The multiple logics of school gardening: a ‘return to nature’ or ‘love of labour’?

ABSTRACT

This article explores the history of school gardens in educational projects linked to four scholars at Teachers College (Bigelow, Dewey, Kilpatrick and Carney) during the early twentieth century. It concludes that gardening activities were designed primarily for urban children who lacked experience in farming. The role of gardening in experimental schools in the North is compared with proposals for rural schools in the Midwest and for segregated schools for Black youth in the South. Various logics are identified by analysing the educational arguments used to promote or dismiss school gardening, and the rationales for educating or retaining a certain type of labour force. A combination of these arguments appears in Dewey’s vindication of the emergency production of foodstuffs during the First World War. The different logics point to the paradox connecting the themes of a ‘return to nature’ and ‘love of labour’ as constants in the school gardening discourse.     

Effects of ethnoscience instruction,school location,and parental educational status on learners’ attitude towards science

ABSTRACT

This study investigated the effect of Ethnoscience instruction and moderating effects of school location and parental educational status on students' attitude to science. It employed pretest-posttest, non-equivalent control group quasiexperimental design. Participants were 352 Junior Secondary School 1 (aged 9–12 years) students from two schools, each in urban and rural areas of Ìbàdàn, southwestern Nigeria. Instruments used are: Teachers Instructional Guide on Ethnoscience instruction, Teachers Instructional Guide on Modified Lecture Method and Attitude Toward Science Scale (r?=?0.86). Three null hypotheses were tested at 0.05 level of significance. Data were analyzed using Analysis of Covariance. Significant main effect of treatment on attitude to science (F(1, 347)?=?296, p?<?0.05) was recorded, with Ethnoscience instruction group performing better than the Modified Lecture Method group. Effect size of treatment was strong (η² _p?=?0.46). Also recorded were significant main effects of school location (F(1, 347)?=?10.2, p?<?.05) and parental educational status (F(1, 347?=?3.37), p <?0.05) on students' attitude to science with weak effect sizes (η² _p?=?0.029 and η² _p?=?0.019 respectively). Learners in rural schools performed better than those in urban schools and those from lowly educated parents had better performance than highly educated parents. Ethnoscience instruction promoted learners' attitude to science. Therefore, its use in educational instruction, especially among traditional science learners, should be explored.     

Using Charter Schools to Alleviate Racial Exclusion in Rural America: An Innovative Idea or a Trojan Horse?

ABSTRACT

Racial segregation has remained a lasting legacy of rural schools in southern states. Our article explains a case where community leaders created a diverse charter school to change its historical practice of an isolated White private school and isolated African American public schools. We scan documents and literature related to this integration strategy to surface key themes when using rural charter schools to alter patterns of school segregation. First, we explain pressing issues in rural schools. Second, we describe how segregation and inequality have evolved in the South. Third, we explain research showing how charter schools maintain patterns of school segregation, but with exceptions and nuances in certain contexts. Fourth, we consider the benefits and tensions surrounding one rural charter school that offers an integrated educational program. Benefits range from societal to individual as the school fosters an environment where students are exposed to diverse educational experiences. Tensions include shifting power and funding dynamics and the possibility of using a good example to shepherd in less effective charter models elsewhere.     

Official and popular culture in the schooling process

This article analyses the schooling process in rural areas of Galicia (Spain) from the mid-nineteenth to the mid-twentieth century, considering educational initiatives promoted by both the state and the rural population. The former, which were governed by the official school culture, were driven by a moralistic approach; the latter, within the framework of popular school culture, were essentially aimed at literacy. The confrontation that arose between the two initiatives was finally resolved in favour of the official school. Our main goal here is to analyse how popular schools (ferrado schools) were perceived by official culture (school administrators and education experts) as well as by those who were directly involved as protagonists, i.e. the schoolteachers who ran these schools (escolantes) and their pupils.     

Parental communication and collaboration in schools with special educational needs (SEN) programmes in Bhutan

ABSTRACT

This study explored the experiences of communication and collaboration of parents with the teachers of their children with special educational needs (SEN). In this investigation in the Bhutanese context, 26 parents (13 fathers and 13 mothers) of children with SEN, either fully or partially included in 3 schools with SEN programmes in Bhutan located in urban, semi-urban, and rural regions in Bhutan were individually interviewed. The interview data were recorded, transcribed, and analysed using both manual thematic coding semantic mapping and text mining analysis (Leximancer). The majority of parents (n?=?21/26) were found to have either minimal or no communication or collaboration with the school. It was mainly a few mothers (n?=?4), and no fathers, who reported consistent communication and collaboration with the school, whose children were partially included in the schools and had high support needs. The findings have implications for building channels of communication and collaboration between parents and school staff in order to support their children with SEN in Bhutan.     

农村两类学校布局优化的现实问题与方向选择

城镇挤乡村弱是当前我国义务教育阶段最为显著的结构性问题。学校布局作为肇始之基,为更好补齐学校短板提升教育质量,现阶段的工作重点已聚焦至农村两类学校,重心也逐渐转向优化。在城乡义务教育一体化的时代背景下,为实现“就近入学”与“上好学”的优化目标,农村两类学校布局优化工作在农村教育为农与离农的冲突中,应服膺人本理念进行消解;在教育公平优先与教育效率先行的矛盾中,应合理配置教育资源进行平衡;在“由‘小’到‘寄’”与“由‘寄’到‘小’”的纠葛中,应明确两类学校定位进行调适,以助力农村学校布局工作。     

Natura et urbis in the socio-educational renovation of Barcelona City Council (1909–1933)

ABSTRACT

During the first third of the twentieth century, Barcelona turned into a metropolis with emerging industry. To confront the growing social problems, Barcelona City Council undertook a renovating educational programme focused on hygienic and natural principles as well as on new active teaching methodologies and progressive education. Thus, a completely parallel network of institutions was created alongside the public schools – school camps, day trips to the beach, open air schools, etc. – that aimed at improving the living situation of children, most specifically via the promotion of direct contact with nature. At that time, Barcelona City Council disseminated information widely regarding all these initiatives with the publication, between 1909 and 1933, of around 70 illustrated brochures. The main aim of this article is, using these publications, to present the discourses that were disseminated and built up around the idea of nature and to understand how this relates to the urban environment.     

Exam-oriented education and implementation of education policy for migrant children in urban China

This paper investigates the implementation of education policy for migrant children in urban China. Historically, rural and urban residents in China were separated by the hukou system, and rural children were not allowed to attend urban schools. Since the relaxation of the hukou system in the early 1980s, large numbers of rural families migrated to cities. The right of migrant children to education in urban China was formally recognised by the government in a series of policies starting in 2001. The research reported, here, reveals that migrant children did not have equal access to urban schools nor did they enjoy an equally good education to that of urban children. Based on 53 in-depth interviews with school principals, teachers and pupils in two provincial capitals in China, this paper explores the main factors affecting the implementation of education policy for migrant children. The research demonstrates that policies relating to equal admissions criteria were not implemented as intended, with migrant children not having equal access to schools. However, policies relating to non-segregation and academic support were implemented as intended. It is argued that, at the school level, this is a result of the examination-oriented system, and schools’ responses to this.     

The Forgotten Brown Case: Briggs v. Elliott and Its Legacy in South Carolina

ABSTRACT

There is not much debate regarding the Brown decision and the significance of the foundation it provided for access to equal educational opportunity and the school funding litigation movement; however, it is important to recognize that the inception of Brown can be traced back to a small rural town in South Carolina. Three years before the Supreme Court heard Brown v. Board, the legal strategy to attack separate but equal was formed in Summerton, South Carolina, with Briggs v. Elliott. Briggs was the first school funding lawsuit in South Carolina. More than 65 years after the first school funding lawsuit was filed in the state of South Carolina, rural school districts are still waiting for the state to provide adequate educational opportunity for poor, rural, mostly Black students. The schools in these districts are arguably still segregated, still unequal, and still inadequate. The purpose of this article is to examine the history and legacy of Briggs v. Elliot. The article begins with exploring the historical legal background of education finance litigation in South Carolina. This is followed by a snapshot of the prevalence of school segregation and educational inadequacies of the rural school districts represented in Briggs and recent lawsuits. Furthermore, the article discusses the role and function of the courts regarding South Carolina education, in addition to enacted legislation and the role of race. The article concludes with implications regarding policy and potential future legal strategies.     

Rural and Urban Differences in Student Achievement in Science and Mathematics: A Multilevel Analysis

Recent educational research has demonstrated rural/urban differences in achievement and success in higher education. However, in order to assess the rural school's impact on student outcomes, rural/urban comparisons must be made after accounting for student background variables. Researchers have begun to question the generalisability of the effective school model for urban, suburban, and rural schools, given substantial differences in their social and organisational environments (Hannaway & Talbert, 1993). The purpose of this research study was to examine differences in student achievement between rural and urban schools in Western Australia, after controlling for student background variables. By using multilevel modelling techniques, this study demonstrated that the location of the school had a significant effect upon student achievement, with students attending rural schools not performing as well as students from urban schools.     

How Integration Matters: An Alternative Vision for Urban Education in an Era of the Market

ABSTRACT

The widespread assumption in the United States today is that traditional urban public schools are failing. Market-based solutions, particularly charter schools, are seen as the way to improve urban education. How then can we understand a large urban district where educational actors have furthered a locally popular alternative vision? This article analyzes the comparison of Indianapolis, IN and Louisville, KY to demonstrate how four-decades-old desegregation orders continue to matter for the perceptions of urban school districts. The analysis shows how actors in Louisville utilized more favorable perceptions to fight for a compelling alternative narrative–integration–and against charter schools.     

Editorial

ABSTRACT

An enduring concern for educational policy in many affluent countries is the endemic nature of educational inequalities that are predominately located in poor urban contexts. Given the inabilities of school reform per se to deal with these inequalities, the paper focuses on issues of scarcity and spatial processes that are implicated in the formation of young people's educational identities – identities that then mediate the conversion of educational resources into educational attainments or achievements.     

学校体育城乡均衡发展的互动模式

城乡学校体育互动发展的路径和可行性模式,必须从城乡均衡发展的高度来审视学校体育发展方向,从政府和教育部门主导、城乡结合、多元融合等方面入手,采用城市带动农村、强弱搭配优势互补、网络化信息化等模式,大力发展学校体育,补足、完善农村学校体育发展短板,利用城市学校的师资资源优势,选择突破点,在农村学校加大投资力度,加强体育监督,互帮互助,实现城市学校和农村学校体育的互动发展,以期更好地推进学校体育城乡之间的均衡发展,促进教育公平。     

How the existence of special schools affects the placement of students with special needs in inclusive primary schools

Although inclusion is the declared goal, the transition from a system based on special schools to an inclusive school system has only been progressing very slowly in individual countries. In an evolving school system, the existing special schools keep struggling to justify their existence. This study investigates the regional distribution effects based on official school data and shows the influence of a pull effect on special schools as a distance effect of special schools affecting the placement of students. For this purpose, official school statistics including all students at special and regular schools in the years 2010, 2015 and 2020 (N = 11 280 040) are evaluated in a spatiotemporal comparison using Educational Data Mining. In a hierarchical regression model on school placement in inclusive schools, the distance between primary and special schools has the highest influence (β = 0.48) on the inclusion rate (i.e., the proportion of students with special needs who are educated in regular schools in relation to all students with disabilities), along with the size (β = −0.14) and the density of special schools in a district (β = −0.12). The effects differ according to the population density of the region and are stronger in large cities. When the proportion of students with and without SEN in regular schools is considered (support rate), the density of special schools has the greatest impact on school placement (ß = 43.44). Self-preservation of schools, traditional funding systems and regional differences between urban and rural areas are discussed as possible reasons.     

Friedrich Eberhard von Rochow's Education of_the Children in Rural Communities and its Impact on Urban Educational Reforms in the Eighteenth Century*

Friedrich Eberhard von Rochow (1734-1805) - squire, educational reformer, writer of textbooks and agricultural innovator - tried in the true spirit of Enlightenment to impart the concept of reason to the people, especially countryfolk. In Rochow's view, the rural population's situation had to be improved materially as well as intellectually in order to alleviate the misery of wide sections of the population and thus to achieve an improvement of public welfare. His Enlightenment interest was primarily aimed at pedagogical reforms in order to teach children in the rural communities "how to think" and - influenced through a moral-philosophical thinking at that time - to lay the foundations for moral judgement in their minds. The article deals with the question of what influence Rochow's pedagogical thoughts and school reforms had on other school projects of the Enlightenment. Taking the development of the School of Industry (1788-1811) in Hamburg as an example, I shall take a closer look at the transfer to urban areas of the educational ideas that originally related to the rural space. The development of the School of Industry highlighted the fact that Rochow's pedagogical thoughts could not simply be transferred to the urban space, even though the problem of poverty and a new work ethic had initiated the reform projects in both areas. The different life worlds of city and countryside and, especially, the specific situation and living conditions of the urban underclasses had to be considered for the institutional, organisational and curricular formation of the school project in the city.     

Driving change from ‘the middle’: middle leading for site based educational development

ABSTRACT

Educational researchers have invested much in isolating the specific ‘drivers’ that influence school change and teacher professional development. In this vein, this article draws attention to necessarily situated understandings of practice development through research into the nature of ‘middle leading’ for site based education development in one primary school district in regional Australia. Drawing on practice theory, the analysis reveals how developing and sustaining change in schools is contingent on middle leaders’ insider knowledge, shared responsibility and capacity to sustain and ‘drive’ teachers’ learning. The article argues more situated understandings of middle leading practices are essential for sustainable educational reform.     

Effective Collaboration between Teachers and Parents in Israel: A Strategy for Improvement of the Educational Process

Traditionally the roles of schools and parents have been seen as separate activities. More recently, a view has developed that parents and schools should work together in a close and integrated relationship. The writer discusses the nature of this partnership and the roles of both parents and teachers in it. The nature of the school–parent relationship in Israel is considered. In the final section of the paper, the development of such a partnership in a particular Israeli elementary school is described and evaluated.     

为乡村教育振兴而大力推进乡村学校特色发展

发展中国特色世界先进水平的优质教育是中国城乡教育现代化的共同本质和目标,农村教育现代化是有特色、先进性和高水平的国家教育现代化本质和目标在农村有特色的普遍化。现代化基础教育学校特色是在全面发展教育和素质教育基础上充分体现的学校精气神的个性,是教育理念特色与教育形式特色的统一。发展中国特色世界一流的现代化优质教育必须振兴乡村教育,结合乡村文化、地理等特点,努力推进乡村学校特色发展和乡村教育现代化。     

Teacher collaboration in the context of the Responsive Classroom approach

This mixed‐method study examined characteristics and predictors of teacher collaboration. Limited research exists that describes the characteristics of teacher collaboration, and surprisingly little work explains the ways in which teaching experience and teachers’ perceptions of the school environment influence teacher collaboration. Questionnaire data were collected from a sample of 118 elementary school teachers in six schools in a northeast urban school district, and interviews were conducted with administrators in each school. Three schools were in their second year implementing the Responsive Classroom ^® (RC) approach, and three schools were comparison schools. Teachers reported collaborating approximately once or twice per month, generally with fellow grade‐level teachers about student‐centered topics. Teachers in RC schools reported more frequent formal collaboration than comparison school teachers. In regards to predicting teacher collaboration, teachers who used more RC practices and/or resources reported collaborating more, valuing collaboration to a higher degree, and perceiving greater involvement in school decision‐making, controlling for whether they taught at a RC school. Also, teachers’ perceptions of the school environment related positively to teacher collaboration. The current study adds to the understanding of teacher collaboration and its antecedents, contributing uniquely to the literature on how a school‐wide educational initiative is associated with teachers’ perceptions of their school environment as well as their collaborative behaviors and beliefs.     

Boarding schools: A longitudinal examination of Australian Indigenous and non-Indigenous boarders’ and non-boarders’ wellbeing

Improving educational outcomes for Indigenous Australian students is a key strategy to helping Indigenous people reach their full potential. This has resulted in well-intentioned efforts by Australian educators and governments to ensure Indigenous children have positive school experiences. However, Indigenous students still lag behind their non-Indigenous counterparts in educational outcomes. This is particularly so for Indigenous students living in rural and remote parts of Australia where educational opportunities are limited, especially in high school. One solution to this problem has been to enrol these students in boarding schools in urban and metropolitan centres. While research on the success of boarding schools for Indigenous students is scarce, what little that does exist is not encouraging. The focus of this research was to examine the effects of boarding for Indigenous (n = 11) and non-Indigenous students’ (n = 158) wellbeing (N = 1423) in two large private boys’ schools. Participating students aged 12–18 years old completed a survey measuring wellbeing constructs on two occasions, 12 months apart. Non-Indigenous boys were generally higher in wellbeing compared with Indigenous boys. There was also evidence of improved social wellbeing beyond that of non-Indigenous boarders over time. Overall, while evidence of merit was weak, boarding schools may benefit their Indigenous students’ development in social wellbeing.