RSS 1.0Education
Recent Submissions
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Health-based physical education a pedagogical model in focusThis chapter provides a rationale and framework for the Health-based Physical Education (HbPE) pedagogical model. The main idea of HbPE is ‘valuing a physically active life’ which contrasts with the emphasis on fitness, exercise and sport-dominated outcomes in common forms of health-related PE. This model has the potential to reconceptualise the way in which health-related PE is taught and enhance its impact on young people’s physical activity behaviours. The chapter highlights the rationale for new PE-for-health pedagogies with specific reference to pedagogical models, before exploring the background and development of HbPE. The chapter aims to justify HbPE’s main idea, learning aspirations, critical elements and pedagogy. Throughout the chapter, teachers are encouraged to reflect on strategies for supporting students to value a physically active life through PE.
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Materials for developing reading skillsThis chapter analyses the interface between research principles on reading skills development and the approaches to reading often found in published ELT materials. Firstly, reading, reading skills, and strategies are described in terms of their main characteristics, and an overview of the interaction between the author, the text, and the reader is provided. The chapter also explores reader response theory, which includes two dimensions: efferent and aesthetic response. Reading activities typically used in the classroom are critically discussed. The chapter argues for a reader-centred approach which emphasises a more authentic reader–text interaction. To facilitate this approach, materials should encourage learners to focus on their own interpretations of a text, rather than on comprehension checking exercises which only allow for one correct answer. The chapter calls for the development of reading skills materials which recognise that learners are usually proficient readers in their L1 and that they can harness these skills in their L2 reading.
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Critical discourse analysisCritical Discourse Analysis is a text-focused approach to the study of social institutions which examines language as a power distribution mechanism. How do people use language as a means of influencing their audience? With case studies and examples, this chapter will equip students to understand the relationship between language, discourse and social practices.
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Professional development and recognition in LDThis chapter addresses professional development and recognition opportunities within the Learning Development field. It initially provides a chronology of how bespoke professional development for Learning Developers expanded during the 2010s and details where such opportunities can be accessed. This is followed by an overview of the ALDinHE professional recognition scheme along with guidance for potential applicants. The chapter concludes with consideration of how Learning Developers can acquire the experience and expertise necessary to apply for wider sector recognition. Collectively, the chapter is intended to inform and support a Learning Developer continued professional development planning and career progression.
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When to show the way, when to lead the way and when to step away: exploring the roles and identities of teacher educators in post-compulsory educationThe authors are teacher educators working within a university/college collaboration supporting new and existing and staff within post-compulsory education (PCE) to achieve qualified status. The authors have complementary roles; one being the direct support for a cohort of trainees, the other overseeing the programme as a whole. Both of these roles have a single overarching aim, which is to prepare new teachers for their professional roles within PCE. With more than 60 years’ experience between them, the authors are well placed to reflect on the ways in which PCE teachers, and PCE teacher educators take part in the process of teacher education and how this experience informs their professional identities.
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Beyond “paraprofessional”: empowering and equipping teaching assistants to develop a sense of identityI am a senior tutor in Education Studies and hold the responsibility of course co-ordinating a part-time applied education studies degree. Over the last 10 years I have specialised in working with mature students. Many of them are highly experienced teaching assistants and support staff working within education who are now seeking future career development by undertaking a degree that links closely to their current and future career. Some will apply for initial teacher training after they have graduated, others will undertake more advanced or specialist support roles within their settings. Prior to working in higher education, I had a full, professional career as a primary school teacher and headteacher over a period of 20 years. My leadership experiences have enabled me to understand the complexity of the roles that teaching assistants and support staff undertake and what they require from continued professional development through degree level study to develop themselves and prepare for a future, graduate led career. I have focused my own research on how we can support part-time, mature students to successfully transition into higher education.
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Managing and implementing educational-technological change: a case for co-developmentI am the head of Digital Learning in the Academy for Learning and Teaching Excellence at the University of Bedfordshire. My team manage and support the university’s virtual learning environment - BREO (Bedfordshire Resources for Education Online) - and the systems associated with it which include Blackboard (the overall learning management system), Studiosity (a writing feedback service), Turnitin (similarity detection service) and Panopto (a video platform for recording content). My research interests include the narrative experiences of technology usage, examining students’ behaviours through data, linking narrative and data about students’ activities, and making sense of metrics.
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The researcher as inter-disciplinarian: a reflection on professional identity in a specialised worldI have been a senior lecturer and advanced researcher in a ‘widening participation’ university in the East of England for the past 9 years. I have worked in a couple of academic departments that focus on education - one that specialises in teacher education (mainly teaching on qualifications in post-compulsory education in alliance with further education colleges), the other focused on teaching undergraduate and postgraduate degrees in education. Prior to my time in higher education, I worked primarily in adult and further education, mainly in the fields of adult literacy and teacher education (and employed by further education colleges). In terms of research, I have published a couple of books looking at the connections between political philosophy and education that focus on aspects of citizenship and democracy. I have also been published in a range of academic journals including the Journal of Philosophy of Education, the British Educational Research Journal and Modern Psychoanalysis.
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Reflecting on the identity of the teaching profession: time for some higher status?I was an English teacher in secondary schools for the first 10 years of my career, moving next to become the PGCE course leader for English at a large university in Southern England. Over the years I added being MA course leader for an English programme and becoming a head of several education departments. I gradually developed as a researcher, initially very much about the subject of English and its teachers, a theme that continues to fascinate me. I developed a complementary theme about what we mean when we talk about good teaching and especially ‘expert teachers’, this remains a contested idea and term, not least in the teaching profession itself. It is an international phenomenon with many countries developing schemes to identify their best teachers and to keep them working in the classroom and not moving out into management or similar roles. My research has investigated this global development and I have been involved in advising on a number of national and international developments. I have published a considerable number of articles and books about both my themes and in a personal chapter like this one I mention a number of publications because they are part of my identity and my reflections on teaching.
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The impact of academic success tutors and coaches on first-year student outcomesThis study presents findings from the evaluation of the Academic Success Tutors/Coaches (AST/C) initiative in the 2023/24 academic year at a widening participation university in England. Aimed at improving student continuation in target areas, the AST/Cs were deployed across faculties to provide extra support, acting as a bridge between academic staff and foundation or first-year students. The study encompasses a multi-faceted analysis, including comparisons with data from previous years. It seeks to understand the initiative's influence on student outcomes and experiences. Quantitative data from assessment results in the 2023/24 academic year were compared to those from the previous two years. Descriptive statistics and Chi-square test were used to examine first-assessment pass rates, resit occurrences, and student withdrawals across faculties. In parallel, qualitative data were collected through an online survey with 112 students, interviews with 15 students and focus groups with 10 tutors/coaches. These data explored the effectiveness of the AST/C intervention and provided detailed accounts of support experiences. Overall, the AST/C intervention improved pass rates and reduced resit rates compared to the previous two years in all but one faculty. In terms of withdrawals, there was a decrease in all of the target faculties. Feedback from both students and tutors/coaches provided additional evidence of the intervention’s positive impact. Limitations were acknowledged, and considerations for future improvements were discussed.
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Challenging the absence of race and racism in understanding the black achievement gap in schoolsDrawing on critical race theory, this chapter examines the absence of a critical focus on ‘race’ and racism in British government education policy from 2010 to 2024 and its impact on the ability of schools to reduce the Black-White achievement gap for Black Caribbean students. The chapter calls for policy change and better-equipped teachers to recognise the academic abilities of Black students and to challenge white supremacy in education policy and practice.
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REHG Pamphlet Series (III): Spectres of CreativityThe third in a series of pamphlets by the Radical Education and Humanities Group (REHG). This issue focuses on matters of creativity in education. Oli Belas (editor, author) Jim Clack (author) JoEl James (artist, author)
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Constructing the university student in British popular cultureThe Students on Screen research project examines how screen representations of university students produce, frame, inform and contribute to complex understandings about what it might mean to be a university student. A limitation of the existing literature examining media representations of students is that much of this work is produced from an academic standpoint (including our own publications), rather than involving students in a co-produced analysis of their positioning as university students. With funding from Research England, three university students were appointed as research assistants to help examine three television dramas – Clique (BBC, 2017-2018), Normal People (BBC, 2020) and Big Boys (Channel 4, 2022-2025). Through this co-constructed analysis, we have sought to identify current concerns and anxieties about the lives and experiences of university students. In this paper, we explore themes relating to mental health, forms of exploitation, and transitions to adulthood. We also critically consider the positioning of the university itself, and to what extent higher education is currently framed as a ‘dark economy’ in British popular culture.
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Young female university students and the dark economy of higher education in British television dramas Clique (2017) and Cheat (2019)This article explores the conceptualisation of young female university students and the university as an institution in two British television dramas: Clique (BBC, 2017) and Cheat (ITV, 2019). In recent years higher education has been cast in newsmedia and documentary as a ‘dark economy’ with questionable recruitment practices, high stakes assessment, and a profit driven agenda. Students have been problematically positioned both as ‘victims’ of a corrupt and profiteering system and as ‘snowflakes’ incapable of rising to the challenges of higher education. Both Clique and Cheat engage explicitly with these discourses, and in this article, we analyse how these series serve both to reinforce and undermine a range of social and cultural anxieties about young female students in the cultural space of the university. We argue the genre positioning, aesthetic, and themes of the two series function to reflect a broader shift toward ‘darker’ representations of the university in popular culture that reveal widespread anxieties about shifts in the meaning and experience of a university education. We also argue that the positioning of the young women at the centre of these series as ‘troubled’ and ‘traumatised’ prior to their entry into the university functions to externalise the challenges currently facing UK (United Kingdom) Higher Education, representing the student as ‘the problem’ rather than the university system itself.
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Representations of students on screenAny reader of Open Screens is likely to need little convincing of the importance screen cultures play in society. Rudine Sims Bishop (1990), when writing as an educator about the power of literature, emphasised how cultural representations function as windows into others’ lives and other worlds but also as mirrors – as a means of affirmation and identity formation, reflecting back experiences and offering a means to explore one’s own individual sense of belonging. Bishop’s (1990) work has informed many of the debates about representation explored in this issue. The term ‘students’ may conjure ideas and images informed by personal experience, but also by media representations of all kinds. When considering what these representations ‘do’, many questions arise: what can screen representations tell us about what it means to be a student? What experiences might students encounter and in what contexts? What does a student look like? What can representations of students tell us about a specific society and its central tenets and concerns? What students are represented, and who lacks representation? Many of the articles in this issue provide insight into several of these questions at once, helping to critically examine the construction of the student on screen. This introduction will provide a brief overview of some of the concepts and ideas about students on screen already in existence within academic publishing, before providing an overview of the Students on Screen project from which it stems. Finally, it will provide a summary of the issue to help you navigate it.
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Representations of students and educational institutions in the Netflix series Adolescence: a roundtable discussionThis roundtable discussion explores how adolescence, student identity and educational institutions are framed and positioned in the Netflix series Adolescence. The creators of Adolescence wished to “provoke a conversation” about young people’s experiences in the digital age, male violence and the manosphere. In this roundtable discussion, six UK based educators reflect on the series and engage in a critical discussion regarding its representations of students on screen.
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Being a second-career teacher: insights from the Troops to Teachers Initial Teacher Education programme in EnglandIn 2012 the UK Troops to Teachers (TtT) initial teacher education (ITE) programme was introduced by the UK government as part of plans to solve the joint problems of diminishing teacher recruitment and retention, and to provide ex-service personnel with new career options. This paper presents findings from a Longitudinal Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (LIPA) where five participants describe their experiences of that route into secondary school teaching. Data were gathered using semi-structured interviews at three time-points; during the two-year course and at the end of the Newly Qualified Teacher (NQT) year, in order to facilitate a deep description and offer a nuanced account of participants’ perspectives. The study builds on previous research which found that the anxiety caused by returning to novice status from the position of expert was substantial, and the psychic rewards of teaching enabled participants to remain in the profession when faced with other challenges, most notably work load and behaviour management. The study finds little evidence that having a military background had prepared participants to cope with the demands of becoming a teacher any better than other second-career or traditional entry teachers. This paper concludes that the particular needs of second-career teachers more widely need to be openly discussed during their ITE programme in order to enable them to prepare for the challenges they will inevitably face.
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Teaching teachers: reflections from English teacher educatorsThis article considers English teaching practice from the perspective of two teacher educators. It starts at the point of recruitment and gender, discusses how English teachers are trained, moves onto what the teacher educators have seen on their numerous annual visits to English departments within many schools, it reflects on the examination system before concluding with some important reflections. English Association Newsletter 238
