet and perpetuate the negative beliefs, behaviors, attitudes, and assumptions exposed in the original equity traps. We conclude this article with recommendations for policy makers and practitioners and offer direction for future research.     

Affect theory and policy mobility: challenges and possibilities for critical policy research

ABSTRACT

This article contributes to a growing literature on policy mobilities by proposing that affect be considered in analyses of the movements and transformations of policy over time and space. In particular, collective affective conditions, the role of affect in terms of infrastructures and actors of policy apparatuses and the mediating influences of affective bodily encounters are discussed in relation to why and how policies move. The article suggests that policy mobilities research could be strengthened by further examining how affect is inherent in familiar considerations of policy actors and networks, and tools and infrastructures such as policy documents, meetings, and data, and their contributions to policy flows. In addition, encompassing affective atmospheres and structures of feeling, as well as affect in the specific relationships between people and with place, are indicated as important for the study of policy mobility and immobility, including in shaping policy uptake and resistance. Examples from educational research are used to elaborate these considerations of affect for policy mobilities and to suggest possible topical and methodological implications for critical policy research.     

An exploration of important factors in the decision-making process undertaken by foundation degree students with respect to level 6 progression

Deciding what degree to study and where are very important decisions to make for a range of practical and economic reasons, and much research has been undertaken in this area. What has not been considered previously is the decision-making processes of students who have completed an associate degree, such as a Higher National Diploma or Foundation Degree, and are now considering where to complete their Bachelor education. Associate degrees are often provided by further education colleges (FECs) in partnership with universities, and the choices available to college-based higher education students are whether to continue at the college or move to university. A mixed-methods approach was adopted comprising of an online questionnaire and subsequent focus groups of students studying at HE at a southwest FEC. The findings showed that equal importance is placed on the practical issues of proximity and familiarity as on course suitability, with the only differences between those remaining at college and those moving to university being financially based.     

Distance learning for criminal justice professionals in the United Kingdom: Development,quality assurance and pedagogical proprieties

Education for criminal justice professionals in the UK (particularly for the police) was a long time coming. The deep resistance to such notions shown by individual officers, to say nothing of antipathy from the Police Federation (a quasi police union) only started to dissipate in the wake of critical research (and criticism of police ‘research’) in the mid-1980s. Early efforts at such education concentrated on delivery using traditional classroom-based teaching. However, by the early 1990s the inadequacies of such delivery were identified, and full undergraduate programs were developed using distance learning (DL) technology. This paper examines, in the context of 10 years of experience in developing and managing high-quality DL programs for a wide range of criminal justice professionals, the key features of development, design and delivery of such programs in the UK, which extend well beyond Internet/WWW delivery. The article also describes and considers the impact and expectations of the Quality Assurance Agency (QAA), which seeks to monitor and assess the delivery of higher education in the UK, and examines the positive pedagogical outcomes that can, for CJ professionals, follow DL study.     

Genre systems and “keeping track” in everyday life

Keeping track of what needs to be done and where and when and by whom is a common practice in Canadian households. The documentary tools used to coordinate the work of keeping track in everyday life are the focus of this paper. We consider these documentary tools as belonging to genres. On the basis of four in-depth interviews, observation, and photography, we identify four genres common to all participants: check-ins or status reports, lists, reminders, and calendars. We map examples of these genres to show that they are socially and intertextually connected—in genre systems—with institutions and organizations beyond the home. Archivists have much to gain by applying the concept of genre-as-social-action and using ethnographic methods to study personal records from the creator’s perspective. Such approaches provide insight into the contexts within which personal records are created and used, including the intertextual linkages between personal and institutional recordkeeping.     

Coeducational and Single-Sex Physical Education in Middle Schools: Impact on Physical Activity

This commentary provides a review of changes in data reporting in Research Quarterly for Exercise and Sport from Volumes 49 and 59 to 84. Improvements were noted in that all articles reported means, standard deviations, and sample sizes, while most (87%) articles reported an estimate of effect size (ES). Additional reporting recommendations were made about ES for mean differences, use of appropriate estimates of variability, when to use a table or figure, use of multivariate analyses, and power analyses.     

A meta‐analytic review of the cover‐copy‐compare and variations of this self‐management procedure

Studies that examined copy‐cover‐compare (CCC) and variations of this procedure were reviewed and analyzed. This review revealed a substantial number of studies that validated the use of CCC across spelling and math skills and across students with and without disabilities. A meta‐analysis of findings indicated that CCC and variations of this procedure were effective for helping students acquire and become fluent in academic skills. The strongest effects were evident when CCC and variations of this procedure were combined with other evidence‐based instructional components. Limitations, future directions for research, and recommendations for practice are offered. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Teacher education in the United Kingdom post devolution: convergences and divergences

This paper examines the roles of research in teacher education across the four nations of the United Kingdom. Both devolution and on-going reviews of teacher education are facilitating a greater degree of cross-national divergence. England is becoming a distinct outlier, in which the locus for teacher education is moving increasingly away from Higher Education Institutions and towards an ever-growing number of school-based providers. While the idea of teaching as a research-based profession is increasingly evident in Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales, it seems that England, at least in respect of the political rhetoric, recent reforms and explicit definitions, is fixed on a contrastingly divergent trajectory towards the idea of teaching as a craft-based occupation, with a concomitant emphasis on a (re)turn to the practical. It is recommended that research is urgently needed to plot these divergences and to examine their consequences for teacher education, educational research and professionalism.