Search

Early STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) education plays a pivotal role in shaping children's science and visual literacy skills. However, in South Africa, there are notable challenges such as delayed initiation of science education and inadequate emphasis on visual literacy. This study aims to investigate the influence of early STEM education on science and visual literacy in South African educational contexts. Drawing upon the post-positivist paradigm and Mayer's cognitive theory of multimedia learning, this research employed a mixed-method approach combining quantitative and qualitative analyses, integrating autoethnography to engage with lived experiences during my master's and doctoral studies. The findings suggest that children exposed to STEM education demonstrate higher levels of science and visual literacy. These findings have implications for curriculum design and educational practice, urging stakeholders to integrate STEM principles early in children's educational journey and to prioritize visual literacy to enhance communication and comprehension of scientific concepts. Recommendations are provided for educational institutions and policymakers to facilitate the implementation of effective strategies addressing these challenges and fostering a generation of learners equipped with essential skills for success in the modern world.

The school reliance on exclusionary discipline drives behavioral inequities and sustains the marginalization of youth in schools. The narratives of punishment often extend beyond the walls of the school system and may be reinforced by news media discourse. Never-the-less, the relationship between news media discourse and the school disciplinary structure is an understudied area of research. Using critical discourse techniques--with a theoretical framework of critical race and news framing theories--we analyze news coverage of exclusionary discipline across (N = 64) newspaper articles. Our findings underscore news discourse with a hyper-focus on youth deficits, stigmatizing portrayals of violence and blame, and teacher resistance to discipline alternatives and reform. Discursive absence included a lack of youth and family voices and perspectives, and a disconnection from the systemic mechanisms that shape the disciplinary structure. We conclude with implications for educators, policymakers, and scholars--as we advocate for a re-invigorated focus to-ward the equitable support and inclusion of youth.

Background: The teachers in one sub-district in the North West province lacked technological knowledge and skills thus did not adopt a blended learning approach in their daily teaching. A partnership between the University of South Africa (Unisa) and schools in the district was forged to train teachers to acquire technological knowledge and skills. Objectives: To identify which online tools Unisa imparted to teachers, investigate how the acquired skills and knowledge helped teachers to adopt a blended learning approach and find out challenges that go with the application of technology. Method: Data were obtained through observation, one-on-one individual interviews and focus group discussions. Results: The Unisa training helped develop teachers' knowledge and skills in the use of TEAMS, Emails, WhatsApp, YouTube and the electronic content material. Teachers gave learners the electronic content (presentation slides and You-videos, question banks) for revision purposes. During the outbreak of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) learners were given work to do while at home using WhatsApp. Conclusion: The article concludes by indicating that partnerships between schools and institutions of higher learning are a necessity to empower teachers on the use of technology which will lead to the use of a blended learning approach. Contribution: The article adds to the body of knowledge by indicating the need for retraining of teachers especially on technological skills to prepare them for 4th Industrial Revolution and meet the needs of the new cohort of learners-born after technology.

Over the last several decades, the opioid crisis has had an increasing impact on the educational environment of schools. The role that principals and superintendents have in leading schools that have been affected by opioids has been mostly overlooked in the research. The present study was conducted in Ohio, a state with areas that have some of the highest death rates due to opioid-related incidents in the nation. Purpose: This study collected data on the perspectives and perceptions of school leaders in Ohio to better understand how principals and superintendents frame their decisions regarding the opioid crisis. Design: We analyze data collected from a survey of 217 Ohio school leaders (n = 164 principals and n = 53 superintendents). The survey required principals and superintendents to rate their perception of the opioid crisis in their schools based on their socioeconomic status, school typology as rural or non-rural, and school location within or outside the Appalachian region. Results: Findings emphasize that opioids remain a factor negatively impacting schools of varying typologies, economic levels, and geographical locations.

The 1988 Education Reform Act (ERA) changed the direction of statutory education in England by introducing a culture of competition between schools. A market in education was created that placed school against school in neighbouring communities with the aim of the 'fittest' ones surviving while the weaker ones failed and closed. By the end of the 20th century, the epidemic of neoliberalism served to shift all of our public services through creation of these quasi-markets towards competition. While schools led the way, other essential services we rely on such as water, energy and transport fell foul of marketisation. We all became consumers ostensibly to improve efficiency and the quality of the final 'product'. Over recent years this approach has become discredited as transport and other services return to democratic control, whereas schools remain locked in a straitjacket of competition. During the COVID-19 pandemic of 2020, schools become much more than a competitive education service, they rapidly transformed into an essential mainstay of our communities, indeed of our society. This article will utilise the learning from research across three diverse secondary schools that provided accounts of their experiences prior, through and post pandemic. We use an understanding of their experiences to help reshape English schooling and through this argue for a repositioning of school as an essential community resource that is well placed to respond to the growing needs of communities if it is given adequate resourcing, freedom from competition and a new cooperative environment to do so.

The South African education system is considered one of the most unequal in the world. Providing learners with quality education and equipping them with the digital skills required for the Fourth Industrial Revolution is essential. To achieve this, plans are in place to incorporate educational technology in schools. However, it is important to understand the factors and conditions which have had the greatest impact on this process. This systematic review outlines 5 aspects that have been found to influence the use of educational technology in South African schools: access to technical resources; skills, training and competence; efficacy and efficiency beliefs; pedagogical compatibility; and a supportive leadership and management structure. Recommendations based on these findings are provided which can inform policy and practice.

Purpose: The role of formal education is currently viewed as central in preventing violent radicalisation and extremism (VRE), however educators' understanding or competencies have not been developed accordingly. Therefore, this study investigates Finnish educators' perceptions of presumed manifestations of VRE among their students. Findings: Finnish educators confront ideologically and morally challenging situations, some of which include extremist features. They do, however, have difficulties in distinguishing VRE from other types of motives for hostile or violent rhetoric or behaviour, especially if students from societal minority groups are involved. Practical implications: False labelling may have negative consequences on students. Educators need VRE-related in-service training that focuses on increasing educators' knowledge and reflection on their VRE-related preconceptions and intuitive responses to these. Research limitations: We acknowledge the possible skewness of the survey data as responding may have felt appealing to those educators who have encountered VRE or who are interested or worried about VRE.

Belonging is a critical factor for supporting student success and well-being in school. Unfortunately, the work of fostering belonging at school for all students continues to face significant challenges. One reason is that the field of education is working from a limited conception of school belonging, based mainly in the discipline of psychology. Belonging is more than just a psychological sense--it is also a social, cultural, and even political process. In this article, Paul Kuttner explores six aspects of belonging that are underemphasized in the school belonging literature, arguing that we should think of school belonging as agentic, intersectional, systemic, political, place-based, and a right. Kuttner proposes a definition of belonging that encompasses these aspects and uses it to suggest future directions for research and practice.

This research aims to examine the relationship between school leadership, social motivation and social justice based on perceptions of the teachers at public schools and to reveal whether the perceived social motivation of the teachers have a mediating role in this relationship. 1222 teachers at public schools in Pendik district of Istanbul province in 2022-2023 academic year who were selected using the stratified sampling method based on the number of teachers per school grades participated in the study. In this quantitative study, School Leadership Scale for measuring teachers' perceptions regarding school principals' leadership behaviors, Social Motivation Scale for measuring participants' perceptions regarding social motivation, and Social Justice Scale for measuring participants' perceptions regarding social justice were used. Pearson correlation analysis, Independent sample t-test and structural equation model were used for descriptive analyses. Finally, whether the direct and indirect effects obtained in the structural equation model are significant was examined by bootstrapping analysis. The results of the research showed significant relationships between teachers' perceptions of school leadership, social motivation, social justice besides social motivation's mediating role on the relationship between school leadership and social justice. Finally, the findings obtained in the research were discussed in line with the relevant literature and suggestions were presented.

The dual capacity-building framework created by Mapp and her colleagues (i.e., Mapp & Bergman, 2019; Mapp & Kuttner, 2013) lays a foundation for an extended partnership beyond families and schools. In this article, we explore how to extend the value of the dual capacity-building framework to a larger partnership that includes communities and universities. Our analyses are centered on the four essential components of the capacity-building framework--challenges, opportunity conditions, policies and program goals, and capacity outcomes--in the context of quadruple partnerships. Adding examples of successful university--community partnerships to the existing dual capacity-building framework will better support families' and schools' efforts to promote students' academic success. Because the capacity-building framework is grounded in rigorous research and thoughtful analyses, higher education outreach and engagement programs can adopt it to foster more effective partnerships with families, schools, and communities, and positively transform K-12 education.

In recent years, the South African basic and higher education departments have been besieged by egregious forms of violence. Although this has been a worrisome phenomenon dating back to time immemorial, of late, violence is at a very concerning and alarming level. The profusion of violence serves as an indictment to various stakeholders including the sitting government, which seems to have done very little, if not nothing, to mitigate the issue. Several media houses and numerous media platforms have, on a daily basis, tracked bullying which has advanced to the gruesome murder of learners and teachers alike. Very often, societies wake up to new and traumatising experiences that have since endorsed schools and higher education institutions as war zones where bloodbaths have become commonplace. This article drew its data from extensive reviews of news items, scholarly articles, and social media news. The study sought to highlight how much violence has ravaged schools, colleges, and universities. After tracing different versions of violence experienced in the aforementioned institutions, the study established that institutions had experienced a deluge of violent incidents. Several institutions have lost educators, principals, ancillary staff, and students through violent death. The study further suggested ways through which violence may be mitigated in the institutions. Active stakeholder involvement, re-skilling of teachers in handling 21st-century learners/students and introduction of modules on teachers' soft skills in dealing with recalcitrant learners are some of the recommendations that resulted from the findings of this study.

From 2017 to 2021, the Youth Action Research Revolution (YARR) team documented the institutional histories of young people experiencing homelessness in Canada. Interviews with youth focused on educational, child welfare, health care, and criminal justice institutions. Situated at the intersections of critical adult education (CAE), participatory action research (PAR), and institutional ethnography (IE), we outline our mobilization of IE to ground learning and action in our team. We document the different phases of learning that we undertook to illustrate how CAE, PAR, and IE can be mutually supportive frameworks for praxis and activist learning. We highlight our use of IE to illuminate and resist the institutionalizing processes at work in post-secondary contexts and reflect on the importance of mutual aid as essential to realizing the social justice potential of participatory research. We suggest that co-creating IE research with young adults with lived experiences of homelessness constitutes a unique opportunity to mobilize CAE values and tangibly support community research that seeks to positively influence the lives of those implicated by the problems we study together.

"Introduction:" The authors examine the agencies of socialisation and attempt to reveal a pattern among these agents. They differentiate social elements and agencies of socialisation, and they endow the latter with three conditions: the requirements of scope, time and intensity and specific set of rules. "Purpose:" The purpose of the paper is to examine which factors satisfy this triple set of requirements. "Methods:" Explanatory method to expose the issue, based on desk research and secondary analysis was used. "Results:" Near the family and the school, the free time space meets the three conditions of the socialization environment (scope, time-intensity, specific set of rules). "Discussion:" The authors believe that these three conditions are not met by any other socialization area. "Conclusions:" All this means that in postmodern society, the institution of the family, which has been with us since pre-modernity, and the institution of the school, which has been with us since modernity, is accompanied by a third socialization macro-agency.

The aim of the study reported on here was to evaluate the roles of supervisors in the implementation of the Integrated Quality Management System (IQMS) in South African schools. The supervisors are the School Management Teams (SMTs), namely principals, deputy principals, or heads of department (HoD), circuit managers, and district coordinators. We followed a qualitative approach to evaluate the implementation of the IQMS based on supervisors' perspectives. A case study research design was used with an interpretive paradigm to evaluate the day-to-day practices of the IQMS. The population in this study consisted of 38 supervisors (circuit managers, principals, deputy principals and HoDs). Purposive sampling was used to select 12 participants who have been supervisors in the past 10 years. Data were collected through individual semi-structured interviews and document analysis. Kolb's learning theory was used as a theoretical lens to evaluate how the IQMS was applied in the circuit under study. Thematic analysis was used to analyse the data. The study revealed that there was no proper implementation of the IQMS in schools. Teachers conducted the IQMS for monetary reward instead of quality assurance. We conclude that the roles and responsibilities of supervisors are crucial during the implementation of the IQMS in schools, and that a huge discrepancy existed between the perceptions of supervisors and educators. We recommend that continuous training for both supervisors and educators is necessary for better implementation.

The need for social-emotional learning for adults has emerged due to accountability stressors and the COVID-19 pandemic. While many school leaders believe in SEL for adults, major disconnects exist between their understanding and belief in SEL and their plans to implement it. The main problem this research sought to address integrated two ideas in the affective world of school leaders: First, research literature today does not describe what competencies from the most commonly used framework for SEL, CASEL, mean concerning school leadership. Second, research literature today does not describe how school leaders explicitly develop SEL skills and operationalize these competencies to influence teachers' SEL. Considering the phenomenon of this study was school leaders' understanding and use of SEL skills, the overarching purpose for this study was to explore how school leaders in schools known for their SEL focus make sense of and use SEL skills for their leadership and with their staff and students. This study utilized a more modern form of grounded theory research called Constructivist Grounded Theory and used semi-structured interviews to collect data. Using the CASEL competencies as sensitizing concepts, five categories and 13 subcategories emerged from the data along with a separate but related category with three subcategories. The analysis of these findings suggests eight challenges school leaders face when trying to support the SEL of their teachers.

Family engagement frameworks identify communication as a critical component in creating partnerships with families. However, schools create various barriers to engagement, often starting with a lack of communication, that unequally impact racialized and minoritized families. In addition, the association between communication and family engagement is likely to differ across the content of communication and types of family engagement. This study examines the relationship between school communication content and different types of family engagement and how this relationship differs for racialized subgroups. The findings show positive associations between informative school communication and school-, home-, and community-based family engagement, while negative communications were not associated with any type of family engagement. Analyses also indicated that the relationship between informative communication and family engagement was stronger for Latino families for school- and home-based engagement.

The COVID-19 pandemic has profoundly changed the practice of school leadership, requiring greater flexibility, creativity, and innovation. Guided by institutional theory, this paper suggests that leadership adaptations are influenced by environmental pressures such as coercive (e.g., from governmental or regulatory agencies), mimetic (e.g., attempts to emulate best practices from other schools), and normative pressures (e.g., professional standards endorsed by professional societies or unions). By using a qualitative co-constructed autoethnographic approach (See Kempster & Iszatt-White, 2012), the paper presents the Covid-19 timeline in Manitoba, identifying stakeholders and associated environmental pressures. It also features the personal leadership adaptations experienced by a school principal (Susan). The findings suggest that coercive pressures are mostly associated with creativity and inventive leadership practices. Mimetic pressures may lead to copying behaviours, and normative pressures are associated with enhanced foundational knowledges, all depending on contextual factors. The findings also highlight the significant emotional and physical toll the pandemic has taken on school principals.

School-law enforcement partnerships benefit from well-written memorandums of understandings (MOUs) that have been collaboratively developed with input from school law enforcement agencies and school divisions. While many school-law enforcement partnerships report having MOUs, little is known about what information the MOUs provide. We conducted a content analysis of 73 MOUs from school-law enforcement partnerships in Virginia. We coded the MOUs to obtain information about MOU structure and format and the coverage of three topic areas: school resource officer (SRO) roles, SRO training, and SRO role in school discipline. Our analysis revealed most MOUs cover the three topic areas, but what the MOUs said about these topics varied tremendously. The findings suggest all those involved in MOU development might benefit from easily accessible, streamlined resources that outline what specific issues need to be addressed when creating MOUs and how to navigate nuanced discussions about the roles and training of SROs.

Theories of distributed leadership suggest that organizational learning and change results not from the efforts of a single individual, but rather from a network of people working within their broader systems. Team empowering leadership enhances human resources development of the organization to promote the sharing of knowledge that is necessary for change. In this study, we study transformational and distributed leadership team that have been linked to improving working conditions and students' learning in high-needs schools. Specifically, we highlight a team-based intervention where positive organizational improvements were made to academically struggling schools, and then qualitatively examined the associated processes to understand what enabled the occurrence of those positive changes. We find that the team structure allowed for the clarification of expectations, enhancement of communication, and improvement of educator working conditions through professional development support and distribution of leadership responsibility, which ultimately resulted in improvement in school culture and performance.

We evaluate the feasibility of estimating test-score growth for schools and districts with a gap year in test data. Our research design uses a simulated gap year in testing when a true test gap did not occur, which facilitates comparisons of district- and school-level growth estimates with and without a gap year. We find that growth estimates based on the full data and gap-year data are generally similar, establishing that useful growth measures can be constructed with a gap year in test data. Our findings apply most directly to testing disruptions that occur in the absence of other disruptions to the school system. They also provide insights about the test stoppage induced by COVID-19, although our work is just a first step toward producing informative school- and district-level growth measures from the pandemic period.

Teacher connectivity represents a relatively new and exciting construct within school based agricultural education. Existing research identifying a relationship between teacher connectivity and career commitment illuminates the need for additional research on teacher connectivity within school-based agricultural education. Framed using the Relational Theory of Working, the current research analyzes four facets of teacher connectivity (i.e., connection to the community, curriculum, school, and other school-based agricultural education teachers) alongside curriculum congruence, years of teaching experience, and teacher certification type. Results illustrate, among the majority of respondents, personal interest toward an agricultural subject exceeds the presence of that topic within their program. Across all areas studied, only 17.65% of responding teachers experienced alignment between their personal interests and level of curriculum represented within their program. Furthermore, results from this investigation highlight connectivity is highest among teachers who experience congruence between the presence of their curriculum and their personal interests, teachers later in their career, and teachers traditionally certified. In concert, results highlight teacher characteristics which may predispose a teacher to struggle establishing connections within the profession. Recommendations for research and practice are framed by aligning the theoretical framework, findings, and conclusions.