Laser cleaning of terracotta decorations of the portal of Palos of the Cathedral of Seville

Laser cleaning has been used to restore the soiled terracotta statues and decorations of the tympanum of the portal of Palos of the Cathedral of Seville in Spain. A simultaneous laboratory study performed on a representative sample helped to identify the optimum laser conditions to remove the dark soiling layer produced by air pollution. It was found that irradiation at 1064 nm with a Q-switched Nd:YAG laser was more effective than the harmonic wavelengths of 532 or 266 nm. LIBS and Raman microscopy gave information on the composition of terracotta and identified the presence of a protective layer made of gypsum and calcite. As detected by Raman spectroscopy, laser irradiation caused the elimination of the carbon component of the soiling layer and the appearance of an anhydrite component in the laser irradiated gypsum layer applied over the terracotta substrate for protective purposes. Local heating of the surface caused by laser irradiation at 1064 nm, the laser wavelength used for restoration of the portal, might be responsible for a process of partial dehydration of gypsum into anhydrite.     

Proposing Questions for Scientific Inquiry and the Selection of Science Content in Initial Elementary Education Teacher Training

Research in Science Education - This article presents a qualitative study of the type and quality of questions formulated by prospective elementary teachers (PETs) when designing scientific inquiry...     

Family-school partnership in the Spanish education system

Abstract

The benefits of positive, active relationships between families, schools, and the community (not only in the academic outcomes of the children, but also in the family’s and school’s wellbeing) have, up to now, had plenty of supportive evidence. Nevertheless, experience shows that there are many difficulties involved in making participation a reality. Education regulation acknowledges the importance of family participation at school, but neither implementation methods nor the concept of participation are clearly defined. Spanish initial teacher education curriculum programmes include, only in a marginal form, competences and skills that would prepare teachers to become involved in a collaborative relationship with families and the community. This article addresses the training of professionals in education from the perspective of the competences, skills, and knowledge demanded to engage in collaborative work with families and the community. It was conducted through a comparative analysis of the curriculum programmes of Spanish Universities, with a special focus on curriculum content and competences, and on the formal organisation of the initial training of pre-service teachers.     

Writing at university: are we on the same page? / Escribir en la universidad: ¿nos entendemos?

Abstract

This study seeks to analyse the characteristics and functions that students and faculty attribute to written genres in Spanish universities, to what extent these representations are shared by both groups, and how they contribute to the construction of disciplinary knowledge in Spanish higher education. Accordingly, we classified students’ and teachers’ responses into 12 genre families grouped into five functions: Disciplinary Knowledge (DK), Critical Analysis (AC), Personal Reflection (PR), Research (R) and Professional Practice (PP). In terms of functions, demonstration of disciplinary knowledge appeared as the most frequently mentioned goal for both groups, whereas the genres targeted at research were the least frequent ones, along with the genres used for personal reflection. The most common genre family for both groups was Explanation, which was linked to demonstration of knowledge acquired in the discipline.     

Institutional habitus in context: implementation,development and impacts in two compulsory secondary schools in Barcelona

This article aims to revisit the relationship between school-level variables and students’ educational opportunities through the lens of institutional habitus. This approach is particularly well suited to explore the notion of school culture because it brings to the forefront the impact of social context, avoiding some of the limitations typically associated with the long-dominant perspective of school effectiveness research. Drawing on an ethnographic approach, the article explores how institutional habitus unfolds in two urban public secondary schools in the city of Barcelona. Breaking the notion down into three main components (educational status, organizational practices and expressive order), the analysis identifies two main types of institutional habitus – one based on action and inclusion, and another based on reaction and expulsion. Ultimately, these results give insight into the complex interplay of these three components, as well as on their combined impact on students’ educational opportunities.     

An ideology critique of global citizenship education

ABSTRACT

In the last two decades, global citizenship education (GCE) has become a catchphrase used by international and national educational agencies, as well as researchers, to delineate the increasing internationalisation of education, framed as an answer to the growing globalisation and the high values of citizenship. These developments, however, have created issues, due to the presence of two conflicting discourses. While the discourse of critical democracy highlights the importance of ethical values, social responsibility and active citizenry, a neoliberal discourse privileges instead a market-rationale, focused on self-investment and enhanced profits. These two discourses are not separated; they rather appear side by side, causing a confusing effect. This article aims to analyse GCE as an ideology, unveiling not only its hidden (discursive) content but also the role played by non-discursive elements in guaranteeing the coexistence of antagonistic discourses. It will be argued that not only the critical democratic discourse does not offer any resistance or threat to the neoliberal structuring of higher education, but also this discourse can function as an apologetic narrative that exculpates all of us who still want to work in universities, notwithstanding our dissatisfaction with their current commodification.     

Attachment in Chronically Underweight Young Children

This study, conducted in Chile with a low-income population, was designed to assess quality of mother-infant attachment in 17-21-month-old children of different nutritional status. 43 nutritionally healthy and 42 chronically underweight children were seen with their mothers in the Ainsworth Strange Situation. Children were classified in the conventional B (secure) and A and C (anxious) attachment patterns. In addition, an A/C pattern of anxious attachment was found to be frequent among children who consistently fail to gain adequate weight-for-age. Results showed a greater proportion (93%) of anxious attachments in the underweight group as compared to the group of children without a history of nutritional deficits (50%). Children classified as A/C presented the most serious weight deficits within the underweight group, indicating an association between severity of the nutritional deficits and insecure/disorganized attachments. Various hypotheses concerning the association between chronic nutritional deficits and insecure/disorganized attachments in infancy are discussed.     

Racialised entanglements of teacher professionalisation and problematised immigrant schoolchildren: crafting a Danish welfare nation-state, 1970–2013

Abstract

Modern welfare states emerged as a response to the social question and were crafted through the educationalisation of society engendering a need for a variety of professionals who could take care of citizens of concern. This article revisits the social question in a post-1970 Danish context of a growing non-western immigrant and refugee population and increasing professional attention paid to the presence of immigrant schoolchildren as a new social problem. In particular, the article takes as its point of departure the educationalisation of this new social problem, often referred to in terms of “integration”. Hence, it examines the dispositions and capacities of teachers imagined to handle immigrant schoolchildren as objects of educational and societal concern. Moreover, it explores how these entangled processes of educational problematisations and teacher professionalisation embedded in visions of good citizens and a good society, ultimately fed into the crafting of a post-1970 Danish welfare nation-state. Deploying a governmentality perspective, the analysis is based on diachronic reading of three professional journals specialised in the topic of the education of immigrant schoolchildren (1980–2013), supplemented by the annual reports of the Royal Danish School of Education (1970–2000). The article suggests that the crafting of a Danish welfare nation state between 1970 and 2013 crystallised in entanglements of subtly racialised professional subjectification and educational problematisations of immigrant schoolchildren, inextricably linking public and individual welfare to citizens practising a “Danish way of life”.     

Theorising teaching and learning: pre-service teachers’ theoretical awareness of learning

We examine pre-service teachers’ theoretical learning during one five-week training module, and their educators’ learning about better lecture design to foster student learning. The study is iterative: interventions (one per group) were implemented sequentially in student groups A–C, the results of the previous intervention serving as the baseline for the design developed for the next. These learning study participants, 79 students from year three of a teacher training programme, studied the variation theory (VT) of learning. Three lesson cycles were completed, each comprising four steps: (1) a pre-test, (2) a 15-min intervention discussing VT, (3) a post-test and (4) a delayed post-test conducted eight weeks later. The results indicated learning differences between groups; qualitative analysis identified three categories of student answers, i.e. emergent, premature and unaware, regarding their theoretical understanding. Group C had more students with emergent knowledge (36%) than did groups A (20%) or B (17%) at post-testing.     

Occupational stereotyping by hearing impaired and hearing people: experiences of a comparative survey

ABSTRACT

The problems of preparing hearing impaired people for adult life and for productive work have not yet been properly solved in Hungary. The main reasons can be found in the old tradition of segregated education for people with disabilities. The political changes of 1990 and the economic reforms have not brought about any favourable changes. A nationwide, comparative survey dealing with vocational prejudices and attitudes concerning hearing persons and hearing impaired persons showed that the vocational knowledge and expectations of the latter group is not satisfactory, their information is uncertain and that they have prejudices against themselves ‐ that is, they suppose that high‐prestige professions are not available to them. Deaf persons are even more prejudiced than hard of hearing persons.