19,796 research outputs found
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Where measurement stops: A review of systematic reviews exploring international research evidence on the impact of staff qualification levels in ECEC on the experiences of, and outcomes for, children and families.
Qualifications vary widely for those employed within the ECEC sector; this is of particular concern within the English context where questions are raised about sustainability. An inconsistent approach to training and qualifications has contributed to a perception of ECEC as low skilled work. Apprenticeships and part-time distance learning courses have become commonplace, enabling practitioners to work and study concurrently; however, this strategy has blurred the boundaries between initial training and CPD.
There is a persistent concern about how to improve educational attainment for young children. In the English context, the Early Years Workforce Strategy (DfE 2017) acknowledged the impact of specialised graduates. Other evidence notes that better qualified practitioners provide higher quality provision (Mathers et al. 2011) and that such provision is positively associated with children’s attainment and progress throughout primary school (Sylva et al. 2011). More recently, Bonetti and Blanden (2020) found a small positive association between the presence of graduate level staff in private, voluntary, and independent settings and 5-year-olds’ attainment on the Early Years Foundation Stage Profile (EYFSP) (DfE 2018) although the authors note that improved outcomes were modest.
It is widely accepted that quality in ECEC matters to the families of young children. In the context of England, successive governments have committed to the expansion of fully subsidised ‘15-hour’ and ‘30-hour’ provision for 2-4 year olds, not only to promote children’s development, but also to support parental employment, particularly for disadvantaged families. Previous initiatives to support parents and families, such as the Sure Start local programmes, found positive impacts for parents and families yet spending cuts have led to more than 30% of Sure Start Centres (more than 1000) closing since 2009 (Smith et al. 2018). A renewed interest in impact on families has been referenced recently in the enhancement of Family Hubs and a discussion of how they may build on existing Sure Start provision (DHSC 2021).
In 2021, it is impossible to consider the experiences of young children and their families without acknowledging the ongoing context of Covid-19. The pandemic situation has impacted both children and families in many ways, including their access to quality education and care, thus worsening an already precarious situation. A further layer of complexity and concern is the impact of pervasive inequalities on the lives of many young children and their families; around 4.3 million children were noted as living in poverty in the UK in 2020 with numbers rising to include the impact of the pandemic (Hirsch and Stone 2021).
Our findings are based on the analysis of 25 reviews which included over 764 research studies. These reviews focused on research evidence of the relationship between practitioner qualifications/training and their links to better outcomes for young children and their families. Reviews were included in the study following a systematic review process based on protocols established by the Evidence for Policy and Practice Information and Co-ordinating Centre (EPPI-Centre) (Gough, Oliver, and Thomas 2012). Internationally published literature (written in English) was searched using EBSCO (to include ASC, BEI, ERC and ERIC) and SCOPUS. The search took place in October 2020 and fields included were titles, abstracts and keywords; the search strategy is set out in Appendix 1. Publications were limited to those published between 2002-2020. Inclusion and exclusion criteria were applied to the initial 18579 articles to arrive at the 25 articles analysed for our report
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Families as support and burden: a mixed methods exploration of the extent to which family identification and support predicts reductions in stress among disadvantaged neighbourhood residents
Stronger family relationships predict positive health outcomes: a relationship that is partially due to the range of emotional, practical and informational support that families can provide. Yet not all families possess these resources. A survey study in a disadvantaged community in Nottingham, UK (N=142) demonstrated that family identification positively predicts ability to cope with financial stress, but that this relationship is moderated by whether family support is present or absent. Semi-structured interviews with 10 members of different families from the same community shed further light upon the nature of this relationship: individuals report that they tend to turn to their family rather than friends or community services in times of financial hardship, even though their family are unlikely to be able to support them effectively, and that this is often due to feelings of embarrassment or finance-related stigma. Our findings highlight the complex role that families can play in finance-related issues, as well as the need to encourage individuals to seek financial support from sources which provide effective (rather than emotionally comfortable) assistance
Educació postural: avaluació dels coneixements de la salut de l'esquena en activitats de la vida diària en estudiants d'Educació Secundària
Objectiu: Dissenyar i validar un qüestionari sobre coneixements de la salut i la cura de l’esquena en activitats de la vida diària en joves També analizar diferents models de puntuació de les respostes.
Metodologia: Es va seguir un mètode general de prospectiva (Delphi), amb el consens d’un grup de sis experts. Estudi de consistencia interna i fiabilitat en una mostra de 89 xics i 80 xiques. Amb les dades obteses aplicació de cinc models de puntuació basats en donar un pes diferent a les respostes. Consistència interna del qüestionari calculada amb l'Alfa de Cronbach amb cadascú dels models. Estudi de la fiabilitat amb l'anàlisi de mesures repetides test-retest i l’estudi de l’error de mesura amb la representació gràfica dels valors descrita per Bland i Altman. Es calcularen les desviacions estàndard de les diferències, la prova t per a una mostra amb les diferències, els coeficients de correlació intraclasse i els seus intervals de confiança del 95%, l’error estàndard de mesura, el canvi mínim detectable i el coeficient de reproductibilitat. Efecte sòl/sostre calculat amb els percentatges de resposta més alts i més baixos en les puntuacions del primer passe. Per a l'anàlisi de la capacitat discriminatòria de les puntuacions obtingudes es van utilitzar les mitjanes totals del primer passe, es va reagrupar la variable en quatre grups per quartils i es va aplicar una ANOVA d'un factor entres el quartil 1 y el quartil 4.
Resultats: Anàlisi de la validesa tots els valors obtesos sobre la consistència interna són iguals o majors a .6 Als diferents models, l'Alfa de Cronbach va oscil·lar entre .6 i .7. En la representació de les puntuacions mitjanes de totes dues passades i el càlcul del pendent de la seua funció lineal hi ha una relació positiva entre les mesures. El valor del pendent, en tots els models al voltant de .7 excepte en el model C que va ser de .56. L’índex de determinació va mostrar un nivell de coherència de les mesures reals amb les teòriques moderat Coeficient de correlació entre les puntuacions i el coeficient de correlació intraclasse igual o major a .75. Error de mesura i límits d'acord de les puntuacions calculats a partir de la desviació típica de la diferència de les mitjanes van indicar una probabilitat molt baixa de ser diferents entre ells.
L'efecte sòl/sostre va indicar que aquest efecte no es va produir L'anàlisi de regressió de les mitjanes i diferències de les puntuacions totals de tots els models va indicar un augment significatiu de les diferències en les puntuacions a mesura que el valor mitjà d'aquestes va augmentar.
Les diferències entre tots els models van ser significatives.
Conclusions: Es presenta un qüestionari per a mesurar els coneixements sobre la postura corporal i la cura de l'esquena en activitats de la vida diària en adolescents validat. Es determina que les mateixes dades, es poden analitzar utilitzant diferents models, proporcionant cadascun d#aquests informació diferent
Building body identities - exploring the world of female bodybuilders
This thesis explores how female bodybuilders seek to develop and maintain a viable sense of self despite being stigmatized by the gendered foundations of what Erving Goffman (1983) refers to as the 'interaction order'; the unavoidable presentational context in which identities are forged during the course of social life. Placed in the context of an overview of the historical treatment of women's bodies, and a concern with the development of bodybuilding as a specific form of body modification, the research draws upon a unique two year ethnographic study based in the South of England, complemented by interviews with twenty-six female bodybuilders, all of whom live in the U.K. By mapping these extraordinary women's lives, the research illuminates the pivotal spaces and essential lived experiences that make up the female bodybuilder. Whilst the women appear to be embarking on an 'empowering' radical body project for themselves, the consequences of their activity remains culturally ambivalent. This research exposes the 'Janus-faced' nature of female bodybuilding, exploring the ways in which the women negotiate, accommodate and resist pressures to engage in more orthodox and feminine activities and appearances
Learning to listen: downstream effects of listening training on employees' relatedness, burnout, and turnover intentions
Abstract: The present work focuses on listening training as an example of a relational human resource practice that can improve human resource outcomes: Relatedness to colleagues, burnout, and turnover intentions. In two quasi‐field experiments, employees were assigned to either a group listening training or a control condition. Both immediately after training and after 3 weeks later, receiving listening training was shown to be linked to higher feelings of relatedness with colleagues, lower burnout, and lower turnover intentions. These findings suggest that listening training can be harnessed as a powerful human resource management tool to cultivate stronger relationships at work. The implications for Relational Coordination Theory, High‐Quality Connections Theory, and Self‐Determination Theory are discussed
'The talk': risk, racism and family relationships
Parents employ a wide range of anticipatory strategies to prepare their children for, and protect them against, risks of racism. This paper argues that, whilst black children need to be equipped with the skills and understanding to navigate racist societies, these practices are also the site of a significant injustice for minority families. Specifically, the imperative to take strategic steps to protect children against threats of racism creates unfair barriers to the enjoyment of some valuable relationship-based goods. In advancing this argument, the paper brings recent philosophical work on the family into dialogue with a rapidly developing body of empirical research on racial and ethnic socialization. I show that Brighouse and Swift’s “familial relationship goods” framework generates a valuable new perspective on some contested empirical terrain. But I also highlight, and seek to begin to redress, a problematic silence on race within contemporary philosophy of the family
Creativity and security as a cultural recipe for entrepreneurship
We posit that societal cultural values of creativity and security are associated with the likelihood that a person will engage in a business start-up. Creativity supports the opportunity identification and security the opportunity exploitation aspects of entrepreneurship. In contrast, both emphasis on performance and acceptance of risk-taking may not play the role that is typically assumed. To verify our hypotheses we construct a multilevel dataset, combining Global Entrepreneurship Monitor individual-level data with country-level data from the World Values Survey. We use a multilevel logit model to address the hierarchical structure of our data. We found that odds of start-up engagement are higher if people in a society value security, yet also appreciate thinking up new ideas and being creative. Our results support McCloskey’s distinction between aristocratic and bourgeois values, and John and Storr’s proposition that different cultural traits support different aspects of entrepreneurship
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Co-design As Healing: Exploring The Experiences Of Participants Facing Mental Health Problems
This thesis is an exploration of the healing role of co-design in mental health. Although co-design projects conducted within mental health settings are rising, existing literature tends to focus on the object of design and its outcomes while the experiences of participants per se remain largely unexplored. The guiding research question of this study is not how we design things that improve mental health, but how co-designing, as an act, might do so.
The thesis presents two projects that were organized in collaboration with the mental health charity Islington Mind and the Psychosis Therapy Project (PTP) in London.
The project at Islington Mind used a structured design process inviting participants to design for wellbeing. A case study analysis provides insights on how participants were impacted, summarizing key challenges and opportunities.
The design at PTP worked towards creating a collective brief in an emergent fashion, finally culminating in a board game. The experiences of participants were explored through Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA), using semi-structured interview data. The analysis served to identify key themes characterising the experience of co-design such as contributing, connecting, thinking and intentioning. In addition, a mixed-methods analysis of questionnaires and interview data exploring participants' wellbeing, showed that all participants who engaged fairly consistently in the project improved after the project ended, although some participants' scores returned to baseline six months later.
Reflecting on both projects, an approach to facilitation within mental health is outlined, detailing how the dimensions of weaving and layered participation, nurturing mattering and facilitating attitudes interlace. This contribution raises awareness of tacit dimensions in the practice of facilitation, articulating the nuances of how to encourage and sustain meaningful and ethical engagement and offering insights into a range of tools. It highlights the importance of remaining reflexive in relation to attitudes and emotions and discusses practical methodological and ethical challenges and ways to resolve them which can be of benefit to researchers embarking on a similar journey.
The thesis also offers detailed insights on how methodologies from different fields were integrated into a whole, arguing for transparency and reflexivity about epistemological assumptions, and how underlying paradigms shift in an interdisciplinary context.
Based on the overall findings, the thesis makes a case for considering design as healing (or a designerly way of healing), highlighting implications at a systems, social and individual level. It makes an original contribution to our understanding of design, highlighting its healing character, and proposes a new way to support mental health. The participants in this study not only had increased their own wellbeing through co-designing, but were also empowered and contributed towards healing the world. Hence, the thesis argues for a unique, holistic perspective of design and mental health, recognizing the interconnectedness of the individual, social and systemic dimensions of the healing processes that are ignited
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Meaning-Making Practices of Emergent Arabic–English Bilingual Kindergarten Children in Cairo
The number of British Schools in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region is growing. The National Curriculum of England is used by an increasing number of such schools. As well as exporting a culturally-specific curriculum, these schools usually adopt an ideology of monolingualism, thus potentially limiting communication for emergent bilinguals and failing to acknowledge the multiple ways of meaning-making.
Current studies of translanguaging are moving the focus to multimodal forms of communication as a resource for thinking and communicating (García and Wei 2014, Wei 2018). Building on the work of Kress (1997, 2010) I explore pre-school emergent bilinguals’ wider signifying practices and create an analytical framework, which I call MMTL (multimodal translanguaging), used as a lens to illustrate meaning-making.
Valley Hill in Cairo, Egypt is a British school which encourages ‘English-only’ as the medium of instruction in the kindergarten. Using a case study methodology, this research explores the meaning-making practices of eight emergent bilingual children aged 3–4 during child-initiated play, later reduced to four in the thesis to provide a detailed multimodal analysis. The principal aim is to explore their speech, gaze, gesture, and their engagement (layout/position) with artefacts during play.
The findings of this study suggest that although there is an ‘English-only’ approach, these young emergent bilingual children are meaning-making in a variety of ways. Children are translanguaging but it is never in isolation from other modes of communication. Emergent bilinguals use a range of modes to mediate their understanding and communication with others. They use gesture, gaze, and artefacts alongside translingual practices to move meaning across to more accessible modes, enabling communication and understanding. The implications for schools should be to embrace such hybrid practices and for teachers to be more responsive to young children’s meaning-making to enable learning
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