Headteacher critique and resistance: a challenge for policy,and for leadership/management scholars

Educational leadership/management scholars have undertaken work which documents the difficulties particular headteachers face when implementing policy. Some have suggested that headteachers mediate policy, ensuring the best possible outcomes for their schools, but there is also critique of this argument and a counter‐suggestion that heads ought to resist the imposts of conservative, marketised policies which produce and reproduce educational inequities. In this article I consider this position, and argue that if the field is to take up the question of resistance then it will need to extend its theoretical resources, interrogate and test out the limits of the proposition through empirical example, consider instances where resistance appears to occur, and move beyond a focus on individual headteachers to take seriously their collective professional organisations. In making this argument, I generate some suggestions for future research.     

Depressive symptoms in young adults: the influences of the early home environment and early educational child care

The relationship between depressive symptoms in young adults, the quality of the early home environment, and early educational child care was investigated in young adults randomly assigned to receive early childhood intervention in the Abecedarian study. Of the original 111 infants enrolled (98% African American), 104 participated in an age-21 follow-up. Those who had early treatment reported fewer depressive symptoms. The protective effects of the early childhood program were further supported by a significant home environment by treatment interaction. Negative effects of lower quality home environments on young adult depressive symptoms were almost entirely offset by preschool treatment, whereas depressive symptoms increased as the quality of the early home environment decreased for those in the control group.     

Computer Managed Learning: Significance to re‐registration and continuing professional education for nurses

The issue of skills maintenance and continued professional development are compounded in Australia by the distance factor. While choices do exist, some degree of relocation is often necessary for the rural worker.

Specifically, the paper will examine the relevance of Computer Managed Learning (CML) mechanisms to the renewal of registration (re‐registration) of nurses; and costs involved when the focal limitation is distance. The principle points are, however, applicable to other professions.     

An analysis of predictors of college students' ethical inclinations

Correlational and path analyses are used to examine the effects of four situations on self-reported ethical behaviors on four primary ethical dimensions among 323 undergraduate communication students in two mid-Atlantic public universities. The four situations are: the students' self-reported ethical beliefs, the students' perceptions of their professors' ethical beliefs, and the students' perceptions of both the beliefs and behaviors of their peers. The ethical dimensions, which form the basis for path models, are direct-testing, indirect-testing, indirect-substitution, and direct-substitution behaviors. Results indicate that different path models fit different types of behaviors. For example, professors' beliefs, as perceived by the students, have an indirect effect on students' behaviors, particularly in the indirect dimensions. Also, in three dimensions, interactions among professors' beliefs and most college students' beliefs and behaviors influence students' behaviors. An interpretation of these behaviors is suggested, based on an adaptation of the Ajzen and Fishbein theory of reasoned action.     

Rights and rites of passage: crossing boundaries in France

The purpose of this article is to explore the boundaries and interfaces between higher education and the other institutions and organizations involved in the provision of various forms of education and training opportunity in France. It uses a comparative lens but focuses mostly on the system in France since others in this volume will be looking at system(s) in the UK and elsewhere. A number of points of comparison are investigated: institutional boundaries, the ‘adultness’ of the system, and its qualifications. The rights of passage through it for individuals and what I have called the rites of passage?the tools, procedures and mechanisms designed to provide articulation and transfer between it various components?are examined. Finally, the future direction of the system and the attempt to build a distinctly French response to a problem experienced across the world are explored; the elements are in place but the jury is still out on whether or not this can be achieved.