Parents choosing to combine special and inclusive early years settings: the best of both worlds?

This paper focuses on parents' perspectives of combining special and mainstream services for their children in the early years, offering insights into: how parents came to make this choice for their children's education; what parents expected from the combined provision and how their expectations were being met in practice. The data presented formed part of a small‐scale, UK‐based study that investigated local discourses and practices operating for young children within a global context of commitment to inclusion. Despite moves towards inclusive early years education in the UK, many parents of young children identified as having special educational needs opt for a combination of both inclusive and special early years settings. A survey sent to early years providers, voluntary groups and parents in three local education authorities (LEAs) in southern England, revealed that the practice of combining placements was widespread. Follow‐up interviews with parents of five children revealed rich detail about the processes of choice making and parents' expectations and experiences of combined provision. The research findings have clear implications for the development of inclusive education and its appeal to parents, who may need convincing that it can offer sufficient specialist expertise and resources.     

The use of the intensity gradient and average acceleration metrics to explore associations with BMI z-score in children

ABSTRACT

This study used the intensity gradient (IG) and average acceleration metrics to describe children’s activity profiles and explore associations with body mass index (BMI) z-score. Two hundred and forty-six children (n = 138 girls) aged 9.6 ± 1.4 years wore a wrist-mounted ActiGraph wGT3X-BT accelerometer for 7 days on their non-dominant wrist. Physical activity (PA) metrics captured included: the IG which describes the intensity distribution of accelerations across the 24 h monitoring period; average acceleration which provides a measure of the volume of activity; total moderate-to-vigorous PA (MVPA) and inactive time. Acceleration was averaged over 5s epochs. Finally, BMI z-score was calculated for each participant. Average acceleration was negatively associated with BMI z-score (p < 0.05) independent of age and gender but not IG. The IG was negatively associated with BMI z-score independent of potential correlates and average acceleration. Total MVPA was not associated with BMI-z score. The IG and average acceleration metrics may be used to explore the independent or cumulative effects of the volume and intensity distribution of activity upon measures of health and well-being in children to inform specific activity recommendations.     

Pitching it right? Selection and learning at a music conservatoire

This article focuses on an oversubscribed UK higher education music conservatoire that centres its selection procedures on individual performance auditions. In this mixed‐method study, centrally‐held assessment scores are used to show that A‐level music grades are a more effective predictor of final degree result than performance at audition. This context is then used to consider the learning of two students at the conservatoire who defy the expectations implied by the statistical results. Through six interviews with each student, their stories are probed through the lens of their trajectories of participation. Drawing on the notion of expansive and restrictive learning, the role that depth and breadth plays in learning to perform is unpacked, and it is suggested that both may be of central importance in shaping musical expertise. The authors discuss the results in terms of the specific challenges that the conservatoire faces in broadening its access, and consider the implications for learners of musical performance.     

South African universities and human development: Towards a theorisation and operationalisation of professional capabilities for poverty reduction

This paper reports on a research project investigating the role of universities in South Africa in contributing to poverty reduction through the quality of their professional education programmes. The focus here is on theorising and the early operationalisation of multi-layered, multi-dimensional transformation based on ideas from Amartya Sen's capability approach. Key features of a professionalism oriented to public service, which in South Africa must mean the needs and lives of the poor, are outlined. These features include: the demand from justice; the expansion of the comprehensive capabilities both of the poor and professional capability formation to be able to act in ‘pro-poor’ ways; and, praxis pedagogies which shape this connected process. This theorisation is then tentatively operationalised in a process of selecting transformation dimensions.     

Promoting early career teacher resilience: a framework for understanding and acting

In this paper, we undertake a brief review of the ‘conventional’ research into the problems of early career teachers to create a juxtaposed position from which to launch an alternative approach based on resilience theory. We outline four reasons why a new contextualised, social theory of resilience has the potential to open up the field of research into the professional lives of teachers and to produce new insights into the social, cultural and political dynamics at work within and beyond schools. We then move from these theoretical considerations to explain how we used them in a recent Australian research project that examined the experiences of 60 graduate teachers during their first year of teaching. This work led to the development of a Framework of Conditions Supporting Early Career Teacher Resilience which we outline, promote and advocate as the basis for action to better sustain our graduate teachers in their first few years of teaching. Finally, we reflect on the value of our work so far and outline our practical plans to ‘mobilise’ this knowledge in ways that will make it available to a variety of audiences concerned with the welfare of this group of teachers.