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Early years education is offered free to all three-year-olds in Northern Ireland, prior to starting primary school, and most parents take advantage of this offer for their children. An experience of early years education has been shown to considerably improve life chances and to be important in starting the process of building a shared society, particularly important in a divided society emerging from conflict such as Northern Ireland. This paper will examine the degree to which that provision is segregated using GIS analysis and explore the factors which influence those divisions within the wider context of a deeply segregated system of education. Pre-school education in Northern Ireland is found to be highly segregated by community background, and there is a tendency for pre-schools to be more segregated than the areas in which they are located. This may exacerbate existing divisions within education and adding a further year of segregated education may provide a further impediment to building a shared future for communities in Northern Ireland. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In contribution to a body of scholarship that examines teaching as a form of learning, the paper addresses a central question: What can be learnt from organised mobilisation to educate in communities eager to strengthen their unique biocultural heritage? The question is explored through an examination of two grassroots education projects in Latin American provincial locations rich in history. Studied ethnographically over a period of fifteen years from the point of view of the educators who run them, these two projects offer a unique opportunity to examine the formation and the mobilisation of value in education. I show how popular education and agroecology methods are used in both cases to face socio-ecological conflicts and refocus developmental tensions. I conclude with a short reflection on UNESCO's 2020 approach to education and its vital role in radically reconfiguring humanity's place and agency on planet Earth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article analyses, mingles and blends divergent and complementary strands from the thinking of Hannah Arendt (1906–1975) and Sir Alec Clegg (1909–1986), two contemporaneous but different influential public figures and thinkers in the post-World War Two period. The paper uses these strands to construct a critique of the current colonisation of education by neo-liberal economic logics and performative architecture. Their ideas emerge as bulwarks against populist discourse, reductivist, authoritarian framings of education policy and the restrictive and prescriptive direction of education practice. Conceptions of pluralism, imagination, the location of children and young people's perspectives in the adult world, citizenry and engagement with the world are illuminated for their refreshing power to replenish and sustain the conditions for an education that supports human flourishing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on historical sources and publication records in the early 20th century, we suggest that Vygotsky's recognition of the 'paradox' in human learning and his conceptualisation of advanced thinking were largely influenced by Stanislavski's work in theatre. In this paper, we offer some evidence for this argument on Vygotsky's nascent system of concept development, which ultimately expanded the notion and process of education in modern society. We then provide our informed speculation on the ways in which Vygotsky might have constructed the zone of proximal development model as an integral part of concept development. We conclude our discussion with practical illustrations of creating ZPD in 21st century classroom contexts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nancy Fraser describes parity-of-participation in social interaction as an important component of social justice. In this paper, we explore the participatory experiences of primary-school-children who have been labelled 'lower-attainers' in mathematics and/or writing. The paper explores justice drawing on the perspective of these pupils, in relation to how they perceive success in their school learning. We link the concept of participation to the three components of social justice outlined in Nancy Fraser's definition: a) distribution of wealth; b) recognition of status; and c) representation of voice. Our findings indicate that children who do not excel in attainment in prescribed subjects may experience obstructions to parity-of-participation within schooling which are beyond those encountered by all children. We conclude that injustices in all three senses (above) are being experienced by specific children and these injustices need urgent confrontation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to examine the case for a focus on place-based drivers of inequalities in educational attainment among secondary school students in Scotland. Using desk-based sources, it provides an account of the post-2015 policy episode around improving educational attainment among children from disadvantaged areas. This started with the Scottish Government claiming that its 'defining mission' was to 'close the gap' but the place-based focus of policy was soon dissipated and the legislation that intended to be the flagship of reform was shelved. The paper shows that international evidence prompts a need for the impact of disadvantage based on place to be factored into approaches to schooling and provides a regretful account of its insecure traction in Scottish policy. It argues that a serious weakness of the case for place in Scotland is the underlying evidence base and concludes by suggesting how existing data sources could be used more effectively and by outlining some alternative policy approaches. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper draws on the Chinese and English literature on the Chinese idea of tianxia (literally meaning all under heaven), with the objective of shedding new light on the discussion of the global in global higher education (studies). It argues that the tianxia idea embodies an approach to viewing the world that is fundamentally different from the dominant Euro-American worldviews, and contains unique merits in discussing global higher education phenomena. This approach highlights four elements in understanding the world: one-worldism (including the notion of thinking through the world and tianxia weigong, literally meaning all under heaven belongs to and is for all), he er butong (diversity in harmony), an emphasis on virtues, values, and norms in global governance, and an ecological imagining of the world. The implications of the four elements for global higher education are also discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The courts' role in educational disputes is much researched, but while the legal and socio-political implications of judicial decisions are often scrutinised, judges' pedagogical assumptions have generally been overlooked. This paper focuses on educational competency by considering judges' understandings of the pedagogical effect of religious symbols in classrooms. The formal judgements of two key cases in the European Court of Human Rights are treated as textual data for qualitative analysis: Dahlab v Switzerland, concerning a Muslim teacher's right to wear hijab; Italy v Lautsi, concerning whether the classroom display of crucifixes breached atheist pupils' rights. Four approaches emerged: unmediated didacticism – a direct emission of meaning by the symbolic objects; mediated didacticism – when the symbols require a spoken explanation to convey meaning; contextual factors – then other factors determine or limit the symbol's meaning; dialogical pedagogy - when education is conceived as an open encounter with different points of view. The wide variation in the judges' pedagogical assumptions is discussed, including the implications of how educational competency affects the variable radiating effects of the courts' decisions. Further, the concept of educational competence is developed, particularly in relation to issues of religion and belief. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Countries around the world are striving to improve their educational systems with a view to improving their economy and society. In this global competition, national and international test results are of considerable interest. In this paper, we show that national testing in England and the USA have shown little or no improvement over the years. This finding is not isolated; it appears to be a global phenomenon. Data from large-scale international assessments such as PISA, TIMSS and PIRLS are remarkably stable over time. This paper reviews the trends from country-specific and international data and explores some of the reasons which have been offered for such stability. We argue that these explanations are insufficient and ways forward are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Pakistan's Punjab province has witnessed numerous education reforms in recent years. Many of these reforms have been aimed at improving the well-documented low levels of learning by focusing on improving teaching quality. The rhetoric suggests that government schools, particularly those in rural areas with a more disadvantaged pupil base, are especially ineffective at imparting learning. This paper seeks to investigate whether children in rural Punjab are learning literacy and numeracy over the course of a year, and if so, are some pupils progressing more than others. Using recently collected data, it finds that children in our sample are making progress. Variation in progress is found to be greater within schools rather than across them. The competence and qualifications of a teacher also makes a significant difference to a child's academic progress. The paper further finds differential progress for rich and poor students within schools, suggesting an important role for education policy to put in place targeted support towards those from disadvantaged backgrounds to ensure improvements in their learning keep pace with their peers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper introduces and summarises a programme of German research into teaching started 20 years ago. This research draws on Herbart's analysis of teaching with its focus on 'Bildung' (formation) which is distinguished from the measurement/psychometric tradition. It offers the possibilities of a deeper empirical understanding of pedagogical practice in terms of (i) education, (ii) formation, and (iii) didactics. The paper sets out four pedagogical assumptions drawing on empirical experience. It proceeds to a discussion of methodological principles to show what it means to reconstruct teaching using a hermeneutic approach involving a sequence analysis of lesson transcripts. The approach is also recommended for teacher professional learning through offering alternative ways of problem solving. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In England, 'Virtual Schools' oversee and support the educational progress of children in care. This paper reports on the analysis of 16 interviews with Virtual School headteachers that were part of two mixed methods research projects on the educational progress of children in care. These interviews explored their role; the types of support they offer young people in care; what they see as the key factors about a young person's individual characteristics and care experiences that influence their educational outcomes; how schools support young people in care; and the influence of the foster carer/residential staff on the educational outcomes of these children. The interviews were analysed using NVivo and emerging themes were identified informed by the literature on the education of children in care. The paper draws out the main findings which explore the status and role of Virtual Schools in England, their functions, strategies, and what they see as their contribution to improving the educational outcomes of children in care. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Countries regarded as holding high levels of educational autonomy face a different set of constraints to that of countries with low levels of autonomy, these constraints being linked to the marketisation of schools. As schools become decentralised and given greater autonomy, school leaders are steered by a responsibilising framework that includes bureaucratic regulation, the discourses and practices of competitive enterprise, and external public accountability measures. This paper contrasts data gathered from school teachers and senior leaders from one high autonomy, high accountability context, England, with one low autonomy, low accountability context, Turkey. Through a process of semi-structured interviews with teachers and senior leaders, we investigated approaches to managing change. Responses revealed differences between countries with very different systems of accountability and the degree of autonomy available to staff. We also found that there were significant similarities in terms of the attitudes and pressures experienced by teachers and senior leaders that raise questions for our understandings and application of notions of teacher autonomy and accountability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cities around the world are increasingly developing city-wide lifelong learning strategies to promote individual and civic adaptation to major economic, technological, and environmental challenges. Such initiatives, however, have not yet received commensurate research attention from education researchers and it is not yet clear that we have the theoretical or methodological tools to research the complexity of learning at a city scale. This paper attempts to outline one approach that might respond to this challenge by drawing on the concept of 'lively infrastructure' from urban studies. Based on 11 months of detailed ethnographic fieldwork in the city of Bristol, the paper draws on this concept to trace how learning infrastructures are produced, accessed, and reshaped by individuals and serve to provision particular forms of learning in the city. In so doing, the paper argues that learning infrastructures need to be understood as discursive, material, and affective; as deeply interconnected with other city infrastructures, particularly childcare and transport; and as capable of morphing to create both radical new forms of learning activity as well as consolidating existing practices of exclusion and inequality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper focuses on the ‘mainstreaming’ of charities into schools. There have been growing concerns about the permeation of business and business values in education, but relatively little attention has been paid to the ways in which schools are increasingly engaged in the ‘business’ of fundraising for charities. Drawing on survey data from the WISERDEducation Multi-Cohort Study (WMCS), the paper outlines young people’s relationship with charities. The data show that young people have a high degree of engagement with charities, in which schools play a significant part. There are likely to be many positive aspects to this engagement, inasmuch as it fosters and reflects young people’s sense of collective responsibility. However, there are also issues about the extent to which this high level of involvement marginalises other approaches to promote the social good and increases the permeation of business values and business into school. The paper concludes that the current mainstreaming of charities into schools is not necessarily a self-evident ‘good’ and that this under-researched phenomenon deserves greater critical attention within and outwith schools. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the development of the hensachi system in Japanese education from the 1960s when it first appeared as a de facto measure for scholastic achievement. Unlike absolute scoring systems (such as A-level grades) hensachi gave an indication of the probability of getting a place on a particular course at a particular school or university rather than telling applicants where the bar was set in order to have a chance of being offered a place. Private companies quickly saw the opportunity to collate the huge amounts of data needed to obtain accurate hensachi bell curve distributions and began operating practice exams (mogi shiken) in schools across Japan. From the mid-1970s onwards, hensachi increasingly became seen as the source of many educational ‘evils’ in Japan and there were many attempts to ban its use. It was blamed for cramming, examination hell, and a focus on educational scores rather than learning. The system was also being used by teachers and schools to short cut the real examination system. The final section of the paper explores why, despite these concerns, repeated predictions of the demise of hensachi have proved to be premature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper uses two high-profile cases of alleged plagiarism in doctoral theses to discuss the debate on academic malpractice in the German context. The two cases received intense media attention which led to a hitherto unseen interrogation of academic standards in higher education and of the integrity of the research community. The paper analyses this debate and highlights structures and developments in German higher education that potentially explain academic malpractice. The focus of the analysis is on postgraduate education and the way doctoral supervisees are inducted by their supervisors into good academic practice. The paper also discusses the notion of ‘academic relativism’ regarding standards of academic practice that, while permissible in a certain era, are not acceptable today. Against this background, the paper argues in favour of a critical evaluation of the ways in which the German higher education sector has become the subject of narrowly defined aspects of performance management regimes, regulating institutions and incentivising researchers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper provides the first quantitative analysis on 'first in family' (FiF) university graduates in the UK. Using a nationally representative dataset that covers a recent cohort in England, we identify the proportion of FiF young people at age 25 as 18%, comprising nearly two-thirds of university graduates. Comparing groups with no parental higher education we find that ethnic minorities and those with higher levels of prior attainment are more likely to become a FiF, while those who are FiF are more likely to study Law, Economics and Management and less likely to study other Social Sciences, Arts and Humanities than students whose parents are graduated. We also find evidence that FiF students are less likely to graduate from elite universities and are at greater risk of dropout in general, even after prior educational attainment and socioeconomic status are taken into account. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the changes in educational policy in England regarding the implementing of the International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme (henceforth IBDP) into post-16 (sixth form) education. The aim is to illustrate the unique trajectory of the IBDP in England: from its adoption in schools and colleges across the country, to its removal, due largely to a combination of specific changes, such as government funding criteria inside state education, and the tariff system for university entry that is deployed for qualifications at 18. This paper explores this combination of changes using interview data with 28 senior leaders from eight schools and colleges that have introduced the IBDP, including state centres that have subsequently had to remove it from their curriculum. Employing the idea of a neo-liberal social imaginary, this paper analyses the resulting level of social exclusion inside the English post-16 curriculum created by the educational policies adopted by successive governments since the 2008 economic recession. The paper argues that the rise and decline of the IBDP in England has resulted in a significant level of socially differentiated take up, largely in independent schools, and in state schools in London and the South-East of the country. This paper concludes that access to the IBDP is restricted with regard to both geographical and social mobility and that current access to the IBDP in England is helping to sustain a ‘globally mobile transnational elite group’, thus reinforcing the connection established between the IBDP’s wider curriculum and global capitalism. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This article examines the English government’s vision for how research is proposed to lead to improvements in the system in the context of a school-led, self-improving system and rapid and sweeping legislative reforms. The debate about the role of research in the teaching profession has been sharpened by a large consultation effort in the academic community. The BERA-RSA inquiry suggests an empowering vision for teachers where research engagement informs practice and a role for schools in providing a ‘research-rich environment’. However, the government’s proposals offer a rather less empowering vision. The author of the paper contrasts a version of research-informed teaching and leadership with one where teachers are supposed to follow and be led by the evidence. The government’s education policy, especially as set out in the 2016 White Paper ‘Educational Excellence Everywhere’ is analysed in relation to this position. Analysis of statements from the document are shown in the paper, and contextualised with examples from the English school system. The extent to which teacher agency is promoted through research evidence is explored. The article concludes that the government’s over emphasis on a ‘what works’/‘evidence-based practice’ model is unhelpful in achieving an improved education system. Suggestions for the role of universities and the College of Teaching in promoting research-informed practice are given. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In this paper, we discuss the problematic use of the term dyslexia. Noting that there are no unambiguous objective diagnostic criteria for 'dyslexia', in part because this term is understood in multiple ways, we discuss its relevance for informing educational assessment, intervention and resourcing. We conclude by highlighting how current approaches to dyslexia diagnosis and remediation typically fail to serve the needs of large numbers of struggling readers. In their place, we advocate 'Response to Intervention' as an ethically and educationally justified approach to tackling severe reading difficulties, but also highlight continuing challenges to its effective implementation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Beginning in the 1960s, the Isle of Wight studies were among the first to investigate developmental reading problems in representative, population-based samples, using the tools of epidemiology. In this paper, we provide an overview of the contribution of the Isle of Wight studies to research on reading disabilities. We begin with an account of the surveys of primary school children, then move on to describe the programme of epidemiological and longitudinal research that flowed from them. The early studies provided some of the first systematic evidence on the extent and correlates of severe developmental reading problems, and their overlaps with other childhood difficulties. Subsequent studies documented the persistence of early reading problems into adolescence; provided comparative data on rates of reading problems in an inner city area; and most recently explored the long-term persistence of literacy problems up to mid-life. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It has been suggested that features of contemporary educational policy create and encourage teaching and learning practices that dampen human motivation. This paper sought to analyse and extend this discussion through the lens of self-determination theory (SDT). Key questions are discussed such as (1) what is human motivation from a self-determination theory perspective, and (2) how and why is it dampened by features of contemporary educational policy? The discussion is then extended to explore the extent to which dampened human motivation from an SDT perspective might be considered unjust if they systematically dampen motivation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Triggered by rising higher education (HE) participation rates in recent years there is an intense debate in Germany regarding the future value of vocational education and training (VET). While VET in Germany has traditionally been a major contributor to the successful transition of young people fromschool to the labourmarket, this role is questioned by an increasing proportion of school leavers that enter HE instead of initial VET. This paper introduces this debate to the international readership by analysing the available data and by discussing some of the implications of the current changes. For instance, there are a number of studies that identify the fields and types of VET that are in danger of being substituted by HE provision, assuming a competitive relationship between the two sectors. However, there is also growing interest in programmes that aim to combine vocational and academic learning in so-called 'dual study programmes', taking a complementary perspective of VET and HE. The analysis will lead to conclusions regarding the future shape of upper secondary and tertiary education in Germany and the links of different education sectors to the labour market. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

By age 16 the attainment of most children in or on the edge of out of home care has fallen well behind the average for their age. This paper uses the English National Pupil Database to examine how much of this falling behind occurs before the age of seven, and how any subsequent decline relates to time in care as against time outside it. We compare the previous progress of three groups of 16-year-olds: 5175 looked after by the state (CLA), 17,392 in need but not in care (CIN), and 22,567 children matched with the CLA or CIN on initial attainment, special educational needs, and eligibility for free school meals. We found that the attainment of the CIN and those CLA not yet in care was around one standard deviation below the cohort average at age seven. It then fell relative to their peers while their rate of unauthorised absences and exclusions grew. Removal from home to care appeared to halt or greatly reduce this decline but did not, on average, reverse it. We conclude that educational interventions for CLA should also include CIN, start before seven, target both school and family, and exploit the educational opportunity which care provides. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper critically considers the notion of educational policy transfer by addressing the roles of significant actors, based on an analysis of educational reforms made during the Soviet and US military occupation in the two Koreas. Using evidence from the Korean cases, the paper challenges the state-centric, linear, and static views of educational policy transfer, and proposes a new conceptualisation which involves multiple actors from different levels including international, domestic, and individual players. While the educational reforms in the two Koreas were developed by the Soviet and US military in order to maximise their long-term security interests in the Korean peninsula, the key actors who implemented the reforms were Korean policy-makers, who had been appointed to key positions of the educational administrations through the bureaucratic politics between the military authorities and the Korean polity. Thus, specific programmes and policies for implementation of the reforms depended on the Korean policy-makers’ understanding and interpretations of the different ideologies of the Soviet Union and the USA. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper examines the growth of global non-state and multilateral actors in the ‘global south’ and the creation of frontier markets in the higher education sector. These developments are part of market-making changes in higher education as the sector is opened to new actors, logics, and innovative services, aimed at ‘the global south’. Yet making a higher education market that brings in new investors, providers, and consumers from within and across the global north and south is a complex process that requires imagining and materialising through new social devices, norms, and institutions so that the higher education sector works like a capitalist market based on competition, credit, commodification, and creativity. The paper examines these processes through three entry points: recruiters of international students; for-profit providers of HE; and financial agents providing new forms of credit. We argue that these developments both play off, and reinforce, older and newer asymmetries of power between individuals, social groups, and nations, within and between the global north and south, creating an even greater learning divide. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper sets out to challenge the notions of ‘affordable’ private schools in the context of South Africa. It is guided by one main question: ‘affordable private schools for whom?’ It argues that, contrary to claims by its public and private proponents, affordable private schools in South Africa do not cater for poor children. Their rise has coincided with the emergence, in the post-apartheid period, of a—mostly black—middle class. However, despite its imprecision, the ‘affordable’ terminology can also be interpreted as a discursive device that obscures the class interests and distributional choices that actually shape South Africa’s education system. It allows the social forces in favour of the expansion of private education—segments of the state and pro-market lobbyists—to frame their project in social justice terms. The paper concludes that the state’s ambiguous position towards the so-called ‘affordable’ or ‘low-fee’ private schools reflects national leaders’ delicate balancing act between contradictory objectives, which is overly determined by their embrace of an orthodox macro-economic model that constrains the fiscal space for public education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The affordability of private education is a contentious issue. While the extent of 'low-cost' private schooling is widely accepted, there is no agreement on what 'low-cost' means in this context and how this relates to affordability for poor families. This paper addresses the lacuna in the literature by defining 'low-cost' in relation to what poor families could afford if they were to send all their children to school while restricting their expenditure on schooling to a fixed proportion of their total family expenditure. This approach links the definition of 'low-cost' to internationally accepted poverty lines. Two examples from recent research in South Sudan and Liberia illustrate the flexibility of the new method. The paper also addresses the 'conundrum' in the research literature, which suggests low-cost private schools are unaffordable for poorest families, when the same literature typically shows some of the poorest using these schools. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyses recent educational reforms on teachers' work in Sweden following the 2010 Education Act, and up to the School Commission Report released in April 2017. We draw upon key policy texts and associated documents from the Ministry of Education, and the Swedish National Agency for Education (Skolverket). We consider the background to the reforms, their relations with one another and how they have played out in the Swedish educational policy context. We argue that these reforms exhibit features of 'fast policy' in terms of how they have taken on an increasingly centralised and neoliberal character, and the rapid-fire way they have been directed at teachers as individuals, rather than broader schooling structures. We show how the fast policy reforms have recentralised schooling and teachers' work—effectively de-professionalising educators. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite UNESCO's Learning Cities agenda, which argues for the mobilisation of resources to promote education across all sectors and environments, there is little evaluative research on Learning City engagement which is both naturalistic and empirically rigorous. The research on informal adult learning in urban contexts is particularly sparse. This paper provides a case study of informal learning and lifewide literacies amongst Glaswegian adults using three distinct approaches to data collection: a household survey capturing rich data on learning attitudes, behaviours, and literacies; GPS trails that track mobility around the city; and the capture of naturally occurring social media. The work operationalises Learning City indicators, and explores domains beyond education, some of which have not previously been considered in surveys of adult learning, for example, physical mobilities and transportation patterns. We use theoretical concepts of social identity and capital to situate inclusion within explanatory frameworks of marginalisation in less tangible domains of informal learning using multi-stranded data. A triangulated analysis of city-wide participation in lifewide learning reveals a demographic picture of groups marginalised from learning opportunities and practices. We conclude with a call for new approaches to exploring learning participation which offer novel methods to evidence informal learning and lifewide literacies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The international Smart Cities and the Learning Cities movements are not often linked. However, there are learning questions at stake here. Smart city agendas are often criticised as being technocratic and instrumental, prioritising market-led solutions to urban issues. Such criticism has led to moves to place the citizen at the centre of these discussions. This raises educational challenges: what theories and forms of learning are required for citizens to play a role in the development of digital, urban futures? This paper adopts ethnographic methods to study the assumptions about learning in a Europe-wide smart city project that included a component of citizen-led development. Our argument provides important messages for smart city planners and developers keen to include citizens in smart city development. It suggests that the current 'banking' models of learning adopted in relation to citizen participation are not fit for purpose and that a new model is needed. This needs to recognise citizen learning as situated in social and material contexts and embedded in unequal relations of power, knowledge and resources. We make the case for smart city initiatives to offer city inhabitants critical, creative learning opportunities that begin to address the inequalities that constitute the contemporary smart city. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

East Asian dominance in international large-scale assessments is widely known. This is often explained as an outcome of highly competitive, exam-oriented education systems in East Asia, wherein students partake in a fierce competition for limited college entrance. Although achievement scores may be comparatively higher, the argument goes, the relative success comes at a steep price, with the emphasis on high-stakes tests heightening student stress and anxiety. In this paper we refute this persistent and out-dated stereotype by focusing on changes in Japanese education over the past several decades. The two original studies we report herein show that not only do Japanese students feel less school-related anxiety and stress than they once did, but these levels are now comparable to students in America, Australia, and the United Kingdom. In showing that stereotypes do not match empirical realities, we seek to open a richer discussion around East Asian student achievement. We conclude by extending the discussion to recent changes in China, Taiwan, and South Korea. We then raise the possibility that fundamentally different outlooks on the learning process explain both differences in achievement and the persistence of the West’s distorted images of Japanese and East Asian education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the positioning of the Welsh education system within contemporary policy debate and analysis. It begins by outlining some of the ways in which education policy and provision in Wales differs from that of its neighbour, England, and then goes on to critique how these differences have been represented in both the media and by members of the educational research community. Indeed, the paper argues that these representations constitute a form of misrecognition. It is tempting to counter this misrecognition with assertions of the superiority of the ‘Welsh way’—and certainly pronouncements of a ‘crisis’ in Welsh education appear to be as much politically-driven as evidence-based. However, such an approach would underplay the very real challenges that face Wales—challenges which are both like and unlike those facing England, Scotland and Northern Ireland. The paper concludes that we need a serious engagement with national divergences across the four nations of the UK—as well as elsewhere. The case of Wales highlights the need to undertake not only comparative analysis but alsorelationalanalysis if we are to enhance our understanding of the changing politics of education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

During the years of political violence in Northern Ireland many looked to schools to contribute to reconciliation. A variety of interventions were attempted throughout those years, but there was little evidence that any had produced systemic change. The peace process provided an opportunity for renewed efforts. This paper outlines the experience of a series of projects on 'shared education', or the establishment of collaborative networks of Protestant, Catholic and integrated schools in which teachers and pupils moved between schools to take classes and share experiences. The paper outlines the genesis of the idea and the research which helped inform the shape of the shared education project. The paper also outlines the corpus of research which has examined various aspects of shared education practice and lays out the emergent model which is helping to inform current government practice in Northern Ireland, and is being adopted in other jurisdictions. The paper concludes by looking at the prospects for real transformation of education in Northern Ireland. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper uses data from the 1970 Birth Cohort Study in the UK to explore the well-established link between ‘liberal’ social values and education. Whilst the link itself is well-established, the underlying mechanism is not; the paper explores empirically mechanisms that have been proposed for this link. In particular it considers the effects of social background, ‘ability’, personal efficacy and field of study on social values to explore both direct and indirect effects of education. The paper finds that, whilst there are important effects of social background and ability on social values, these do not explain the effect of educational attainment. Moreover, differences according to field of study suggest that the most likely mechanism linking education with liberal values is one of socialisation. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Given the disadvantaged position of working-class children in the education system, it is important to understand how parents and families might support their children to succeed academically. This paper reports on 35 case studies that were conducted as part of the Effective Provision of Pre-School, Primary and Secondary Education (EPPSE 3–16) research project. Using in-depth interviews with children and parents this study investigates parental involvement with school and learning during primary and secondary school years in working-class families with children who are academically succeeding above prediction and children who are progressing as predicted, given their background characteristics. The paper provides descriptions of emotional and practical support for academic learning in these families and discusses how parents explain their involvement or lack thereof. This paper identifies differences in socialisation practices between the two groups of working-class families: ‘accomplishment of natural growth’ in families with children progressing as predicted (Lareau, 2003) and ‘active cultivation’ in families with children succeeding above prediction. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper compares the educational thought of Paulo Freire and Confucius on what it means to be more fully human. Both Freire and Confucius object to the dehumanisation of human beings through the banking concept of education and other oppressive practices. They argue for the ontological vocation of becoming more fully human through humanisation and humanity (ren) respectively. In terms of differences, Freire’s notion of humanisation seeks to transform human beings from objects to subjects who know and act. Confucius’ concept of humanity, while also stressing autonomy and agency, places moral self-cultivation at its centre. While Freire advocates critical consciousness and social transformation, Confucius propagates dao- or Way-consciousness and self-transformation. The essay concludes by exploring a synthesised conception of humanisation where human beings are subjects who are motivated and guided by humanity (ren). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A much larger proportion of English 14-year-olds expect to apply to university than ultimately make an application by age 21, but the proportion expecting to apply falls from age 14 onwards. In order to assess the role of socioeconomic status in explaining changes in expectations, this paper applies duration modelling techniques to the Longitudinal Study of Young People in England, analysing transitions in young people’s expectations both from being ‘likely to apply’ to being ‘unlikely to apply’ and vice versa. Young people’s socioeconomic background has a significant association with changes in expectations, even after controlling for prior academic attainment and other potentially confounding factors; in addition, young people’s backgrounds affect their responsiveness to new evidence on academic attainment at age 16. This suggests more could usefully be done to maintain the educational expectations of academically able young people from less advantaged families, especially providing guidance on how to view new academic results. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In recent years there has been a heightened interest in educating for well-being; the belief that even when beset by economic gloom, schools can be a civilising force for good and can help make young people’s lives more fulfilling and meaningful. However, the relative lack of conceptual analysis on well-being values and how they can flourish in schools coupled with ambiguities on curriculum implementation plans have limited progress to date. The paper addresses these concerns, through analysing recent theorising on values which contain a focus on personal growth, relationships with others and engagement with activities of interest. In reviewing these values in relation to the ‘Curriculum for Excellence’ (CfE) policy context in Scotland, the paper discusses ways in which current policy and practice uncertainties could be improved by greater philosophical clarity on well-being values and by the development of pedagogical models which highlight how effective learning could take place. These improvements, if supported by key policy revisions and by commissioning practitioners to design more appropriate teaching resources, could provide the basis for greater teacher engagement with well-being agendas and the avoidance of policy stasis. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper explores questions of relevance to Ethiopian primary education policy. It examines (i) the match/mismatch between government-prescribed pedagogy and actual student learning practices and (ii) the relationship between those practices and school, class and teacher level factors. The paper employs evidence from government documents on curriculum and pedagogy, time-based observations of 5,088 students in 776 mathematics classes and interviews with teachers. In recent years the government has prescribed a shift away from teacher-oriented towards student-centred methods of learning for both the first (Grades 1–4) and second (Grades 5–8) cycles of primary education with a target that 30% of class time be spent on student-centred activity. We find that student-centred activities accounted for just 10.7% of time spent, teacher-oriented activities 74.5% and ‘off task’ 14.7%, with first cycle students more ‘off task’ and second cycle students more ‘teacher-oriented’. In both cycles a student is more likely to be ‘on task’ rather than ‘off task’ if taught by a teacher with a Diploma or a degree, who has not been absent recently and has received supervision within the last four weeks; and more likely to be engaged in student-centred rather than teacher-oriented activity if taught by a female teacher with a Diploma. In the first cycle, ‘on task’ activity is associated with female teachers; in the second cycle with male. In the first cycle student-centred activity is associated with class sizes of less than 26; in the second cycle with class sizes of more than 26 and with less experienced teachers. Policy implications are explored. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Using Young Lives longitudinal data from Peru, this paper explores the relationship between socioeconomic status (SES) measured at the age of one, opportunities to learn (OTL) and achievement in mathematics ten years later. Four variables of OTL were measured: hours of class per year, curriculum coverage, quality of teachers’ feedback, and level of cognitive demand. The last three were measured through an analysis of the exercises attempted by fourth grade students in their notebooks and workbooks. Multivariate analysis showed a robust association of one of the OTL variables (curriculum coverage, more specifically number of exercises attempted by students) with achievement in mathematics. Moreover SES at the age of one was significantly associated with this variable and with achievement by the time students were ten years old. Overall, the findings of the paper illustrate a highly unequal education system in which relatively poor children have fewer OTL in school. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

On paper, Scotland has a highly permeable, unified system of lifelong learning underpinned by the Scottish Credit and Qualifications Framework. Recent reports suggest that the reality is less positive. This paper examines credit transfer in Scotland across three interfaces: between general and pre-vocational learning and vocational education and training (VET); within VET; and between VET and university degrees. It finds that credit transfer across the first two interfaces is limited; credit transfer at the third interface is more frequent but often problematic. One explanation is that the system is designed around credit accumulation rather than credit transfer; this, together with other features of the Scottish system, means that a degree of permeability is built in without the need for formal credit transfer. But a second explanation highlights the epistemological, institutional and political barriers to a unified system. The paper illustrates the importance of distinguishing among different types of credit system and the limitations of credit and qualifications frameworks as agents of change in the face of the institutional logics of national education and training systems. The capacity of cross-national credit systems to support mobility between national systems should not be exaggerated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper opens a theoretical discussion regarding the pedagogy of a learning setting as students experience it. Students’ experience of learning deserves particular attention because it may differ from the pedagogy that is designed and campaigned for by the school, or even from the one that is ‘experienced’ by the teacher in the same situation. In order to open up such a discussion, we introduce the term ‘pedagogy in practice’ (PiP). This new term describes the pedagogy that actually acts on students’ thought and affects; it relates to the interaction between the school’s pedagogy and students’ experience of it. In this paper, we define the concept of PiP and examine its implications and differentiation from related pedagogic concepts. By doing so, we question educators’ and policy makers’ ability to understand, evaluate, make sense of, and eventually improve pedagogies or curricula in general without looking at PiP in particular. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper highlights the contribution of theoretical discussions of social education in UK youth work to debates about ‘social pedagogy’, arguing that the analysis of power and difference, in particular the impact of gender difference, which has occurred in youth work is essential in discussions of ‘social pedagogy’ too. Since ‘social pedagogy’ has been discussed as a source for transformed visions of schooling, the paper extends and develops discussion of pre-figurative counter-practice and how it can be sustained through an engagement with difference, drawing especially on the work of Luce Irigaray. Ideas and practice associated with social pedagogy have been drawn on to illuminate a radical vision of the common school as a counter-practice to the neo-liberal credentialisation of schooling. Such approaches resonate strongly with so-called romantic models of youth work in the UK (Wylie, 2010) and their associated traditions of social education. The emphasis on the relational and the social in education might enable a fruitful engagement with feminist approaches especially that of the philosopher Luce Irigaray (1932–present) whose work forms the basis of the engagement with difference which is advocated here. Such an engagement with difference is essential to any democratic project which resists pressures simply to normalise, standardise and contain those involved in education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In order to develop deeper and better understandings of what constitutes effective educational practices, and to bridge the gap between research and practice, there is a need for a paradigm shift in autism educational research. The contribution of this paper is to examine the key methodological challenges that stand in the way of autism educational research impacting on practice. This research field is dominated by experimental research designs that evaluate the impact of ‘interventions’ that focus on developing the skills, knowledge, and understanding of pupils with autism. For educational research to have an impact on the lives of individuals with autism, their families, and the practitioners who work with them, movement towards a more balanced range of methodologies is needed. This needs to include methodologies that situate the knowledge base of practitioners on a par with the knowledge base of researchers, drawing on the evidence base from the classroom itself, and bringing in the perspectives and views of individuals with autism, their families, and the practitioners who work with them. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In this paper, we examine the trajectories of initially higher- and lower-achieving children from lower and higher socio-economic status families from primary school through to university in England for the first time. We also explore what explains these trajectories. This enables us to provide new insights into when and why the performance of children with similar initial achievement diverges on the basis of their socio-economic background. Our results indicate that pupils from poor backgrounds who are higher achievers in primary school fall behind their better-off but lower-achieving peers during secondary school. This suggests that secondary school may be a critical period to intervene to prevent poor children from falling behind their richer peers. Our analysis suggests that there is less divergence in performance between pupils from different socio-economic backgrounds who attend the same schools. This result is particularly strong for children with low initial achievement. While we remain cautious about the implications of these findings, they provide suggestive evidence that schools (or the sorting of pupils into schools) play an important role in explaining why the test scores of richer and poorer children diverge over time. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Flourishing, understood along Aristotelian or quasi-Aristotelian lines as objectiveeudaimonicwell-being, is re-emerging as a paradigm for the ideal aim of education in the 21st century. This paper aims to venture beyond the current accounts and Aristotle’s own, by arguing that both suffer from a kind of ‘flatness’ or ‘disenchantedness’ in failing to pay heed to the satisfaction of certain impulses that have been proven to give fullness to our lives: impulses having to do with awe-inspiring emotional attachments to transpersonal ideals. I thus argue that while Aristotelian flourishing is a necessary place to begin, it is not a sufficient one to conclude, a study of human flourishing, either generally or in classroom contexts; it needs to be extended and ‘enchanted’ in order to do so. That venture does not necessitate an embrace of supernaturalism, however. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In some low-income countries, low-fee private schools targeting relatively poor communities have sprung up in considerable numbers meeting growing demand. This is often the case where government is not providing enough school places, but also where parents could access government schools for their children but choose not to, due to perceived low quality of provision. This research study sought to find out if non-state schooling has developed to any considerable extent in the Mozambican context, where government education is of poor quality and learning outcomes are low. This paper reports that non-state provision is playing some role in providing places at the secondary level where government under-provides, and it is providing differentiated demand for some primary pupils. The study finds that the only level at which a true market appears to be developing is at the pre-primary level where government does not provide at all, which has resulted in complete inequity in access to early learning opportunities. At this most crucial level most schools are established, owned and run like typical low-fee private schools, i.e. as small businesses with individual owners. Overall non-government schools are few and far between and are playing a small role, with the only indications of recent growth evident at the pre-primary level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The main objective of the paper is to present an outline for an approach studying young people as learners across contexts, presented here as a ‘learning lives approach’. For youth, the two most time-consuming aspects of their daily lives are schooling and media use. In research, we tend to study these as two separate worlds. The challenge is to find ways of understanding the interconnections between these two worlds as experienced by young people. The term ‘learning lives’ is meant to grasp the longer trajectories of learning that young people are involved in, moving from one setting to another. The paper explores key issues that inform a learning lives approach: theoretically, conceptually and methodologically. It is broader in scope than former approaches, comprising a study of learning as lifelong and lifewide in studying young people, new media and learning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]