‘If it weren’t for my mum…’: the influence of Australian Indigenous mothers on their children’s aspirations to teach

This article draws upon data from semi‐structured interviews with Australian Indigenous teachers to explore the role their mothers played in shaping their decisions to become teachers. The findings suggest that their mothers’ emotional involvement and investment in their sons’ and daughters’ education generated significant reserves of emotional capital upon which the teachers drew. Such capital, expressed by their mothers in a variety of ways, including encouragement, coercion and anger, motivated and inspired them to complete their schooling, to consider teaching as a profession and to take out teaching degrees, often in the face of enormous challenges and barriers. They understood teaching as presenting opportunities for their own upward class mobility as well as the chance for them to bring about social change for Indigenous people in general. I conclude by arguing the need to reconsider the dominant discourses in Australia around the aspirations of Indigenous mothers in regards to their children’s education and I also raise issues for further consideration and research.     

基于语言输入假说和建构主义理论的大学英语写作教学模式浅探

目前大学英语写作中学生无话可说、缺乏想象力和创造力的现象普遍存在。而有效激发学生英语写作的兴趣,解决创造性思维缺乏的问题,关键在于写作前为学生提供一系列能触发想象力与写作话题相关的问题和线索。主要依据语言输入假说和建构主义理论,探讨写作教学中课前语言最佳输入、课堂输入模式的多样化,提出创建优秀作文库和实行"10+30+5"多形式课堂输入的模式。     

‘Operating on a Basis of Student Consent’: Peter Medway’s Work in Finding a Language

Written nearly 40 years ago, Peter Medway’s Finding a Language continues to be an arresting read, which offers a powerful vision of what might be possible in education. In this brief introduction, I set the work in context, referring to ideas that Pete engaged with and recalling a little of the times.     

Schools, ‘ferals’, stigma and boundary work: parents managing education and uncertainty in regional Australia

This paper examines forms of boundary work undertaken by parents in a regional Australian city to negotiate social processes around the school market amidst rising economic insecurity. It outlines structural changes, which have increased economic inequality in Australia and impacted on educational reform, and the specific challenges faced by public schools in regional settings. Drawing on 18 months’ qualitative research in one regional location, it identifies and analyses forms of boundary work undertaken by middle-class families to manage these uncertainties in a field of scarce economic and cultural resources. Theories of class culture, stigma and whiteness are used to show how local social labels such as ‘ferals’ and ‘shiny people’ acted as classed and racialised ways of negotiating this social and economic landscape through the school field. Such practices engendered feelings of security and control and shed light on feelings of class-based resentment and anxiety in regional Australia, specifically a middle-class ‘fear of falling’.     

The private problem with public service: rural teachers in educational markets

Staffing rural and remote schools is an important policy issue for the public good. This paper examines the private issues it also poses for teachers with families working in these communities, as they seek to reconcile careers with educational choices for children. The paper first considers historical responses to staffing rural and remote schools in Australia, and the emergence of neoliberal policy encouraging marketisation of the education sector. We report on interviews about considerations motivating household mobility with 11 teachers across regional, rural and remote communities in Queensland. Like other middle-class parents, these teachers prioritised their children's educational opportunities over career opportunities. The analysis demonstrates how teachers in rural and remote communities constitute a special group of educational consumers with insider knowledge and unique dilemmas around school choice. Their heightened anxieties around school choice under neoliberal policy are shown to contribute to the public issue of staffing rural and remote schools.     

How stable is the stratification of higher education in England and Scotland?

This paper asks whether the institutional hierarchies defined by ‘golden triangle’, other Russell Group, other pre-1992 and post-1992 universities in England, and by ancient, old and new universities in Scotland, have become weaker since the 1990s. Using indicators constructed from Universities and Colleges Admissions Service data for 1996–2010, the article finds a stable hierarchical relationship among the sectors within each country, with some indicators showing a slight widening of status differences between sectors towards the end of the period. The main exception was a slight ‘upgrading’ of new (post-1992) universities in Scotland early in the period. There was little change in the association of institutional sector with social class, but in England the association with private secondary schools became slightly stronger and the association with ethnicity weakened.     

语义模糊在英语专业泛读课中的应用

语义模糊是人类自然语言系统的客观属性,从认知角度对语义模糊进行探究为二语习得带来新启示。英语专业泛读课文本篇幅较长、生词量庞大,对教师教学和学生阅读理解均提出挑战。该文讨论了语义模糊理论在泛读课文本欣赏和词汇处理方面的运用,为改进泛读课的教学模式做出有益尝试。     

乐学、好学——走进语文课堂

在"教学中,有许多学生存在偏科现象,尤其是对语文的学习。探析学生不喜欢学习语文的可能原因,建议创设生动有趣的教学情境来激发学生的学习兴趣,全面调动学生的积极参与,培养学生的发散思维、打造互动的课堂氛围,通过朗读让学生体会语言的魅力,尊重学生的人格、使其产生成功感并建立自信心。这样,学生就可以在良好的语文学习的氛围中学得积极主动、兴趣盎然,从而使每一位学生在语文课堂上快乐地学习、快乐地成长。     

趣学、乐学、志学——学生积极参与课堂的设计与实践

积极参与是学生自主学习的前提。在教学中引导趣学、乐学、志学,使之由被动参与者变为主动参与者。     

大学英语课堂"和谐"教学活动模式

成功的大学英语教学离不开课堂活动,积极有益的课堂活动是"和谐"的。"和谐"的课堂教学活动有很多模式,其设计要遵循全体学生主动参与、愉悦交际和公平发展的原则。