bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Arguing for Your Self: identity as an organising principle in teachers' jobs and lives
Authors: Maclure Maggie 
Published: June 2007

AbstractBiography and life history are currently enjoying a revival in educational research and development. This article considers the implications of adopting a ‘biographical attitude’ to research and policy issues, and explores the notion of identity as an organising principle in teachers' jobs and lives. Identity, it is suggested, can be seen as a kind of argument—a resource that people use to explain, justify and make sense of themselves in relation to others, and to the world at large. While identity is a site of permanent struggle for everyone, teachers may be undergoing a particularly acute crisis of identity, as the old models and exemplars of teacherhood disintegrate under contemporary social and economic pressures. The article is based upon an empirical study of 69 primary and secondary teachers.
Field Relations and the Problem of Authenticity in Researching Participants' Perceptions of Teaching and Learning in Classrooms
Authors: Cooper Paul W. 
Published: June 2007

AbstractThe need for precise and detailed procedures in the collection of qualitative data is of paramount importance. This paper describes qualitative procedures that were developed in the course of a study of teachers' and pupils' perceptions of effective teaching and learning. Particular consideration is given to problems of: (1) establishing appropriate field relations with staff and pupils, and (2) ‘authenticity’ of subject responses. Procedures for enhancing subject recall in ‘informant’ type interviews are described. Issues surrounding the development of effective field relations in educational settings are discussed, and particular concerns relating to working with pupils are dealt with.
Managing Marginality: teacher development through grounded life history
Authors: Woods Peter 
Published: June 2007

AbstractIn exploring an exceptional educational event in his school, a teacher had recourse to his life history. The event was the fullest expression in his teaching to date of his self, and to understand the event fully, it was necessary to see how that self had come into being, developed, resisted attack, been mortified, survived, and at times prospered. His philosophy of teaching was rooted in these childhood experiences, which he saw as starkly divided between the alienating world of formal schooling and a natural world of real learning. Critical incidents and degradation ceremonies marked those occasions when the two came into conflict. The sense of marginality that resulted has stayed with him throughout life, though it has had its moments of exquisite pleasure as well as intense pain. In managing his marginality, he has cultivated private places and a reference group of significant others who have supported and developed his preferred beliefs. But success in teaching is the main support. Finally, I discuss grounded life history as a research method, and as yet another potential resource for the teacher.
Facet Importance and the Job Satisfaction of School Principals
Authors: Johnson Neil A. , Holdaway Edward A. 
Published: June 2007

AbstractThe theory that perceptions of job facet satisfaction are already weighted by importance was investigated with reference to elementary and junior high school principals in Alberta, Canada. Relationships were examined between (a) the importance of job facets for satisfaction and (b) satisfaction with job facets and overall job satisfaction. Results indicated that, contrary to findings in professions other than education, assessments of facet importance may not be implicit in assessments of job satisfaction. Facet importance and facet satisfaction should therefore be investigated as separate variables, and initiatives to enhance school administrators' satisfaction may best be focused on important matters such as involvement in hiring of staff (elementary schools) and the performance of students and teachers (junior high schools). In view of the changing role of school principals in many locations, studies of job satisfaction and the importance of job facets for satisfaction are needed urgently.
Equal Opportunities in the Secondary‐School Curriculum in Scotland, 1977‐91
Authors: Croxford Linda 
Published: June 2007

AbstractThis article analyses differences in participation in the formal curriculum by social class, gender and measured ability. It uses data on trends from a national survey to examine questions of (in)equality, including the relations between different dimensions of inequality. It shows the effects of the Sex Discrimination Act 1975 and the introduction of a common core curriculum after 1983. It shows differences between comprehensive and independent schools in levels of participation in each mode of the formal curriculum.
When Do Girls Prefer Football to Fashion? An analysis of female underachievement in relation to ‘realistic’ mathematic contexts
Authors: Boaler Jo 
Published: June 2007

AbstractThis article considers the move in mathematics education, away from abstract calculations and toward ‘mathematics in context’, particularly in relation to female underachievement in the mathematics classroom. It is suggested that ‘unreal’ contexts, which require students to view school mathematics as useful only in the make‐believe world created in the classroom, are particularly damaging for girls. A small‐scale piece of research is reviewed which suggests that girls are more likely than boys to underachieve in contexts which present real world variables but do not allow the variables to be taken into account. The implications of this situation in relation to girls' reported underachievement and disinterest in school mathematics are discussed.
Initial Primary Teacher Education in a Multinational Group: a European dimension
Authors: Ryan Charly 
Published: June 2007

AbstractThe European Council of Ministers decided in 1988 that all pupils in compulsory education, and all students in teacher education, would have a European dimension to their education. The paper outlines a novel approach to curriculum development for the European dimension, which involves a series of intensive, 1‐month programmes, incorporating an action research, school‐based approach for a multinational group of primary teacher education students. A constructivist approach is used to sequence the activities on the four aspects of the programme, the European dimension, teaching and learning, curriculum development, and the theme of the particular programme. The outcomes for one group of students are analysed on the basis of their diary writing to show that initial teacher education students can be supported in operating at demanding professional levels. This analysis is used as the basis for a commentary on my own learning.
The Effective Implementation of Resource‐based Learning
Authors: Mullan Anna 
Published: June 2007

AbstractA secondary school teacher follows a formal process of action research in the deliberate improvement of her teaching of a mixed ability group during the first year of their GCSE course. She explores different factors in the classroom which could be an asset to successful active learning through the accessing of learning resources in the classroom. She consults the pupils, tests her hypotheses through observation, testing, questions and photographs to uncover what action needed to be tried to improve the learning situation for the pupils. She found that her ‘improved’ methods were slower than her habitual teaching methods but they yielded better results. Her account contains careful detail of the process that she experienced.
Quid Pro Quo? Initial Teacher Education in Secondary Schools
Authors: Brooks Val , Barker Sue , Swatton Peter 
Published: June 2007

AbstractThe trend towards giving British secondary schools a fuller role in initial teacher education (ITE) has been gathering pace for much of the second half of this century. The impetuses driving this development have been partly professional and partly political. However, a recent political initiative (Circular 9/92, Department for Education, 1992) precipitated the development of school‐based ITE beyond what the professional evidence supported. This paper examines teachers’ perceptions of the costs and benefits to schools of involvement in school‐based ITE, as instituted by Circular 9/92, distinguishing between tangible and intangible costs and benefits. It is based on a survey of schools from throughout England and Wales. Four groups of teachers with different levels of involvement and managerial responsibility were sampled. The paper also explores teachers’ perceptions of the relationship between costs and benefits before offering some concluding speculations on the future of school‐based ITE.
Over the Ditch and through the Thorns: accessing European funds for research and social justice
Authors: Brine Jacky 
Published: June 2007

AbstractIn 1995 the European Commission invited the educational research community to present proposals to its Targeted Socio‐Economic Research programme. Across Europe faxes, phones and the internet were busy as partnerships were formed, research ideas were translated into bulky proposals and numerous researchers got ready to cross the ditch into European collaborative research. In this article I try to scramble through the thorns at the top of the ditch by focusing on the structures and processes of power associated with Commission‐funded educational research and action for social justice. This exploratory, descriptive paper is based on several years’ experience of submitting research proposals to the European Commission and on recent research into European‐funded training in the UK. Drawing on these sources I identify and consider some of the power relationships associated with European‐funded research and with European‐funded action for social justice.
Pupil Progress during Key Stage 1: a value added analysis of school effects
Authors: Strand Steve 
Published: June 2007

AbstractPupils in Wandsworth schools who completed baseline assessment at the start of reception class in 1992/93 were tracked through to their National Curriculum (NC) end of Key Stage 1 (KS1) assessments in 1995. Baseline results were used to assess the educational progress of pupils between the age of 4 and 7 years, and the ‘value added’ by schools. Girls made more progress than boys during KS1, increasing the size of the gender gap in attainment. Pupils entitled to free school meals (FSM) started with lower attainment and fell further behind their peers during the course of KS1. In contrast pupils with English as a second language (ESL) caught up with their monolingual English speaking peers. School compositional effects were also noted: pupils made on average more progress in schools with a high proportion of girls, and less progress in schools with a high proportion of pupils entitled to FSM, a high proportion of ESL pupils and where the school average on the baseline was high. Differences between schools in KS1 results were reduced substantially when account was taken of their pupil intakes, but significant differences between schools remained, supporting the conclusion that some schools are more effective than others in facilitating pupil progress during KS1. There were marked differences between the raw and value added KS1 results for a significant minority of schools, suggesting raw results can give a misleading impression of a school's effectiveness. Areas for further research and development are identified.
Meetings without Communication: a study of parents’ evenings in secondary schools
Authors: Walker Barbara M. 
Published: June 2007

AbstractWriting on home‐school relations has tended to concentrate on helping teachers to encourage parents into primary schools, leaving the secondary sector and parents’ views relatively neglected. This article seeks to redress the balance, reporting on an ethnographic study of parents’ evenings at four secondary schools in Norfolk, seen from the perspectives of all those involved. Data were collected via in‐depth interviews with staff, parents and students, and by observation of the events. The findings indicate that the parents’ evening is a unique interactional event which creates a problematic interface between the power bases of home and school, concentrating on the assessment of a (frequently absent) individual. It seems that this assessment is often approached from different viewpoints and with different agendas. Rules of engagement and the roles of participants are confused, and this confusion is exacerbated by logistical constraints, and by the growing autonomy of the student.
Parental Involvement in Education in and out of School
Authors: West Anne , Noden Philip , Edge Ann , David Miriam 
Published: June 2007

AbstractThis paper explores the ways in which parents—mothers and fathers—are involved in their children's education both in and out of school. It compares involvement of families with children in the final year of primary education (or its equivalent) in state and private schools, and amongst the state school parents compares families in terms of social class and mothers’ educational level. The findings indicate that mothers generally assume overriding responsibility for their children's education. Furthermore, mothers with higher levels of education are more likely to use workbooks and employ private tutors to support their children's education; attendance at parents’ evenings and informal discussions with teachers were also more likely to be shared with the child's father. It is suggested that mothers’ educational level is a better predictor of involvement than is social class and that, in the face of a diversification of family forms, mothers’ education may be more instructive in understanding educational involvement than social class based on employment groups.
Team and Technology in Writing up Research
Authors: Woods Peter , Jeffrey Bob , Troman Geoff , Boyle Mari , Cocklin Barry 
Published: June 2007

AbstractThis article considers the writing up of ethnographic research, focusing on the parts played by teamwork and by electronic mail (e‐mail) in the construction of one of the chapters of a book written by the team. The career of this construction, which took place over a period of 2 months, is tracked through the e‐mail messages that circulated among the team. These illustrate team interaction in analysis and writing, the use of e‐mail technology, and particular issues in writing and how they were resolved. Following the reconstruction, we discuss the benefits offered by team and technology in this kind of enterprise—enhanced validity, enrichment, support, sustained impetus, and style. We conclude with some cautionary notes.
Working Together for Educative Community through Research*
Authors: Lomax Pamela 
Published: June 2007

AbstractThe paper explores the threat of Balkanisation. Whereas in the USA the debate has focused on competing research paradigms, in the UK it is seen to result from threats to the status quo posed by the media's portrayal of government hostility to education. This has led to the creation of folk devils whose ideas spread moral panic amongst the research community. The paper identifies three such folk devils and argues that the moral panic comes from a research community that has not learned to constrain its disagreements. The paper argues a case for an educative community based on constrained disagreement that is contained by its shared desire for ethical, creative and emancipatory solutions to educational problems. An example of a small, local research community is used to outline the ‘promises and perils’ of such a solution.
Factors Influencing Educational Motivation: a study of attitudes, expectations and behaviour of children in Sunderland, Kentucky and St Petersburg
Authors: Elliott Julian , Hufton Neil , Hildreth Anthony , Illushin Leonid 
Published: June 2007

AbstractWorldwide concern about educational achievement, fuelled by comparative studies, has resulted in much debate about appropriate pedagogic practices. This article argues, however, that in considering how to raise educational attainment, key attitudinal and other sociocultural factors have been insufficiently considered. To support this position, it reports the findings from a large‐scale international investigation of the attitudes, perceptions and orientation towards academic activity of children (aged 14‐15 years). Findings indicate that English and American children share a relatively high degree of satisfaction with their current level of academic performance and work rate, place greater emphasis upon effort rather than ability attributions for success, although, somewhat paradoxically, appear to have less real commitment to educational endeavour. Findings from the study are discussed in the light of the children's differing socio‐economic and sociocultural contexts and current educational reform initiatives.
Student Teachers’ Beliefs about Creativity
Authors: Diakidoy Irene‐Anna N. , Kanari Elpida 
Published: June 2007

AbstractThe purpose of the present study was to examine student teachers’ beliefs about creativity, creative outcomes, and factors related to creativity. Even though the importance of facilitating creativity in educational settings has been recognised, little attention has been paid to teachers’ beliefs about creativity. In this study, a questionnaire, designed to explore conceptualisations of creativity and issues related to it, was administered to 49 student teachers. The results indicated that student teachers tend to perceive creativity as a general ability primarily manifested in the context of artistic endeavours. Moreover, creative outcomes were thought to be novel but not necessarily appropriate or correct. These findings are discussed with respect to their educational implications.
Primary Student Teachers’ Understanding of Mathematics and its Teaching
Authors: Brown Tony , Mcnamara Olwen , Hanley Una , Jones Liz 
Published: June 2007

AbstractThis article reports on research into primary student teachers’ understanding of mathematics and its teaching undertaken at the Manchester Metropolitan University and funded by the Economic and Social Research Council. The research set out to investigate the ways in which non‐specialist student teachers conceptualise mathematics and its teaching and how their views evolve as they progress through an initial training course. The study has shown how the mathematical understanding of such students is, in the first instance, embedded in a strongly affective account of their own mathematical experiences in schools, where mathematics was often seen as difficult and threatening. College training successfully nurtures a more positive attitude to mathematics as a subject, albeit couched in a pedagogically oriented frame. In later stages of training however, their conceptions of mathematics and its teaching are subsumed within the organisational concerns of placement schools and school experience tutors, and shaped by commercial schemes. It is suggested that alternative conceptions of mathematics assumed at different stages of this training appear incommensurable. A theoretical framework is offered as an approach to reconciling this conflict. This demonstrates how three potential dichotomies, phenomenological/official versions of mathematics, discovery/transmission conceptions of mathematics teaching, and perceptual/structural understandings of the mathematics teacher's task can be seen as productive dualities harnessing both qualitative and quantitative perspectives.
Patterns of Participation in Lifelong Learning: do families make a difference?
Authors: Gorard Stephen , Rees Gareth , Fevre Ralph 
Published: June 2007

AbstractThis article draws on the results of a large‐scale study of lifetime participation in education and training. Focusing on the datasets relating to parents and children in the same family, it suggests that despite large changes in educational and training provision since 1945, individual participation trajectories remain very similar within families. The article also illustrates some of the varied ways in which family influences have been played out, and concludes that there is sufficient evidence here to indicate that explanatory models of lifelong participation in education and training need to take account of family effects on participation both immediately after completion of compulsory education and later in life too.
Changes in running endurance performance following intermittent altitude exposure simulated with tents
Authors: Hinckson Erica A. , Hopkins Will G. 
Published: June 2007

AbstractThe effect of intermittent hypoxia on sea‐level endurance performance was assessed by using hypoxic tents to simulate the live high‐train low approach to altitude training. Eleven male sub‐elite competitive runners and triathletes participated in a crossover study of usual training (control) and usual training with altitude exposure (altitude). Altitude treatment consisted of 25±3 d (mean±SD) of sleeping in tents for 8.1±0.6 h.d−1, progressing from a simulated altitude of 2500 m to 3500 m above sea level. Washout period between control and altitude treatments was 4 wk. Three treadmill runs to exhaustion lasting ∼2, ∼4 and ∼8 min were completed 7 and 12 d after control and altitude treatments. Times for standard competition distances (800, 1500 and 3000 m), were predicted using a log‐log model, improved by 1.0% (90% confidence limits, ±1.3%), 1.4% (±1.2%) and 1.9% (±1.5%), respectively. Improvements were greater in the six athletes with an I allele for angiotensin converting enzyme (ACE): 2.3% (±1.5%), 2.2% (±1.5%), and 2.1%, (±2.1%), respectively. Effects of simulated altitude on hemoglobin concentration were unclear. Altitude exposure simulated with hypoxic tents is likely to enhance performance substantially in middle‐distance endurance running events, especially for individuals with an I allele of the ACE gene.
Social Capital: Exploring the theoretical foundations of community development education
Authors: McClenaghan Pauline 
Published: June 2007

ABSTRACTSocial capital as a concept has over the last decade or more been gaining significance in relation to a number of linked fields of analyses, including the identification of factors influencing educational attainment; explanations of differing levels of participation in formal and informal adult education; and conditions necessary to the construction and enhancement of institutions and practices conducive to lifelong learning. Within these contexts, social capital has come to be defined in a variety of ways, all of which have been linked to collective norms, values and relationships reflecting the involvement of human individuals in ‘a common life based on family and community’. In this respect, social capital enhancement appears to have direct links with community development education in that community development is generally defined as a social learning process which serves to empower individuals and to involve them as citizens in collective activities aimed at socio‐economic development. In this contribution, the author questions the validity and efficacy of social capital as an analytical concept in the field of adult education research by exploring a number of key issues related to the assumed links between community development and social capital enhancement. The analysis is based on research currently being conducted by the School of Social and Community Sciences of the University of Ulster.