‘So,how does one define a friendship?’: Identifying friendship among students using AAC in inclusive education settings*

The characteristics of friendships among children who use augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) are not well understood. Research on friendships among children without disabilities has identified similarity to each other as a key characteristic among friends. The aim of this study was to identify and describe the friendships between students using AAC and fellow students in Norwegian mainstream public schools. Participants were students using AAC in first to fourth class, fellow students, parents, and staff. Data were analysed using a constructive grounded theory approach. The participants provided diverse reports about the friendships, although all students using AAC reported having friendships at school. The friendships were described by parents and staff as superficial and students using AAC were seldom perceived as playmates by fellow students. The results indicated that friendships between students using AAC and fellow students were often unilateral. The results are discussed along with the implications for future research.     

Prisoners’ academic motivation,viewed from the perspective of self-determination theory: Evidence from a population of Norwegian prisoners

International Review of Education - The study presented in this article explores prisoners’ academic motivation structure from the theoretical perspective of self-determination theory, using...     

The future of value creation and innovations: Aspects of a theory of value creation and innovation in a global knowledge economy

What enhances innovation and value creation in the global knowledge economy? We offer several answers here, chief among them this: Leaders need to move away from focusing on developing innovations and value within the mental models, systems, and organizational solutions of the old industrial economy, with its firm- and product-centric view of value. Instead, they need to focus on providing tailor-made products and services to the newly connected and interconnected customer. They can do this with individualized immediate feedback, a new organizational logic, and new cooperating structures.     

Bringing Organisations and Systems Back Together: Extending Clark's Entrepreneurial University

Burton R. Clark's 1998 book, Creating Entrepreneurial Universities, has had a major impact on the field of higher education, especially internationally. In this paper, key aspects of Clark's conceptualisation of organisational pathways of transformation are identified, speaking to its theoretical and empirical contributions to higher education studies, policy and practice. In addition, the larger corpus of Clark's work is built on to offer avenues by which considerations of systems analysis and organisational studies can be brought back together to address the strategic challenges and opportunities for individual universities and state as well as national systems of higher education.     

The silent voices: Pupil participation for gender equality and diversity

ABSTRACT

Background: The international body of research on student voice concludes that active pupil participation has multiple positive effects on the work environment and learning for pupils. In a large study on gender equality and diversity work in Swedish schools, it became evident that pupils wanted to be active participants. However, pupils considered that their wishes were, to a large extent, ignored. Therefore, it is important to try to understand this further by investigating pupils’ perceptions of their experiences.

Purpose: The purpose of the study was to explore how discourses of participation and power are practised, not practised, and materialised, by focusing in-depth on pupils’ representations of gender equality and diversity work within a small sample of Swedish schools.

Methodology: The study is based on data from 10 focus group interviews with 43 pupils from 4 different schools, 2 compulsory schools (pupil ages 6–15) and 2 upper secondary schools (pupil ages 16–18), in Sweden. The thematic analysis utilised a gender perspective anchored in a critical policy analysis approach.

Analysis and Findings: The analysis of focus group data identified three pupil representations of gender equality and diversity work: a onetime occurrence, longing for participation and the (un)fair teacher. These representations were derived from and intertwined with discourses on pupil participation and power. Three sub-discourses were found within the discourse on participation and power: normative barriers to participation, structural barriers to participation and openings in the barriers to participation. The first two sub-discourses support the maintenance of unequal power relations between adults and pupils, while the third challenges these power relations.

Conclusions: Our study suggests that no substantial levels of participation or power among the pupils were represented at the schools. Instead, the analysis visualises pupils as expressing powerlessness and disengagement. However, the discourse Openings in the barriers to participation, together with pupils’ democratic abilities, has the potential to enable change and the development of pupil participation in schools.     

Effects of a Reading Strategy Training Aimed at Improving Mental Simulation in Primary School Children

This study investigated the effects of a mental simulation training targeted at improving children’s reading comprehension. In a 4-week period, one group of third and fourth graders (n?=?75) learned to draw upon their sensorimotor memories and experiences to mentally simulate text (experimental training group), whereas another group (n?=?51) received the schools’ regular reading comprehension instructions (control training group). Pre-to-posttest differences in general reading comprehension, reading motivation, and mental simulation (distinguishing between perceptual and motor simulation) were examined to evaluate the trainings’ effectiveness. Compared to the control group, children who had received the mental simulation training showed improved performance on general reading comprehension (in Grade 3) and scored higher on reading motivation (in Grades 3 and 4). There were no performance differences between groups on the mental simulation measures. These findings indicate that it is beneficial for children to encourage and teach them to connect their sensorimotor experiences to the text they are reading.     

The plain style in early anti-slavery discourse: Reassessing the rhetorical beginnings of Quaker and Puritan advocacy

The two earliest public protests against slavery in British North America—the Germantown Quakers’ petition and Samuel Sewall’s The Selling of Joseph—are primarily discussed as rhetorical failures and have been largely reduced to entries on an anti-slavery timeline. The texts are further diminished for their lack of intensity compared with later abolitionist discourses. This essay reassesses these germinal protests as dynamic texts that engage and challenge two distinct conceptualizations of the plain style. In so doing, the texts and the plain style are both given renewed significance in the rhetorical history of the anti-slavery movement.     

Developing a Learning Progression of Buoyancy to Model Conceptual Change: A Latent Class and Rule Space Model Analysis

Research in Science Education - We applied latent class analysis and the rule space model to verify the cumulative characteristic of conceptual change by developing a learning progression for...     

Contract arrangements in the Nordic countries—solving the efficiency/effectiveness dilemma?

Steering higher education through the establishment of a “contract” between the state and the individual higher education institution is becoming an increasingly popular way of regulating the relationship between the two actors in the Nordic countries. This article addresses some theoretical foundations for this approach derived from principal/agent theory and analyzes the strengths and weaknesses of established contract arrangements in Finland, Sweden, and Denmark. The article discusses the potential of using such arrangements in relation to the efficiency/effectiveness dilemma. It is emphasized that trust is vital in solving this dilemma and that the balance between the need for public accountability, the efficient regulation of higher education, and institutional change must be given high priority in refining existing contractual arrangements.     

Families with Gifted Adolescents

Studies of families with gifted adolescents have revealed conflicting results. Adolescents, mothers, and fathers of 84 families with a gifted adolescent and of 95 families with a non‐gifted adolescent evaluated their family system independently. Dependent variables were cohesion, democratic family style (adaptability), organisation, achievement orientation, communication, and intellectual‐cultural orientation. Neither statistically nor practically significant relationships between giftedness and family system variables could be observed from the perspectives of the adolescents, the mothers, or the fathers. Contradictory results from other studies can be primarily attributed to their methodological shortcomings, labelling effects, or both. The mean inter‐rater agreement was r = .46 for mothers and fathers, r = .38 for adolescents and mothers, and r = .35 for adolescents and fathers.