Pedagogy,empowerment and discipline: comparative perspectives of novice teachers in England and Turkey reflecting on ‘the other’

This article discusses the views of Turkish and British novice teachers on pedagogy and pedagogical relationships with school students when confronted with the pedagogical practices of the ‘Other’ in particular policy contexts. Experiences of those practices were gained by novice teachers during an exchange visit for British and Turkish university students in the period 2008–2009. Data was collected through questionnaires and focus group interviews. Findings suggest that Turkish and British novice teachers initially constructed the ‘Other’ as very different from themselves. The views of members of both groups were heavily influenced by the cultural contexts in which they trained and worked. British novice teachers tended to take as axiomatic constructivist and inclusive approaches to pedagogy and the relevance to successful pedagogy of listening to students’ voices. Turkish novice teachers questioned both, many seeing control and dissemination of knowledge as central to pedagogy and student teacher relationships.     

Invisible barriers: the career progress of women secondary school principals in Greece

This paper examines the career progress of female principals in Greek secondary schools and the under‐representation of women in management positions. Drawing on in‐depth interviews with six women principals in Athens, the paper considers the factors affecting women's participation in school management. The findings demonstrate that women are greatly under‐represented in secondary school management positions. The main reasons for this disadvantage are personal factors, covert discrimination, gender stereotypes and constraints experienced through their socially defined roles.     

An integrated, multiparametric flow cytometry chip using ��microfluidic drifting�� based three-dimensional hydrodynamic focusing

In this work, we demonstrate an integrated, single-layer, miniature flow cytometry device that is capable of multi-parametric particle analysis. The device integrates both particle focusing and detection components on-chip, including a “microfluidic drifting” based three-dimensional (3D) hydrodynamic focusing component and a series of optical fibers integrated into the microfluidic architecture to facilitate on-chip detection. With this design, multiple optical signals (i.e., forward scatter, side scatter, and fluorescence) from individual particles can be simultaneously detected. Experimental results indicate that the performance of our flow cytometry chip is comparable to its bulky, expensive desktop counterpart. The integration of on-chip 3D particle focusing with on-chip multi-parametric optical detection in a single-layer, mass-producible microfluidic device presents a major step towards low-cost flow cytometry chips for point-of-care clinical diagnostics.     

Pre-service primary teachers’ conceptions of creativity in mathematics

Teachers in the UK and elsewhere are now expected to foster creativity in young children (NACCCE, 1999; Ofsted, 2003; DfES, 2003; DfES/DCMS, 2006). Creativity, however, is more often associated with the arts than with mathematics. The aim of the study was to explore and document pre-service (in the UK, pre-service teachers are referred to as ‘trainee’ teachers) primary teachers’ conceptions of creativity in mathematics teaching in the UK. A questionnaire probed their conceptions early in their course, and these were supplemented with data from semi-structured interviews. Analysis of the responses indicated that pre-service teachers’ conceptions were narrow, predominantly associated with the use of resources and technology and bound up with the idea of ‘teaching creatively’ rather than ‘teaching for creativity’. Conceptions became less narrow as pre-service teachers were preparing to enter schools as newly qualified, but they still had difficulty in identifying ways of encouraging and assessing creativity in the classroom. This difficulty suggests that conceptions of creativity need to be addressed and developed directly during pre-service education if teachers are to meet the expectations of government as set out in the above documents.     

Truth and the renewal of knowledge: the case of mathematics education

Mathematics education research must enable adjustment to new conditions. Yet such research is often conducted within familiar conceptualisations of teaching, of learning and of mathematics. It may be necessary to express ourselves in new ways if we are to change our practices successfully, and potential changes can be understood in many alternative, sometimes conflicting, ways. The paper argues that our entrapment in specific pedagogic forms of mathematical knowledge and the styles of teaching that go with them can constrain students’ engagement with processes of cultural renewal and changes in the ways in which mathematics may be framed for new purposes, but there are some mathematical truths that survive the changing circumstances that require us to update our understandings of teaching and learning the subject. In meeting this challenge, Radford encountered a difficulty in framing notions of mathematical objectivity and truth commensurate with a cultural–historical perspective. Following Badiou, this paper distinguishes between objectivity, which is seen necessarily as a product of culturally generated knowledge, and truth, as glimpsed beyond the on-going attempt to fit a new language that never finally settles. Through this route, it is shown how Badiou’s differentiation of knowledge and truth enables us to conjure more futuristic conceptions of mathematics education.     

Teachers’ conceptions of teacher professionalism in England in 2003 and 2006

Theoretical and political perspectives on the nature of professionalism in teaching are abundant, but little is known about the views of teachers themselves. We asked primary and secondary school teachers in England what teacher professionalism means to them. We explored what teachers think about professionalism, on what dimensions their thinking varies, and how much it varies. We researched how successful the government had already been, and how successful it would be in the future, in changing teachers’ conceptions of professionalism. Two large‐scale national surveys were conducted, with a longitudinal element. We found that teachers’ thinking about their professionalism may be construed as consisting of an inner core of strong, shared beliefs and commitments; an intermediate set of coherent but contested components of professionalism; and an outer layer of disparate elements which are generally highly disputed and which remain unintegrated into broader ways of thinking.     

The ontological politics of evidence and policy enablement

Ontological politics has received increasing attention within education policy studies, particularly as a support for the notion of policy enactment. While policy enactment offers serious challenges to traditional approaches toward policy implementation, this paper takes up ontological politics as a concept that extends beyond implementation and holds consequences for policy formation as well. Analysing the different uses of evidence in recent policy documents from Aotearoa New Zealand, this paper argues that an ontological politics of evidence grounds policies in ways that define what can and cannot be enacted, what this paper terms policy enablement. The analyses illustrate an ontological politics of evidence that excludes non-experts in the first instance, and that sanitises the critical elements of enactment in the second. Both analyses highlight the ways policy enablement emerges from ontological politics and offers a supplement to policy enactment. Following these analyses, the paper offers some provisional thoughts on the relationship between enablement and enactment as an approach that attends to context as a constitutive element of policy-making.     

Comparison of algorithms to determine jump height and flight time from body mounted accelerometers

The purpose of this study was to evaluate a new procedure of data processing from a body-mounted accelerometer to improve the assessment of vertical jump height. As the main difficulty when using an accelerometer is to detect the times of take-off and of landing, a new criterion was proposed to detect these times more accurately. Thirty physical education students participated in this study. They performed three squat jumps, three countermovement jumps with hands placed on the pelvis and three countermovement jumps with free arms ( \(n = 270\) jumps). Flight time, vertical jump height and vertical velocity at take-off were collected from the accelerometer (the Myotest device and its specific software), the modified accelerometer (raw data of the Myotest and a specific treatment for the detection take-off and landing times) and a force platform, considered as the reference device. Concerning the flight time, systematic bias decreased from \(0.034 \pm 0.079\)  s with the original accelerometer to \(-0.008 \pm 0.078\)  s with the modified accelerometer. Regarding the vertical jump height, systematic bias decreased from \(4.8 \pm 9.4\)  cm with the original accelerometer to \(-1.3 \pm 9.2\)  cm with the modified accelerometer. Finally, the vertical velocity systematic bias was \(-0.12 \pm 0.28\) and \(-0.19 \pm 0.29\)  m s \(^{-1}\) with the original accelerometer and the modified accelerometer, respectively. This study showed that the improvement proposed for the body-mounted accelerometer decreased the systematic bias, especially for the vertical jump height assessment, but not the random error.