SOCIAL CAPITAL, SOCIAL INCLUSION AND CHANGING SCHOOL CONTEXTS: A SCOTTISH PERSPECTIVE

ABSTRACT:  This paper synthesises a collaborative review of social capital theory, with particular regard for its relevance to the changing educational landscape within Scotland. The review considers the common and distinctive elements of social capital, developed by the founding fathers – Putnam, Bourdieu and Coleman – and explores how these might help to understand the changing contexts and pursue opportunities for growth.     

International online collaboration as a boundary crossing activity for vocational educators

Vocational educators cross boundaries between practices in schools, colleges and workplaces, renegotiating their identities as professionals in a particular vocation and as educators. In order to support learners to enter the global workforce, they also require opportunities to cross boundaries through international practices. However, opportunities for international and intercultural learning are often limited, particularly for trainee vocational educators. This paper highlights an online collaborative process (COLIGE) designed to develop competencies for global education. The COLIGE process has been evaluated through the lens of boundary crossing. Participants were trainee vocational educators undergoing their professional teaching qualification in Scotland and Finland. Action research was undertaken during this three-year project to explore participants’ experiences and evaluate the learning mechanisms observed during the activities. Findings suggest activity though all four learning mechanisms (identification, coordination, reflection, transformation), although they were not universally experienced. Difficulties faced by learners are discussed and point to the potential for transformation of practice without sequential engagement with all learning mechanisms.     

Examining the shaping of teachers’ pedagogical orientation for the use of technology

Teachers’ current uses of technologies still tend to replicate traditional and/ or administrative practices, with research indicating that the pedagogies required for the effective integration of educational technologies are not yet in evidence amongst the majority of teachers. In order to conceptualise what could be considered effective pedagogies for the use of technology, greater understanding of what informs teachers’ particular approaches and how teachers come to change their approaches over time is required. Succinctly, what is needed is a deep understanding of a teacher’s developmental process for their conceptualisation of the relationship between technology and pedagogy. Through an in-depth, two-year case study methodology, three teachers’ journey to use game-based technologies in their classrooms was examined. The results provide valuable insights into the relationship between teachers’ pedagogical beliefs and practices about the use of technologies; trigger points in teachers’ journeys that influence change in their pedagogical orientation for the use of technology; and rich stories of innovation in teaching. This study has implications for teacher professional development and supporting effective technology integration.     

A decade of change in mainstream education for children with intellectual disabilities in the Republic of Ireland

Inclusive rather than segregated schooling has been advocated in several significant international declarations during the past two decades. Even so children with significant intellectual disabilities are at greater risk of being excluded from mainstream education, unless particular efforts are made to support them in such settings. These children and young people are more likely to be educated in special schools or in special classes within mainstream schools. In the decade from 2003 to 2013, the Republic of Ireland enacted legislation and provided additional financial resources for pupils with special educational needs, although these were more constrained during the financial crisis that Ireland experienced from 2008 onwards. A national database, updated annually, is maintained of children receiving services from specialist intellectual disability services and this enabled comparisons to be made for the enrolments of over 8000 children aged 4–19 in mainstream and special schools following the introduction of legislation and availability of additional resources. The data showed a steady increase in children with significant intellectual disabilities attending mainstream classes and a decrease in the proportion attending special schools along with a much smaller but decreasing proportion in special classes. The profile of pupils with intellectual disabilities in mainstream and special schools also changed over the 10 years with higher proportions of males, of pupils with moderate disabilities and those of primary age attending mainstream schools, whereas special schools now tend to have higher proportions of females and those of secondary school age. However, there was marked regional variation in the proportions of pupils in mainstream schools which was attributed to the availability of special schools across the State. This study demonstrates how a national data-set can be used to track the impact that policy changes and legislation designed to enhance the development of inclusive learning environments had on the number of pupils availing of mainstream opportunities. It was also possible to identify prevailing trends in types of support provided within schools and the changing pattern of provision for pupils with different levels of intellectual disability. At the broader level of international trends in policy and provision aimed at establishing inclusive learning environments, this study demonstrates the need for a common frame of reference around which the national and international conversations on educational systems can take place.     

Neurobehavioral Syndromes in Cocaine-exposed Newborn Infants

The effects of fetal cocaine exposure on newborn cry characteristics were studied in 80 cocaine-exposed and 80 control infants. The groups were stratified to be similar on maternal demographic characteristics and maternal use of other illegal substances and alcohol during pregnancy. The hypothesis was that excitable cry characteristics were related to the direct effects of cocaine, while depressed cry characteristics were related to the indirect effects of cocaine secondary to low birthweight. Structural equation modeling (EQS) showed direct effects of cocaine on cries with a longer duration, higher fundamental frequency, and a higher and more variable first formant frequency. Indirect effects of cocaine secondary to low birthweight resulted in cries with a longer latency, fewer utterances, lower amplitude, and more dysphonation. Cocaine-exposed infants had a lower birthweight, shorter length, and smaller head circumference than the unexposed controls. Findings were consistent with the notion that 2 neurobehavioral syndromes, excitable and depressed, can be described in cocaine-exposed infants, and that these 2 syndromes are due, respectively, to direct neurotoxic effects and indirect effects secondary to intrauterine growth retardation.     

Rating and rewarding higher education for sustainable development research within the marketised higher education context: experiences from English universities

This paper explores one key aspect of marketisation in English universities, the quality-related research funding (QR) system, which central government in the United Kingdom uses to allocate funds to Higher Education Institutions (HEIs), based on a system of reviewing and rating the ‘quality’ of research at different HEIs. Specifically, it focuses on the experiences of 30 members of academic staff from eight universities across England who were engaged in research and/or scholarly activity in the broad field of Higher Education for Sustainable Development (HESD), during the time leading up to the 2014 Research Excellence Framework (REF) submission period. Interviewees were asked to talk about their experiences of being a HESD researcher/scholar within the context of the QR system and their perceptions of the relationship between the QR system and interdisciplinary, sustainability, pedagogic and HESD research. Findings from the semi-structured interviews and resulting qualitative analysis, reveal a number of obstacles facing HESD researchers which are outlined and explored in the paper. Strategies and rationale for improving the quality, reputation and ultimately, the ‘REF-ability’ of HESD research are discussed, and highlight the complex interface between marketisation and sustainability in higher education.     

The postdigital challenge of redefining academic publishing from the margins

ABSTRACT

This paper explores relationships between knowledge production and academic publication and shows that the current political economy of mainstream academic publishing has resulted from a complex interplay between large academic publishers, academics, and hacker-activists. The process of publishing is a form of ‘social production’ that takes place across the economy, politics and culture, all of which are in turn accommodating both old and new technology in our postdigital age. Technologies such as software cannot be separated from human labour, academic centres cannot be looked at in isolation from their margins, and the necessity of transdisciplinary approaches does not imply the disappearance of traditional disciplines. In the postdigital age, the concept of the margins has not disappeared, but it has become somewhat marginal in its own right. We need to develop a new language of describing what we mean by ‘marginal voices’ in the social relations between knowledge production and academic publication. Universities require new strategies for cohabitation of, and collaboration between, various socio-technological actors, and new postdigital politics and practice of knowledge production and academic publishing.     

Improving Teaching Quality and the Learning Organisation

This study applied a learningorganisation framework to understand academicdepartments' efforts to improve teachingquality. The theoretical framework wasgenerated from literature on learningorganisations, organisations devoted tocontinuous improvement through continuouslearning. Research questions addressedrelationships among departments' vision,leadership, knowledge management,communication, learning culture, and teachingimprovement. Using survey data collected fromdepartment chairs, this study found a positiveassociation between learning organisationbehaviours and the improvement of teaching.     

Do Judgments of Learning Directly Enhance Learning of Educational Materials?

When people make judgments of learning (JOLs) after studying paired associates, the process they engage in to monitor their learning can directly enhance learning for some types of material (Soderstrom et al. 2015). The current experiments investigated whether JOLs directly enhance learning educationally relevant texts. Across 5 experiments (N?=?703), people read several sections of an educational textbook with or without JOLs embedded between each section. We manipulated whether JOLs queried one’s understanding of the text at the aggregate level (Experiment 1) or for specific concepts in the text (Experiment 2a, 2b, 3, and 4). We also manipulated whether JOLs were framed to afford covert retrieval practice by prompting judgments with either the target information present or absent (Experiment 3). In most cases, instructing students to make JOLs did not improve comprehension above and beyond just reading the text. However, when people were instructed to retrieve information prior to making JOLs (Experiment 4), large learning gains occurred. These results indicate that JOLs in their standard form are unlikely to produce educational benefits to text comprehension in part because learners do not spontaneously retrieve criterial information when making metacomprehension judgments.