Constructing the academic category of teacher educator in universities’ recruitment processes in Aotearoa,New Zealand

An examination of recruitment materials and interviews with personnel involved in the employment of teacher educators to positions in university-based New Zealand initial teacher education (ITE) courses reveals three constructions of teacher educator as academic worker: the professional expert, the dually qualified, and the traditional academic. However, this study’s analysis shows how these constructions allow universities to pursue a bifurcated approach for the employment of teacher educators, an approach that maintains binaries within teacher education and hinders development in the field. Furthermore, as the spectre of a major cultural shift in the provision of New Zealand ITE arises, the extent to which the professional expert and traditional academic constructions of teacher educator might serve the scope of work required of postgraduate ITE going forth is questioned.     

Using one’s own professional activities to promote research and publishing

This paper explores issues related to teacher educators publishing in journals. They do so for obvious reasons such as tenure, career advancement, personal satisfaction and university prestige. In order to offer an extra means of helping teacher educators achieve these publishing goals, the paper explores how using one’s own professional experiences in a number of spheres may offer substantial opportunities for publishing. Using a Grounded Theory analysis, the author presents an analysis of his own publications. These are laid out in five categories in which his professional pursuits with teacher trainees have led to a considerable number of publications, 34 of which have appeared in international journals, 25 of them in international Grade A and B journals. The author calls for academics to examine their own practices, suggesting that there is much in one’s own professional experiences that can be of worth to the international community.     

Research on teaching practicum – a systematic review

The aim of the present study is to conduct a systematic review research which focuses on research studies into the school practicum. In order to identify the main issues and also to provide a contemporary picture of practicum, 114 studies published on the topic are reviewed and analysed in terms of: (i) aims, (ii) main participants, (iii) methodology used and (iv) the main outcomes emerging. Many of the reviewed studies take pre-service teachers as their main participants. The review also shows that many practicum studies are relatively small-scale studies since they are mainly qualitative focused and findings derived from a relatively small sample. This suggests that more large-scale studies are needed in the field in order to provide greater insight into teaching practicum. Finally, this systematic review provides some food for thought in the area of practicum research and promotes further studies in this complex field.     

THE BULLYING DYNAMIC: PREVALENCE OF INVOLVEMENT AMONG A LARGE‐SCALE SAMPLE OF MIDDLE AND HIGH SCHOOL YOUTH WITH AND WITHOUT DISABILITIES

Bullying has been the topic of much debate and empirical investigations over the past decade. Contemporary literature contends that students with disabilities may be overrepresented within the bullying dynamic as both perpetrators and victims. Unfortunately, prevalence rates associated with the representation of students with disabilities is limited due to measurement, disability status identification, and definition issues. The present study attempted to address these issues by assessing the prevalence rates of specific subgroups of students with disabilities in a large‐scale cross‐sectional study with 13,325 students without disabilities and 1,183 students with disabilities in Grades 6 through 12. Results suggest that overall, students with disabilities reported proportionally higher rates of bullying, fighting, relational aggression, victimization, online victimization, and relational victimization than did their peers without disabilities. These findings suggest that schools must begin to establish targeted interventions to support skill development based on characteristics associated with specific disability identification.     

Iraqi,Syrian, and Palestinian Refugee Adolescents' Beliefs About Parental Authority Legitimacy and Its Correlates

This study examined intra‐ and interindividual variations in parental legitimacy beliefs in a sample of 883 Arab refugee adolescents (M_age = 15.01 years, SD = 1.60), 277 Iraqis, 275 Syrians, and 331 Palestinians in Amman, Jordan. Confirmatory factor analyses showed distinct latent factors for moral–conventional, prudential, and personal legitimacy items. Older adolescents rated legitimacy lower for personal issues, but higher for prudential issues. Beliefs were associated with socioeconomic status (fathers' education, family size), particularly for personal issues, but were more pervasively associated with displacement‐related experiences. Greater war trauma was associated with less prudential legitimacy for all youth and more authority legitimacy over moral–conventional issues for Syrian youth. Greater hopefulness was associated with more authority legitimacy over all but personal issues.     

Learning in Retirement and Old Age: an agenda for the 21st century

This article is about education and learning for the ‘retired’. In using this term, it is recognised that any such definitions and given age bands cover a wide range of situations and learning needs. Such diversity should closely inform the educational agenda for older adults, and as it is a life phase defined by challenge and change ‘learning to be’ encapsulates much that is essential to that agenda. The international evidence shows how rapidly our societies are ageing, and how much longer is spent in retirement: so rapid is that change and so large the numbers of seniors and the elderly that the active nature of learning represents a critical aspect of response to this major phenomenon. Contrary to a popular image of declining skills and capacities, the evidence reveals a much more nuanced picture of capability among the retired. Comparisons are drawn with the early childhood sector, which had parallel characteristics but which has since moved rapidly upwards among policy priorities. In conclusion, the article argues that ‘active ageing’ rather than ‘lifelong learning’ represents a more promising embracing framework through which to develop learning in retirement and old age.     

An Education Worth Having: The Aspirations and the Development of the Whole Education Network in England

The Whole Education National Network is a dynamic national not-for-profit partnership of schools and organisations that believe that all children and young people are entitled to an education that supports the development of wider skills, qualities and characteristics to enable them to thrive in life, learning and work, as well as conventional academic achievement. The article outlines the background to the development of the growing network of some 150 schools plus partner organisations and its core aims. It then considers what the Network is achieving and what it is learning about its approach as it grows. It offers and is seeking to embed and sustain an approach to school development that is ‘values-led, evidence-informed and impact-focused’. It is also predicated on a commitment to and belief in peer-to-peer collaboration, inspired and encouraged by the work of leading academics, thinkers and practitioners. Whole Education is also a response to what many observers and commentators identify as a weakness of the English and many other systems: the gap between the outcomes achieved by the more disadvantaged and other students. Part of its moral purpose is to help to narrow that gap, underpinned by a belief that focusing on immediate outcomes and test scores is not enough on its own. The Network operates in the belief that it will only be through the commitment to an entitlement to a ‘whole education for all’ that any school or system will truly narrow the gap and make a real difference to the life-chances of all young people. School leaders and schools that have gravitated towards Whole Education seek like minds to share and, more importantly, develop both their thinking and strategies employed to help achieve their goals. At the heart of the change model underpinning Whole Education is the development of effective communities of practice that develop professional capital and unleash the creativity of teachers. Creating, embedding and sustaining a national self-funded school-led network committed to achieving longer-term aspirations rather than immediate needs is both inspiring and challenging. The pressure to respond to short-term targets in terms of student outcomes and accountability pressures has meant that the energy and resource tend to be focused on the immediate rather than the medium- or longer-term needs. Whole Education provides a powerful example of how schools that share common aspirations can seize the agenda, have real impact on students and demonstrate the potential of a self-improving school system.     

How stable is the stratification of higher education in England and Scotland?

This paper asks whether the institutional hierarchies defined by ‘golden triangle’, other Russell Group, other pre-1992 and post-1992 universities in England, and by ancient, old and new universities in Scotland, have become weaker since the 1990s. Using indicators constructed from Universities and Colleges Admissions Service data for 1996–2010, the article finds a stable hierarchical relationship among the sectors within each country, with some indicators showing a slight widening of status differences between sectors towards the end of the period. The main exception was a slight ‘upgrading’ of new (post-1992) universities in Scotland early in the period. There was little change in the association of institutional sector with social class, but in England the association with private secondary schools became slightly stronger and the association with ethnicity weakened.