Research and pupil voice

"There are many reasons for involving children and young people in the process of research (Kirby, Lanyon, Kronin, & Sinclairl,2003). We may for example believe that the research will be better or more meaningful,and have greater validity in revealing children’s views and experiences. Additionally we may believe in the importance of democratic participation, and that children should contribute to the decision-making process in the development of aspects of their lives that particularly concern them. We may also as educators recognize that contributing to the research process provides an important vehicle for personal development. There is therefore a growing body of interest in developing research that might be described as participatory,whether this involves ensuring that the voices of all children are included, extends to the active engagement of children in the research process, or (as in emancipatory research traditions) involves children explicitly leading the research process.

Property Rights, Standards of Living, and Economic Growth: Western Canadian Cree

The Great Divergence in standards of living for populations around the world occurred in the late 18th century. Prior to that date, evidence suggests that real wages of most Europeans, many living in China and India were similar. Some were a little higher and some a little lower, but with a low dispersion. By the middle of the 19th century, a divergence had occurred with western Europe pulling away from other groups. Little is known about the standards of living of the aboriginal peoples of North America many of whom were primarily hunter/gatherers at the end of the 18th century. Based on comparisons of expenditure, we show that the standard of living of aboriginal people in 1740 was similar to that of wage workers in London. However, within the next century, there would be a great divergence. This paper explores the ways in which hunter-gatherer lifeways and the concomitant property rights structures reduced the likelihood that native economy could experience modern rates of economic growth. Native society and property rights structures which provided a relatively high standard of living in the mid eighteenth century and for part of the nineteenth were unable to provide avenues for further development.native americans, living standards, property rights

Do all countries follow the same growth process?

We estimate a finite mixture model in which countries are sorted into groups based on the similarity of the conditional distributions of their growth rates. We strongly reject the hypothesis that all countries follow a common growth process in favor of a model in which there are two classes of countries, each with its own distinct growth process. Group membership does not conform to the usual categories used to control for parameter heterogeneity such as region or income. However, we find strong evidence that one country characteristic that helps to sort countries into different regimes is the quality of institutions, specifically, the degree of law and order. Once institutional features of the economy are controlled for, we find no evidence that geographic characteristics play a role in determining the country groupings.finite mixture models; multiple equilibria; institutional quality

Prospective Teachers of Secondary School Learners: Learning to Teach - Teaching to Learn?

Prospective teachers in their third year of a Bachelor of Education degree in secondary teacher education use a journal to respond to a range of questions about their experiences as learners prior to, during and after their first practicum. These stories are used as a source of data to analyze how 14 prospective secondary teachers understand the interaction between university–based and school-based studies; the points of conjunction and disjunction that they experience. The paper shows that during the first teaching practicum their ideas about learners and pedagogy are challenged and argues that more can be done in both the university and school to make ‘learning to teach’ a more connected experience for prospective teachers. This will require greater collaboration in a number of areas, along with the removal of structural barriers such as time and money

West Point Women: An Oral History of the West Point Experience and Leader Identity Development

Although women have been at the United States Military Academy (USMA) at West Point for over 40 years, they are an understudied group. This omission also encompasses studies about leader development and leader identity development. Over the years, West Point has focused its leadership research on identifying predictors of leadership performance and, with the integration of women cadets, merely added them into their studies to see if they had the same predictors as men. Other than this shift, the literature neglects how women’s experiences at West Point affected their leader identity development. To address this knowledge blind spot, this study employed feminist oral history to capture memories and stories of women from the Class of 1985, the sixth West Point class to include women. The artifact-elicitation interviews focused on how these alumnae interpreted the way their West Point experiences informed their leader identity development at the Academy, in the Army, in subsequent civilian careers, and today. The intense holistic West Point leadership experience was not the only factor that informed the women’s leader identities. Being members of a small, marginalized group at a male-dominated, hypermasculine institution also played a significant role. The effects of tokenism, sexism, misogyny, and sexual misconduct added extra layers of challenge to the women’s journeys. As junior officers in a Cold War Army where they were often even more underrepresented, the women drew on and adapted the lessons learned from West Point to be effective leaders. Lessons from West Point continued to inform the women’s leader identities in subsequent civilian careers and in raising families and/or caretaking. This study helped fill a gap in the understanding of women’s experiences at West Point, especially around leader identity development, and was the first study to take a longitudinal approach. Future studies on West Point women from subsequent decades would help increase overall understanding of the experiences of women at West Point, in the Army, and in other traditionally male-dominated institutions like STEM. In addition, a more qualitative approach to understanding the leader identity development of all cadets would help make the leadership research at West Point more in-depth and robust

A Collective Case Study to Examine Administrators\u27 Instructional Leadership Perspective of the Role of Instructional Coaches and Teacher Librarians in California Public Schools

The purpose of this collective case study was to develop an understanding of why California K-12 public school administrators distribute instructional leadership responsibilities to either instructional coaches or teacher librarians and how the two roles compare within the context of the implementation of the California Common Core State Standards in ELA/Literacy. The study addressed the following research questions: Why do administrators select instructional coaches/teacher librarians to help them provide instructional leadership? How do administrators and instructional coaches/teacher librarians work together to provide professional learning within daily instructional practice? How do administrators evaluate the effectiveness of the instructional coaches’/teacher librarians’ instructional leadership roles? Participants were district administrators who oversee the population, site administrators who directly supervise site-based instructional coaches or teacher librarians, and the corresponding instructional coaches and teacher librarians. Data were collected from multiple sources, including documents, interviews, observations, and focus groups with participants. Within-case and cross-case analyses were conducted to develop a naturalistic generalization of what was learned about how the coach and teacher librarian contributed to instructional leadership. Results demonstrated that administrators’ personal values influence their decisions to select and utilize instructional coaches or teacher librarians to provide instructional leadership. Instructional coaches are considered to be extensions of administrators as instructional leaders in ELA while teacher librarians are considered to be resources that can be called upon to provide occasional instructional support in ELA