UNDERSTANDING PARTICIPATION RATES IN POST-16 MATHEMATICS AND PHYSICS: CONCEPTUALISING AND OPERATIONALISING THE UPMAP PROJECT

We report on a project currently in progress that aims to identify through research the range of factors (individual, school and out-of-school, including home) and their interactions that influence post-16 (i.e. post-compulsory) participation in mathematics and physics in the UK and to assess their relative importance among different student populations. In this project, we are beginning to elucidate the views of students and examine the sources of these views by exploring the contexts in which both school and university students experience barriers or opportunities and form their identities with regard to participation in mathematics and physics. Our focus in this paper is on our methodology, the reasons for it and how and why our approach to data collection developed during the project. We situate our work within a mixed-methods approach, using multilevel modelling and discourse analysis to analyse and interpret our findings that derive from our own questionnaires, interviews and ethnography and from existing large-scale datasets. We argue that greater acknowledgement in the education literatures that investigate student participation in mathematics and science needs to be made than is usual of the range of factors, including unconscious forces that may affect participation.     

The many faces of mobility: Using bibliometric data to measure the movement of scientists

This paper presents a methodological framework for developing scientific mobility indicators based on bibliometric data. We identify nearly 16 million individual authors from publications covered in the Web of Science for the 2008–2015 period. Based on the information provided across individuals’ publication records, we propose a general classification for analyzing scientific mobility using institutional affiliation changes. We distinguish between migrants--authors who have ruptures with their country of origin--and travelers--authors who gain additional affiliations while maintaining affiliation with their country of origin. We find that 3.7% of researchers who have published at least one paper over the period are mobile. Travelers represent 72.7% of all mobile scholars, but migrants have higher scientific impact. We apply this classification at the country level, expanding the classification to incorporate the directionality of scientists’ mobility (i.e., incoming and outgoing). We provide a brief analysis to highlight the utility of the proposed taxonomy to study scholarly mobility and discuss the implications for science policy.     

Joining forces for public value creation? Exploring collaborative innovation in smart city initiatives

Creating public value is a key goal of public administrations, both in their daily business and in the growing field of smart government and smart cities, which focuses on IT-enabled innovations in the public sphere. However, many public administrations still struggle with such innovations due to complex technologies, high investments, and the numerous stakeholders involved. To address this issue, some local governments in continental Europe have turned to collaborative innovation approaches, partnering with (semi-)public utility companies in the hope that their additional innovation assets will boost innovativeness. Nevertheless, it remains unclear how exactly such collaborations should be governed to ensure that the focus remains on creating public value, as utility companies may have their own agendas. To explore this question, we conducted a comparative case study in the context of smart city initiatives with four cases in Swiss local governments. Drawing on agency and stewardship theory, we then propose a model of public-value-focused collaborative innovation, enabling us to explore various collaboration characteristics and their effects on public value creation. Our findings suggest that both agency- and stewardship-based collaborations increase innovativeness. However, while agency collaborations tend to produce smart city innovations that mainly serve the utility companies' business interests, stewardship relationships lead to innovations that are focused more on public value creation. As such, our study extends the literature on the effects of collaborative innovation on public value, and it provides practical recommendations on how such collaborative innovation should be designed.     

The role of spatial ability in mixed reality learning with the HoloLens

The use of mixed reality in science education has been increasing and as such it has become more important to understand how information is learned in these virtual environments. Spatial ability is important in many learning contexts, but especially in neuroanatomy education where learning the locations and spatial relationships between brain regions is paramount. It is currently unclear what role spatial ability plays in mixed reality learning environments, and whether it is different compared to traditional physical environments. To test this, a learning experiment was conducted where students learned neuroanatomy using both mixed reality and a physical plastic model of a brain (N = 27). Spatial ability was assessed and analyzed to determine its effect on performance across the two learning modalities. The results showed that spatial ability facilitated learning in mixed reality (β = 0.21, P = 0.003), but not when using a plastic model (β = 0.08, P = 0.318). A non-significant difference was observed between the modalities in terms of knowledge test performance (d = 0.39, P = 0.052); however, mixed reality was more engaging (d = 0.59, P = 0.005) and learners were more confident in the information they learned compared to using a physical model (d = 0.56, P = 0.007). Overall, these findings suggest that spatial ability is more relevant in virtual learning environments, where the ability to manipulate and interact with an object is diminished or abstracted through a virtual user interface.     

‘Build me a male role model!’ A critical exploration of the perceived qualities/characteristics of men in the early years (0–8) in England

Young boys' ‘underachievement’ and their disaffection with learning continue to dominate education agendas [Francis, B. 2006. “Stop That Sex Drive.” Times Educational Supplement 30; Peeters, J. 2007. “Including Men in Early Childhood Education: Insights from the European Experience.” NZ Research in Early Childhood Education, 10. Accessed February 4, 2013. http://stop4-7.be/files/janpeeters10.pdf; Lloyd, T. 2009. Boys’ Underachievement: What Schools Think and Do. A University of Ulster Research Project Funded by the Department of Education and Northern Ireland Office. November. Accessed January 10, 2014. http://www.socsci.ulster.ac.uk/sociology/research/y%20publications/Boys%20underachievement.pdf; Lloyd, T. 2011. Boys’ Underachievement in Schools: Literature Review. Boys Development Project. Belfast: Centre for Young Men's Studies, Ulster University. Accessed February 4, 2013. http://www.boysdevelopmentproject.org.uk/downloads/reports/Boys%20and%20underachievement%20literature%20review%20edited%20in%20pdf.pdf]. In recent years, there has been an eruption of government policy making and public discourse in England [Moran, L. 2011. Quarter of All Primary Schools Have No Male Teachers Despite More Men Entering Profession. Daily Mail, September 2. Accessed February 4, 2013. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2032970/Quarter-primary-schools-NO-male-teachers-despite-men-entering-profession.html#ixzz2JwpQjSL8; DfE (Department for Education). 2012b. Poor White Boys ‘Lagging Behind Classmates at Age Five’. The Telegraph, November 21. Accessed January 10, 2014. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/educationnews/9693409/Poor-white-boys-lagging-behind-classmates-at-age-five.html; PARITY. 2013. Is Action Overdue on Boys’ Academic Underachievement? Briefing Paper, March. Accessed January 10, 2014. http://www.parity-uk.org/Briefing/BoysEducPaperRev1b.pdf] calling for more men to transform young lives by working in the 0–8 sector and acting as male role models in an attempt to narrow the ‘attainment gap’. This paper critically explores the perceived qualities/characteristics of men who seemingly serve as ‘male role models’ by reporting on select doctoral research findings which sought to investigate the ambiguities of the male role model from the perspective of men who work in the 0–8 sector. Research participants were asked to identify the qualities/characteristics that they felt ‘male role models’ should exhibit for young boys in the early years (0–8). The qualities/characteristics identified were categorised by research participants as being ‘masculine’ (e.g. diplomatic), ‘feminine’ (e.g. caring) or ‘natural’ (meaning authentic). Whilst research evidence suggests that male role models will present a diverse range of personal and professional qualities/characteristics, it is argued that these are likely to be shaped by not only the needs and circumstances of the children that the ‘male role model’ comes into contact with, but also the expectations of others, e.g. parents/carers and staff. This paper argues that there is a real tension between those qualities/characteristics of the male role model that are created as a result of their personality/individual beliefs and those which are anticipated or enforced by others.     

Home Economics Teachers' Intentions and Engagement in Teaching Sustainable Development

Home Economics (HE) teachers can have a central role in teaching sustainable development (SD) to young adolescents through everyday household management and the promotion of personally and globally sustainable well-being. How well the teachers cope with this task is not well known. The objective of this study was to survey Finnish HE teachers' perceptions of their current practice, coping, and future intentions in terms of teaching SD. Enablers and inhibitors to carrying out this task were further investigated. Findings from this survey suggest that HE teachers have adopted sustainability at a personal level, but often lack the resources and incentives to teach it. Ways to promote cross-curricular projects and wider integration of SD into HE are discussed.     

Jingoism,Public Opinion,And The New Imperialism

This essay analyses late-Victorian understandings of the relationship between the press, imperial diplomacy, and popular enthusiasm for empire, and examines how newspapers explained their own role in the imperial rivalries of the 1890s. During imperial disputes between Britain and France (particularly the Fashoda crisis) and between Britain and the USA (the Venezuela boundary dispute) contemporaries claimed that self-interested ‘jingo’ elements of the political elite had sought to foment conflict by manipulating ‘public opinion’, but had been defeated by statesmen (who had used the press for legitimate diplomatic purposes) and by ‘the people’ (who were averse to war). This contrasted with contemporary comments about the role played by the press in provoking wars between the USA and Spain and between Britain and the Transvaal: both the press and the people seemed to succumb to an irrational popular ‘jingoism’, and to sweep statesmen along in their wake. However, this essay argues that these contemporary verdicts about the role of newspapers in focusing popular imperialism have been too easily accepted by historians. During the imperial rivalries of the 1890s the press played an important role as a medium of transnational communication, but did not push statesmen into expansionism.     

Touching practice and physical education: deconstruction of a contemporary moral panic

This paper explores the insecurities and discursive moral panics elicited by the discussion of intergenerational touch in education, and their subsequent manifestation in ‘classroom panopticism’. In a number of contexts, public hysteria has grown around the interaction between adult and child, and whether this interaction stays within the narrow parameters of a generally consensual ‘acceptability’. Crossing these boundaries carries grave consequences for those deemed to be exploiting their position and this has had significant implications for the self-identity of practitioners. This climate of preventative fear has also served to manipulate regulatory method, realigning conceptions of practitioner independence. Drawing on interviews with Physical Education teachers in English secondary schools, and applying a Foucauldian theoretical framework, with particular reference to his interpretation of panopticism, this paper investigates the conceptual transformation of contemporary education. Whilst school spaces were once representative of stability, in which roles were clearly defined, the hierarchical dynamic has changed. The teacher, who previously presided with relative professional freedom and autonomy, is now subject to myriad pressures associated with ‘appropriate’ behaviour and the avoidance of any ‘problematic’ interactional incident. Foucault's treatment of panopticism is apt here, as teachers must conduct themselves with an acceptance that they are now governed by an unpredictable yet persistent practical scrutiny.