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Many sports programmes designed for children under five claim improvements in physical, social, and psychological outcomes. However, few have been subject to any form of inquiry. This paper reports an initial exploratory study of parental perceptions of an indoor bouldering programme designed for children younger than 6 when delivered in England. Six parents who accessed an average of four sessions took part in a telephone interview to gather initial perceptions, and to establish whether they felt that there had been changes in their children's and their own behaviour by attending the Rock Tots/Kids classes. Thematic analysis indicated that parents were generally positive about the programme, and could identify some changes in their children's intrapersonal, interpersonal, and climbing specific skills when participating in the sessions. Parents also reported changes in their own approaches to parenting. Suggestions for future research of sports programmes targeted at this age group are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyses the fracturing of civic and moral virtue within curricular policies pertaining to Citizenship in England since the late 1990s. A longstanding aim of education and schooling, the teaching of citizenship gained a more secure base in the English curriculum with the introduction of Citizenship as a statutory subject for 11–16 years olds from 2002, which owed a great deal to the Report of the Advisory Group on Education for Citizenship and the Teaching of Democracy in Schools (Crick Report). The report drew intimate connections between civic virtue, moral virtue, and personal character. These connections have become seriously fractured over the years since the Crick Report. In charting this fracturing, the paper will examine how the character-influenced direction taken in the early/mid-2000s was replaced by, at first, a more general emphasis on British Values before morphing into a more specific, though no less problematic, concentration on Fundamental British Values. While character education has gained significant policy attention in England over the last six years, the civic dimensions have been at best underplayed, with little connection to education for citizenship. It is argued that without greater clarity and consistency about how the moral – including moral virtues – intersects with the civic in contemporary Britain, official curricular policy (whether for Citizenship education, character education or more generally) will restrict rather than encourage the education of young citizens who are informed, wise, responsible and active participants in their communities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper focuses on the learning experiences of lower attaining boys attending Stone Acre, a non-selective state Secondary school in England, and how these were shaped by teachers' gendered beliefs and practices. It argues that despite changes in our theoretical understandings of gender, those found in the context of everyday practice in schools may continue to be rooted in biological understandings of masculinity that tend to reinforce rather than challenge assumptions of deficit. It argues that these interactions form part of a gender regime that also includes the lower-status learning spaces disproportionately occupied by lower attaining boys, with selective grouping practices and the curriculum both contributing to the limiting understandings of boys' educational potential that are ultimately reflected in persistently gendered patterns of attainment. The small number of boys who took part in this study clearly recognised the less favourable positioning of boys as a group. Despite this, they went on to achieve beyond expectations, suggesting that they maintained some agency as learners. Teachers at Stone Acre were also under pressure to ensure achievement against performance threshold levels, suggesting that there may have been some mitigating, trickle down effects. The paper concludes that there is a continuing need for teachers to develop more inclusive understandings of masculinities and of the effects of these on everyday practices in schools. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Teacher shortages are a significant global problem disproportionally affecting "hardest-to-staff" schools and subjects. To better understand (inter)national policy responses to teacher shortages, this paper uses a Bacchian-inspired approach to critically examine proposals suggested as solutions in policy documents from England and Australia, and thus how the problem is being thought about especially in relation to hardest-to-staff contexts. We contend that the problem representations in the policy documents are narrowly conceived and need to be considered differently through the lenses of (re)professionalisation and social justice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Education policy increasingly takes place across borders and sectors, involving a variety of both human and nonhuman actors. This comparative policy paper traces the 'policy mobilities,' 'fast policy' processes and distributed 'policy assemblages' that have led to the introduction of new computer programming practices into schools and curricula in England, Sweden and Australia. Across the three contexts, government advisors and ministers, venture capital firms, think tanks and philanthropic foundations, non-profit organizations and commercial companies alike have promoted computer programming in schools according to a variety of purposes, aspirations, and commitments. This paper maps and traces the evolution of the organizational networks in each country in order to provide a comparative analysis of computing in schools as an exemplar of accelerated, transnationalizing policy mobility. The analysis demonstrates how computing in schools policy has been assembled through considerable effort to create alignments between diverse actors, the production and circulation of material objects, significant cross-border movement of ideas, people and devices, and the creation of strategic partnerships between government centres and commercial vendors. Computing in schools exemplifies how modern education policy and governance is accomplished through sprawling assemblages of actors, events, materials, money and technologies that move across social, governmental and geographical boundaries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Classroom music teachers in England design their own music curricula for Key Stage 3 (11 − 14 year olds, 6th – 8th Grades). These curricula are designed in a context where policymakers define, regulate and legitimate curriculum formulations. This study traced curriculum development in England, where government has validated a policy driven approach. It explored programs of study, which music teachers in England design as summaries of musical learning for Key Stage 3. The research consisted of documentary analysis in a two-phase study of 13 secondary (high) schools in the English midlands, exploring musical knowledge for musical learning, which is analyzed utilizing qualitative and quantitative methodologies. The paper concludes with a discussion which explores the impacts of music education policy on classroom practices, and presents a proposed model which captures this interaction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Given the evolving and diverse nature of post-16 computing curricula within England, this papers' primary objective was to identify the factors which influence the decision-making processes for education providers when choosing computing curricula. As a main provider of the vast array of post-16 qualifications, and due to their neglect both politically and in research, further education colleges were chosen as the subject of inquiry. Due to the focus on understanding employee perspectives, a qualitative research method was employed where semi-structured interviews were conducted with thirty-two employees from across thirteen colleges within England. These employees included computing lecturers, heads of departments, and members of senior leadership. Findings indicate the extent of the range of post-16 computing qualifications offered by colleges, in addition to identifying who the key players are for computing curricula decisions. Additionally, ten factors were identified as pivotal to influencing curricula choice, and from these factors, a model has been created classifying four central areas that should be considered regarding curriculum choice: labour market information, qualification relevance to industry needs, qualification attractiveness, and current college resources. This model should help inform education providers in making more informed computing curricula decisions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The importance of key legislation in framing religious education in England is widely assumed, and indeed some argue that these Acts – of 1870, 1944 and 1988 – demarcate pedagogical phases, or paradigms. Policy and historical analyses have revealed the political and social disputes around legislation, but often conflate legislation with other policy. This paper reassesses the statutory meanings of 'religious education' through a textual analysis of legislation from 1800 onwards, exploring: the positive entitlement to religious education; the negative freedom not to be subjected to other forms of religious education; curriculum specifications. Sixty-five Acts were reviewed. Presented chronologically, the analysis shows that: the term has a long and varied development that predates compulsory education; several neglected Acts have been pivotal in shaping the subject – notably in 1841, 1869 and 1936; religious education is continuously a marker of religious autonomy for individuals and increasingly for schools, and its curricular use stems from this; the newest related terms are for inspection purposes. The implications are discussed for accounts of the subject, curriculum development and further research, both in England and more widely. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The teaching of reading has been a source of contentious debate for many years. Margaret Meek Spencer contributed her passion for the importance of specific texts to help children learn to read. In addition to the kinds of texts to be used, important aspects of the debateimportant aspects of the debate include the relationship between national curriculum policies and robust research evidence about what works in teaching reading This paper notes a historical trend in government policy that has included England's Department for Education in England's strengthening its control of the curriculum and pedagogy for teaching reading in ways which run contrary to many of Meek Spencer's arguments. The paper examines the use of statutory assessment, particularly a Phonics Screening Check, its influence on pedagogy and links with the politics of reading. We conclude that policy needs to be reformed to better reflect robust research evidence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Previous studies have reported that generalist primary teachers lack the confidence and competence to teach Physical Education (PE). In response, schools have outsourced PE to external providers. This paper examines data from an online survey of 175 pre-service teachers (PSTs) in England and their perceived confidence to teach primary PE. Findings showed PSTs had high levels of confidence across a breadth of knowledge areas, specifically in areas relating to lesson planning, health and fitness and the subject's aims. Conversely, knowledge confidence was lowest in swimming, assessment and working with external providers. This paper argues that to address teacher confidence in PE, teachers must be positioned back as the main curriculum deliverers. An outcome of this research has been the development of a professional knowledge model for primary PE which recognises a breadth of professional knowledge needed to become a primary physical educator. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Engaging with digital media is part of everyday living for the majority of children, yet opportunities to learn about, through and with media are denied many pupils in compulsory schooling. Whilst Media Studies in the UK is internationally reputed to be well established, changes made to the primary and secondary national curriculum in 2014 included removal of existing media study elements. We demonstrate what is lost by these actions in relation to the United Nations Rights of the Child and, in particular, the right of the child to express identity. We demonstrate how media literacy had previously been included in curriculum, enabling opportunities to address children's rights, and propose that the absence of media education is part of an overall trend of the non-prioritisation of children's rights in England and Northern Ireland. The paper calls for media literacy to be reintroduced into primary and secondary curriculum. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ofsted's 2021 Curriculum Research Review outlines a language pedagogy predicated on an exclusively cognitivist approach to language learning, which relies on three 'pillars of progression': phonics, vocabulary and grammar. The review makes a brief acknowledgement of the importance of motivational factors, including 'pupils' positive views of themselves as language learners' though these factors do not seem to inform its conclusions about what constitutes 'high-quality languages education'. Tellingly, the authors seem to believe that motivational factors are unrelated to learners' perceptions of the relevance of language learning in their lives. Addressing the issue of learners' perception of 'the relevance of languages in their lives' is indeed an important challenge, as the literature indicates, yet it is difficult to see how an exclusively cognitivist approach to language education can do this effectively. In this paper, we point to the growing recognition in languages education research of the key role played by multilingual identity development in successful language learning. We draw also on evidence from our recent AHRC-funded interventional study of Year 9 and Year 10 pupils (ages 13-15) in schools in England to argue for an identity-oriented language pedagogy as an integral component of a transformative approach to language learning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper tells a story of one student teacher's experiences as she considers the choice of fiction texts studied by young secondary learners of English, and how those texts are taught. Based on a series of interviews carried out in the South-West of England and Wales, the narrative provides a perspective on the limitations of current curricula offered by schools that feel bound by a restrictive assessment and inspection regime. It concludes that such curricula can stifle effective teaching and learning, and so teacher educators have a duty to provide new entrants to the profession with a range of perspectives, opportunities and experiences. Through so doing, we promote the fictionalisation of data as a valid, robust approach to educational research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper takes as its starting point, one of the explicit aims of religious education in England, namely, the development of students’religious understanding. It shows how curriculum documentation, whilst stating thatreligious understandingis an aim of religious education fails to clearly outline what is meant by it. This paper draws upon long-standing and ongoing debates in the field and suggests thatreligious understandingmay be best conceived as a spectrum of understanding. Approached in this way,religious understandingbecomes not an all or nothing affair, but a lens through which the student of religion may regard the beliefs and practices before them. Finally, the paper proposes an interpretation ofreligious understanding, which focuses on the soteriological dimension of religion, thus providing the student with a particularlyreligiouslens to understand religious traditions in religious education and concludes by outlining what such an approach might look like in practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Previous international work has shown that clustering pupils with similar characteristics in particular schools yields no clear academic benefit, and can be disadvantageous both socially and personally. Understanding how and why this clustering happens, and how it may be reduced, is therefore important for policy. Yet previous work has tended to focus on only one kind of clustering at a time. In the USA, for example, black:white segregation of pupils has been the key issue. In the UK, and across Europe, the focus has been on social background, especially on the segregation from their peers of pupils living in poverty. With access to high-quality national data sets in England, it is now possible to track the between-school segregation of numerous pupil characteristics over a 14-year period. This paper uses school-level figures for all state-funded secondary school pupils in England from 1996 to 2009, including free school meals, special needs, ethnicity, and first language. The paper investigates, more fully than has been attempted before, whether segregation in terms of these indicators has a common pattern. It presents evidence for the existence of at least three different processes of between-school segregation over this period, and proposes a possible determinant for each, and some future work that could be done to clarify the situation. The paper therefore provides an important corrective to previous work that sought explanation for only one type of segregation. In the allocation of school places, pupils are being clustered in several distinct ways. The standard previous explanations for pupil clustering such as selection by ability or housing, faith-based enrolment, and increased parental choice, apply only to some of these forms of segregation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The ways in which examination standards are conceptualised and operationalised differently across nations has not been given sufficient attention. The international literature on standard-setting has been dominated by the psychometrics tradition. Broader conceptualisations of examination standards have been discussed in the literature in England, which has curriculum-related examinations at the end of schooling. There has, however, been little analysis of conceptualisations of examination standards in Scotland. Different education systems and examinations operate in Scotland and England, and the stated value positions and processes relating to examination standards differ markedly. This paper critically examines policy positions on assessment standards in Scotland and England through the lens of recent theories of standard-setting. By analysing public statements on standards, the paper illuminates similarities and differences in conceptual bases and operational approaches, and examines the effects of these on outcomes for candidates. We conclude that both systems are operationalising attainment-referencing, but with different processes in Scotland and England and these practices do not fit within previous examination standards classifications. As such, the paper moves examination standards theory forward by concluding that there is at least one superordinate definitional category that draws upon more than one definitional stance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses various papers published within the issue, including one on curriculum inequalities in England by Alice Sullivan, Anna Zimdars and Anthony Heath, one on the beneficiaries of the Assisted Places Scheme by Sally Power, Andrew Curtis, Geoff Whitty and Tony Edwards and one the educational success of a group of elite girls by Alexandra Allan.

Teachers are often portrayed as the recipients of information about widening access initiatives and cast in the role of encouraging their students to engage in these activities. However, recent research has corroborated what might constitute an expected association, given the time pupils spend at school: teachers can have a significant impact on the higher education [HE] intentions of young people. Yet, few studies have considered the classroom practices that may account for this. This study seeks to do this by drawing on the insights and experiences of students and teaching professionals based in two schools and a post-16 college. All three institutions have catchments that encompass educationally deprived neighbourhoods. What this investigation reveals is that certain practices can make a significant difference to educational ambitions. Prominent are those that nurture subject interest, link the school curriculum to HE options, and introduce learners to higher-level study skills. In turn, the effectiveness of these practices is influenced by the ability of teaching professionals to build rapport with their students, most prominently by sharing their own learner journeys. The paper concludes by arguing for the wider recognition of these practices since they have the potential to open up HE to more young people from backgrounds that are underrepresented in HE. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The impact of widening participation policy and how it is enacted institutionally is a central concern to Higher Education. It is not simply about the admission of students from disadvantaged backgrounds, but also ensuring that these students complete their courses successfully. This work therefore goes far beyond those departments tasked with access and outreach and has implications for staff across all academic and support service areas. The way in which national policy is interpreted and translated into local policy can therefore affect the whole institution. To bring a spotlight on these issues, this paper will focus on a case study of a single elite institution in England. Focusing primarily on selection of students, it will examine how selection measures can in fact reproduce inequalities. It will therefore demonstrate how this programme may not improve access to Higher Education but instead focuses on ensuring that students already on a path to Higher Education choose this institution in preference to others. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Rapidly changing policy contexts in England have dramatically affected the provision of career guidance, and the training and development of its practitioners. This paper takes an autoethnographic and self-reflexive approach to exploring the experience of a Senior Lecturer in Career Guidance who manages a centre that offers the Qualification in Career Guidance (QCG), and the Level 6 Diploma in Career Guidance and Development. Key questions are considered, such as: the effects of policy context on the type of qualification and curriculum offered, and their differences; the challenges of engaging learners in theoretical concepts and reflective approaches; and the tensions between ‘training’ practitioners and ‘educating’ them to develop a strong core of professionalism. The paper also considers the extent to which the learners develop as ‘knowledgeable social actors’. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Drawing on a Levinasian ethical perspective, the argument driving this paper is that the technical accountability movement currently dominating the educational system in England is less than adequate because it overlooks educators’ responsibility for ethical relations in responding to difference in respect of the other. Curriculum policy makes a significant contribution to the technical accountability culture through complicity in performativity, high-stakes testing and datafication, at the same time as constituting student and teacher subjectivities. I present two different conceptualizations of subjectivity and education, before engaging these in the analysis of data arising from an empirical study which investigated teachers’ and stakeholders’ experiences of curriculum policy reform in ‘disadvantaged’ English schools. The study’s findings demonstrate how a prescribed programme of technical curriculum regulation attempts to ‘fix’ or mend educational problems by ‘fixing’ or prescribing educational solutions. This not only denies ethical professional relations between students, teachers and parents, but also deflects responsibility for educational success from government to teachers and hastens the move from public to private educational provision. Complying with prescribed curriculum policy requirements shifts attention from broad philosophical and ethical questions about educational purpose as well as conferring a violence by assuming control over student and teacher subjectivities. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper begins by identifying what it sees as the current crisis in curriculum theory. Following a brief history of the field, it argues that recent developments have led to it losing its object––what is taught and learned in school––and its distinctive role in the educational sciences. Arising from this brief account of the origins and nature of this ‘crisis’, the paper argues that curriculum theory must begin not from the learner but from the learner’s entitlement to knowledge. It then develops a framework for approaching the curriculum based on this assumption which is illustrated by an example of how the Head Teacher of a large secondary school in England used these ideas. Finally, it examines three widely held criticisms of the knowledge-based approach developed here and the issues that they raise. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper forms part of an exploration of assessment on one part-time higher education (HE) course: an in-service, professional qualification for teachers and trainers in the learning and skills sector which is delivered on a franchise basis across a network of further education colleges in the north of England. This paper proposes that the validity and reliability of portfolio-based assessment, a key component of many HE programmes in addition to the course being researched here, is contestable. Analysis of the processes of compiling portfolios for assessment, through the conceptual framework of the New Literacy Studies, suggests that the ways in which portfolios are assessed and the ways in which the crucial requisites of validity and reliability are assigned to them, mask complexities and contradictions in their creation by the student. This paper argues for a new, critical analysis of portfolio production and raises a number of questions about the validity, reliability and authenticity of the assessment process that the portfolios reify. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Taking England as our case study, this paper reviews secondary school environmental education from a policy perspective. By drawing on Stevenson's typologies for environmental improvement and Lucas' categorisation of environmental education, we analyse national policy documents, local authority and Multi-Academy Trust policies; and individual school planning documents. Our findings suggest in these areas a general absence of environment education policy, and where identified a rhetoric towards conservative reform framed as technology solutions, where learning is about the environment, rather than for the environment. We explain how the (lack of) environmental education rhetoric is a result of global economic changes and national austerity policies, and offer insights and signposting for policy makers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper draws on an ESRC-funded study (Payler, 2005) of the sociocultural influences on learning processes of 10 four-year-old children in their second year of the Foundation Stage in England (DfEE, 2000). The children, very close in age, were in one of two early years settings: a pre-school playgroup with a largely invisible pedagogy (Bernstein, 1996) and a reception class in a primary school with a more visible pedagogy. In this paper, children's experiences in specific teaching and learning episodes are used to examine how the pedagogies of the settings created open or closed interactive spaces; inviting, building on or limiting children's contributions. The study considers a range of communicative modes (Kress & Van Leeuwen, 2001) used in creating interactive space. It draws on diagrams, outline drawings from video stills and detailed transcription incorporating gaze, body positioning, tone of voice and use of resources to explore factors involved in shaping children's interactive learning experiences. The findings suggest that although both early years settings worked to the same Foundation Stage curriculum, their sub-cultures of pedagogy ensured that the curriculum was differently enacted in each, offering quite distinct interactive opportunities for children in which learning was mediated in different ways. This resulted in different learning outcomes according to children's positions as the youngest or oldest in a cohort and to adults' perceptions of their abilities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this paper is to discuss the risks and challenges associated with the 'lived experience' of delivering a foundation degree in health and social care in Kent, UK, in order to enter the debate on successful responses to Government initiatives for expanding intermediate education provision in higher education institutes (HEIs). Before this can be undertaken, it is necessary to provide an overview of the drivers, both locally and nationally, for developing foundation degrees (FDs). This paper presents a case study based on the lived experience of delivering an FD in one HEI in the southeast of England, which may have relevance to a wider field within work-based learning provision. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Postgraduate education in gerontology is now widespread within European universities, but, even so, such developments remain very uneven. This paper outlines the variety of provision by describing Master's programmes in a sample of countries: England, Scotland, Finland, and Spain. These programmes illustrate some of the common problems: lack of funding for students, limited availability of academic staff, and reliance on a small core of dedicated teachers. They exhibit many strengths, including the breadth of curricula, high academic standards, high calibre and varied backgrounds of the students, the value of the qualification in employment, and meeting the demands of an ageing Europe. At the same time, these courses are faced with important issues about their sustainability. This paper argues that the demand for generalist courses such as gerontology taught Master's may fall in the coming years due to a combination of factors, such as employers' unwillingness to allow day release and demands by older people themselves for treatment and care by specialists. Generalist courses, this paper argues, may only survive in the biggest and best universities serving large populations and in cities able to attract overseas students. doi:10.1300/J021v27n03_03 [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Alice Buckton was a Froebelian educator who was involved in early childhood education and the training of teachers. She was a prolific writer, at first writing articles for the Froebelian journal Child Life and later writing poetry and plays, which were read and performed in London and elsewhere. Alice Buckton became interested in the spiritual and creative movements in Glastonbury in early 1907, and in 1913 she bought a property then known as Tor House, where she and her colleague and lifelong friend, Annet Schepel, moved in 1913, renaming it Chalice Well. This paper aims to explore the relationship between Alice Buckton's early influences as a Froebelian, the inspiration of mystical landscape and the development of her work in Glastonbury. While very little direct evidence of her continued Froebelian influence relating to the education project at Chalice Well remains, the links are demonstrated throughout the paper in the form of quotations from Froebel that reflect her work. The paper concludes with a brief account of the emerging interest in Alice Buckton in Glastonbury's local community, and in particular the work of the Chalice Well Trust. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research-based paper attempts to describe a continuum of delivery choices available to school and college managers by which Key Skills can be introduced as part of Curriculum 2000. It describes the pressure to integrate, the illusion of contextualisation and the consequent pre-eminence of staff competence as a determining influence on the effectiveness of the delivery structure. It describes some problems associated with integration and the relative efficiency and effectiveness of discrete and integrated delivery. The paper goes on to define a continuous array of mixed modes of delivery, the levels of support required to underpin them, the external influences that impinge on the process of their selection and the effectiveness of monitoring and tracking systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While there is a well-established literature on psychoanalytically-informed baby and young child observation in social work education, little has been published recently. This paper reviews the rationale for its use, evaluating its impact on students' learning in the light of contemporary policy and practice contexts facing social work education. Analysis of feedback gained from a recent cohort, identifies three ways in which learning through baby and young child observation contributes: firstly, students encounter and learn about the complexity of child development from the direct experience of observing and secondly, observing facilitates the development of important skills for practice; students' 'use of self'. Thirdly, through observing, students describe how they develop the capacity to take-up and sustain a professional role. Well-structured teaching and learning through observation is therefore shown to provide a rigorous, theoretically-grounded contribution to the training of university-based social work students entering this complex and challenging professional field. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The political importance of mathematics in post-16 education is clear. Far less clear is how mathematics does and should relate to vocational education. Successive mathematics curricula (e.g. core skills, key skills) have been developed in England with vocational learners in mind. Meanwhile, general mathematics qualifications remain largely disconnected from vocational learning. Following a brief historical survey of mathematics within vocational education, the paper presents findings from a nested case study of student groups in three large Further Education colleges in England. The primary unit of analysis herein is student groups learning Functional Mathematics in two vocational areas: construction and hairdressing. We show how approaches to organising teaching, developing connected curricula and classroom pedagogy tend toisolateorintegratemathematics from/with the vocational experience.Integratedapproaches are shown to impact positively on student engagement and attitudes to learning mathematics. The paper concludes by discussing the potential impact of academic qualifications displacing vocationally relevant mathematics. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper presents selected findings from a wider study on the expression of health within physical education (PE) curricula in secondary schools in England and Wales. The study revealed that the expression of health in PE broadly reflected ideologies associated with promoting ‘fitness for life’ and ‘fitness for performance’ and that representations of both discourses were present, to a lesser or greater extent, in all schools in the study. Curiously, however, rhetorical ‘fitness for life’ discourses were commonly expressed through ‘fitness for performance’ practices in the form of testing and training activities. This paper attempts to explain this mismatch between health-related policy and practice by focusing on what was revealed about the influences on the expression of health in PE. A case study approach was adopted, involving five state secondary schools, three in England and two in Wales. Data sources included health-related school documentation, interviews with PE teachers and observation of a health-related unit of work in one of the schools. The reasons that testing and training activities were the most common contexts for the delivery of health-related learning included the following: conceptual confusion and limited understanding, leading to a belief that training and testing activities are unproblematic and result in increased health, activity and fitness levels; the resolution of pragmatic issues associated with large groups, limited space and minimal equipment as well as preparation for accredited courses in PE; tradition and a desire by teachers to remain with familiar content and teaching approaches, and limited awareness of alternative ‘fitness for life’ pedagogies. This study has served to increase awareness of the influences on and tensions between health-related discourses in secondary school PE curricula in England and Wales and has provided further demonstration of and insight into the complex relationship between health-related policy and practice. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The recruitment of overseas trained teachers (OTTs) in England is a matter that has received as much attention inside the United Kingdom as outside. Education systems in small island and developing states, especially, were believed to have been placed 'at risk' following the departure of experienced and qualified teachers. Correspondingly, the presence of OTTs in England has contributed to, inter alia, workforce stability, behavioural management solutions and curriculum enhancement. Despite these contributions, however, very little is known about the career progression of OTTs in England. Through a tracer study of OTTs recruited between 2001 and 2008, in the first phase of teacher migration to the UK, this qualitative study explored the perceived factors that facilitate and/or hinder the progression of Caribbean OTTs in England. Drawing on postmodernism, critical and social identity theories, this paper examines how institutional racism and discrimination play a part in restricting the promotion and career progression of OTTs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The authors explain the purpose and context for the 2009 International Symposium on Economic Education that was the source for articles on four nations with relatively developed systems for economic education: Australia, England, Japan, and Korea. The authors highlight several key comparisons from the four articles that appear in this Journal of Economic Education issue. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores the hidden gendered curriculum concealed in the texts, exhibitions and other structural devices of museums and what they teach visitors to see and think. Grounded in conceptualisations of culture, representation, and language, past feminist studies of museums and applying feminist visual discourse analysis (FVDA) we found hiding in plain sight in public museums in Canada and England a diversity of 'languages' that subversively aggrandised masculine power and privilege and (re)inscribed negative or limited understandings to women which we argue as feminist adult educators have epistemic, identity and agency consequences. We also argue that whilst museums are trying to address often centuries old exclusionary gendered practices progress is slow because these practices are so embedded and unconscious and reflect pervasive social notions of 'common sense'. Our study makes an important contribution to feminist museum studies by rendering visible a web of complex structural and textual gendered biases and to adult education. By adding museums to our curricula we can provide our students with a visual and immersive way to hone the critical visual literacy skills needed to understand more fully how both seen and unseen languages operate not just in the museum, but across society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

School geography in England has been characterised as a pendulum swinging between policies that emphasise curriculum and pedagogy alternately. In this paper, I illustrate the influence of these shifts on geography teacher's professional practice, by drawing on three “moments” from my experience as a student, teacher and teacher educator. Barnett's description of teacher professionalism as a continuous project of “being” illuminates how geography teachers can adapt to competing influences. It reflects teacher professionalism as an unfinished project, which is responsive, but not beholden, to shifting trends, and is informed by how teachers frame and enact policies. I argue that recognising these contextual factors is key to supporting geography teachers in “being” geography education professionals. As education becomes increasingly competitive on a global scale, individual governments are looking internationally for “solutions” to improve educational rankings. In this climate, the future of geography education will rest on how teachers react locally to international trends. Geography teacher educators can support this process by continuing to inform the field through meaningful geography education research, in particular in making the contextual factors of their research explicit. This can be supported through continued successful international collaboration in geography education research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The word ‘geo-graphy’ means ‘writing the earth’. The subject of geography bears responsibility for engaging, constituting and configuring world knowledge, in other words, what the world is. This paper describes an enquiry into the nature of school geographical knowledge at a time of curriculum policy reform. In 2010, the newly appointed Coalition government in Britain introduced the concept of core knowledge for the school curriculum. Some of the problems associated with core knowledge are illustrated by showing two alternative ways of knowing the world that core knowledge overlooks. To understand the nature of the constitution of knowledge, I turn to Heidegger. His idea of Enframing explains the emergence of meaning about the world within the constraints of a technical scheme that conceals as much as it reveals. A second idea of Heidegger's, the event of appropriation, suggests how meaning comes into being through the ‘belonging together’ of humans and the world. This belonging together takes us away from representational thinking into the realm of a more original and authentic sense of what is. Although this appears to provide a very credible argument about world meaning-making, it is superseded by Derrida's critique of Heidegger as someone who claims to deconstruct the history of ontology at the same time as retaining a commitment to it. Derrida'sdifféranceadvances Heidegger's work into a consideration of meaning and justice. The associated deconstructive attitude takes responsibility seriously by disrupting taken-for-granted meanings and conceptual schemes and opening them up to see what other groups of people or ways of knowing might be overlooked. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To varying degrees, education policy reforms around the world are driven by educational discourses relating to globalisation. At the same time, national and local histories, cultures and politics mediate the effects of globalisation discourses. This paper employs methods of analysis that draw on the concepts of ‘vernacular globalization’ and ‘policy archaeology’ in order to examine the ways in which the effects of globalisation on National Curriculum policy reform are mediated by conditions and priorities that are specific to national contexts. The enquiry focuses on three curriculum policy problems that are associated with the English school curriculum and have recently been identified as requiring reform: inappropriate curriculum knowledge, the skills deficit and the one-size-fits-all curriculum. The paper concludes by summarising the results of the analysis, identifying some curriculum issues arising from it and offering reflections on the methodological approach it has employed. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper reports on part of an ongoing research project in England concerning the Nature of Science (NOS). The particular focus is on the initial thinking of the graduate scientists starting a one-year, Postgraduate Certificate of Education (PGCE) course and the way the course approaches adopted influence their views and understanding of NOS and their teaching. The research is set against a wealth of literature indicating that teachers find it difficult to teach curricula that emphasise NOS. Thus a key impetus for research in this area has been to look for ways that beginning teachers might be better prepared to face such challenges. Sample The paper draws on data from three cohorts of secondary PGCE students in a university–schools partnership, involving a total of 169 students. Design and method The research lies within a design research tradition. It has used mixed methods, involving written tasks, interviews and focus groups, with an iterative approach where the outcomes from one cohort have been used to inform course developments in successive years. Results The results from these cohorts suggest that, while the students starting the course have a less restricted view of NOS than indicated by some other studies, in most cases there is a lack of breadth and depth to their understanding. There is some evidence that the use of specific tasks focusing on NOS in university-based sessions may be helping to develop and deepen understanding. However, the impact of current approaches remains fairly limited and attempts to develop teaching practices often face considerable barriers in the school-based practicum. Conclusions Graduate science students’ understanding of NOS as they embark on the PGCE is not highly developed. Hence, the emphasis on aspects of NOS in the school curriculum presents a considerable challenge. This study suggests that there is a need to both further develop an explicit focus on NOS in university-based sessions and to develop closer relationships between schools and university faculty in seeking to support developments in classroom practice in this difficult area. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines three recent accounts of what has allegedly gone wrong with the school curriculum in England in recent years and their prescriptions for remedying these ills – all three accounts sharing strong proposals to reinstate knowledge at the heart of the curriculum. These analyses, despite some significant similarities, come from very different political standpoints. They are: first, proposals by the current UK Secretary of State for Education Michael Gove to ‘shrink’ the National Curriculum whilst promoting a new English Baccalaureate; secondly Frank Furedi, Kathryn Ecclestone and Dennis Hayes’ critiques of ‘therapeutic education’ and thirdly Michael Young and Johan Muller’s proposals, grounded in a social realist epistemology, for a ‘Future 3’ curriculum which respects the objectivity of knowledge but also recognises its fallibility and openness to change. The paper concludes by suggesting that Michael Gove’s basic objective is to shape what Basil Bernstein called a neoconservative prospective educational identity; the paper offers a critical assessment of this project and briefly considers an alternative approach, focusing on some issues relating to citizenship education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is a reflection on the reflections of pupils about being ‘reflective learners’, one of the Personal, Learning and Thinking Skills of the secondary National Curriculum for England. A teacher and a lecturer worked together in a collaborative action research project generating co-constructed knowledge of practice across a two-year period, with reflective practice at the core of our action research endeavours. Key data were generated with a case-study group of 20 pupils who analysed their actions as ‘reflective learners’. We also asked the pupils their opinions of reflecting on their learning. These data are discussed in the paper along with the reflective process engaged in by the teacher-researchers. Teacher Tami shared that previously she had only been concerned with examinations results and not developing cross-curricular learning. The culture of performativity was influential in her previous conceptions of teaching and learning. Our reflections were also concerned with catering for a diversity of learners including pupils who speak English as an additional language. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Bringing about significant change in a mature and successful work-integrated learning (WIL) scheme is quite a difficult thing to accomplish. The University of Surrey, which has a long established WIL scheme based on year-long professional training work placements, has embarked on a programme of research and development aimed at adapting and enhancing its WIL model for learning by adopting a life-wide concept of learning and curriculum. The intention is to develop a new University Award through which an individual's life-wide learning enterprise can be encouraged, supported, valued and publicly recognized. This paper describes the concepts that are intended to inspire change and the initial steps to try to turn a good educational idea into new organizational practices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The research aims to articulate the experiences and opinions of Year 6 (Y6) teachers, primary headteachers and primary science coordinators as a contribution to the debate about the effect of statutory national testing in England and its abolition in Wales. A multi-faceted approach of quantitative and qualitative data collection and analysis was used in England and Wales including a telephone survey of 600 respondents and eight focus group interviews involving a total of 74 participants. The findings of this research provide insights into the strategies adopted by Y6 teachers in England in ensuring pupils gain the highest possible scores in high-stakes national tests, used as the basis of published Schools and Colleges Assessment and Attainment Tables at Key Stage 2 (KS2). Test preparation is perceived by teachers to narrow the curriculum, and for science in particular, as the inclusion of only those aspects of science likely to be included in paper and pencil tests is said to have reduced many aspects of investigatory science in Y6. Year 6 teachers in Wales reported working to develop effective teacher assessment strategies, supported by the continued use of optional test materials, to inform summative judgements about pupils' levels of attainment in science at KS2. Practical science activities, including investigations, were reported as becoming an important feature of science lessons in Y6 in Wales. Although it is too soon to make predictions about the longer-term effects of the abolition of national testing on Y6 teachers and the teaching of science in Wales, early indications suggest increased opportunities for investigative science in Y6. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 2008, the UK Labour government unveiled plans to abolish the Learning and Skills Council and transfer funding for the education and training of 16-19-year-olds in England to local authorities (LAs). The transfer of 16-19 funding complements the responsibilities that LAs have already acquired in relation to the raising of the education and training 'participation age' and ensuring that all young people have access to a full 14-19 curriculum entitlement in their area. Such a move might be read as part of the 'new localism' that has gained currency under the Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, as well as an opportunity to rein back from an English education and training system that has become increasingly centralised and 'top-down'. Indeed, some commentators have argued for a new model of governance based on 'devolved social partnership', with input from a wider range of stakeholders and the space for policy levers to be shaped more at local level. Drawing upon interviews with key personnel in LAs and other stakeholders, this paper examines the opportunities and challenges that LAs face in their new role, whether this amounts to a genuine devolution of power, and the prospects for 'devolved social partnership'. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the past 60 years there have been considerable developments in the policy and politics of schooling for disabled children, including a shift of rhetorical emphasis from more segregated to more inclusive approaches. Previous research with disabled children in England has raised questions about the educational and social impact of segregated educational provision, and about the role of special schools in an inclusive society. Specific concerns have also been raised about the social implications of policies and institutions that require some disabled children to live away from their families. Yet analysis of disabled people's own accounts of special schooling has focused primarily on the educational experience rather than on the implications for family life and friendships. This paper combines critical policy analysis with examples of qualitative life history data to examine how segregated educational provision has affected disabled children's family lives and relationships in England since the 1940s. In this way, it also demonstrates the potential for connecting public and private accounts of disability by linking macro and micro levels of analysis over time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In England, federations are defined as groups of schools that have a formal agreement to collaborate with the aim of raising achievement and promoting inclusion and innovation. This paper presents a number of findings from the case study strand of a 3-year study investigating the impact of 37 federations (see Lindsay et al., 2007). Maximum variation sampling (Maykutt & Morehouse, 1994) was used to select 10 case study federations. Key stakeholders were interviewed during 3 rounds of field visits. Documentary evidence from each case provided important contextual information and provided a source of triangulation. Within- and between-case analyses from case studies (Miles & Huberman, 1994) highlighted a number of key themes, patterns, and trends that have implications for the development of collaborative strategies attempting to restructure and reculture schools and their communities. This paper explores issues of leadership, management, and governance in federations. Findings suggest localised ownership and control of the process within the context of interdependent relationships have supported the development of a range of models of governance, leadership, and management in school federations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we adopt Bernstein's notion of the pedagogic device to serve as a framework for explaining conflict and change in the field of literacy education across the past few decades, particularly in England, the USA and Australia. Following an overview of the pedagogic device and related constructs, we examine the relationship between the field of knowledge production and how this has been recontextualised into curriculum policy, firstly in the period when 'progressivist' pedagogy was in the ascendant, exemplified by the whole language movement, and then when a more 'skills' orientation took sway, with phonics as its touchstone. We argue that the pedagogic device provides a useful context for exploring how ideology operates both within fields and at the interfaces between fields. In particular, the sets of binary oppositions proposed by Bernstein can be used in crude form to describe the entrenched polarisations experienced in the field of literacy education - or they can be used in a more nuanced way to open up new possibilities for change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper draws on data from a broader study, the central object of which was to explore the place of sport and physical activity in young people's lives. More particularly, the paper reports the findings of 24 focus groups conducted with 153 15-16 year olds in north-west England and north-east Wales in order to examine young people's views towards activity choice in physical education (PE). In this regard, it is suggested that despite their deep-seated preferences for 'traditional', games-dominated PE curricula and the constraints imposed upon them from the existence of a national curriculum for PE and government policy over the past two decades, PE teachers continue to provide young people with a degree of activity choice in the later secondary school years. The 15-16 year olds in this study considered activity choice to be a very positive feature of their experience of PE at key stage 4 and viewed it as a vehicle for greater enjoyment of and engagement with PE. It was also the case that the 15-16 year olds appeared to attach a great deal of importance to the ways in which the activities provided them with the opportunity to engage in activities within PE that they also do in their leisure-time, and which they are likely to do in the future. At the same time, however, many young people expressed dissatisfaction with what they perceived as unnecessary and undesirable limitations on the number and range of activities made available to them. Restrictions on choice were particularly felt among girls and those from lower social class backgrounds who were evidently dissatisfied with what they saw as the over-representation of a small number of traditional team sports and activities in PE. It is concluded that if PE teachers and policy-makers want to increase their impact upon young people's participation in PE and 'modernise' further the curricula provided for pupils, then they need to appreciate more adequately the significance of the twin processes of democratisation and informalisation, since both processes help explain young people's growing preference for choice in PE and in other social contexts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is a research-informed response to the paradigm shift that has taken place in the world of teacher education for the further education sector in England during the last few years. We begin by outlining the various changes that have taken place in terms of regulation of the sector and show how this has impacted upon the agency of those who have been involved in the 'delivery' of a curriculum based on a set of new and prescribed standards. Making use of a life history approach, we compare and contrast two very different stories: one of a lecturer new to teacher education and the other of a lecturer who has been involved in teacher education for more than 25 years. Drawing upon these two cases we show that the myriad changes and prescriptions introduced into the further education sector have not closed down the achievement of agency of those involved in teacher education programmes. Rather, the changes have transformed the ways in which their agency can be articulated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

If education is a solution in working toward a sustainable future then initial teacher training (ITT) provides a strategic opportunity for ensuring that all teachers are able to teach for sustainability when they begin their teaching careers. This paper reports on a study of how four Postgraduate Certificate of Education (PGCE) student teachers planned and taught education for sustainable development (ESD) through geography during a school placement. It was carried out to provide exemplification of the nature of student teachers' planning and teaching about ESD in secondary schools in England and to identify ways of improving their PGCE course. The findings are based on interviews with student teachers after the school placement, as well documentary evidence. Policy-driven changes in the provision of both ITT and school curricula and pedagogy in England are an important context for the study. The paper concludes by arguing that ITT faces considerable challenges if it is to be reoriented towards sustainability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]