The Social Experiences of Children with Disability and the Influence of Environment: a framework for intervention

This paper explores the influence of environment on the quality of social experiences of children with disability in Sydney, Australia. The social experiences of four children with fragile X syndrome were described using ethnographic methods that included participant observation at 'special' and regular schools and in-depth interviews with parents, teachers and occupational therapists. An environmental perspective is presented here to complement existing individualist perspectives that address the social problems faced by children with disability. The environmental perspective involves (i) perceptions of disability, (ii) the child's family (relations, advocacy, encouragement, education, identity creation, dependence and separation), and (iii) the child's school (physical environment, other children, principal, teachers, therapists, policy and ethos). The paper serves as a basic framework to be adapted in further research and practice into the environmental influence of children's social experiences.     

You Have to Start from Scratch and You Need Someone by Your Side”: Perspectives of Parents and Teachers on Immigrant Students’ Adaptation to School

This article analyses the issue of immigrant students’ adaptation in Israeli schools, as perceived by their parents and teachers. The study integrates data from two qualitative, phenomenological studies: one explored immigrant parents’ perceptions of Israeli education and their children’s adaptation in school, while the other studied teachers’ perceptions of immigrant students’ education and their practices in the field. The data was gathered from in‐depth interviews with 17 parents and 20 teachers. The analysis yielded a list of themes related to parents’ and teachers’ views of the children’s adjustment, and their own roles in this process: their personal experiences in the field, the challenges and difficulties in interpersonal interactions between parents and teachers, and policy issues related to the educational integration of immigrant students. Findings emphasize the vital importance of parent‐teacher collaboration, clarification and better implementation of existing policy, and teachers’ qualifications for the successful educational integration of immigrant students.     

Investment model predictions of workplace ostracism on K–12 teachers’ commitment to their schools and the profession of teaching

The purpose of this study was to determine how the ostracism of K-12 teachers influences their commitment to their schools and commitment to the teaching profession. The investment model was used to situate ostracism as a predictor of teacher commitment. Participants were 200 full-time K-12 teachers who completed a survey assessing their experiences with ostracism at work and investment model variables (i.e., investments, quality of alternatives, satisfaction, and commitment). Results confirmed investment model predictions with teachers’ investments, quality of alternatives, and satisfaction predicting their commitment to their schools and profession. Results of mediation models also demonstrated that controlling for teachers’ investments and quality of alternatives, ostracism predicted commitment indirectly through its effect on satisfaction. This study revealed that teacher commitment is explained by investment model predictions, but after controlling for those predictions, is further explained by ostracism from teacher colleagues.     

Variables affecting teachers’ intentions to include students with disabilities in regular primary schools in Bangladesh

This paper presents an overview of a study conducted to examine the influence of teacher attitudes, teacher efficacy and perceived school support on teachers’ intentions to include students with disabilities in government primary schools in a region of Bangladesh. All of the variables were conceptualized within the Theory of Planned Behaviour. The participants in the study were 1387 in-service teachers drawn from government primary schools located in urban, semi-urban and rural sectors of Dhaka. Hierarchical regression analysis revealed that all three Theory of Planned Behaviour variables (teacher attitudes, teacher efficacy and perceived school support) explained 40% of the variance in teachers’ intentions to include students with a disability in regular classrooms. This paper describes the process for conceptualizing the variables, discusses the methodology and presents the outcomes concluding with implications for educational policy reform and practices in Bangladesh. Areas for further research are also identified.     

An Evaluation of Working on What Works (WOWW): A Solution-Focused Intervention for Schools

Working on What Works (WOWW) is a manualized, 10-week classroom intervention based on solution-focused brief therapy. This study evaluates WOWW using a randomized experimental, posttest-only design. The study included 30 fourth and fifth grade classrooms, containing 30 teachers and 413 students. Results indicate no significant differences between WOWW and control groups for student internalizing and externalizing behaviors, student–teacher relationships, student academic performance, or teacher sense of efficacy. However, students in the WOWW group had significantly fewer days absent from school compared with the control group. Additionally, teachers' ratings on WOWW classrooms' performance improved significantly more than teachers' ratings on the control classrooms. Results from this study show that WOWW is a feasible intervention for therapists to use in schools and can be implemented across classrooms in both public and private schools. WOWW has potential to improve student attendance and classroom performance, both of which are important areas of concern for schools.     

Sind Lehrerinnen für den geringeren Schulerfolg von Jungen verantwortlich?

Since the beginning of the 1990s we find that girls are increasingly more successful in german schools than boys. Simultaneous to this development the share of female teachers in the school system has gradually grown. This feminisation of the teacher profession is said to have led to a feminisation of schools, resulting in girls achieving better academic results than boys. This relatively old thesis has rarely been empirically examined and the results of such attempts have been inconsistent. Drawing on data from the ELEMENT-study conducted in Berlin elementary schools between 2003 and 2005, this paper examines, whether boys' competencies in math and reading develop worse, whether they receive lower grades and whether they are less frequently recommended for the Gymnasium when there is a high share of female teachers at the school. The results show that boys do indeed receive lower grades in mathematics and are consequently recommended for the Gymnasium minimal less frequently in schools with a high share of female teachers as compared to schools with a lower share of female teachers. Girls, on the other hand, have higher reading competencies in schools with a high share of female teachers.     

Inclusive education services for children and youth with disabilities: Values,roles and challenges of school leaders

Implementing inclusive education requires significant changes to values, systems, and practices. Hong Kong began to implement the inclusive education policy on the basis of voluntary participation in 1997. The government later launched a school partnership scheme, under which schools with proficient practices in whole-school approach to inclusive education were invited to serve as resource schools to support other schools. Data on what has led school leaders to join the reform under the policy of voluntary participation and how they tackle problems during implementation cannot be located. Thus, the purpose of this qualitative study is to uncover the reasons for school leaders' decision to participate in and what they did to facilitate the school wide effort to practice inclusive education, as well as challenges encountered. Key findings included Christianity and Confucianism as the prime reasons for practicing inclusive education, partnership with teachers and a shared vision as the key to successful implementation, and a competitive education system together with inadequate resources and teacher training as the main challenges. Recommendations consist of incorporating value development and building relationships with stakeholders in principal training programs, integrating knowledge and skills for inclusive education into the pre- and in-service teacher training programs, and appropriating resources with increased stability and autonomy.     

Under the invisibility cloak? Teacher understanding of cultural difference

While research does exist on how teachers feel about multicultural education or bilingual education, very little data exists on how teachers cognitively construct a core concept of these educational approaches—cultural difference. This article describes the investigation of this understanding among 155 teachers in midwestern USA from rural, urban and suburban schools across grade levels. Utilizing data from the Intercultural Development Inventory, one important finding reveals the degree to which teachers minimize cultural differences. Implications for teacher education are discussed.     

“Rigor for What?” Social Studies Teacher Conceptions and Enactments of Instructional Rigor

Taken from a larger qualitative study, this article argues that rather than an encompassing uniform definition, rigor, as understood and enacted by social studies teachers, exists on a complicated spectrum. Teacher placement on this spectrum was influenced by teacher life experience, teacher interpretation of student need, pedagogy employed, how content should be used, and the role of the teacher in the lives of students. How rigor is conceived and enacted by social studies teachers can have a profound impact on the types of citizens schools nurture and develop and the role school can play in the lives of students.     

Children's rights in schools: what do teachers know?

The human rights of children are fundamental international human rights that protect all children against abuse by adults and caregivers as enshrined in the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child. This study examines teachers' and teacher trainees' knowledge of children's rights as enshrined in the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (United Nations General Assembly, 1989), the Public Service (Disciplinary) Regulations (Statutory Instrument 65 of the Constitution of Zimbabwe, 1992) and the Secretary of Education and Culture Circular P35 of 3 May 1993 on the administration of corporal punishment by teachers in Zimbabwean primary schools. Data were collected using the Teacher and the Teacher Trainees Questionnaires on 300 primary school teachers and 150 teacher trainees, respectively, in Masvingo Province. Teacher trainees used in this study were attached to experienced primary school teachers during their teaching practice. The study found that the majority of teachers (76.3%) were exposed to the Public Service (Disciplinary) Regulations during their teacher education training. On the other hand, the majority of teacher trainees (60.0%) were not exposed to these Regulations during their training. The Public Service (Disciplinary) Regulations are used to charge teachers who violate children's rights within the school. The majority of teachers (59.3%) feel they are useful, while the majority of teacher trainees (60.0%) feel they are outdated and need to be changed. On the other hand, the majority of teacher trainees (55.3%) indicated that they were exposed to the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child or the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child (OAU Doc. CAB/LEG/24.9/49, 1990), while the majority of teachers (56.7%) were not exposed to either of these during their teacher education training. The study also found that the majority of teacher trainees (63.3%) were not exposed to the Secretary of Education and Culture Circular P35 on corporal punishment by teachers within schools during their teaching practice. It is clear from the ?ndings that the teacher education curriculum needs to be revised to take account of current trends and contemporary issues in education in the new millennium. Therefore, there is a need for the Ministry of Education, Sport and Culture to conduct in‐service programmes for teachers who are not familiar with local and international laws concerning the protection of children against child abuse within the school. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Agreement among students', teachers', and parents' perceptions of victimization by bullying

Bullying is a growing problem in many schools today, and accurate perceptions of bullying and victimization in schools are necessary in order for programs aimed at intervention for bullying behaviors to be effective. The current study examined agreement among students', teachers', and parents' perceptions of victimization across gender and grade level by surveying 137 students in grades 3–8, and their parents and teachers using a common measure of bullying. Overall, students reported the highest levels of victimization, and teachers reported the lowest levels of victimization. This pattern was consistent across gender, but inconsistent across grade level. Students and parents had moderate agreement correlations on levels of victimization, whereas teachers and students had low agreement correlations on levels of victimization. Overall, when students and parents or teachers disagreed, the disagreement was an underestimate, rather than an overestimate on the adult's part.     

Teacher–child relationships in the context of poverty: the role of frequent school mobility

Children's relationships with their teachers are critical for classroom-based learning, but children growing up in poverty may be at risk for lower-quality relationships with teachers. Little is known about how changing schools, one poverty-related risk, affects teacher–child relationships. Using growth curve models that control for a host of other poverty-related risks, this study explores the association between children changing schools frequently (defined as three or more school moves) between preschool and third grade and the quality of their relationships with their teachers over these five years in a low-income, ethnic-minority sample. Children who frequently moved schools were reported to be less close to their teachers in third grade and experienced steeper declines in closeness than children who did not change schools frequently. Moreover, the effects of frequent school mobility at third grade were robust to other poverty-related risks, including residential mobility, parental education risk, family income, and single-parent households. Changing schools was unrelated to children's conflict with teachers. We discuss these findings in the context of policies that support students’ transitions when changing schools.     

School discipline and disruptive classroom behavior: the moderating effects of student perceptions

This study examines the relationship between school discipline and student classroom behavior. A traditional deterrence framework predicts that more severe discipline will reduce misbehavior. In contrast, normative perspectives suggest that compliance depends upon commitment to rules and authority, including perceptions of fairness and legitimacy. Using school and individual-level data from the National Education Longitudinal Study of 1988 and multilevel regression modeling, the author finds support for the normative perspective. Students who perceive school authority as legitimate and teacher–student relations as positive are rated as less disruptive. While perceptions of fairness also predict lower disruptions, the effects are mediated by positive teacher–student relations. Contrary to the deterrence framework, more school rules and higher perceived strictness predicts more, not less, disruptive behavior. In addition, a significant interaction effect suggests that attending schools with more severe punishments may have the unintended consequence of generating defiance among certain youth.     

Making Junior High School History Real

This article addresses the subject of teaching about women in world history in K–12 schools and in programs of social studies teacher education. It includes a review of the place of gender in teaching about world history to current and future teachers at Teachers College, Columbia University. This informal research serves as the platform for a set of recommendations concerning necessary steps for “gender-balancing” the world history curriculum in social studies teacher education.     

Addressing racial inequalities within schools: Exploring the potential of teacher education

A substantial body of literature demonstrates how within‐school patterns serve to maintain and perpetuate racial inequality in education. This occurs as well‐meaning teachers and administrators tend to hold lower academic expectations for students of color; engage in racially biased discipline patterns; employ alienating curricula; and fail to address racial issues in meaningful ways when they surface in classrooms. In this paper, I review literature on these and other inequitable patterns and subsequently summarize research exploring how these issues are confronted teacher training programs. While some pedagogical models show promise, many studies suggest that multicultural education and programs for pre‐service teachers fall short in promoting perspectives and practices to address inequity in schools. I apply tenets of critical race theory to scrutinize oppression within schools and the shortcomings of initiatives claimed to redress them, and moreover, to suggest how teacher education can be improved to encourage pedagogy for social justice ends.     

ViSC Social Competence Program

The ViSC Social Competence Program has been implemented in Austrian schools within the scope of a national strategy plan, Together Against Violence. The program is a primary preventive program designed for grades 5 to 8. The prevention of aggression and bullying is defined as a school development task, and the initial implementation of the program lasts one school year. The program consists of universal and specific actions that are implemented through in-school teacher training and a class project for students. The program was evaluated with a randomized intervention control group design. Data were collected from teachers and students. Results suggest that the program reduces aggression in schools.     

Promoting interculture through content and competences within bilingual education: teachers in action

ABSTRACT

Content and Language Integrated Learning incorporates among its main aims the development of intercultural awareness and understanding. Nowadays, it is imperative to prepare students to become active citizens in globalised societies. The principal objectives of this study are to examine how curricular competences impact content planning and which factors influence the way teachers plan content and competences in order to enhance ‘interculture’ through this approach in Primary Education. An open-question questionnaire was used to analyse the opinions of 59 Primary Education CLIL teachers who were working in private and semi-private schools in Cordoba (Spain) during the 2015/2016 academic year. The results show that several curricular competences influenced the selection of content. Moreover, there were significant differences in competences relating to gender, qualification degree, subject and textbook. Content was also influenced by the same variables except for qualification degree. Outcomes highlight the influence of competences on content planning when teachers aim to promote intercultural knowledge and sensitivity among students. This study also suggests that bilingual teacher training needs reinforcement.     

Urban education: an approach to community‐based education

This paper discusses a teacher education course—‘Urban Education’—which engaged teacher‐candidates in critical reflections on their roles as teachers, their perceptions of the students they teach, and their preconceived ideas of the community in which the students reside. The paper discusses the content and activities of the course, then focuses on the reflections of four teacher‐candidates in relation to the course and their experiences teaching in the ‘inner city’ community. Their reflections indicate that the course helped to educate them in the principles and pedagogies of equitable and inclusive education which is responsive to the needs and interests of their students and takes into account the communities in which students live.     

Intercultural Education and Teacher Education in the United Kingdom: a case of reversible decline

This paper traces the development of intercultural education in initial and in‐service teacher education in the United Kingdom. It is argued that intercultural education in the UK has been continually locked into various political agendas and that its place in teacher education has suffered almost terminal damage as a result. It was stifled as part of the UK Conservative government's anti‐liberal ideology and its attempts to restrict analysis of social issues. The effect continues under the new Labour government because of its commitment to the rhetoric of quality and standards in the basic skills. In order to understand the nature of intercultural education in teacher education in the UK, it is necessary to understand something of the background to developments in intercultural education in schools in general, and the history of developments in teacher education. The first part of the paper will examine the development of approaches in schools and the in‐service training of teachers: the second will discuss the parallel developments in initial teacher education.