‘It’s not about punitive’: exploring how early-career teachers in high-poverty schools respond to critical incidents

ABSTRACT

This article explores how early-career teachers working in high-poverty schools in Australia account for their decision-making during critical classroom incidents. Classroom management solutions are problematized by investigating how two teachers take up particular positions, make decisions, and enact what they believe to be ‘quality teaching’ in context. Through a combination of interviews and observations of teachers ‘in situ’, we examine what these teachers do, why they do it, what informs their decisions, and how they reflect on their actions. The complexity of teachers’ work in schools located in high-poverty areas is highlighted. We argue that both early-career teachers prefer to position themselves within ‘pastoral’, in contrast to ‘disciplinarian’, discourses, as part of constituting the school as a site of possibility and teachers who advocate for youth growing up in poverty.     

Heightened consciousness and curriculum in a time of crisis

PROSPECTS - This article discusses heightened curriculum consciousness in a time of crisis due to Covid-19. A teacher, a principal, and a university professor in the United States offer intertwined...     

CITIZENSHIP EDUCATION,POLICY, AND THE EDUCATIONALIZATION OF EDUCATIONAL RESEARCH

Abstract In this essay, Naomi Hodgson reconsiders the value of Michel Foucault’s normalization thesis to the study of educationalization in relation to contemporary educational policy and research. Hodgson begins by analyzing educational researchers’ response to the recent introduction of citizenship education in England, focusing specifically on a review of research, policy, and practice in this area commissioned by the British Educational Research Association (BERA). She argues that the BERA review exemplifies the field of education policy sociology in that it is conducted according to the concepts of its parent discipline of sociology but lacks critical theoretical engagement with them. Instead, such work operationalizes sociological concepts in service of educational policy solutions. Hodgson identifies three dominant discourses of citizenship education within the BERA review— the academic discourse of education policy sociology, contemporary political discourse, and the discourse of inclusive education — and draws attention to the relation of citizenship education to policy initiatives, and thus to educationalization. She then discusses Foucault’s concept of normalization in terms of the demand on the contemporary subject to orient the self in a certain relation toward learning informed by the need for competitiveness in the European and global context. Ultimately, Hodgson concludes that the language and rhetoric of education policy sociology implicate such research in the process of educationalization itself.     

Universities as a meeting point with new academic knowledge,society and culture: cognitive and emotional transitions during higher education

This paper examines how exposure to a different culture, acquired knowledge and everyday practices at Israeli universities affected the identities of the ‘First Women’ students from the Druze minority who broke gender roles and turned to acquire higher education. The short distance between the Druze villages and the university required a longer and far more complex journey than the women imagined when they decided to study. The paper analyses ways in which the university atmosphere imparts values, norms, knowledge and practices that enable individuals to reassess their identities. Thirty‐four interviews with Druze women, who were the first in their community or their respective villages to obtain higher education, were analysed, allowing a study of the different experiences and various paths of change and their intricate effects on framing identity.     

Distance Coaching for Pre-service Teachers: Impacts on Children’s Functional Communication in Inclusive Preschool Classrooms

This article reports the results of a post hoc analysis of child data from a single-case multiple-probe study of pre-service teachers’ use of communication strategies before, while, and after receiving distance coaching. Data were analyzed for the number of functional communication utterances used by groups of preschool children with and without disabilities who participated in activities. Results suggest pre-service teachers’ use of evidence-based communication strategies was related to increased functional communication by children in the inclusive preschool classrooms. Implications for future research and classroom practices are discussed.     

A multilevel analysis of Japanese middle school student and school socioeconomic status influence on mathematics achievement

The author examined the simultaneous influence of Japanese middle school student and school socioeconomic status (SES) on student math achievement with two-level multilevel analysis models by utilizing the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) Japan data sets. The theoretical framework used in this study was Bronfenbrenner’s bioecological theory (Bronfenbrenner and Morris 1998). The data sets contained 4,856 students from 146 public and private middle schools. The results indicated that at the student level, different aspects of student SES (i.e., number of books, the possession of computers, paternal, and maternal educational achievements) were positively related to Japanese student math achievement. At the school level, two aspects of school SES (i.e., less populated schools and economically disadvantaged schools) were negatively related to Japanese student math achievement. None of the cross-level interactions were significant, but the random effect for the computer slope was significant. Although this study found both student and school SES effects on student achievement, the proportional reduction of prediction error explained by both student and school SES were was small, meaning the residual variances at student and school levels did not capture the majority of variance explained by math achievement. The implications of theoretical framework and educational policy are discussed.     

The effects of a 4-week static stretching programme on the individual muscles comprising the hamstrings

The aims of this study were to investigate the effects of a 4-week intervention of static stretching (SS) on muscle hardness of the semitendinosus (ST), semimembranosus (SM) and biceps femoris (BF) muscles. Shear elastic modulus was measured by using ultrasound shear wave elastography as the index of muscle hardness. Thirty healthy men (age 22.7 ± 2.2 years) volunteered for this study and were randomly assigned to the SS intervention group (n = 15) or the control group (n = 15). Participants in the SS intervention group received a 4-week stretch intervention for the hamstrings of their dominant leg. Shear elastic moduli of the hamstrings were measured at initial evaluation and after 4 weeks in both groups at a determined angle. In all muscles, the shear elastic modulus decreased significantly after SS intervention. The percentage change in the shear elastic modulus from the value at initial evaluation to after 4 weeks intervention was greatest in the SM. These results suggest that SS intervention has chronic effects on reducing hardness of the hamstring muscle components, especially the SM muscle.     

Blocking CRT: How the Emotionality of Whiteness Blocks CRT in Urban Teacher Education

Although Critical Race Theory (CRT) has been applied to teacher education, it has yet to be meaningfully integrated into the core of urban teacher education programs. The reticence to embrace CRT is largely due to the overwhelming presence of Whiteness, despite Sleeter's (2001) demand for diversification. This theoretically interpretative article employs CRT's methodology of counterstorytelling to interrogate how Whiteness manifests itself in emotional ways, like fetishism and sentimentalization, and how such emotions are the root of resistance toward CRT in teacher education. Drawing from Black feminism and Critical Whiteness Studies, we utilize emotionally-based theories to illustrate the importance of CRT in teacher education, to identify barriers to CRT, and to recommend how teacher education can more genuinely reinvest in antiracism.     

Old friends, new friends: predictors of children's perspective on their friends at school

Predictors of 5-year-old kindergartners' insights into their friends, and their accounts of liking and conflict with their friends were investigated, with a focus on both the children's and their friends' social understanding during the preschool period, and the quality of their preschool friendships. Seventy children initially studied at 4 years utilizing social cognition tasks and observations of dyadic play with their friends were followed over the transition to school; at school they were interviewed about their friendships and their social understanding was assessed. One group had remained close to their preschool friends, whereas a second group had formed new friendships. Social understanding, language abilities, and prosocial characteristics of both the children and preschool friends, their successful communication and shared pretend play experiences during the preschool period, and their mothers' educational level were related to their perspectives on their current school friends. Liking of current friends was linked to relationship history and maternal educational level for both those with old and with new friends, whereas insight was related to assessments of social cognition.     

Student demand and progress at the Open University – the first eight years

At its inception educationalists and politicians alike were sceptical about the likelihood of the Open University being anything more than a pipe‐dream. Demand was not proven, students would not stay the course, degree level work could not be taught in such a way – the criticisms were numerous. This paper attempts to assess, after ten years, how far the University has succeed ed in its task of providing degree opportunities for adults. It considers the level and nature of demand for the OU, student progress through the University and graduation patterns. It concludes that, despite all the initial scepticism, the level of demand for the OU has continued at a high level, more students have survived than anyone had anticipated, and that these include significant groups without the requisite qualifications for entry to normal university. Despite this, there are many for whom the OU is not as open as it should be, and this represents the challenge over the next few years.