The Physical Educator as Evaluator

There has been a limited interest in examining physical education teacher educators’ role and practices in embedding professional responsibility and commitment to continued professional learning for both teacher educators and pre-service teachers in a physical education teacher education (PETE) program (MacPhail, 2011) Directed by a landscape of community of practice (CoP) as professional development (Parker, Patton &; Tannehill, 2012), this article shares four case studies that demonstrate the extent to which PETE learning can be mapped onto the landscape. In essence, a CoP is sustained over time, involves shared member goals, involves frequent discourse, is active and social, and is characterized by problems being solved by the members. The ideas in this article in tandem with Wenger's (1998) CoP process can encourage teacher educators to consider whether opportunities undertaken in a PETE program, and with colleagues external to the PETE program, encourage an authentic CoP.     

Headteachers’ readings of and responses to disadvantaged contexts: evidence from English primary schools

Existing research demonstrates the impact of context on school organisation and management, curriculum and pedagogy and on student peer relations. New developments in English education policy will devolve more responsibility for dealing with these issues to headteachers. Headteachers' readings of their contexts and the responses that they make are thus of increasing interest. This paper draws on interviews with eight headteachers of less advantaged English primary schools to explore how they understand and articulate the contexts in which their schools operate and how this knowledge is translated into strategies for organising curriculum, pedagogy and other school processes. These headteachers observed context through the lens of the behaviour of parents and children in relation to school, contrasting it with an assumed middle‐class normality. More critical perspectives on families' social and economic position or on the contribution of school practice to educational exclusion were largely absent. School responses were many and varied but, given the constraints of budgets, market and performative pressures, were unlikely to substantially transform the educational experiences and outcomes of disadvantaged students. We point to the continuing need for more contextualised funding mechanisms and policies to improve schools in disadvantaged areas and also, in the light of devolution to schools, to the need to develop mechanisms of support to headteachers to help them to develop critical understandings of context and to reflect on school process and practices in the light of these understandings.     

Appendix: Gender articles in History of Education since 1976

This appendix accompanies Ruth Watts' presidential address for the History of Education Society (UK), published in History of Education, May, 2005, vol.34, no.3, pages 225–241 under the title of ‘Gendering the story: change in the history of education’. The article in vol.34, no.3, looks over the history of women's and gender studies in the history of education from 1976 to the end of 2004 and examines the changes and effects of these studies in order to ask what historians of education can learn from this and where they should go next. The focus of the article is not just the presence of women or papers on them in history of education but whether the greater presence has changed both understanding of gender issues themselves and whether it has affected the whole field and if so, how? The article begins with a brief historiographical review of the field; second, it draws out key issues which represent the present state of affairs; and third, it provides a comparison of what is happening in gender history in a related field, science. It ends with suggestions for future research. The appendix printed below lists the articles published in History of Education from 1976 that formed the basis of the survey on which ‘Gendering the story: change in the history of education’ was based.     

Teacher‐mentor to Teacher‐researcher

This paper focuses on the Primary PGCE at Keele University, which is now in its third year of a new course structure, fulfilling the requirements of the DFE circular 14/93. As the school‐based partnership has developed, teacher‐mentors have gained new understanding of both their role in teacher training and their relationship with Higher Education Institutions (HEIs). This paper seeks to outline how the process of mentoring has developed teachers’ skills in a way which has promoted their understanding of, and interest in, school‐based research. Four key issues are explored in probing the link between mentoring and school‐based research: the difference between theory and practice; links between teacher‐mentors and HEI tutors, the process of reflective practice; teachers as knowledge constructors. These are examined in relation to the process of mentoring and to the way in which each contributes to developing mentors’ participation and interest in school‐based research.     

From Mentorship to Tenureship: A Storied Inquiry of Two Academic Careers in Education

This article details a narrative inquiry journey between a novice pretenured professor and an experienced tenured professor from 2005 to 2009 to illustrate collaborative mentorship. The authors examine the importance of storied inquiry in studying mentoring and describe how their narrative journey as collaborators informed their relationship and respective understandings of the tenure process. Data were collected from written narratives, correspondence, and conversations within a mentorship program. Three dimensions of narrative inquiry are used to explore the themes of writing as nurturing the mentoring relationship and the assimilation into the academy: fear and anxiety along the tenureship path, building community and a collaborative mentorship, and balance between life and academia.     

Information processing by intellectually gifted pupils solving mathematical problems

What differences may be found in the way gifted pupils, as compared with average pupils from the second form of lower secondary education, process information while solving mathematical problems? Gifted pupils apparently solved the problems better, faster and needed less assistance than average pupils. A global distinction of the subprocesses orientation, execution and evaluation also allows for the conclusion that in most cases the gifted pupils processed information in a different fashion. The yield of this line of research should be the improvement of education in two respects. For one, the results may induce teachers to adapt their teaching to gifted pupils. Secondly they may try to teach average pupils to process information like gifted pupils typically would.     

University research in flux: Policy debate in Australia

After a brief golden age Australian university research faces a difficult future. Two notions, utility and concentration, have become the catchwords of the emerging policy initiatives. Both have tended to be interpreted narrowly and simplistically, utility as having immediate technological applications that will bring economic benefits, and concentration to argue for breaking the teaching-research nexus, reducing the research workforce and thus achieving cost savings. As proposed, both initiatives require more centralised control of research policy and funding. Despite the outstanding record of Australia's universities in research and the absence of evidence to support the benefits claimed for the new initiatives, the pressure for change is gaining momentum. The problems facing Australian universities have much in common with those in other Western countries, although unique solutions must be sought for every setting. This paper argues that, in Australia, the adoption of the easy solution of increased concentration, short-term utility, and centralised control, is likely to compromise the established excellence and diversity in basic research, and to lead to an overall reduction in the scale of university research. Before any changes are instigated, there is a pressing need for a broad-ranging review based on widespread participation in a debate about needs and priorities, and rigorous research into the performance of the existing system and the potential benefits of the changes proposed.     

Disorganized Behavior in Adolescent–Parent Interaction: Relations to Attachment State of Mind,Partner Abuse,and Psychopathology

Disoriented, punitive, and caregiving/role‐confused attachment behaviors are associated with psychopathology in childhood, but have not been assessed in adolescence. A total of 120 low‐income late adolescents (aged 18–23 years) and parents were assessed in a conflict‐resolution paradigm. Their interactions were coded with the Goal‐Corrected Partnership in Adolescence Coding Scales. Confirmatory factor analysis demonstrated that the three disorganized constructs (punitive, caregiving, and disoriented interaction) were best represented as distinct factors and were separable from a fourth factor for collaboration. The four factors were then assessed in relation to measures of attachment disorganization, partner abuse, and psychopathology. Results indicate that forms of disorganized behavior first described in early childhood can also be reliably assessed in adolescence and are associated with maladaptive outcomes across multiple domains.