Why do not more prisoners participate in adult education? An analysis of barriers to education in Norwegian prisons

International Review of Education - From a lifelong learning perspective, education during incarceration is crucial for prisoners’ rehabilitation. This article describes the authors’...     

How do principals make sense of school leadership in Norwegian reorganised leadership teams?

A growing body of research has emphasised the importance of school leadership practice for quality improvement in schools. Yet, little attention has been paid to the investigation of how principals reshape their leadership role and leadership practices when schools reorganise the leadership team with the purpose of increasing the number of formally assigned leaders. As such, this study provides additional insight into how moments of transitions may reshape institutional logics regarding principal leadership practice. Drawing on interviews and contextual observations of five principals in lower secondary schools, framed within a distributed perspective and theory of sense-making, we address this issue by demonstrating that regulative changes influence the normative and cognitive aspects of institutions. We argue that principals re-conceptualise leadership when they move from being solo leaders to sharing leadership, and this allows for subjective interpretations. We have identified two approaches for principal leadership practice which the reorganised leadership team can provide – the exchanging information – and collaborative discussion approaches.     

Moving beyond bureaucratic grey zones. Managing sexual harassment in Indian higher education

Higher Education - In the aftermath of the global #Metoo-movement, sexual harassment (SH) and other forms of gender-based violence (GBV) have emerged at the forefront of public debate and research....     

RPL for accreditation in higher education – As a process of mutual understanding or merely lifeworld colonisation?

This article focuses on a process of recognition of prior learning (RPL) in higher education. It is based on experiences from a project carried out in collaboration between the University of Lund, Linköping University and two trade unions in Sweden. The aim of the project was to find ways of recognising prior learning for accreditation of course credits at university level. In the project and its analysis, Habermas’ theory of communicative action was used as theoretical underpinning. During the project we carried out a thematic analysis based on interviews. The analysis suggested that the participants had a mystified view of higher education that RPL must be considered a learning process and that the participants’ prior learning can be characterised as practical wisdom. These themes guided the development of the project. In a retrospective analysis, language proficiency seemed to play a significant role for the outcome of the process. The conclusion suggests that a more fair and valid assessment of the participant’s prior learning could be accomplished by focusing on RPL as a process of mutual understanding. However, a critical appraisal of the process suggests that RPL for accreditation is problematic and could be seen as a colonisation of the lifeworld.     

Conceptions of quality in four different disciplines

Abstract

The paper is based on a book (written by the author and his colleague Markku Lehikoinen) dealing with definitions of quality and views on the applicability of different methods of quality assessment to four different disciplinary fields: physics, biology, sociology and history. The paper focuses on conceptions and definitions of quality voiced by scholars representing the different disciplines. The study involved semi‐structured in depth interviews with 33 experienced scholars. The disciplines under study were chosen to represent diverse disciplinary cultures, with the aim of finding out about the potential impact of (social and cognitive) cultural characteristics of the disciplines on conceptions of quality. The findings show both common views across disciplinary fields and disciplinary differences.     

Teachers' Experiences of Unfair Grading

Grading is often perceived as one of a teacher's most difficult tasks. Despite most teachers endeavoring to grade their students as objectively as possible, many students feel that they are subject to unfair grading. The aim of this study is to describe what it is about a teacher's grading that contributes to the perception of unfairness. This study used the critical incident technique, with 411 practicing teachers in Sweden contributing their own experiences of being assessed in a school context. The main findings from qualitative data analysis indicate that when teachers fail to follow guidelines of the current grading system, use undependable information, allow themselves to be influenced by irrelevant factors, or are ambiguous in their communication, the pupils perceived the grading process as unfair. The findings are analyzed and discussed in relation to a theoretical model of teachers' grading, validity and reliability, and three ethical principles.     

Recognition and adult education: an incongruent opportunity

Building on narratives of students in adult education in Sweden, where the majority of the students are young adults, this paper argues that adult education has both negative and positive aspects in helping individuals to be recognised as valuable. Students, often part of the precariat class, have not always been able to survive in the job market and have a history of failing in upper secondary school. By drawing on the recognition theory of Axel Honneth, the results show that municipal adult education has the potential to be a transitory learning platform in which the individual can regain esteem that has been lost due to unemployment, precarious employment and failure in upper secondary school. It provides temporary stability. Yet, most students are in a sense forced to study and it is not patent that adult education can help them in their struggle for self-actualisation.     

Critical perspectives on Danish early childhood education and care: between the technical and the political

This paper discusses trends in contemporary Danish early childhood education and care (ECEC). Data are sourced from various policy documents, along with material from ongoing research projects in which the authors are involved. It is claimed that contemporary policy on Danish day care services has a tendency to emphasize narrow curriculum improvements and standardized testing. The democratic dimensions are still relatively strong, but at the moment these dimensions are interpreted within a skills‐and‐testing framework, which is leading to a situation where the political masquerades as the technical.     

Elite golfers' kinematic sequence in full-swing and partial-swing shots

The aim of this study was to investigate whether kinematic proximal-to-distal sequencing (PDS) and speed-summation are common characteristics of both partial and full-swing shots in golf players of different skill levels and genders. A total of 45 golfers participated, 11 male tournament professionals, 21 male and 13 female elite amateurs. They performed partial shots with a wedge to targets at three submaximal distances, 40, 55 and 70 m, and full-swing shots with a 5 iron and a driver for maximal distance. Pelvis, upper torso and hand movements were recorded in 3D with an electromagnetic tracking system (Polhemus Liberty) at 240 Hz and the magnitude of the resultant angular velocity vector of each segment was computed. The results showed a significant proximal-to-distal temporal relationship and a concomitant successive increase in maximum (peak) segment angular speed in every shot condition for both genders and levels of expertise. A proximal-to-distal utilization of interaction torques is indicated. Using a common PDS movement strategy in partial and full-swing golf shots appears beneficial from mechanical and control points of view and could serve the purpose of providing both high speed and accuracy.