The second chance school

Loughshore Educational Resource Centre is a religiously integrated, co‐educational, special needs and secondary school situated in Belfast, Northern Ireland. Loughshore works with a wide clientele of pupils across the spectrum of need and ability from the metropolitan area of Belfast. It plays a vital role as an educational base for a multiplicity of out‐of‐school children. The centre works in the backdrop of an emerging peace in the region as well as the significantly high levels of deprivation experienced across Northern Ireland’s capital. With places at the centre at a premium, a strict admission criterion exists. The centre aims to give a ‘second chance’ to its pupils, who are at risk of social exclusion, focusing on academic, personal and social development, providing skills which can be used to gain employment or continue to further education.     

Exploring the salient experiences of pre‐service teacher candidates who were former volunteer tutors

Teacher candidates were tracked to monitor whether their former tutoring experience influenced their experiences as teacher candidates. Through interviews, email and group discussions, participants reflected on their teacher preparation experiences and their orientations to effective reading and writing instruction. At times, teacher candidates identified pedagogical similarities between their tutoring experiences and teacher education programs. Other times, disparities between the classroom and tutorial instruction settings provoked some candidates to denounce the approaches of their teacher mentors during practica. We conclude by discussing the need for teacher education programs to assist candidates to assimilate newly acquired pedagogies into existing ones, including those acquired through volunteerism.     

Teacher depressive symptoms and children's school readiness in Ghana

This study investigated associations between kindergarten teachers' (N = 208) depressive symptoms and students' (Ghanaian nationals, N = 1490, M_age = 5.8) school-readiness skills (early literacy, early numeracy, social–emotional skills, and executive function) across 208 schools in Ghana over one school year. Teachers' depressive symptoms in the fall negatively predicted students' overall school-readiness skills in the spring, controlling for school-readiness skills in the fall. These results were primarily driven by social–emotional skills (r = .1–.3). There was evidence of heterogeneity by students' fall skill levels; teacher depressive symptoms predicted more negative spring overall school readiness for children who had higher fall school-readiness skills. Findings underscore the importance of teachers' mental health in early childhood education globally, with implications for policy and practice.     

Transitioning towards inclusion: a triangulated view of the role of educational assistants

The current work employs the use of multiple lenses to illuminate the integral role of the Educational Assistant (EA) in a Canadian school district’s transition from a segregated to inclusive service delivery model for students with special needs. Often compatible, but also distinctive viewpoints and understandings shape the role of EA in this journey towards inclusive practice in the context of a district that deployed Inclusion Coaches to support educators over the course of five years. Through deductive analysis, qualitative data (interviews, focus groups, blog-style reflections) were analysed from EAs (n = 6), elementary and secondary school teachers (n = 31), and Inclusion Coaches (n = 13). Findings indicated that the voices of EAs, teachers, and Inclusion Coaches all align on three main themes: necessity of collaboration among educators, coordinated and dedicated time for programming and redefining relationships within the inclusive model. During the transition from segregated classrooms to full inclusion, it is imperative that the role of the Educational Assistant (EA) is understood by administrators, teachers and the EAs themselves. With a more clearly delineated and mutually understood role, EAs and educators can develop collaborative relationships, working towards incorporating differentiation and supporting all students in a diverse learning and social community.     

Empty Templates: The Ethical Habits of Empty State Pages

This article examines how empty state pages (ESPs) constrain user-generated communication through the ethical lens of Bourdieu’s habitus. The authors define ESPs as interactive instructional templates that prompt users to input information to participate in an online network. Through a case study analyzing ~450,000 online comments from The New York Times, the authors find a direct connection between ESP elements, such as the character limit for comments, and online writers’ cultivated habitus.     

Naturalizing Assessment

Abstract Researchers and practitioners concerned with STEM learning (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) occurring outside the institutional boundaries of schools recognize the need for assessment approaches that accommodate the characteristics of informal learning. These approaches, to be viable, must align with the activities, goals, roles, and outcomes we find in informal settings. A plausible starting point is in making use of naturalistic assessments—people’s own on‐going, developing awareness of who can do what under which circumstances. People regularly and informally assess one another to shape and support learning activities, goals, and outcomes. This article seeks to make a case for developing a new research program for assessing learning outcomes by capitalizing on people’s everyday attunements, which are already in place, and by getting more value out of the cultural apparatus that exists for recognizing one another’s capabilities.     

Teaching evolution: Narratives with a view from three southern biology teachers in the USA

This case study explored sociocultural forces that influenced three 10th grade public high school biology teachers' instructional goals, instructional acts, and identity narratives related to the teaching of evolution. Primary data included field observations of classroom instruction and teacher interviews. Secondary data included informal conversations with students, interviews with department chairs, and interviews with a Southern minister. Data were coded and analyzed resulting in categories and themes which provided insights into the sociocultural influences that gave shape to the teaching of evolution for three teachers in this southeastern state. Findings included: (a) changes in teaching identities as the teachers sought legitimacy for teaching evolution through dependency on the textbook as the authoritative knowledge, (b) socioculturally embedded lived experiences and the perceived teaching identity of each teacher that created idiosyncratic positionings related to decisions about teaching evolution, and (c) the complicatory influence of the state standards, the graduation exit examination, and teacher autonomy on teachers' decisions related to the teaching of evolution. This study revealed practical relationships between what actual practices occur when teachers include or exclude evolution within the curriculum and the liabilities and benefits of teacher autonomy related to controversial topics such as evolutionary theory. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 46: 762–790, 2009