Academic identity,confidence and belonging: The role of contextualised admissions and foundation years in higher education

This article presents a cross-national exploration of responses to widening participation (WP), with a specific focus on the provision of foundation year (FY) programmes and the use of contextualised admissions (CA) in selective Irish and UK institutions. There remains a dearth of research on these routes, with little understanding of the characteristics of students who utilise them, of why students use these routes and little knowledge of their effect on students’ experiences in university and their overall sense of belonging. A year-long longitudinal comparative case study design examined three alternative entry routes in two selective higher education institutions (HEIs) in England and Ireland: a well-established FY; a newly formed FY; and a CA pathway. Data were collected through a mixed-method approach. Questionnaires and in-depth focus groups were employed at fixed points with participating students in each route. Results indicated that FY students had lower levels of familial educational history and parental occupation. FY students’ sense of belonging significantly increased over the year, with students reporting increased confidence and sense of belonging due to the relationships established during the FY. CA students’ sense of belonging remained the same, with students reporting feeling different and isolated. Results indicate that while students utilising FYs may be ‘more disadvantaged’ than CA students, their experiences helped establish a sense of belonging; illustrating the need for diverse WP routes catering to a wide range of needs. Results highlight the importance of providing opportunities to develop social and bridging social capital for all non-traditional students.     

绅士文化对战后英国高等职业教育醚影响及启示

二战后，英国政府为振兴科技、复兴经济大力发展高等职业教育，虽取得一定成绩，但相对于德、美等发达国家还有较大差距。英国绅士文化追求古典人文学科价值的传统以及追求教育的教养价值的社会心理是造成其高等职业技术教育发展比较滞缓的主要原因，这种影响广泛而深刻。对于我国而言，必须正视根植于民众心理的中国传统文化对职业教育的影响，挖掘其积极因素，引导职业教育朝良性方向发展。     

Care in academia: an exploration of student parents’ experiences

While student parents now represent a significant proportion of the higher education population in England, this group has been given limited consideration in policy circles. Using a social constructivist and feminist theoretical framework, this paper draws on a research project investigating the role of higher education policies in supporting student parents in England. It focuses on findings from 40 interviews conducted with student parents enrolled on university programmes. It shows that, in the context of the default construction of the university student as carefree, student parents often describe their experience of navigating academia as a struggle, in which time-related, financial, health and emotional problems prevail. However, the stories they tell also emphasise the benefits associated with their dual status. By doing so, they resist the discourse of deficit typically applied to ‘non traditional’ students and produce a counter-discourse that disturbs the long-lived binary opposition between care and academia.     

Christian Concepts in A Tale of Two Cities

正Charles Dickens is an author who frequently drew upon his personal experiences to write.We can see obviously his personal influences in many of his works.The finest English novelist of the 19th century,his enduring characters is part of the culture.An enormously successful author and performer of his own work,he is the conscience of Victorian England.A Christian as he is,he often introduces Christian concepts in his writing.In analyzing how Christian concepts are elaborated in A tale of Two Cities,we have to start from the social atmosphere of the Victorian England and the religion background of the author,and then have a basic understanding of     

Practices of boundary-work in the collaboration between principals and private sponsors in England’s academy schools

This article presents one of the few qualitative studies to empirically examine the collaboration between private sponsors and principals in the context of England’s academy schools policy. It uses the concept of boundary-work to illuminate the multiple dynamics involved in the collaboration between principals and business sponsors. By analysing qualitative interviews with principals and sponsors from a local authority case study the article reveals the working relationship between these actors to be characterised by three boundary-work practices: drawing, negotiating and contesting boundaries. These practices are described before exploring their implications for existing understandings of England’s academies policy. This analysis directly answers calls in the literature for in-depth case study research which explores the collaboration between academy sponsors and principals, and the article’s interpretivist approach to boundary-work is shown to be a valuable theoretical approach which has received little attention in studies investigating the role of private actors in education. The article concludes by advocating for more studies of education policy to use boundary-work as a lens through which to understand the role being played by new actors in education, and argues that this perspective would be particularly valuable for examining the context of England’s increasingly diversifying schooling landscape.     

英国首个GES学位学徒制:背景、内容及启示

英国在2015年开始施行学位学徒计划,开展本科层次职业教育,吸引了不少本科院校甚至精英大学的参与。其首个学位级别的"经济学徒计划"依然坚持专业转型带动本科院校发展职业教育,依据职业标准设置课程,实行工学结合的人才培养模式,并采用能力本位的人才评价体系。该计划旨在培养经济类公务员中的高技能人才,引起了政府部门的高度重视,也为我国培养高层次应用型人才提供了可资借鉴的经验:邀请雇主开发职业标准,为课程教学提供依据, 依托工学结合的人才培养模式,深化校企合作, 建立能力本位人才评价体系,合理安排评价方式。     

当前英格兰学校督导体系述评

在保障学校教育质量及其评估方面,英格兰居世界领先地位。本文对近期英格兰学校督导体系的调整和改革作了概括性介绍,以期对我国学校的督导改革有所裨益。     

An Education Worth Having: The Aspirations and the Development of the Whole Education Network in England

The Whole Education National Network is a dynamic national not-for-profit partnership of schools and organisations that believe that all children and young people are entitled to an education that supports the development of wider skills, qualities and characteristics to enable them to thrive in life, learning and work, as well as conventional academic achievement. The article outlines the background to the development of the growing network of some 150 schools plus partner organisations and its core aims. It then considers what the Network is achieving and what it is learning about its approach as it grows. It offers and is seeking to embed and sustain an approach to school development that is ‘values-led, evidence-informed and impact-focused’. It is also predicated on a commitment to and belief in peer-to-peer collaboration, inspired and encouraged by the work of leading academics, thinkers and practitioners. Whole Education is also a response to what many observers and commentators identify as a weakness of the English and many other systems: the gap between the outcomes achieved by the more disadvantaged and other students. Part of its moral purpose is to help to narrow that gap, underpinned by a belief that focusing on immediate outcomes and test scores is not enough on its own. The Network operates in the belief that it will only be through the commitment to an entitlement to a ‘whole education for all’ that any school or system will truly narrow the gap and make a real difference to the life-chances of all young people. School leaders and schools that have gravitated towards Whole Education seek like minds to share and, more importantly, develop both their thinking and strategies employed to help achieve their goals. At the heart of the change model underpinning Whole Education is the development of effective communities of practice that develop professional capital and unleash the creativity of teachers. Creating, embedding and sustaining a national self-funded school-led network committed to achieving longer-term aspirations rather than immediate needs is both inspiring and challenging. The pressure to respond to short-term targets in terms of student outcomes and accountability pressures has meant that the energy and resource tend to be focused on the immediate rather than the medium- or longer-term needs. Whole Education provides a powerful example of how schools that share common aspirations can seize the agenda, have real impact on students and demonstrate the potential of a self-improving school system.     

英国公学校长的教育管理特色

英国公学校长的教育管理特色主要体现在校长以学校为家庭的学校管理观、以自己为家长的教师管理观以及以品格教育为中心的学生管理观这三个方面上。公学校长在学校管理中采取了人性化的管理方式,并形成了一套自上而下的组织管理制度,校长的权威渗透于其中。英国公学校长的学校管理特色,对于我国私立中学的校长具有启示作用。     

英国1829年"天主教解放法"论析

完整意义上的1829年天主教解放法案包括两个部分的内容：其一是原则上赋予天主教徒以公民权,其二则是针对天主教徒公民权所作的若干限制性规定或“保障”条款。尽管这些“保障”条款未必实有其效,但其作为整个法案之一部分却并非可有可无。如果说,法案的前一部分内容回应了解决天主教徒公民权问题之紧迫性与必要性,那么,后一部分内容则反映出天主教解放问题之深刻的历史复杂性。事实上,天主教解放问题不只是一个与天主教徒宗教政治命运息息相关的问题,也是一个攸关英国宪法的新教性质、英国国教会的存在及其特权、英格兰民族由来已久的反天主教传统以及新教徒尤其是国教徒的宗教认同及其宗教情感归属等等的重大问题。天主教解放问题所具有的这种复杂性,使得法案设计者们必须尽量权衡各种利害关系,兼顾来自不同方面的多种诉求。惟其如此,我们只有将法案两部分内容视为相互关联的整体,方能同情性地理解法案设计者们的历史处境及其复杂心态。