Social Justice in Teacher Education: A Qualitative Content Analysis of NCATE Conceptual Frameworks

A review of theoretical or conceptual writing on teacher education reveals numerous examples of the term “social justice” in discussions of preservice preparation. Despite this widespread use, little research documents if and how teacher education programs utilize the concept in their programs. This study examines how institutions that included “social justice” within their NCATE accreditation documents used the term in their articulation of program practices, goals, and values. Based on an extensive qualitative content analysis of NCATE conceptual frameworks, the authors assert that the social justice reform agenda is only weakly represented in accreditation artifacts and that there is little consensus on the enactment of social justice in teacher education, even among those programs that invoke the terminology.     

Attributions and emotional competence: why some teachers experience close relationships with disruptive students (and others don’t)

ABSTRACT

Disruptive student behaviour is a major concern for teachers, causing classroom conflict and emotional fatigue. Whilst student-teacher closeness is known to reduce student aggression and improve behaviour, it is not yet known why some teachers experience close relationships with disruptive students and others do not. This qualitative study therefore examined relational closeness between elementary teachers and disruptive students in Sydney, Australia. Using a teacher speech sample task, we identified eight disruptive students with ‘complicated’ student-teacher relationships: high in both closeness and conflict. Eleven classroom teachers and seven support teachers each spoke about their relationships with the eight students. Speech samples were analysed using an inductive content analysis to determine characteristics that may facilitate relational closeness in spite of student-teacher conflict. Findings revealed two characteristics of teachers’ speech that guided relational closeness: attributions for disruptive behaviour and emotional competence. Not all teachers, however, described a close relationship. These findings provide new directions for interventions that aim to improve student-teacher relationship quality.     

Re/cognising the discursive fr/Ames of equity and widening participation in higher education

ABSTRACT

Policy and program language in the UK and Australian higher education sectors consistently deploys the term aspiration in ways that adhere to the hegemonic neo-liberal ideal of the entrepreneurial competitor-individual, de-meaning and de-valuing ‘other’ personhoods. University Equity and Widening Participation (EWP) outreach programs that engage with marginalised groups in school and community settings challenge people to perform particular aspirations from what can be a deeply uncertain present. This paper presents a cautionary tale from the Australian Equity and Widening Participation (EWP) context that emerged from a research-informed practice PhD, spanning two methodologically different phases. The paper argues that the discursive framing of certain aspirations as legitimate works in subtle ways to shape the perceptual horizons of EWP practitioners and participants. Specifically, the work takes issue with policy frames that create conditions for misrecognition(s) that are themselves difficult to re/cognise. A metaphorical pedagogical tool is developed using the Ames Room illusion.     

Quality Assessment in Higher Education: the Scottish Experience

Quality assessment has been a feature of higher education in Scotland for the academic years from 1992 to 1996. As part of a review of its quality assessment procedures, the Scottish Higher Education Funding Council commissioned a survey of perceptions of the process, both amongst those involved in conducting the assessment and those subject to it. The aims of this paper are firstly to present the profile of opinion amongst 366 respondents to the questionnaire and secondly to investigate whether any patterns are discernible within this group by examining whether TQA is viewed differently by different constituencies within the academic community. Implications for the future direction of quality assessment are discussed.     

Asking Questions

To ask a question is to invite a reply. If the question is relevant to anything of human account then presumably the reply will change one's perception of himself and his world. Sometimes one anticipates a reply which will confirm a position he has already taken, that is to say, one from which he has been accustomed to launch his inquiries. But the confirmation, if it occurs, will nonetheless alter his experience - if only because it puts his position in a more presumptuous light. He must know that.
Sometimes one anticipates a reply which will disconfirm his present outlook. In that case he may assert his position with particular vigor on the occasions when it is most likely to be challenged. A person who seems to go out of his way to fail does that. Again, sometimes, one appears to ask for no particular reply, only for something he can grasp. In this case the relevance of the question may give us a clue to a construct dimension we might envision within his system. That, in turn, should give us some hint as to the kind of reply he is prepared to accept.
The tricky part of all this, both for him and for us, is that replies seldom end up being acceptable conclusions. At best they are grounds for further inquiries. The best answer to a question is two better ones.     

The accuracy of performance task scores after resolution of rater disagreement: A Monte Carlo study

When multiple raters score a writing sample, on occasion they will award discrepant scores. To report a single score to the examinee, some method of resolving those differences must be applied to the ratings before an operational score can be reported. Several forms of resolving score discrepancies have been described in the literature. Initial studies of the various methods, however, have demonstrated that decisions about student performance may differ depending on the resolution method applied. Thus, studies are needed to investigate the quality of the scores associated with each model. To study score quality associated with each model, we conducted a Monte Carlo study and varied the factors associated with scoring and resolution to determine the conditions under which a particular resolution method might be superior.     

Enhancing care for older people living in nursing homes in rural Australia using action learning as a catalyst for change

The implementation of action learning workshops in three nursing homes in rural Victoria, Australia has been critical in the re-visioning of how care can be enhanced for residents. The workshops were designed with the intent of improving quality of care for residents by providing health care staff with opportunities to learn together and effect cultural change. Valuing what was accomplished well in these nursing homes was the starting point. The project was funded by a Commonwealth Government Rural Education Grant and was based on ‘My Home Life’ a popular programme that promotes quality of life and delivers positive change in care homes for older people across the United Kingdom. This paper provides an account of the project including key components of the action learning workshops and subsequent evaluation of the programme conducted in Australia. The lessons learnt throughout this project have provided the impetus to continue using appreciative inquiry and action learning to involve participants in reflecting on their practice, valuing what they do well while identifying areas that require change. Working together in a safe and respectful space provides participants with opportunity to harness their own collective wisdom and as the health professionals in this project experienced, also learn valuable skills that support progressive action that makes a difference to older people’s lives.     

A review of Catherine Milne��s book, The Invention of Science

Catherine Milne’s book, The Invention of Science, recounts the history of science (mainly Eurocentric) from cross-cultural, historical and philosophical worldviews. Scientists, science educators, and teachers would find this an interesting book, not only for themselves but also for those with whom they interact. Most accounts are of the great men in science with some to women in science, including reference to the exclusion of women from science. Milne provides thought-provoking activities to use in the classroom, like asking students to write the processes that occur when sugar dissolves in hot tea, with students including the three components of causal explanation. She also encourages teachers to use narratives to help students learn the context of discovery in science. In a comparison of analogical, deductive, inductive and abductive reasoning, she encourages teachers to pay attention to dialogical arguments. Book review author predicts that Milne’s book will fit well with the nation’s next generation science standards, still in development form. Milne succeeded in her goal “to combine aspects of the philosophy and history; not just to focus on specific scientific ideas but to provide a hint of the complex relationship between place and history, space and time, in the development of Eurocentric science.”     

Responding to students’ views about university teaching: the experience of teachers in Jamaica

Individual consultation over student ratings is recognised as an effective strategy to improve teaching effectiveness. Yet limited financial resources and rising costs in higher education renders this strategy as no longer feasible. This paper explores teacher perceptions on the efficacy of a peer-based model of consultation. It draws on a randomised controlled trial with university teachers discussing their ratings feedback with disciplinary peers. The findings indicated that teachers were receptive towards the idea of collaborating to learn from student ratings how to improve their teaching. The model should be refined with continued research.