Imagining inclusive teachers: contesting policy assumptions in relation to the development of inclusive practice in schools

In this paper we reflect on data from two research projects in which inclusive practice in schools is at issue, in the light of wider field experience (our own and others’) of school and teacher development. We question what we understand to be relatively common, implicit policy assumptions about how teachers develop, by examining the way in which teachers are portrayed and located in these projects. The examples discussed in this paper draw on experience in Lao PDR and Bangladesh, critically exploring teachers’ roles, position and agency in practice. Similarities and differences rooted in cultural, political and institutional contexts highlight in a very productive way the significance and potential dangers of policy assumptions about teachers within the process of development. In Bangladesh, a success story is presented: the case of a group of schools in which an institutional context for learning appears to sustain teachers’ commitment and motivation, with the effect of creating meaningful outcomes for young people who were previously outside the education system. These data raise questions about the significance of institutional context to teachers’ practices, and questions about approaches to teacher development which omit consideration of that context by, for example, focusing inadvertently on features of individual teachers. We then consider teachers’ responses to the movement for inclusive education in a school in the Lao PDR since 2004. Inclusion here was understood to require a significant shift in teacher identity and a movement away from authoritative pedagogy towards the facilitation of a pedagogy which aimed to encourage the active participation of all students. Through a longitudinal study of teachers in one school, the conditions for such change were identified and again cast doubt on some of the assumptions behind large-scale attempts at teacher development. Reflecting on these experiences and the evidence they provide, we suggest that teacher development programmes are more likely to be effective where teachers are considered not as individuals subject to training but as agents located in an influential institutional context

Polarized Neutron Matter: A Lowest Order Constrained Variational Approach

In this paper, we calculate some of the polarized neutron matter properties, using the lowest order constrained variational method with the $AV_{18}$ potential and employing a microscopic point of view. A comparison is also made between our results and those of other many-body techniques.Comment: 23 pages, 8 figure

Concepts and procedures used to determine certain sea wave characteristics

A technique and its application are presented by which wave parameters, critical to spacecraft water impact load analysis, may be determined

The age and abundance structure of the stellar populations in the central sub-kpc of the Milky Way

The four main findings about the age and abundance structure of the Milky Way bulge based on microlensed dwarf and subgiant stars are: (1) a wide metallicity distribution with distinct peaks at [Fe/H]=-1.09, -0.63, -0.20, +0.12, +0.41; (2) a high fraction of intermediate-age to young stars where at [Fe/H]>0 more than 35 % are younger than 8 Gyr, (3) several episodes of significant star formation in the bulge 3, 6, 8, and 11 Gyr ago; (4) the `knee' in the alpha-element abundance trends of the sub-solar metallicity bulge appears to be located at a slightly higher [Fe/H] (about 0.05 to 0.1 dex) than in the local thick disk.Comment: 4 pages, contributed talk at the IAU Symposium 334 "Rediscovering our Galaxy" in Potsdam, July 10-14, 201

Optimal experimental design for cytogenetic dose-response calibration curves

Purpose: To introduce optimal experimental design techniques in the cytogenetic biological dosimetry practice. This includes the development of a new optimality criterion for the calibration of radiation doses. Materials and Methods: The most typical optimal design criterion and the one developed in this research are introduced and applied in an example from the litera- ture. In another example from the literature, a simulation study has been performed to compare the standard error of the dose estimation using different experimental designs. An RStudio project and a GitHub project have been developed to repro- duce these results. Results: In the paper it is observed that the application of optimal experimental design techniques can reduce the standard error of biodosimetric dose estimations. Conclusions: Optimal experimental design techniques jointly with practitioners re- quirements may be applied. This practice would not involve an additional laboratory work