Diverse worldviews education and social inclusion: a comparison between Finnish and Australian approaches to build intercultural and interreligious understanding

ABSTRACT

Ongoing global issues relating to the decline of the popularity of institutional religions, the rise of numbers of non-religious persons, and new models of spirituality in superdiverse societies have resulted in the need to reconceptualise religious diversity as worldviews diversity, and to critically examine increasing calls for the provision of worldviews education in schools. This paper first examines the key concepts of superdiversity and religious complexity in contemporary societies. It then presents an overview of scholarship pertaining to the concepts of worldviews and worldviews education. It next provides case studies of worldview/s education in Finland and Australia, drawing on data of recently completed qualitative and quantitative studies in the two countries. Finally, it concludes with a comparative analysis of the two contexts, and recommendations pertaining to worldviews education as a means of enhancing cross-cultural literacy, positive attitudes to religious diversity and thereby social inclusion.     

Holding the severed finger: Korean students’ understanding of historical significance

This study investigated students’ ideas about historical significance in Korea. Using qualitative, task-based interviews, I interviewed 28 secondary students who had taken Korean and world history courses. In response to various historical contexts, these Korean students relied primarily on a schematic narrative template consisting of ‘tragedy,’ ‘struggle,’ and ‘freedom and equality’ to judge historical significance. This schematic narrative template reflected the national identity which Korea established in the postcolonial context after independence in 1945. By applying this template to world history, moreover, students showed strong sympathy towards the oppressed, and this reflected their resistance to colonial and class hegemony. However, imposing this template resulted in significant omissions and distortions that might hinder the development of critical historical thinking. These findings suggest that a variety of cultural tools are necessary for Korean students to develop more complete and nuanced historical understanding.     

An Extension of Four IRT Linking Methods for Mixed-Format Tests

Under item response theory (IRT), linking proficiency scales from separate calibrations of multiple forms of a test to achieve a common scale is required in many applications. Four IRT linking methods including the mean/mean, mean/sigma, Haebara, and Stocking-Lord methods have been presented for use with single-format tests. This study extends the four linking methods to a mixture of unidimensional IRT models for mixed-format tests. Each linking method extended is intended to handle mixed-format tests using any mixture of the following five IRT models: the three-parameter logistic, graded response, generalized partial credit, nominal response (NR), and multiple-choice (MC) models. A simulation study is conducted to investigate the performance of the four linking methods extended to mixed-format tests. Overall, the Haebara and Stocking-Lord methods yield more accurate linking results than the mean/mean and mean/sigma methods. When the NR model or the MC model is used to analyze data from mixed-format tests, limitations of the mean/mean, mean/sigma, and Stocking-Lord methods are described.     

Making sense of the glass ceiling in schools: an exploration of women teachers’ discourses

There is extensive evidence of a ‘glass ceiling’ for women across the labour market. Though schools have widely been described as ‘feminized’ work environments, the under‐representation of women at school management level is well established. Based on a study of women teachers’ careers and promotion in the English school sector (in early years, primary and secondary schools), this paper draws on a critical discourse analysis of 44 individual interviews conducted with women teachers to explore their views of the ‘glass ceiling’. Despite significant evidence of the barriers to management positions faced by women teachers, interpretative frameworks drawing on discourses of individualization and personal choice are most prominent among these to make sense of the low proportion of women in school management. However, the paper also identifies the existence of alternative discourses recognizing the existence of gender inequalities.     

The dialectics of agency in educational ethnography

This paper outlines a dialectical conceptualisation of children’s agency for the purposes of multidisciplinary educational theory and practice. We illuminate five contradictory but connected dimensions of children’s agency, or the dialectics of agency, identified from theoretical debate between sociologically and psychologically oriented educational literature: Agency (1) as enacted and imagined; (2) as situatively emergent and progressively developmental; (3) as dependence and separation; (4) as mastery and submission; and (5) as control and freedom. We examine these contradictions ‘at work’ in an ethnographic early education case study. We argue that the children’s struggles towards agency and adults’ efforts and failures to support children in their struggles can be conceptualised as a dialectical movement that has a potential to develop the educational practice itself. Our dialectical reading of both data and theory helps to highlight the challenges the practitioners face when supporting children’s agency and the solutions they implement when doing so.     

Salt,time, and metaphor: examining norms in scientific culture

As has been widely discussed, the National Research Council’s (NRC) current policy in United States education advocates supporting students toward acquiring skills to engage in scientific practices. NRC policy also suggests that supporting students in the practices of science may require different approaches than what is required for supporting student engagement with scientific content. Further, acquiring skills in scientific practices is not limited to gaining proficiency in utilizing tools that support scientific inquiry: students must also understand how to interpret information generated from such tools. These tools of scientific practices are embedded within scientific culture, which from Sewell’s perspective, is comprised of both practice and semiotic code (symbols and meanings). To become scientifically literate students must learn to utilize this code in practice. Author Germà Garcia-Belmonte identified one example of learning to utilize the semiotic code in scientific practice and considers challenges faced by undergraduate physics and engineering students within that context. Garcia-Belmonte observes students struggle to interpret symbols and meaning (the visual display generated) while engaging in practice (utilizing an oscilloscope) and posits that two, culturally bound, competing, linguistic metaphors of time may be the cause. Ultimately, however, the author does not explore beyond hypotheses. Although his theory may be correct, the paper serves as a reminder of the responsibility we have to students. As educators, it is useful and beneficial to make observations and develop theories surrounding why our students struggle. However, in addition to theorizing on why, for example, a particular scientific norm might present challenges for our students, we must remain mindful that challenges may not be uniform and may vary considerably according to students’ culture(s). Engaging with students and soliciting specific information regarding the challenges they face allows us, as educators, to both examine whether students’ reported challenges align or conflict with our own perceptions of those challenges, and subsequently devise and test methods toward supporting students in overcoming their challenges.     

Strengthening science attitudes for newcomer middle school english learners: visually enriched integrated science and language instruction

This study investigated ways to foster positive science attitudes among newcomer first-year middle school English learners (n?=?79) under two conditions: (1) Extended Science?+?Extended Literacy (planetarium-based visualisations?+?vocabulary?+?comic and trade books) and (2) Extended Science?+?Literacy (planetarium-based visualisations?+?vocabulary). The results indicated a statistically and practically meaningful increase in science attitudes (Cohen’s d?=?0.43) after an 8-week science unit delivered under the Extended Science?+?Extended Literacy condition, which was maintained, but not increased, for the second 8-week unit under the Extended Science?+?Literacy condition. These results suggest that the combination of planetarium-based visualisations and comic and trade books can be effective for supporting newcomer ELs’ science attitudes. However, once achieved, this effect may be maintained with less intensive literacy (vocabulary only) support. Student judgments of the quality of the planetarium-based visualisation experiences in terms of clarity, easiness, excitement, and usefulness began high and went even higher with more experiences, Cohen’s d?>?0.50 for three out of four quality indicators. Interviews corroborated these results with teacher and students indicating that they highly valued the visually-rich nature of the program, the variety of learning opportunities within the program, and program continuity/close alignment between science and literacy supports—all components contributing to high levels of engagement and positive attitudes toward science. Ways to adopt program components across settings are discussed.     

How research data is cited in scholarly literature: A case study of HINTS

This study investigated how Health Information National Trends Survey (HINTS) data from the U.S. National Cancer Institute (NCI) was cited in the scholarly literature. It addressed the following research questions: (1) What patterns of citations exist among authors of research articles using HINTS data? and (2) How is the citation format of HINTS data characterized? We collected scholarly articles that used HINTS data as primary or secondary data for analysis from Web of Science databases and HINTS publications on the NCI website. Among the resulting 250 articles, we identified citations to HINTS data themselves (data citations) and those to HINTS‐related documents (data‐related citations). Among the 250 articles, 156 articles (62.4%) cited HINTS data or HINTS‐related documents; only 29 articles (11.6%) cited HINTS data, while 127 (50.8%) cited HINTS‐related documents. Both data and data‐related citations increased over time. Data citation format varied, and 13 different compositions of citation elements were identified. Author, Title, and Location (URL) were common elements. The frequent use of URLs is undesirable due to URL instability. Furthermore, the data citations showed not only various compositions of citation elements but also ill‐defined element formats. Standardized citation formats are therefore needed.     

Information activities within information horizons: A case for college students' personal information management

Personal information management behaviors appear differently by sources and by context. This study investigates personal information spaces from a quantitative approach and factors specific information behaviors and sources into information contexts. Using the information source horizon theory as a theoretical framework, college students' information behaviors to specific information sources were investigated in three personal information contexts (academic, health, and personal history contexts). In the college setting, students' personal information horizons echo the findings of previous studies that information contexts determine information horizons in general. In addition, specific information behaviors (collect, organize, and utilize) in this study are an important factor to influence personal information horizons. Certain information activities are observed in similar patterns regardless of contexts. The study suggests that the Information Horizon theory could be expanded to include information behaviors as an important determinant. From the data, radar charts visually present the relationships between information sources and activities, and they served as a collective form of information horizon maps.