Challenging ideological environments: international teachers’ experiences in an outside-of-country teacher training programme

Teacher training for developing nation contexts is often conducted in short, intensive inside and outside-of-country programmes. Concerns have been raised in relation to the uncritical take-up of the western-centric material provided by these programmes, which are usually funded by national and international government organizations. This paper explores an approach used in an outside-of-country teacher training programme funded by an Australian government grant. The research focused on teacher trainers from the Monastic education system and their reflections on whether critical literacy approaches could be incorporated into curriculum in Myanmar. It used a Bakhtinian framework to analyse the teacher trainers’ ideological environments and their hybridizations of critical literacy discourses for their own contexts. It was found that while the teacher trainers were passionate about the worth of developing critical literacy skills for their teachers and pupils, they struggled with a range of constraints that existed for them within their country. The research illustrated the importance of providing spaces for participants in programmes such as these to critically reflect on the relevance of non-government organization (NGO) and international non-government organization (INGO) training programmes, especially in light of the multiple challenges that are a part of their everyday lives.     

让西柏坡精神永耀校园——继承弘扬西柏坡精神途径的探索

西柏坡精神是我们党在新民主主义革命时期最宝贵的精神财富之一。高校作为培养社会主义现代化建设人才的摇篮,在新的历史条件下,需要深刻理解西柏坡精神的内涵和精神实质,创新校园文化主题;提高学生精神境界,树立科学的理想信念;强化挫折教育,大力发扬艰苦奋斗精神;提升教师优良师德,培养学生优良学风;发挥社会实践的教育功能,在实践中继承和发扬西柏坡精神。     

论安徽花鼓灯的传承、保护与发展

花鼓灯舞蹈文化是民族文化的重要组成部分,对这样一个重要舞种进行探讨,无疑对弘扬民族文化有着重要意义。但由于社会迅速变革,农村城市文化步伐加快和外来文化移入等多种原因,花鼓灯生存环境急剧恶化,播布范围迅速萎缩。我国花鼓灯保护之路任重而道远,这是一项寂寞而艰苦的工作,也是一项有着重大社会现实意义的工作。     

An Ethical Exercise for the Social Studies Classroom: The Trolley Dilemma

The Trolley Problem as defined in this paper is a series, or continuation, of increasingly difficult ethical riddles successfully implemented in a classroom environment to spur complex, critical thinking and dialogue. The activity is designed upon the scenario of a runaway train with different and challenging choices, segueing neatly into group discussions of ethics while limiting potential disruptions or controversies. It fits nicely with multiple standards, goals and/or outcomes and can be accommodated to multiple grade levels and courses. It is a powerful, yet easily implemented classroom exercise for educators to develop higher order thinking and dialogue for their students.     

Critical Thought within the Social Welfare Policy Course

Critical thought is a necessary element for proficient practice in social work at both the micro and macro levels. For this reason, social work educators must seek to integrate critical thought in BSW and MSW curricula. This article provides a method for achieving this integration in the social welfare policy course. The method includes the four following phases: instruction regarding logical errors, presentation of logical errors in contemporary political debate, demonstration of critical thought in policy position analysis, and self-assessment of one's own logic. The implications of this method for practice in a values-based context are discussed.     

Nothing about us without us! Youth-led solutions to improve high school completion rates

This Youth Participatory Action Research (YPAR) study represents a collaboration with six students from alternative education to inquire about the experiences of vulnerable youth – students in alternative education and youth who have dropped out of school. Utilizing the Enhanced Critical Incident Technique, youth researchers asked their peers what helped and hindered their retention and success in mainstream and alternative education. Youth researchers engaged in authentic participation and took part in the iterative phases of YPAR – critical reflection and social action. Their involvement empowered them to advocate for their peers by disseminating the results and recommendations to key stakeholders within the community. Youth researchers conducted semi-structured interviews with 18 participants. Overall, the findings show that relationships with staff and peers, flexibility, psychosocial and academic supports, and personal circumstances are vital in helping vulnerable students succeed in school. Engagement in YPAR provided insight into working with vulnerable youth in a manner that promotes agency and social change within educational institutions.     

Troubling the discourse of teacher centrality: a comparative perspective

The belief in the central role of the teacher has a long and comparative history. This article aims to critically analyse the discourse of the centrality of the teacher by both historicising and problematising the ideas and practices associated with this discourse. First, the article describes the discourse as it was taken up during the twenty‐first century when the teacher was viewed as the linchpin to building universal education systems. The idea that the ‘master makes the school’ is examined and the policies that stemmed from this thinking (e.g., the establishment of formal teacher training, teacher testing and certification) are outlined. The contemporary manifestations of this discourse are then described to show how the pervasive belief in the central role of the teacher has influenced education policy reforms, which like teacher policy reforms in the nineteenth century operate to shape and regulate the profession. Further discursive effects are analysed including the de‐contextualisation of educational reform and the de‐professionalisation and de‐politicisation of teachers and their work. The relationship between effective schools research and the centrality of the teacher discourse is also considered within the contemporary moment. This comparative study refers to the discourse of the centrality of the teacher in Australasia, Europe, Great Britain and North America, and suggests that our collective focus on the teacher has had some serious, unexpected effects on teachers and the work they do.     

The Use of Newspaper Articles as a Tool to Develop Critical Thinking in Science Classes

The aim of this research is to identify the difficulties experienced by secondary school students (aged 15–16) with the critical reading of newspaper articles with scientific content. Two newspaper critical reading activities in relation to the study of various scientific contents were designed and carried out in two schools (61 students in total), one with a student population from a medium to high social and economic bracket and the other with students from a medium to low social and economic bracket. These activities were designed taking into account the phases of the reading process: before, during and after reading. In order to analyse the difficulties ‘Elements of science critical reading’ were identified on the basis of the ‘Elements of reasoning’ of Paul and Elder and the categories proposed by Bartz C.R.I.T.I.C. questionnaire and a scale was drawn up. The results show that the activities designed were useful in helping students to read critically. We also rated very positively the instrument created to assess the students' answers: the scale based on the performance indicators of Paul and Elder. This instrument enabled us to detect the aspects of critical thinking where students have the most difficulties: identifying the writer's purpose and looking for evidence in a text. It was also shown that the stance taken in the articles also had an influence on the results.     

Longitudinal study of a cooperation-driven,socio-scientific issue intervention on promoting students’ critical thinking and self-regulation in learning science

ABSTRACT

This longitudinal study explored the effects of a Cooperation-driven Socioscientific Issue (CDSSI) intervention on junior high school students' perceptions of critical thinking (CT) and self-regulation (SR) in Taiwan. Forty-nine grade 7 students were randomly selected as an experimental group (EG) to attend a 3-semester 72-hour intervention; while another 49 grade 7 students from the same school were randomly selected as the comparison group (CG). All participants completed a 4-wave student questionnaire to assess their perceptions of CT and SR. In addition, 8 target students from the EG with the lowest scores on either CT or SR were purposefully recruited for weekly observation. These target students and their teachers were interviewed one month after the intervention in each semester. Analyses of covariance and paired-wise t-tests revealed that the EG students' perceptions of CT and SR in learning science were improved during the study and were significantly better than their counterparts' at the end of the study. Systematic interview and classroom observation results were consistent with the quantitative findings. This study adds empirical evidence and provides insights into how CDSSI can be integrated into planning and implementing effective pedagogical strategies aimed at increasing students' perceptions of CT and SR in learning science.     

"This won't take long…": Interviewing,ethics and diversity

In this paper, the focus is on one particular research project, conducted in the UK, which studied the role of parent groups and organizations in relation to the mainstream education system. The authors seek to analyze and evaluate access to the different "structures of feeling" inhabited by the various respondents involved in the project. Using the project as a lens, a critical case, the relationships between respondents and researchers are problematized, highlighting a number of issues with broad applicability. These include negotiating access, securing informed consent, the debates around symmetry and asymmetry between researcher and respondent, the processes of interviewing, data analysis and dissemination. The authors also comment on the formation and development of relationships with respondents, trying to tease out the differences and similarities of age, race, social class, language, and gender, and to suggest how these disjunctions and connections affected the process of datacollection and analysis. Finally, the article concludes with a brief consideration of the implications for future research design and conduct of the arguments put forward.