Unpacking Our Academic Suitcases: The Inner Workings of Our Feminist Research Group

In this paper we focus on the lived experiences of multidisciplinary scholars as we navigated and coalesced into a productive, interdisciplinary collaboration. We pull from our foundations in feminist methodology and provide excerpts from personal journals and reflexive group interviews to provide a behind-the-scenes account of the inner workings of a feminist research group. While sharing a common research goal, each member negotiated her personal, conceptual, and epistemological stances as we produced an effective, interdisciplinary pastiche. Throughout this process, we worked to create a non-hierarchical atmosphere, continuously and ethically questioned our methods, and incorporated reflexivity in the research processes. In addition to sharing our past experiences, we note challenges we encountered and offer practical suggestions based on the lessons we learned through this collaboration.     

The effect of tuition fees on student mobility: the UK and Ireland as a natural experiment

We exploit changes in student funding policies across the four UK nations and the Republic of Ireland to conduct a natural experiment investigating the marginal effect of differing tuition fee levels on students' enrolment behaviour. Whilst previous international research suggests increases in fees suppress demand and disincentivise cross‐border educational migration, some studies in North America and Germany find an element of inelasticity of demand. In the UK, various commentators have predicted marked shifts in student mobility in response to variation in tuition fee prices by country, trends expected to sharpen following substantial planned rises in tuition fees from 2012. After outlining tuition fee policies in the UK and Ireland, we analyse data on student enrolment destinations across the five countries for the period 2000–2010. We find little evidence to support the notion that student mobility is driven by economic ‘rationality’. Enrolment rates have risen despite increases in tuition fees and there is a long‐term trend for students to stay at home. Students seem not to be ‘pushed’ out‐of‐country by higher fees, but may be discouraged from moving if fees are lower in‐country. Student mobility within the UK and Ireland follows well‐worn paths from and to specific countries and institutions. Finally, we consider the implications of our findings for student mobility in general and forthcoming changes to UK student funding policies in particular.     

Shaping Adolescents' Attitudes towards Science and Religion in Northern Ireland: The role of scientism,creationism and denominational schools

A sample of 1584 pupils between the ages of 14 and 16 years, attending Year 9, Year 10 and Year 11 classes within Protestant and Catholic grammar schools in Northern Ireland completed indices of attitude towards Christianity, attitude towards science, creationism and scientism. The data demonstrate that the apparent independence of attitude towards science and attitude towards Christianity is transformed into a positive relationship after taking into account individual differences in scientism and creationism.     

The Status of Civic Education: A Preservice Program Response

Civic education is an issue of growing and serious concern. There is diminished time for civics, fewer course offerings, and gaps in students’ civic knowledge, skills, and dispositions. The role of teacher education in addressing this problem is one area deserving additional focus. This article describes the project begun by the secondary education faculty at one university to provide teacher education candidates in all content areas with the ability to address civics in meaningful ways.     

“The Galigir Room”: a resourced provision for young people with social,emotional and mental health difficulties (SEMH) in their first years at secondary school

This paper examines the values, vision and practice originally outlined in a proposal for a secondary phase resourced provision for young people with social, emotional and mental health (SEMH) challenges. The provision was based on a well-established model (the ‘Jarjums Room’) which had been implemented in Cherbourg Primary School in Eastleigh, England. The article offers a first-hand narrative account of the way that this initiative, the ‘Galigir Room’, was conceptualised, successfully embraced and implemented, thanks to the commitment of a senior leadership team, a group of staff and governors and the foresight and support of the local secondary school.     

It takes a village: Managing conflict in the K-12 classroom

This project examines the classroom conflict management challenges K–12 teachers experience. The U.S. Department of Education released a January 2014 bulletin outlining their classroom conflict management position, providing teachers recommendations without providing tools and conflict management knowledge to effectively implement the recommended programs. Understanding the nature and components of conflict better enables conflict managers (i.e., teachers) to effectively manage and resolve conflict. Understanding the challenges teachers face when managing conflict enables practitioners to create practical recommendations for conflict resolution education. This project analyzed data from four focus groups of K–12 teachers (n = 21) from the northern Midwest. Teachers identified structural challenges (i.e., lack of parental or administrative support) to managing conflict. Findings indicate that comprehensive conflict management training and productive communication between all levels of the system are necessary to effectively manage conflict in the classroom.