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Examination questions need to be sufficiently novel if they are to be effective as measurement instruments. Novelty, however, presupposes creativity, suggesting that question writing is, or should be, a creative process. To explore the boundaries of creativity in question writing, this study made use of two data sources: two corpora of examination questions, and interviews with professional question writers. The study identified various factors that appear to restrict question writers' freedom, exposing a tension between creativity and constraint in question writing. In addition, it illuminated the architecture of examination questions and the mechanisms via which this architecture may affect the predictability of assessment design. The paper argues that, in the context of question writing, constraints are essential as they help to enhance the quality of the assessment. However, when they exceed a certain threshold, they can undermine the purpose that rendered them necessary in the first place. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Errors that occasionally manifest in examination papers and other educational assessment instruments can threaten reliability and validity. For example, a multiple choice question could have two correct response options, or a geography question containing an inaccurate map could be unanswerable. In this paper we explore this oft-neglected element of fairness. We adopt the theoretical position that assessment instrument errors stem from different types of human failure, which in turn stem from system-level failure. We then explore how the term 'error' is used in conceptually different ways, potentially engendering confusion in academic discourse. We analysed error incident records from an international assessment organisation to develop a taxonomy of assessment instrument error types. Our taxonomy covers errors that manifest in assessments in all school subjects. We used it to develop an approach to process analysis for any system of checks applied during the later stages of instrument construction. This facilitates subsequent evaluation of the psychological causes of failure. The taxonomy and process analysis approach have applications in analysing types and rates of errors in different educational assessment instruments, in systemically comparing the demands and efficacies of alternative construction processes, and as structural and communication tools in qualitative research on error culture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Peer assessment (PA) is generally effective, and especially important for school teachers, as the experience might lead teachers to use PA more skilfully with school students. Digital PA (using computers) becomes more important as universities switch to online learning. This systematic review of research literature on digital PA for pre-service and in-service teachers encompasses: online/web-based, video, Massive Open Online Courses, digital frameworks to organize/structure PA, e-portfolios, Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs), Facebook, iPads and wikis. It contained 43 papers and all but one reported mainly positive effects. Potential moderator variables were considered, but studies rarely reported many of them. Few studies had control groups, only two reported Effect Sizes, and none reported implementation fidelity or follow-up. There was little evidence for carry-over of PA practices into later teaching of school children. However, the potential moderator variables provide a template for future reviews of PA and the design of PA by teachers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is a critical systematic literature review of empirical work on creative pedagogies from 1990 to 2018. It responds to the increased international attention being afforded creativity and creative pedagogies in research, policy and practice and examines the evidence regarding creative pedagogical practices and the potential impact of these on students' creativity. The methodology encompassed four stages. Firstly, an educational database keyword search was undertaken and 801 papers identified, manual searches added 12 further papers. Secondly, through applying inclusion/exclusion criteria, 89 papers were identified for closer scrutiny; these papers focused on students aged 0–18 years in formal educational settings and were peer-reviewed reports of empirical work. Thirdly, these papers were subjected to in-depth review and rating, this reduced the included selection to 35 papers. Finally, these papers were subject to further analysis and synthesis. The findings reveal that seven interrelated features characterise creative pedagogical practice, namely generating and exploring ideas; encouraging autonomy and agency; playfulness; problem-solving; risk-taking; co-constructing and collaborating; and teacher creativity. The paper also reveals that the evidence for the impact of these pedagogical practices on students' creativity is inconclusive. It highlights the complexities and challenges of documenting creative pedagogies in the years of formal schooling and concludes with key recommendations and implications for research, policy and practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper seeks to examine a specific development in the history of teacher education to explore whether it might illuminate and inform contemporary debate. It offers a historical/comparative analysis of the contribution of teachers' centres to the professional development of teachers in England and Spain during the late 1960s to the early 1990s. In looking back to the impact that teachers' centres had on teachers in these very different social and political contexts, the paper examines whether, in spite of being adopted and adapted differently in the English and Spanish contexts, there was a fundamental essence of the teachers' centre model that could transcend both time and space. Thus, although essentially historical in method and focus, the paper will problematise just how far new forms of teacher professional development have lessons to learn from older, now largely overlooked forms, as found in the practice of the teachers' centres, with their focus on grassroots teacher autonomy and collaboration. The paper is in four parts: setting the scene and methodology; outlining the rise and fall of teachers' centres in England and Spain; identifying the core essence of the teachers' centre model; and finally exploring potential implications for current policy and practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Increasingly, there are expectations internationally that schools will use research to inform their improvement initiatives. Within this context, this paper brings together findings from two large-scale Australian studies – the Monash Q Project and the University of Newcastle's Quality Teaching Rounds Project – to explore educators' patterns of engagement with research. The combination of these studies provides data from a larger and more diverse sample (n = 774) than other recent Australian studies, and integrates insights from direct and indirect approaches to investigating educators' research engagement. The analysis highlights several common themes associated with educators' research use including: the perceived credibility of different sources; the relevance and usability of research; and affordances of access to research and time to use it well in practice. Newer and more nuanced insights include: the interrelationships between collaborative and directed research use; the need for research to be convenient in terms of access and usability; the role of trusted colleagues in helping to bridge gaps between research and practice; and educators' distrust of research itself. The paper argues that these insights provide important cues as to how systems and school leaders can help educators to increase and improve their use of research in practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reports findings of a qualitative study that explored international students' identity negotiation during their cross-border studies against the backdrop of the internationalisation of higher education in Asia. Through a comparative narrative-based case study of two Burmese international students' experiences during their studies in a Hong Kong university, the paper reveals both similarities and differences in their negotiation of (i) identities as 'non-local'/'international' students in the university context and (ii) national identities in relation to the local community and the imagined global/international community. In particular, the findings illustrate the divergent ways in which the two international students negotiate the meanings they attach to the 'non-local' student label, respond to local students' (mis)recognition of their national identities, and perceive the (in)compatibility between their national and global identities. Overall, the findings point to the diversity and heterogeneity in international students' experiences which appear to be variably shaped by differential dispositions and capacities in exercising strategic agency for identity (re)construction. The case study also calls for the need to problematise the reification and over-simplification of the so-called 'international student experience' and argues for the importance of paying attention to the complexity of international students' identity negotiation in the context of international education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The journey to pursue and persist with a career in STEM is a complex process that begins at a young age, continues across secondary education and the end of school transition to university. Such decisions are influenced by a range of personal, social and environmental factors, highlighting the practical complexities of supporting young people in their transition to university. This paper explores the post-school transition of two students, one female and one male, with strong technological dispositions and aspirations to pursue careers in STEM fields. We focus on two STEM disciplines, Information Technology and Engineering, chosen by our participants. We employ the theory of practice (Bourdieu 1977) to analyse two students' experience of transition. The findings from these case studies are not intended to be generalised. Rather the in-depth stories and theoretical case analysis provides a nuanced account of transition to study STEM disciplines. Importantly, the pathways into university were not equal for the participants. Class and gender intersected with university structures to enable and constrain students' transition highlighting the significance of institutional supports within STEM disciplines to better support diverse students across the period of transition to university. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Drawing on a longitudinal research project that followed the undergraduate entrants of 2013 into, and through their university time, this paper provides a novel conceptualisation of transformative transitions via looking at the four dimensions of non-linearity, multiplicity, diversity and structure. To do so, it builds on Archer's (2000, 2003, 2012) relational realist approach and work on reflexivity to show how students select and merge a diverse set of personal concerns to arrive at a modus vivendi. This capstone paper closes a series of publications from a four-year tracking study that collected interview data from a diverse group of 40 students on a yearly basis (n1=40, n2=40, n3=38, n4=33) at an English northern red brick university. The paper explores the changing focus of student experiences, from the social aspects of acclimatisation, to learning to be academic, and finally, becoming a graduate. The results presented here also point to the structural enablements and constraints that higher education institutions and policymakers should mitigate in responding to the inequalities of access and experience. In the context of a large-scale societal crisis, such as the ongoing pandemic, it is key that we understand how university can remain a transformative experience for all students. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper argues that contemporary Western societies' fixation on different elements of capitalist production, consumption and distribution lies at the heart of the crisis in mental health and wellbeing increasingly experienced by individuals within key state institutions. The paper weaves together Lefebvre's and Marcuse's theoretical insights to explore the generation of (time-)spaces in contemporary societies, focussing on higher education and specifically on the lived experiences of postgraduate researchers. The insistence that welfare states, turned into workfare states, treat the symptoms through drugs and sedation, shows the reach of consumption and distribution as a means to address the problems caused by production. Against this backdrop, the paper draws on empirical data from a recent study undertaken by the authors examining the challenges to mental and physical health that postgraduate study posed at a university in the English Midlands. The obliteration of the social, cultural and political determinants of this malaise is expedient to place the onus of corrective measures on the individual through a series of self-help strategies, which again, privatise the atomised self to its lowest common denominator: the cerebral, emotional self. If the body becomes sick in industrialisation, is it any wonder the mind becomes sick in cognitive capitalism? [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since 2010, government policy in England has positioned further education almost exclusively as employment-orientated training for school leavers whilst also imposing severe budget cuts. During this period, values-based pedagogies that foreground social justice for students, many of whom come from low-income households, have been undermined. Following the COVID-19 pandemic, there is evidence that the mental health and well-being of further education students has suffered but little is known about the pandemic's effects on teachers.This paper presents analysis of primary research data drawn from interviews with a small sample of further education teachers and managers in the English West Midlands about their mental health and well-being during the pandemic. The paper frames the research data by acknowledging that both mental health nursing and further education teaching are currently riven by contradictions with an epistemological basis anchored in meritocratic and neoliberal policy. Using Lefebvrian theory, our analysis suggests that for further education staff, the pandemic has sharpened the tensions experienced in an already precarious professional role. Key findings were that the further education funding regime drove a 'business as usual' management attitude during the pandemic, and an intensification of work and the erosion of pedagogical practice negatively affected staff's mental health. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As the global neo-liberal reform movement in education continues to evolve, so does the simultaneous transfiguration of the profile and status of primary school teachers in England. Reform continues to delineate the aims and purpose of primary education in increasingly essentialist terms. This paper explores English primary school teachers' perceptions and experiences of teaching, and of being a teacher, in a period of considerable change. Extending the existing research literature about primary school teachers, it explores the progressively strategic nature of policy enactment and the tactics employed by teachers to manage conflicting demands. The paper draws upon rich qualitative data from two sets of interviews with 22 primary teachers employed in the South-East of England. Thematic analysis facilitated findings about teachers' encounters with, and responses to, neo-liberal policy reform, notably in relation to accountability and managerialism. The view that 'nothing is ever good enough' reflects recurrent data affirming the relationship between school leadership and teachers' demoralisation, as well as perceived reputational decline more broadly. Findings highlight the emergence of the primary practitioner as 'tactician', and of a particular brand of survivalism necessary for a context that acts to pedagogically and philosophically constrain the purpose of primary education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Improving the academic and social outcomes of boys – specifically boys from low-SES backgrounds – remains of international importance. With this in mind, research continues to document the ways in which relational learning is integral for the well-being of students, specifically those students in disadvantaged school contexts. This paper focuses on relational learning as an important resource that marginalised young men draw upon, informing their future orientation towards higher education beyond their compulsory schooling. Within studies of men and masculinities, the affective turn has recently played a significant role in how we understand men as relational. Focusing upon a cohort of boys from some of the poorest urban regions in Australia, the paper addresses how their affective relationships with teachers contribute not only to their conception of themselves as learners but also their general well-being, confidence and aspirations. Through highlighting two trends in the data – Teacher as Persistent Nurturer and Teacher as Supporter – the research presented extends two lines of inquiry. First, understanding student–teacher relationships in disadvantaged educational contexts and, second, the importance of positive student–teacher relationships for working-class boys who have historically disengaged from their education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There are two major myths concerning A level exam standards in England. First, the Ancient Myth, which insists that standards were norm-referenced until the 1980s, when they transitioned to being criterion-referenced. Second, the Modern Myth, which insists that standards transitioned again, during the 2010s, to being based upon the comparable outcomes principle. The present paper debunks these myths, arguing that: except for the occasional use of comparable outcomes to bridge qualification reforms, A level standards have always been attainment-referenced; and that this has always been operationalised using a combination of methods, including both examiner judgement of exam performances and statistical expectations of cohort attainment. The paper also argues that what has changed significantly is the degree of confidence that the exam industry has placed in examiner judgement relative to statistical expectations, which has waxed and waned over time. When statistical expectations have prevailed, pass rates have tended to plateau; somewhat implausibly. When examiner judgement has prevailed, pass rates have tended to rise; also somewhat implausibly. These trends have given a false impression of principled transitions, which the paper dispels. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reports on a study that examined the process of two international doctoral students' academic socialisation in Chinese universities. Drawing on the concept of academic socialisation and social network analysis, we analysed multiple types of data, including study-abroad social network questionnaires, concentric circles interviews, reflective journals, and observational field notes over six months. The analysis of findings revealed that doctoral supervisors acted as the most influential agents in guiding the participants' academic socialisation. The participants also enacted agency to engage in a self-directed socialisation process during which they strategically appropriated resources to cope with various challenges. By unpacking the multi-layered relationships in the participants' networks, this study provides insights into the dynamic and intricate processes of international research students' academic socialisation. Implications are briefly addressed to support international students' experiences in postgraduate research programmes for successful academic socialisation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Politics and pragmatics are central and inseparable features of curriculum reform. In a federated system like Australia, many individuals and organisations are invested in reform at the national and jurisdictional level. This paper focuses on the policy work and roles of key actors positioned at the interface of national and state-based curriculum development, and at the juncture of curriculum policy and pedagogic practice. These were individuals formally identified as 'curriculum leaders' in the enactment of the Australian Curriculum in Health and Physical Education (ACHPE). The paper centres on data collected from eight (n = 8) curriculum leaders via semi-structured interviews. All were prospectively influential figures in shaping the path of the ACHPE. Our research explored the nature of their enactment work and how they were variously positioned and positioned themselves in relation to key ACHPE discourses. Analysis uses the policy actor/policy work framework as a starting point for deeper, Foucauldian informed analysis which provides insights into the complex nature of curriculum leadership by considering the additional (in)formal work and roles of these high-ranking policy actors. Data and discussion extends understanding of curriculum enactment as a process that spans policy networks and reveals the nuanced nature of curriculum leadership associated with curriculum reform. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this paper is to explore the experiences of pupils and teachers within two primary school Shared Education partnerships in Northern Ireland; in particular, how intergroup contact is experienced within such contexts. A comparative, instrumental case study design was employed, which included document review, observation of Shared Education activities, interviews with school principals and teachers, and arts-based group interviews with children. While the paper supports existing research from secondary schools which suggests the potential of Shared Education to create spaces for building positive relations between pupils, the findings also highlighted several key issues which further extend understanding of Shared Education. Firstly, it emphasised the importance of planning, time and structure in Shared Education activity in order to dispel negativity and social awkwardness; secondly, it suggested the need for teachers to 'model' positive cross-group relations in their relationships between each other; and thirdly, it revealed a lack of clarity around how to deal with controversial issues as part of Shared Education activity. The paper concludes by suggesting that there is a need for additional guidance for schools around the intended aims and outcomes of Shared Education in relation to its potential to promote positive intergroup contact. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The transition into higher education (HE) is a particularly challenging process for students due to a large variety of difficulties and requirements. Moreover, increasing student numbers and diversity in European HE have complexified the issue of the successful transition to university. Consequently, it is important to further develop our understanding of the heterogeneity of students and the specific challenges that impact their successful and less stressful transitions into higher education. This paper contributes to this scientific endeavour. More precisely, a study was carried out among 1,048 first-year students from a French-speaking Belgian university. Using latent profile analysis, our results yielded five profiles representing different combinations of achievement predictors (high school grade, socio-economic status, informed-choice, and self-efficacy beliefs). When comparing the profiles, our results further highlighted key differences in the way students experienced the specific challenges associated with the transition and succeeded at the end of the first year. The discussion of the results allowed us to provide practical implications and future perspectives on the thorny issue of diversity into the transition to HE. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Child neglect is a problem that presents many challenges to learning and teaching in schools. Children are unable to learn if their basic needs are not met. Neglect is the second most common reason for a child to be on a child protection plan in Wales. Given the universal nature of their provision within the community, and the prevalence of neglect, schools are well-placed to notice and intervene early and provide support to children that promotes their health and wellbeing. In fact, staff in schools have the opportunity to observe children's behaviours, and their interactions with other pupils and family members up to five days a week over an extended period of time. However, little is known about the specific ways in which staff in schools respond to neglect and what factors help them to provide effective school-based support to families. This paper presents findings from thirty interviews with staff in six mainstream primary and secondary schools in Wales. Findings identify three factors that support neglect-practice within the school-setting (i) a whole-school proactive approach to child neglect; (ii) a positive learning and development environment for staff members; and (iii) relationships between staff and the child(ren)'s family. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is not uncommon for randomised trials in education to have the performance of sample members in national examinations as their primary outcome. In many cases, examination results are available as summary measures only. Taking the example of GCSE examination results in England, this paper shows that using summary measures of an underlying score or mark, such as exam grade, complicates the design of trials and can lead to underpowered studies. Simple simulations are used to explore the consequences of powering trials to detect a difference assuming grade or summary measures are the only outcome metric available, where the effects of an intervention are primarily captured in the unknown mark or score distribution. The analysis draws on data that relate the entire distribution of marks in English language and mathematics examinations to grades. Recommendations are made in order to address this problem. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study undertakes a decolonial reading of the Zimbabwean history curriculum as an exemplar of how knowledge and pedagogy could be reframed as the basis for curricular justice in a global imaginary that is predicated on the epistemic hegemony of the Global North. The study which is framed as a conceptual research article introduces and argues for undoing historicide as a heuristic within the broader scope of the epistemic decolonial turn. The Zimbabwean history curriculum, as a unit of analysis, is referenced to exemplify entrapment within the Cartesian paradigm of knowing, despite the country's political independence. The argument developed is that history curricula that do not interrogate the geography and biography of knowledge entrench the hegemonic narrative of the coloniality of power and by extension colonial historiography. The paper suggests that the way out of the epistemic quandary that pervades the Zimbabwean history curriculum entails re-envisioning curricular practices in ways that ensure the emergence of a pluriverse in which we reclaim, restitute and legitimate our knowledges and histories, and affirm our ontological densities as equal to those of the Global North. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the association between children's difficulty in moving to secondary school and their family background. School transition difficulty is associated with a range of poor outcomes in young people, but studies have rarely taken a fully longitudinal perspective or looked in detail at inequalities in transition processes. This perspective can unpack the long-term processes behind any inequalities in such difficulties. We use longitudinal data from the Growing Up in Scotland survey to model school transition difficulty at age 12 using ordinary least squares regression models. We adopt a multidimensional approach to social background, taking account of social class, parental education, and household income. All three dimensions, especially income, are associated with school transition difficulty. This social gradient is not explained by differences in the home learning environment, school engagement at primary level or cognitive development in early to middle childhood. Results show the limits of agency-based measures, like school engagement and home learning, in explaining inequality and children's disadvantage in school. Results also show the importance of adopting a multidimensional approach to family background when analysing inequality in education, regardless of the outcome. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Access to tertiary education is a challenge for many people from refugee-backgrounds. In Aotearoa New Zealand (NZ), resettled refugees are entitled to access education alongside other New Zealanders, and NZ's resettlement policy material recognises education as a key pillar of resettlement. However, refugee-background students are not recognised as 'priority learners' in education policy, so educational institutions are not required to report on refugee-background students' educational access or outcomes. At all levels of the education system, teaching and support practices for refugee-background students vary widely. Many barriers hamper refugee-background students' access to and success in tertiary education. However, refugee-background students are also necessarily-skilful border navigators. In this paper, we share data from an in-progress participatory action research project based in southern NZ that involves collaborating with refugee-background students at the secondary-tertiary education border. After describing the project, its rationale, and our theoretical framework, we draw on insights from seven of the students to illustrate how students represented educational navigation in NZ: as a resistance project, a subterranean project, and a relational project. We conclude by suggesting some implications from our study for research, policy and practice in education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An introduction is presented in which the editors discusses various articles within the issue on topics including relation between educational linguistics and dialogic teaching; significance of students' metalanguage development; and pedagogy for contemporary grammar teaching.

Schools now face considerable pressure to be using educational data to inform decision-making and become more efficient. Key to this rise of the 'data-driven' school is the increased use of digital technologies – with computer-based data processing fuelling hopes for the technology-driven 'smart schooling' and a general 'datafication' of education. Against this background, the present paper explores the realities how data-work is taking place within individual schools with the aid of digital technologies. In particular, it draws on empirical data generated from in-depth ethnographic studies of digital data practices within three secondary schools in the Australian state of Victoria. Using concepts from the sociology of numbers, the paper takers these empirical findings to develop productive and relational accounts of the predominant ways that data work was being carried out within these schools. In contrast to the idea of 'Big Data', schools were most often found to be engaging in small-scale, improvised forms of spreadsheet work. The paper considers the social, cultural and political reasons underpinning schools' reliance on such forms of 'small data' – particularly in contrast to the more sophisticated, automated and continuous forms of data analysis that are now available. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper assesses the explanatory power of a perspective arguing that school social segregation enhances social inequalities in political engagement because of the distinct effects that concentrations of adolescents of disadvantaged backgrounds in educational settings generate. It tests this argument with data of the 2000 Civic Education Study among Upper Secondary students and uses intentions to participate and political competences as outcomes to represent political engagement. Social inequalities in political competences turn out to be greater in states with the most segregated systems, but social disparities in intentions to participate are unrelated to the level of segregation. The paper argues that policy makers should consider creating a more integrated school system if they seek to reduce social inequalities in informed political participation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With an expectation that different doctoral programmes may encourage and support different student learning identities, this paper compares the experiences of doctoral candidates participating in doctoral studies in England and Germany. A comparison of the experiences of doctoral candidates as expressed through interviews is viewed through the lens of the theory of fit. This theory considers the alignment of values between those engaged in PhD study and the programmes created to support them. The paper claims that the identification of dimensions of fit is helpful for considering the data generated on the learning experiences and self-expressed identities of the doctoral candidates. Addressing how dimensions in relation to culture, environment and vocation change and strengthen or loosen the alignment between doctoral candidates' values and those affecting their doctoral work are important for supporting progress. These dimensions should be discussed in order to develop supervisory, programme and university support for doctoral learning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Post-transformational neoliberal reforms in the Czech Republic have established a competitive quasi-market, in which – at the lower-secondary level – academic-track schools (grammar schools or gymnasia) compete for students in the regular-track schools. These reforms have also brought a rise of shadow education (private supplementary tutoring) provided by individuals and private companies. Even public schools are sometimes providers of shadow education. The study explores gymnasia principals' motivations to provide paid courses to prepare students for entrance examinations to their study programmes and the challenges they experience in doing so. The findings are drawn mainly from semi-structured interviews with principals and other school management members in eleven gymnasia. The study conceptualises such courses as a 'double-edged sword'. First, because it serves as a 'weapon' that academic schools use in the quasi-market competition to attract more (high-achieving) students from regular track schools, and second, because it may have both positive and negative consequences (e.g., for equity in education), depending on the conditions of its provision. The paper contributes to a wider scholarly literature by expanding the understanding of ways schools behave in the competitive educational quasi-markets and by opening a new branch of shadow education research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper we identify and systematically analyse research regarding student voice in the classroom, with the aim of suggesting areas and questions to strengthen the research base. The introductory section presents a rationale for, and definition of, voice, followed by details of how the systematic analysis was conducted. A consideration of what has been termed pedagogic voice leads to our offering a definition with more encompassing parameters in terms of the dimensions research should consider. The components of our definition are then applied to existing studies of pedagogic voice. Our analyses show that few consider the whole picture; specifically, few present evidence of response to student voice or of outcomes from that response. Such evidence is needed to evaluate the extent to which student voice is instrumental in the enhancement of teaching and learning. Researchers of voice, particularly as it relates to the classroom, need to design studies to trace more systematically the soliciting of voice or the opportunity for voice to be employed; through to the hearing, the reception and response; to the outcome of that response in terms of changed practice, including student awareness of their part in the changed practice, to the outcomes for learning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores how Chinese academics, working in the field of English as Foreign Language Education in universities in China, conceptualise research quality. The paper uses a phenomenological approach and four qualitative methods (survey, interview, focus groups and document analysis) to investigate what a sample of these scholars perceive as high-quality research. We found that the participants viewed quality through various lenses and identified several different criteria. We categorised their elaboration of the criteria under three headings: methodology, contextualisation and impact. The participants nominated many general criteria that were similar to western standards of research quality, especially in relation to methodology; however, some contextual criteria were specific to the Chinese context. The paper indicates that there is much in the university research community that could be altered to enable people who are directly involved in research to disseminate their criteria for research quality, and potentially to affect and develop the quality of educational research in the Chinese context, and/or elsewhere. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this paper is to engage critically with debates surrounding the mental health and wellbeing agenda for adult community learning (ACL), with particular consideration of creative arts provision. It draws on a qualitative research project involving five creative arts ACL groups in the English West Midlands and two mental health participatory arts organisations based in London. Of the ACL groups, one was targeted for mental health recovery, two were targeted for wellbeing, and two were mainstream. Fieldwork involved participant observation, interviews and group discussions with attendees, and interviews with volunteers, ACL and art therapy practitioners, ACL project organisers, and managers working in the organisations taking part in the research and other adult learning settings. The article outlines key critical debates. It then interrogates three related themes, drawing on a range of evidence from the study: (1.) the discourse of confidence and self-esteem; (2.) interactions between educational and mental health and wellbeing-related goals and outcomes; and (3) the role of creative arts subjects in the mental health and wellbeing agenda for ACL. Implications for policy and practice are set out in conclusion, including consideration of ACL curricula and pedagogical approaches in the area of mental health and wellbeing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Education governance is shifting towards more individually and personally tailored governance, to pre-empt futures to manage the present. Managing the present requires the fabrication of a specific type of future-oriented learning human kinds. Economically driven imperatives, strengthening transnational stakeholder networks and advances in the life and behavioural sciences are important parts of this shift while transforming the aims, content and methods of education. In terms of fabrication in the neoliberal ethos, structural problems tend to be considered to be products of innate and quantified differences in behaviour, competencies, skills and capacities. Furthermore, global, national and local changes entail even tighter economically driven governance. These changes have far-reaching implications. To date, these changes in education governance have been studied separately. By bringing together the current and emerging changes in education governance, in this paper the argument is for a new constitution: precision education governance in the fabrication of future-oriented learning human kinds. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

How might those of us located within post-secondary institutions support students who have experience of the mental health system in a meaningful way? Drawing on scholarship in social movement studies and a case study in Ontario, Canada, I distinguish between the prevailing mental health and wellness offerings of educational institutions and distinct forms of grassroots organising led by and for mad-identified students. This paper reflects on my past engagement with mad student intra-university organising in Ontario. Sifting through archival materials, personal writing and correspondence, I contemplate how my involvement as a past organiser in a radical student-run peer support and advocacy group has shaped and informed my scholarship within the field of Mad Studies. Connections are made between the activist knowledge-practices fostered within mad student groups and the growth of Mad Studies in Canada. Building from social movement studies, I argue for supporting and engaging in activism alongside politicised students who are organising on campuses to confront inequitable social relations, on their own terms. Doing so requires critically unpacking white dominant hegemonic ways of thinking about what constitutes 'mental health and wellness' from a student perspective. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The broad, contested notion of vulnerability is one of the areas of education in which concerns with the mental health and wellbeing of young people come together. This paper examines the theoretical and socio-political development of the 'vulnerability Zeitgeist' in recent years and the extent to which it has been applied to both young people and teachers in schools. We outline how the instrumental and negative views of vulnerability, which dominate policy discourse, run counter to the more expansive and ambivalent understandings familiar from sociological and psychoanalytic theory and use two cases drawn from studies undertaken in England and Germany to highlight their deleterious effects. Our analysis suggests that a more relational and collaborative approach, which explores vulnerability from the perspectives of both teachers and students, is necessary to improve support for the most vulnerable young people. We suggest that there are benefits to focusing on the vulnerability of young people and teachers, which research has until now examined separately, together conceptually and in practice to help to build trust and change attitudes to mental health and wellbeing in schools. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Pupil Premium funding has been provided to schools in England since 2011, to help overcome socio-economic segregation between schools, and reduce the poverty attainment gap. Yet there is little evidence such an approach is effective. Some important stakeholders are considering whether Pupil Premium should stop or be re-routed. It is therefore essential to know whether the policy has helped in the eight years since its inception. Evaluating the impact of such a funding policy is fraught with difficulties because of changes over time in the economy, legal definitions, prevalence of disadvantage, and metrics used. Previous research has generally ignored these, and the role of length and depth of disadvantage. Hence, previous estimates of the attainment gap are insecure. This paper introduces a new analysis, based on the National Pupil Database that considers changes in the prevalence of FSM-eligibility, private school attendance, GDP and the duration of individual poverty. Net of such factors, the results show that segregation has declined unexpectedly since 2011, suggesting that the Pupil Premium may be working. The policy should continue, while research looks at the long-term impact on the poverty gap. Meanwhile, the funding could be re-calibrated to be fairer to areas with longer-term disadvantage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper draws upon questionnaire data from 126 mature, female alumni students and interviews with a subset of 20 participants who completed education foundation degrees in three English universities in the South West. Three illustrative cases from interviews are chosen representing three models of progression: 'success', 'version of success', and 'still struggling to get on'. This paper uses three dimensions of agency: iterational, projective, and practical-evaluative within an ecological model exploring the interplay of agency, structure and context. Figured worlds theory helps in understanding the impact of actor's histories upon projections and practical actions. Teacher shortages and the potential-untapped resource of teaching assistants is explored. Pathways toward teaching can act as affordances or constraints in teaching assistants' trajectories. Affordances are identified as open, transparent, accessible routes to teaching, and under and post-graduate provision, which provides conducive circumstances through reflective engagement. This may interrupt habitual ways of thinking and risk aversion leading to expansive future projections and expectation maintenance. Ecological agency allows clearer understandings that activation of agency not only resides in individuals but in the context and circumstances they experience. Figured worlds give insight into recruitment and entry into emerging social spaces and the importance of recognition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article lists members of the publication's editorial board including Tehmina N. Basit, Pamela Burnard, and Sara Delamont.

Research indicates that white middle-class families' engagement with urban schools in gentrifying localities is often characterised by strategies of dominance and control, which support claims of belonging and identity, as well as securing educational advantage for their children. This is referred as 'class colonisation' or 'school gentrification'. However, there has been a neglect of educators' perspectives and responses to urban social change and middle-class parental practices. In this paper, I offer an institutionally-focused analysis of class colonisation as a feature of educators' working lives. I argue that class colonisation produces organisational 'turmoil' through parental practices and interactions which unsettle staff's social and cultural control over key aspects of their work situation and institutional boundary maintenance. This turmoil is experienced as disruptive of the social order, generating staff cynicism, conflict, ambivalence, and alienation. I draw on ethnographic data with teachers and teaching assistants from a gentrifying inner-London primary school to empirically specify these arguments. Theoretically, this paper integrates elements of Bourdieu and micro-sociology, to foreground how agents use their unequal resources to negotiate their interpersonal institutional realities, and in the process, re-produce classed and racialised boundaries and relations within the changing contexts of urban education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Effective implementation of entrepreneurship education requires more than government policy to enable teachers and leaders to implement the content and pedagogy required for successful and innovative programmes to occur in schools. This paper provides an up-to-date literature review of research into the characteristics of teachers and school leaders who have intentionally implemented entrepreneurship education. This review was conducted in order to gain insight into the attitudes and values of teachers, the role of leadership and the enablers and barriers to success. This systematic review of the literature found 61 studies relating to the approach teachers and leaders took when implementing entrepreneurship education and factors that enabled successful implementation. Six enablers, which support effective implementation of entrepreneurship education were identified: consensus between teachers on methods, support from leadership, an entrepreneurial school culture, prioritisation, professional development, and teacher networking. Implications of the review included the need for research into how to support leaders to seek professional development in entrepreneurship education and strategies to implement the approach. A comparison of the effectiveness of different pedagogical methods provides an opportunity to measure the relevance of the approach, which the authors argue begins to address social and employment-related issues arising from the COVID-19 pandemic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many secondary schools sort students into 'ability'-based classes, but research shows that streaming students by ability is inequitable and does not improve student academic results. There has been little qualitative research that considers students' experiences of streaming, with none that compares students' experiences in classes that are streamed against the same students' experiences in other classes that are mixed-ability. The research in this paper explains student experiences of differences between their streamed and mixed-ability classrooms, including the perceived influence on their educational outcomes. The study is unique because the results project the voices of 25 Grade 10 secondary school students from three Western Australian public schools, 19 of whom had recently experienced transitions between streamed and mixed-ability grouping contexts. The findings offer new knowledge that begins to explain how different class grouping strategies are experienced differently by students. Contrasts made by the students in their teachers' provision of learning opportunities, learning aspirations, and learning environments between streamed and mixed-ability classes are discussed. The findings highlight how educational outcomes were shaped by the schools' grouping choices and the associated differences in teachers' expectations and provision of opportunities to learn. The results are of interest to educators making decisions about ability-grouping practices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many scholars argue that the practice of educational tracking exerts a distinct effect on young people's political engagement. They point out that students in academic tracks are becoming more politically engaged than those than those in vocational ones, and suggest that this may be due to differences across tracks in the curriculum, pedagogy, peer environment or student self-confidence. The current paper aims to investigate whether tracking is related to political engagement through any of these four mechanisms. It uses survey data collected among students in the final year of upper secondary education in France and employs a stepwise multilevel analysis to explore this question. It finds little differences between tracks in the curriculum and in pedagogy relevant for political engagement. Students in academic tracks nonetheless express a stronger commitment to vote than those in vocational ones. This difference between tracks disappears when the social composition of the school population is taken into account, suggesting that the peer environment is the primary mechanism driving the effect of tracking in France. However, in contexts with greater variation between the tracks in curriculum and pedagogy, the latter may well be equally or more important mechanisms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Teacher Efficacy (TE) refers to teachers' confidence in their ability to promote student's learning. Research shows that generalist teachers' TE for music education is generally low, with many teachers associating music education with innate musical talents – a problem exacerbated by music education programmes that focus on singing or playing instruments. Musical play is a form of music education in which young children more or less freely explore and create with sound with limited guidance from a teacher, requiring fewer musical skills. This paper reports on an in-situ professional development program (PD) that focused on musical play as a means of enhancing early years teachers' TE for musical play and for music education in general. For this study, a mixed method exploratory multiple-case study was used. Three early years teams (N = 14) took part in a PD that focused on knowledge and skills related to facilitating musical play. Data were collected through surveys and interviews. Findings demonstrate that taking part in the PD enhanced teachers' TE for musical play and for 50% of the respondents for music education in general. The PD's design features longer duration, collective participation, active learning and qualitative curriculum materials had contributed to teachers' learning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper returns to a long-standing theme in education research, the ways in which 'contextual factors impact on what schools do, as well as directly on what pupils achieve' (Lupton, 2004, 4). Drawing on a project designed to explore the early effects of reforms to national examinations, the curriculum for 14−16 year olds and school accountability measures in English secondary schools, this paper considers the perceptions and experiences of teachers currently charged with enacting these reforms specifically in the light of their situated school realities in three different settings. A case is made for a contextually sensitive approach towards policy making and policy enactment that takes account of some of the more nuanced distinctions among schools' contextual positionings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is widespread concern about the shortage of secondary school teachers in England. Recruitment to initial teacher training regularly fails to meet its intake targets. The secondary school pupil population is increasing. Teacher vacancies have risen, and more teachers are reportedly leaving the profession prematurely. Despite considerable investment in a wide range of initiatives, costing millions of pounds, the government has acknowledged that it has been unable improve the situation substantially. This paper presents time-series analyses of official data and documentary analyses of government publications. These suggest that teacher shortages are partly created by government policies themselves - including flaws in the selection system, and school funding system, the official extension of the education and training leaving age, and increases in the number of small schools. It is difficult when planning for teacher supply to anticipate the impact of such varied policy changes years ahead. Consequently, estimations of the numbers needed to be trained are hardly ever accurate. This paper suggests a reconsideration of the current selection processes for initial teacher training, independent review of the Teacher Supply Model, and a long-term approach to teacher supply planning, considering other policy changes in a more coordinated way. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years the use of expert judgement to set and maintain examination standards has been increasingly criticised in favour of approaches based on statistical modelling. This paper reviews existing research on this controversy and attempts to unify the evidence within a framework where expertise is utilised in the form of comparative judgement. Initially, the paper introduces a mathematical model for the way in which comparative judgement may operate. Data from existing studies of comparative judgement are then used to estimate suitable parameters for this model. Having derived a working mathematical model for the operation of expert judgement, the paper will then demonstrate that this model provides results that are broadly consistent with existing research, including both studies that are critical and studies that are supportive of the use of expert judgement. The model will then be applied to examine the required scale and design of expert-driven approaches to standard maintaining in order for these to have any chance of being as reliable as the currently favoured, purely statistical approaches. The paper also discusses the minimum conditions required for this approach to designing expert-driven approaches to be appropriate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the school curriculum, some subjects tend to be regarded more highly than others. Various accounts have been proposed to explain this phenomenon. Most of them draw attention to the nature of different subjects and the type of knowledge that these promote. While such epistemological narratives help to illuminate the origins of the curriculum hierarchy, they are limited in their ability to point to directions for addressing it. Drawing on empirical data concerning an increasingly unpopular A level subject, namely Design and Technology, this paper exposes a number of additional factors eroding the status of lowly regarded subjects. These factors capture more tangible aspects of the issue, introducing a more practical and concrete perspective into a debate which, to date, has been largely theoretical and abstract. The paper reconceptualises the curriculum hierarchy, arguing that its perpetuation is linked to issues relating to the definition, or 'brand', of subjects. Against the backdrop of this conceptualisation, it proposes a framework which offers a complementary explanation for the existing subject hierarchy alongside tools for levelling the playing field within the curriculum. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper draws on a three-year critical ethnography which interrogated intersections of social class, school and identity in an urban Irish community. The focus here is on the psycho-spatial disidentifications, inscriptions and class fractioning enacted throughout the school and community of Portown by a cohort of succeeding students from this predominantly working-class community. This paper makes a significant contribution through a unique focus on the intersections between class, schooling and identity in the Irish context. Themes based around perceived distinction and differences serve to highlight the effects of pervasive neoliberal philosophies pertaining to the commodification of education and competitive individualism. Some participants in the study engaged in identity work enacting escape and difference from their working-class community as artefacts of success. An angelicisation of the middle-class habitus is engaged throughout as the participant identities are wrought from their experiences of school and community actions, interactions and perceptions. The central concern here is the interplay between social mobility, social class and student identity in an Irish urban environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the transitions to secondary and to tertiary education. As a new contribution to prior scholarship, it focuses on the role of self-perceived ability (self-assessment), which might impel pupils to make costly efforts in education now, in order to have an uncertain payoff later on. The paper builds on the assumption that while making educational decisions, especially low-educated families overemphasise ability relative to effort. Therefore, there is a need to identify the factors that contribute investing effort in education. It will be revealed that self-assessment might be such a factor in educational transitions. It especially helps the offspring of low-educated parents to reach their potential and to opt for college-bound secondary tracks. The paper concludes that it would be useful to concentrate more on howeffortis influenced by parental background, since our knowledge is still limited about this kind of influence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Digital fabrication and '3D Making' are prominent recent additions to school curricula, hastened by the increased affordability of Computer Assisted Design software and devices such as 3D printers. It is increasingly argued that classroom use of these technologies can re-orientate schools towards forms of skills and knowledge appropriate for contemporary industry, STEM education and 'Maker culture'. Amidst such rhetoric, questions are raised about how these technologies are being used in schools, and the extent to which this represents 'new' and/or 'innovative' forms of education. This paper presents an ethnographic investigation of a 3D printing course enacted in an Australian high school. These curricular activities are considered from three different perspectives: (i) the artefacts and devices involved in the project; (ii) the surrounding social and educational contexts; and (iii) the activities and practices implicit in the implementation of the project. These different levels of analysis highlight the complexities of technology-based schooling -- not least the ways in which possible technical and/or pedagogical 'innovations' associated with 3D printing are shaped by the situational constraints of school contexts. The paper concludes by considering the likely future(s) of 3D printing and other forms of digital fabrication within the institutional confines of school. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite the importance of writing skills to school and life success, there is scant research into the enabling and constraining conditions that shape elementary students' views about their writing practices. This paper examines students' views about writing through the lens of reflexivity theory. Applying an explanatory sequential model of mixed-method design, it first describes the development of a self-report questionnaire to investigate the views of 570 elementary students about themselves as writers. Second, it draws on semi-structured interviews with 46 students across Years 3 to 6. The results show that the majority of students see themselves as autonomous and meta-reflexive writers. In addition, results indicate time, teacher pedagogy and the place to practice writing as contextual conditions experienced by learners and place an emphasis on the personal conditions such as students' lack of confidence, persistence and ideas. We discuss implications for further practice in elementary schools. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]