Critical perspectives in educational leadership: a new ‘theory turn’?

In this article, I argue that we are witnessing a new phase or ‘theory turn’ in the field of educational leadership. These more critical perspectives in the field of educational leadership have typically been marginalised by the larger body of orthodox approaches due to a perceived lack of focus on best practice and ‘what works’ discourses, and especially in recent years with the rise of the school effectiveness and improvement movement. However, critical perspectives in educational leadership constitute an essential and vibrant part of educational leadership scholarship and discourse. Drawing on Michel Foucault's notion of discourse, through this article, I examine how critical perspectives have been constituted historically, with some of the main themes of research. This foregrounding also highlights a number of limitations with more orthodox and hegemonic leadership discourses. I identify a number of key writers in the field and situate them in the current theory turn, that is, an emphasis of theoretically informed research that have been prolific over the last 5–10 years.     

双向思维与大学英语教学

语言交流不仅仅是词汇之间的一一对应，它在很大程度上取决于人们的思维方式。通过分析当前中国大学生英语交流中出现的问题，建议借助了解英语修辞和英汉语宏观结构的区别特征，实行双向思维教学来提高学生的语言审视度。     

Code-Switching Functions in Modern Hebrew Teaching and Learning

The teaching and learning of Modern Hebrew outside of Israel is essential to Jewish education and identity. One of the most contested issues in Modern Hebrew pedagogy is the use of code-switching between Modern Hebrew and learners’ first language. Moreover, this is one of the longest running disputes in the broader field of second language research and education. Based on recent conceptualizations of bi/multilingualism together with findings from an empirical investigation of beginner students at an Australian university, this article argues that strategic use of code-switching serves the needs of both learners and teachers working within a bi/multilingual educational environment.     

Pondering purposes,propelling forwards

ABSTRACT

This article, based upon the closing plenarydelivered to the recent conference of Professional Practice, Education and Learning, reflects upon the developments of the ProPEL network over the past seven years and its possibilities for future directions. To provide some context for these reflections, the article begins by outlining key challenges facing contemporary professions and their education. Against these, I consider themes and emphases that have characterised ProPEL initiatives and the papers presented to its conferences. Then, I compare these to the sorts of questions and issues that appear to be most urgently debated in other scholarly communities concerned with changing professional work and knowledge, particularly the dramatic transformations of professional roles through new digital technologies and artificial intelligence, transnational demands and new organisational forms.The article ends with questions for educators researching professional practice: where we need more focus, where perhaps we need less, and what may be productive ways forward.     

Understanding Gender through Disney’s Marriages: A Study of Young Korean Immigrant Girls

Much American popular culture has often been criticized for its negative portrayals of females and its potentially harmful influence on young children. However, there are insufficient studies about American young girls’ actual understanding of these female representations. Specifically, the perspectives of young immigrant girls have hardly been addressed in the existing research, even though their perspectives can be derived from what they learn about the social values associated with gender through their exposure to popular culture. This paper thus focuses on young Korean immigrant girls as a significant American immigrant group, and examines their ideas about gender in American popular culture—particularly, Disney films. Since their perceptions of gender were often derived from their discussions of marriage in the films, it closely investigates their understanding of gender roles, as considered through the marriages of Disney protagonists. It then discusses their perceptions of Disney by tracing these ideas to their beliefs about how these same themes become manifested in realistic situations. Finally, this paper provides implications and suggestions for researchers and early childhood educators.

Cultural Perspectives on Student Behaviors： A Study of American and Chinese Students

To explore factors that influence the behavior of Chinese students and strategies for interventions, this paper presents a cross-cultural study on Chinese and American students. It examines the relationships between students＇ behaviors and the cultural influences; implications for special educators who work with minority students with emotional/behavioral disorders （E/BD） will also be discussed.     

Young people’s views on sexting education and support needs: findings and recommendations from a UK-based study

Young people’s sexting is an area of increasing concern amongst parents, educationalists and policy makers, yet little research has been conducted with young people themselves to explore their perspectives on the support they need to navigate relationships in the new digital media landscape. To address this absence, an inter-disciplinary team of researchers undertook a participatory study with students, aged 13 to 15, in a UK secondary school. This paper outlines key study findings, including young people’s views on sexting, their recommendations for improved education around sexting in schools, their preferred sources of support, and their perspectives on the way adults should respond to young people’s sexting. Findings indicate that sexting education needs to be developed within the context of wider relationship issues, such as gender, power dynamics and trust between peers, and improved communication between students and teachers or other responsible adults. Findings may be used to consider ways of designing and communicating messages around sexting to young people within and beyond educational settings.     

‘We can't make him fit into the system’: parental reflections on the reasons why home education is the only option for their child who has special educational needs

This small-scale study investigates the perspectives of parents whose children have special educational needs/disabilities and who have elected to withdraw their children from the state-maintained education system in England and educate them at home. The study draws on data gathered from seven parents and their perspectives of home education following a government-commissioned review of home education in 2009, subsequently known as the ‘Badman Report’. The former New Labour government commissioned this review to assess the merits of the system of supporting and monitoring home education in England. Findings identified a number of issues, including the lack of understanding by staff within school settings around the issues of special needs and particularly in the area of autistic spectrum disorders, the failure to engage in partnership with parents and the impact that the school environment had upon the children.     

An exploration of student teachers’ perspectives at the start of a post-graduate master's programme on inclusive and special education

In this article we explore the perspectives of a group of teaching professionals starting a post-graduate master's programme on inclusive and special education. Set in the current context of growing interest over the preparation of teachers for inclusive education worldwide, this exploration is part of research that looks more broadly at the impact of the programme on students. In this paper we set the context of the study and present results focusing on students’ pre-understanding of the concepts ‘inclusive’ and ‘special education’, as well as their reasons for choosing the programme and expected learning outcomes. Quantitative and qualitative data were collected with a questionnaire administered to students at the beginning of the programme. Findings reveal that students saw the programme as a factor contributing to their ability to implement inclusive education in practice. However, it emerged that they had somewhat different understandings of what ‘inclusive education’ actually means. Implications for providers of inclusive education programmes for teachers are discussed.     

The ethics and politics of policing plagiarism: a qualitative study of faculty views on student plagiarism and Turnitin®

Recently, the usage of plagiarism detection software such as Turnitin^® has increased dramatically among university instructors. At the same time, academic criticism of this software’s employment has also increased. We interviewed 23 faculty members from various departments at a medium-sized, public university in the southeastern US to determine their perspectives on Turnitin^® and student plagiarism. We wanted to discern if there are important disciplinary differences in how instructors define and handle plagiarism; how instructors use Turnitin^®; and if instructors’ thinking aligns with ethical and political concerns commonly expressed in the academic literature. Despite varying attitudes towards Turnitin^®, those interviewed did not differ significantly in their views as to what student plagiarism is or its seriousness, and typical objections to ‘policing’ plagiarism and Turnitin^® had little resonance with interviewees. The majority viewed a substantial amount of plagiarism they encountered as unintentional and penalised only what they considered to be extreme versions of intentional plagiarism. However, often this contradicted the way they presented the concept of plagiarism in their syllabi and their classrooms. Surprisingly, these patterns were consistent among those who employed the software frequently and those who did not.