British Educational Research Journal最新文献

The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and associated lockdown measures on child and family functioning requires ongoing investigation to understand its far-reaching effects. This study investigated the experiences of 10-year-old children (n = 2421) from the Growing Up in New Zealand longitudinal cohort during some of the strictest pandemic-related lockdown measures of 2020, with the aim of examining the effects of these measures on several aspects of children's lives and wellbeing. Children reported on their lockdown experiences in relation to household ‘bubbles’, school, family, social connectedness and activities. The findings indicate that although the lockdown restrictions disrupted regular routines and activities, children and their families largely demonstrated great adaptability and had largely positive experiences together, despite the worldwide crisis. For example, 79% of children in the study indicated that they were having a good time with their family during the lockdown period and almost 85% indicated that they felt moderately or strongly socially connected with others during this time. This study also highlights challenges experienced by some children during lockdown. Post-pandemic strategies aimed at mitigating difficulties and improving children's experiences should aim to reflect the diversity of these experiences. The findings of this study are relevant to other countries that implemented lockdown restrictions during the COVID-19 pandemic, shedding light on the day-to-day experiences of children and families during this unprecedented time.

Distributed leadership is currently the most studied leadership model in education. This study posits that there is not a single best model or blueprint for distributed leadership, but that schools should foster manifestations of distributed leadership to support professional development and school improvement. The school leader can support distributed leadership. In this study we examined dimensions of distributed leadership when teachers collaborate in two Dutch schools, which were selected after an elaborate selection process—quantitatively through an online survey and a benchmark method and qualitatively through additional focus group interviews. Within these schools, which were considered as critical cases, data were collected through semi-structured interviews with teachers (14) and school leaders (three), focus groups with teachers and school leaders (three) and observation of teachers collaborating (four). Data were analysed by inductively labelling and thematising relevant fragments. This was checked by a second researcher, ensuring the validity of the findings. Based on our findings we propose four manifestations of distributed leadership in teacher collaboration and discuss the role of the school leader in supporting these manifestations. This role is larger than one might expect. Depending on the situation, school leaders can either formally manage structurally designed manifestations of distributed leadership, which requires transactional leadership, or facilitate relational manifestations of distributed leadership, which requires transformational leadership.

Teacher retention in England continues to be in a state of decline, with early career teachers (ECTs) most at risk of leaving the profession. High attrition rates create an unstable and unsustainable workforce, which negatively affects the educational development of young people. The purpose of this paper was to explore the career-related push and pull factors for ECTs in England. The paper also explores the way in which ECTs' experiences shape career decision-making, and the extent to which their motivational needs are being met. Previous studies have considered workplace retention; however, little is known about the motivational needs and perspectives of ECTs. This paper explores the experiences of 20 ECTs in state-funded primary, secondary and special schools in England. All participants had less than 5 years' teaching experience and were selected through purposive sampling. Participants took part in semi-structured online interviews with data analysed using reflexive thematic analysis. Five themes were constructed from the data: complexity, belonging, emotional impact, professional identity and relentlessness. Findings show that these themes are interrelated and combine to create a clear ‘tipping point’ where ECTs begin to find the job unmanageable. From a motivation perspective, we found that autonomous motivation reduces quitting intentions and that the need for relatedness and positive professional identities is particularly important for retaining teachers in the first 5 years of their careers.

This paper presents new evidence on the link between staff perceptions of school leadership and job satisfaction, drawing on three waves of The Engagement Platform data collected from over 4000 members of school staff in England. We find that when staff have a positive rather than an ambivalent view of school leadership, their job satisfaction is markedly improved. Views of school leadership in the autumn term are also found to correlate with whether staff leave their job by the end of the academic year. Together, our results demonstrate how views of leadership play a pivotal role in the satisfaction and retention of school staff.

This paper explores the critical role that safe spaces, or ‘Pride Groups’, can play in developing ontological security and allyship within schools. Drawing on data collected from eight UK secondary schools and one college, the research evaluates the impact of these groups, using an innovative theoretical framework combining Meyer's minority stress model with Giddens' concept of ontological security. The research addresses a significant and notable gap in UK-based Pride Groups literature, as these groups are more commonly studied in the US context. The findings demonstrate that such groups provide essential safe spaces, fostering personal development, emotional wellbeing and broader school inclusion. Moreover, this study adds depth to existing research by examining the logistical and ideological challenges of running Pride Groups, such as the negotiation of group membership and the tension between inclusivity and safety. These insights contribute to an original and deeper understanding of inclusive policy and practice, revealing how educational environments can be transformed into spaces of safety for LGBT+ students.

With a growing emphasis on students playing an active role in the feedback process, understanding how students perceive academic feedback is essential to support the implementation of relevant strategies that can drive better engagement. The current study explored elementary school students' perceptions of feedback in two different contexts/cultures: the United Kingdom and Indonesia. Results suggest that younger students in the United Kingdom and older students in Indonesia hold similar understandings of the purpose of feedback (task-based), with older students in the United Kingdom showing higher awareness of the importance of process-based feedback. However, when it comes to the desired type of feedback, UK students preferred more self/praise-based feedback, while Indonesian students preferred task-based feedback. Potential reasons for these differences are discussed.

This paper aims to unpack potential reasons why law and legal knowledge—despite its apparent importance and value in teaching and learning about human rights—appears to be largely conspicuous by its absence in human rights education (HRE) in schooling. Drawing on a range of contextually relevant categories of ignorance identified from discourse on epistemologies of ignorance, it argues that deficits in legal literacy on the part of the wide range of stakeholders involved in HRE can manifest in multiple guises, including: ignorance as a strategic choice for political ends; ignorance as a conscious, rational and practical (not necessarily self-interested) choice; and inadvertent ignorance or such that is unconsciously selective in nature. By approaching the issue from this novel standpoint, the overarching aim of the paper is to illuminate the prospects and possibilities for tackling instances of such ignorance going forward.

Although peer mentoring has been widely adopted in universities, in which sophomores serve as mentors to help freshmen quickly adapt to university life, less attention has been given to the effect of these programmes on mentors. To address this gap in the literature, the impact of mentors' engagement in peer mentoring on citizenship fatigue in Chinese universities was investigated and framed within the conservation of resources theory. We collected data from 401 peer mentors across two survey waves and explored how and when engagement in peer mentoring affects mentors' citizenship fatigue. The results showed that higher engagement in peer mentoring significantly enhanced mentors' perceived meaningfulness, which in turn reduced citizenship fatigue. Additionally, mentor self-disclosure strengthened the positive relationship between engagement in peer mentoring and perceived meaningfulness. These findings highlight the importance of psychological resources in reducing mentors' citizenship fatigue and suggest that universities should support mentors by providing mental health resources and encouraging open communication to enhance the effectiveness and sustainability of peer mentoring programmes.

In response to a proposal to reframe the ‘research into practice’ agenda in UK education using partnership working, this paper examines a type of collaborative research known as a research–practice partnership (RPP), drawing on models established in education in the United States. It examines their characteristics and what has been learnt from several decades of experience before reflecting on the relevance of this literature for the UK context. RPPs can allow researchers to gain a better understanding of practice problems and, by involving practitioners and local policymakers, the resulting research is likely to be more relevant to local users. The paper highlights the importance of relationship building, considerations around locus of power and issues related to boundary working. It considers aspects of the underlying research infrastructure in the United Kingdom relevant to partnership working, including the role of local authorities, research funding structures and the general research environment. Changes to the Research Excellence Framework and funders' requirements, as well as shifts in policy approaches to research, all suggest that support for more collaborative working in the United Kingdom may be growing.

Research on the international secondary students (ISS) is scarce compared with the proliferating literature on their tertiary counterparts. This paper focuses on social integration experiences of ISS from diverse ethnic backgrounds, the undergirding macro-, meso-, and micro-mechanisms, and the supports needed for their successful integration. It draws on a subset of data from a longitudinal qualitative study through an interdisciplinary conceptual framework. This study employs multiple case study designs with critical intercultural hermeneutics as an interpretive approach. Research methods involve (a) serial interviews with six ISS that spanned the 2022–2023 school year; (b) in-depth interviews with their parents, homestays, teachers, and agents; (c) online observations of the students’ virtual communities; (d) documents; and (e) research journals. It uncovers three mechanisms undergirding ISS’ social integration challenges: lack of ethnic proximity, a departmentalised classroom system and capital defence. This study suggests that stakeholders and researchers of ISS must obviate deficit-oriented and assimilationist perspectives, which attribute social integration challenges solely to ISS’ limited knowledge of mainstream culture and language. Instead, a paradigm shift is necessary to redefine the criteria for successful social integration as harmonious interaction with students from diverse ethno-cultural backgrounds, encompassing both culturally dominant and minority groups, with educators playing a central role in fostering this integration.