Mutual dependencies : ‘change’ and ‘discourse’

status: publishe

A systemic model for differentiating school technology integration

School technology integration rarely begins with school or educator choice. It is part of a wider context where external and internal factors have direct influence on the goals and tools that are adopted over time. The objective of this study is to investigate the systemic conditions that contribute or inhibit the development of different activities by teachers making use of new media. We compiled a list of well-known conditions for technology integration success and mapped these in the historical and culturally bound perspective of activity theory (cultural historical activity theory). We conducted a multiple case study analysis of four schools, public and private. The results point to unique and distinctive scenarios even when homogeneity would be expected, reinforcing the argument that material conditions do not determine pedagogical outcomes nor do they determine changes in practice. Beyond this, the study proposes a methodology that can help elicit tensions in technology integration, pointing to avenues for school development

Curriculum-making in school and college: The case of hospitality

Drawing upon research in the curriculum of Hospitality, this article explores the contrasting ways in which the prescribed curriculum is translated into the enacted curriculum is school and college contexts. It identifies organisational culture and teacher and student backgrounds and dispositions as central to the emerging contrasts. It uses this evidence to argue that the evolution of credit frameworks which assume a rational curriculum is unhelpful in understanding the multiple plays of difference in learning and the enacted curriculu

ATMOSPHERIC RIVERS AND THEIR ROLE IN EXTREME PRECIPITATION IN THE MIDWEST U.S.

Two case studies are presented of atmospheric rivers (ARs) that produced heavy precipitation in the Midwest U.S. during March 2008 and October 2009. A third case study demonstrating an AR with normal precipitation in the Midwest is also included for comparison. The analyses used the Climate Forecast System Reanalysis (CFSR) data sets for identification of ARs and analysis. The study documents several key ingredients that contribute to differentiating between events of extreme precipitation and normal precipitation. The primary findings of this study are as follows 1) the induced flow due to the low-level/surface temperature anomaly plays an important role in transporting moisture from the Caribbean northward to the Midwest, 2) the induced wind field from a strong upper-level potential vorticity (PV) anomaly increases moisture flux from the Gulf and decreases static stability, which favors convective precipitation, and 3) heavy precipitation events are preceded approximately 9 hours by an increasing, positive moisture flux occurring across the northern Gulf Coast.http://archive.org/details/atmosphericriver1094532835Captain, United States Air ForceApproved for public release; distribution is unlimited

Levels and equivalence in credit and qualifications frameworks: Contrasting the prescribed and enacted curriculum in school and college

Drawing on data from an empirical study of three matched subjects in upper secondary school and further education college in Scotland, this article explores some of the factors that result in differences emerging from the translation of the prescribed curriculum into the enacted curriculum. We argue that these differences raise important questions about equivalences which are being promoted through the development of credit and qualifications frameworks. The article suggests that the standardisation associated with the development of a rational credit and qualifications framework and an outcomes-based prescribed curriculum cannot be achieved precisely because of the multiplicity that emerges from the practices of translation

Learning from the early adopters: developing the digital practitioner

This paper explores how Sharpe and Beetham’s Digital Literacies Framework which was derived to model students’ digital literacies, can be applied to lecturers’ digital literacy practices. Data from a small-scale phenomenological study of higher education lecturers who used Web 2.0 in their teaching and learning practices are used to examine if this pyramid model represents their motivations for adopting technology-enhanced learning in their pedagogic practices. The paper argues that whilst Sharpe and Beetham’s model has utility in many regards, these lecturers were mainly motivated by the desire to achieve their pedagogic goals rather than by a desire to become a digital practitioner

How new technology is addressed by researchers in educational studies: approaches from high-performing universities in China and the UK

There is a crisis of expectation in relation to educational technology. This is sometimes interpreted as a failure of academic researchers to disseminate their work to educational practitioners. However, another interpretation dwells on the lack of vision characterising such research. Because teachers often encounter research most intensely during their own pre-service and in-service education, we review academic research here through a snapshot of output from 10 leading university Education departments sampled in the UK and China. Empirical papers with a central interest in new technology were scarce, representing around 10% of the sample. Research was strongly situated in 'classroom' contexts although, as critics have suggested, with limited attention to the wider ecology of those places and with teachers being the focal interest as much as students. An 'outcomes' research orientation was less common than an interest in process. Although this was approached with different methodologies in China and the UK. Discussion addresses the challenge of effective and authoritative dissemination and constraints arising from the political economy of research itself

Transforming teacher education, an activity theory analysis

This paper explores the work of teacher education in England and Scotland. It seeks to locate this work within conflicting socio-cultural views of professional practice and academic work. Drawing on an activity theory framework that integrates the analysis of these contradictory discourses with a study of teacher educators’ practical activities, including the material artefacts that mediate the work, the paper offers a critical perspective on the social organisation of university-based teacher education. Informed by Engeström’s activity theory concept of transformation, the paper extends the discussion of contradictions in teacher education to consider the wider socio-cultural relations of the work. The findings raise important questions about the way in which teacher education work within universities is organised and the division of labour between schools and universities

Young children engaging with technologies at home: the influence of family context

This paper is about with the ways in which young children engage with technological toys and resources at home and, in particular, the ways in which the family context makes a difference to young children’s engagement with these technologies. The data reviewed come from family interviews and parent-recorded video of four case study children as they used specific resources: a screen-based games console designed for family use, a technology-mediated reading scheme, a child’s games console and two technological ‘pets’. We found the same repertoire of direct pedagogical actions across the families when they supported their children’s use of the resources, yet the evidence makes it clear that the child’s experience was different in each home. The paper goes on to present evidence that four dimensions of family context made a difference to children’s engagement with technological toys and resources at home. We argue that understanding children’s experiences with technologies at home necessitates finding out about the distinct family contexts in which they engage with the resources