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

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

The market for degrees preparing for careers in European politics has developed over the last 20 years. Starting from the French case, this paper proposes to understand how students move towards these orientations. Based on mixed-methods sociological study, the article shows that students in European politics masters programmes are not so much from the international upper bourgeoisie as from the rising middle and upper social classes, for whom international capital is a distinctive resource. Then, it shows that pursuing a European career allows them to reconcile two seemingly contradictory rationales: on the one hand the incentive to specialise urgently to enter the job market and on the other hand the eagerness to prolong their Erasmus experience. The driving force behind these careers is accordingly as in the possibility of starting more an international career than a European one. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Singapore has prospered since independence by developing its human resources under a distinctly Singaporean meritocratic system. Recent developments in public discourse, and findings from interviews with leading Singaporean personalities, however, point towards the system's increasing undesirability. Among other problems, our study participants blame the system for worsening class divisions in society; for damaging the mental well-being of students; and for leading to a narrowing of society's definitions of success while leaving Singaporean workers unprepared for challenges of the future economy. Our paper shows that for Singaporeans to be ready for these challenges and to find purpose and meaning in the future economy, the current meritocratic systems require reform. We argue for a new kind of political decision-making to allow Singaporean society to reorder its basic values and priorities towards a more democratic, inclusive and compassionate meritocracy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Chilean educational system is widely known as one of the most marketized systems globally. However, new political dynamics have emerged, challenging the extent to which education has been privatised and set in train what we might call the 'unmaking of the market'. Across the literature, there are numerous accounts on making markets. However, what does 'unmaking' the market look like as a project, process, and set of outcomes, especially in a context where markets as a mode of coordination of social life more generally, and education as a sector in particular, have become common sense? This paper draws from a larger study on the making of the education market in Chile over a forty-year period. Focusing on the latest Bachelet's reforms (2014–2018), which aim to roll back privatisation and put into place the strengthening of public education, undoing the institutionalisation and legitimation of market-making mechanisms, and the materialisation of the market through its interiorisation in education actors. Here I show the emergence of a new discourse: a progressive dispute of the public(in)education. Chile finds itself in an interregnum; the old is potentially dying, but a new social order is yet to be born to stabilise a new epistemic moment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a new visualisation of tensions in developing and delivering undergraduate higher education. It links qualitative research on academics' perceptions of education in one English research-intensive university to known models of knowledge, curricula, pedagogies, student engagement and identities to propose a new conceptual framework. Reworking the 1980s Clark triangle, with its apices of academic oligarchy, state authority and market denoting system tensions, a common apex now merges state and market agendas, and societal pulls are introduced at the third. The paper acknowledges today's complex higher education environment and responds to critiques about the original triangle's static nature, recognising oscillation within the space and adding a fourth apex representing students' identities. The adapted model, supported through academics' lived experiences, makes explicit the spectrum of choices and desired educational outcomes. It offers an important aid to debates on the purpose of higher education and learning and teaching policy and practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

R.H. Tawney (1880–1962), a leading English economic historian and prominent socialist, was vigorously involved in educational reconstruction during the Second World War. For Tawney, the war was a war for social democracy. His ideals of social democracy formed a basis for his case for Public (independent) School reform and free secondary education for all. Despite this, the connection between Tawney’s ideals and his perspectives on educational issues has not been addressed fully by historians and thus there has been a lack of a proper explanation for his often criticised sympathy for the public schools and his indifference towards the multilateral school. Hence, this paper aims to re-examine the link between them in greater depth. It concludes that, according to Tawney’s ideals of social democracy, the abolition of the public schools was not necessary for the establishment of a democratic educational system. Moreover, Tawney did not launch an attack on the tripartite system proposed by the Norwood Report of 1943 since it was not against his ideal of equality as long as different secondary schools were equal in quality and status. Equality, he believed, must be advanced through the raising of the school leaving age to 16 and the abolition of fees in all secondary schools. Thus, he laid more emphasis on the school leaving age and tuition fees than on the multilateral school. In brief, on various issues pertaining to secondary education, Tawney’s opinions and actions were deeply grounded in his distinctive ideals of social democracy. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The authors discusses the education in Great Britain. It raised on the public opinion if education in Scotland can survive alone or Great Britain can survive without Scotland during the Scottish independence referendum debate on September 2014. The authors explores the distinctive history, principle, and current policies of each country based on the papers they are written.

We reconceptualize co-teaching in higher education to be more than a method for professional development or adapting to student preferences. Instead, co-teaching offers community and collaboration that can sustain the holistic well-being of professors, especially marginalized faculty who navigate high service loads and extra scrutiny from students. Drawing upon our Chicana/Latina feminist onto-epistemologies, we leveraged embodied pedagogies of care and plática to self reflect and critically analyze our particular approach to co-teaching–what we term 'comadre co-teaching.' This paper demonstrates how co-teaching meets institutionalized expectations for teaching excellence, but most importantly, serves to sustain us as faculty of color and mothers. We present brief narratives of our co-teaching experiences as examples of what it looks and feels like to have support in navigating the chaos of teaching during a pandemic. We also offer lessons learned of what it takes to create and sustain a support network among historically marginalized faculty. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A significant proportion of the teaching and learning in PhD programs is conducted independently by the candidate under the supervision of one or more supervisors. Supervisors and students are usually expected to meet regularly to ensure that students are on track to produce a dissertation as independent researchers. Yet few studies to date examine how teaching and learning within supervision meetings is interactionally achieved. In this paper we use a conversation analysis approach to study how supervisors formulate their student-solicited feedback. Specifically, we show that equivocation in giving feedback serves a pedagogical purpose that balances competition between the institutional goals of teaching with the expectations that PhD students should already be competent researchers. While supervisors provided equivocal feedback in both early and late stages of candidature, we show here how the nature of this feedback changes, showing the sensitivities of supervisors to the developing capacities of their supervisees. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explicates the codes that prescribe and shape the marine engineer student in times of massification and high attrition rates in Danish non-university higher education. In a case study of a Danish school of marine engineering, the Bernsteinian concept of knowledge structures and Legitimation Code Theory support analysing the official curriculum along with teacher and student interviews to determine what is considered knowledge and whose knowledge is deemed important. We find that teachers' pedagogical decisions are embedded in the epistemological and social conventions of their individual educational backgrounds. Their struggles on content and pedagogic approach make it difficult for students to understand what is legitimate knowledge and who can claim to be a legitimate knower. To offer more students epistemic access to non-university academic study and increase student success, the epistemic and evaluative logics of the pedagogic discourses to which students are exposed must be clarified and made explicit. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The COVID-19 pandemic outbreak forced universities to immediately shift to online teaching, and the transition presented unprecedented challenges. This paper reports our findings from a collaborative autoethnography study with a special focus on the challenges we encountered and our agentive responses in teaching online. Data reveal four major challenges (1) unpredictable situations, (2) shifting teacher roles in online context, (3) issues on course design, expectations, grading, and feedback, and (4) technology issues. Also, we reported four agentive responses (1) adopting a positive attitude, (2) reexamining our teaching practices and educational goals, (3) exploring alternative pedagogical approaches, and (4) strategically implementing technology to enhance teaching and learning. These intentional reflections became opportunities for us to revisit our positionality, analyze our teaching experiences, and transform them into tools in supporting students. This study calls for more resources for professional development, as well as further conversations and collaborations among teachers and researchers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Authentic learning is gaining popularity in higher education, particularly for courses related to research skills, where authentic assessments can overcome trepidation from both students and faculty. Prior literature has demonstrated the potential value of authentic client-based projects (CBPs) in such settings. However, questions remain about how best to scale authentic learning across different student cohorts, including both undergraduate and postgraduate courses. This paper explores two case studies of authentic learning applied across undergraduate and postgraduate research courses. We explore the impact of different forms of authentic learning, ranging from in-class activities to fully authentic client-based projects, on both student satisfaction and success rates. The results suggest that client-based projects represent a trade-off between satisfaction and learning at the undergraduate level but can be highly successful at postgraduate level if implemented effectively. We provide practical tips for how faculty may scale authentic learning and assessments across undergraduate and postgraduate courses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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

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

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

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

In the cold war, the United Kingdom government devised a number of public education campaigns to inform citizens about the precautions that they should undertake in the event of a nuclear attack. One such campaign, Protect and Survive, was released to the general public and media in May 1980. The negative publicity this publication received is considered to be a reason why a successor publication was never released despite the increased risk of nuclear attack. Using recently released records from the UK National Archives the paper considers that, aside from this explanation, interlocking institutional objectives, rather than simply inertia, provide an explanation for this hiatus. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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

The marketization of higher education has ensured that students have become consumers. As a result, students are demanding increased levels of information regarding potential university courses so that they can make informed decisions regarding how best to invest their money, time and opportunity. A comparison of the teaching quality delivered on different programs of study will be an important element of this decision-making process. The Teaching Excellence Framework proposes that teaching quality will be assessed by measures including the evaluation of student learning gain. This paper reflects on an analysis of consultation responses from key stakeholders across the UK higher education sector to determine how evaluating learning gain could be effectively achieved. Synthesizing these responses, ten key considerations regarding evaluating learning gain have been identified that together provide a unique perspective to ensure that any evaluation of student learning gain subsequently undertaken is relevant to the marketing of higher education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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

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

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

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

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

This paper examines the introduction at Oxford Brookes University of a Grade Point Average (GPA) scheme alongside the traditional honours degree classification. It considers the reasons for the introduction of GPA, the way in which the scheme was implemented, and offers an insight into the impact of GPA at Brookes. Finally, the paper considers what has been learnt at Brookes and the implications for the potential further roll-out of GPA across the UK. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines changing policy orientations to widening participation through college-based higher education in England. After more than 30 years of increasing and diversifying participation in higher education (HE) in a wide range of countries, such policy goals are coming under increasing scrutiny in countries such as the United States and the United Kingdom, in an age defined by austerity in public spending. The paper focuses on England, as an example of opening up access in one country, with parallels internationally such as the American Graduation Initiative in the United States. In England such policies have changed the landscape of higher education, with claims that college-based HE plays a distinctive role. The paper reviews the nature of the ‘distinctiveness’ of college-based HE, including what students report about their experience of moving into this form of higher education during the 2000s. The paper highlights the challenges under current conditions, for creating a distinctive and valued college-based higher education pathway that opens up opportunities for underserved and disadvantaged groups. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

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

An introduction is presented in which the editor discusses various reports within the issue on topics including discourse on food in Canadian curriculum, food and schooling produced by UK Coalition Government, and school lunch.

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

This paper explores how a legacy digital artefact can be adopted within formal education settings and looks at the pedagogical and other opportunities created by its use within three primary and secondary classrooms in the UK. Through a comparative case study, the paper investigates the potential of using a virtual 3D model of the 1938 British Empire Exhibition in formal educational settings and highlights a number of salient issues and challenges. As the data suggests, engagement with the model created opportunities for playful learning, facilitated motivation and collaboration, and enhanced student interest. However, participation was often compromised by technical inhibitors as well as the wider pressures of the curriculum, teacher time and assessment regimes. Last, the paper considers the range of actors and factors that influenced the experiences of teachers and students who engaged with the use of the 3D model and concludes by considering the implications of these findings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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

This paper adds to a growing body of literature which views global citizenship education as part of a broader social and cultural process of subjectivity production. Rather than focus on global citizenship in relation to pedagogy or curriculum content, as much of the previous research literature has done, this paper examines it in relation to the practice of travel. Drawing on data generated in ethnographic fieldwork in two UK schools, the paper explores the way in which the young people in these settings used travel to position themselves as successful, mobile, global citizen subjects. The paper argues that these subjectivities were negotiated as part of a dynamic process: one which took place across multiple spaces, in a myriad of different relationships, and in the deployment of a number of different power relations. The paper concludes with some thoughts about the practice of school travel and how it might effectively be focused upon in future research. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper examines the experiences of four men working as Special Educational Needs Coordinators in primary schools in England. There is currently no published research that draws insights from the small population of male SENCos, nor that explores the gendered aspects of leading for inclusion. Set against recent SEN policy reform and a changing demographic profile of the SENCo population, the paper contributes novel understandings of men's experiences of SEN coordination and middle leadership, as ascertained through narrative interviews. By interrogating these previously unheard stories and drawing on the theory of 'practice architectures', recommendations for policy and practice in the training and induction of new SENCos are made. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Whilst the notion of the whole child is well-established within early years and primary education, the related concept of the whole teacher is less well developed. However, it is important to progress understanding of the concept in light of high levels of teacher stress in performance-driven education systems. This paper details an empirical study with five primary schools in England which explored how leaders sustained a focus on the whole child within the context of a performance-driven education system. Specifically, it focuses on data which emerged from the study, identifying the concept of the whole teacher and its important relationship with the whole child and whole curriculum. The paper critiques current conceptions of the whole teacher and proposes a concept which has, at its centre, the recognition of who the teacher is as a person. Implications for leadership and teacher education are considered. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Playtimes in English primary schools are a perennial and mainly enjoyable event. They are, however, largely overlooked in educational reform and have experienced 'benign neglect'. The paper presents the findings from a research project which investigated the playtimes of primary school children. Questionnaire data gathered by pre-service teachers focused on children's views of playtimes, including the role of adults, and the children's use of playground space. Whilst generally positive about their playtimes, a minority of pupils find playtimes challenging. Pupils recognise the complexity and challenge of the social expectations of playtimes. This paper proposes that perhaps the time is right now to focus anew on playtimes to consider whether change should take place, why and how this change might be effected. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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

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

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

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

This paper revisits the liberal studies movement, a significant feature of the English further education (FE) sector from the 1950s until the beginning of the 1980s. Its central argument is that liberal and general studies (LS/GS) and similar provision offered a vehicle where, at least in some circumstances, certain politically-motivated FE teachers were able to engage in forms of mutual, dialogic teaching and learning which can be conceptualised as critical pedagogy—or at least as close to critical pedagogy as can be achieved within the formal education system in a nation such as England. The paper draws on interviews with former FE lecturers who taught various forms of liberal studies to vocational students in FE colleges across England during the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s. Whilst it is recognised that LS/GS was always contested terrain, data presented in this paper provide evidence to suggest that the spirit of critical pedagogy existed amongst a certain strand within the liberal studies movement, at least for a time—even if not all learners wished to be emancipated by their studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This account of practice provides a practical example of the use of mindfulness practice within action learning which was a component of a bespoke UK Business School post-graduate leadership development programme commissioned by an English NHS Mental Health Trust aimed at improving the leadership capacity of mid-level managers through work-based learning. The article discusses background and context of the programme followed by how application of mindfulness exercises was integrated within the action learning process to encourage participants to be 'in the moment' as an added component of their leadership development. The aim of the paper is to share examples of practice applied within action learning. Finally, the paper asserts that the application of mindfulness exercises helped to enhance the action learning process by creating a calm, focused space for individual and collective reflections, enhancing the quality of engagement and enabling action learning members to take a more pragmatic approach to addressing the work issues raised within the action learning sets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]