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Across the four UK jurisdictions, there are distinct disparities in exclusion rates of school students. Northern Ireland, alongside Scotland and Wales, has demonstrated over time, lower rates of permanent exclusions and temporary exclusions compared with England. This paper examines these disparities from the perspectives of representatives from various system-level educational bodies and third sector organisations representing children and families who experienced the exclusion process. The paper will also present policy and legal frameworks associated with exclusion in Northern Ireland. We interviewed 9 stakeholders, associated with practices of school exclusion in Northern Ireland, from a range of system-level education bodies and advocacy groups. Findings include positive strategies perceived to keep exclusion levels low, types of obstacles or resistance to anti-exclusion policy, participants' perspectives on unofficial exclusion practice, and perspectives on official exclusion data. What emerges from interviews is a series of tensions between implementing a child-centred approach and diminishing support services and resources. We conclude that those working within the Northern Ireland education system, are committed to an inclusive approach. However, the development and implementation of effective supporting frameworks take time and consultation, and there is evidence of tension between the perceptions of those working at a system-level and those working in schools. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For the ‘global middle classes’, cultural reproduction increasingly involves the international school as they promise considerable distinction [Bourdieu, P. 1984. Distinction: A Social Critique of the Judgement of Taste. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press] granting University passage past Anglo gate-keepers. This paper draws on research providing a multiphase exploration of the character of senior leadership in IB international schools. Participants emerged as white ‘English’ and Christian. However, data collected show that these leaders do not operationalise (organisational) international values; instead, they draw upon their own societal values in leadership. Yet, their stories and outlooks of global-mindedness sit uncritically, framed in ‘Inner Circle English’ [Kachru, B. 1985. “Standards, Codification and Sociolinguistic Realism: The English Language in the Outer Circle.” In English in the World: Teaching and Learning the Language and Literatures, edited by R. Quirk and H. G. Widdowson, 11-34. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press] advantage. Participants lean on a power-narrative of middle-class ‘Englishness’. As powerful policy-makers, this orientation defines the international school’s mission and vision. It appeals to the surge of international education, particularly in the global South, where international schools can be seen as incubators of ‘English’ epistemic advantage. It is unlikely that the consolidation of the ‘Brand of Britain’ will affect this demographic and their choices to ‘go UK’. The affordance of diminishing EU participation in the UK higher education system may work in favour of globalising middle classes and elites. Conversely, it is unlikely that lower income EU or UK domestic HE participation is likely to profit from this move. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates differences in higher education outcomes according to the qualifications with which students enter university. The study is situated in the context of increasing marketization, competition and privatization in post-16 qualifications, combined with an increase in students entering higher education with either vocational qualifications (e.g. the Business and Technology Education Council [BTEC] qualification) or a mix of academic and vocational qualifications. It draws upon literature on markets in education as well as studies on educational choice and pathways to examine whether different entry qualifications offer equal chances of success in higher education. Using multilevel logistic regression, the analysis examines the relationship between types of entry qualifications (academic, vocational and mixed) and the probability of achieving a first or upper-second class degree at university, which are associated with increased opportunities in the labour market and postgraduate study. Controlling for a range of demographic and institutional characteristics, the analysis identifies a strong decrease in the probability of a first or upper-second class degree for students who enter higher education with vocational qualifications. These results are discussed in relation to theories of markets in education and social class and education [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Mathematics is a central part of school curricula around the world. There has been much interest in linguistic aspects of the teaching and learning of mathematics, both from mathematics educators and from applied linguists. This short paper introduces a set of five articles exploring the intersection between these two communities. The articles all discuss two texts: an extract from the guidance issued to primary school mathematics teachers in the UK; and an extract from a primary school mathematics lesson. This paper begins by summarising some of the research on language in the mathematics classroom, before introducing the two texts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper draws on a longitudinal study of young people studying in further education in England to explore contradictions between the complex reasons why a small number of the sample dropped out without completing their courses and qualifications, and the simplistic funding and policy assumptions about such 'failures'. Current English policy assumes that retention and qualification achievement rates are appropriate measures of learning and of educational provision. Yet the stories presented here demonstrate that many of the factors influencing non-completion lie beyond the control of both the educational providers and the learners. Furthermore, from the perspective of the learner, there is little difference between changing educational or career intentions during or at the end of a course. Yet policy assumes that the former is dysfunctional and the latter unproblematic. Based upon our data, we argue that the causes of dropping out can best be explained in the context of an individual's learning career, which involves a complex combination of social and economic factors, individual preferences and beliefs, and contingency. Not only do current English policy approaches ignore this complexity; they also risk making things worse for a significant minority of students. The failure to acknowledge that dropping out is normal and appropriate for some, means that those who do drop out receive no help or support, except to stay on. Furthermore, there is a risk that educational providers will refuse to recruit students in 'at risk' categories, for fear that they will be judged adversely, should some of them eventually fail to complete. Finally, the audit obsession with retention and achievement rates blames either the individual student or the education and guidance providers for failure, thus rendering deeper inequalities, based on class, gender and ethnicity, invisible and harder to address. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) and Trends in Mathematics and Science Study are two highly respected studies of school pupils' academic achievement. English policy-makers have been disappointed with school children's performance on these tests, particularly in comparison to the strong results of young people from East Asia. In this paper, we provide new insight into the England-East Asia gap in school children's mathematics skills. We do so by considering how cross-national differences in math test scores change between ages 10 and 16. Our results suggest that, although average math test scores are higher in East Asian countries, this achievement gap does not increase between ages 10 and 16. We thus conclude that reforming the secondary school system may not be the most effective way for England to 'catch up' with the East Asian nations in the PISA math rankings. Rather, earlier intervention, during pre-school and primary school, may be needed instead. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Governments, international organizations and academics have, in recent decades, expressed a sense of crisis in the practice of democracy based largely upon increasing levels of disengagement by citizens from even the most basic elements of civic life. One response has been to devise civics and citizenship education curricula for schools with the concomitant expectations of enhanced civic practice. Our examination of citizenship education programs has revealed considerable variation from country to country in the degree of success achieved in the design, development and implementation of programs. This paper examines recent developments in citizenship education in four leading Western democracies - Australia, Canada, England and the USA; each one with its own particular successes and shortcomings. It identifies several factors associated with the successful building of curriculum capacity for citizenship education and argues that these are fundamental for countries wishing to move beyond rhetoric and toward substance in citizenship education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although there is widespread agreement that poverty and poor educational outcomes are related, there are different explanations about why that should be the case. The purpose of this paper is to provide a conceptual synthesis of some of the research literature on poverty and education. From our readings the debates cohere, to a greater or lesser extent, around three different foci: ones that focus on the individual and that we have termed the 'micro-level'; some that focus on 'immediate social contexts' that might be located in families, communities, schools and peer groups and that we have termed the 'meso-level'; and others again that focus on social structures and/or are linked to notions of power and inequality and that we have termed the 'macro-level'. In addition, the various literatures highlight a fundamental difference in the way they understood the role of education in producing what we might call the 'good society' - and hence what counts as 'good education'. These two broad positions we have termed as functionalist and socially critical perspectives and together with the micro-, meso- and macro-foci provide a mapping framework by which we organise the literature and through which we examine a number of educational policy interventions in England that have focused on educational outcomes and disadvantage/poverty. The analysis suggests that perhaps too much policy intervention focuses on the more accessible and amenable meso-level (and to lesser extent the micro-level) with too little emphasis on the macro-level. At the same time many interventions appear disjointed, often lack coherence and seem to eschew issues of power. Different ways of responding to these apparent deficiencies are explored through current developments and potential in full service extended schools and through notions of democratic pedagogy and governance possibilities suggestive of the 'new localism' agenda. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Much official environmental education policy in the UK and elsewhere makes scant reference to nature as such, and the issue of our underlying attitude towards it is rarely addressed. For the most part such policy is pre-occupied with the issue of meeting 'sustainably' what are taken to be present and future human needs. This paper considers several issues posed by this anthropocentric approach and explores the view that environmental education - indeed any education - worthy of the name needs to bring a range of searching questions concerning nature to the attention of learners, and to encourage them to develop their own on-going responses to those questions. It is argued that our present environmental predicament not only provides an exciting opportunity to re-focus education on the issue of human relationship to nature, but also requires the exploration of this issue for its long-term resolution. Extensive implications for the curriculum and the culture of the school are raised. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The ESRC Teaching and Learning Research Programme (TLRP) worked for ten years to improve outcomes for learners across the United Kingdom. Individual projects within the Programme focused on different research questions and utilised a range of methods and theoretical resources. Across-programme thematic seminar series and task groups enabled emerging findings to be analysed, synthesised and communicated to wider audiences. One outcome of this activity was the development of ten 'evidence-informed' principles, which engaged with diverse forms of evidence, whilst acknowledging that 'users' would need to judge how best to implement such principles in their particular contexts. Synopses of these principles were published in posters and booklets, from 2006, but the evidence and reasoning underpinning them has not been fully explained. This contribution attempts to fill this gap. It provides a justification for the production of the TLRP principles and describes the iterative process by which they were developed. It clusters the ten principles in four broad areas that reflect the multilayered nature of innovation in pedagogy: (1) educational values and purposes; (2) curriculum, pedagogy and assessment; (3) personal and social processes and relationships; and (4) teachers and policies. It elaborates the argument and evidence for each principle, drawing not only on findings from projects but, crucially, the thematic initiatives that began the synthetic work. There is also an attempt, though by no means comprehensive, to relate TLRP insights to research and scholarship beyond the Programme's school-focused work in order to ground them in a wider literature: to work in other sectors of education; and to the broader literature that has accumulated internationally and over time. Finally, the five years since the principles were first published provides some evidence of impact. Although direct impact on learner outcomes cannot be measured, it is possible to provide an account of take-up by mediating agencies and others. The piece has been prepared as a contribution to international dialogue on effective teaching and learning and to provide a focus for scholarly comment, sharing of expertise and knowledge accumulation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The consequence of legislation implemented in the 1980s for school management can been described as a growing dichotomy between the head as 'chief executive' and as 'leading professional' that reflects wider political change from social democratic discourse to a political economy one (Hughes, 1976). The research set out here provides an insight into the values of the sampled headteachers and how these values are realised in the contingent environment of school life. The data were obtained using online research journals kept by the headteachers over two four-week periods during the school year. The findings highlight that government policy of improving school leadership as an instrument for raising standards is seriously compromised by pressures of the educational market. As a result, many heads revert to a leadership style of contingency management, (Bush, 1995) coping with day-to-day contingencies, with more complex issues falling to the background of managing the school. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]