Personality,moral purpose,and the leadership of an education for sustainable development

This paper describes how two primary head teachers, nationally recognised as role models for the development of an education for sustainable development (ESD) in their schools, manage the implementation of this area. In doing so, it shows how they adopt two very different approaches to ESD and to their job generally, and suggests that whilst there are some commonalities between them, educational leadership needs to be seen as driven by a moral purpose, engaging and re-engaging with each situation, entering into a dialectic with others’ visions, leading to the re-conceptualisation of problems in different ways. This not only suggests a continued tension between such uniqueness and standardised approaches to headship, but raises questions about current policy imperatives for developing models of sustainable leadership.     

Reframing ‘well-being’ in schools: the potential of recognition

In Australia and internationally, the well-being of children and young people is a core focus of social policy, with a growing imperative to locate well-being within the sphere of education. However, the term ‘well-being’ remains ambiguous and the implementation of educational approaches to promote and improve it appears fragmented and ad hoc. In Australia, little is known about how well-being is understood and supported in schools, particularly from the perspective of students themselves. This article reports on key findings from an ambitious mixed-methods study funded by the Australian Research Council that investigated conceptualisations and practices around well-being in schools. Underpinned by theoretical interests linked to Childhood Studies and recognition theory, the research investigated policy, student and staff perspectives on well-being. The findings point to the key role of relationships, providing considerable scope for analysing the salience of Honneth’s modes of recognition for well-being in schools.     

Student teachers' attitudes and beliefs about inclusion and inclusive practice

The beliefs and attitudes of teachers are an important element in the development of inclusive education and its associated practices. Teacher education is seen as crucial in helping to develop positive attitudes and beliefs that are thought to promote inclusion, although attempts to reform teacher education in order to address issues of inclusion are complex. The paper reports the findings from a set of surveys that studied student teachers' attitudes to, and beliefs about, inclusion and exclusion at the beginning and end of a newly reformed 1‐year professional graduate diploma course at the University of Aberdeen, which places inclusion at the heart of the programme. The findings from the surveys indicate that both primary and secondary student teachers' attitudes and beliefs towards the principles of inclusive education remain positive throughout the course and are largely undiminished by school experience. This contradicts some findings that are reported elsewhere, where attitudes and beliefs become more negative following experience in schools. Findings from this study also show that attitudes, beliefs and understandings of the principles of inclusion are enhanced by consideration of the ideas underpinning ‘Learning without Limits’.     

Beyond ‘export education’: aspiring to put students at the heart of a university’s internationalisation strategy

For many universities around the world, internationalisation means the recruitment of fee-paying international students (so-called export education) for primarily commercial reasons. For UK universities, international (non-European Union) students account for approximately 13% of their annual revenues, making them highly dependent on international student recruitment. This paper discusses the attempt by one UK university to change direction and develop a new approach to internationalisation which puts an international learning experience for all students at the heart of its new strategic plan. It discusses the obstacles to changing direction in this way and shares some of the lessons learned about how to roll out an alternative university-wide internationalisation strategy.     

The role of invitations to parents in the completion of a child’s home reading challenge

The role parents can play in supporting early reading attainment is well documented. There is still, however, a need to understand what motivates parents to become involved in reading at home with their child. Past research, based upon correlational studies, has mixed findings regarding the influence of the teacher and the child on parents’ motivation at home. Through two quasi-experiments, the present study explored the influence of teacher invitations in Kindergarten classes, and child invitations in Grade 2 classes on completion rates of a home reading challenge. The completion of the home reading among families was investigated across two metropolitan schools in Sydney, Australia. Both of the interventions resulted in significantly higher completion rates compared to control groups (teacher invitations: d = .68; child invitations: d = .73). This paper adds to existing research by providing a clearer picture of the cause-and-effect relationship between schools’ use of invitations to facilitate children’s home reading.