British Educational Research Journal最新文献

Our research constructed school life histories with 23 ‘lower-attaining’ primary school children in England. Previous research has often failed to focus on the social justice aspects of this group, and no attempt has been made to contextualise children's misrecognition experiences within their full school life history, nor to hear primarily from children. Our results reveal for the first time the feelings, thinking and actions of lower attainers across 5 years of schooling, in response to the institutionalised practice of grouping by prior attainment. Nancy Fraser's conceptualisation of social justice as parity of participation provides our analysis framework, incorporating concepts of redistribution, recognition and representation. We focus primarily on how some low-attaining children experience misrecognition. Our results indicate how lower-attaining children sometimes identify themselves as less worthy, less connected, less similar and less visible than others. This construction allows for less respect to be shown to them and could block the fair distribution of schooling resources, and limit their opportunities for achieving social esteem.

This original study presents findings from a study of members of the first cohort of legal degree apprentices. Introduced in the UK in 2016, legal degree apprenticeships (LAs) remove uncertainty towards legal qualification in an otherwise competitive graduate recruitment environment and could help to increase social mobility into the professions. We examine the impact of the LA pathway on the development of wellbeing and capabilities of apprentices and traditional law students through the following research questions: does it enhance wellbeing when instead of loans, debt and insecurity, aspiring lawyers have a salary, no debt and secure job prospects through an apprenticeship pathway to qualification; and does using a capability framework offer a meaningful lens for understanding the experiences on different pathways? The analysis adopts a capabilities approach, intersected with an inequalities lens, to explore interviews with 23 aspiring solicitors, from different social backgrounds and at different stages of progression on the traditional university and LA pathways in England. The interviews explored access to and experiences of both pathways, particularly how participants were able to develop and convert their social and cultural resources into key capabilities. This provided a meaningful way to make sense of participants’ experiences. Capabilities were enhanced for LA students by removing stress and uncertainty around employment. This wellbeing gain was corroded for some by long commutes into work—often centred in London. Future quantitative research could establish whether, on balance, the majority of LA students experience an overall wellbeing gain. The capability framework usefully showed how across the LA and university pathways, all participants valued agency and developing all capabilities. Social capital was a key resource for creating opportunity and a desired capability that participants sought to develop.

This paper introduces a unified conceptual framework for understanding refugee identity construction within educational contexts, drawing on theories of social justice (Fraser, 2008), affective relations (Lynch, 2012), the resumption of ordinary life (Kohli, 2011) and ecological systems (Bronfenbrenner, 1977). Addressing a gap in the existing scholarship, the model emphasises the importance of affective relations in shaping refugee identities in education alongside other factors. The study examines the macro constructs of redistribution, recognition, representation and relational affect, highlighting their impact on refugee children's educational experiences. Further, it considers the micro constructs of safety, sense of belonging and success in integration and attainment in educational environments. The constructs are examined across various levels of Bronfenbrenner's ecological system, demonstrating the complexity of refugees’ needs. This model aims to facilitate a holistic, justice-oriented approach to refugee education, which is crucial given the rise in global displacement. The study has significant implications for refugee education research and policymaking, potentially informing targeted interventions and programmes that foster academic success, overall well-being, and practice in refugee education.

Mindfulness has all but become a mainstay in modern education. Yet despite the incredible enthusiasm and increased application in schools, there remains significant divergence between advocates and critics. Advocates assert that mindfulness practice promotes individual and societal health and well-being. Meanwhile, critics question the intention and the social and political implications of promoting these ancient practices in schools, arguing that the Buddhist ethics underlying mindfulness remain incompatible with the neoliberal ideology and instrumentalism of contemporary schooling. As mindfulness has been commodified, instrumentalised and used as a therapeutic tool for acute coping, its broader potential for human growth and development may be undermined. Furthermore, scholars caution that the fledging nature of mindfulness research leaves critical questions unanswered, especially the potential for adverse effects. The work herein examines these critiques, presenting three critical considerations for mindfulness in education, and articulates practical recommendations for educational leaders, policy makers and stakeholders. We aim to empower educators and others to make judgements about the promotion and integration of mindfulness into educational settings, considering context-specific factors such as developmental needs and capacities, as well as recommendations to support effective and ethical practice of mindfulness in education.

This paper examines three questions: (1) (How) Is democracy promoted in secondary schools in England? (2) How is the promotion of democracy understood in education and teacher education policy? and (3) To what extent does existing education policy benefit the promotion of democracy in schools in England? To explore these questions, we first discuss the policy landscape surrounding democratic education in England. We then outline our data collection and analysis methods, which comprised (a) the coding of ten different policy documents, including curriculum specifications, teaching standards and inspection frameworks, and (b) the utilisation of an original survey of more than 3000 teachers working in approximately 50% of all secondary schools in England. Together, our data allow us to raise three important points. First, education and teacher education policy neglects to specify ‘how’ democracy should be promoted and by ‘whom’. Second, schools are offering scant provision of democratic education. Third, the majority of teachers feel fundamentally underprepared to teach democracy. We conclude this paper by arguing that, if policymakers do wish to promote democracy, there is a need for a cohesive policy and teacher education approach that guarantees democratic education for all.

The imperative to address the complex problem of degree awarding gaps within UK higher education institutions is multifaceted and messy. Various studies have continually highlighted this persistent undergraduate awarding gap (racial equity gap or/ethnicity gap) between White and racially minoritised students. This disparity in educational outcomes, where racially minoritised students compared to their White counterparts are less likely to graduate with good honours degrees, has gained considerable attention from policymakers and scholars. This underscores the need for comprehensive strategies that transcend conventional approaches and boundaries to achieve systemic change. Efforts to close the awarding gap have predominantly focused on decolonising the curriculum, which is vital. Still, it is also crucial to recognise personal tutoring (PT) as a pivotal and often underestimated role in addressing the awarding gap. The PT role, with its potential to provide a joined-up experience for students, promoting student engagement and enabling them to navigate the ever-changing academic landscape, can be a catalyst for racial equity and an antidote to the degree awarding gap. By reviewing the literature, empirical studies, policy frameworks and practical implementations, this paper sheds light on the diverse ways PT can serve as a potent tool for promoting equity and inclusion and enhancing equitable outcomes for all. Through a synthesis of existing literature and critical analysis, this scoping review highlights ways PT in higher education is conceptualised nationally and internationally and how it can drive transformational change in higher education when aligned with principles of equity.

There is an extensive international literature on different forms of ability grouping in schools, much of which describes their impact on students' academic achievement, motivation, self-concept and/or attitudes towards learning. Comparatively little research has focused on students' perspectives of these practices, while the research that has been conducted has primarily focused on mathematics, English and science. There is a conspicuous and arguably significant absence of research that explores students' perspectives on different forms of ability grouping in other areas of the school curriculum, including physical education (PE). In contrast to the relative privacy of classroom-based subjects, students' bodies, physical competencies and performances are very openly on display in PE, which potentially accentuates the importance of grouping strategies from students' perspectives. This study sought to extend current grouping and ability research by generating large-scale data relating to students' preferences for setting, mixed-ability grouping or a combination of these approaches in secondary school PE. Data were collected through an online survey administered to 4908 students in 48 mainstream state-funded secondary schools located in all nine regions of England. The responses showed that overall, most students preferred setting to mixed-ability grouping or a combination of these approaches. Variations in preferences are discussed in relation to demographic and situational factors, including gender, self-identified ability, school year group, previous experiences and the nature of the learning environment. Implications of the findings for policy, practice and future research are discussed, and the need for ability to be problematised and further explored in PE research and practice is highlighted.

Longitudinal research is crucial to fully assess the putative impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on children with an intellectual disability in special school settings—ideally drawing on data pre-pandemic to be able to evaluate later impact. Data on challenging behaviour and adaptive skills were collected annually for 348 students in one special school across four time points pre-pandemic and one time point post-pandemic. Data were analysed using multilevel models with repeated observations over the five time points. There was a decrease in aggressive and destructive behaviours and a decrease in adaptive skills at the post-pandemic time point, after accounting for other important covariates. There was no evidence of a change in stereotyped or self-injurious challenging behaviours. Other research using longitudinal methods is rare, but the current findings are consistent with previous research reporting on the impact of COVID-19 on children and young people, particularly from parent reports. Future considerations for schools include adopting appropriate strategies to support learners to reintegrate back into education. Further research is needed to look at the longer-term impact of the pandemic on challenging behaviour in children with an intellectual disability.

Pekrun and his colleagues highlight the significance and diversity of emotion in education. Their analysis suggests that these emotions can be categorised by their stimuli into those related to the classroom: activities, outcomes, relationships, topics and knowledge processes (epistemic). Most research in this area has focused on achievement emotions, with relatively limited research exploring topic emotions. This paper develops a framework for conceptualising topic emotions. It reports on a design-based study that captured children's expressions of emotion in response to a climate change education programme using picturebooks. The data brought together emotional responses to climate change, to learning about climate change and to climate-related picturebooks. Qualitative analysis of these responses highlights how they differ not only with regard to the emotions expressed, but also the structure of the emotional experience. Emotional responses to the broad topic of climate change were expressed as ongoing analytical judgements, where those related to learning about climate change were immersive and finite. Reading climate-related picturebooks involved exploring how emotion is communicated and evoked. This supported quasi-emotional experiences, where the reader imagines the emotions of the characters. The picturebooks are also shown to create vicarious emotional experiences, involving ethical-based responses to the behaviour and circumstances depicted. Based on this analysis, the paper proposes a framework for disaggregating these differing emotional experiences related to topic.

In England the 2014 Children and Families Act introduced wide ranging changes to the assessment of and provision for children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND). Guidance underpinning implementation was then published in the Code of Practice. Our study focuses on a key component of that legislation, known as the ‘local offer’, which requires local authorities to establish and maintain, clear, comprehensive, accessible and up to date information for children and young people with SEND, and their families, about available SEND provision. Local authorities are expected to involve children and young people and their families in co-designing and reviewing their local offer, alongside other key stakeholders, to ensure provision is responsive to local needs and aspirations. To support our assessment of local offers we first established six categories based on the criteria in the Code of Practice about expected availability of SEND-related information (e.g. financial support, health service information, accessibility information). We used these categories to evaluate the relevant local offer websites of all 151 English local authorities with legal responsibilities for SEND assessment and provision. We further assessed whether each local offer website included three common website accessibility functions. Our findings demonstrate variation in the availability of information at local authority level, therefore limiting the ability of some young people and families to make informed decisions about the support available to them. This provides further evidence to support growing concerns about ‘postcode lottery’ inequities for families and their children with SEND.