Noise Rather than Numbers: Access to higher education in three European countries

This paper explores a number of special alternative arrangements for adults to access higher education in England and Wales, France and Germany and examines the impact on these arrangements of the relationship between the state and higher education in the three countries. The similarities and differences are analysed along two key dimensions: complexity-simplicity and rigidity-flexibility and the absence of clear statistical data in all three countries is accounted for by the way in which the various stakeholders justify their actions. Finally, Weiler's theory of compensatory legitimation is drawn on to assess the effectiveness of the policy innovations and to explain why the noise around them has been louder than the numbers involved might warrant.     

One School's Experience of Engaging with a Comprehensive Anti-Bullying Programme in the Irish Context: Adolescent and Teacher Perspectives

In this article, the authors report on the evaluation of an anti-bullying programme, the cool school programme (CSP), conducted in a secondary school in Ireland. The study explored how participation in the anti-bullying programme affected students and teachers in one second-level school. The programme focused on students' faith in the teachers' ability to deal with bullying effectively, their willingness and confidence in telling a teacher about bullying and whether they felt safe in school. Teacher confidence and behaviour with regard to bullying were also explored. The study found that 91 per cent of students felt that teachers took bullying seriously. Eighty-nine per cent thought that teachers knew how to deal with bullying and 75 per cent felt able to tell a teacher if they were bullied. Eighty-seven per cent said there was a better atmosphere in their class. Ninety-three per cent of students felt safe in school. Seventy-two per cent of teachers reported greater confidence in their ability to manage bullying and 84% reported increased vigilance. Ninety-four per cent thought that students felt safer in the school. Sixty-nine per cent said there was a better atmosphere in the school. Most felt that the programme was now part of the school culture (94%) and would continue in the school (97%). The authors acknowledge that relying on reported levels of bullying may not give a complete picture of the impact of an anti-bullying intervention. They argue that researchers may need to take into consideration teacher approachability, challenging the culture of silence, responding appropriately and ensuring student safety in school when evaluating programmes.     

Teaching a Course in Counseling Theories and Practice: Description and Evaluation

This article describes and evaluates an innovative way to teach a counseling theories and practices course to beginning counseling students. Cognitive and affective learning processes, continuous and systematic feedback, small group dynamics, and a cross-sectional approach to teaching theoretical concepts and techniques are described. This approach was implemented by using the following instructional format: didactic, demonstration, task simulation, and self-exploration. Evaluation included self—peer, student-staff, and staff-student evaluations and used measures obtained from six instrumented indices. Results suggest that this approach might be a useful alternative to teaching the traditional didactic course in theories and practices of counseling.     

‘I’m a Woman Before I'm an RE Teacher': managing religious identity in secondary schools

Religion and sexuality tend not to make easy bedfellows. This article draws on a life history study which has followed a cohort of religious education (RE), secondary postgraduate certificate in education (PGCE) students through their training and into their first years of teaching. In addition to the adaptations, stresses and challenges commonly faced by people when they become teachers, it seems that RE specialists have to deal with unattractive (personal) identities and expectations associated with their subject. The article discusses the ways in which women RE teachers used clothes, hairstyles and make-up, together with explicit reference to their social lives, to challenge the ascribed identities which had negative implications both for their own sense of self and for their pedagogy.