Performativity by stealth: a critique of recent initiatives on creativity

This article offers an analysis of recent development in primary education, in particular the prevailing climate of performativity and new initiatives on creativity. Since 1989 education has been dominated by the performativity discourse accompanied by the obsession with evidence: of children's learning; of teachers' performance; and of student teachers' ‘covering’ the standards. Recent initiatives would seem to signify a shift in official Government thinking on education and a move to embrace the creativity discourse. The commissioning of a national report on creativity and culture was an important first step. There was also the QCA's literature review of creativity, and the development of the QCA web site on creativity. More recently, we have seen the introduction of the new Primary National Strategy (PNS) via the DfES document Excellence and Enjoyment and Government support for creative partnerships: a programme aimed at developing creativity in learning and participation in cultural activities. This article argues that the new initiatives on creativity do not herald major change in primary education. It offers a critique of two significant texts: the Primary National Strategy and the QCA web site on creativity. It presents an alternative analysis of creativity and suggests ways forward to prevent creativity becoming hijacked by the performativity discourse.     

Email Reducing Stress for Student Teachers

This paper reports on one aspect of a study which investigated the use of email between student teachers and university lecturers during the final practicum experience in a four year Bachelor of Education pre-service primary teaching course. The paper explores how the nature of electronic communication, together with the students' perceptions of university supervision and their place in the school setting, affected the level of stress experienced by the student teachers in their placements. Student teacher stress has been reported in the literature as one factor which impedes student teacher learning during the practicum (Zeichner, 1980). We argue that ICT has the potential to maximise student teachers' learning outcomes in the practicum by giving them more control over the learning process, reducing their stress, and enabling them to manage their practicum experience more effectively.     

Conceptualising institutional support for early,mid, and later career teachers

In this paper we argue that institutions need to support early career teachers to learn to teach in much the same way that students who are new to higher education are supported: through integrated and intentionally designed transition strategies. We take a published student transition typology and adapt it to identify ways of supporting early career teachers. We argue that strategies within each conception of our adapted typology are necessary to support a diverse cohort of higher education teachers, not only those who begin teaching each year, but those who are in their mid and later careers.     

Global campaigns for girls’ and women’s education, 2000–2017: insights from transnational social movement theory

ABSTRACT

Recent decades have witnessed a growing number of global campaigns on girls’ and women’s education, including major global policy initiatives such as the MDGs and the SDGs. While scholars have critically analysed the conceptualisations of gender, equality and development in such campaigns, and their significance for national level policy and practice, less has been written about why and how girls’ education came to be such a high profile feature of international policy frameworks. This paper draws on perspectives from transnational social movement theory, which has been used by gender scholars to explore the activities and significance of non-governmental organisations for agenda-setting at the global level. In this paper these perspectives are applied to the field of global education policy, through an analysis of evidence from international conferences, data on aid flows and interviews with key policy actors, to explore the factors behind rise of the global agenda on gender equality in education. In doing so, it suggests that the current dominant framing around girls’ education, access and quality, may be explained by the relatively weak involvement of non-governmental women’s groups in proportion to the strong involvement of multilaterals, bilateral agencies, national governments and more recently, private sector organisations.     

Effect on students from attending a university degree programme run in partnership with further and higher education institutions

This paper considers the effect on students from attending a university foundation degree programme delivered in partnership with six further education teaching institutions in England. The programme is situated within the early childhood education sector using an instructional design which promotes higher-level learning within the teaching institution and the workplace. Learning in one environment is aligned to the other. The research process actively involved students and was conducted within ethical parameters approved by a university ethics committee. A qualitative methodology examined data drawn from focus groups, an online survey and content analysis. Programme effect was seen as enhancing personal and professional capability and promoting higher-order learning. The findings go some way towards theorisation and documentation of programme effect by identifying the influence of instructional design and extend knowledge about aligning the pace of teaching and learning with professional practice.     

Wear compliance,sedentary behaviour and activity in free-living children from hip-and wrist-mounted ActiGraph GT3X+ accelerometers

The GT3X+ worn at the wrist promotes greater compliance than at the hip. Minutes in SB and PA calculated from raw accelerations at the hip and wrist provide contrasting estimates and cannot be directly compared.

Wear-time for the wrist (15.6 to 17.4 h.d^?1) was greater than the hip (15.2 to 16.8 h.d^?1) across several wear-time criteria (all P < 0.05). Moderate-strong associations were found between time spent in SB (r = 0.39), LPA (r = 0.33), MPA (r = 0.99), VPA (r = 0.82) and MVPA (r = 0.81) between the two device placements (All P < 0.001). The wrist device detected more minutes in LPA, MPA, VPA and MVPA whereas the hip detected more SB (all P = 0.001). Estimates of time in SB and all activity outcomes from the wrist and hip lacked equivalence.

One hundred and eighty-eight 9–12-year-old children wore a wrist- and hip-mounted accelerometer for 7 days. Data were available for 160 (hip) and 161 (wrist) participants. Time spent in SB and PA was calculated using GGIR.

This study examined the compliance of children wearing wrist- and hip-mounted ActiGraph GT3X+ accelerometers and compared estimates of sedentary behaviour (SB) and physical activity (PA) between devices.     

Teachers as Political Actors

In this paper the authors argue that contrary to official rhetoric, education is a political process and teachers are political actors who operate in a number of political arenas. Contemporary political processes, it is suggested have marginalized the voices of teachers, constructed teachers as technicians and limited the transformative potential of education work. If teachers are to wrest back greater control over their work, they will need to engage in concerted political action. This requires teachers to be politically literate and politically active. The development of such skills and attitudes should not be left to chance, and it is maintained that political education should be placed at the core of teacher education programmes. This paper explores the nature of the political skills, understandings and attitudes which should be central to teacher education and an attempt to achieve this is outlined by reference to a preservice programme in which this is attempted.     

The significance of setting in award-winning children’s books from selected English-speaking regions

The setting of children’s books has probably been given less prominence than their plots or characters, yet, as Rosie Webb Joel shows in this thought-provoking essay, setting can be crucial in influencing children’s responses and understanding of what they read.     

Segmented sedentary time and physical activity patterns throughout the week from wrist-worn ActiGraph GT3X+ accelerometers among children 7-12 years old

Background:This study examined the volume and patterns of physical activity(PA) and sedentary time(ST) across different segments of the week among boys and girls.Methods:A total of 188 children aged 7-12 years wore a wrist-mounted ActiGraph GT3 X+accelerometer for 7 days.Time spent in PA and ST was calculated using ActiLife software.The mean number of minutes of light PA,moderate PA,vigorous PA,moderate-to-vigorous PA(MVPA),and ST were calculated per weekday(before school,during school,and after school) and per weekend day(morning and afternoon-evening).Results:After school represented the greatest accumulation of ST compared with before school and during school segments.Boys engaged in225.4 min/day of ST(95% confidence interval(CI):216-235),and girls engaged in 222.2 min/day of ST(95%CI:213-231).During school,boys engaged in significantly more MVPA than girls(46.1 min/day(95%CI:44-48) vs.40.7 min/day(95%CI:39-43)).Across the whole weekday,boys participated in significantly more MVPA than girls(103.9 min/day(95%CI:99-109) vs.95.7 min/day(95%CI:90-101)).The weekend afternoon—evening segment represented the larger accumulation of ST,where boys were significantly more sedentary than girls(367.5 min/day(95%CI:353-382) vs.339.8 min/day(95%CI:325-355),respectively).Conclusion:Our findings suggest that children are highly sedentary and spend little of their time in school in MVPA,especially girls.Routine breaks in school elicit increases in light PA and MVPA.Future work should consider the use of more active breaks within school time to encourage PA and reduce ST.     

北林进门见景观

正正值初秋,北京的植物还算繁盛,我们来到被誉为"中国林业和生态环境的最高学府"的北京林业大学,北林校园虽然不大,但是植物覆盖率相当高,全校不同品种的植物一共有200多种。而且最好的专业都和植物有关,比如:林学、木材科学与技术、野生动植物保护、草业科学……对于北林的学生来说,这所学校里最美的场景是那些和他们一同成长,还供他们学习、研究的一草一木。我们跟随着两位非常热爱自己学校的植物应用方向的研究生郭晨晓和郑天杭同学,一起探访了这所校园内四处都藏着各种各样在别处不