Extending Humor Enactment Research

Humor orientation (HO) is an individual difference variable that influences production and delivery of humorous communication. Prior research indicates that people who score higher on HO enact humor more frequently and effectively, which in turn leads to more benefits and advantages in a variety of social and psychological outcomes. Research reported here extends this line of analysis with HO for its relationship to a broad gauge measure of benefit, satisfaction with life, extending HO into understudied domains. This study compared Bulgarian adults (n = 100) to several American samples. Primary findings were that Bulgarians were similar to American samples overall but scored consistently higher than Americans on satisfaction with life (SWL). HO and SWL are correlated (r = .27), a medium effect size.     

Change management and the SENCo role: developing key performance indicators in the strategic development of inclusivity

This article follows an earlier publication highlighting the changing role of special educational needs co‐ordinators (SENCos) in England. SENCos are now required to manage change strategically and deliver inclusive school cultures. School‐based action research undertaken by a teacher studying for the postgraduate National Award for SEN Co‐ordination (NASENCO) is featured in the article; a strategic review of resource allocation increased the availability and quality of interventions for students with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND). The commentary which frames the study acknowledges that many SENCos are not yet members of a senior school management team (SMT) despite their mandated strategic whole‐school remit. Featuring the process through which one SENCo has strived to enhance SEND provision and develop context‐specific key performance indicators brings official guidance on the SENCo's role in strategic change management into sharp focus, raising questions that should concern both SMTs and non‐SMT SENCos.     

Enacting Informal Science Learning: Exploring the Battle for Informal Learning

Informal Science Learning (ISL) is a policy narrative of interest in the United Kingdom and abroad. This paper explores how a group of English secondary school science teachers, enacted ISL science clubs through employing the Periodic Table of Videos. It examines how these teachers ‘battled’ to enact ISL policy in performative conditions at the micro-scale, and how this battle reflected macro-scale epistemological and political considerations. Data from the study suggests that for some, ISL was low stakes as it was seen to have negligible impact upon performance data. As a result, there was some resistance towards enacting ISL and conflict between the formal and informal curriculum processes. Nonetheless, analysis indicates that the informants highly valued ISL despite the requirement for them to justify it over more formal and ‘effective’ approaches to learning science.     

Local enactment of the Swedish ‘advanced teacher reform’

This article focuses on a new form of governing that targets a selected group of teachers. Specifically, it analyses how the Swedish so-called advanced teacher reform is enacted at the local level and discusses its implications for teachers’ professionalism. The methodological approach enables a local analysis in a broader international policy context. Using characteristic elements from curriculum theory to analyse the relationship between different levels and elaborating on the linguistic turn of curriculum theory, three concepts are central in the analysis: enactment, linguistic criteria and professionalism. Empirically, the study draws on material from a two-year application process in a medium-sized municipality. The result demonstrates that the local enactment process is clearly influenced by transnational policy trends and that less allowance is made for teachers’ own experience-based knowledge in the second studied year. The linguistic analysis shows how the applicants using the ‘right concepts’ were selected to become ‘advanced teachers’. As complex and qualitative aspects disappeared from the agenda, this type of governing, with its standardized use of language, may reduce schools’ educational potential. Changes like this raise new questions about how schools can maintain and develop democratic and professional values whilst being exposed to new policy trends.     

Governing through guidance: an analysis of educational guidance practices in an Italian lower secondary school

ABSTRACT

Current social policy discourse defines educational and career guidance as a key tool to enhance individual self-realisation while pursuing collective social objectives (economic growth, reduction of drop-out rate, social inclusion). Relying on Foucault’s concept of governmentality, critical research has long destabilised this mainstream narrative by stressing that guidance polices constitute a technology of government through which the political ambition to govern is realised by shaping citizens’ desires and ambitions. This article aims to provide an in-depth empirical analysis of how governing practices unfold within a concrete guidance setting. Based on ethnographic data, the essay focuses on guidance practices addressing 13–14-year-old students in Italy moving from comprehensive education to a tracked educational level. Particular emphasis is given to the role played by guidance forms, questionnaires and exercises. These materials, it is argued, enable particular technologies of the self that are key to involving individual in practices of self-government.     

教师课程创生的合理性辩护

“教师课程创生”这一命题意在回答“教师与课程的内在关系”。文章从历史、现实和逻辑三个维度阐释了其合理性。从历史审视,美国新课程改革运动的失败给我们的启示之一就是只有教师作为主体并创造性地参与课程发展,课程改革才能成功地推进。从现实考察,教师的课程创生是我国新课改的重要理念和迫切需要。从逻辑分析,无论是为了弥补国家课程固有的局限性、适应我国教育发展不均衡性和课程实践境域性的特征,还是为了实现学生的个性化发展和促进教师自身的专业成长,都要求教师进行课程创生。     

课程创生:中小学教师主体性的自我确证

课程创生是当代课程改革的重要理念。这一理念的产生是对历次课程改革效果不佳的原因深层反思的结果。该理念提出的实质是确立教师的课程主体地位。但教师课程主体地位的确立从根本上而言需要教师的课程主体意识和能力的提升。而这种主体意识和能力提升的有效途径实际上就是课程创生实践自身。     

浅析商业贿赂犯罪新形势下的特征及其对策

商业贿赂作为我国目前十分普遍的一种犯罪,具有破坏市场竞争机制、造成国有资产大量流失、助长不正之风、损害公共利益的巨大危害。本文从更具体、更微观的角度,以大量的实例和数据显示了商业贿赂犯罪在新形势下的特征,有利于我们更深入的了解商业贿赂犯罪,从而可以更好的找出其原因,并制定相关的对策,以更好的控制商业贿赂犯罪。     

National and international disability rights legislation: a qualitative account of its enactment in Australia

In this paper, a detailed analysis based on the lived experiences of the study participants and the researcher (each with vision impairment) in education, post school and in the pursuit for employment is developed. The policy discourses of disability legislation – both at national and international levels – are explored with particular reference to their enactment in Australia. The analysis focuses on the collective indifference to detached others, which is evident in the linguistic construction of people with disabilities in the United Nations [(2006). Convention of the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. New York: United Nations] and the Australian Standards for Education 2005 [Australian Department of Education, Science and Training. 2006. Disability Standards for Education 2005 Plus Guidance Notes. Accessed March 12, 2012. http://nla.gov.au/nla.arc-7692.]. Together, these elements reflect the neoliberal principles that cast a shadow over the discourses of the disability policies.     

Developing participation opportunities for young people with disabilities? Policy enactment and social inclusion in Australian junior sport

Abstract

Interventions aimed at increasing the participation of young people with disabilities in recreational sport have had mixed success. The authors draw on in-depth interviews with representatives from State Sporting Associations, local government officers and volunteers within community sports clubs in Victoria, Australia, to examine why some sports clubs are unable or unwilling to translate policy ambitions into practice. The findings indicate how by framing disability provision as ‘too difficult’, ‘not core business’ and antithetical to competitive success, community sports clubs are able to resist policy ambitions to modify existing structures and develop more inclusive practice. Greater priority needs to be given to transformational inclusion objectives and challenging ableism if clubs are to structurally progress the development of participation opportunities for young people with disabilities.