Evaluation of a teacher's classroom performance using the Florida performance measurement system

This article documents the use of the screening and formative observation instruments of the Florida Performance Measurement System; a system whose content validity, reliability, and predictive validity has been established for use in evaluating beginning, certified, and master teachers. A videotaped lesson, taught by the Secretary of Education, William Bennett, was coded and the data analyzed by reference to the norms of high school teacher performance in Florida. The specific strengths and areas of potential improvement of the teacher's performance are identified and constructive changes in performance suggested.     

Research in Special Needs Education: Objectivity or Ideology?

Social science, including research into special educational needs, purports to be objective, and much of special needs research falls into the empirical-analytic paradigm which regards human affairs as containing measurable, law-like qualities to be identified and manipulated. It is argued, however, that this may be a flawed assumption and that all researchers need to be aware of the potentially political nature of their position. The sources, for instance, of a physical disability need to be located, not in the physical problem per se , but within the way society seeks to deal with it. Although researchers may like to view themselves as impartial seekers of the truth, it is suggested that research techniques themselves emerge from a theoretical position which reflects their beliefs, values and dispositions towards the world. They also gain, directly or indirectly, from the research process in terms of kudos or academic recognition. A tentative alternative paradigm is presented which attempts to challenge the 'normalisation' approach to teaching those designated as having special needs.     

'You're Hopeless I Swear to God': Shifting masculinities in classroom talk

In this article the author aims to problematise the discourse of masculinity in the co-educational classroom. Moving strategically sideways to focus on boys rather than girls, it is argued that 'masculinity' is not a fixed essence but a shifting gendered social identity. Although mass culture generally assumes there is a fixed, true masculinity, not all boys and men take up the same kind of masculinity, nor do they experience 'maleness' in the same way. Social class and subcultures (as well as other inflections of identity not discussed in this article) profoundly affect the presentation and representation of masculine identities. Moreover, masculinity as a particular configuration of gender is constituted in relation to local contexts within the meritocratic discourse of schooling. The ethnographic data in this article, which focuses on boys relating to girls in the classroom, show how varied the contexts of gender production can be even within the same roughly parallel configurations of task and location. It is concluded that masculinity is above all a social identity accomplishment.     

Part and parcel of teaching? Secondary school staff's views on supporting student emotional health and well‐being

The need for schools to support children and young people's mental and emotional health is increasingly emphasised in policy initiatives, yet the role of teachers in this has been under explored. This paper reports findings from qualitative, semi‐structured interviews with 14 school staff at eight secondary schools in England, examining emotional health and well‐being (EHWB) activities in which they were involved. Three emergent themes are discussed: (1) a strongly held belief that teaching and EHWB are inevitably linked; (2) a perception that many colleagues outside the study sample are reluctant to engage in EHWB work; and (3) a concern that teachers’ own emotional health needs are neglected, leaving them unable or unwilling to consider those of pupils. The findings endorse whole‐school approaches to emotional health, with a focus on teachers’ training and support needs and clearer aims, including consideration of how such work fits with the broader goals of schools.     

Regional themes and global means in supra-national higher education policy

The supra-national level has become increasingly important in educational policy formulation. This paper describes and compares two settings in which growth in these supra-national policies is evident—in Europe and in Africa. Key themes arising in policy documents in each context are examined. A distinction is drawn in analysis between themes classified as ‘global means’, such as qualification frameworks and quality assurance mechanisms, which are becoming international norms and which show close similarity across contexts, and regional goals or ‘themes’ in supra-national policy. The paper argues that although there are apparent similarities between the policy goals espoused in ‘regional themes’, context plays an important part in understanding the meanings of these policy goals. In closer analysis, there are differences both in the underlying problems which the policy goals are intended to address, and in the prioritisation given to these goals. This finding is examined in the light of debates regarding policy convergence, specifically drawing on Vaira’s (2004) framework for institutional analysis.