Schools and civil society : corporate or community governance

School improvement depends upon mediating the cultural conditions of learning as young people journey between their parochial worlds and the public world of cosmopolitan society. Governing bodies have a crucial role in including or diminishing the representation of different cultural traditions and in enabling or frustrating the expression of voice and deliberation of differences whose resolution is central to the mediation of and responsiveness to learning needs. A recent study of governing bodies in England and Wales argues that the trend to corporatising school governance will diminish the capacity of schools to learn how they can understand cultural traditions and accommodate them in their curricula and teaching strategies. A democratic, stakeholder model remains crucial to the effective practice of governing schools. By deliberating and reconciling social and cultural differences, governance constitutes the practices for mediating particular and cosmopolitan worlds and thus the conditions for engaging young people in their learning, as well as in the preparation for citizenship in civil society

Policy writers conceptions of language and communication in one higher education institution

Ball argues that ‘policy authors do make concerted efforts to assert control [of readings] by the means at their disposal … [and that] we need to understand those efforts’ (Ball, 1994, p. 16). Efforts by policy authors to control readings are influenced by their own assumptions about the nature of language, texts and communication. This paper explores the models of language and communication held by policy writers within one HEI and how these influence the strategies they use to try to control interpretations of policy texts. The dominant conceptions of language and communication that emerge underestimate the active work of the ‘receivers’ of policy texts and the need for shared understanding of the social situation in constructing meanings. This leads to a misguided attempt to reduce the ‘implementation gap’ by modifying formal features of policy texts

The impact of research on education policy in an era of evidence-based policy

Currently, when there is a lot of political talk about the need for evidence-based policy', and when public policy seeks to calibrate research quality and impact, there is a pressing need to reconsider the relationships between education/al research and education policy. This article seeks to do this, beginning with considerations of the contested and changing character and practices of education, education policy and education/al research, and the competing and complex definitions of the meaning of research impact. The article considers the distinctions between research of and research for policy. The apparently disjunctive cultures of academic research and policy-making in education are documented for understanding research-policy relationships in education. Yet, there is also a need to acknowledge the overlap between these cultures, particularly in respect of the categories of policy-makers and researchers and movement across the categories in career terms. The article demonstrates that research affects policy in multiple, yet mediated ways in varying timeframes. The more academic research usually has its effects in the longer term, impacting the assumptive worlds of policy-makers, while commissioned research seeks more direct shorter-term impact. Finally, we also need to consider the capacities of policy-makers and educational systems to be receptive to research

Pancreatic deletion of insulin receptor substrate 2 reduces beta and alpha cell mass and impairs glucose homeostasis in mice

<p>Aims/hypothesis: Insulin signalling pathways regulate pancreatic beta cell function. Conditional gene targeting using the Cre/loxP system has demonstrated that mice lacking insulin receptor substrate 2 (IRS2) in the beta cell have reduced beta cell mass. However, these studies have been complicated by hypothalamic deletion when the RIPCre (B6.Cg-tg(Ins2-cre)25Mgn/J) transgenic mouse (expressing Cre recombinase under the control of the rat insulin II promoter) is used to delete floxed alleles in insulin-expressing cells. These features have led to marked insulin resistance making the beta cell-autonomous role of IRS2 difficult to determine. To establish the effect of deleting Irs2 only in the pancreas, we generated PIrs2KO mice in which Cre recombinase expression was driven by the promoter of the pancreatic and duodenal homeobox factor 1 (Pdx1, also known as Ipf1) gene.</p> <p>Materials and methods: In vivo glucose homeostasis was examined in PIrs2KO mice using glucose tolerance and glucose-stimulated insulin secretion tests. Endocrine cell mass was determined by morphometric analysis. Islet function was examined in static cultures and by performing calcium imaging in Fluo3am-loaded beta cells. Islet gene expression was determined by RT-PCR.</p> <p>Results: The PIrs2KO mice displayed glucose intolerance and impaired glucose-stimulated insulin secretion in vivo. Pancreatic insulin and glucagon content and beta and alpha cell mass were reduced. Glucose-stimulated insulin secretion and calcium mobilisation were attenuated in PIrs2KO islets. Expression of the Glut2 gene (also known as Slc2a2) was also reduced in PIrs2KO mice.</p> <p>Conclusions/interpretation: These studies suggest that IRS2-dependent signalling in pancreatic islets is required not only for the maintenance of normal beta and alpha cell mass but is also involved in the regulation of insulin secretion.</p&gt

The Way to a Boy's Heart? New Mechanisms for Making Boys Better

This paper situates the current educational focus on boys in the wider context of a workplace culture of performativity and enterprise. The authors argue that the present focus on reclaiming boys’ emotions parallels important shifts in the corporate sector to privilege the ‘soft skills’ of service and social interaction over the hard skills of boss management. However, in a departure from an earlier generation of correspondence theorists, the authors do not understand this ‘correspondence’ of schooling and industry needs as merely repressive. The new work culture is a service culture, and boys are being expected to have the requisite skills (of social service) in order to have jobs in the future. The first part of the paper provides a critique of the new essentialism that appears to underpin many of the social and educational intervention programs being conducted on behalf of Australian boys. The second part of the paper explains how such programs work as part of a larger logic about the sort of skills necessary to the ‘globalised’ workplace. The argument is made here that, for better and worse, this work which teachers are being asked to do allows boys to be redeemed as victims of their biology rather than ‘behavioural problems’. In being re-formed from villain to victim, boys can be become ‘better’ and more productive at the same time

Abordagem do ciclo de políticas: uma contribuição para a análise de políticas educacionais Policy cycle approach: a contribution to the analysis of educational policies

Este artigo discute as contribuições da "policy cycle approach" (abordagem do ciclo de políticas) para a análise de políticas educacionais. Essa abordagem foi formulada por Stephen Ball e Richard Bowe e tem sido utilizada em diferentes contextos como referencial teórico-analítico para o estudo de políticas educacionais. O texto apresenta as idéias centrais da referida abordagem, o debate em torno desta e suas contribuições para a análise de políticas educacionais. O texto apresenta também um conjunto de questões norteadoras para a análise da trajetória de políticas ou programas educacionais com base nos cinco contextos do ciclo de políticas: contexto de influência, contexto da produção de texto, contexto da prática, contexto dos resultados/efeitos e contexto de estratégia política. O artigo argumenta que essa abordagem se constitui num referencial analítico útil e que permite uma análise crítica e contextualizada de programas e políticas educacionais desde sua formulação até a sua implementação no contexto da prática, bem como os seus resultados/efeitos.<br>This paper discusses the contributions of the 'policy cycle approach' to analyze educational policies. Formulated by Stephen Ball and Richard Bowe, such approach has been applied in different contexts as a theoretical and analytical framework to examine educational policies. This paper presents the main ideas of this approach, the debate surrounding it, and its contribution to the analysis of educational policies. Based on the five contexts of the policy cycle, namely: influence, text production, practice, outcomes and the political strategy; this paper also presents a set of questions to the trajectory analysis of educational policies or programs. It argues that this approach is a useful analytical framework that allows a critical and contextualized analysis of programs and educational policies from their formulation to their implementation in the context of practice as well as the policy effects

Reducing Carryover Effects on the Migration and Spawning Success of Sockeye Salmon through a Management Experiment of Dam Flows

Effective dam management requires an understanding of the ecological impact of a facility and its operations on individual fish and fish populations. Traversing high flows downstream of dams is an energetically challenging activity that could influence survival and spawning success following passage. Carryover effects, however, are an underappreciated consequence of dam passage that have been overlooked by researchers and natural resource managers. We conducted a large-scale management experiment to determine if the operation of dam attraction flows could be changed to reduce high sockeye salmon Oncorhynchus nerka mortality following passage and increase spawning success. We tested two flow conditions: (i) a baseline condition-currently used by managers-that released high attraction flows directly adjacent to the entrance to a vertical-slot fishway and (ii) an alternative condition that released attraction flows 10m away from the fishway entrance to reduce the flows fish swim through while approaching the passage structure. We tagged 637 sockeye salmon with telemetry tags to monitor dam passage, post-passage survival to spawning grounds and spawning success under the two flow conditions. Validated fish counters at the exit of the fishway and on spawning grounds were used to generate population level estimates of survival to spawning grounds. Individuals exposed to baseline flow conditions spent two times longer recovering from dam passage and exhibited 10% higher mortality following passage than those exposed to alternative flows. Release of alternative flows for 10days assisted approximately 550 fish (or 3% of total spawners) in reaching spawning grounds. Once on spawning grounds, female spawning success was strongly influenced by individual spawning characteristics (longevity and date of arrival on spawning grounds) and not dam flow condition. Our findings highlight a cost-effective solution that decreases mortality following passage simply by altering the location of dam flow releases and not reductions in discharge

Coordinated multitissue transcriptional and plasma metabonomic profiles following acute caloric restriction in mice

Caloric restriction (CR) increases healthy life span in a range of organisms. The underlying mechanisms are not understood but appear to include changes in gene expression, protein function, and metabolism. Recent studies demonstrate that acute CR alters mortality rates within days in flies. Multitissue transcriptional changes and concomitant metabolic responses to acute CR have not been described. We generated whole genome RNA transcript profiles in liver, skeletal muscle, colon, and hypothalamus and simultaneously measured plasma metabolites using proton nuclear magnetic resonance in mice subjected to acute CR. Liver and muscle showed increased gene expressions associated with fatty acid metabolism and a reduction in those involved in hepatic lipid biosynthesis. Glucogenic amino acids increased in plasma, and gene expression for hepatic gluconeogenesis was enhanced. Increased expression of genes for hormone-mediated signaling and decreased expression of genes involved in protein binding and development occurred in hypothalamus. Cell proliferation genes were decreased and cellular transport genes increased in colon. Acute CR captured many, but not all, hepatic transcriptional changes of long-term CR. Our findings demonstrate a clear transcriptional response across multiple tissues during acute CR, with congruent plasma metabolite changes. Liver and muscle switched gene expression away from energetically expensive biosynthetic processes toward energy conservation and utilization processes, including fatty acid metabolism and gluconeogenesis. Both muscle and colon switched gene expression away from cellular proliferation. Mice undergoing acute CR rapidly adopt many transcriptional and metabolic changes of long-term CR, suggesting that the beneficial effects of CR may require only a short-term reduction in caloric intake