Wallerstein’s world-systems analysis in comparative education: A case study

Since the 1970s, using his world-systems analysis, Immanuel Wallerstein has developed a wide-ranging framework for the social sciences, with potential applications for comparative educational research. In this paper we outline key aspects of Wallerstein’s theorising, and then analyse the uptake, understandings, and applications of his analysis in the field of comparative and international education, through a case study of the Comparative Education Review (CER) journal from 1980 to 2008. This paper examines how, and how widely, his analysis has been adopted and interpreted. Our analysis highlights significant and—given the broader emphasis in comparative education on questions of education and development—surprising absences in the application of this approach. We conclude by arguing for the use and development of three critical features of his analysis in comparative work, as relevant and timely interventions in the field.     

Collective self-efficacy expectations in Co-teaching teams – what are the influencing factors?

Scholars have studied collective teacher efficacy mainly at the school level. The present study also focuses on collective teacher efficacy expectations, but it emphasises the collaborative teaching of two teachers working together in one classroom. This study investigates personal, contextual, and systemic factors (e.g. experience, gender, class composition, pleasure with Co-teaching and its standards, knowledge about specific Co-teaching skills, the way how the team partner was chosen, etc.) that may influence collective self-efficacy expectations of Co-teacher teams. For the present study, 264 teachers who were part of a Co-teaching team finished an online questionnaire. Results from multiple regression analysis indicated that team characteristics influenced the subjective evaluation of efficacy expectations in teams much more than individual characteristics or the social context in which Co-teaching teams worked.     

Dancing in the Hall

Originally written 30 years ago, this paper is an analysis of the central challenge of schooling—that of engaging fully the powers of students’ minds in classroom learning. This challenge maintains its relevance today. The work of engaging what John Dewey referred to as students’ “inner attention” becomes the focus of an investigation of students’ current ideas in a variety of subject matters. This investigation reveals areas in which their ideas diverge from the established curriculum. It uses the methodology of Critical Exploration, which was developed by Eleanor Duckworth as a teaching and research methodology that both reveals learners’ ideas and encourages their active creation of meaning. This methodology provides students with rich and complex curriculum materials for their own manipulation; it also provides them the freedom to express, however tentatively, their ideas, to take them seriously, and to follow them through. As a result of these studies of learning, I put forward the view that a significant part of the responsibility for students’ alienation from classroom learning lies with a conception of knowledge, often reflected in curriculum, that is too rigid to take their ideas into account. I elaborate this view in an analysis of the aspects of particular subject matters that alienate students if the students are not given adequate ways of entering them. I make the case that these same complexities can be used as compelling invitations into deeper knowledge.     

From Pleasure Rows and Plashing Sculls to Amateur Oarswomanship: The Evolution of Women’s Amateur Rowing in Britain

Abstract

This paper considers the emergence of amateur women’s rowing between the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, in light of contemporaneous social norms relating to gender and sport. It does not seek to identify a foundational point for women’s rowing, nor does it offer a comprehensive survey of the development of the sport over this period. Instead, it considers women’s rowing in three key contexts: women’s university colleges, at the end of the nineteenth century; the first women-only rowing club on the Thames, established in 1896 by Dr Frederick Furnivall; and the formation of a governing body for the women’s sport in 1923. Analysis of the conditions within the sport in these environments, and their implications, leads to more nuanced consideration of the women’s sport, and of gender as a normative social construct more widely. Discussion focuses on gendered influences on sporting behaviour, manifested in institutional regulation and hegemonic authority, and the intersection of class and gender.     

Attending to Precision: Mathematical Definitions in Courses for Pre-Service and Practicing Teachers

In this article we address the Common Core State Standard for Mathematical Practice: Attend to Precision. We describe work in mathematics content courses for pre-service and inservice teachers focused on developing teachers’ understanding of mathematical definitions. We discuss teachers’ work in developing definitions for students at various levels of mathematics, in generalizing a definition in order to extend the domain to which it may be applied, and in correcting teachers’ misconceptions. The work discussed in this article is consistent with the recommendations of the Conference Board of the Mathematical Sciences for the mathematics education of teachers. In explicit response to contemporary mathematics education research, the author presents constructive assessment prompts which lend themselves to formal study by mathematics education researchers.     

Preparing beginning teachers for inclusion: designing and assessing supplementary fieldwork experiences

Inclusive education requires restructuring educational provision so that mainstream schools are able to provide for the needs of all students in their communities. To help realise this goal, initial teacher education programmes need to better prepare new graduates for teaching students with complex special education needs, including students with intellectual disability. Concerns about the capacity of current school-based placements to prepare new teachers for inclusive classrooms have led some teacher education institutions to develop supplementary fieldwork experiences. The current study involved an investigation into such an experience and looked at the benefits to pre-service teachers (PSTs) of tutoring a young adult with intellectual disability. The findings indicate that PSTs learned effective strategies for differentiating a programme of work and, in their first year of study, were developing a teacher identity. The importance of aligning experiences with coursework units is highlighted and the need for valid assessments of how well initial teacher education programmes are preparing beginning teachers for inclusion, and what these assessments may look like, is discussed.     

Reduced Knowledge of Results Frequency Enhances Error Detection

Abstract

The purpose of the present study was to determine the effects of consonant and dissonant role playing with high or low justification on attitude change toward physical education courses. An analysis of the attitude of 311 college subjects before and after role playing showed that role playing in a physical education course produced an attitude change in the direction of the role played. Consonant role playing reinforced initial attitudes, but dissonant role playing resulted in a significantly greater change in the direction of the role played. Low justification tended to produce greater attitude change in the dissonant role playing, but high and low justification seemed equally effective in reinforcing a prior attitude in consonant role playing.     

Project THREAD: Technology helping restructure educational access and delivery

This article describes Project THREAD (Technology Helping Restructure Educational Access and Delivery), an initiative funded by the U.S. Office of Education through its PT3 grant program. The project’s overarching goal is to prepare teachers to integrate modern technologies to fundamentally enhance teaching and learning in K-12 schools. Project initiatives include: (a) a series of in-service workshops for university faculty, administrators, field supervisors, and mentor teachers; (b) one-on-one follow-up support provided by project staff; (c) a minigrant program to support the development of technology-based learning activities for university courses; (d) expanded opportunities for students to apply technology in thier courses and field experiences; and (e) a redesign of selected courses that impact a large number of teacher candidates. The project’s evaluation is described, along with a discussion of outcomes and lessons learned. in recognition of the project’s scope and accomplishments thus far, the College of Education at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV), was named the 2002 winner of the Best Practice Award for the Innovative Use of Technology by the American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education (AACTE).