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1 – 10 of 112England is a clear example of a country where government has imposed a stranglehold over curriculum development over the last 30 years, driven by a belief in the power of markets…
Abstract
England is a clear example of a country where government has imposed a stranglehold over curriculum development over the last 30 years, driven by a belief in the power of markets and testing to improve education. We provide an account of the evolution of a national curriculum in England, along with the growing importance of the school inspection system, which has served as a form of surveillance and as a constraint on curriculum development in schools, resulting in a very subject dominated curriculum. This has been exacerbated by demise of many traditional meso level curriculum actors and the emergence of a different assemblage of support. We give particular attention to the prominence given to interventions in pedagogy and curriculum, set within a school effectiveness paradigm. We explain that within government rhetoric there is encouragement to innovate but we show through research evidence that accountability pressures overwhelm this message and that younger teachers have not been introduced to or trained in curriculum development processes. In the final section of the chapter, we describe some schools which are going against the grain and innovating, but they do stand very much as oases in a curriculum desert.
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David Leat, Ulrike Thomas and Anna Reid
In England there are very strong pressures in schools to meet government targets for public examination results. Thus assessment is very ‘high stakes’ as principals and class…
Abstract
In England there are very strong pressures in schools to meet government targets for public examination results. Thus assessment is very ‘high stakes’ as principals and class teachers can lose their jobs if these targets aren’t met. In such a climate many teachers feel that innovation, such as inquiry-based learning involves taking a considerable risk. As a result teachers in England often enact a hybridised form of inquiry in order to manage the risk and this chapter explores three cases of schools in north east England in which hybridisation has occurred. We use Basil Bernstein’s concept of ‘framing’ to analyse the effect of inquiry-based learning on the relationship between the curriculum, teachers and students in these schools. Inquiry, acts as a disruption to the normal ‘convergent’ pedagogy with many positive outcomes for teachers and students but both feel the constraint of the demands of the examination system. Although the agency, or capacity for action, of teachers is increased through exploring inquiry approaches, we conclude that for inquiry to develop further there is a need for a stronger local ‘ecology’ to support teachers and schools in their efforts to innovate. We describe the contribution of Newcastle University to such an ecology.
This article aims to examine the manifestation of coloniality within social studies curricula and explore strategies for rejecting colonial paradigms through teaching praxis. The…
Abstract
Purpose
This article aims to examine the manifestation of coloniality within social studies curricula and explore strategies for rejecting colonial paradigms through teaching praxis. The author presents a curriculum that unveils the narratives of Linnentown, a local Black community, to examine the impacts of colonial legacies on people's everyday lives.
Design/methodology/approach
Using the teaching and learning cycle framework, the author demonstrates the integration of sequenced embodied and multimodal activities. Furthermore, the author utilizes the concept of critical place-based education (CPBE) to demonstrate how critical pedagogies within the context of place can cultivate transformative learning experiences.
Findings
By guiding students to critically analyze the sociopolitical conditions of Linnentown residents, CPBE, paired with multimodal activities, helps challenge dominant narratives and empowers students to become agents of change in their local communities.
Originality/value
This curriculum fosters a nuanced understanding of structural oppression, empowers students to develop critical awareness and social agency and guides youth in confronting settler colonialism within and beyond their communities.
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Masudul Alam Choudhury and Mohammad Akram Nadwi
This paper addresses three interrelated objectives. The approach is philosophical and comparative. As far as possible the Islamic arguments of the paper are derived from the Quran.
Outlines 15 explanations for the fog which has enveloped the nascent domains of corporate identity and corporate marketing. However, the fog surrounding the area has a silver…
Abstract
Outlines 15 explanations for the fog which has enveloped the nascent domains of corporate identity and corporate marketing. However, the fog surrounding the area has a silver lining. This is because the fog has, unwittingly, led to the emergence of rich disciplinary, philosophical as well as “national”, schools of thought. In their composite, these approaches have the potential to form the foundations of a new approach to management which might be termed “corporate marketing”. In addition to articulating the author’s understanding of the attributes regarding a business identity (the umbrella label used to cover corporate identity, organisational identification and visual identity) the author outlines the characteristics of corporate marketing and introduces a new corporate marketing mix based on the mnemonic “HEADS”[2]. This relates to what an organisation has, expresses, the affinities of its employees, as well as what the organisation does and how it is seen by stakeholder groups and networks. In addition, the author describes the relationship between the corporate identity and corporate brand and notes the differences between product brands and corporate brands. Finally, the author argues that scholars need to be sensitive to the factors that are contributing to the fog surrounding corporate identity. Only then will business identity/corporate marketing studies grow in maturity.
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Organisational research continues to rely almost exclusively on self reported attitudinal measures as a means for collecting empirical data. The primary instruments used for data…
Abstract
Organisational research continues to rely almost exclusively on self reported attitudinal measures as a means for collecting empirical data. The primary instruments used for data collection are generally in questionnaire format (Salancik, 1979). Often this data is retrospective, as respondents are asked to remember past experiences or situations and to record their observations. As indicated by Fisher (1986), these recollections often involve attitudes and beliefs which are difficult to verify. Furthermore, the use of a questionnaire, although advantageous in terms of reliability, comparability, relative ease of analysis, and ability to obtain data from relatively large samples (Fisher, 1986), also may create several epistemological problems (Salancik, 1979). The validity of the data can depend on how well the subjects relate to the questions or statements used. As suggested by Stone (1978), “questionnaires cannot be used with illiterates or with individuals who have reading problems. To the extent that individuals cannot cope with the reading demands placed upon them by questionnaires, the researcher can expect one or more of the following problems; low return rates, missing data, and random responses” (1978:64). Furthermore, the richness of the response can also be impacted by the extent to which the questionnaire relates to the characteristics of the respondent (Alderfer and Brown, 1972). Questionnaires and scales used to obtain data in organisational research are generally reliable, cost effective, easily analysable, and the most frequently used form. Furthermore, they are often called into question in terms of response validity and that the more they reflect the nature of the respondents being assessed, the more likely they are to provide accurate data.
Annie Rolfe, Jill Franz and Adrian Bridge
Despite growing evidence of the impact of school facilities on wellbeing and educational outcomes, no attention has been given to understanding this impact in relation to the…
Abstract
Purpose
Despite growing evidence of the impact of school facilities on wellbeing and educational outcomes, no attention has been given to understanding this impact in relation to the interrelationship of design and procurement and their combined effect. This paper aims to address this gap by presenting the outcomes of a study of the design/procurement relationship pre-opening and post-opening of schools.
Design/methodology/approach
Qualitative case study methodology enabled in-depth exploration of six Australian Government schools procured through “public private partnerships” (PPP) or “design & construct” (D&C) and “design, bid, build” (DBB). Data collected through interviews with architects, education department officers, school principals and teachers were analysed thematically using techniques aligned with grounded theory methodology.
Findings
The paper reports three key findings: pre-opening of schools, budget impacts design similarly for procurement across PPP and (D&C/DBB) case schools; pre-opening of schools, prescriptive design impacts procurement similarly across PPPs and D&C/DBB schools; post-opening of schools, procurement impacts design and school operation in different ways across PPP and D&C/DBB schools. These findings point to a fundamental finding that it is design and procurement together that impacts well-being and educational outcomes as experienced by principals and teachers.
Practical implications
This research may be of practical value for education departments, architects, facility managers, school principals and teachers.
Originality/value
This paper provides original evidence of the relationship between procurement and design and their combined impact on student well-being and educational outcomes.
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Several paradoxes have been presented in the literature as inherent in supervision of doctoral students. The purpose of this paper is to explore these paradoxes and offer the…
Abstract
Purpose
Several paradoxes have been presented in the literature as inherent in supervision of doctoral students. The purpose of this paper is to explore these paradoxes and offer the concept of praxis as a way of effectively engaging with complex and paradoxical dimensions of supervision, rather than denying or avoiding them.
Design/methodology/approach
Drawing on sometimes provocative offerings of others, and the seminal work of Grant, views are presented that problematise supervision, challenging its representation as something to be transparently understood, planned and managed. Sophisticated theories of supervision have been offered in literature to hold its inherent paradoxes while opening up its practice for inquiry. It is suggested that supervision is usefully understood as the development of praxis: challenging supervisor and student to understand their practice journey as one of interwoven, often tacit, dimensions of knowing, doing, being and becoming (that are personally and therefore distinctively resolved.
Findings
Generative metaphors drawn from other complex domains of human experience suggest useful ways of engaging with the intensity, individuality and murkiness of supervision. Such metaphors draw attention to the identities and authorities that are in play and offer markers that can be identified even through the fog.
Originality/value
Voice work is explored as a metaphor for supervision, suggesting reflective practices that ask supervisor and candidate to pay deep attention to the sounds of their voices as well as to the nuances of the dialogue they create together.
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Using the theory of sensibility, the purpose of this paper is to analyze how T.S. Eliot’s The Waste Land furthers our understanding of sustainable property management.
Abstract
Purpose
Using the theory of sensibility, the purpose of this paper is to analyze how T.S. Eliot’s The Waste Land furthers our understanding of sustainable property management.
Design/methodology/approach
Inter-connected indicators of environmental performance disclosures (EPD) and epistemological-based aesthetic environmental accounts (EBAEA) are used to textually analyze The Waste Land’s heightening of sustainable property management.
Findings
The results of the study show that the level of EPD of The Waste Land was 80 per cent, while the level of The Waste Land’s EBAEA was 100 per cent. In terms of sustainable property management, the images of sustainable property management that permeate The Waste Land furthers our understanding of the apprehension of urban living, the intensification of assets and materials, the intrusiveness of city landmarks, the ephemeralness of the profit and loss, the inconstancy of water and the tension of torrid landscapes.
Research limitations/implications
A research implication arising from the results of the study is that the property-poetry nexus may actualize new possibilities for discerning and imagining sustainable property management.
Practical implications
The results of the study offer fruitful paths for understanding sustainability endeavour for planners, property managers, valuers, occupiers, accountants and developers.
Social implications
The Waste Land’s complex, multi-vocal, figurative, seemingly ambiguous lines render a sophisticated form of sustainable property scholarship that shapes aesthetic environmental accounts.
Originality/value
The study’s originality rests in its methodological approach to identify, interpret and understand sustainable property management in a modernist poem.
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