Search

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

Academic writing is challenging, particularly for new undergraduates who can struggle to know what is expected of them. Research into Academic Literacies often presents academic literacy practices as a barrier to the academy, excluding those not familiar with and those not able to participate in those practices and positioning them permanently on the periphery of the academic community. In seeking to explore how curricula should be designed to counter exclusion, this paper brings three theoretical frameworks together: Academic Literacies; Communities of Practice; and Bernstein's conceptualisation of the classification and framing of knowledge. Together, they provide a multi-layered understanding of how students are positioned by academic literacy practices: Academic Literacies illuminates the "problem"; Communities of Practice provides an analytical perspective on the process of exclusion; and Bernstein's work offers pedagogical insights into how academic literacy practices can be reimagined as a bridge, rather than as a barrier, to the academic community.

Academic literacy practices can be alienating for new undergraduates, yet academic success depends on writing in ways that the academy deems acceptable and is related to the identity positions available to students. I describe an intervention in which aspects of academic practice were made visible and students participated collaboratively in academic writing in a first-year, first-semester, Education Studies module. Student-managed audio recordings show that, in contrast to much research evidence, students did not reject academic identities but rather used their talk to "tell themselves" as academic. I discuss methodological and pedagogical implications arising from the findings and conclude that collaborative participation in academic practice and the associated talk require students to position themselves as participants in that practice and may be a way to reduce alienation and enable students to construct the self as "academic".

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

Academic literacy practices can be alienating for new undergraduates, yet academic success depends on writing in ways that the academy deems acceptable and is related to the identity positions available to students. I describe an intervention in which aspects of academic practice were made visible and students participated collaboratively in academic writing in a first-year, first-semester, Education Studies module. Student-managed audio recordings show that, in contrast to much research evidence, students did not reject academic identities but rather used their talk to ‘tell themselves’ as academic. I discuss methodological and pedagogical implications arising from the findings and conclude that collaborative participation in academic practice and the associated talk require students to position themselves as participants in that practice and may be a way to reduce alienation and enable students to construct the self as ‘academic’. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]