The impact on a primary school community in England of failed inspection and subsequent academisation

© 2015 Taylor & Francis. This research reports upon the impact of two concurrent processes of Special Measures and academisation applied to a primary school in the north of England as a result of an unsatisfactory inspection by the Office for Standards in Education (Ofsted). The aim of the study is to describe how the process of being placed in special measures, coupled with subsequent academisation, affected key school facing stakeholders. Data collection commenced from when the school received the judgement about its performance from Ofsted. This paper will examine the emerging themes during the first phase of the process of school transformation

Becoming a teacher educator: Evidence from the field

This article makes a contribution to understanding the challenges new teacher educators face in establishing their professional identities in Higher Education. The data collected for the study allowed the researchers to analyse the tensions and conflicts arising for 28 teacher educators in their first 3 years of working on Initial Teacher Education (ITE) courses in England. The findings of the study show that, despite having previous successful careers in school teaching, the majority of the interviewees took between 2 and 3 years to establish their new professional identities. They faced challenges in two key areas-developing a pedagogy for HE-based ITE work and becoming research active. Meeting both of these challenges required significant adaptations to their previous identities as schoolteachers. © 2004 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved

The Formation of Professional Identity and the Socialization of Teacher Educators in England: Evidence from the field.

Despite the wealth of commentaries on teacher education, there is little empirical research focused on teacher educators themselves (Ducharme 1993; Ducharme and Ducharme 1996; Acker 1996; Maguire 1994; John 1996; Grundy and Hatton 1995; Reynolds, 1995.). In particular, few studies look at the professional experiences and induction needs of new teacher educators, entering Higher Education (HE) work from schools. This omission means that new teacher educators are an under-researched and poorly understood occupational group. This paper investigates the challenges faced by beginning teacher educators in establishing their new professional identity as academics in the English university sector. The definition of professional identity used here is that this is the point at which the new member feels confident and competent in their job, thus experiencing feelings of comfort and effectiveness in regards to the demands of the position

Raising Student Achievement Levels Through Target-setting and Academic Monitoring: A Case Study of Developments at Key Stage 3 in a Secondary School

Evidence for the conclusions and recommendations are based on interviews with tutors and students from Year 8 conducted by the Head of Year, who then provides an overview from her perspective. The findings are contrasted against the examples of effective target-setting provided by the DfEE Standards and Effectiveness Unit (DfEE, 1998b) and the Office for Standards in Education (Ofsted, 1996). The new scheme is also reviewed in the light of the call for equal opportunities by, amongst others, the Department for Education and Employment (DfEE, 1998c) and against the body of evidence provided by the research on school improvement (e.g. Stoll and Mortimore, 1995; Creemers, 1997

The Abominable Traffic: The Abolition Movement and Emotions

It is obvious that emotions play an important role in social movement campaigns. Strangely enough, however, studies of social movements do not pay much attention to emotions nor do they give them an appropriate place in social movement theory. As Hunt and Benford contend, this overly rationalistic theory urgently needs a 'dramaturgical infusion'. In this paper we follow their lead. In it we explore historical studies of the first public campaign of the eighteenth-century abolition movement in Great Britain to shed light on the role of emotions in movement discourses. Following Hochschild we assume that each society and each culture has its unique emotional dictionary, which defines what is and isn't, and its emotional bible, which defines what one should and should not feel in a given context." In social movement campaigns, actors employ the emotional repertoires of their society in order to express their indignation, to evoke emotional feelings in the audiences they address and thus put pressure on authorities to change their policies. The analysis of the first public campaign of the British abolition movement shows that the feelings about the abolition of the slave trade often ran high. Both the abolitionists and their opponents used a great variety of emotion signs as means to communicate with the world of politics and with society at large. The analysis reveals that four variables determined the degree of emotionality in the abolition discourse. First, the nature of the cause, i.e., abolition of the slave trade. Particularly, the degree of inequality involved in slavery determined the level of moral indignation that fueled the abolition campaign. Second, the strategic-instrumental choices of the leading movement actors when to use emotional arguments and when to revert to more 'business-like' pleas. Third, the cultural climate in which a campaign takes place. In this case the cultural climate of the late eighteenth century contributed much to the emotionality of the abolition discourse. Fourth, the emotional tone of the discourses in extant critical communities, i.e., in the debates initiated by critical thinkers about a topic. In the case of abolition, the pre-dominantly emotional debate that took place within religious, particularly Evangelical, circles did much to make the abolition discourse a heated one. The analysis shows that emotions are essential to get a movement started and to keep it going. They therefore deserve scholarly attention in their own right and must not be taken granted as folklore of movement campaigns

Between Old and New: Social Movements and Cultural Change

Social movements challenge authorities on behalf of people whose needs and interests are not catered for in society. To do this, they have to accomplish a contradictory task, i.e., frame the cause of the excluded in interpre-tive packages that are contrary to the dominant views in society while at same time struggle to make these contrary views part of the dominant culture. Therefore, SMOs initiate public discourses on these interests out of which cultural changes may proceed, and if they succeed, they act as producers of new meanings. At the same time, however, the interpretive packages have to resonate with extant cultural views in order to be convincing for movement participants as well as authorities and publics. In other words, these packages have to be contrary to and correspon-ding with dominant views. How do movement actors succeed in this seemingly impossible task? Our review of cultural studies of social movements points to two strategies: (1) linking controversial topics like abortion with generally accepted and valued notions like basic rights; (2) associating their interpretive packa-ge, such as protecting the ecology, with an existing theme, such as harmony with nature, that as an alternative cultural context may legitimate their package. We use a case study, the movement against the slave trade in Great Britain, to test these propositions. The case material confirms their utility, but also reveals a third strategy: relating the package to cultural themes that are on their way to dominance. The material points to the importance of this strategy and of the role the - changing - cultural context plays in producing new meanings. The findings lead to a discussion about the role of movement actors, the cultural context, and the changes therein in the production of meaning

Prevalence and patterns of undescended testis among primary school pupils in Kampala, Uganda

A cross sectional study was undertaken with the main objective of determining the prevalence and patterns of undescended testis (UDT) among 437 primary  School pupils from randomly selected primary schools in one Division of  ampala in Uganda. The study variables included age, tribe, scrotal findings, side and location of the undescended testis plus associated groin and external genitalia abnormalities. UDT was found in 27 of the 437 children. The right side alone was involved in 17 (63%), the left alone in 5 (18.5%) and was bilateral in five cases (18.5%). Sixteen (59%) of UDT were palpable in the inguinal region while in 11 (41%) could not be palpated. Ultrasonography of the groin area located five of the 11 impalpable testes. This study showed that the prevalence of UDT in the study population was 5.5% and occurred more commonly on the right side and the superficial inguinal pouch was the commonest site.Key words: Prevalence, pattern. Undescended and testis