Diversity and the history curriculum: an action research approach to help trainee history teachers embrace cultural and ethnic diversity in the curriculum

This paper explores the issues that secondary history teachers on an Initial Teacher Education (ITE) programme in England encounter in attempting to incorporate more cultural and ethnic diversity into the history curriculum. It also assesses the impact that changes in their training course had on their views and pedagogical practice. Using questionnaires and scenario based interviews with three cohorts of trainee teachers, key challenges were identified, which were related to the purposes of teaching history and diversity, appropriate pedagogy and content, dealing with pupils, and teachers’ personal concerns. A framework for analysing trainees’ stances towards cultural and ethnic diversity based upon a confident-uncertain-uncomfortable continuum was developed. This operated within a socio-cultural framework that was identified and helps to explain the extent to which trainee history teachers were willing and able to embrace diversity within their teaching. The research revealed that the course had had an impact, although this was in subtle rather than marked ways, which raises further questions about what is possible within the confines of an ITE training programme and the need for additional support beyond the course

Models of regional growth: past, present and future

This paper presents an overview of various models of regional growth that have appeared in the literature in the last 40 years. It considers the past, and therefore supply-side models, such as the standard neoclassical, juxtaposed against essentially demand-side approaches such as the export-base and cumulative causation models (as integrated into the Kaldorian approach); before moving on to the present and more recent versions of the neoclassical model involving spatial weights and "convergence clubs", as well as New Economic Geography core-periphery models, and the "innovation systems" approach. A key feature of the more recent literature is an attempt to explicitly include spatial factors into the model, and thus there is a renewed emphasis on agglomeration economies and spillovers. Discussing "present" and "future" approaches to regional growth overlaps with the current emphasis in the literature on the importance of more intangible factors such as the role of "knowledge" and its influence on growth. Lastly, there is a discussion of the greater emphasis that needs to be placed at the "micro-level" when considering what drives growth, and thus factors such as inter alia firm heterogeneity, entrepreneurship, and absorptive capacity

Distinguishing between exotic symplectic structures

We investigate the uniqueness of so-called exotic structures on certain exact symplectic manifolds by looking at how their symplectic properties change under small nonexact deformations of the symplectic form. This allows us to distinguish between two examples based on those found in \cite{maydanskiy,maydanskiyseidel}, even though their classical symplectic invariants such as symplectic cohomology vanish. We also exhibit, for any $n$, an exact symplectic manifold with $n$ distinct but exotic symplectic structures, which again cannot be distinguished by symplectic cohomology.Comment: 33 pages, 6 figures. Final version, accepted by Journal of Topolog

The separation of lower and higher attaining pupils in the transition from primary to secondary schools: a longitudinal study of London

This paper uses methods of spatial analysis to show that lower and higher attaining pupils are separating from each other as they make the transition from primary to secondary schools in London. The observation is not simply a function of geography – that some places are more affluent, with a link between wealth and educational advantage – because separations emerge between locally competing secondary schools: those that are drawing their intakes from the same primary schools. Whilst the separations are partly exacerbated by selective and by faith schools, in all but one year during the period 2003‐8 they remain statistically significant even when those schools are omitted. However, there is no evidence to suggest the separation of lower and higher attaining pupils is getting worse or better, suggesting the geographical determinants of “choice” are strong and not easily changed.primary school, secondary school, transition, London, spatial analysis

“Sleepwalking towards Johannesburg”? Local measures of ethnic segregation between London’s secondary schools, 2003 – 2008/9.

Because segregation is the spatial outcome of spatial processes is makes sense to measure it in spatially intelligent ways. To that end, this paper applies innovative methods of geocomputation with particular emphasis on local indices of ethnic segregation to examine the claim that London’s schools are “sleepwalking towards Johannesburg.” It does so by looking at the flows of pupils from primary to secondary schools, using them to analyse the spatial patterns that form in the distribution of ethnic groups between schools, and to determine the geographies of competition between schools. Those geographies are codified in the form of a spatial weights matrix to compare any school with its average competitor, giving a local index of segregation. The paper finds that although there is ‘segregation’ in the sense that the distribution of the ethnic groups differs from randomness, from a nearest school assignment and with some substantial differences between locally competing schools, the evidence, focusing on the Black African and Bangladeshi groups, is not that ethnic segregation is increasing but fluctuating with demographic changes over the period 2003 to 2008/9ethnic segregation, London, secondary schools

Measuring social segregation between London’s secondary schools, 2003 – 2008/9

Segregation is a spatial outcome of spatial processes that therefore needs to be measured spatially. This is the axiom from which local indices of segregation are developed and applied to the local markets within which schools compete. The indices are used to measure patterns of social segregation between London’s state-funded secondary schools, education authorities, types of selecting and non-selecting schools, and, longitudinally, for cohorts of pupils entering the schools in each of the years from 2003 to 2008. The paper finds sizeable differences between apparently competing schools in the proportions of free school meal eligible pupils they recruit, with selective schools especially and also faith schools under-recruiting such pupils. Whilst there is some evidence that differences between schools have decreased over the period, the trend is considered to be an artefact of using free school meals as a measure of disadvantage, a measure that the paper ultimately questions.segregation, index, secondary schools, selective schools, faith schools, London

The Liberian Truth and Reconciliation Commission: reconciling or re-dividing Liberia?

After 14 years of civil war and violence followed by the momentous and rather unusual elections of 2005, in which a woman defeated a footballer for the presidency, Liberia has seen over six years of state reconstruction and relative peace. Two recent announcements have, however, served as a warning to the extent of progress. The most recent is President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf’s declaration that she will, despite previous statements to the contrary, stand for re-election in 2011 due to shortcomings in progress. The announcement preceding Johnson-Sirleaf’s was made in the form of the report of the Liberian Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC). It recommended that Johnson-Sirleaf, and indeed many others accused of involvement in the war, should be barred from public office for the next 30 years, and still more should stand trial on charges of war crimes. Four important questions arise. First, what was the mandate and findings of the TRC? Second, how has Liberia and the wider international community reacted to the final report? Third, has the TRC fulfilled its mandate and contributed to a process of reconciliation? Finally, and in a much broader sense, where does the TRC stand relative to the much wider liberal peace model

Asymmetric adjustment of unemployment and output in New Zealand: Rediscovering Okun’s law

Okun's law - the relationship between unemployment and output - is one of the best known empirical regularities in macroeconomics. It is an important relationship because the way in which unemployment reacts to changes in output has implications for labour market and monetary policies and for forecasting. Most specifications of Okun's law assume a symmetric relationship: expansions and contractions in output have the same absolute effect on unemployment. In this paper, we test this assumption against the alternative view that the relationship is asymmetric. We use New Zealand data from 1978 to 1999 and contemporary econometric techniques including asymmetric modelling. Our main finding is that changes in unemployment and output in New Zealand are related in both the long run and the short run but only if an asymmetric approach is taken

Productivity Spillovers to Domestic Plants from Foreign Direct Investment: Evidence from UK Manufacturing, 1974-1995

Empirical literature on the impact of FDI has considered at length the indirect spillover benefits that accrue to domestic plants as a result of FDI presence. However, the imprecise and disparate nature of spillovers makes accurate definition and indeed measurement of them difficult to achieve. In this paper, we consider the definition of what constitutes a spillover from FDI, and setout three main channels for spillovers; within (intra)industry, between (inter)industry and agglomeration. We then go on to measure the indirect impact of FDI on the total factor productivity of domestic plants in a number of UK manufacturing industries, 1974-1995, using a standard production function-based approach. We use data made available from the UK ARD and information derived from UK input-output tables, to establish the potential for inter-industry linkages. Our results indicate that the competition and ëabsorption capacityí effect at times outweighs any potential benefits, leading to negative spillovers. We also find that inter-industry spillovers are generally more prevalent than intra-industry spillovers. Generally, we do not find the agglomeration spillover to be significant. However, we conclude that the nature of spillovers is such that measurement techniques traditionally adopted fail to adequately explain their complex and diverse nature.