Towards a collaborative methodology: An ethnography of widening educational participation

This paper examines my attempts to develop a collaborative methodology, and critically considers the limitations and possibilities of this approach. It draws on a small-scale ethnography of widening educational participation undertaken for my doctoral degree. I worked with a group of access students in a UK further education college to develop the methods and methodology, to identify research questions and key areas of focus and, to a lesser extent, to analyse the data. Post/structural analytical tools enabled co-participants to deconstruct hegemonic neo-liberal discourses of widening participation. Feminist theory enabled the refashioning of radical discourses that are concerned with destabilising unequal relations of power in research and in education. In the paper I consider issues of power, research relationships, author-ity, reflexivity and ethics in collaborative methodology.     

Re/conceptualising time and temporality: an exploration of time in higher education

ABSTRACT

In this paper we deconstruct hegemonic conceptions of time in higher education. Drawing on a recent project, we argue that limiting assumptions about time dominate notions of student capability and prospects of success. The paper reveals how the conceptualisation of time is constituted within a framework that individualises and decontextualises difficulties. Within this frame, socio-cultural elitism is left largely unchallenged, with many students left out and misrecognised as purely lacking capability and commitment. Rethinking simple distinctions between ‘time’ and ‘temporality’, we consider ways to broaden understandings to enable a more inclusive and ‘inventive’ system. We apply a Foucauldian analysis to argue that we co-construct the future in the very ways that we react to the present and think about the past. We must recognise that the way we work in the present is how we create the future. Our everyday actions, assumptions and reactions re/produce our futures.     

Understanding student engagement with research: a study of pre-service teachers’ research perceptions,research experience,and motivation

This study reports on findings from a research project that investigated the extent to which pre-service teachers at a major metropolitan Australian university engage with research, and the factors that influence their level of engagement or disengagement. Results from survey responses (n = 235) and focus group interviews suggest that attitudes towards research are more positive among pre-service teachers who possess research experience and those who are intrinsically motivated with respect to their university studies. The article discusses the implications of these results for the effective organisation and promotion of research activities for pre-service teachers.     

Vocabulary,Context, and Speech Perception Among Good and Poor Readers

This study examined the interaction between speech perception and sentential context among 13 poor readers and 49 good readers in grades one to three. Children's performance was examined on tasks assessing expressive and receptive vocabulary, reading skill, phonological awareness, pseudoword repetition, and phoneme identification. Good readers showed clearly defined categorical perception in the phoneme identification task for both sentence frames biased to the identification of the /b/ or /p/ phoneme. The /b/–/p/ category boundary for the BATH frame was at longer voice onset times (VOTs) than the boundary for PATH frame. Poor readers showed less sharply defined categorical perception with both sentence frames. Although poor readers did not show a shift in the /b/–/p/ category boundary, sentential context did affect the overall rate with which phonemes were identified as /b/ or /p/ at each VOT. These findings suggest that semantic information may operate as a compensatory mechanism for resolving ambiguities in speech perception. Furthermore, expressive vocabulary was more closely related than receptive vocabulary to individual differences in reading and phonological processing, providing support for the phonological distinctness hypothesis.     

#2: Freedom of Movement throughout Labor

In this position paper-one of six care practice papers published by Lamaze International and reprinted here with permission-the benefit of allowing freedom of movement throughout labor is discussed and presented as an evidence-based practice that helps promote, protect, and support normal birth. The paper is written for childbearing women and their families. The accompanying commentary-written by a well-known author of numerous articles and books on childbirth-compares the activities of women in two birthing environments: the conventional medicalized setting and the unconventional naturalistic setting. Reasons why women may not move in labor are presented. Lamaze International encourages women to use movement in labor in order to make labor more comfortable and more efficient.     

Education sector reform: The Ugandan experience

In 1998 the Government of Uganda (GoU) began implementing an ambitious reform programme called the Education Strategic Investment Plan (ESIP) in order to effect Universal Primary Education (UPE). This paper offers a perspective on how the GoU has met the challenge of financing education reform, addressed the need to improve the quality of basic education and increased access and equity while improving efficiency at primary and post-primary levels of education. The development model described in this paper privileges good governance and donor co-operation within a Sector Wide Approach. Important lessons have been learned in Uganda including the need for political commitment to universal primary education within a clear conception of whole sector reform. However, the discourse of SWAPs tends to function primarily in the formal sphere and not at the level of the experience of most teachers, pupils and their families, yet it is at this level that national education policies have to be mediated in practice. More attention needs to be given in education sector reform to the processes as well as the context of change.     

Self‐reported and actual use of proactive and reactive classroom management strategies and their relationship with teacher stress and student behaviour

This study investigated the relationship between primary school teachers’ self‐reported and actual use of classroom management strategies, and examined how the use of proactive and reactive strategies is related to teacher stress and student behaviour. The total sample consisted of 97 teachers from primary schools within Melbourne. Teachers completed four questionnaires which gathered information on demographics, disruptive student behaviour, teacher management strategies, and teacher self‐reported stress. In addition, 20 of the 97 teachers were observed in their classrooms while teaching, with teacher behaviour management strategies and student on‐task behaviour recorded. Observation and questionnaire data were then matched. The findings indicated that teacher self‐reports accurately reflect actual practice, that relatively minor forms of student misbehaviours are a common concern for teachers, and that teachers are spending a considerable amount of time on behaviour management issues. The findings also revealed that the use of predominantly reactive management strategies has a significant relationship with elevated teacher stress and decreased student on‐task behaviour. These findings have important implications for teaching practices and student learning.     

Art for a few: exclusions and misrecognitions in higher education admissions practices

In this article, we examine the policy and practice of admissions to art and design courses in the context of the UK widening participation (WP) agenda. We draw on our qualitative study of admissions practices funded by the National Arts Learning Network (NALN). To provide context and background, we outline and critique WP policy discourses, focusing on issues of admissions and access, followed by an analysis of our research data, drawing on the conceptual tools of subjectivity and misrecognition. In using this analytical approach, we attempt to expose the subtle and insidious workings of inequality and exclusion in processes of selection. We argue that admissions policy problematically conflates notions of ‘fairness’ and ‘transparency’ and fails to address complex socio-cultural inequalities in processes of recognition of the potential student-subject of art and design. We show how a focus on individual practices rather than on policy discourses and processes of subjective construction helps to hide the ways that ‘potential’ is constructed in ways that privilege and recognize particular student subjectivities, whilst excluding Others.     

Teacher professional leadership in support of teacher professional development

Counteracting perceptions of teaching as a profession with a flat career trajectory may require professional leadership opportunities for experienced teachers that differ substantively from those typically available. This evaluation study investigated the results of a professional development initiative for subject specialist teachers seconded to a leadership role in their curriculum areas. Interview and survey data supported teacher growth in subject expertise and leadership capacity attributed to the opportunities provided by the new teacher-leadership role. The findings of this study indicate expanded leadership roles may further develop experienced professionals while simultaneously supporting teacher knowledge during a period of embedding educational reform.