(2012). Student Perceptions of Community-Based Research Partners and the Politics of Knowledge. Michigan Journal of Community Service Learning, v19 n1 p5-16 Fall. Based on quantitative survey data and qualitative data from journal entries by students in a seminar focused on community-based research, undergraduate student perceptions of community partners are explored in the context of debates about the politics of knowledge. Student perceptions that frame community partners as the recipients of academic expertise are differentiated from those that validate partner expertise as essential to the co-creation of knowledge. Evidence is presented indicating that appropriately structured courses, especially those supported by robust institutional infrastructure for community-engaged learning, can (and should) encourage students to recognize community partners as valuable sources of knowledge. (Contains 7 notes.)… [Direct]
(2013). Language Matters in Demonstrations of Understanding in Early Years Mathematics Assessment. Mathematics Education Research Journal, v25 n3 p415-433 Sep. In classrooms tests, students are regularly required to demonstrate their understanding of mathematical concepts. When children encounter problems in demonstrating such understanding, it is often not clear whether this is because of the language of the teachers' questions and instructions or a genuine non-understanding of the concept itself. This paper uses Conversation Analysis to investigate the role that language plays in Year 1 oral maths assessment in an Australian Indigenous community school. This approach allows us to monitor the very subtle communicative gestures, verbal and non-verbal, that contribute to the trajectory of a particular test task. Here we are able to bring to light a range of ways in which language may interfere with demonstrations of understanding of mathematical concepts. These include particular mathematical words (e.g., "size," "shape," "same"), as well as problems with what is being asked in an instruction. We argue that… [Direct]
(2013). Science Engagement and Literacy: A Retrospective Analysis for Indigenous and Non-Indigenous Students in Aotearoa New Zealand and Australia. Research in Science Education, v43 n1 p233-252 Feb. Previous research has underlined the importance of school students' engagement in science (including students' attitudes, interests and self beliefs). Engagement in science is important as a correlate of scientific literacy and attainment, and as an educational outcome in its own right. Students positively engaged with science are more likely to pursue science related careers, and to support science related policies and initiatives. This retrospective, secondary analysis of PISA 2006 national data for Aotearoa New Zealand and Australia examines and compares the factors associated with science literacy and with science engagement for indigenous and non-indigenous 15 year old students. Using a four step hierarchical regression model, our secondary analyses showed consistent patterns of influence on engagement in science for both indigenous and non-indigenous students in Aotearoa and Australia. Variations in students' interest, enjoyment, personal and general valuing, self-efficacy, and… [Direct]
(2011). Personalized Learning? Is There Anything New in the Ministry of Education Service Plan for 2011-12? BCTF Research Report. Section V. 2011-EF-03. British Columbia Teachers' Federation Each time a provincial budget is released, along with it comes a "service plan" for each of the ministries. It is supposed to be the minister's accountability report. So what's new this year? Unlike some previous plans where teachers were not even mentioned, this time teachers are referred to several times in the report. The purpose for education is repeatedly put in economic terms, preparing students for the world of work. Not surprisingly, given the talk in education circles in the past few months, the recurrent theme in the service plan involves "personalization," "technology," and "skills for the 21st Century." The one concrete thing is distributed learning. "Online and distributed learning, offering more personalized schooling choices, more than doubled in demand between 2006-2007 and 2009-2010 to over 71,000 students." Note that this does not say that 71,000 students were successful in distributed learning courses. In fact, the… [PDF]
(2011). Early Intervention Services: Effectively Supporting Maori Children and their Families. Kairaranga, v12 n1 p3-9. This paper examines Early Intervention (EI) service provision from within one Ministry of Education region in New Zealand. It does this in order to better understand what works well and what needs to change if children from Maori families, of Early Childhood age, are to be provided with the most effective EI services. By engaging with Maori families in group-focused interviews-as-conversation, and then with their service providers, about their experiences of working together, researchers learned about what could provide effective services for other Maori families in similar situations…. [PDF]
(2011). Teaching Morality and Religion in Nineteenth-Century Colonial Algeria: Gender and the Civilising Mission. History of Education, v40 n6 p741-759. Historians have long presented France's "civilizing mission" within its colonies in secular terms ignoring women's presence as both actors and subjects. This is particularly true in Algeria where the colonial government's explicitly prohibited proselytism. This article emphasizes women's roles pursuing both secular and religious goals in Algeria. An initial section highlights the early efforts to include Muslim girls in the civilizing mission through the creation of Mme Luce's Arab-French school for girls in 1845. Secondly, the article explores how issues of morality combined with gender power politics to end this experiment in schooling urban indigenous girls. The civilizing mission was not limited, however, to the local Arabs, Moors or Berbers as teachers and clerics recognized that the European settler populations sorely required moral uplift. As a result, a third sections examines the activities of female Catholic teaching congregations exploring their… [Direct]
(2011). Teachers Make a Difference to the Study of Aboriginal Music in NSW. Australian Journal of Music Education, n2 p22-29. Australian Indigenous music and culture are in the foreground when Australia celebrates itself in international contexts but their inclusion in the school curriculum is sporadic. In New South Wales (NSW), high school music teachers are responsible for educating students about Aboriginal music(s) and culture(s) within a mandatory focus on Australian music. Two NSW high schools made changes to their music programs to enhance their teaching in this area and this article contrasts their stories with reported school music environments that demonstrate limited awareness and lack of confidence. (Contains 1 figure.)… [PDF]
(2011). Cultural Resources of Minority and Marginalised Students Should Be Included in the School Science Curriculum. Cultural Studies of Science Education, v6 n2 p401-412 Jun. This paper responds to Schademan's \What does playing cards have to do with science? A resource-rich view of African American young men\, and takes a resource-rich view to explore the notion of agency and elements of cultural resources that minority and marginalised students bring to the classroom. The paper examines the deficit model, the need to adopt capacity building perspective, and a classroom study, which sought to contextualise capacity building with a group of Australian indigenous students in a science class. As science educators, we need to reject the deficit model by developing capacity building pedagogies that affirm minority and marginalised students' lived languages, experiences and knowledge in their learning…. [Direct]
(2010). The Learning Center. Educational Facility Planner, v44 n4 p22-25. Since the second century, libraries have been esteemed as keepers of the flame of knowledge and culture. At the stone Library of Celcus, constructed in Turkey in 1100 A.D., for example, 15,000 documents were kept safe from the elements and other destructive forces such as rodents. In places like Celcus, the knowledge of Greek philosophy, Roman technology, and the math and science of the Arabic speaking people were protected and maintained for future generations. The ancient library there bore the carved inscriptions "Wisdom, Knowledge, Intelligence and Virtue." The inscriptions reflect an understanding that this is more than mere collection. They refer to society's aspirations to preserve and sustain the keys to human potential…. [PDF]
(2010). A Different Path Forward: The Institute for New England Native American Studies at UMass. New England Journal of Higher Education, v24 n3 p22-23 Win. In New England, interactions between Native peoples and some public institutions have taken divergent paths over the past three decades. State legislatures and the many academic institutions that call the region home have developed different approaches to working with Native peoples. Public colleges and universities, given their ongoing development and support of initiatives engaging Native communities and their connections with state governments, can and should play a role in moving this conversation forward. This article illustrates a model for beginning and sustaining such a conversation through the Institute for New England Native American Studies (INENAS) of the University of Massachusetts Boston (UMass Boston). The INENAS mission is to develop collaborative relationships, projects and programs with the indigenous peoples of the region. The institute is working with tribes to help them access federal, state and private funds for social, cultural and economic development. In this… [Direct]
(2011). A Critical Look at Four Multicultural Reform Efforts in One Urban College of Education. Multicultural Education, v18 n4 p18-23 Sum. This analysis encompassed four different projects that were implemented as reform initiatives at the college. The authors' collaborative work and this subsequent analysis have drawn on insights from Cochran-Smith (2004), who describes teacher education as both a \learning problem and a political problem\ that involves the creation of inquiry communities. Grounded in a critical perspective, the authors' work and the projects described have all involved critical sociocultural theory, critical race theory, and a critical literacy perspective. In this article, the authors present descriptions of the individual projects and jointly analyze the projects through a lens created by four dimensions of critical perspective. Striving to meet Cochran-Smith's (2004) challenge, they then \work the dialectic\ by generating both theory and practice from local knowledge that advances their college's mission relating to diversity. (Contains 1 note.)… [PDF] [Direct]
(2011). Exploring Science Educators' Cosmological Worldviews through the Binoculars of an Argumentation Framework. South African Journal of Higher Education, v25 n3 p542-553. The mandate of the new South African curriculum for educators to enact a science-indigenous knowledge curriculum in their classrooms is not only challenging to their cosmological beliefs, it is equally challenging to their instructional practices. This is because science educators (teachers) in South Africa have been schooled largely in western science and lack the necessary knowledge or skills on how to achieve such a goal. In response to these challenges nine experienced educators were exposed to an activity-based Dialogical Argumentation Instruction (DAI) for a period of 12 months. The DAI served as an exemplary instructional model for the educators to use in their classrooms. A questionnaire and an interview were then used to determine the effects of DAI on the educators' cosmological beliefs about certain natural phenomena. Although DAI seemed to have influenced the educators' worldviews in a variety of ways, their overall cosmology remained essentially amalgamated with their… [Direct]
(2012). Practitioners, Learning Difference and Regional and Remote Inclusive Education Settings: A Focused Analysis of the Research and Policy Literature. Australian Association for Research in Education (NJ1), Paper presented at the Joint Australian Association for Research in Education and Asia-Pacific Educational Research Association Conference (AARE-APERA 2012) World Education Research Association (WERA) Focal Meeting (Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, Dec 2-6, 2012). This literature review interrogates current international writing about inclusive education (IE) in regional and remote settings, with explicit reference to Australian considerations, including the emergent National Curriculum. The task of this review has been to establish the types of knowledge reported about IE in minority, marginalized and "other" inclusive educational settings, and to locate the absences of knowledge that the current literature indicates. Finally, future directions for research into IE in minority educational settings are proposed. (Contains 4 footnotes.)… [PDF]
(2012). Of Gateways and Gatekeepers: Language, Education and Mobility in Francophone Africa. International Journal of Educational Development, v32 n3 p368-375 May. Over the past 15 years, a range of alternative education programs have been launched in Burkina Faso. The programs have been developed primarily by international or national NGOs, within a supportive policy space provided by the national government. They aim to respond to the widely recognized inadequacy of the French-language ecoles classiques to provide a meaningful primary education experience for most Burkinabe children. One of the values which these programs all espouse is support for the lived realities of Burkinabe communities, particularly the communities that are least well served by the traditional school system. This value is reflected in, among other things, the use of the learner's mother tongue as a gateway to effective learning. However the influence of the French-dominated educational system is evident in the curriculum choices made in these programs; clearly, success in that system is a crucial step in navigating one's way past the social and economic gatekeepers of… [Direct]
(2012). Instilling Literacy through Developmental Module Approach (DMA) Towards Orang Asli Pupils in Malaysia. Australian Association for Research in Education (NJ1), Paper presented at the Joint Australian Association for Research in Education and Asia-Pacific Educational Research Association Conference (AARE-APERA 2012) World Education Research Association (WERA) Focal Meeting (Sydney, New South Wales, Dec 2-6, 2012). Development of module has great impact on literacy today. This paper highlights the challenges and experiences of the researchers in an academic institution where the research project which initially began as part of an academic research initiative expanded to helping a marginalized community in need. Literacy pedagogy has to be relevant to the needs of the pupils who come from diverse contexts. As such there is a need for a method and module to design an appropriate pedagogy to improve literacy among these pupils. In this paper, we share the conception of instilling literacy by utilizing the Developmental Module Approach (DMA), an example of a systematic approach in improving literacy among a group of indigenous pupils specifically the Semai community from Terisu in Cameroon Highland, Pahang. In contrast, Malay Language is used as a medium in teaching across schools in Malaysia including elementary school of Orang Asli and a more significant second language use in the classroom by… [PDF]