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This article aims to present the transformations as well as the decline of the Froebelian occupation of paper folding that took place in Great Britain between 1851 and the 1920s. Froebel’s original intention was to transmit implicit mathematical knowledge to be learnt by means of folding several shapes. In contrast to his account of paper folding, which presented it as a way of understanding several abstract mathematical concepts, the manner in which this occupation was re-conceptualised in Great Britain tells a different story. After surveying the changes in the British conception of Froebelian ideas in the second half of the nineteenth century through the various published manuals, I then explore the period between 1892 - the opening of the Froebel Educational Institute - and 1924. Looking at the examination syllabi of the National Froebel Union, the examination papers, and their various appendices, as well as studying the approaches of the British mathematical community to folding at the end of the nineteenth century, the article will try to illuminate - via the inspection of the decline of mathematical education via folding in kindergartens - how formal work became discredited and eventually, in part, disappeared. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 2014, the OECD-PISA's Governing Board approved the addition of a set of global competence measures to its Programme of Student Assessment. In our paper, we explore whether and how there are discursive shifts between the two framing papers (2016/2018) and what the outcomes are for policy-shaping. To this end, we employ Network Text Analysis to map shifting semantic configurations. We show that (i) the concept of 'global competence' is radically redefined through the simplification and polarisation of the semantic universe surrounding it, (ii) that the concept 'global' becomes a shifting signifier which enables the establishment of an equivalence between the two studied documents, and that (iii) in this process, concepts such as 'culture' are now erased in the 2018 text. Our findings show the dramatic change of approach between the two documents reinforces a narrative that is familiar to the OECD around knowledge economy proxies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Contrary to common assumptions, the vast majority of the world's refugees reside in neighbouring countries in the Global South. This paper explores the complex interaction of global vocational education policies with the local realities of five communities within the under-researched yet highly relevant refugee context of India, across three major cities. It examines whether the stated policy purpose of VET addresses the practical requirements and aspirations of refugees. Drawing on interviews, focus groups, and participatory drawing with 66 respondents from Afghan, Rohingya, Somali, Chin, and Tibetan communities, and staff members from refugee organisations, this paper argues for a move away from the unidimensional goal of economic self-reliance for refugees. By bridging the capabilities approach with intersectionality, the paper calls attention to, and draws policy suggestions for, increment and diversification of VET opportunities to address multiple facets of refugees' lives, and their inclusion in national VET institutions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The role of schools in developing a sense of common British identity has taken centre stage in the face of 'racialised' accounts of violence during the twenty first century. In this paper, we argue that certain British education policy documents can be understood as hegemonic interventions seeking to resolve ambiguities surrounding constructions of British identity. We do so by examining the Department for Education (DfE) 'Fundamental British Values' (FBV) guidance within the context of its relationship to the Prevent Duty anti-terrorism programme as well as the 'Political impartiality in schools' guidance released by the DfE in 2022. Utilising Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) and applying Laclau and Mouffe (2014/1985) conception of hegemony with Hall's (2021/2000) claim that 'Britishness' is an empty signifier, this paper argues that the ambiguities of 'Britishness' present a number of opportunities for power to be exercised and consolidated. Finally, we explore the possible implications for demands to 'decolonise the curriculum' within schools' existing duties and propose possible structural limits placed upon these demands by said duties. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper investigates practitioners' perspectives on the Early Years Pupil Premium (EYPP) and its use for looked after children (LAC) in England. The paper considers what practitioners in one Local Authority (LA) think now that the funding has passed its infancy. Specifically, does EYPP funding help 'close the gap' for LAC? Q-methodology was used to investigate 19 practitioners' perspectives; all were owners or managers in 19 different settings. This approach was complemented with a questionnaire survey and focus groups held with 14 practitioners in 13 different settings in the same LA. The findings revealed that practitioners consistently focused on whether all LAC should be eligible for this funding and/or whether the funding is able to 'close the gap' between them and their peers. It concludes that EYPP funding can support 'closing the gap' for LAC with developmental delay, but its purpose needs to be clarified. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores curiosity of Further Education (FE) lecturers in the United Kingdom through personal narratives and focused group discussions. The paper identifies how curiosity is viewed by FE lecturers as a positive trait for learners to possess, yet when discussing their own curiosities, views changed. Narratives emerge of curiosity being more of a problematic trait to possess whilst lecturing within the business-like structures and an outcome driven environment of FE. The lack of space for lecturer's curiosity was viewed not as a specific institutions problem, but as a system wide problem across the culture of FE. Lecturers felt that creating curiosity, created more work for themselves and was neither celebrated nor embraced within their FE settings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reports the findings of a systematic review of qualitative research exploring the views and experiences of pupils moving from primary to secondary school in England. The concept of transition is explored before a brief discussion of the policy and legislation surrounding educational transition. The Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) framework was used to ensure a systematic search, following which seven papers were identified. These were reviewed and appraised using the Critical Appraisal Skills Programme checklist. Analysis of the literature using thematic synthesis identified key concerns for children who had undergone transition from primary to secondary school and factors that supported this. A key theme highlighted was that of relationships, suggesting this as an area that would benefit from further support. Additional factors including emotions, identity, environment and strategies/recommendations were explored. This review is relevant for professionals working with children who will, or have, undergone the transition from primary to secondary school, and explores recommendations to support this transition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the use of creative techniques in a study of the experiences of Russian-speaking linguistic-minority migrant children in English state-funded primary schools at Key Stage Two (7-11 years old). The methodology is based on an interpretative paradigm using a qualitative research approach: a longitudinal multiple-case study with four embedded cases (each case representing one pupil). Focusing on specific examples from the research, the paper considers the benefits of using creative techniques within interviews to generate unique data with linguistic-minority pupils, the constraints of the techniques, and possible solutions for these. The cyclic (i.e. rounds of repeated interviews) research design, which focused on the processes of change, called for systematic alternation of the techniques. I demonstrate the unique integration of board games (the 'interview-through-game') and the 'filling-in exercise' in the interviews. This enabled a continuous adjustment of the techniques by me and by the children, retaining both the systematicity and flexibility (or constraint and emergence) of the creative techniques' development and application. This design helped to reveal the experiences/issues of the participating children, which would otherwise be challenging to explore using other methods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper contributes a discursive perspective on how academics employ self-deprecating humour and laughter to talk about and construct the struggles they faced in academia. Underpinned by ethnomethodological approaches to studying spoken interactions, the paper argues that just as utterances accomplish social actions, academic struggles are discursively constructed. The data came from 30 qualitative interviews with academics working in applied linguistics and related fields in the UK. They ranged from early career researchers to professor emeritus. Drawing insights from higher education studies, pragmatics and interactional linguistics, the paper examines how speakers employed self-deprecating humour and laughter as interactional resources and pragmatic strategies to co-construct understanding, negotiate positioning and enact certain identities in an interview. It also adds a new dimension to higher education studies; in particular, how academics construct their identities through the ways they talked about academic work-related struggles. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Drawing on data from a study of the changing landscape for teachers' professional development (PD) in England, this paper addresses the provision of PD for teachers in schools serving high-poverty communities designated as 'Opportunity Areas'. Beginning with critical examination of relationships between teaching quality and social mobility, the paper reports on the analysis of organisations that won funding in the first round of the Teaching and Leadership Innovation Fund (TLIF), offered by the UK government in 2017. The paper shows how an economistic link between teaching 'quality' and the political imperative of 'social mobility' has restricted the provision of continuing PD for teachers in public schools, narrowing the scope of training to practices that have the capacity to further disadvantage children and young people experiencing economic and social inequity. As such, the CPD provision for teachers in these areas has the potential to reproduce rather than transform existing educational opportunities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The concept of capital has risen in prominence within educational policy and practice in the UK since Ofsted introduced cultural capital into its inspection processes in 2019. At the same time, fractured discourses exist across different types of capital – one of which concerns capitals that are negative in constitution and/or impact. This paper addresses both through: A systematic literature review of these negativities (in social, economic, and intellectual capital) and a thematic analysis of these papers, leading to the derivation of a definition of negative capital. An evaluation of the merit of negative capital via its compatibility with Bourdieu's concepts of social field, social field homology, habitus, and hysteresis. The application of negative capital to a range of examples from educational practice and theory, including a challenge to Ofsted's use of cultural capital. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Each year, the British Educational Research Association (BERA) Physical Education and Sport Pedagogy Special Interest Group organises an Invisible College which precedes the annual BERA conference. The day opens with a Scholar Lecture which is delivered by an academic who has made a significant contribution to the field. This paper represents the 2019 Scholar Lecture, which charts the journey of health within physical education over recent decades through to the present day. Whilst the notion of maintaining health through physical education is long standing and contributing to healthy active lifestyles is generally accepted to be a key goal of the subject, it is argued that the road to securing and retaining the position of health within the curriculum has at times been tricky to navigate. There have certainly been many successes en route, but equally some challenges and seemingly even a few obstacles and diversions. Specifically, this paper outlines the journey of health from the 1980s, during which time there was revived interest in health and a significant growth in health-related courses within physical education curricula within and beyond the United Kingdom. This coincided with the introduction of the National Curriculum in England and Wales, as well as with my own doctoral studies and initial physical education practice. Consequently, I highlight key influences and influencers in the area and on my thinking during this period, as well as some of the key developments, outcomes and messages emanating from this early work. Equally, I explore some of the issues and challenges health and health-related learning within physical education have and continue to face. The paper then turns to focus on recent progress and positive developments in the area and concludes with some proposed future directions for research and practice and reflections on the next leg of the journey for health within physical education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper starts by reporting on the design and trialling of an informal, low-stakes test designed to assess the knowledge of grammar terms of pre-service primary school teachers following the UK's National Curriculum, the results of which were used to inform the design of a series of optional grammar classes. The test proved surprisingly difficult to design, and the final version contains many flaws, some predictable and some less so. In this paper we describe the design process and illustrate the difficulties we encountered, using evidence from our contemporaneous discussions and notes, as well as qualitative feedback and selected results from student teachers' test scores. We speculate on the extent to which the problems of our test reflect underlying issues with our understanding of the nature of declarative grammatical knowledge; these issues are likely to be relevant in all contexts where formal grammar is taught. We also draw out specific implications for the grammatical framework used in the English National Curriculum, and the associated tests of grammar, punctuation and spelling currently in use. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The utilisation of non-formal educational methods has long been advocated as a means of supporting marginalised young people. For many in this cohort, the adverse social circumstances that confront them can limit their sense of hope and leave them susceptible to educational under-achievement and/or engagement in anti-social behaviour. Research indicates that sport can act as an effective back-drop for the promotion of non-formal educational programmes especially in relation to marginalised youth. However, there is contention over the role that such programmes play in providing a foundation for enhanced aspirational goals and social integration. Drawing upon research conducted on one UK-based sporting intervention, this paper explores how project engagement enabled participants to enhance their sense of hope, especially around education, training and employment. In so doing the paper demonstrates how the pedagogical approach adopted by project staff, drew parallels with critical education, and nurtured an increased sense of hope amongst participants. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper focuses on Pictures for Schools, an art patronage scheme established in postwar Britain by the artist and educationalist Nan Youngman (1906–1995) to sell affordable works of art to educational establishments. Highlighting the use of works of art as a pedagogical tool, Pictures for Schools is contextualised within a wider programme of visual education, which encouraged citizens to be critical observers of the places and objects which surrounded them everyday in postwar Britain. The paper explores the ways in which artworks offered children a critical education across two types of educational spaces, the classroom and the art gallery. Using material from Youngman's archives, it visits a series of educational spaces where, in the decade leading up to the Second World War, and influenced by the educationalists Marion Richardson and Henry Morris, Youngman established the the value of the active, participatory form of art education she later promoted through Pictures for Schools. The paper then explores the ways in which Pictures for Schools worked to develop children's skills as critical observers. At the first Pictures for Schools exhibition, held in 1947 at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, children voted for their favourite exhibit. At later exhibitions, held annually until 1969, children were given questionnaires which encouraged them to look closely at the artworks. This paper argues that in doing this, Pictures for Schools aimed to develop the critical capacities of future citizens who were asked to play an active part in postwar reconstruction and society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

School leaders in England have a huge task to mediate factors in a school's environment (regulatory/legal and institutional). Rapid and sometimes conflicting policy agendas for improved performance have become a main preoccupation of school leaders as they jostle to keep their jobs as they wrestle to implement the latest government mandate. As a result, many school leaders ignore, at best, or are unprepared for, at worse, how to deal with institutional impacts and challenges associated with unprecedented levels of migration, and race discrimination. This is compounded by school leaders' lack of understanding of, for example, personal and structural racism, and how these collude against attempts to build racially inclusive school environments. Through an ecological model this paper argues that in spite of performativity pressures, school leaders should develop skills, attributes and knowledge in areas of curriculum diversity, recruitment and career progression, leading change for race diversity that (i) reflects the contexts within which they live and work, and that (ii) empowers them to more effectively serve their institutions. The paper asserts that 'anti-racist' training for school leaders should be central to ongoing professional development efforts, especially in multi-cultural, multi-racial and multi-ethnic societies/educational environments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Shortly after taking power following the May 2010 UK general election, the Conservative/Liberal Democrat government published its education white paper, The Importance of Teaching. In this, certain features for primary school pedagogy can be discerned. Using the lens of the “position call”, this article examines the discourses implicated in the white paper to highlight the position calls offered to the primary profession concerning pedagogy. These are compared to those made by New Labour in its previous 13 years in power. Accordingly, the article proposes that whilst the previous administration offered the position calls for primary education of pedagogy as collective craft and pedagogy as collective performance, continuity and discontinuity can be seen in the recent white paper, namely that the position calls now being made are for pedagogy as individual craft and pedagogy as individual performance. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

National styles of 'doing sociology' exist, all celebrating respective 'founding fathers'. Timid, British pragmatism has tended to misrecognise Durkheim ever since our barely transcended early 20th century origins. In relatively low-status teacher education, even when sociology of education was popularly taught from the late sixties through the seventies, Durkheim was presented as a conservative anti-hero. The only important exception to this condition was the teaching and research of Basil Bernstein, unfortunately buried by the excesses both of 'New Directions' and the neo-Marxisms which recoiled from it in the seventies. His always numerous and active group of research students became the main carriers of his voice. There are now some signs that failure strewn, maligned and substantially dispersed sociology of education is evincing fresh interest in his and Durkheim's work. Bernstein's interest, since the middle 1950s, has been the study of symbolic systems which function as pedagogic relays. He alone in modern sociology has attempted to move from the seconds that make up the classroom moment, through institutional to societal power structures, in a way that not only insists on conceptual consistency but thinks it not worth having unless it produces both models and empirical markers. This paper first appeared as: Brian Davies (1994) Durkheim and the Sociology of Education in Britain, British Journal of Sociology of Education, 15:1, 3-25, DOI: (see ). I am very grateful to Taylor & Francis for their permission to reproduce this paper in this journal. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Community-based interventions have long been seen as mechanisms via which to target marginalised youth in relation to personal development. Research surrounding such interventions has often highlighted the promotion of a range of pro-social behaviours and attributes which, in turn, facilitate an increased sense of social inclusion. This paper seeks to build upon and extend this literature by adopting the concept of social capital to infer how participation in sport and performing arts programmes may enable marginalised youth to access wider support networks. Drawing upon qualitative findings from a small-scale study of one community-based intervention located in the UK, the paper explores broader notions of personal development in relation to educational and employment pathways whilst at the same time developing understandings of the processes through which such programmes might support social inclusion and social mobility. The paper concludes that when marginalised young people are presented with the opportunity to generate positive interpersonal relationships built upon trust, recognition and acceptance, there is clear potential for community-based activity interventions to act as a form of education to enhance employability and incubate social mobility through the accrual of social capital. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the impact of selection by ability in schooling systems on individual lives. It draws on narratives collected with a group of 18 people (accessed through a local U3A group) who were at school in Britain in a period from the 1940s through to the 1960s. This period saw significant changes in society and to schooling following the 1944 Education Act and the so-called tripartite school system which ensued. Drawing on the concept of the 'sociological imagination', the 'personal troubles' of individuals are drawn together with the 'public issue' of a national schooling system that segregated children by ability. Analysis of the narratives reveals the selection tests based on ability (the 11+) to be a key fulcrum in all their lives. The paper contributes to ongoing debates about selection, equity and social justice in contemporary schooling systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The focus of this paper is the history of how special needs technology in the UK was developed for people with special educational needs between 1970 and 1999. Despite the proclaimed potential of technology, this context and period has undergone very little historical examination. This paper will draw on interviews with 52 experienced professionals in order to illuminate this history. Analysis will attempt to extend our understanding of the perceived transformative potential of technologies and the factors that influenced the actual transformative potential of technologies. In particular the analysis will focus on three particular kinds of transformations: a transformation of the micro-technology industry; a transformation of teaching practice and a transformation of experience of special educational needs/disability. These three transformations and the potential tensions between them will be illuminated through two themes: 'Entrepreneurialism versus Creativity' and '"Miracle Cure" versus "Just a Tool"'. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent decades children's rights to exercise choice in educational settings have slowly gained currency. Children's rights advocates highlight the role of choice in empowering children to become critical and productive citizens. However, in this paper, the role of choice in interactions between teachers and students is problematised. Using Foucault's notion of governmentality, the paper explores 15 teachers' use of choice in classrooms and considers how 'student choice' can, far from empowering children, be used as a way of reinforcing extant adult-child power relations. The paper argues that students are often responsibilised to exercise choice wisely in order that they find themselves in a position in which they can enjoy everyday classroom privileges disseminated by the educator. When used this in way, the strategy of affording students 'choice' can frame students' transgressions as individual failings to conform. The paper concludes that practitioners who advocate children's rights need to reflect on the relationship between notions of choice and institutional power relations in order to ensure choice is used in a way that leaves space for power relations to be challenged by the students being asked to 'choose'. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent decades have seen the evolution of UK business schools into international mass education providers. This transformation has developed against a background of institutional changes that jeopardise work conditions in academia. As few studies have examined the relationships between organisational, social and psychological aspects of academic work life, this paper employs the Job Demands-Resources (JD-R) model to explore empirically the interplay between business school workplace conditions, burnout and retention rates, based on a national sample. We show that higher demands and lower resources are significant in increasing burnout and turnover, whereas the 'metrics' culture has done much to increase workloads and reduce academic freedom and workplace support. These negative impacts can be offset by creating a collegiate and engaged work environment that promotes greater skills utilisation, autonomy and recognition. Such findings are reported for the first time in the literature with important implications for higher education and the academic community. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The well-established yet under-theorised body of 'Traditional International Schools' warrant much greater sociological analysis and inquiry as 'elite' educational institutions. This paper uses Basil Bernstein's Sociology of the School to discuss the 'expressive culture' of such schools, representing an idealised model of conduct, character and manner. The role of rituals in transmitting this culture is discussed by applying Randall Collins' Interaction Ritual Chain Theory showing how every-day festivals and fundraising events (commonly conceptualised as forming the 'Five Fs') can help build up positive emotional energy, which can be used to facilitate action, and embed the expressive culture. Maurice Halbwachs' concept of Collective Memory is then used to show how interaction rituals can deliver a permanent group recollection, essential for enduring class solidarity and cohesion. Overall, an introductory and coherent theoretical framework for identifying a Sociology of International Schoolingis presented, focusing on what aspects of the schooling experience makmakes it an attractive and elite, privileged one. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Whilst the importance of engaging with children's voices is now more widely recognized, there is still a dearth of representation of younger children's voices specifically. Visual methodological tools, such as photo-elicitation and photo-voice are used in research; however, there remains a lack of clarity about what they mean, how they are used, and whether they are effective in providing valuable insights into younger children's everyday worlds. This paper draws on the findings of two research projects utilizing the tools to engage with the voices of 56 children aged four to five years, in the classes of three schools in the UK. It identifies the differences between photo-elicitation and photo-voice and appraises their advantages and limitations when engaging with child voice. It explores whether through careful, critical and conscientious application, these tools might advance understandings of younger children's perceptions of matters affecting them. The definition of photo-elicitation is the insertion of a photograph by the researcher into a research interview to evoke information, feelings, and memories due to the photograph's particular form of representation; photo-voice is defined as a technique that enables people to record their own photographs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the historical relationship between the expansion of the UK HE system through sectorial diversification, processes of differentiation/convergence and (in)equalities since the 1960s. It examines the extent to which the connections and tensions between three stories of resource, mission and social differentiations might be influenced (alongside other forces) by the emergence and crisis of successive socio-economic regimes. The empirical analysis of the three types of differentiation compares and contrasts new historical data on funding, enrolment and qualifications for the whole system and its institutional segments. The analysis shows that the ongoing tensions between resource, mission and social differentiations were exacerbated by the effect of the crises of 1973 and 2008 which provoked their misalignment and the destabilisation of the phases of expansion started in the 1960s and the 1990s. This pleads for a new social compromise to overcome the 2008 crisis to which a new HE expansion based on a realignment of, rather than a trade-off between the three dimensions of differentiation might contribute. This realignment requires a reversal of the public/private substitution of funding ensuring that a less unequal resource differentiation reflects and drives fairer processes of mission differentiation or convergence rather than stratifying social inequalities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Today, the engineering landscape is continually changing, and Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) have a responsibility to design curricula that address the growing demands of various industry sectors. Likewise, the roles and responsibilities of an engineer are evolving; requiring a further broadening of the current engineering curriculum. As a profession, engineering draws upon broad interdisciplinary knowledge, and when training twenty-first-century engineers, universities should follow a more comprehensive teaching and learning approach, with a focus on both technical and soft skills including the integration of leadership into engineering curricula. However, the spectrum of engineering leadership is not well-defined. Leadership is one of the most widely sought-after skills in the Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) industries; it is, therefore, clear that more investigation needs to be carried out into this area of engineering pedagogy. One of the most distinct gaps in the literature is that there is little or no consensus on what approaches should be undertaken to integrate leadership in engineering courses by those in academia. This paper seeks to shed light on some of these gaps, with the primary objective of the evaluation of the current state of leadership education using a nation-wide sample of BEng1 Electronic Engineering course structures and contents at Russell Group2 universities in the UK. It highlights the case study of the University of York, where there is a strong emphasis on the integration of engineering leadership and management skills within the current BEng Electronic Engineering course structure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Among the navy officers sent by the Chinese government to study in Europe in 1886, Lo Tsong Yao and Chang Ping Kui were the only two that pursued a systematic legal education at the Middle Temple in London, and were successfully called to the English Bar to attain the coveted title of Barristers at Law, a first of such achievements in the history of the Chinese Navy. Upon their return to China, Lo went on to be an outstanding diplomat while Chang pursued a career as a Qing Government educational official. Their experience was undoubtedly of great historical value, yet official records kept in relation to the Chinese Educational Mission in Europe did not contain any detail as to their precise course of study and academic achievements in London. This paper thus attempts to fill this void by tracing these two navy scholars' footprints in England to map out their legal education trajectory at the Middle Temple, in a bid to uncover a chapter in the buried history of how China's early navy officers and diplomats were educated and trained in London's Inn of Court. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores doctoral candidates' experiences of making progress through the doctoral space. We engage concepts associated with the 'new mobilities' paradigm (Urry, J. 2007. Mobilities. Cambridge: Polity Press) to provide insight into the candidate experience of the doctoral journey; exploring specifically the interplay between the fixed structure provided by institutional-level progression frameworks that are commonly implemented by UK universities to measure 'timely progress' across disciplines and the borderlands space that enables and facilitates intellectual freedom, creativity, becoming and adventure. Drawing on notions of 'moorings', 'home on the move', 'connectivity and transit spaces' and 'rhizomic thinking' we analyse narrative data generated through the reflective diaries of doctoral candidates at a modern university in the English Midlands to offer new insight into how universities can provide better doctoral education, that supports: candidates to make a contribution to knowledge; protects well-being; and facilitates timely completion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Neoliberalisation of academia has led to an increasing recruitment of doctoral students in teaching roles. Whilst there is evidence of doctoral students being engaged in teaching roles and the reasons for doing so, there is a pressing need to understand their experiences and to develop effective support practices to help them in their roles as teachers. Using borderlands theory as a lens, the thematic analysis of case study data from doctoral students in two English universities indicates that although they were navigating similar borderlands, the structural inequalities posed by their institutions led to differential support for their teaching roles and teacher identity development. The paper highlights the need for aligning doctoral roles to academic roles. It concludes by challenging the precarious support available for doctoral students, and proposes recommendations for the holistic development of doctoral students as competent and successful teachers (and researchers) in an increasingly precarious academia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Until recently teacher education in England has always contained a 'philosophical' element – to do with what education is for in the light of human nature. The paper traces its history since 1839, through inspirational approaches – based first on religion and later on psychology – to the critical approach of R S Peters and his colleagues in the 1960s. It then looks at the existential crisis faced by this kind of philosophy of education after changes in education policy in the 1980s; and at ways it has found of overcoming it – at the expense, however, of partially turning away from its earlier raison d'être in teacher education. The paper concludes with a discussion of what would be needed for it to resume its old role. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Young people whose behaviour does not conform to our expectations of how pupils should behave within an educational context have had a variety of labels attached to them including: Social, Emotional and Behavioural Difficulties (SEBD), and Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). The employment of such labels will shape how the young person is perceived by the adults surrounding them. This will not only have an impact on the relationships that are developed between the pupil and the educator but also how the young people see themselves in terms of their own identity. This paper seeks to give voice and explore the position of young people within the confines of their educational experiences. The paper draws on 13 in-depth case studies to reflect on how young people experience the SEBD labels attached to them by others and what pupils consider to be the main antecedents leading them to display behaviour which is deemed unacceptable in the classroom. The paper highlights the importance of providing opportunities for young people to have their voice heard to fill the gap between professional perceptions and those of the pupil. In order to truly understand why young people display behaviour that is considered difficult and how they experience the labels we attach to them we have to speak to young people themselves. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reveals the complex diversity that underpins ostensibly similar transnational education programmes (TNE), through a comparison of UK TNE in Malaysia and Hong Kong. It draws on data from two different yet cognate studies on the role of UK universities in delivering higher education in Asia. Some fine-grained and informative differences between the ways in which 'value' in TNE is constructed in different host contexts is revealed. The paper brings to light the 'voices' of TNE students and graduates, which are very seldom heard. The arguments adapt and extend the concepts of education as a positional good, and as cultural capital. For various instrumental, intrinsic and personal reasons the authors discuss in detail, UK TNE is more highly valued in Malaysia than in Hong Kong. The paper makes a wider contribution to knowledge on the changing landscape of international higher education and the impact on social and personal (dis)advantage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since the turn of the century, there have been frequent expressions of concern about a perceived lack of creativity in UK schools, in both curriculum content and in teaching. Recently, as the emphasis on mathematics, science and technology has strengthened, serious concerns have also been expressed about the marginalisation of the arts and creativity in schools. In the light of these concerns, this paper reports in-depth, qualitative research into the pedagogies of practising artists experienced in working with young people and highly valued by the schools that employ them. We use the notion of ‘signature pedagogies’ to argue that the artist–teachers adopted a particular stance and set of pedagogic practices that are coherent and distinctively different to those that are currently officially promoted in UK schools, and that this distinctive pedagogy enhanced both creative practice and engagement in the arts in the schools in which the artists worked. In this paper, we identify the signature pedagogies of the artists, theorise their stance and argue that the findings of our study provide a heuristic which can be valuable to all teachers who are interested in expanding their teaching repertoires and fostering students’ creativity. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Secondary sources are used in this paper to highlight how African Caribbean pupils and students - the Black British-born descendants of post-war Caribbean migrants - are victims of symbolic violence, because they are denied the educational capital needed to improve their social status. Since African Caribbean children entered the 1960s British educational sector, their learning has been perceived as problematic by the State. Although assimilation, integration and multicultural education policies were implemented to supposedly address the ‘problem’ of educating Black children, subsequent government reports identified racism as a significant barrier in their education. I argue here that the contemporary marketisation of education makes it increasingly difficult to distinguish between racism and competition, as causal factors of ethnic differences in educational attainment. Moreover, due to increasing private sector intervention and decreasing mediation by the State, racism is now hidden within the vicissitudes of the educational market. School exclusions and discriminatory practices in universities are viewed in this paper as major barriers to the economic success and future social mobility of Black Caribbean pupils and students. I conclude by suggesting that marketisation policies can be appropriated to ameliorate racism in education, but only if the political will to do so exists. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Higher education's policy demands and pedagogical practices often take as their ‘desirable’ subject an unspecified body, failing to interrogate who the student is (and is not) in relation to differentiated access to power, privilege, and opportunity structures. This paper offers a feminist critique of such decontextualised theorisations of students and their critical thinking. Observation, focus group and interview data were collected with undergraduate social-science students at a UK university. This data revealed how students experience critical thinking as embodied, contingent and specifically gendered - with 90% of students naming a male when asked to describe a critical thinker. Consequently, this paper argues that who occupies a desirable position as a student critical thinker is not neutral or given, but intersects with students’ embodied characteristics and the (increasingly divisive) socio-political context in which criticality is performed. Access to this key intellectual premium is therefore differentiated, raising questions around epistemic inclusion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reviews recent policy understandings of research capacity in teacher education in the UK. It then draws on a case study from Wales to suggest a conceptualisation of research capacity-building in teacher education that encompasses individual, organisational and systemic levels while remaining sensitive to the particulars of professional practice in teacher education. We argue that a healthy ecology of research-rich teacher education practice and policy includes teacher educators based in universities, schools, colleges or other settings, teachers and other education practitioners, students, school management, governors, local authorities, policy makers, research funders, publishers. We recommend a principled approach to public investment in capacity-building initiatives that embraces a vision of collaborative research-rich professional practice and professional development along all career stages, and commits to sustaining more expansive understandings of research culture in organisations, matched by appropriate recognition mechanisms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A study of nine headteachers in England, using a research protocol developed and carried out in Ontario, finds implications for the professional development of school leaders with respect to their decision-making to achieve greater equity. The types of professional development that leaders found to be most effective within their particular contexts are identified. The challenges faced by school leaders are explored in relation to their efforts to reduce context-specific achievement gaps. The data generated from semi-structured interviews are examined within the context of the English school system, which is highly neoliberalised and has a performative driven policy landscape. The impact of this context on the practice of school leadership for social justice is discussed and, in particular, how data-based decision-making can be improved through professional development in order to achieve more equitable outcomes, especially for disadvantaged students. The paper has relevance for practitioners in how its findings illuminate professional development practices that school leaders might benefit from and from an argument that reflective and reflexive school leaders are more likely to make objective, critically informed decisions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Evidence from large-scale studies of primary and secondary students’ technology practices at school over the last decade show disparities in student practices and suggest that schools need to do more to cater for all students. Research that explores the influence of social and cultural factors may be useful for understanding such inequality in student practice. Bourdieu’s theory of practice [(1977). Outline of a Theory of Practice. London: Cambridge University Press] is proposed as an example of a sociological theory that can be adopted in educational technology research to move towards understanding the wider complexities of technology practice. To encourage discourse and application of Bourdieu’s sociology in the field of educational technology research, this paper provides an introduction to the theory, a review of its application in research of primary and secondary students’ technology practice and relevant conceptual work. The paper presents a conceptual framework based on Bourdieu’s theory that has been developed through two recent studies, and review of empirical and conceptual works and invites its application in future research so that it can be critiqued and further developed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the structural constraints of contemporary approaches to media literacy in the face of increased partisanship, tribalism, and distrust. In the midst of a renewed call for media literacy initiatives that respond to the increasing levels of distrust in both legacy and grassroots media, this paper argues that media literacy interventions must be re-imagined as intentionally civic. A new set of emerging norms of digital culture further put into question the relevance of long-standing approaches to media literacy pedagogy and practice. This essay puts forward a new set of constructs that position media literacy initiatives to ‘produce and reproduce the sense of being in the world with others toward common good’ (Gordon, E., and P. Mihailidis. 2016. “Introduction.” In Civic Media: Technology, Design, Practice, edited by E. Gordon and P. Mihailidis. Cambridge: MIT Press, 2). These constructs - agency, caring, critical consciousness, persistence, and emancipation - reframe media literacy as relevant to the social, political, and technological realities of contemporary life. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper argues that Gypsy students in primary and secondary education in the UK are marginalised because of ambiguous understandings of their 'mobility'. Drawing on research conducted on the south coast of England, it examines Gypsy families' experiences of education. Despite often describing their identity in relation to travelling or mobility, few families' lifestyles were characterised by actual movement or nomadism. Teachers and educationalists meanwhile cite the need to deliver a 'mobile' rather than a 'sedentary' education for Gypsy students. The Department for Communities and Local Government recently defined Gypsy ethnicity in direct relation to a nomadic lifestyle. This is problematic as the association between Gypsy ethnicity and nomadism is itself questionable and may be better understood in more nuanced terms reflecting the relationship between identity and 'mobility'. This paper argues that 'mobility' is understood to define Gypsy difference in a way that excludes students. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Omitted prior achievement bias is pervasive in international assessment studies and precludes causal inference. For example, reported negative associations between student-oriented teaching strategies and student performance are against expectations and might actually reflect omitted prior achievement bias. Namely, that these teaching strategies are negatively correlated with unobserved prior achievement performance, because teachers offer more support to lower performing students, and not that these strategiescauselower performance. This paper examines omitted prior achievement bias in teaching effects with prior achievement data available for students in England participating in the Progress in International Reading Literacy Study. Further, it proposes an analytical approach to account for omitted prior achievement bias in international estimates. The paper argues that the bias is not simply a technical artefact, but reflects educational mechanisms unobserved in international assessment studies, which can be captured with matched assessment data-sets or with evidence from previous studies. Estimates of these mechanisms can be used to postulate scenarios of the bias across education systems and thereby adjust international estimates of teaching effects as if prior achievement were observed. Potentials and limitations of this approach for studying educational effectiveness with international assessment data are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In the UK, there has been growing concern about young people’s understanding of sexual consent, with the views of young people themselves often lost in academic and educational policy debates. However, the focus on high rates of sexual violence has meant a lack of attention on the everyday negotiation of consensual heterosexual activity, leading to assumptions being made regarding young people’s lack of understanding of sexual consent. This paper emerges from a wider study of over 500 young people which sought to uncover their understanding of the issues. Drawing on data from workshops and the open text responses to an on-line survey the findings presented in this paper show that the majority of heterosexual young people understood the complexity of sexual consent as an embodied process, which can be difficult to define, talk about or practice uniformly. This complex understanding, in which sexual consent is a continuum rather than a dichotomy, has implications for sexual education initiatives. We argue that it is only by providing a closer understanding of how – within consensual sexual activities – young people understand and enact sexual consent through a range of embodied communication strategies that education surrounding sexual assault will become meaningful. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper reports on what has happened since Elliott (“Dynamic Assessment in Educational Settings: Realising Potential”, 2003) in those applications of dynamic assessment that he considered. There continues to be two broad applications, one, largely researcher led, and the other, largely practitioner led, although there are examples of researcher–practitioners. Since Elliott, arguably, it is now relatively easy both to reach consensus over constructs and assessment processes and also to mutually respect differences through clarity over professional and assessment purposes. There is a fuller account than Elliott provided of educational psychologists’ practice in the UK, which partly serves to highlight the difference in purpose and imperative to research and evaluate outcomes that persists for researchers and practitioners. The paper concludes by arguing that the premise in Elliott’s title of “realising potential” was always contestable. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Shena Simon (1883–1972), a leading English socialist and educationist, actively called for the reform of secondary education in the 1930s and 1940s in order to bring the ideal of ‘equality of opportunity’ into the English educational system. This paper explores the continuity and changes in Simon’s proposed reforms in relation to her ideals of social democracy from the appearance of the Spens Report (1938) to the publication of her book,Three Schools or One?(1948). In addition, Simon’s transnational visits to the Soviet Union, the USA and Scotland, as well as the impact of her international and comparative perspectives on different educational systems on her policy agenda, are also examined. It concludes that as many policy issues shown in the current paper continue to be debated, Simon’s democratic ideals and discourses are still relevant in the present and suggest implications for the future of secondary education in England. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This article considers questions of ‘employability’, a notion foregrounded in the Green and White Papers on the Teaching Excellence Framework (TEF). The paper first questions government imperatives concerning employability and suggests a series of mismatches that are evident in the rhetorics in this area. This summary opens up elements of what I am calling the first ‘folly’ in the field. The second section of the paper considers recent research with individual academics engaged in employability activity. This research suggests another series of mismatches in the aims and outcomes of ‘employability initiatives’ and opens up a further series of ‘follies’ in the day-to-day practices of academics and students’ responses to them. The third section of the paper turns to academics’ reports of student behaviour in relation to the outcomes of their degree. This section develops an argument that relates to the final ‘folly’ associated with the current focus on employability. I argue that students’ focus on outcomes (which at face value suggests they have internalized the importance of employment) is contributing to the production of graduates who do not have the dispositions that employers – when interviewed – say that they want. The highly performative culture of higher education, encouraged by the same metrics that will be extended through the TEF, is implicated then innotpreparing students for the workplace. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The arrival of the term Geographical Information System (GIS) in the 1960s soon created a demand for training and education in the use of this specialist hardware and software. Initially the main focus was on training people to use GIS, formal named degree programmes leading to postgraduate and undergraduate qualifications arrived later. This paper explores the changing landscape of U.K. degree level GIS education drawing on contemporary information from Higher Education Institution websites and a case study of the first single honours degree in GIS in Europe. The paper identifies a rise and fall in the number of named undergraduate “GIS” degrees since the late 1980s sandwiched between the continuation and development of postgraduate qualifications. In parallel with this trend the teaching and learning of GIS skills has emerged as a core component of undergraduate degree programmes with “Geography” in their title and in national school and degree level benchmarking statements for the discipline. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Preschool teachers' domain-specific professional knowledge is assumed to play an important role in the quality of early childhood education and thus in young children's learning in different areas. Due to a lack of adequate instruments little is known about preschool teachers' science-specific knowledge. In order to develop such a test instrument, we reviewed the literature on preschool teachers' professional knowledge. On the basis of our literature review, we conceptualized preschool teachers' science-specific content knowledge (concepts and inquiry) and pedagogical content knowledge. Drawing on this conceptualization, we developed a first version of a paper-and-pencil test focusing on physical and chemical contents, which was administered to a sample of N = 318 German preschool teachers. The test showed acceptable-to-satisfactory reliability. In addition, we present indicators for the validity of our test instrument. Results of confirmatory factor analyses indicated that preschool teachers' science-specific content knowledge of concepts, content knowledge about inquiry, and pedagogical content knowledge were empirically separable, but with high latent correlations. Further development of standardized instruments is a prerequisite to generate more knowledge regarding preschool teachers' science-specific knowledge, for instance concerning effects on instructional quality and effects of professional development programs for preschool teachers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Previous papers in these pages have dealt empirically with the child's first words, the child's first imitations, and the use of yes/no and wh-questions with infants. In this study, we touch on all these issues, but attempt to place them in a systemic-functional language framework and a cultural-historical learning one. First, we deal with some of Ruqaiya Hasan's acute criticisms of Vygotsky, using one of Vygotsky's untranslated last lectures to show that he was cognizant of some of these objections and moving to meet them. We then trace a child's responses to bilingual questions up to and including the moment when the child can answer. We find that the child doesn't learn by repeating words but instead by construing and re-enacting a whole interpersonal exchange. This appears to validate both the Halliday–Hasan critique of Vygotsky and Vygotsky's later approach. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper focuses on collaboration between Australian preschool and primary school teachers co-located on same sites, with a view to understanding and strengthening collaboration for supporting continuity of practice across preschool and primary school settings. Based on findings from a narrative inquiry study framed by Freire's notion of dialogic encounters, we examine teachers' challenges to collaboration within an Australian public education system, understood through their perspectives and enactment of their professional identities as collaborators in this physically shared space. We present a possible framework for creating a shared space in which preschool and primary teachers collaborate to support continuity of learning for children. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]