‘Bucking the trend’: exploring schools that exceed expectations

This thesis outlines an exploratory study which was undertaken to gain an understanding of the factors influencing good educational outcomes in areas of disadvantage. This empirical study adopts a mixed methods and staged approach in order to: firstly, identify schools located in areas of disadvantage which achieve better than expected outcomes for their students; and, secondly, conduct case study, ethnographic research in selected schools identified at stage one. The research is framed in the Scottish policy context where a key political aim is to raise attainment, with a particular focus on narrowing the poverty related attainment gap. Furthermore, the wider global and macro context of performativity and accountability procedures are noted, alongside a critique of school effectiveness research and the ‘what works’ debate. Next, the theoretical underpinnings of this research study are offered. This theoretical position draws upon the social-ecological model and the work of Pragmatist and Neo-Pragmatist thought, through the work of Mead (1932, 1934a, 1934b, 1938), Dewey (1916, 1938, 1939), and Joas (1996), to highlight the transactional nature of individuals with their environment. Subsequently, a comprehensive review of the themes emerging from academic, policy and theoretical literature are provided. In line with the theoretical position of this study, the ecological nature of schooling and education is a prominent theme. Subsequently, the innovative mixed method approach of the first stage of the research is discussed, alongside the findings from this first stage. Then, the multiple methods drawn upon in the second stage of the research study (in three case study schools) are outlined, with reference to case study and ethnographic intent (Wolcott, 1987) research, and methods drawing upon the mosaic approach (Clark and Moss, 2011). Through these three case studies, the findings detail: young people’s agency and their support systems; the value of positive relational and cultural resources; and, the adverse effects of ‘what works’ approaches and performativity and accountability measures. Key findings which emerge from this research study include: diversity in the understanding of what it is to be successful; the importance of school culture in promoting engagement, providing a sense of belonging and empowering young people, staff and local community; and, the perils of the global phenomenon of performativity for schools which need contextualised solutions to local problems. Possibilities for future research and possible directions to promote individual voices, such as young people and teachers, in the policy making process are then noted. However, as will be emphasised throughout this thesis, the key takeaway idea is the need to allow for more nuanced understandings of each school’s unique ecological context

Ursinus College Alumni Journal, March 1963

The President writes • Dr. McClure\u27s charge to graduating classes • Norman Egbert McClure: A tribute • Faculty memorial minute • Alumni memorial minute • Twenty-five years of the Messiah at Ursinus • As I recall • A gift for the First Lady • Philip L. Corson • Gypsy: Hail and farewell • Controversy at midnight • Two students leave for Peace Corps • Capital funds subscription total $467,392 to date • Capital funds • McClure and Bone memorials • The Century Club • Dining hall news • Mid-year report of 1963 Loyalty Fund campaign • The third alumni seminar • Clawson to be honored • Reimert recognized • Paisley elected college treasurer • Travel seminar • Navy V-12 reunion planned • Church headquarters at Ursinus • You and the future of Ursinus • College costs • Alumni album • Franklin Earnest III, \u2739 • Walter F. Longacre, \u2714 • Lyndell R. Reber, \u2736 • Archer P. Crosley, \u2742 • Robert S. Litwak, \u2745 • Michael R. Deitz, \u2754 • Allan Lake Rice • Dean concludes career • Wrestling • Dryfoos the greatest • Nominees for Alumni Association offices • Class notes • Weddings • Births • Necrology • Regionalshttps://digitalcommons.ursinus.edu/alumnijournal/1076/thumbnail.jp

The Seekers Found: Radical Religion during the English Revolution – A study in their construction by themselves, their opponents and their historians

With the abolition of episcopacy from 1641, ecclesiastical hegemony evaporated and numerous religious groups emerged and filled this void. Each advocated a unique position and believed they alone had the model of the true church. A bewildering plurality of competing models ensued and the emergence of the Seekers was both a constituent of, and a reaction to, these developments. The Seekers were spiritualist Protestants who met in small voluntary, autonomous and usually uncoordinated groups, following the congregational model of the gathered churches. They were unorganised rather than disorganised in their corporate structure and withdrew from organised religion, to varying degrees. Their size and influence peaked in England during the period of Civil War and interregnum known as the English Revolution. They drew considerable attention from hostile contemporaries who described the Seekers as a sect to serve the authors’ own polemical purposes. They have attracted less interest from historians who have described them as a loose movement or an intermediate phase in a spiritual journey towards Quakerism. Both constructions are unsatisfactory, and this thesis contends that the evidence best supports the characterisation of a Seeker milieu containing a number of related, but separate and coherent, spiritualist positions regarding religious belief and practice. Historians have not acknowledged the significant role that disputes with Seekers played in shaping the identity of other contemporary religious groups. This thesis aims to correct this by considering evidence drawn principally from the printed exchanges between different religious groups over the nature of right religion. The argument is focused on the competing constructions of the Seekers by themselves and their opponents including Presbyterians, Independents, Baptists and Quakers. Key methodological problems have included anachronism regarding the definition of terms and what respective weight to give to the various accounts of Seekers when they disagree, as is often the case

Trade unions and the political culture of the British Labour Party, 1931-1940.

The events surrounding the collapse of the second Labour government in the summer of 1931 represented a watershed in twentieth century British politics. They brought to a close the ‘uneasy equilibrium’ which had characterised the country’s political life since 1918, ensconcing a Conservative-dominated National government in power for the remainder of a decade marked by continuing economic uncertainty and the mounting threat of war. They also precipitated a crisis of political identity within the Labour party. Deprived of the founding generation of its leadership and with its parliamentary strength decimated, the ‘gradualist’ approach which had long characterised its politics was seemingly left in tatters. Yet Labour returned to office in 1940 as a key partner in the wartime coalition; in 1945, it secured a sweeping electoral landslide of its own, allowing it to implement much of its traditional programme. It is the contention of this thesis that the party’s recovery during the 1930s was made possible by the crucial contribution of the trade unions. With Labour’s political leadership substantially weakened after 1931, the unions assumed a pivotal role in shaping the party’s direction, to the extent that by 1940, its political culture, organisation and policy had been decisively remade. The identity which developed in these years continued to characterise Labour’s politics for a generation, through the ‘high tide’ of the 1945 Attlee government, into the 1950s and beyond. This was a hugely significant and underappreciated achievement in the context of the destruction of labour movements that attended the retreat of political democracy across much of Europe during the 1930s. This thesis seeks to investigate and understand the crucial contribution of the trade unions to this redevelopment of Labour’s political culture through an exploration of key aspects of the party’s organisation in the period 1931-1940.Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC

Current, November 18, 2002

https://irl.umsl.edu/current2000s/1141/thumbnail.jp