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The transition to the use of paper in public elementary schools in Mexico was not easy. At the end of the nineteenth century, the use of slates had been questioned due to the health risk they represented since students often erased their writing with saliva and the material with which the slates were made did not always meet the necessary specifications. On the other hand, paper, from a hygienic, pedagogical and aesthetic point of view, was considered a superior material compared to the hardness of the slate, the shine of the surface and the lack of precision obtained in the tracing of the letters. Derived from this approach, the possibility of changing materials in official schools was seriously envisioned. However, the paper represented a very high cost. Only two paper mills could supply the schools and it was necessary to lower the price, and guarantee the supply by enhancing the distribution system. This article analyses the beginning of the conversion process of a technology for learning to write such as the slate for paper. I analyse the expense that it meant for the authorities and families, how the change was the result of a multiplicity of social, cultural, economic and political relations that intersected to give a new configuration of time, noise and established values in the classroom.

Researchers have considered how school choice policies affect student achievement, but less inquiry explores how the organization of schools may change in the presence of choice. This descriptive and exploratory paper analyzes a state representative sample of school mission statements at two time points: before the enactment of choice policies in Indiana, namely the Indiana Choice Scholarship Program, and again six years into the policy. Using structural topic modeling, this paper examines whether and how school mission statements topics have changed over this period. Descriptive findings suggest mission statement topics differ significantly between sectors but show few changes over time. The most striking shift is that Catholic and other private religious schools appear to be clarifying the religious aspects of their mission in the presence of robust choice policies.

Conservative activism around the purported influence of Critical Race Theory (CRT) on K-12 education has swept the country in recent years. While others have documented the sources of these messages, how school districts have responded to these critiques has not yet been investigated. Drawing on research on how social media algorithms elevate polarizing information and activate emotions, we analyze public social media posts on school/district Facebook pages mentioning the phrase "critical race" to examine how educators address the claim of teaching CRT and how the local community responds. We use sentiment analysis to examine the emotions of these posts and how they are distributed across states. We also explore the sentiment of subsequent community reactions reflected in the comments of each post, including negative emotions such as anger and fear, and positive emotions such as trust. This study has implications for how school districts can help to stop cycles of fearful rhetoric and engage with stakeholders in ways that unite a school community around shared priorities.

Schools develop mission statements in part to communicate their purposes of schooling to internal and external audiences. The goal of this study is to employ text analytic techniques to analyze school mission statements. Focusing on Arizona and New Jersey's schools, we seek to understand: 1) what themes (topics) emerge from their mission statements, 2) whether local context (politics) and institutional factors (being a charter) mediate topic prevalence, and 3) how similar school mission statements are to one another overall and across select factors. Using structural topic modeling we find that five topics emerge as particularly prevalent, and they address key purposes within the US context related to social, academic, and civic development with an emphasis on a safe environment and a sense of community. Local political leanings have a minor impact on the prevalence of topics but being a charter has a distinct influence. Compared to regular schools, charters are more likely to include themes related to preparing for college, academic approaches, and character and family ties, but they place lower emphasis on community and citizenship themes. School missions display moderate levels of similarity, indicating that a common set vocabulary has permeated schools' missions, though differences remain, including between states. Overall, this study deepens our understanding of the varieties of schools' missions and reveals text analytic techniques are well suited for uncovering them.

This paper discusses the relevance of using physical situations to introduce the concept of angles at elementary school. We compare the effectiveness of two geometry teaching sequences. In the first one (physical sequence), the pupils learned the angle concept by experimenting on the playground (i.e. mesospace) and then modelling the situation. In the second one (paper-and-pencil sequence), the pupils worked solely in the space of a sheet of paper (i.e. microspace). In both sequences, pupils compared areas of space delineated by an angle between two directions. Pupils in two Grade 3 classes were exposed to one of the two teaching sequences. The unfolding of these sequences was videotaped and analyzed, and the pupils were tested individually, before and after teaching, to measure each sequence's effectiveness. Results showed that both sequences are effective to grasp the angle concept: Most pupils overcame the common erroneous conception of comparing angles' sides' lengths instead of angle openness. The comparison of areas of space delineated by an angle between two infinite directions, which is the two sequences' common core, seems to be the key factor underlying angle conceptualization. This paper ends with a discussion of these results' teaching implications and the merits of each sequence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explored the factors influencing the leadership strategies of school principals in rural primary schools regarding the integration of information and communication technologies (ICTs) in the process of teaching and learning in their schools. School principals are responsible for ensuring that there is ICTs integration in their schools' teaching and learning processes. Embedded within the theory of learning-centred leadership (LCL), school principals have a responsibility to lead, foster, manage, and support the learning process for teachers and learners in their schools. Thus, school principals need to be well acquainted with innovative technologies for teaching and learning amidst the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR), which is global, complex, and fast-paced, to lead learning through ICT integration. Underpinned by the interpretive qualitative approach and using a multiple case study as a research design, this study generated data from three selected South African rural primary schools through face-to-face interviews with the three school principals. Data were analysed thematically. Findings revealed that school principals' leadership strategies are influenced by their attitudes towards ICT integration into teaching and learning, their exposure to ICT workshops, and their own judgements of their abilities in using ICT. The paper recommends customised in-service training for school principals and teachers to alter and improve their exposure to, attitudes, perceptions toward ICT integration in teaching and learning.

This study reports on a systematic review of the current status of technology education in primary schools and the terminology used in the fields of technology and engineering education. Additionally, this review highlights crucial aspects of teaching and learning that must not be overlooked when outlining the current state of technology and engineering education, such as students' and teachers' personal factors, classroom communication, and teacher professional growth. Following PRISMA guidelines, two electronic databases were reviewed, Web of Science and Education Resources Information Center. The literature search identified a total of 1206 papers, 125 from Web of Science and 1081 from ERIC. After applying the inclusion and exclusion criteria, 33 papers were selected and evaluated in depth. The results show that research on technology education in primary schools is a growing field of interest but fragmented in focus. Our review is the first to indicate the wide range of technology and engineering education definitions. We also highlight the large heterogeneity of studies focusing on students' and teachers' personal factors and classroom interactions, a finding that may be explained by the unclear concepts and aims of technology and engineering curricula. This study contributes to and supports research and policymaking to better understand the current status, heterogeneities, and challenges in technology and engineering education in primary schools. In addition, we provide first insights to support professional development efforts targeting teachers' technology acceptance and improvement of their technology-related teaching practices.

Support for school-age children with speech, language and communication needs (SLCN) usually takes place within the school setting. Successful outcomes for children with SLCN rely on effective collaborative working between speech and language therapists (SLTs), school staff and families. We need to understand the current evidence regarding the joint working practices, relationships and collaboration experiences of SLT and teaching staff within mainstream primary schools, in order to identify whether sufficient research exists for a systematic review within this field, and to inform practice. The purpose of this scoping review was to identify what research currently exists regarding collaboration, roles and relationships of SLTs and teaching staff within mainstream UK primary schools, and clarify the nature, participants and concepts described within this literature. A scoping review framework was used, consisting of identification of the review objectives, identification of relevant studies, study selection and iterative searches, data charting and reporting of the results. Information regarding research question, participants, data collection and analysis and terms used for key concepts was extracted. This scoping review identified 14 papers, however, collaboration was the primary focus of only 5 of these. Clarity and perceptions of roles were key themes within six of the papers. Whilst facilitators and barriers to collaboration are discussed in all 14 papers, only 4 studies aimed to investigate barriers and facilitators. Teaching assistant (TA) views are underrepresented within the research. Drawing conclusions from the body of research is challenging due to the varied ways in which the key concept 'collaboration' is used. Currently, there is insufficient literature to carry out a systematic review. This scoping review highlights the need for research that considers collaboration within the complex social network of school staff (including TAs) and SLTs, in order to ensure that future guidance is rooted in research.

Computer-based curriculum-based measurement (CBM) is a relatively common practice, but surprisingly few studies have examined the reliability of computer-based CBM. This study sought to examine the reliability of CBM administered via paper/pencil versus the computer. Twenty-one of 25 students in two third-grade classes (N = 21) participated in two generalizability studies. The primary facet of interest, format of assessment, was examined for two measures, a fact operation (fact family measure) and a more complex operation (multidigit addition). Researchers administered four alternate forms of each measure under both computer and paper/pencil conditions. Results indicated ideal reliability of measurement within all conditions and results were consistent across assessment formats for the fact operation. However, assessment format explained a large proportion of variance for the more complex skill (multidigit addition). Results indicate a need to consider the reliability of transitioning assessment from paper/pencil to computer-based response on a measure-by-measure basis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the past twenty years, Catholic elementary schools that self identify as "inner-city" have closed at a higher rate than Catholic schools in other locations. These schools have also long been associated with a legacy of effectively serving low-income students, students of color, and recent immigrant students, suggesting that the persistent closure of these schools may have a negative impact on these communities. In this paper, we set out to assess the extent to which there have been demographic or organizational changes over the past twenty years in these "inner-city" schools. We found that while these schools do still serve higher proportions of students of color than Catholic schools nationally, there are distinct organizational and demographic trends that have developed in these schools that merit additional analysis or investigation. We conclude this paper with several suggestions for how to build a research agenda around this up-to-date demographic and organizational analysis of this segment of U.S. Catholic elementary schools.

Purpose: This paper investigates the interplay between consequences in restorative practices (RP) and the synergies with responsive classroom, particularly in international schools. Addressing critics who deem RP a "soft option", the study defines "restorative consequences" within the RP framework. It analyses literature and three school policies, focusing on international school needs. Emphasising the importance of accountability, the paper explores the role of logical consequences in preventing perceived permissiveness. By comparing RP and Responsive Classroom, it seeks to guide school leaders in aligning transformative change with their vision and values. This paper aims to enhance understanding, offer practical insights and address challenges in RP implementation. Design/methodology/approach: This research delves into the relationship between RP and consequences in international schools, addressing concerns about RP's perceived lack of accountability. It defines "restorative consequences" within the RP framework, examining RP integration into school policies. Through a literature review and analysis of three RP policies, the study extracts insights for international schools, emphasising the role of logical consequences in preventing perceived permissiveness. In addition, a comparative evaluation of responsive classroom and RP identifies effective models for transformative change. The research aims to empower international school leaders with informed decision-making, offering insights into challenges and strategies for effective RP implementation in alignment with institutional values. Findings: In delving into the positive discipline approach advocated by responsive classroom, it becomes evident that there exists a potential synergy between various disciplinary systems. Emphasising logical consequences as a pivotal component in school behaviour policies, it is crucial to apply them through the lens of social discipline window (SDW), specifically the "with" approach, incorporating both high levels of support and accountability. Recognizing this dynamic is essential as the authors endeavour to construct effective policies that not only align with responsive classroom values and methods but also prove practical in real-world application. Furthermore, within the international context, responsive classroom has demonstrated its ability to address the social and emotional needs of third culture kids. This revelation presents compelling grounds for the adoption of responsive classroom in international schools contemplating systemic transformations. Research limitations/implications: The study acknowledges limitations stemming from the reviewed RP policies, primarily the exceptional one derived from a large, well-supported school district, which may not be universally applicable, especially in diverse international schools. The potential for reputational damage to RP exists if policies lack comprehensive detailing and troubleshooting for varied classroom scenarios. Teacher testimonials carry significant weight, necessitating greater involvement in RP training and research. International schools face unique challenges in achieving staff "buy-in", requiring culturally responsive training to overcome Western-centric perceptions. The clash of RP with authoritarian cultures poses challenges, emphasising the need for clear values. Practical implications: While the exemplary RP policy reviewed is from a large, well-supported school district, this may not apply universally, particularly in international schools with diverse affiliations. To safeguard RP's reputation, detailed policies addressing classroom nuances are crucial. Recognising the influence of teacher testimonials and involving educators in RP training and research is pivotal. International schools face a unique challenge in ensuring staff alignment with RP, requiring culturally responsive training to dispel Western-centric perceptions. Acknowledging RP's clash with authoritarian cultures, schools must establish clear values. Drawing from educational theorists, future RP research should explicitly explore the consequences--RP relationship, enhancing the understanding of the SDW Social implications The research's social implications emphasise the need for transparent and detailed RP policies to prevent reputational damage and rejection. Recognising the influence of teacher testimonials, active involvement of educators in RP training is crucial. For international schools, culturally responsive training is vital to overcome Western-centric perceptions and ensure staff alignment. The study underscores the challenge of RP conflicting with authoritarian cultures, emphasising the importance of clear values. Furthermore, it advocates for a nuanced dialogue on the consequences--RP relationship to enhance understanding within the SDW. These implications stress context-specific and inclusive approaches for effective RP implementation in diverse educational settings. Originality/value The research offers significant originality by addressing the underdeveloped literature on the role of RP in international schools. It contributes novel insights by defining "restorative consequences" within the RP framework and examining the interplay between consequences and RP in school policies. The comparative evaluation of Responsive Classroom and RP adds a distinctive dimension, guiding international school leaders in transformative decision-making. Moreover, the study advocates for a culturally responsive approach, challenging Western-centric perceptions. This unique focus on consequences, accountability and cultural considerations positions the research as a pioneering contribution, offering valuable perspectives for effective RP implementation and policymaking in diverse educational settings.

This paper presents findings from a literature review on relationships and sexuality education for primary (elementary) school programme effectiveness. Using a theory-generating approach informed by realist evaluation, the review takes a deep dive into the literature to identify contexts, mechanisms and outcomes likely to influence the effectiveness of programmes. This paper will be of interest to researchers, evaluators, RSE programme designers and practitioners as findings provide a catalogue of factors (variables) that can be considered for application in future programme evaluations and for inclusion in programme logic models. It identifies areas of opportunity to incorporate children's voices into research and points to the need for longitudinal studies to address the context- and time-sensitive nature of relationships and sexuality education.

This paper considers the implications for teachers and teaching of the Ofsted Curriculum Research Review for Languages [Ofsted. 2021. OCRR Series: Languages. Published 7 June 2021. Available online OCRR series: languages -- GOV.UK (www.gov.uk). Accessed 8 June 2021.] (OCRR) and the content of 24 Languages Subject Inspections (LSI) in primary school foreign language provision carried out between October 2019 and March 2020. It illuminates practice by a single foreign language (FL) primary specialist. Her practice is compared and contrasted to the new Ofsted guidance and the National Curriculum requirements for English primary schools. This research adopts a phenomenological exploratory or discovery case study approach and data collection tools that respond to this overall design: Semi-structured interviews, informal conversations, emails, planning documentary analysis and a review of children's work. The findings show there are a myriad of factors which affect how languages are delivered in primary schools, including the number of language graduates, primary teachers' workloads and curriculum time. The paper concludes by considering the challenges that other teachers, not in the same situation as the FL teacher in this research, would have to overcome, without additional time or funding to also meet these requirements.

This paper presents an examination of identity "in" and "as" practice as it relates to a group of educational practitioners known as middle leaders. Drawing on the theory of practice architectures as a site-ontological approach for conceptualising educational leading, the paper considers an individual's identity as being informed by, and accomplished amidst, the sayings, doings and relatings of practice. Although theorising the connections between identity and practice is not new, a central argument presented is that identity occurs at the nexus of the individual and social practices. Data are drawn from an empirical study of the practices of nine middle leaders responsible for facilitating a district-wide initiative aiming to improve literacy pedagogy in their particular primary schools. Thematic analysis of semi-structured interviews with the middle leaders revealed 11 identity-practice framings which evolve over time and space, negotiated in response to site-based conditions. Findings contribute to understandings about the dynamic multifaceted nature of middle leaders' identities.

This paper examines the interplay of creativity, education, and the expressive arts. We begin by presenting a narrative literature review focusing on the use of artistic tools to promote creativity, self-expressiveness, and meaningful aspects of emotional and social learning. This review reveals strong connections between the different components of this interplay, and a special attention is given to the use of arts to promoting creativity and meaningful learning. We then propose the Empowering Creative Education Model (ECEM), which aims to provide a practical framework for employing artistic tools in each of the model's four developmental circles: I, Us, Educational and Community. Each of the four circles includes unique aspects of personal development.

This paper intends to show the importance of the Education Management Information System (EMIS) as well as the trends, challenges, and implications to educational policy. To achieve this, the proponents did a mini-review. The paper searched the internet for relevant and timely research papers and articles mainly focusing on the education management information system. After garnering enough materials for the mini-review, the tedious task of evaluating and analyzing the concepts and contexts of each material took place. Based on the evaluation, this paper found that some studies have shown promising results and positive experiences with the implementation education management information system (EMIS) in their institution. However, some did not execute well due to several reasons and factors. In addition, some research papers provided essential recommendations and suggestions that will help solve these different problems of EMIS. In the end, the paper concluded and shared some significant implications that school administrators can use for future references for policy and decision-making.

The Department of Education relies on research to make functional decisions that can affect educational practices and resolve significant issues and problems. In addition, the education sector encourages all the teachers to conduct inquiries into their own practices in order to improve teaching and learning, practices and policies through action research. Based on the results of the survey which was answered by the teacher-respondents through the Google Form, the following findings were drawn. Most of the teacher-respondents clearly expressed their insights about action research. They have common perceptions that action research is an initiative which the teachers undertake to seek solutions in the existing problems that the school is experiencing. Likewise, they believe that through action research, the school diagnoses difficulties, and limitations with the goal of addressing the gaps which eventually lead to the improvement of the learners, the teacher, and the whole school community. With regard to the challenges which the teacher-respondents experienced in drafting and completing action research, the three common. The researchers developed an innovation on how to address the challenges of teacher respondents on making an Action Research. It is a workshop entitled CAFE MARS (Capacitate Fellow Educator, More of Action Research Studies). It is a capacity building workshop solely for inquiries about Action Research. This was delivered virtually. After gathering data on the survey, all the controllable factors that were reflected were summarized per category. From these categories, workshop schedule was crafted as to address the variety of circumstances of Master Teachers in making an Action Research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article draws on a qualitative comparative research study of global citizenship education (GCE) in two primary schools, an international school in Singapore and an independent school in Australia. This paper focuses on the implementation of GCE within the two specific school contexts, Singapore and Australia, examining the tensions which existed between neo-liberal market rationales and the critical democratic ideologies at each site. The paper explored in-depth how the neo-liberal market agenda influenced and shaped the societal imaginaries specifically in relation to their GCE commitments. Despite each schools' commitments to critical democratic GCE ideals, they were very mindful about being distinctive and remaining competitive within their respective educational markets. To that extent, the schools were neo-liberal market actors. Empirical data shows the complexity of a more hybridised or a continuum existence between these two ideologies, thus providing a more nuanced insight of the binary within the school sites.

This paper undertakes a critical analysis of a planned change, the Safe Learning Model (SLM), devised over time by Concern Worldwide, and implemented in 100 primary or elementary schools in a rural district of Sierra Leone. We situate the documentation pertaining to the SLM (micro) within its wider national (meso) and international (macro) context of influential policy texts. We undertake a mixed methods analysis of these macro, meso and micro documents, interrogated through the prism of various change paradigms (scientific management, progressivism, critical theory, teacher professionalism and social movement) and in doing establish where these various document clusters, their explicit and implicit influences, may be located along the arc of change paradigms, thus surfacing their ideological assumptions, intent and influences. The paper concludes that in seeking to improve the quality of teaching, learning, and living in this instance, scientific management casts long shadows. The power, perspectives and financial influence of international agencies dominate change discourses whereby 'learning crises' require urgent responses in the form of testing and measuring that prevail over more expansive pedagogical capacity building. Consequently, perpetuating a 'weighing the pig' mindset downplays or ignores the ecology of teaching and learning, particularly the centrality of teachers, as professionals and role models, more likely to be compliant than transformative.

Racially and ethnically diverse populations from minoritized backgrounds are often exposed to research methodologies that amplify structural racism and negate their sociocultural reality. Although cross-cultural validation of measures is considered a requisite step to multigroup comparisons, researchers apply measures validated and standardized in the dominant White culture to under-researched populations (without assessing measurement equivalence first). Seeking to align with calls for more culturally sensitive measures, an argument is made to leverage youth participatory approaches in the cross-cultural validation of study instruments. Using an illustrative case study, this paper describes how 16 youth researchers (predominantly Hispanic) partnered with an academic team to examine the validity of the Prosocial Behavior Scale. A new tool, the Key Informant Validity Index, is introduced to determine if items maintain adequate levels of content validity when applied to populations that differ from the original norming and validation study samples. Youth researchers rated items on relevance, clarity and coverage, and use a guided protocol to conduct cognitive interviews with 32 youth participants. Recognizing the inherent challenges of reducing hierarchal power dynamics within youth-adult relationships and/or alleviating insider/outsider tensions across lines of cultural difference, an intentional focus is placed on naming key strategies that facilitated the collaboration process.

This study describes the initial implementation of the writing component of the "Write to Read" ("W2R") literacy intervention in eight low-SES (socio-economically disadvantaged) elementary-level urban schools. Through customised onsite professional development provided by coaches, the writing component sought to build teachers' capacity to design and implement a writing workshop framework infused with research-informed practices for writing suitable for their school and classroom contexts, including attention to cognitive, social and affective dimensions. The paper draws on quantitative and qualitative questionnaire data gathered from classroom teachers in the eight schools in Year 1 (n = 66) and Year 3 (n = 62) of implementation, and semi-structured interviews with randomly selected teachers in each school in Year 4 (n = 18). In general, teachers succeeded in implementing a writing workshop approach to teaching writing, within the broader W2R literacy framework, including the allocation of more time to writing instruction. Professional development, including observation, feedback and demonstration by W2R literacy coaches, contributed to high levels of teacher confidence in such areas as planning and teaching fiction and non-fiction writing genres, and analysing writing samples to inform mini-lessons. By Year 3, teachers noted marked or good improvements in students' attitudes towards writing, volume of writing produced, knowledge of writing genres, and language of response to writing. Areas in need of further support included aspects of the craft of writing, including writing vocabulary, supporting pupils to set goals for writing, selecting mentor texts to teach writing genres, and using a rubric to assess writing development.

Disadvantaged pupils are those pupils whose ability to learn in school is impeded by their family, social or economic situations which are often times beyond their control. Without adequate intervention, there are chances that this group of pupils could drop out of school. In Nigeria, there are many categories of disadvantaged pupils into which a vast majority of pupils can be grouped. Providing science education requires a lot of resources and organization. By its nature, the engagement of children in science education under an ideal environment is a huge task, let alone for pupils who are disadvantaged and must learn science under abnormal circumstances. The gravity of the disadvantage suffered by these pupils vary, hence, this paper focuses on two very critical groups of disadvantaged pupils in Nigeria (the pastoralist nomads and the Almajiris) and describes the challenges faced by educators in providing science education to them. The paper further presents a critical appraisal of some national and international educational programs which are designed to assist educationally disadvantaged pupils with an intention to explore the successes and failures of such programs within the Nigerian context. Some recommendations on how to tackle the identified challenges are proposed.

The purpose of this research is to analyze the studies on the Remedial Education Program in Primary Schools using meta-thematic analysis. In this research, qualitative research papers containing the opinions of participants about the Remedial Education Program in Primary Schools (REPPS) were examined by reviewing using Google Scholar and TR Dizin databases. In our research, research papers were determined by making a search using the keywords "Remedial Education Program in Primary Schools" and "REPPS." As a result of the review, 12 articles published as full text, using the qualitative research model and containing participant views, were included in the research. Five themes were developed as a result of this research.

In this article, we examined the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on education. We combined collaborative inquiry and photo-eliciting methods to examine education with a reflective lens and understand changes that occurred during the pandemic. A principal and a vice principal working in different public schools adopted the dual roles of being researchers and participants. The main data source was the conversation that emerged as we reviewed classroom and school photos taken by the participant researchers. The central theme that emerged from the analysis was that the COVID-19 pandemic made the invisible visible, along with two sub-themes: a) The teacher's source of motivation is the student, while the student's source of motivation is the teacher and b) Students care and grow when they can be a part of the history, culture, and story of their school. The pandemic made the importance of human connection in education evident. The findings of the study offer solutions and recommendations informing future education. [This study was presented at the International Conference on Studies in Education and Social Sciences (ICSES) on November 14, 2021.]

The research aims to determine the relationship between public primary school principals' paternalistic leadership behaviours and teachers' organizational creativity and organizational dissent perception levels according to primary school teachers' perceptions. A quantitative correlational design was utilized in the research. The research sample consists of 1059 public primary school teachers selected by stratified sampling method in Mardin city center and eight districts of Mardin during the 2016-2017 academic year. The data of the research were obtained by using the "Headmasters' Paternalistic Leadership Behaviours Scale," "Organizational Creativity Scale," and "Organizational Dissent Scale." The data analysis revealed the following findings: There was a positive and significant correlation between the paternalistic leadership behaviours of primary school administrators and teachers' perceptions toward organizational creativity and organizational dissent. Also, paternalistic leadership behaviours of primary school administrators were found to be a significant predictor of teachers' perceptions toward organizational creativity and organizational dissent. The principals should exhibit benevolent leadership behaviours that enhance the teachers' organizational creativity perceptions, such as endeavouring to create a family milieu in school, being tolerant of teachers, and supporting teachers to take the initiative. [This study was presented as an oral presentation at the V. International Eurasian Educational Research Congress.]

The aim of this paper is to identify the characteristics that leadership must have in order to make a Professional Learning Community sustainable. A review of the literature is carried out from a qualitative perspective allowing us to identify a set of emerging themes from the literature studied. Among the results, it is highlighted that in order to achieve professional learning communities with sustainable leadership, it is necessary to distribute responsibilities, reflect jointly on what is taught and why, establish external relations with other institutions and schools, and care the emotional well-being of members of a school community.

This paper shows how a significant, but short-lived, episode in Scotland's educational history--the rise and decline of Socialist Sunday Schools (SSSs) in the first half of the twentieth century--provoked controversial debates about issues that continue to have relevance today. The first half of the paper explains the origins of SSSs, their links to adult political groups, the form and content of their meetings, and publications designed to advance their agenda. It also describes the criticisms they received from religious leaders and Conservative politicians, on the grounds that they undermined faith and preached revolution. This leads into the second part, which considers whether SSSs might be regarded as agencies of indoctrination, promoting a version of citizenship that sought to subvert existing institutions and disrupt the social order. It is argued that complete neutrality in educational systems is not possible and that a study of the SSS movement has considerable potential as an educational resource, particularly for teachers of history, politics and social studies.

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

Increasing levels of student diversity, and inequality, frame the conditions of schooling in the contemporary moment. Initial teacher education has also been criticised for falling short in adequately preparing pre-service teachers who can cater for the needs of diverse student learners. This paper enters this discursive field and takes a specific focus on decolonising approaches to curriculum and pedagogical practices of health and physical education (HPE) of initial teacher education. My specific focus is the implementation of a range of strategies in a fourth-year Primary/Middle (years 3-9) HPE course within a Bachelor of Education program. I first provide a contextual overview and examine furthering an understanding of settler/colonialism in initial teacher education. In the remaining sections of the paper, I report on strategies designed to build cultural confidence, competence and respect. I conclude in arguing that if pre-service teachers are to develop pedagogical practices that are responsive to the diverse cultural, linguistic and embodied practices of all students, we too, as HPE teacher educators, need to confront our own assumptions about valued knowledge and practices.

There is a rich international history in social justice scholarship focusing on the practices of educational leadership and leaders in areas of disadvantage. Research suggests that principals who have a clear focus on social justice will tend to exhibit a range of normative practices. This paper examines the social justice understandings and practices of three primary school principals working in areas of social disadvantage in Victoria, Australia. Each of the principals expressed their understanding and belief that their role as principal was as an instrument of justice for the children in their communities, yet all simultaneously held notions of deficit expressed through the discourses of meritocracy and aspiration, and through the othering of their communities. In this paper I argue that while educational leaders with a deep understanding of social justice leadership are critical in arresting the reproduction of disadvantage through schooling in disadvantaged areas, the reality is that leaders who see themselves working for social justice may have disjunctions in their understandings and practice, which has implications for their communities. This suggests that idealized, normative understandings of social justice leadership (what should be) do not capture practice on the ground (what is).

Using a comparative case study, this paper explores the pedagogic practices for regulating behaviour in two Norwegian primary school classrooms with social compositions that become increasingly contrasted due to an increasing school segregation. Based on classroom observations and teacher interviews and using Bernstein's concepts of 'framing' and 'classification', the study has found that working-class students are subjected to a more visible pedagogic practice than middle-class students. The different behavioural expectations in the classrooms shape a passive and receptive learner identity in the former case and a more active learner identity in the latter case. Social class assumptions and neoliberal education policy may underlie the formation of these distinct identities. This paper argues that in an education system that advocates equal opportunities for everyone as the most important value, it is crucial to consider whether visible pedagogic practices promoted through evidence-based programmes rather contribute to reproduction of existing social inequality.

This paper picks up and elaborates on the conception of policy translators in schools -- key actors in the enactment of policy. The qualitative data presented here highlight how it is often middle leaders doing high-profile policy work in schools, turning ideas into actions and bringing policy to life. As translators, they organise, manage, lead, plan, produce, inspire, persuade, and appease, and in doing so they translate policy into practice and make it a collective effort. At the same time, they are often overloaded and inundated. In focusing on middle leaders as policy translators, this research makes several important contributions to scholarship: empirical data is provided to support and expand on policy enactment theory, the limited research base on middle leadership is developed, and understandings of how school self-evaluation plays out in schools are strengthened. Thus, it is envisaged that this paper will not only be of interest and of use to researchers and policymakers concerned with policy, evaluation, and leadership but to practising teachers and school leaders attempting to make sense of their own experiences at the coalface.

The main purpose of this paper is to report research on the problems faced by novice principals in Iran. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 27 novice principals, all from elementary schools in Iran. The paper also identifies possible solutions to address the problems through three focus group interviews. The analysis followed the principles of qualitative research. The main findings relate to three aspects: the personal constructions of novice principal problems, professional constructions of novice principal problems, and the possible solutions to help address the problems. The conclusion compares these Iranian findings with international research, showing some common issues but also certain problems that are distinctive to the Iranian context.

This paper considers issues around identity for teaching assistants (TAs) in mainstream English primary schools. We discuss the concomitant problems TAs experience around role definition and role-creep as well as the challenges inherent in equivocally defining their evolving and flexible role. We used key themes drawn from the literature considered to suggest that professional identity is broadly socially, relationally and contextually dependent, changeable and multifaceted. We then explore how these terms relate to the work and roles TAs undertake in school. The paper concludes with recommendations for schools to support the development of a contextually relevant identity for TAs so the flexibility in their role can be advantageous for TAs, teachers and children.

This paper focuses on school choice and diversity in the UK (England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland) in historical context. Drawing on primary and secondary documentary sources it assesses continuity, change and divergence, before addressing existing diversity and school choice, and academic outcomes. The 1944 Education Act and associated legislation established, in each country, a system of state-funded church and state schools, comprising, academically selective (grammar) and non-selective secondary schools, with test scores determining whether the child was allocated to a selective or non-selective school. The paper argues that there has been broad continuity in Northern Ireland, whilst from 1965 England, Wales and Scotland diverged when school systems were reorganized -- to a greater or lesser extent -- along comprehensive lines. From the 1980s, parental "choice" (and diversity) policies were implemented in all countries, albeit differently. It is argued that existing school diversity across the UK is associated with distinctive histories and political ideas, and with varying levels and types of school selectivity and social segregation. Furthermore, the institutional rules regarding who is prioritized for a school place in the event of oversubscription -- particularly in the case of selective and religious schools -- can constrain parental choice as they enable schools to "select in" and "select out" certain students. Whilst improving educational standards was a key goal for the Conservative government when it introduced market-oriented reforms in England, evidence points to improved academic outcomes being related to changes in assessment policy.

Purpose: This paper aims to describe the levels and type of contingency faced by school principals in Chile and the way certain aspects of the Chilean school system result in a greater or lesser presence of these contingencies. Design/methodology/approach: The results reported here are based on the application of a structured questionnaire to 381 elementary school principals in Chile. A "Leadership Contingency Index" was created to analyze the extent and characteristics of this phenomenon, which was complemented with a multiple regression analysis to observe the variables that influence the levels of contingency. Findings: This study has shown that the main contingencies faced by school leaders in Chile revolve around the relationship between actors: assist families, relationship with and among students and resolution of school staff problems. Also shows that the level of contingency faced by principals is strongly conditioned by the socio-educational context of the school and is not related to the individual characteristics of the leaders. This level of contingencies is significantly higher in the public system, although the most recurrent contingencies are the same in each type of school administration (public, private subsidized and privately funded schools). Originality/value: This paper addresses an important but relatively unexplored dimension in specialized research on leadership: variable contingencies under which the leadership role is performed daily, including significant gaps between schools. Understanding and analyzing school leadership from the perspective of the complexity of tasks currently faced by principals, many of them highly unpredictable, ensures a realistic view of the possibilities and limitations of leadership in action and, consequently, provides better tools to strengthen the school leadership role and its contribution to improving student learning.

Purpose: This paper aims to highlight how a group of novice principals in Connecticut and New York used relational, dispositional and situational factors to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic crisis. The study aims to support new principals and educational leaders. Design/methodology/approach: Using Mutch's (2015) dispositional, relational and situational framework to guide the inquiry, this paper uses qualitative methods and interviewing in particular to explore the questions of interest. Six novice principals were each interviewed over the 2020-2021 school year, each interview lasting approximately forty-five minutes. Data were analyzed thematically using both deductive coding techniques and cross comparative analysis. Findings: Findings show that novice principals tended to rely on dispositional factors to respond to the crisis. Additionally, novice principals reported limited responses to the situational factors of the crisis due to restricted access and guidance from the district leadership. Research limitations/implications: Due to the small sample size and methodological approach, it may be inappropriate to generalize the findings across all novice principals in all settings. Further research in additional settings and larger samples are encouraged to support the proposed findings. Practical implications: This paper has several implications for districts and leadership preparation programs. Among these is the need for leadership preparation programs to adjust their curricula to train new principals properly. Originality/value: This work fills a gap in the research regarding how new principals respond to a crisis. It also provides insights into practice and possible means to enhance the growing population of new principals entering the educational leadership workforce.

The Australian governments' centrepiece Indigenous strategy, the 'Closing the Gap' framework, established in 2008 to address systemic Indigenous disadvantage, is underpinned by the concept of 'school readiness', which expects Indigenous families to bring their children to school ready to learn. The education system commonly blames Indigenous culture as a contributing factor in explaining the 'Gap'. In this paper, we reverse the mirror of 'school readiness', examining what is known about the readiness of the education system to meet the aspirations of Indigenous learners. Using a meta-synthesis methodological approach, this paper provides an overview of research about the issues and challenges facing Australian schools to be ready to respond to the educational needs of Indigenous children. Findings reveal that the lack of teacher, curriculum, pedagogical, school environment and culture readiness are the four key aspects to consider. We conclude by discussing the implications and gaps in the existing Indigenous education strategies.

Opportunity areas are primarily selected to improve the social mobility of citizens using education. This paper explores teachers' perspectives on school transitions, particularly emphasizing the role of school transition intervention activities in supporting students' resilience, behavior, academic understanding, and positive parental involvement. Informed by Multiple and Multi-dimensional Transitions (MMT) theory, the paper focuses on the outcomes of school transition intervention activities applied to new Year 7 students in a UK opportunity area. Data was collected through document review, teacher survey, and semi-structured interviews. As a result, 14 interventions were identified, such as a summer school program, peer mentoring, and interschool visits, aiming to make primary to secondary school transition smoother. However, the findings suggested that many schools did not employ some of the school transition intervention projects. Moreover, the data indicated that the COVID-19 pandemic negatively affected the implementation of many of the school transition projects. The paper contributes to understanding the impact of school transition projects on students' confidence, wellbeing, and academic achievement.

It is widely accepted that concept maps are a meaningful learning tool. Even so, the use of concept mapping as a meaningful learning tool is probably less common than the use of concept mapping as an assessment tool. In first place, the easiest thing to with a student's concept map is to apply a rubric and give it a grade. And second, teachers often believe that by using a meaningful learning tool, their students are learning meaningfully while constructing their concept maps. We are then missing on the greatest power of the concept map, its use as a tool to learn meaningfully. In this paper we examine the difference between using concept maps for learning and for assessment, and propose steps on how to move towards the use of the tool to improve students' learning and understanding.

This paper focuses on investigating the effectiveness of the professional learning community (PLC) on student teachers' curriculum development skills, as well as the effectiveness of the professional learning community (PLC) on Thai L1 young students' reading comprehension. The instruments utilized for the study include the following: a professional learning community activity, learning management for developing students' reading comprehension, a test for student teachers' curriculum design skills, and a test for students' reading comprehension. The data were analyzed using percentage, mean score, standard deviation, a pair samples-test, and the effectiveness index, with the criterion of 80%. The results of the study indicate that the professional learning community (PLC) positively affected student teachers' curriculum design skills as the effectiveness of the method was 94.57/94.96 (E1 94.57/E2 = 94.96), reaching the criterion of 80. The professional learning community (PLC) was also beneficial in developing students' reading comprehension. The effectiveness index of the method was 83.54/85.77 (E1 = 83.54/E2 = 85.77), reaching the criteria set at 80. The results of the study therefore suggest the benefits of the professional learning community (PLC) for both teacher education and student skill development.

The pedagogical and didactic guidance of teachers has been linked, in the relevant literature, to the school management's adoption of the model of pedagogical leadership as well as to the assurance of a series of factors that influence it. This study aims at investigating the pedagogical role of the principal in Greek primary schools. Data were collected through an anonymous questionnaire completed by 133 Greek primary school head teachers. Results show that head teachers consider that their pedagogical role has mainly to do with the pedagogical climate, psychosocial and pedagogical guidance of the school unit. Additionally, the research results show that head teachers carry out their pedagogical role cooperating and communicating mainly with the members of the educational community of the school. Another noteworthy finding of the present study is that the factors that support head teachers in their pedagogical leadership role, are hard to exist in hierarchical educational realities such as Greece. The originality of the paper draws attention to the school's socio-economic environment, which significantly influences school leadership. Conclusions on the implications of the study are made and directions for future research are suggested.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship between teacher leadership and collective teacher efficacy in Chinese urban primary schools in the education change context using quantitative research methods. Based on valid answers from 1117 teachers, the results of path analysis revealed that the dimensions of teacher leadership including recognition, collegiality, participation, and positive environment, had significant relationships with the dimension of group competence of collective teacher efficacy. Additionally, the teacher leadership dimensions of developmental focus, participation, and positive environment had significant relationships with task analysis in collective teacher efficacy. Furthermore, the teacher leadership dimensions of developmental focus, congeniality, participation, and positive environment had relatively significant effects on collective teacher efficacy as a single variable. The findings contribute to an understanding of educational management in Chinese primary schools, and advance the transferability of leadership theories to different cultural contexts.

School-external expectations regarding implementation of reforms and innovations often do not lead to successful school improvement processes in schools. To better understand these processes in schools, this paper aims to investigate school improvement processes on a deep level by focusing on cognitive, metacognitive, and motivational regulation strategies used by school teams and by exploring what school-external and school-internal factors are related to this strategy use. Principals, teachers, and specialist teachers (N = 1328) at 59 primary schools responded to an online questionnaire indicating their school's use of regulation strategies on school improvement. Results from descriptive, variance, and hierarchical multiple regression analyses revealed that school teams use all forms of school-based regulation strategies but that schools differ significantly in their strategy use. These differences were mainly explained more by school-internal deeper structures (e.g., task cohesion) and less by school-internal surface structures (e.g., school size) and not at all by school-external factors (e.g., governance systems).

Despite the growing academic interests in educational leadership recently, hardly any of it has focused on post-conflict situations. This paper seeks to generate an understanding of the perspectives of primary school leaders in post-conflict Cambodia on the issues they face in the process of educational reconstruction and development and the strategies they adopt to deal with those issues. A qualitative research approach within the interpretivist paradigm was adopted to guide the study. Semi-structured interviews were used to collect data with 20 primary school leaders. Data were analysed using grounded theory data analysis methods, namely, open coding and analytic induction. The study argues that while there has been substantial progress in educational reconstruction generally in post-conflict Cambodia, primary school leaders face multiple issues in their day-to-day work. Some of the issues may be specifically attributed to the legacies of armed conflict and genocide while others may refer to the broader context of the developing world. The findings have implications for policy and practice in educational leadership and further research in the post-conflict and developing-country contexts.

Inspired by Karen Barad's agential realism and Donna Haraway's use of the Chthulucene, our paper profoundly troubles and unsettles the humanist subject that has been the cause of so much trouble. Re-turning to a government primary school in Cape Town as the "research site," we adopt temporal and spatial diffraction as a postqualitative research methodology. The colonial practices related to land ownership, are not in the past, but remain in its be(com)ing. Land "use" in South Africa during Apartheid, was, and still is, a form of violence. Thinking-with Neimanis and McLauchlan, we understand a school as not separate from the phenomenon of climate change, but as one of its sites and as a feminist project. A diffractive image articulates aesthetically and politically how the land as the more-than-human is a significant part of the phenomenon and queers school as a concept and "research site."

Background: Few "intervention agnostic" strategies have been developed that can be applied to the broad array of evidence-based practices (EBPs) in schools. This paper describes two studies that reflect the initial iterative redesign phases of an effective leadership-focused implementation strategy--Leadership and Organizational Change for Implementation (LOCI)--to ensure its acceptability, feasibility, contextual appropriateness, and usability when used in elementary schools. Our redesigned strategy--Helping Educational Leaders Mobilize Evidence (HELM)--is designed to improve principals' use of strategic implementation leadership to support the adoption and high-fidelity delivery of a universal EBP to improve student outcomes. Method: In Study 1, focus groups were conducted (n = 6) with 54 district administrators, principals, and teachers. Stakeholders provided input on the appropriateness of original LOCI components to maximize relevance and utility in schools. Transcripts were coded using conventional content analysis. Key themes referencing low appropriateness were summarized to inform LOCI adaptations. We then held a National Expert Summit (Study 2) with 15 research and practice experts. Participants provided feedback via a nominal group process (NGP; n = 6 groups) and hackathon (n = 4 groups). The research team rated each NGP suggestion for how actionable, impactful/effective, and feasible it was. We also coded hackathon notes for novel ideas or alignment with LOCI components. Results: Study 1 suggestions included modifications to LOCI content and delivery. Study 2's NGP results revealed most recommendations to be actionable, impactful/effective, and feasible. Hackathon results surfaced two novel ideas (distributed leadership teams and leaders' knowledge to support educators EBP use) and several areas of alignment with LOCI components. Use of these iterative methods informed the redesign of LOCI and the development of HELM. Because it was collaboratively constructed, HELM has the potential to be an effective implementation strategy to support the use of universal EBP in schools.

Design and content of classroom activities are crucial to foreign/second (L2) language learners' motivation, be they children or adults. Lifeworld relevance and learner autonomy are two important aspects in building motivational L2 curricula for adults (e.g.), but such considerations rarely filter through to primary school learners due to institutional-curricular priorities. Presenting a single-case micro-analysis of the interactional practices that ensue from a pupil's presentation of her favourite song and music video in a 4th grade English as a Foreign Language (EFL) classroom in Denmark, this paper showcases an example of a classroom activity with a participation framework that is sustained by the pupils' participation and substantiated by the pupils' own interests without losing pedagogical impetus. Our data come from an audio-video corpus of EFL classes in six Danish primary schools.

Diffracting a research project in a UK primary school, this paper concerns feminist materialist orientations to odd-ness as a relational, distributed, and affective form of "thinking-feeling". It suggests that attuning to affect as it moves through a context resistant to disruption, involves becoming "bad researchers"; bad for composing an unruly research problem, for embracing a transgressive methodology, and for writing in willfully inconclusive ways. It comments too on the dangers of embracing badness as an identity if used to conceal rather than acknowledge ongoing inequalities between researchers and children and between privileged researchers and others routinely marginalised.

Around 28 per cent of state primary school children attend 'faith' establishments in England, the majority in Catholic or Church of England schools. Research suggests 'faith' schools tend to educate proportionally fewer children from low-income families (proxied by eligibility for Free School Meals [FSM]). This paper examines whether they also under-admit children 'disadvantaged' according to another key dimension: having special educational needs and/or disability (SEND). Descriptive statistics and modelling use the National Pupil Database census and span 2010-2020. Across years, 'faith' primary schools are less likely to include children with SEND, and less likely to admit children with SEND to the first (Reception) year. Accounting for area-level factors, indications of under-admission to Catholic schools become more pronounced. Some disproportionality for Church of England schools is explained by confounders -- but even after attenuation, they remain less likely to serve children with SEND than non-'faith' schools. Together, FSM and SEND predict a substantively meaningful lowered likelihood of children attending 'faith' schools, so these schools, at the national level, seem to have become hubs of relative 'advantage'. Findings therefore demand interrogation of whose interests these institutions serve, and of their part within the current English system.