Pupils' perspectives on racism and differential treatment by teachers: On stragglers,the ill and being deviant

While British educational researchers have given considerable attention to issues of racism, little attention has been given to how pupils themselves perceive differential teacher treatment and how such views relate to pupils' claims of teacher racism and racial discrimination. This article employs ethnographic data gathered from one English and two Flemish (Belgian) secondary schools to investigate pupils' perceptions of teachers' differential treatment of pupils. All schools were multi‐ethnic in character and located in inner‐city areas. The analysis of the data suggests that three ideal types of pupils were perceived as legitimate recipients of a less or more favourable teacher treatment: the ill, stragglers and deviants. This study illustrates how pupils' claims about teacher racism and racial discrimination relate to conflicts between particular pupils and their teachers over the appropriateness of their status as ill, stragglers or deviants and related role expectations. The final section discusses implications of this study for future research on processes of racism and racial discrimination in educational settings.     

L’ÉCOLE PUBLIQUE AU SÉNÉGAL : APPROCHE PSYCHOSOCIALE DES PRATIQUES PARENTALES DE (NON) SCOLARISATION ET DES EXPÉRIENCES ÉDUCATIVES DES ENFANTS

PUBLIC SCHOOLS IN SENEGAL: ANALYSING THE REASONS FOR (NON) ENROLMENT – This study focuses on Senegal, where the education system is split between traditional Koranic schools and purportedly “modern” public schools, which have been compulsory since 1990 but which are currently attended by only two-thirds of children eligible to enrol. The article argues that a number of psychosocial factors need to be studied in order to understand this issue fully. By analysing responses gathered from 20 parent-child units, the authors reveal: (a) how parental identity strategies affect how they choose to school their children, and (b) how children’s attitudes are shaped in different ways depending on whether they attend “traditional” or “modern” schools.     

Investigating the extent and use of peer support initiatives in English schools

This survey aims to give a broad overview of the way peer support is currently used in English primary and secondary schools, and to highlight common patterns. Regional strata samples of schools were selected from an online database. Questionnaire data were obtained from 240 schools (130 primary and 110 secondary), of which 186 had peer support schemes. An adjusted estimation (which makes some correction for non‐response error) suggests that 62% of schools are using a structured peer support scheme. The survey results also give an indication of some common patterns and commonalities in the characteristics of existing schemes, as well as some differences between primary and secondary schools. The implementation of peer support is often multi‐dimensional, particularly in secondary schools after a scheme had been running for some time. The findings are discussed in relation to previous research and in terms of the nature of school‐based peer support programmes.     

Career decision-making, career barriers and occupational aspirations in Chinese adolescents

The study tested the relationship between occupational aspirations/expectations (type and status) and decision-making difficulties, efficacy and career barriers in 498 Chinese high school students. Males aspired to investigative and enterprising types, but expected realistic and enterprising ones; females aspired to enterprising and conventional types, but expected conventional and social ones. Students with aspirations/expectations type discrepancies were more likely to be higher achieving females; those with aspirations/expectations status discrepancies had poorer academic achievement, less confidence and perceived more barriers.     

Employing the five‐factor mentoring instrument: analysing mentoring practices for teaching primary science

Primary science education is a concern around the world and quality mentoring within schools can develop pre‐service teachers' practices. A five‐factor model for mentoring has been identified, namely, personal attributes, system requirements, pedagogical knowledge, modelling, and feedback. Final‐year pre‐service teachers (mentees, n = 211) from three Turkish universities were administered a previously validated instrument to gather perceptions of their mentoring in primary science teaching. ANOVA indicated that each of these five factors was statistically significant (p<.001) with mean scale scores ranging from 3.36 to 4.12. Although mentees perceived their mentors to provide evaluation feedback (95%), model classroom management (88%), guide their preparation (96%), and outline the science curriculum (92%), the majority of mentors were perceived not to assist their mentees in 10 of the 34 survey items. Professional development programmes that target the specific needs of these mentors may further enhance mentoring practices for advancing primary science teaching.     

Educational Attainment as Process: Using Hierarchical Discrete-Time Event History Analysis to Model Rate of Progress

Variables that address student enrollment patterns (e.g., persistence, enrollment inconsistency, completed credit hours, course credit load, course completion rate, procrastination) constitute a longstanding fixture of analytical strategies in educational research, particularly research that focuses on explaining variation in academic outcomes. However, nearly all measures of enrollment patterns are handicapped by untested assumptions about a more fundamental measure, namely students’ rate of progress. In this paper, I first explain how a variety of widely used measures of enrollment patterns are inextricably linked to students’ rate of progress. I then describe a method of modeling mathematically students’ rate of progress that employs hierarchical (multilevel) discrete-time event history analysis of repeated events. I conclude with an empirical example of the application of this method in which I test several hypotheses concerning students’ rate of progress through the remedial math sequence toward the outcome of college-level math competency. In addition to the utility of the method that is proposed here, the issues discussed in this paper have important practical implications for institutional research, particularly with respect to the use of the various measures of enrollment patterns to explain variation in students’ attainment.

Skiing, Cheese Fondue and Swiss Watches: Analogical Discourse in Vocational Training Interactions

When trainers or teachers in the field of initial vocational education explain abstract notions, refer to technical objects or emphasize the specificities of technical skills, they often call forth concepts and practices different from those that are directly salient in the training situations in which they engage. The aim of this paper is to contribute to a better understanding of the empirical realities associated with such phenomena by promoting a discursive and interactional approach of what we propose to term “analogical discourse”. Considering that analogies are performed and shared trough language and speech, we propose that concepts and methodological tools borrowed from the field of linguistics can be profitably applied to the analysis of analogical discourse. Not only can they reveal the dynamic and collective nature of analogies as they are performed, disseminated and sometimes negotiated amongst participants, but they can also help reflect about the complexities of vocational learning as it takes place in specific material, practical and socio-cultural environments. From that standpoint, the paper proposes to see analogies not only as related to conceptual development and cognitive dimensions of learning, but as a substantial contribution to the social, cultural and relational dimensions of it.     

Using the Principles of BIO2010 to Develop an Introductory,Interdisciplinary Course for Biology Students

Modern biological sciences require practitioners to have increasing levels of knowledge, competence, and skills in mathematics and programming. A recent review of the science curriculum at the University of Queensland, a large, research-intensive institution in Australia, resulted in the development of a more quantitatively rigorous undergraduate program. Inspired by the National Research Council''s BIO2010 report, a new interdisciplinary first-year course (SCIE1000) was created, incorporating mathematics and computer programming in the context of modern science. In this study, the perceptions of biological science students enrolled in SCIE1000 in 2008 and 2009 are measured. Analysis indicates that, as a result of taking SCIE1000, biological science students gained a positive appreciation of the importance of mathematics in their discipline. However, the data revealed that SCIE1000 did not contribute positively to gains in appreciation for computing and only slightly influenced students'' motivation to enroll in upper-level quantitative-based courses. Further comparisons between 2008 and 2009 demonstrated the positive effect of using genuine, real-world contexts to enhance student perceptions toward the relevance of mathematics. The results support the recommendation from BIO2010 that mathematics should be introduced to biology students in first-year courses using real-world examples, while challenging the benefits of introducing programming in first-year courses.