Labels and Labelling in the Field of Educational Leadership

This paper reports on theorising based on developing histories of the field of educational leadership in higher education in the UK. These histories are being constructed through the collection of professional biographies of field members, reading the outputs of the field in the form of journals and books, and analysing the papers from the British Educational Leadership, Management and Administration Society. In this paper I focus on how the field has changed its label over the last forty years from “educational administration” to “educational management”, and more recently “educational leadership”, and the link between labels and knowledge claims. In particular I argue that while there is a continuity of knowledge underpinning this relabelling process there is also a mutation in the form of management in education that has become performance leadership in schools. The latter is official government policy and practitioners are being located in an all‐embracing training framework. The paper argues that knowing about knowledge claims and field labels is an important means by which we can control our practice and identities. Through Bourdieu's theory of practice I describe and explain the development of the field and the struggle to be located and to stay located within higher education. By putting Bourdieu to work in this way I also seek to analyse how habitus and field can contribute to the development of explanatory frameworks regarding the power structures underpinning knowledge production.     

Beyond Plumbing and Prevention: feminist approaches to sex education

This article offers a feminist critique of existing sex education policies and programmes in Canada, as well as examining common right‐wing arguments against more progressive approaches. Two major forces shaping adolescent girls’ developing sexuality—male sexual violence and compulsory heterosexuality—are discussed, and recent initiatives in Ontario to introduce these issues into sex education programmes evaluated. Toronto Board of Education's new policy on sexual orientation and the Ontario Ministry of Education AIDS Education Curriculum are assessed and strategies for anti‐sexist, anti‐heterosexist sex education developed.     

At the bridging point: tutoring newly arrived students in Sweden

In Sweden, tutoring in the mother tongue is a special support measure primarily intended for newly arrived students to facilitate their transition into the Swedish school system. Tutoring is premised on the collaboration between the class teacher, responsible for subject-related expertise, and the tutor, who contributes with knowledge of the student’s mother tongue and previous context of studies. In this case study of class teachers’ and mother tongue tutors’ conditions for collaboration at a multi-ethnic primary school, six mother tongue tutors and six class teachers were asked about the purpose of their work, how it was organised, and what could be done to improve working conditions. Interviews with head teachers, and data on work organisation from observations, document study, and participation in meetings for a period of one and a half years supplemented the teacher interviews. The analysis focuses on whether tutors and teachers belong to the same or different Communities of Practice, based on shared concerns and opportunities for collaboration, as well as looking at the relative positioning of languages and teaching roles. Findings suggest that the degree of collaboration between tutors and teachers was not sufficient to allow tutoring to function in the way it is envisaged by national steering documents. Tutoring was instead based on the tutors’ own knowledge of the subjects they taught. Recruitment of suitable tutors was difficult. However, conditions for collaboration and more effective tutoring in the schools could be improved with relatively simple support structures at the level of the municipality.     

Authenticating Sexual Diversity in School: Examining Sociolinguistic Constructions of Young People’s Sexual Identities

Recent research into sexuality and education shows that homophobia is particularly prevalent and problematic in schools. However, little of this work has drawn on linguistic frameworks. This article uses the tactics of intersubjectivity framework to examine how a group of LGB-identified young people understand their sexuality identities in relation to the secondary school context. The application of this framework offers deeper insights into sexual orientation and education than can be gained from thematic analysis alone and can contribute towards developing understandings of sexual diversity issues in schools. The framework is applied to interview data in which young LGB people talk about their school experiences. Findings show that in the schools attended by the young LGB people, they have experienced a state of pervasive illegitimation surrounding LGB identities. The participants express a desire for this perceived institutional illegitimation to be replaced by authorisation using a range of authentication strategies.     

Sociocultural frameworks of conceptual change: implications for teaching and learning in museums

This article presents a metalogue discussion about the two focus articles and the six associated review essays on the topic of conceptual change as it applies to research, and science teaching and learning in museum settings. Through the lenses of a sociocultural perspectives of learning we examine the applicability of the ideas presented in the forum for museums and museum educators. First we reflect on the role that emotions can play in concept development; second, we reflect on the role of language, talk, and gestures to concept development and conceptual change in the short-lived nature of experiences and conversations in museums; and third, we consider the nature of objects as representations of science content in museum settings.

Researcher intersubjectivity: a methodology for jointly building an interactive electronic early childhood quality involvement/rating scale

Researching quality in early childhood settings has been operationalized in many ways, within and across countries. Nevertheless, despite some consensus on what might constitute a universally recognized view of what is considered essential for young children’s development, there are strong indicators that locally developed assessment tools are likely to give more contextually relevant results. Yet, little appears to be known about how to develop localized tools for assessing quality, especially in culturally diverse research contexts. Further, it would seem that not much is understood about the ways researchers and research participants have worked together to achieve reciprocal outcomes. In drawing upon cultural-historical theory, this paper goes beyond the traditional binary of an emic–etic perspective and instead describes a dialectical model for creating conditions for generating research intersubjectivity. An example of how researchers and participants worked together to develop an interactive e-quality rating scale in Vietnam is presented with the research exchange methods of Dialogue through the technology, Capturing moments of localized quality, Community walk, and Research selfies. These methods together acted to underpin the methodology that foregrounds what we have termed research intersubjectivity.     

On fractions and non-standard representations: Pre-service teachers' concepts

The present study examined the reasoning strategies and arguments given by pre-service school teachers as they solved two problems regarding fractions in different symbolic representations. In the first problem, the pre-service school teachers were asked to compare between two different fractions having the same numerical representation, and in the second problem, they were asked to compare between different notational representations of the same fraction. Numeration systems in bases other than ten were used to generate various representations of fractions. All students were asked to provide justifications to their responses. Strategies and arguments relative to pre-service teachers' concepts of fractions and place value were identified and analyzed based on results of 38 individual clinical interviews, and written responses of 124 students. It was found that the majority of students believe that fractions change their numerical value under different symbolic representations.     

Teachers,schools and using evidence: Considerations of preparedness

Despite assessment being viewed as integral to practice, there are questions about schools’ preparedness to engage in this process. Data from three studies conducted in New Zealand primary schools explore whether use of student achievement data is part of the professional canon or skill set. (1) When implementing new literacy materials, evidence of need did not necessarily inform choice nor was achievement data used to make decisions about effectiveness of materials or use. (2) When a classroom initiative designed to achieve literacy goals was implemented, few schools collected evidence adequate for its evaluation. In both cases, practitioners appeared to hold a theory about acceptable evidence at variance with current policy expectations. Further, they may have lacked necessary skills. (3) Teachers, with practice, learned to interpret data accurately but this skill did not relate to student progress. A high level of pedagogical content knowledge may be needed to relate achievement information to teaching practice.     

Videomail — a personalised approach to providing feedback on assessment to distance learners

Videomail involves lecturers providing feedback on learners’ assignments by making a short videotape as an alternative to written comments alone. This study was designed to evaluate the effectiveness of videomail with a small sample of lecturers and distance learners in university programmes. In addition the authors were interested in establishing some principles for the use of videomail from the lecturer's perspective. Using approaches based on Grounded Theory and action research, reactions by lecturers and learners were collected. Videomail was felt to be an extremely valuable and personalised method of obtaining feedback by learners. Lecturers were able to use a wide variety of communication techniques such as self‐disclosure and reflection, for example, not available to them using written feedback only. It is concluded that written feedback can be enhanced by videomail and that videomail provides an additional vehicle for student learning and a means of establishing personal contact with learners at a distance.