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The article focuses on the resolution, submitted by the North American Assembly of State Arts Agencies, regarding arts and education in the U.S. The resolution aims to create a better learning environment for students and to support the teachers working toward better educational quality in American schools. The North American Assembly believes that arts are fundamental in American public education to encourage an open society and that they give way to the acceptance of cultural democracy. In addition, the committee considers an open teaching method in schools as a way to nurture students' capacities.

Disasters can result in poor psychosocial outcomes for adolescents. One pathway to mitigate these risks and foster resilience is via schools, where teachers can offer students support. However, existing research lacks consideration of the role schools and teachers play from the perspective of students, particularly those from marginalized populations. Therefore, this study examines adolescents' representations of the role of schools and teachers after a major disaster in Indonesia using a free association interview technique. Thematic analysis of adolescents' interviews (N = 46) yielded two salient themes: 'the school as a place of recovery' and 'the school as a place of risk'. While the school and teachers were conceptualized positively in that they promoted students' recovery, students also identified aspects of the post-disaster school environment that produced uncertainty, loss and discomfort thereby heightening their sense of risk. The paper concludes with recommendations for resilience-building, such as ensuring teachers receive relevant training. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Discusses the education system in the United States. History of the education system of the U.S.; Purpose of schools in the U.S.; Emphasis on learning rather than teaching; Promotion of skills checklist form of report card; Alienation of people of the U.S. from teaching institutions.

Every state in the US has had school vaccine mandates for decades, and all except West Virginia and Mississippi offered nonmedical exemptions (NMEs) in addition to medical exemptions. Several states recently eliminated NMEs, and others have attempted to do so. These efforts are transforming America's immunization governance. What we call the 'mandates & exemptions' regime of vaccination policy from the 1960s and 1970s functioned to orient parents toward vaccination, but did not coerce or punish them for not vaccinating. The article identifies how policy tweaks in the 2000s – including education requirements and other bureaucratic burdens – delivered enhancements to the 'mandates & exemptions' regime. Finally, the paper illustrates how the recent elimination of NMEs, first in California and then in other states, represents a radical transformation of America's vaccine mandates. Today's 'unencumbered vaccine mandates' (mandates without exemptions) directly govern and punish non-vaccination, unlike the 'mandates & exemption' regime that aimed to make it harder for parents to avoid vaccination. This kind of policy change introduces new problems for implementation and enforcement, especially within America's underfunded public health system, and in the context of post-COVID public health political conflicts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article discusses the problems which arise in the planning and organizing of educational indicator systems. If a person wants to assess the effect of a certain measure, program evaluation can not be substituted by social indicators as usually conceived. Social indicators can not either give much guidance in the day-to-day planning in intermediate levels of the administration. What social indicators can do is to give a kind of gross evaluation of a number of measures usually taken under a period and of unforeseen and unplanned changes as well, to indicate if the development is taking desired directions. A danger of an indicator system of the type closely affiliated to administration is the sectorization and institutional bias likely to manifest itself in concentration on means available to the bureaucracy in question. This is an advantage as to manipulability of means but as disadvantage as to seeing the whole range of alternatives. In a social-indicators-project the ideal would be indicators of knowledge and skills in the whole population, instead of educational indicators aimed primarily at evaluating the institutionalized school system and its effects on the minority of the population affected by it.

Background:Teacher knowledge continues to be a topic of debate in Australasia and in other parts of the world. There have been many attempts by mathematics educators and researchers to define the knowledge needed by teachers to teach mathematics effectively. A plethora of terms, such as mathematical content knowledge, pedagogical content knowledge, horizon content knowledge and specialised content knowledge, have been used to describe aspects of such knowledge. Purpose:This paper proposes a model for teacher knowledge in mathematics that embraces and develops aspects of earlier models. It focuses on the notions of contingent knowledge and the connectedness of ‘big ideas’ of mathematics to enact what is described as ‘powerful teaching’. It involves the teacher’s ability to set up and provoke contingent moments to extend children’s mathematical horizons. The model proposed here considers the various cognitive and affective components and domains that teachers may require to enact ‘powerful teaching’. The intention is to validate the proposed model empirically during a future stage of research. Sources of evidence:Contingency is described in Rowland’s Knowledge Quartet as the ability to respond to children’s questions, misconceptions and actions and to be able to deviate from a teaching plan as needed. The notion of ‘horizon content knowledge’ (Ball et al.) is a key aspect of the proposed model and has provoked a discussion in this article about students’ mathematical horizons and what these might comprise. Together with a deep mathematical content knowledge and a sensibility for students and their mathematical horizons, these ideas form the foundations of the proposed model. Main argument:It follows that a deeper level of knowledge might enable a teacher to respond better and to plan and anticipate contingent moments. By taking this further and considering teacher knowledge as ‘dynamic’, this paper suggests that instead of responding to contingent events, ‘powerful teaching’ is about provoking contingent events. This necessarily requires a broad, connected content knowledge based on ‘big mathematical ideas’, a sound knowledge of pedagogies and an understanding of common misconceptions in order to be able to engineer contingent moments. Conclusions:In order to place genuine problem-solving at the heart of learning, this paper argues for the idea of planning for contingent events, provoking them and ‘setting them up’. The proposed model attempts to represent that process. It is anticipated that the new model will become the framework for an empirical research project, as it undergoes a validation process involving a sample of primary teachers. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Recollections of past officers provide the basis for a history of the North Central Sociology cat Association (NCSA). Foci include the early environment, school participation, and forces behind its growth and current character. Contemporary issues of big school domination and image are examined through data on current numbers, school affiliations and convention participation. The latter part of the paper, based on a 1976 NCSA membership survey, compares criticisms of American Sociological Association national meetings with those of North Central, summarizing the asserts and deficits of each. Conclusions are drawn about the identifying characteristics and functions of a regional association given the image it assumes and its organizational goals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Despite increased focus on parenting support internationally, there is a lack of agreement in what constitutes parenting support. This paper explores the experiences of parenting support activities from the perspective of stakeholders in Norwegian basic schools. Methods: Five focus group interviews were conducted with representatives from the schools' parent work committee, class teachers, health nurses, and social workers from nine schools. The data were interpreted using an inductive thematic analysis. Results: Three main themes emerged from the data: (1) A community for the best of the child, (2) uniting through relations, and (3) sharing knowledge and language. Parenting support was experienced as universal, relational, and multidimensional. It was related to everyday life interactions between the home, school, and the parenting community with the best interest of the child as a goal. Conclusion: To avoid reducing parents to passive recipients of expert advice, parenting support activities should be an integral part of everyday school-home-parenting community collaborations. Abbreviation: EU-The European Union; UN-The Unition Nations; CoE-The Council of Europe; NSD-The Norwegian Centre for Research Data; CTP-Class teachers in primary school; CTJS-Class teachers in junior secondary school; P-Parents; H-Health nurses; SW-Social workers [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a novel optimal utilisation of photovoltaic (PV) system as dynamic voltage restorer (PV-DVR) for voltage sag, voltage swell, outage and unbalanced voltage mitigation during both daytime and night time. This novel PV system operated DVR reduces the energy consumption from the utility grid by disconnecting the utility grid from the load through semiconductor switches, when the PV system generates excessive or equal real power to the required load demand. However, the reduction of energy consumption is always desirable for the reduction of panel tariff and global warming gasses. In this paper, PV module is connected to the DC side of DVR through the low step-up DC-DC converter with fuzzy-based perturb and observe maximum power point tracking algorithm to eliminate the drawback of the conventional PV system by tracking maximum power point of the PV array is presented. The proposed PV-DVR, if connected at the terminals of a small industry or a home or a small educational institution, can avoid interruption of power, use of individual stabiliser and potential panel tariff over a 12-hour period. A MATLAB Simulink model with a 10 kW PV module is presented to validate the advantage of the proposed system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we theorize on local school governance through a multi-method case study of a large-sized Swedish municipality by drawing on neo-institutional theory. In light of a changing governing landscape in Sweden in terms of a 're-centralization', new conditions between the state, the local education authorities (LEA) and the schools have emerged. The aim of this study is to examine what policy actions the LEA employ for governing the school and in what ways that principals respond and handle these policy actions. The results point to the fact that the LEA uses a bench-marking strategy through its quality assurance system and intervene if results are poor. Principals seek support from the LEA, but are anxious that their autonomy will be diminished and therefore function as 'gate-. The system for quality assurance is appreciated by principals, but standards aimed at framing discursive communication on quality are criticized. Principals turn to managers below the superintendent, which creates a tension between managers. The study shows that different levels and actors must be taken into account in order to achieve a comprehensive understanding of the multi-layered field of local policy enactment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Non-communicable diseases (NCDs) are the leading cause of morbidity and mortality globally, with the burden largely borne by people living in low- and middle-income countries. Adolescents are central to NCD control through the potential to modify risks and alter the trajectory of these diseases across the life-course. However, an absence of epidemiological data has contributed to the relative exclusion of adolescents from policies and responses. This paper documents the design of a study to measure the burden of metabolic syndrome (a key risk for NCDs) and poor mental health (a key outcome) amongst Indonesian adolescents. Using a mixed-method design, we sampled 16–18-year-old adolescents from schools and community-based settings across Jakarta and South Sulawesi. Initial formative qualitative enquiry used focus group discussions to understand how young people conceptualise mental health and body weight (separately); what they perceive as determinants of these NCDs; and what responses to these NCDs should involve. These findings informed the design of a quantitative survey that adolescents self-completed electronically. Mental health was measured using the Centre for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale-Revised (CESD-R) and Kessler-10 (both validated against formal psychiatric interview in a subsample), with the metabolic syndrome measured using biomarkers and anthropometry. The survey also included scales relating to victimisation, connectedness, self-efficacy, body image and quality of life. Adolescents were sampled from schools using a multistage cluster design, and from the community using respondent-driven sampling (RDS). This study will substantially advance the field of NCD measurement amongst adolescents, especially in settings like Indonesia. It demonstrates that high quality, objective measurement is acceptable and feasible, including the collection of biomarkers in a school-based setting. It demonstrates how comparable data can be collected across both in-school and out of school adolescents, allowing a more comprehensive measure of NCD burden, risk and correlates. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper focuses on the operation of heteronormativity in online and face-to-face dialogues about sexualities and schooling, and seeks to tease out the means through which this operation is enacted. The data arise from two linked research projects focusing on participants' perceptions and concerns about addressing issues related to sexual orientation in school contexts. Analysis of data from both sources showed that participants' narratives were embedded (often without the participants' recognition) in the heteronormative, through the inscription and reinscription of specific identity categories that fixed heterosexuality as the normative centre. Revisiting these data as a whole, we draw upon Youdell's notion of 'wounds and reinscrptions' and Bakhtin's notion of carnivalistic inversion to explore the virtual impossibility of imagining the homonormative. From this exercise we derive important lessons for ourselves as educators and researchers about how offering new imaginaries might enhance the possibilities for social justice and social change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Evidence from a meta-analysis suggested that lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ+) youth experience elevated levels of victimization in schools as compared to their heterosexual peers, and that victimization was shown to be persistent and lasting, indicating that school environments are hostile. These findings point to the need to better understand youths' own efforts in becoming more aware and engaged in impacting systemic inequities. Photovoice and mobile interviewing, two relatively novel qualitative methodologies in the field of LGBTQ research, are methodologies that involve the participants by 1) taking photos of interest as a means of critical discussion, and 2) moving alongside the researcher in a participant-chosen area and have critical discussions highlighted by the visual cues. The goal of this paper is to highlight ways of listening to opinions of LGBTQ youth that are contextualized in the environments in which they are victimized. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This brief response paper seeks to clarify and expand the work of Allen and Vignoles presented in this issue. What Allen and Vignoles have done is useful because it directly replicates my earlier analyses of trends in social segregation between schools since 1989. These findings have had considerable international impact. So, to have them independently confirmed is therefore also important. The same substantive trends appear whatever sensible index of segregation is used - the clustering of pupils living in poverty in the same schools declined in the early 1990s, stabilised in the mid-1990s, and has been increasing since then. However, Allen and Vignoles appear to ignore some of the earlier findings of mine that they have replicated, and make some intriguing errors when discussing how to measure segregation, especially in relation to the properties of the Gorard segregation index (GS). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Previous research has indicated significant variation between schools in the proportion of their students who go on to higher education. However, relatively little attention has been paid to the specific school characteristics influencing application and entry to tertiary education. This paper sets out to analyse the individual and school factors which influence the transition to higher education in the Irish context. The paper draws on a large-scale study of 4,400 students within 108 secondary schools in the Republic of Ireland. Almost three-quarters of the students in the sample applied for a higher education course. However, schools varied in the application rates of their students. These differences are found to be related to the background characteristics of students (in terms of gender, social class and prior ability) along with the institutional habitus of the school. It is found that school factors associated with increased college application rates do not necessarily appear to yield higher rates of college entry but rather that successful entry to tertiary education is related to general academic effectiveness in the school. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines claims that recent reforms to UK education have led to significant organisational changes in primary school and higher education. It also examines two main theoretical explanations for these, namely post-Fordism and New Managerialism. Examples of changes in both schools and universities, including flexibility and teamwork, are explored. Up to the mid-1980s, publicly funded educational organisations did display bureaucratic features, including rules, staff hierarchies and complex procedures. However, professionals employed in these organisations retained discretion and autonomy in their work. Since then, the introduction of an audit culture and a greater emphasis on management and regulation of the work of teachers and academics has decreased discretion and autonomy. This paper suggests that theories of New Managerialism offer a more satisfactory explanation of the changes explored than post-Fordism, which has more often been used as a normative model of what contemporary organisations should look like. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper draws on research in three English Midlands local education authorities to analyse the changing role of the teacher trade union representative in schools. It focuses on representatives of the largest teachers' union in England and Wales--the National Union of Teachers. The paper draws on mainstream industrial relations literature, and more recent research into school sector industrial relations, to assess how the role of the union representative is changing in an era of autonomous schools. The research indicates that new issues are emerging in schools, and these have the potential to transform the role of the representative. Where representatives can respond to the emergence of these new issues there is the prospect of a new, more participative trade union culture developing in schools. However, it is far from certain that school union representatives will want to assume these increased responsibilities, and this poses a major challenge for the development of teacher trade unionism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mobile technologies such as palmtop computers and mobile telephones represent a new breed of technological innovation -- offering easier and quicker access to information and communication on an 'anytime, anywhere' basis. These networks are seen to lead to temporal and spatial re-definitions of young people's lives, with notions of time and space centred around the individual rather than shared societal norms or expectations. Such changes are now prompting some educationalists to predict that mobile technologies will radically change students, and therefore the nature of schools and schooling. Set against a lack of considered academic debate, the present paper offers a detailed consideration of the theoretical and practical implications of mobile technologies such as phones and handheld computers on schools and schooling by contrasting the 'fixed' nature of schools against 'mobile' technologies' freeing up of the key symbolic forms of power of information and communication. After considering the strengths and limitations of both these viewpoints, this paper then outlines a framework for future research and discussion in this area. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper challenges the view that academic professionalism resides in the professional 'autonomy' of the academic, the 'self-regulation' of academics as an occupational group, and the differential 'status' of academic workers. This still influential (though residual) notion of academic professionalism, it is argued, leads to institutional stasis. What is required is greater reflexivity by academics in respect of their underlying professional values. In particular the piece challenges the academic community (of which the author is a member) to re-think academic freedom - the bedrock of professional identity within that community - in terms of increased inclusivity: 'freedom for all' rather than 'freedom for academics' The paper touches on issues relating to practice and organisational structure, but focuses primarily on the need for academics to shift the moral bases of their claim to professionalism. In so doing, it also challenges the post-Dearing consensus that the debate on academic professionalism can be adequately conducted in terms of 'standards' and 'outcomes'. A prime purpose of the paper is to promote debate and discussion by setting a different kind of agenda (a moral agenda) and by couching that agenda within a different kind of discourse (one that invites and admits moral speculation). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Editorial. Comments on the role of educational research in classrooms and schools in Great Britain. Usefulness of educational research; Different models of research; Links between research and the growth of professional judgement in trainee and experienced teachers.

This paper analyses producer agency in the structural setting of the schools public-market. The initial focus for this analysis was the nature of competition, but, it is argued, the character of engagement with the public-market is better represented by inter-connecting and mutually influential modes of engagement (competitive, professional, bureaucratic, cultural) elaborated in the paper. These have been developed through analyses of headteachers’ accounts (one of the data sets in a study of the impact of competition on secondary schools), in a process of ‘dialogue’ with relevant literature, and build upon prior work by the author. The elaboration of the modes is set within the theoretical frame of analytical dualism. Conclusions highlight, inter alia, the tendency for competitive engagement to be present in a subordinated, although nevertheless significant, form, and the continual inter-weaving of different foms of engagement, at the core of which is an increasingly permeable public professional model . [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Queer university students face multiple stressors which can contribute to mental health difficulties, including minority stressors unique to their queer identities. However, there is little literature exploring stressors faced by queer individuals in university settings. The aim of this study was to qualitatively explore the current challenges and strengths faced by queer university students in Aotearoa New Zealand, in order to contextualise their mental health experiences. Twenty-eight queer students participated across 12 focus groups or interviews. Two queer researchers thematically analysed the data. Three themes were interpreted from the data: 'That's not feminine enough': the impact of societal ideologies on queer students; 'There's one rainbow person in the room': Tokenism, social isolation, and then finding community; and 'You know what it's like to not be heard': The transformation of challenges into strengths. The findings illustrate how queer university students make meaning of their challenges, and the strengths they develop to mitigate these. Educational institutions are highlighted as important sites of systemic change, to reduce minority stressors in students' lives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Educational use of the Internet forms one of the cornerstones of Labour government policy, primarily via the construction of the 'National Grid for Learning' which aims to connect every school in the UK to the Internet by 2002. In this paper we report on the extent to which schools are already buying into information and communications technology (ICT) and in particular the Internet, effectively examining the foundations upon which the Learning Grid is being constructed. Via an empirical study of 150 current school websites we will argue that schools adopt a variety of approaches to the Internet and Worldwide Web depending upon the technological and institutional capital of the school, and that far from being utilised solely for educational purposes, the Internet provides an additional tool through which schools seek to reaffirm or reconstruct their existing institutional identities with varying levels of success. The paper concludes by adopting a semiotic framework for analysing the differential use of the Internet by educational institutions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is one of a number of related pieces which address the issue of parental choice through a careful Straussian analysis of interview data. The focus here is upon the structures and processes underlying the use of grapevine' knowledge, which parents elicit and disseminate in choosing a school. It is argued that this immediate or `hot' knowledge is of particular importance to many parents and is set over and against the `cold' formal knowledge produced by schools themselves or published as examination results or league tables. Grapevine knowledge is socially embedded in networks and localities and is distributed unevenly across and used differently by different social-class groups. The Paper concludes by suggesting that the stress and anxiety involved in choice for man)' parents is a product of unstable cultural values, and the slippery signs systems now surrounding `school' at a time of increased economic uncertainty. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on the two annual conferences related to education. The annual conference for 1978 was held in King's College, London, England, on 15 December 1978. Registrations for the Conference had numbered 84 and among those attending the larger sub-groups were from Universities and Colleges of Education or Colleges and Institutes of Higher Education . Discussion group activity continued after lunch but participants met again for a plenary session in the latter part of the afternoon, not to receive conventional reports of discussions but to develop the points of special interest which had been raised and to exchange views more widely. The Standing Conference on Studies in Education will hold its annual conference on 14 December 1979 at King's College, London, England. The theme will be Individuality in Education. Circulars concerning participation in the conference will be sent to members of the Standing Conference on Studies in Education in the autumn but non-members who would like to take part in the conference should get in touch with James Scotland, Secretary, Aberdeen College of Education, Hilton Place, Aberdeen, Scotland.

Argues that the 1997 White Paper, Excellence in Education policy reflects the continuing dominance of the School Effectiveness Research (SER) Paradigm in Great Britain. Origins of the SER Paradigm; Overview on the concept and consequences of a `value-added' methodology; Context of school performance.

This paper analyses events at Kingsmead School, Hocknwy, in the aftermath of head teacher, Jane Brown's refusal to take children to a ballet of Romeo and Juliet. The paper explores the ensuing struggle over space, governance and gender within the centext of LEA power after LMS. It analyses different levels of governance direct, midway and at a distance, and explores the relationship between these levels and developed legal powers. The paper links Hackney's techniques of governing, and school supporters' acts of resistance, to their competing spatial representations of Kingsmead Highlighted are discourses of ridicule, excessive sexuality, kingship, community and parents rights, as well as techniques of discipline, law, and fortification. Finally, the paper explores the conflict in terms of the production of lesbian feminist space, and considers the centrality of gender to the events that occurred. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper, drawn from an ESRC-funded research project, deploys data from one secondary school to raise some general times about the development of disciplinary technologies of surveillance and uses of performance in education. It is argued that the use of Total Quality Management, school Development Planning and ofsted (The Office for Standards in Education) Inspections, individually and collectively produce an intensification of teachers' work, submit teachers more directly to the 'gaze' of policy, and encourage schools and teachers to 'fabricate' themselves for the purposes of evaluation and comparison The paper is premised on the argument that schools cannot be represented adequately within research (or evaluation) by simple stones or single essentialising tags, `good/bad', `successful/failing'-they are inherently paradoxical institutions [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The past decade has witnessed the publication of a growing number of important ethnographic studies investigating the schooling experiences of Black students. Their focus has largely been upon student--teacher relations during the students' last few years of compulsory education. What they have highlighted is the complexity of racism and the varied nature of Black students' experiences of schooling. By drawing upon data from a year-long ethnographic study of an inner-city, multi-ethnic primary school, this paper aims to compliment these studies in two ways. Firstly the paper will broaden the focus to examine how student peer-group relations play an integral role, within the context of student--teacher relations, in shaping many Black students' schooling experiences. By focussing on African / Caribbean infant boys, it will be shown how student--teacher relations on the one hand, and peer-group relations on the other, form a continuous feed-back loop; the products of each tending to exacerbate and inflate the other. Secondly, by concentrating on infant children, the paper will assess the extent to which these resultant social processes and practices are also evident for Black pupils at the beginning of their school careers--at the ages of five and six. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is centrally concerned with criticism of inter-racial contact as a means of improving race relations. It aims, amongst other things, to highlight the damaging implications of the criticism on practices hitherto thought useful in combating racial prejudice. The main focus of the paper is the charge that a reduction in prejudice towards individual members of the group does not transfer to the group as a whole. it is argued that whilst there is much evidence to support this charge, the acquisition of positive attitudes towards an entire racial or ethnic group is not an aim that educationalists should seek to realise. In the light of this objection, an alternative view of the purpose of inter-racial contact is proposed such that the value of contact be judged in terms of whether it helps diminish the tendency to indulge in unsupported generalisations. To promote this goal it is urged that wherever practicable, inter-racial contact, under specified conditions, should form part of a programme that emphasises that nature, and particularly the dangers, of generalisation. It is acknowledged, however, that there are some children and some forms of prejudice that will remain impervious to the potential benefits of any form of contact. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper uses data from the Scottish School Leavers Surveys to investigate trends in the transition from school at a time of deepening recession. The main change observed is the collapse of employment between 1979 and 1983. The paper also describes trends in the distribution of school-leaver employment, in its industrial and occupational composition, in patters of movement in the youth labour market and in the role of special programmes. Some of its general conclusions challenge ideas current among some British sociologists. First, youth unemployment (at least among recent school leavers) is no longer significantly connected with patterns of subemployment or frequent job-changing. Secondly, unemployment has not fundamentally changed the 'selective function' of education; credentials have retained their labour-market value in relative if not in absolute terms. Thirdly, the recent rise in school-leaver unemployment is very largely a result of the recession-the decline in the aggregate demand for labour-rather than of underlying structural changes that disadvantage young people; most recent changes in the transition from school to work are in principle reversible if the recession ends. The paper assesses the implications of these findings for the sociology of education, and concludes with a discussion of the possible impact of the Youth Training Scheme. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There are growing expectations internationally that schools and systems will use research evidence to inform their improvement efforts. Such developments raise important questions about what it means to use research evidence well in education. To date, there has been wide-ranging debate about what counts as quality evidence, but very little dialogue about what counts as quality use. In response, this article presents a conceptual framework to define and elaborate what quality use of research evidence might mean in relation to education. The framework is informed by a cross-sector systematic review and narrative synthesis of 112 relevant publications from four sectors: health, social care, education and policy. The review explored if, and how, quality of evidence use had been defined and described within each of these sectors in order to inform a quality use framework for education. Based on the cross-sector review, quality use of research evidence is framed in terms of two core components: (1) appropriate research evidence and (2) thoughtful engagement and implementation, supported by three individual enabling components (skillsets, mindsets and relationships) and three organisational enabling components (leadership, culture and infrastructure), as well as system-level influences. There is potential for this framework to inform current approaches to the use of research in education. There is also an important need to test and refine its components through further empirical investigation, theoretical inquiry and intervention development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents the author's response to the comments made on his paper "A.F. Leach on the Reformation." According to the author, his own approach was that of one interested in sixteenth and seventeenth century schooling who found that Leach's interpretation of events at the Reformation did not tally with the later evidence. This led to a detailed examination of the case argued in English Schools at the Reformation; then, since this case depended directly on a reading of earlier ecclesiastical and educational history, it was necessary to look further back. According to the author, it was the main object of his paper to suggest a reassessment of developments at the Reformation, in the interests of clarifying the course of educational history. According to the author, he suggested that there was a prima facie case for questioning Leach's assessment of the Chantries Act because it is at variance with the general views of medieval historians and with the later evidence, dealing mainly with the latter.

The article aims to make a methodological contribution to the education segregation literature, providing a critique of previous measures of segregation used in the literature, as well as suggesting an alternative approach to measuring segregation. Specifically, the paper examines Gorard, Fitz and Taylor's finding that social segregation between schools, as measured by free school meals (FSM) entitlement, fell significantly in the years following the 1988 Education Reform Act. Using Annual Schools Census data from 1989 to 2004, the paper challenges the magnitude of their findings, suggesting that the method used by Gorard et al. seriously overstates the size of the fall in segregation. We make the case for a segregation curve approach to measuring segregation, where comparisons of the level of segregation are possible regardless of the percentage FSM eligibility. Using this approach, we develop a new method for describing both the level and the location of school segregation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents an overview of studies into effects and side effects of control mechanisms in education. We focus on effects and side effects of inspection visits and public performance indicators. A first conclusion is that the studies do not provide us with a clear answer to the question of whether inspections have positive causal effects on the quality of schools. Results of studies of publications on public performance indicators are more unambiguous. They lead us to the conclusion that although principals and teachers believe performance indicators are important, parents and pupils take very little notice of these indicators when choosing schools. A third conclusion concerns the occurrence of side effects of school inspections and other control mechanisms in education. Several of the studies discussed clearly refer to the existence of these side effects, such as 'window dressing' and other types of 'gaming'. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The proposed development of extended schools in England is part of an international movement towards community-oriented schooling, particularly in areas of disadvantage. Although on the face of it this movement seems like a common-sense approach to self-evident needs, the evaluation evidence on such schools is inconclusive. In order to assess the likelihood that community-oriented schooling will have a significant impact on disadvantage, therefore, this paper analyses the rationale on which this approach to schooling appears to be based. It argues that community-oriented schools as currently conceptualised have a focus on 'proximal' rather than 'distal' factors in disadvantage, underpinned by a model of social in/exclusion which draws attention away from underlying causes. They are, therefore, likely to have only small-scale, local impacts. The paper suggests that a more wide-ranging strategy is needed in which educational reform is linked to other forms of social and economic reform and considers the conditions which would be necessary for the emergence of such a strategy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The provisions of the Higher Education Act (2004) have renewed interest in widening participation research. Therefore, this paper explores the development of this scholarly field, primarily in the United Kingdom, by examining major trends in the study of higher education. Political debates related to higher education, the prevailing structure of the sector and predominant sociological perspectives have largely shaped the empirical and theoretical concerns of widening participation research. These delimiting factors have resulted in incomplete accounts of the barriers to higher education, which do not fully explore the relationship between students' social characteristics, learning experiences and university careers. Furthermore, contemporary research runs the risk of reinventing the wheel and replicating the mistakes of the past, since there has been a collective act of forgetfulness with respect to earlier contributions. In contrast, this paper provides guidelines to facilitate a holistic agenda for future widening participation research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper considers the possible nature and membership of learning communities in schools and what evidence there may be of middle leaders trying to develop and sustain learning communities with their colleagues, even though these communities encompass asymmetrical power relationships between members. Although it is argued that students and support staff are part of these learning communities, not apart from them, the limited evidence from this study does not support this. How power is used and distributed to construct collaborative cultures, and the part played by middle leaders, is central to the development of a learning community. The promotion of dialogue and consultation amongst members helps them to generate a sense of community which, in turn, enables them to tackle effectively the tasks and dilemmas facing them. Empirical evidence from a small scale study in England indicates the ways in which some middle leaders have tried to build learning communities, and their colleagues’ views on their efforts, while negotiating the value‐laden tensions and dilemmas inherent in all middle management posts in educational organisations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years there has been a growing interest in the comparative study of youth transitions. National and international studies have analysed the role of individual and institutional (education and labour market) factors in shaping the transition from school to the labour market. Using data drawn from a cross-national database of secondary school leavers and multilevel modelling, this paper aims to improve upon the existing research through the analysis of the effect of school factors (as well as individual factors) on pupils' post-school outcomes. Results show that school variations in pupils' post-school outcomes are mainly accounted for by curriculum type in the Netherlands, individual factors in Scotland and a mix of individual and school factors in Ireland. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper uses pupil responses to the PISA study in 2000 for all EU countries. Using indicators of the pupil intakes to schools and their outcomes it computes segregation indices for 15 countries, and then tries to explain the resulting patterns in terms of the characteristics of national school systems. Segregation by sex in each country is explicable by its provision of single-sex schools, religious schools, and the use of academic selection in allocating school places. Segregation by outcome is largely explicable by the use of academic (and other forms of) selection. Segregation by parental occupation or country of birth is lower in countries allocating places at school through elements of choice or with relatively little governmental control of schools rather than use of rigid catchment areas or selection. In all countries there are small gaps between the performance of boys and girls in reading, in favour of girls. This gap is generally smaller in countries with the highest overall scores. Overall, the Scandinavian countries of Sweden, Finland and Denmark show less segregation on all indicators, while Germany, Greece and Belgium show the most. The UK has below average segregation in terms of all indicators except sex, despite a commonly held but unfounded view that segregation in the UK is among the worst in the world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Studies on bullying at school proliferate, but the discourse is seriously lacking in sociological perspective. The explanation as to why some students bully others has been sought primarily within the personal attributes of the bully and the victim. Despite the fact that the school is the place where most bullying occurs, school factors that are correlated with the prevalence of bullying have been under-investigated. In Japan, however, schools have been subject to great scrutiny. By reviewing the Japanese literature on bullying (ijime), this paper discusses factors that appear to contribute to the school climate in which bullying among students becomes commonplace. These include authoritarian, hierarchical, and power-dominant human relationships, alienating modes of learning, high levels of regimentation, dehumanising methods of discipline, and highly interventionist human relationships in an excessively group-oriented social environment. The paper suggests the paradigm of student bullying needs to be re-thought. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Much of the political and public debate about faith-based schooling is conducted at the level of generalised assertion and counter-assertion, with little reference to educational scholarship or research. There is a tendency in these debates to draw upon historical images of faith schooling (idealised and critical); to use ideological advocacy (both for and against) and to deploy strong claims about the effects of faith-based schooling upon personal and intellectual autonomy and the wider consequences of such schooling for social harmony, race relations and the common good of society. This paper will attempt to review some of these controversies in the light of recent educational and research studies. Particular attention will be given to research investigations of Catholic schooling systems in various cultural and political contexts, studies which are largely unknown outside the Catholic community. In addition to reviewing educational studies of faith-based schooling, the paper will offer critical appraisal of the main arguments in the debate and it will also outline a possible research agenda for future inquiry in this sector of educational studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper focuses on the reforms made to the quasi-market in school-based education in England that occurred between May 1997 and May 2001. It discusses the changes that have taken place in relation to parental choice, admissions to schools, school diversity, funding and examination 'league tables'. The Labour Government can be seen as having embraced the quasi-market with a similar enthusiasm to that of its Conservative predecessors although it has tended to emphasise social inclusion as opposed to competition. While it has attempted to soften the edges of the quasi-market it has not tackled some of its major deficiencies such as the power that schools that are their own admission authorities have to distort the admissions process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper takes as its starting point the special provision made for grant maintained schools through the 1998 School Standards and Framework Act and suggests that the compromise it represented may be considered as an example of New Labour' Third Way in politics. The latter is discussed in terms of general and educational policies with specific regard to the characteristics of self-governing schools. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

During the 18 years of Conservative government in Britain, only two attempts were made to stimulate the 'supply side' of the quasi-market of schools. These were the introduction of City Technology Colleges and sponsored grant-maintained schools. This paper draws comparisons between the two initiatives. It is shown that, while the CTCs were largely a 'top down' policy, and the sponsored grant-maintained schools might be seen as the result of 'grass roots' pressure group activity, there were many similarities between the two programmes. In practice, both initiatives stalled at just 15 schools, but it is argued that their significance is far greater than their numerical strength would indicate. Both can be seen as examples of increased privatisation and selection, and it is shown that what may develop from them is a greatly changed education system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the use, functions and constitutive effects of evaluation systems in local school governance, and identifies how contextual factors affect various uses of evaluation in this context. This case study of three Swedish municipalities demonstrates that local evaluation systems are set up to effectively sustain local school governance and ensure compliance with the Education Act and other state demands. Local decision makers have learned to navigate the web of evaluations and developed response strategies to manage external evaluations and to take into account what can be useful and what cannot be overlooked in order to avoid sanctions. The study shows that in contexts with high issue polarisation, such as schooling, the use of evaluation differs between the political majority and opposition, and relates to how schools perform in national comparisons and school inspections. Responses to external evaluations follow the same pattern. Some key performance indicators from the National Agency of Education and the School Inspectorate affect local school governance in that they define what is important in education, and reinforce the norm that benchmarking is natural and worthwhile, indicating constitutive effects of national evaluation systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the relationships between primary-aged boys, hegemonic masculinities and sexualised/violent behaviours in the sc/tool setting The data fir this paper arise out of a year-long ethinographic study of two primary schools in the North-East of England. The aims are twofold, to explore the way in which heterosexual harassment features in the particular hegemonic masculinity of each school, and secondly, to consider the extent to which primary school boys of different ages and social class backgrounds draw upon sexually harassing/violent attitudes and behaviours as one of the key processes in defining their male identities within their peer groups. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper focuses on patents' involvement with their child's schooling and the possible influences upon this. At a time when parental involvement is regarded as being highly important to a child's school achievement and given the Government's promotion of the role of parents in education, the conditions should be particularly conducive to involving all parents in this significant role. It will be argued, however, that in spite of increased statutory rights and a changing attitude towards parents by teachers and schools, parents' social class location continues to have a direct impact upon their ability to intervene in their child's schooling. The paper concludes that increased parental involvement is probably desirable but the nature of this and its operationalisation needs to be carefully thought out. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Taking as a point of departure the prominent position of boys in the classroom as demonstrated in previous research, this paper discusses girls' ways for gaining influence and control in school. Drawing upon an empirical study of gender patterns in student-teacher interactions in Swedish schools, various scripts to counter powerlessness are illustrated and discussed. It is argued that the features of these scripts, i e these ways of attempting to influence and control, are to be related to societal and institutional gender expectations as well as to individuals' and groups' actual situations and experiences. It is suggested that girls' scripts to counter powerlessness differ from boys', in so far as they concern different dimensions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reports evidence from an ethnographic study of two primary schools in a large town in Northern France. The schools are located markedly different socio-economic settings. One is in an affluent area near the centre while the other is situated on a run down municipal housing estate on the outskirts in an officially designated educational priority zone. Despite their widely divergent social situations the two schools are strikingly similar and can be seen to be providing homogeneous educational experience for two socially heterogeneous populations. In the second half of the paper the notion of `national context' is explored and its usefulness as an explanatory theoretical concept for analysing this educational homogeneity is suggested. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]