Assessing student attitude toward Christianity in Church in Wales primary schools: does aided status make a difference?

Abstract

As a consequence of the 1944 Education Act church schools were given the choice of opting for voluntary controlled status or for voluntary aided status. In voluntary aided status the Church had more control but carried greater costs. Within England and Wales this distinction is still maintained. This study measures the attitude toward Christianity of 4581 year 4, 5 and 6 students (8- to 11-years of age) attending 87 Church in Wales primary schools, and compares the responses of 1678 students attending controlled schools with the responses of 2903 students attending aided schools. After controlling for sex, age and frequency of church attendance, voluntary aided status is associated with a more positive attitude toward Christianity. In other words, aided status does make a difference to the attitudinal dimension of students’ religiosity.     

Listening to teachers: teacher and student roles in the New South Wales Sustainable Schools Programme

This paper reports on an interview study of eight teachers engaged in the Sustainable Schools Programme (SSP) in New South Wales, Australia. Teacher views on key components of education for sustainability are compared with the underlying socially critical approach of the SSP and the NSW policy on environmental education. Their views on active student engagement in the SSP are also revealed. The findings, which indicate that some teachers hold a view of education for sustainability consistent with key assumptions inherent in the SSP, are encouraging. However, remarks by most of the teachers suggest that wider professional support is needed if the SSP, and indeed the NSW policy on environmental education more broadly, are to be implemented as intended.     

The Prince of Wales Versus Clark Gable

ABSTRACT

In the 1920s and 1930s Americans avidly consumed news of Edward, Prince of Wales, through a variety of media: mass circulation newspapers and magazines, radio, the gramophone and film. This article argues that the Prince of Wales' popularity in the United States between the wars sheds light on key changes in the meaning of citizenship following mass enfranchisement in the Anglo-American world. It argues also that media representations of the Prince of Wales contributed to the creation of an Anglophone culture of celebrity, which would become a primary means by which Britons and Americans came to know each other in the inter-war years.     

Fy ardal/my neighbourhood: How might pupils’ orientations to their neighbourhood contribute to a pedagogy of place?

The purpose of this study is to explore curricular and young people’s orientations to, and representations of, the areas in which they live contrasted against curricular representations of place in Wales. This is accomplished through a mixed methods approach incorporating statistical and content analysis. Responses were coded with a positive, neutral or negative value and organised into categories emerging from the data. While the majority (64.6%) of our participants are positively oriented to these areas, schools providing free school meals above the national average for Wales had more pupils with negative orientations. Additionally, the rhetoric in teachers’ guidance for the Curriculum Cymreig promotes cultural icons and symbols representing place, while pupils’ responses do not. The findings suggest a potential relationship between social disadvantage and negative orientations to place, as well as a dissonance between ‘official’ representations of Wales and pupils’ lived experiences. Recommendations are made to include place-based, dialectical critiques of curricular and pupils’ understanding of place within pedagogical practices of teachers in Wales.     

Tackling behaviour and attendance issues in schools in Wales: implications for training and professional development

In 2009, the Welsh Assembly Government published its Report on the review of behaviour and attendance in schools in Wales. The National Behaviour and Attendance Review (NBAR) in Wales was chaired by the author of this paper. Both the Review and the Welsh Assembly Government’s response contained recommendations related to the training and professional development needs of staff in schools and local authorities (LAs). A paper on the professional development needs of staff on behaviour and attendance based on the NBAR recommendations is published in the same edition of this journal. This follow‐up paper focuses upon the Welsh Assembly Government’s response to these recommendations and its implementation plan on which the author acted as the professional adviser. The Welsh Assembly Government accepted with cross‐party support that the training and professional development needs of teachers and LA staff in behavioural management and school attendance had been neglected over many years. For the first time, coordinated new training and continuing professional development programmes on behavioural management and school attendance will be introduced in Wales soon. The next stage will be to evaluate the effectiveness of these programmes.     

Learning in the outdoor environment: a missed opportunity?

In 2001, the Welsh Assembly Government announced proposals for a Foundation Phase for children aged three to seven years. The Foundation Phase framework promotes a play‐based approach to children's learning in both indoor and outdoor contexts and places children's well‐being and their personal and social development at its core. While the framework is currently being piloted across Wales, full implementation will not take place until 2010; for many schools, then, this is a time of transition. This paper discusses the findings of a research project that aimed to document the current use of the outdoors by a group of early years teachers working in South Wales. Drawing on data from interviews and observations conducted in four schools, it is suggested that the teachers missed many of the opportunities afforded by the outdoor environment to enhance children's learning. The paper considers the reasons why this might be the case and comments on the distinction, apparent in two schools, between what was seen as ‘normal’ and ‘special’ outdoor activity.     

Implementing curriculum reform in Wales: the case of the Foundation Phase

Abstract

The Foundation Phase is a Welsh Government flagship policy of early years education (for 3–7 year-old children) in Wales. Marking a radical departure from the more formal, competency-based approach associated with the previous Key Stage 1 National Curriculum, it advocates a developmental, experiential, play-based approach to teaching and learning. The learning country: A paving document (NAfW, 2001) notes that, following devolution, Wales intended to take its own policy direction in order to ‘get the best for Wales’. Building on a three-year mixed methods independent evaluation of the Foundation Phase we discuss in detail the aims and objectives of the Foundation Phase, including the context to its introduction, the theory, assumptions and evidence underlying its rationale, and its content and key inputs. We then contrast this with how the Foundation Phase was received by practitioners and parents, how it has been implemented in classrooms and non-maintained settings, and what discernible impact it has had on young children’s educational outcomes. The paper concludes with a critical analysis of the policy process and identifies a number of contextual issues during the inception of the Foundation Phase that has, it could be argued, constrained its development and subsequent impact. We argue that these constraints are associated with an educational policy landscape that was still in its infancy. In order for future education policy to ‘get the best for Wales’ a number of important lessons must be learnt.     

The politics of education and the misrecognition of Wales

Abstract

This paper examines the positioning of the Welsh education system within contemporary policy debate and analysis. It begins by outlining some of the ways in which education policy and provision in Wales differs from that of its neighbour, England, and then goes on to critique how these differences have been represented in both the media and by members of the educational research community. Indeed, the paper argues that these representations constitute a form of misrecognition. It is tempting to counter this misrecognition with assertions of the superiority of the ‘Welsh way’—and certainly pronouncements of a ‘crisis’ in Welsh education appear to be as much politically-driven as evidence-based. However, such an approach would underplay the very real challenges that face Wales—challenges which are both like and unlike those facing England, Scotland and Northern Ireland. The paper concludes that we need a serious engagement with national divergences across the four nations of the UK—as well as elsewhere. The case of Wales highlights the need to undertake not only comparative analysis but also relational analysis if we are to enhance our understanding of the changing politics of education.     

Autonomy,rights and children with special educational needs: the distinctiveness of Wales

ABSTRACT

Wales was the first UK country to incorporate the UNCRC into domestic law and the first to appoint a children’s commissioner. Wales is distinctive in the strong links between education and the promotion of the Welsh language as evidenced in successive Welsh language strategies. With regard to children with special educational needs, the 2018 Additional Learning Needs and Educational Tribunal Act makes provision for children’s voices to be heard in their own right. This paper examines the complexities in hearing the voices of children with severe and profound learning difficulties (SPMLD), and how these can be addressed in the language context of Wales. It concludes that there are cautious grounds for optimism about our ability to hear the views of children with SPMLD, as long as we are prepared to acknowledge the resource implications. However, there is a need for more debate about the potential tensions between the Welsh language strategy and making provision for children with special educational needs in their preferred language. This debate needs to be informed by research on the impact of immersion education on progress, access to the curriculum and inclusion for children with SPMLD, and on their views about all aspects of their provision.     

Valuing difference in teachers and learners: building on Kolb's learning styles to develop a language of teaching and learning

Abstract

The first part of this paper provides a brief historical account of the development of mathematics teaching and learning through the medium of Welsh. It provides a review of developments which have seen the teaching and learning of mathematics through a native but minority language become an accepted part of the curriculum for a great number of pupils. It goes on to examine the nature of bilingual education currently to be found in Wales by considering two main types of bilingual schools which currently serve Welsh pupils and which have contributed towards a modest but notable minority language revival. It is in this context that current practice relating to Welsh‐medium mathematics is explored and a number of questions concerning current mathematics teaching, learning and assessment practices are raised. While celebrating the success and expansion of bilingual education in Wales, attention is drawn to the need to subject current practice to closer scrutiny. Although the paper focuses on the particular situation to be found in Wales, the issues and questions raised are clearly of interest to those involved with other bilingual educational programmes.