Ethics,education policy and research: the phonics question reconsidered

This paper argues that direct control of the early years literacy curriculum recently exercised by politicians in England has made the boundaries between research, policy and practice increasingly fragile. It describes how policy came to focus most effort on the use of synthetic phonics programmes in the early years. It examines why the Clackmannanshire phonics intervention became the study most frequently cited to justify government policy and suggests a phonics research agenda that could more usefully inform teaching. It argues that, whilst academics cannot control how their research is eventually used by policy‐makers, learned societies can strengthen their ethics policies to set out clearer ground rules for academic researchers working across knowledge domains and with policy‐makers. A stronger framework to guide the ethical interpretation of research evidence in complex education investigations would allow more meaningful conversations to take place within and across research communities, and with research users. The paper suggests some features for such a framework.     

Embracing the UNCRC in Wales (UK): policy,pedagogy and prejudices

Most countries are signatories to the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC). In 1999, the Government of Wales was devolved from the UK, and in 2011 the “Children and Young Persons Rights Measure” put the UNCRC as the basis of all its work. Any programme introduced in schools should therefore promote the UNCRC. To address this, we implemented the Philosophy for Children (P4C) in Schools Project in 64 schools and monitored teacher and pupil responses. This paper reports on a meta-analysis of quantitative and qualitative data that suggests that the models of childhood held by teachers impacts on how they respond to the UNCRC. Teachers who held models of children as “innocent”, “evil”, “blank slates” or “developing” found it hard to embrace the UNCRC. Teachers who were authoritarian, punitive and epistemologically directive also questioned the UNCRC. In contrast, teachers who practised rational authority and restorative approaches to wrongdoing and held a social competency model of the child embraced P4C, a democratic, community of inquiry approach to learning that puts pupil voice centre stage. We argue that P4C can provide a practical pedagogic tool to support the implementation of the UNCRC and has the potential to address barriers that arise from widely held deficit models of childhood.     

Practising empathy: enacting alternative perspectives through imaginative play

This article reports on a collaborative study using an innovative methodology, based on ‘insiders’ who are Steiner practitioners knowledgeable and practised in Steiner philosophy and ‘outsiders’ from UK mainstream early years and primary perspectives. Although the study as a whole focused on assessment and observation used in Steiner kindergartens, it yielded a rich data source on imaginative play that offers practice in empathy. We contextualise the data presented from a Steiner perspective in the wider literature on the imagination and affect in order to theorise how such play develops empathy through its links to feelings and prosocial behaviour. We critically examine how empathy and the imagination are nurtured in the context of eight kindergarten classes in five Steiner schools in England in order to illustrate how these conditions might also help other early years and primary schooling to foster long-term benefits for ethical and fulfilling lives through encouraging empathic understanding.     

A critical analysis of problems with the LBOTE category on the NAPLaN test

The National Assessment Program: Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLaN) is an annual literacy and numeracy test for all Australian students, and results from the test are disaggregated into a number of categories including language background other than English (LBOTE). For this and other categories, results on each section of the test are aggregated into state, territory and national means and standard deviations enabling comparison of performance. The NAPLaN data indicate that since the test began, in 2008, at a national level there is little difference between the results of LBOTE and non-LBOTE students on all domains of the test. This is a national result, and there is greater variation at state and territory level. However, these results defy a logic which might suggest that the LBOTE category will reflect the influence of English as a second language on test performance, rather suggesting that a second language background is not associated with test performance. In this paper, I will interrogate the variation in the LBOTE category, using data provided by the Queensland state education department, focusing on year 9 students who participated in the 2010 test. Using multiple regression and focusing on variables which are specifically related to language background, I will show that within the LBOTE category there is a wide variation of performance, and the LBOTE data are in fact hiding some of our most disadvantaged students. I will suggest alternative ways in which language learners could be identified to better empower policy and pedagogical responses to student needs.     

Understanding students' use and value of technology for learning

Despite significant research in the field of educational technology, there is still much we do not fully understand about students' experiences with technology. This article proposes that research in the field of educational technology would benefit from a sociological framing that pays attention to the understandings and lives of learners. Within a broader study that aimed to investigate students' use and value of technologies guided by Bourdieu's sociological theory, this article reports on qualitative embedded case study data of 12 students in years 9 and 10 from two Australian secondary schools. The article provides detailed accounts of students' experiences with technologies in various contexts with consideration of the milieu in which technology use occurred, illustrating the heterogeneous and complex network of influencing factors on students' technology practices. The findings and discussion augment the application of Bourdieu's concepts of field, habitus and capital as a tool to view and understand students' varied and complex experiences and relationships with technology.     

Interlibrary Loan Fill Rates: The Audiovisual Conundrum

To execute an effective marketing campaign, especially one featuring a complex process, the library must combine marketing ideas with technological improvements that lower barriers to entry. In conjunction with the University Libraries’ Communications and Marketing Department, Texas Tech's Document Delivery Department embarked on a project to raise user awareness of Document Delivery and the services it offers. This case study examines how Texas Tech's Document Delivery Department lowered its barriers to entry for services and branded the service in order to raise awareness.     

Attitudes of researchers toward deception in communication research

Eighty communication researchers representing twenty‐six universities responded to a questionnaire designed to assess attitudes toward deception‐related practices in conducting communication research. Nearly seven out of ten of the respondents perceived misleading and/or misinforming human subjects as an acceptable research strategy when accompanied by debriefing. The majority of the respondents favored research review boards and informed consent procedures and indicated familiarity with the APA standards for ethical research involving human subjects.