139 research outputs found
Logo in mainstream schools: the struggle over the soul of an educational innovation
Technologies do not follow some predetermined and inevitable course from their context of production to their context of use, and technologies used in schools are no exception. Rather, technologies and their use in the classroom are socially contextualised. They are often appropriated in ways unanticipated by their developers, locking into institutional arrangements and reflecting elements of the prevailing social relations in and around the particular context(s) of application. Through the discussion of a particular technology (the Logo programming language) as a case study in educational innovation, this article demonstrates how the use of technologies in schools is socially shaped. The paper looks into the place that Logo occupied within the institutional and organisational cultures of US and UK mainstream schools after its introduction in the early 1980s. It discusses the ways in which Logo was received in the educational arena and was implicated in the politics of educational innovation at a time of conservative restoration
Private education and disadvantage: the experiences of assisted place holders
It is now nearly thirty years since Margaret Thatcher and her Conservative administration introduced the Assisted Places Scheme (their first education policy) and over ten years since New Labour abolished it. The Scheme, which was designed to provide a ladder of opportunity for academically able students from poor backgrounds to attend private schools, is of more than historical interest. It can be used to illuminate enduring sociological concerns about the relationship between home and school. This paper draws on retrospective interview data to reveal how the Scheme was experienced by its more disadvantaged beneficiaries. Revisiting classic sociological analyses from the 1960s and 1970s, it unravels the complex interactions between home background, friendship networks and school cultures and shows how these contributed to contrasting experiences of commitment, detachment, estrangement and alienation. These differing modes of engagement with schooling appear to have had lasting effects on our respondents and influenced their subsequent careers and orientations
Social trajectories or disrupted identities? : Changing and competing models of teacher professionalism under New Labour
Since the 1988 Education Reform Act, the teacherâs role in England has changed in many ways, a process which intensified under New Labour after 1997. Conceptions of teacher professionalism have become more structured and formalized, often heavily influenced by government policy objectives. Career paths have become more diverse and specialised. In this article, three post-1997 professional roles are given consideration as examples of these new specialised career paths: Higher Level Teaching Assistants, Teach First trainees and Advanced Skills Teachers. The article goes on to examine such developments within teaching, using Bourdieuâs concept of habitus to inform the analysis, as well as Bernsteinâs theories of knowledge and identity. The article concludes that there has been considerable specialization and subsequent fragmentation of roles within the teaching profession, as part of workforce remodelling initiatives. However, there is still further scope for developing a greater sense of professional cohesion through social activism initiatives, such as the children's agenda. This may produce more stable professional identities in the future as the role of teachers within the wider childrenâs workforce is clarified
Graduating and gradations within the middle class: the legacy of an elite higher education
This paper explores the significance of an elite higher education for occupational differentiation within the middle
class. The paper is based on longitudinal research derived from a cohort of thirty-year olds whom we have been
following since the start of their secondary education when they were deemed to be âdestined for successâ. The large
majority have subsequently graduated and are in professional and managerial occupations. However, even within
this picture of overall âsuccessâ, there are within-cohort differences which highlight the significance of an elite
education on subsequent destinations. Those who went to an elite university were generally in higher level
occupations and on higher salaries than those who went to less prestigious, and particularly post-1992, universities.
Although this may suggest the fine-grained workings of a meritocracy at the âtop endâ, the success of private schools
in sending their pupils to Oxbridge (with lower A level results than state schools) and the relatively higher earnings
of privately-schooled non-graduates indicate an enduring school sector effect. Indeed, the difference in earning
outcomes within our sample of respondents leads one to question the economic value of obtaining degrees from less
prestigious universities and colleges of higher education
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