Marginalised students in education are often formally excluded and further disadvantaged by school disciplinary approaches. This leads to school behaviour codes not being followed by students. This ...result is often linked to individualised student disciplinary responses. Further, formal student exclusion from schools remains a controversial international practice driven by eclectic government policy. Yet there is limited research on student perspectives within debates on the value of interventions designed to reduce fixed-term exclusion and promote children's participation in education. This study, by Gwen Gilmore of the College of Education at Victoria University, Melbourne, presents the perspectives of five Year 8 and 9 students who participated in a disciplinary inclusion room designed to reduce fixed-term exclusion in a secondary school located in England. The research methodology is framed by a cultural historical activity theory approach, and mixed methods reported include document analysis and student interviews. Students stated that the disciplinary inclusion room enabled them to continue their learning and that this discipline model complemented the processes of education. These students' perspectives challenge recent narratives on disciplinary provision and provide possibilities for schools to consider how discipline can be organised towards practices that are more inclusionary and potentially educative. Author abstract
This research investigates an intercultural praxis approach to using visual research methods, in Australia and Vietnam, with preservice teachers in a Diploma of Early Childhood (DEC) course. The ...paper results from limited research with DEC preservice teachers exploring the development of intercultural praxis and limited research in teaching whilst using visual images (photos). The methodology is supported by using Bennett's developmental continuum for intercultural sensitivity and draws on sociocultural theories to consider how these DEC preservice teachers' histories and situational contexts are relevant in understanding the development of intercultural communication. Mixed methods include a comparative analysis of student-produced visual multiliteracy images (photographs) generated in Australia and Vietnam, during 2015 and 2016, annotations on those photos and interviews with two cohorts of students (n = 27) six months after their experiences in Vietnam. Analysis is reinforced with Sorrells' intercultural praxis framework to understand students' capacity to use inquiry, framing, positioning, and dialogue processes as a result of their study tour to Vietnam. The paper outlines and reinforces the importance of being explicit in developing intercultural sensitivity in dynamic teaching contexts and illustrates the increasing awareness of intercultural communication with these DEC students.
The shift to mass participation in higher education is a welcome international trend. In Australia the number of young adults attempting a degree course at university has increased by close to twenty ...five percent in less than a decade. Campuses are becoming more culturally and linguistically diverse. More university students are coming from poorer families and disadvantaged educational backgrounds. The authors of Strong Starts, Supported Transitions and Student Success celebrate the diversity.
Marginalised students in education are often formally excluded and further disadvantaged by school disciplinary approaches. This leads to school behaviour codes not being followed by students. This ...result is often linked to individualised student disciplinary responses. Further, formal student exclusion from schools remains a controversial international practice driven by eclectic government policy. Yet there is limited research on student perspectives within debates on the value of interventions designed to reduce fixed‐term exclusion and promote children's participation in education. This study, by
G
wen
G
ilmore of the College of Education at Victoria University, Melbourne, presents the perspectives of five Year 8 and 9 students who participated in a disciplinary inclusion room designed to reduce fixed‐term exclusion in a secondary school located in
E
ngland. The research methodology is framed by a cultural historical activity theory approach, and mixed methods reported include document analysis and student interviews. Students stated that the disciplinary inclusion room enabled them to continue their learning and that this discipline model complemented the processes of education. These students' perspectives challenge recent narratives on disciplinary provision and provide possibilities for schools to consider how discipline can be organised towards practices that are more inclusionary and potentially educative.
This research explores the potential of pedagogies embedded within an Australian example to allow pre-graduate diploma of education (PSDE) students to persist and succeed in their ambitions. This ...paper examines how the twin concepts of resilience, the capacity of an individual to withstand difficulties, and relational resilience, a capacity to develop empathy with others, are activated in this PSDE program. Methods include a survey (n = 43), documents from the course, and focus group interviews (n = 9) of PSDE students between 2014 and 2016. Results support our thesis that relational resilience in teacher education contexts can usefully be viewed as a dynamic and socially constructed phenomenon emerging from the intersection between individual and institutional factors. This research supports the importance of identifying capacities for interpersonal and collaborative work, for entry into preservice teacher education. We suggest that focusing on relational dynamics, as well as accounting for context and institutional culture, are critical in designing effective pre-service education.
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to investigate those teaching and learning factors that either hindered or encouraged preservice teacher participants to succeed in their first year of study. The ...impact of administrative support alongside pedagogical styles that facilitated a sense of engagement for first year preservice teachers is also discussed.
Design/methodology/approach
This research builds on the work of Sarah Lawrence-Lightfoot’s use of “portraiture” to “capture the complexity and aesthetic of human experience” (Lawrence-Lightfoot & Hoffmann Davis, 1997, p. 4). The use of portraits as a tool for creating a first year student narrative, rich in its canvas of human emotions, is central to the work that follows. Qualitative data that were gathered in this research project are presented.
Findings
The portraiture methodology in this paper enabled the researchers to capture a sense of belonging for first year university students that involved more than procedural matters, orientation events and attendance at information sessions.
Practical implications
These portraits draw wider attention to transition and retention matters beyond considerations of “who our students are” and illustrate how engagement and belonging are enhanced by how these students are engaged by skilful and knowledgeable tutors and group work and collegial approaches to the course.
Originality/value
Portraiture methodology enabled a more nuanced form of viewing “belonging” and “engagement” of these preservice teachers through more personalised forms of engagement with tutors, the development of groups and the practicum placement.
This article by Gwen Gilmore, a lecturer in the School of Curriculum and Pedagogy at Massey University, draws on a research project which explored the nature, extent and characteristics of a ...disciplinary inclusion room (IR) in a secondary school in the south‐west of England using a Cultural Historical Activity Theory framework. In five years to 2010 this school reduced fixed‐term exclusion from a 10% rate to less than 0.01%. At the same time school attainment improved, with the percentage of students attaining grades A*–C in GCSEs increasing from 43% to 73%. The school under study was located within an Excellence in Cities and Behaviour Improvement Partnership initiative. The mixed methods used to inform this article include analysis of school documents, staff on‐line questionnaire and nine in‐depth interviews. Staff views of the IR indicated a dynamic, interactive model and the potential for increased discourse around inclusion informed by joint problem solving in context. This research suggests that a disciplinary IR and associated systems can complement educational goals. The findings prompt a reconsideration of the role of discipline provision and give strength to inclusive, educationally based practice. This article, the literature and research are also informed by a matched Year 8 and 9 student questionnaire and interviews with nine students who attended the IR.
This research reports intercultural dialogue of meaning making in literacy by lecturers, engaged with an assessment moderation process of early childhood education (ECE) preservice teacher education ...across Australia, New Zealand and Sweden. The purpose of the dialogue was to inform pedagogical and conceptual knowledge in their courses. The research question is: How does intercultural dialogue inform teacher education literacy practices? Methods include (1) a blind assessment review process using 30 examples from 'high' to 'low' exemplars of ECE students' literacy assessment annotations, some from each country, and (2) textual analysis of intercultural student feedback and reflection from student forum comments and, semi-structured reflexive interviews with students about the assessment moderation process. Rich academic reflections on the data have led to our recommendations that the conceptual framework of intercultural praxis could be applied in early childhood preservice teacher education practice. Further, we suggest there are increased possibilities for the use of intercultural literacy with ECE preservice student teachers using virtual and explicit collaborations and texts as explained in this research.
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