Politics,religion and morals: the symbolism of public schooling for the urban middle-class identity

Research points to sections of the middle-class repopulating the ‘ordinary’ urban public school and whilst there are key differences in how they are navigating public school choices, from ‘seeking a critical mass’ to resisting traditional methods of choice and going ‘against-the-grain’, or collectively campaigning for a brand new public school, the urban middle-class are developing contemporary methods to challenge the existing ways of thinking about middle-class choice. Drawing on this literature, this paper explores the symbolism of public schooling for relatively affluent choosers in the city of Melbourne, Australia. The positioning of public schooling as essentially secular and liberal indicates how the public school is valorised within the contemporary market place. Within a market that tends to undersell the public school, the perceived lack of organised religion and progressivism may be the unique selling point for the cosmopolitan, globalised consumer.     

Beginning teacher resilience in remote Australia: a place-based perspective

Enhancing resilience is key to reducing teacher attrition and addressing the challenges of the profession but scant research exists on resilience in regional and remote settings, where there is a shortage of quality, specialist and lead teachers. The aim of this study was to combine ecological and relational perspectives on resilience to examine pre-service and early career teacher resilience in the remote context of central Australia. The findings suggest that beginning teacher resilience in central Australia involves a particular set of enablers and constraints which are characterised by teachers’ capacity to build connections to place, connections as a learner and connections in relationships. A transactional systems model is presented that articulates the dynamism of the resilience processes and offers a way to better understand the ecological interdependencies unique to a particular context and culture. This understanding will enable teachers, initial teacher educators, school leaders and policy makers to better address the challenges facing this profession.     

Investigating reading development in atypical populations: The case of Williams syndrome

This paper presents a review of currentknowledge concerning the reading skills ofchildren and adults with Williams syndrome. The paper begins by highlighting themethodological issues surrounding research onreading in atypical populations and discussesthe issue of comparison groups. It proceeds toreview evidence from studies that havedescribed the reading profile observed inWilliams syndrome in relation to the documentedcognitive and linguistic profile, andspecifically examines the relationship betweenreading and phonological skills. The paperadvocates a more dynamic developmental approachto the study of reading in atypical populations.     

School Refuser Child Identities

“School refuser” is an always-already negative child identity. The term is used to categorize children or adolescents who appear to dislike and fear school (or aspects of school) and persistently refuse to attend or attend very unwillingly. Given that school attendance is generally considered a necessary social good, regular and anxious refusal to attend is usually understood as problematic, maladaptive behaviour. Typically, the problem is discursively linked to certain psychiatric disorders, such as separation anxiety disorder and depression. This paper critically considers the significance of the usual understanding of school refusal as pathological and school refusers as maladjusted individuals.     

L'enseignement des mathématiques

Sans résuméConférence à la fête du 70ème anniversaire de Hans Freudenthal, le 17 septembre 1975.     

Academics in an Era of Structural Change: An Australian Experience

This article reports upon the results of a survey of academics in ten post‐binary institutions, with respect to the impact of systemic restructuring upon them. Specifically, it is concerned with respondents’ perceptions of the effects of amalgamation/redesignation, the values of the post‐binary universities and the nature of the Unified National System. The study's findings reflect higher education institutions undergoing profound and discomfiting consolidation. Mergers, with some notable exceptions, seem to have been more difficult in the incorporated than the redesignated universities. Although binary backgrounds and subsequent placement in a redesignated or incorporated institution, have had a strong influence upon respondents, there is also notable agreement amongst them in relation to the values of the post‐binary institutions, the nature of the Unified National System and the increasing privatisation of the universities. While official expectations were for a more diverse higher education system, influenced by the legacies of the former CAE system, and those of the former binary universities, the college legacy is not perceived to be notably significant in the new order. The absorption of the former binary system, into a unitary system of universities, has been difficult, and the values of the new higher education institutions are regarded as being neither highly adaptive nor pluralistic.     

Developing social competence and other generic skills in teacher education: applying the model of integrative pedagogy

The purpose of the study was to examine how social competence and other generic skills can be developed in teacher education using a pedagogical model called Integrative Pedagogy. This model is based on the idea of integrating the four basic components of expertise: Theoretical knowledge, practical knowledge, self-regulative knowledge, and sociocultural knowledge. The subjects of the study were 95 student-teachers. The data were collected with questionnaires. In addition to social skills, the student-teachers reported learning of domain-specific skills, generic academic skills, skills for acting creatively in different situations and development of independence. We conclude that the model of Integrative Pedagogy is feasible in teacher education.     

Can the English Baccalaureate act as an educational equaliser?

ABSTRACT

Ensuring equal access to a broad and balanced curriculum for all students is a key component of a socially just education system. Yet in England, the freedom that 16-year-old students have to choose the GCSE subjects they study has created divisions in the pathways taken by students from different backgrounds. In 2010, a new accountability measure, the English Baccalaureate (EBacc), was introduced to encourage more disadvantaged students to study the ‘core academic’ GCSE subjects. This paper investigates the success of this initiative by analysing the relationship between free school meal (FSM) eligibility, studying the EBacc subjects and GCSE attainment. The findings are used to illustrate the complexities of balancing equal access to academic subjects against fair access to future opportunities, which often depend on good grades, when trying to deliver social justice in an education system that has an entrenched attainment gap.     

Growth goals and growth mindset from a methodological-synergistic perspective: lessons learned from a quantitative correlational research program

This review explores predictors and consequences of students’ growth goals and growth mindset in school with particular emphasis on how correlational statistical methods can be applied to illuminate key issues and implications. Study 1 used cross-sectional data and employed structural equation modelling (SEM) to investigate the role of growth goals in mediating the link between interpersonal relationships and academic engagement. Study 2 conducted multi-group path analysis to investigate the role of growth goals in the academic outcomes of two groups of students (ADHD and non-ADHD). Study 3 used longitudinal data and SEM to test a cross-lagged panel design to investigate reciprocal links between growth goals and growth mindset. Study 4 conducted multi-level SEM where the effects of a growth orientation on engagement and achievement were investigated at the student-level (level 1) and the classroom-level (level 2). Taking these four studies together, we aim to show how correlational data and multivariate correlational analyses have been effective in answering research questions in a way that have practical and theoretical implications for students’ academic growth. We also position this review as a substantive-methodological synergy – an approach recently recommended in response to concerns about the increasing polarization of substantive and methodological research and researchers.