Changing the culture of a primary school: The case of introducing ICT across the curriculum

Abstract

Teachers and teacher learning are critical and key to establishing, understanding and realizing the possibilities of a learning society One first step in the process requires teachers to place their own learning at the centre of their activities. They must learn how to change, change the way they learn, and learn how to change their conditions of learning. This paper examines some policies and practices in regard to the provision of teacher professional development. Providing opportunities for teacher learning in Ireland has in general been preoccupied with facilitating curriculum reform, supporting organizational change and with easing management concerns. Shifting the emphasis from programme delivery to professional development through personal development is one challenge that has been taken up by the Second Level Support Service. It favours a process that is organic, career long and participant driven. Shifting the emphasis to a more personal and holistic form of development will not be an easy task but is a necessary one if the vision of a learning society and lifelong learning is to become realised.     

‘Leav[ing] the white[s] … far behind them’: The girls from fort shaw (Montana) Indian School,basketball champions of the 1904 world's fair

In spring 1903, barely a dozen years after the invention of ‘basket ball’, a girls' team from an Indian boarding school in Montana overcame racial and gender barriers to win that state's first basketball championship. Subsequently, these ten young women spent the summer of 1904 attending the government's Model Indian School at the St Louis World's Fair, where their twice-weekly intra-squad exhibition games provided fairgoers with their only glimpse of women's team sports. Having also taken on – and defeated – all challengers, they returned to Montana with a gleaming silver trophy declaring them ‘Basket Ball Champions’ of the 1904 World's Fair.     

Drugs, Camera, Action! A Video Approach to PSE

A seven-year partnership between a Norfolk high school and an NHS drug treatment agency has raised awareness about drugs, alcohol, HIV and AIDS among all sections of the school community. In an innovative approach to drug education, factual lessons have been augmented in Personal and Social Education (PSE) by videoed discussions touching on a range of issues, filmed at Year 9 and played back at Year 11. The sessions have had a powerful effect and helped give participants greater awareness of the transition from youth to adulthood. The insights gained and the techniques used may well have relevance to other aspects of a PSE programme.     

The Research Challenge Faced by the New Universities in the UK

The 1991 Government White Paper which abolished the binary divide in British universities brought the former polytechnics (new universities) into direct competition with the traditional (old) universities for research funds from the Funding Councils based on periodic Research Assessment Exercises (RAEs). The outcome of the 1992 RAE showed a predictable gap in research performance between the two groups of institutions. The challenge facing the new universities will be for some, at least, to narrow the gap and/or develop a small number of centres of research excellence and thus challenge the long standing research hegemony enjoyed by the old universities. This will almost certainly involve intense selectivity in the allocation of available research resources and will be influenced by the'missions'of the institutions involved, the extent of underlying support for such developments and the management structures and style employed.     

National Security Letters,the USA PATRIOT Act,and the Constitution: The tensions between national security and civil rights

In response to the terrorist attacks of 9/11, the USA PATRIOT Act greatly expanded the ability of the Federal Bureau of Investigation to use National Security Letters (NSLs) in investigations and the contexts in which they could be used by relaxing the standards under which NSLs could be employed. NSLs allow investigators to acquire a significant amount of information about the subject of an investigation, and the range and frequency of uses of NSLs has risen dramatically since the passage of the USA PATRIOT Act. An outstanding question with NSLs is whether they are being used in a manner that violates the First and Fourth Amendments of the Constitution. This article explores the relationships between NSLs, the USA PATRIOT Act, and the Constitution. The paper reviews the legislative history of NSLs, synthesizes the First and Fourth Amendment issues and key judicial decisions related to NSLs, and analyzes the extent to which the USA PATRIOT Act Improvement and Reauthorization Act of 2005 adequately addresses challenges to the constitutionality of NSLs. The paper concludes with an examination of NSLs within the greater information policy context in the United States, as the expanded usage of NSLs—even if entirely constitutional—raises the possibility of chilling the freedom of expression.