Imagining inclusive teachers: contesting policy assumptions in relation to the development of inclusive practice in schools

In this paper we reflect on data from two research projects in which inclusive practice in schools is at issue, in the light of wider field experience (our own and others’) of school and teacher development. We question what we understand to be relatively common, implicit policy assumptions about how teachers develop, by examining the way in which teachers are portrayed and located in these projects. The examples discussed in this paper draw on experience in Lao PDR and Bangladesh, critically exploring teachers’ roles, position and agency in practice. Similarities and differences rooted in cultural, political and institutional contexts highlight in a very productive way the significance and potential dangers of policy assumptions about teachers within the process of development. In Bangladesh, a success story is presented: the case of a group of schools in which an institutional context for learning appears to sustain teachers’ commitment and motivation, with the effect of creating meaningful outcomes for young people who were previously outside the education system. These data raise questions about the significance of institutional context to teachers’ practices, and questions about approaches to teacher development which omit consideration of that context by, for example, focusing inadvertently on features of individual teachers. We then consider teachers’ responses to the movement for inclusive education in a school in the Lao PDR since 2004. Inclusion here was understood to require a significant shift in teacher identity and a movement away from authoritative pedagogy towards the facilitation of a pedagogy which aimed to encourage the active participation of all students. Through a longitudinal study of teachers in one school, the conditions for such change were identified and again cast doubt on some of the assumptions behind large-scale attempts at teacher development. Reflecting on these experiences and the evidence they provide, we suggest that teacher development programmes are more likely to be effective where teachers are considered not as individuals subject to training but as agents located in an influential institutional context

Enhancing efficiency of single, large-aperture antennas

Numerical analysis method provides means of describing energy distribution in focal plane of parabolic surface in terms of phase and wavelength. Two approaches for enhancing antenna efficiency include single, large reflector focused to feeding element, and array of smaller apertures whose individual outputs are summed

Resolving the structure of TiBe12_{12}

There has been considerable controversy regarding the structure of TiBe$_{12}$, which is variously reported as hexagonal and tetragonal. Lattice dynamics simulations based on density functional theory show the tetragonal phase space group $I4/mmm$ to be more stable over all temperatures, while the hexagonal phase exhibits an imaginary phonon mode, which, if followed, would lead to the cell adopting the tetragonal structure. We then report the predicted ground state elastic constants and temperature dependence of the bulk modulus and thermal expansion for the tetragonal phase.Comment: In press at Acta Crystallographica B. Supplementary material appende

Ethnic identity and aspirations among rural Alaska youth

The villages of rural Alaska comprise one of the most exceptional, yet least visible, sociocultural environments in the United States They are geographically remote, and set off from the mainstream also by their unique Eskimo, Indian or Aleut cultures. At the same time many economic, legal and cultural connections pull these villages toward the dominant U.S. society, impelling continual and rapid social change. Our research focuses on adolescents growing up in this culturally complex and changing environment. We employ survey data from adolescents in 19 rural schools to explore relationships between ethnic identity and students\u27 expectations about moving away or attending college. Many students describe their ethnic identity as mixed, both Native and non-Native. On some key variables, the responses of mixed-identity students fall between those of Natives and non-Natives, supporting a theoretical conception of ethnicity as a matter of degree rather than category. Migration and college expectations vary with ethnic identity, but the college expectations/identity relationship fades when we adjust for other variables. Ethnicity affects expectations for the most part indirectly, through “cultural tool kit” variables including family role models and support. Gender differences in expectations, on the other hand, remain substantial even after adjusting for other variables

The influence of a transformative elementary science curriculum on at-risk students: A case report

This study explored the influence of a transformative elementary science curriculum on at-risk students. Project S.M.I.L.E., the focus of this study, uses strategies for curriculum development proposed by theorists of the post-modern era within the framework of social constructivism. Students in this program collaborate in their roles as students-as-teachers to prepare and present lessons to visitors of their school\u27s natural history museum and science laboratory; Data collection was conducted at Alison Leigh Elementary School in a metropolitan area of the southwestern United States. Observations of the students, interviews with parents and classroom teachers, student discussions, and journal writings of the 17 fifth grade S.M.I.L.E. team students were collected for data analysis in this case study. Five themes emerged from the data that conceptualized the influence of a transformative elementary science curriculum on at-risk students. Implications for transformative curriculum development were drawn

Letter from Luther M. Grimes, Class of 1893 (1957)

Upon receiving an invitation to attend the 1957 dedication festivities for the newly built law building, Class of 1893 alum Luther M. Grimes hand wrote a response that is one part RSVP and one part trip down memory lane. He said that he was regretfully unable to attend; at 87 1/2 years it was on account of age that he couldn\u27t travel from his Iowa home. He considered that he may have been among the oldest living Indiana University alums, and was, with certainty, the last surviving member of his law class. As a Bloomington native with familial ties to the area, his memories included tending cows on a pasture that would later be sold to the university and become an athletic field. He and his father both considered Professor (and eventual dean) William Perry Rogers to be a personal friend. This relationship would prove critical during Grimes\u27 years as a law student - it was at his pleading that Rogers reconsidered a threat to resign after classroom hijinks involving a dog hidden in a desk during a lecture. This letter was warmly received and a press release and newspaper articles relaying its sentiments were published. Please see the comments sections for links to these materials

Overcoming the false-minima problem in direct methods: Structure determination of the packaging enzyme P4 from bacteriophage φ13

The problems encountered during the phasing and structure determination of the packaging enzyme P4 from bacteriophage φ13 using the anomalous signal from selenium in a single-wavelength anomalous dispersion experiment (SAD) are described. The oligomeric state of P4 in the virus is a hexamer (with sixfold rotational symmetry) and it crystallizes in space group C2, with four hexamers in the crystallographic asymmetric unit. Current state-of-the-art ab initio phasing software yielded solutions consisting of 96 atoms arranged as sixfold symmetric clusters of Se atoms. However, although these solutions showed high correlation coefficients indicative that the substructure had been solved, the resulting phases produced uninterpretable electron-density maps. Only after further analysis were correct solutions found (also of 96 atoms), leading to the eventual identification of the positions of 120 Se atoms. Here, it is demonstrated how the difficulties in finding a correct phase solution arise from an intricate false-minima problem. © 2005 International Union of Crystallography - all rights reserved

Shared identity, says who? How diverse organizations interact in entrepreneurial ecosystems

Entrepreneurial ecosystems are comprised of a diverse and interacting set of organizations which aim to support and develop new ventures and their surrounding regions. Although prior research has celebrated the diversity of these support organizations as a necessary enabler of entrepreneurial capacity in a region, such diversity can at times introduce liabilities given different motives and interests. In this study, we explore how different organizations orient toward such diversity, thereby enabling or constraining the capacity for collaboration across ostensible divisions. Through an inductive case analysis of 15 organizations, we surface an inductive model of how leaders’ perceptions of a regional ecosystem identity combine with their organizations’ identity orientation to influence their interactions across the ecosystem. Based on this model, we propose a typology of organizational sponsorship, which characterizes organizations as either builders, partners, participants, or bridgers. This model and typology extends our understanding of the differences between organizational sponsors within entrepreneurial ecosystems, while bridging the study of organizational identity, categories and ecosystems