Learning to teach in a context of education reform: liberal studies student teachers' decision‐making in lesson planning

Liberal studies is a new subject in the new senior secondary curriculum in Hong Kong. This study attempted to identify factors that shape liberal studies student teachers' decisions in lesson planning. Based on interview data and lesson plans developed by the student teachers, this article maintains that four factors interacted with the subject features of liberal studies to shape the student teachers' planning decisions, namely, teacher knowledge, curriculum requirements, materials and resources, and interaction with equal and more capable partners. This paper further looks into how teacher knowledge expresses itself at different stages of lesson planning. The findings suggest that to facilitate enquiry learning in students, liberal studies teachers need to adopt an enquiry stance in lesson planning. This paper argues that the limitations of liberal studies student teachers' content knowledge need to be addressed in teacher preparation programmes and suggests teacher networking as one way to strengthen novice liberal studies teachers' content preparation. The implications for teacher education are discussed.     

Autobiographies and interviews as means of ‘access’ to elite policy making in education 1

Abstract:

This paper explores questions of access to perceptions of educational policy by members of policy elites. In particular, it reviews some possibilities of broadening how national education policy is contructed by examining the utility of published autobiographical tests.     

Cleaning data: guess the olympian

This article tackles the problem of what should be done with real textual data that are contaminated by errors of recording, particularly when the data contain words that are misspelt, unintentionally or otherwise.     

The changing role of international cooperation in developing countries (as they develop): A case study of skills development policies in Peru

A focus on the changes in the relationship between international cooperation and local actors in the skills development field in Peru as the country strengthened its financial position in the last two decades allows us to examine the role of the economic factor in these changes. The paper argues that indeed there is an association between the two. Peru's strengthened financial position has limited reliance on IC funding to carry out policy innovations, which has led IC to abandon the top-bottom approach to reform of the early nineties for a bottom-up approach that focuses in key actors at the middle level of the public sector entities and on sub-national governments. However, a second important factor has been institutional reform. Peru has developed a national policy towards IC and thus created a new setting for IC work, producing a more orderly environment for collaboration, while boosting information sharing among local agencies expecting international cooperation. The analysis stresses local factors conditioning changes and identifies lessons for the actors involved, particularly for international cooperation (IC), regarding possible strategies for a more effective role in skills development policies.     

Social Work Practice and the Propietary Movement

ABSTRACT

Changes in funding patterns and privatization of health and human services within government are prompting new forms of management and organizational structures creating challenges for service delivery and the education of social work managers. The profession's ability to provide leadership and respond to such rapidly changing environmental trends is grounded in the capability of field education to bridge the university and practice communities and provide flexible, innovative combinations of service programming and research partnerships. This article provides a framework for the development and operation of a unique type of field demonstration project. The article focuses on the methodology used to develop and operate the field projects in order to encourage replication among other schools of social work.     

The Role of Senior Public Relations Administrators in Institutional Decision Making: Are They at the Table?

ABSTRACT

The literature in higher education public relations affirms that senior public relations administrators should be involved in institutional decision making at colleges and universities. However, public relations professionals are often stereotyped more as information processors and manipulators than as key members of an institution's senior management team. This study examines the role of senior public relations administrators in institutional decision making at the 14 universities in Pennsylvania's State System of Higher Education (SSHE). Based on the findings of this study, it may be concluded that SSHE senior public relations administrators are often not included in efforts to resolve important issues and influence institutional decisions.     

Greek teachers' perspectives on behaviour problems: implications for policy-makers and practitioners

In the course of the 1990s, many education systems in the developed world reported an increase in the number of pupils presenting emotional and behavioural problems. For countries such as Greece on the point of economic development, it is interesting to examine whether as they seek to ‘reform’ their education systems in line with those of more ‘developed’ countries, they are experiencing a similar phenomenon. An analysis of the findings of a survey is presented on the views of over 600 Greek primary school teachers in Athens on the nature and incidence of emotional and behavioural problems. The findings confirm that Greek teachers are facing a deteriorating situation in which they are reporting a greater incidence of behavioural problems compared to the past. Although many of the patterns of behaviour are similar to those reported in other European countries, a number of interesting differences emerge over the levels of reporting of emotional problems. In the course of the analysis of these similarities and differences, a number of implications are identified which, it is suggested, can inform the development of national policy leading to a greater level of support for schools and teachers.     

Differentiating integration: special education in the Russian Federation

The paper presents an examination of the Russian special education system in the late 1990s. It is concerned with continuities and changes in ideology, policy and practice, particularly in regard to acceptance of debates around educational integration. Evidence from a study of educational practice concerning children with learning difficulties in two regional Russian cities is presented, including interview data with special educational professionals. Small-scale changes to the special education system at the local level are highlighted as positive measures to address the failures of a somewhat rigidly segregated system. The ability to make such changes and maintain the functioning of the system is notable in the context of prolonged budgetary crisis. Practitioners whose views are represented in the study are shown to have engaged with the integration debate, although there was little fundamental criticism of the underpinnings of the Russian system. Understanding and application of the notion of integration for disabled children were diverse. Indeed some interviewees used this term to describe the structures within which they worked, in spite of the system's largely segregated nature. The concept was being reworked to demonstrate awareness of international approaches, while avoiding the devaluing of the distinct, Soviet approach of defectology with its central tenet of differentiation.     

Perspectives of mothers of children with dyslectic difficulties concerning their encounters with school: a Swedish example

The aim of this study was to acquire in‐depth understanding of parental experiences and encounters with the school system relative to having a child with dyslexia or experiencing difficulties with reading and writing (dyslectic difficulties). Mothers of seven children who attended lower or upper secondary school were interviewed. The interviews were analyzed using qualitative methods. According to the participants, schools often failed to identify their child’s difficulties that led to lack of appropriate support. The mothers were active in allocating support and developing strategies to alleviate lowered self‐esteem. individual education programmes (IEPs) were not used regularly. Highlighted is the need for a more explicit national policy regarding parental and children’s rights in regard to dyslectic difficulties.     

Multilingual students’ use of translanguaging in science classrooms

ABSTRACT

This study describes multilingual students’ authentic use of their first and second languages in a translanguaging science classroom, from a sociocultural perspective. The study is ethnographic, and has followed some lessons each month in a translanguaging science classroom at a primary school for three years. The observed lessons were documented by four video cameras and four audio recorders, while field notes and different types of students’ texts and other teaching materials were also collected. In order investigate how language operates, and to realise the meaning semantically, we analysed the students’ use of both first and second language to tie paradigmatic relations, and how they move in linguistic loops between languages and discourses. The results illustrate the ways in which a translanguaging science classroom constitutes a resource in joint negotiations of the scientific content and its related language for multilingual students, and benefits the students’ ability to relate and contextualise the science content to prior experience. The creation of translanguaging science classrooms, in which students’ experiences and diverse cultural and linguistic resources interweave with school science, and in which multilingual students are enabled and encouraged to use all available language resources, has important implications for science education.