Suchergebnisse

Increasing school enrolment has been a focus of investment, even in remote rural areas whose populations are surplus to the requirements of the global economy. Drawing on ethnographic research conducted in primary schools and their neighbouring communities in rural areas of Lesotho, India and Laos, we explore how young people, their parents and teachers experience schooling in places where the prospects of incorporation into professional employment (or any well rewarded economic activity) are slim. We show how schooling uses aspiration, holding out a promise of a 'better future' remote from the lives of rural children. However, children's attachment to such promises is tenuous, boosted yet troubled by the small minority who defy the odds and succeed. We question why education systems continue to promote occupational aspirations that are unattainable by most, and why donors and governments invest so heavily in increasing human capital that cannot be absorbed.

This article explores policy and practice in relation to support for speakers of community languages in Northern Ireland primary schools against the backdrop of the broader UK context, with reference also to the Republic of Ireland and wider European and international experiences. After an initial discussion of the educational, social and political context pertaining to Northern Ireland, we examine language and education policy as they relate to community languages, drawing out the issues that are common across the UK and pointing up those that are specific to, or have particular resonances in Northern Ireland. The discussion is informed by ethnographic fieldwork in Belfast primary schools with contrasting socio-economic profiles. Our findings show that in addition to familiar challenges, a number of key factors are critical in Northern Ireland, including the recent surge in numbers of newcomer pupils, the lack of a statutory language component in primary schools, the economic dynamic in the education system, the divided nature of Northern Ireland society and its education system, the legacy of the conflict and socio-economic factors. We end by making suggestions for a way forward in policy terms.

This study fundamental purpose is to explore pre and in-service teachers' perceptions of self efficacy regarding inclusive practices, as assessed through employing the TEIP (Teacher Efficacy for Inclusive Practices) scale. This study was conducted by means of a systematised review. As pre- and in service teachers' self-efficacy can influence the quality of inclusive education, the researcher investigated studies that have addressed this issue in-depth. Eight databases were searched during this study, and 24peer reviewed articles in which the TEIP scale was used, from 2012 to 2018, were selected for inclusion.The perceptions of pre- and in-service teachers' self- efficacy towards inclusive education were examined through using the TEIP scale's three sub-dimensions. The results show that the perceptions of pre- and in-service teachers' self-efficacy towards inclusive education are associated with teachers' field experience, age of teacher, level currently teaching, length of training, knowledge of local legislation,confidence in teaching significant interaction with disabled students, gender, level of education, different countries' perspectives, attitude and subject major

This project primarily centred on two symposia designed to facilitate dialogue among stakeholders from across the island of Ireland on issues of Sharing Beliefs Sharing Education in Primary schools. One symposium was held in Dublin City University (St Patrick's Campus, Drumcondra) and another in Queen's University Belfast. Each symposium consisted of twelve invited participants who were policy-makers or teacher educators with a particular interest in issues of religion, beliefs and values in education. The focus for each symposium were briefing papers provided by the participants on the project theme. The briefing papers and transcripts of the discussion were analysed by the researchers and, with the help of MaxQDA software, were coded and annotated with memos to work towards the identification of patterns and core conceptual categories. These were developed further through the use of diagrams, reflection on relevant literature and the elaboration of qualitative commentary on the categories to develop a model of religion, education and learning on the island of Ireland. The findings from this study show that while the political systems of North and South are distinct there are significant historical areas of similarity in the approaches taken to teaching about religion, beliefs and values as well as common issues arising from the increasing plurality of religions, cultures and beliefs in classrooms. It is concluded that in both jurisdictions there is a reluctance for state actors to intervene in matters of religion and education with the result that: churches retain significant levels of control over religious education curricula; there is a disconnect between communities of belief, other than Christianity, and curriculum programmes raising issues of fairness and equality; the position of the teacher in relation to identity, belief and professional integrity is not well defined and, as a result, this can cause personal and professional difficulties for teachers. It was also observed that inclusive pedagogical approaches have yet to be confidently owned by teachers in plural classrooms. Finally, the researchers noted an enthusiasm for the development of new 'spaces' for religious, beliefs and values education among participants as well as a common view that, considering the religiously separate nature of most education on the island, the opportunities to cultivate shared values of welcome, equality, sharing and reconciliation should be maximised.

The paper aims to contribute to the European education policy literature through an analysis of what I refer to as 'discretional policies', which are now instrumentally used by the EU but that have so far been largely overlooked by this literature, and to the literature on transparency of qualifications. The paper argues, first, that the education policy literature—as other policy literatures—has overlooked individual 'discretional policies', to which greater attention should now be paid as they are employed by EU institutions to bypass Member States in particularly difficult policy areas and to try to address their often alleged detachment from citizens. Second, the paper looks at the crucial aspect of the effectiveness of discretionary policies and their consequences for individuals and Member States, with reference to a case study of the Europass framework in education and training.

Background: Many of India's estimated 40 million migrant workers in the construction industry migrate with their children. Though India is undergoing rapid economic growth, numerous child protection issues remain. Migrant workers and their children face serious threats to their health, safety, and well-being. We examined risk and protective factors influencing the basic rights and protections of children and families living and working at a construction site outside Delhi. Methods. Using case study methods and a rights-based model of child protection, the SAFE model, we triangulated data from in-depth interviews with stakeholders on and near the site (including employees, middlemen, and managers); 14 participants, interviews with child protection and corporate policy experts in greater Delhi (8 participants), and focus group discussions (FGD) with workers (4 FGDs, 25 members) and their children (2 FGDs, 9 members). Results: Analyses illuminated complex and interrelated stressors characterizing the health and well-being of migrant workers and their children in urban settings. These included limited access to healthcare, few educational opportunities, piecemeal wages, and unsafe or unsanitary living and working conditions. Analyses also identified both protective and potentially dangerous survival strategies, such as child labor, undertaken by migrant families in the face of these challenges. Conclusions: By exploring the risks faced by migrant workers and their children in the urban construction industry in India, we illustrate the alarming implications for their health, safety, livelihoods, and development. Our findings, illuminated through the SAFE model, call attention to the need for enhanced systems of corporate and government accountability as well as the implementation of holistic child-focused and child-friendly policies and programs in order to ensure the rights and protection of this hyper-mobile, and often invisible, population.

School leaders play a central role in affecting the educational development of the young people for whom they have responsibility. This is especially the case where school leaders are operating in challenging low-income environments. This paper argues that a focus on Sen's notions of individual agency and freedom are a necessary but not a sufficient factor in the conversion of capabilities into functionings for these school leaders. This is done through using the Capabilities Approach as a lens through which to carry out a retrospective analysis and evaluation of the activities of a group of primary school headteachers in Ghana involved in a UK Government-funded project focused on education quality. The paper argues that headteachers with the capability of initiating change in the education process in their schools are unlikely to act in this way unless they feel that they have permission to do so. It is also important that headteachers feel that they are working within a context and an environment where acting in ways which aim to improve pupil learning is seen as central to their role. This kind of supportive context for school leaders (and for other educational practitioners) cannot be divorced from a policy environment which sanctions such activities, and, hence, it is argued that such a context is crucial to policy developments which seek to establish and sustain the core capabilities which are at the heart of Nussbaum's essentialist approach. The paper also brings to the foreground the tensions that exist between the notion of individuals being free to make choices about what they have reason to value, on the one hand, and the implications that these choices have for the freedoms of other individuals with whom they are connected to make such choices. Finally, it is argued in the paper that the action research approach used in the Leadership & Management Project in Ghana, allied to a positive policy context, provides both the sensitivity to context and a practice-oriented focus which can enable school leaders to bring about the conversion of their individual capabilities into functionings.

In recent decades there have been increased calls for UK schools to develop a more European and global orientation in their pedagogy and curriculum, and to equip children and young people with post-national knowledge, skills, and dispositions. This paper examines some key problems in post-national conceptions of citizenship education, in order to develop a research agenda focusing on the contested nature of notions of post-national citizenship (with particular attention to European and global citizenship), and on the way these notions are understood as having competing claims in education. In examining these issues the paper explains the confused governmental agendas and commitments in relation to European and/or global citizenship education, and concludes by considering alternative theories of citizenship, curriculum, and pedagogy that may provide a deeper understanding of the associated issues and tensions. Although the paper relates directly to the UK, some of the debates have a wider significance.

The Scotland Act 2016 devolved powers over eleven social security benefits (including Carer's Allowance) providing Scotland with some, albeit limited, opportunity to differentiate itself in terms of welfare policy progressivity. The Carers (Scotland) Act 2016 set out the strategy for supporting those who limit their employment or educational enrolment due to the responsibility of caring for an adult or child with a health condition. Using a microsimulation of Scottish data from the Family Resource Survey, this article explores the potential impact, on income and poverty rates of carer households, of raising the level of CA by various amounts and by changing the eligibility criteria. It concludes that, while the Scottish Government's ambitions are too modest to fully support their progressive rhetoric, or to change the overall income inequality landscape, the reforms in targeted policy do make a substantial difference to the lived experience to carers in poverty and, by extension, to the receipt of that care.

This paper discusses the current status of all aspects of education for sustainable development (ESD) across the United Kingdom (UK), drawing on evidence from its political jurisdictions (England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales), and setting out some characteristics of best practice. The paper analyzes current barriers to progress, and outlines future opportunities for enhancing the core role of education and learning in the pursuit of a more sustainable future. Although effective ESD exists at all levels, and in most learning contexts across the UK, with good teaching and enhanced learner outcomes, the authors argue that a wider adoption of ESD would result from the development of a strategic framework which puts it at the core of the education policy agenda in every jurisdiction. This would provide much needed coherence, direction and impetus to existing initiatives, scale up and build on existing good practice, and prevent unnecessary duplication of effort and resources. The absence of an overarching UK strategy for sustainable development that sets out a clear vision about the contribution learning can make to its goals is a major barrier to progress. This strategy needs to be coupled with the establishment of a pan-UK forum for overseeing the promotion, implementation and evaluation of ESD.

Geography is not a vocational subject. The discipline cuts across the humanities, social sciences and natural sciences. Its graduates pursue a wide range of professional careers. Links between faculty and employers are often shallow and diffuse. Consequently, student survey data often flags this is a source of anxiety for undergraduate students, as they wrestle with what they can do with a Geography degree upon graduation. This poster reports on an initiative piloted at Queen's which sought to provide final year Geography undergraduates with an opportunity to better understand and articulate their emerging identities as professionals. The module, Geography at Work, drew upon elements of good practice in work-integrated learning (WIL) identified within the scholarly literature, debate within our professional bodies in the UK and US on how to strengthen the identity of Geographers as professionals, and feedback from employers and graduates alike which suggested our graduates needed to be able to better demonstrate to wider audiences what a Geographical education can deliver. The module, which is an elective one, seeks to provide students with an opportunity to work as part of a student-led team on a research project for an employer. The employers partnered with in delivering this module include non-governmental organisations, local government and an international management consultancy. Students are awarded places on projects through a formal process of application and assigned to student-led teams which work closely with an academic and an employer-based mentor. Together, they work up the initial project brief into a fully fledged research project, curating a foundation of published research, developing a methodological framework, agreeing a time line and identifying clear milestones. The assessment of the module has been designed to scaffold the generation of a variety of different types of outputs, each structured towards different types of audiences (i.e. the public, the employer and the academy). The organisation of the module around project teams offers scope for structured opportunities for peer learning and peer support, while at the same time configures the module as scalable given constraints on the time of academic and employer-based mentors. The recent integration of CANVAS has helped to further facilitate this collaborative enterprise, enabling students to work together on shared documents, mentors to provide timely feedback and virtual meetings to be held using the conferencing facility. This poster reports on an analysis of three years of data gathered while piloting the module, capturing the student voice, seeking to understand their experience and assessing the attainment of the initiative's outcomes. The data clearly evidences the attainment of a range of gains that can be best characterised as: cognitive (geographic knowledge & understanding); utilitarian (skills and experience valued in the workplace); and affective (personal self-awareness and emotional maturity). The poster reflects on this body of evidence, illustrating some of the ways in which this type of experiential learning can help support the development of students' craft as graduates with disciplinary expertise (in this case Geography), their identity as professionals in the making, their practical understanding of the rigors of professional ways of working, and their sense of global citizenship. Key words: Work-integrated learning; Experiential learning; Collaborative learning; Employability; Community engagement.

The number of Board Certified Behavior Analysts (BCBAs) available outside of the United States is significantly lower than the number of individuals with a diagnosis of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) requiring services. Research on alternative delivery platforms, such as telehealth, to disseminate interventions to those in need is of paramount importance. The current study evaluated the effectiveness of training professionals working with individuals with ASD in behavior-analytic procedures through telehealth. Four professional-child dyads took part. Data were collected on the professional's treatment fidelity and number of independent steps performed by the children for three functional daily living skills. The study employed a multiple probe design across participants and included a cost analysis. All four professionals met the mastery criterion and all four children demonstrated increases in independence.

We examine the link between the political participation of the young and fiscal policies in the U.S. We generate exogenous variation in participation using the passage of preregistration laws, which allow the young to register before being eligible to vote. After documenting that preregistration promotes youth enfranchisement, we show that preregistration shifts state government spending toward higher education, the type of spending for which the young have the strongest preference. A 1% increase in youth voter turnout generates a 0:77% increase in higher education spending. The results collectively suggest political responsiveness to the needs of the newly enfranchised constituency.

The early results of the 2020 Census of the People's Republic of China shed light on the highly politicised issue of Han Chinese population shares in the Tibetan areas of western China. Andrew M. Fischer highlights two contrasting patterns. Han shares increased in the Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR) but from a small base, reaching 12 percent in 2020. However, they fell in the other Tibetan areas.

A developing literature continues to testify to the relationship between higher socio-economic status (SES) and better academic attainment. However, the literature is complex in terms of the variety of SES and attainment indicators used. Against the backdrop of a Scottish Government initiative to close the attainment gap between higher and lower SES children, the present study examined the relationship between individual-level Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation (SIMD) and National Lower Tariff Score in school children in the West of Scotland. Results showed a practically significant relationship between SIMD and Tariff Score. This relationship was partially mediated by higher academic self-efficacy, so that higher belief in academic competency partially mediated the SIMD-Tariff Score relationship. Further, this partial mediation was robust to the influence of gender, sensation seeking, level of school attendance and past month frequency of Heavy Episodic Drinking. It is suggested that increasing attendance and perceived academic competence are viable ways (among others) of attempting to close the attainment gap.