Racialization of Muslim Students in Australia, Ireland, and the United States: Cross-cultural perspectives

The purpose of this qualitative cross-cultural case study was to better understand how Muslim students living in Australia, Ireland, and the United States navigated racism to identify ways in which school leaders and teachers can better address the structural, historical, and socioeconomic roots of racial injustice, discrimination, and ongoing oppression. Data collection was guided by a shared interview protocol that asked questions regarding family background, personal interests, identity, and friendships with a focus on their experiences of anti-Muslim racism in secondary schools. Findings suggested that Muslim students navigated racialization by (de)constructing their Muslimness, seeking voice, navigating between inclusion and exclusion, and responding to hate. This paper contributes to the bourgeoning literature exploring anti-Muslim racialization and makes a foundational empirical cross-cultural contribution with its identification of essential practices for anti-Muslim racism in schooling

Empty Britain? Hegemony and ambiguity in British education policy

The role of schools in developing a sense of common British identity has taken centre stage in the face of ‘racialised’ accounts of violence during the twenty first century. In this paper, we argue that certain British education policy documents can be understood as hegemonic interventions seeking to resolve ambiguities surrounding constructions of British identity. We do so by examining the Department for Education (DfE) ‘Fundamental British Values’ (FBV) guidance within the context of its relationship to the Prevent Duty anti-terrorism programme as well as the ‘Political impartiality in schools’ guidance released by the DfE in 2022. Utilising Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) and applying Laclau and Mouffe (2014/1985) conception of hegemony with Hall’s (2021/2000) claim that ‘Britishness’ is an empty signifier, this paper argues that the ambiguities of ‘Britishness’ present a number of opportunities for power to be exercised and consolidated. Finally, we explore the possible implications for demands to ‘decolonise the curriculum’ within schools’ existing duties and propose possible structural limits placed upon these demands by said duties.</p

Reconceptualising Pre-Service Teacher Education at Victoria University: Putting the Byte into Inquiry Learning

Educators are always striving to challenge and transform preconceived notions of teaching and learning. In Australia, Government Reviews of Teaching and Teacher Education strive to achieve two main objectives- developing an innovative capacity in students and a culture of innovation in schools. In response to this, many higher education institutions are developing, trialing and implementing various innovative approaches to teaching, learning and assessment. One Australian University, Victoria University (VU) is no exception. For many years, the pre-service teaching course offered at VU has had a very successful inquiry based learning and teaching focus. However, significant changes in the use of ICT in teacher education in recent years have called for significant action. Taking into consideration that many of VU’s students are situated in communities with the lowest level of access to ICT, staff at VU set out to redesign the first year Bachelor of Education course to challenge students to engage in inquiry learning through digital technology. This paper reports on how staff at VU have been engaged in conversations about the possibility of digital portfolios as a platform to integrate inquiry learning and digital pedagogy. As the beginning of a series of conversations in this journey, this paper demonstrates how digital portfolios can be used to offer students opportunities to create and recreate knowledge

Intersex Bodies in Sexuality Education On the Edge of Cultural Difference

Social moderation is often presented as a mechanism capable of improving the dependability of assessment information and strengthening teacher assessment capability. Although the professional learning benefits associated with social moderation are frequently promoted, the teacher learning that effective moderation necessitates tends to be overlooked. Addressing a gap in the research on social moderation, this paper examines how the professional learning opportunities that teachers experience during social moderation processes affect the robustness of the resulting assessment information. Located within the context of New Zealand's recently introduced National Standards assessment system, in which participation in school-based social moderation is a requirement, this paper draws on data collected from three urban schools. It reports on the teacher learning and assessment outcomes associated with the moderation processes at these schools. New Zealand's National Standards moderation activities are expected to improve the dependability of teachers' assessment information; yet they have not been tightly prescribed and schools have been given considerable freedom to develop their own moderation processes. To capture each school's interpretation and enactment of social moderation, the study reported on in this paper utilises a mixed-methods design. Data collection, which is ongoing during the 2012 school year, includes observations of moderation and meeting sessions, semi-structured interviews, surveys, think-aloud sessions and the collection of student assessment information. Analyses to date suggest that participation in social moderation processes is providing teachers with valuable learning opportunities as well as beginning to improve the dependability of assessment information. But these preliminary findings also indicate that New Zealand schools are responding in a variety of ways to the new moderation requirements. Drawing on evidence-based research on effective professional learning, the results will be interpreted in terms of the learning opportunities that the moderation approaches adopted at each of the participating schools have afforded the teacher participants. The paper also presents a second analysis, examining the effect that each moderation process has had on the dependability of assessment information. The findings of these two analyses afford insights into how teacher professional learning contributes to effective social moderation practices