Strengthening local seed systems: Options for enhancing diffusion of varietal diversity of Sorghum in Southern Mali     

Charles Francis 《The Journal of Agricultural Education and Extension》2015,21(1):91-92

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Impacting policy discourse? An analysis of discourses and rhetorical devices deployed in the case of the Academies Commission     

Becky Francis 《Discourse: Studies in the Cultural Politics of Education》2015,36(3):437-451

Academisation of the English secondary school system has been extremely rapid and represents significant changes to the governance of the English school system. However, there has been a relative scarcity of attention to the rationales, rhetorics and discourses underpinning the academies programme. Seeking to address this gap, a poststructuralist discourse analytic lens is applied to 63 written submissions to the Academies Commission from a range of stakeholder groups, in order to map the different discourses and narratives drawn on in relation to academies and academisation. In setting out the various discourses identified, a cluster of discourses and rhetorical devices that produce the British education system as ‘in crisis’ are given especial attention. It is argued that these discourses provide the rationale and legitimisation for radical policy intervention as exemplified by the academies programme. The findings also provoke discussion concerning potential subjective agency in the promotion or otherwise of particular narratives and ‘conceptual emblems’ that inform the field of educational policy.  相似文献   

The problem of gender categorisation: addressing dilemmas past and present in gender and education research     

Becky Francis  Carrie Paechter 《Gender and education》2015,27(7):776-790

Developments in the field of gender theory as applied to education since the 1970s are briefly reviewed in order to highlight key challenges and debates around gender categorisation and identification in gender and education. We argue that conundrums of categorisation have haunted, and continue to haunt, the field of gender theory, and empirical applications (such as the case of education) in particular. We explain how we have attempted to address some of the conundrums arising in our own theoretical work, and analyse remaining challenges that we feel the field of education needs to address in order to advance theoretically. Identifying two key tensions underpinning this empirical dilemma of gender categorisation – the tension between agency and determinism in gender identification, and that between gender deconstruction and gender analysis – we seek to weave a path through some of these complex debates, and to indicate ways in which they may be addressed in future work. We argue that in order to avoid essentialism and reification of gender distinction, we need to apply a ‘three-fold’ analysis that incorporates three different elements in our categorisation of gender: spectator perspective; respondent perspective and social context.  相似文献   

An Experimental Study of Scheduling and Duration of "Tier 2" First-Grade Reading Intervention     

Denton CA  Cirino PT  Barth AE  Romain M  Vaughn S  Wexler J  Francis DJ  Fletcher JM 《Journal of research on educational effectiveness》2011,4(3):208-230

This study compared the effects on reading outcomes of delivering supplemental, small-group intervention to first-grade students at risk for reading difficulties randomly assigned to one of three different treatment schedules: extended (4 sessions per week, 16 weeks; n = 66), concentrated (4 sessions per week, 8 weeks; n = 64), or distributed (2 sessions per week, 16 weeks; n = 62) schedules. All at-risk readers, identified through screening followed by 8 weeks of oral reading fluency (ORF) progress monitoring, received the same Tier 2 reading intervention in groups of 2 to 4 beginning in January of Grade 1. Group means were higher in word reading and ORF at the final time point relative to pretest; however, the groups did not differ significantly on any reading outcome or on rates of adequate intervention response. Of potential covariates, site, age, free lunch status, program coverage rate, and tutor were significantly related to student outcomes; however, the addition of these variables in multivariate models did not substantially change results. Rates of adequate intervention response were lower than have been reported for some first-grade interventions of longer duration.  相似文献   

Social origins,school type and higher education destinations     

Alice Sullivan  Samantha Parsons  Richard Wiggins  Anthony Heath  Francis Green 《牛津教育评论》2014,40(6):739-763

To what extent and why do social origins matter for access to higher education, including access to elite universities? What is the role of private and selective schooling? This paper uses the 1970 British Cohort Study (BCS70) to analyse the trajectories of a generation currently in early middle age. We find that the influence of social origins, especially parental education, remains when both a wide range of cognitive measures and school attainment are controlled. Attending a private school is powerfully predictive of gaining a university degree, and especially a degree from an elite institution, while grammar schooling does not appear to confer any advantage.  相似文献   

‘You must be thinking what a lesbian man teacher is doing in a nice place like Dipane Letsie School?’: enacting,negotiating and reproducing dominant understandings of gender in a rural school in the Free State,South Africa     

Dennis Francis 《Gender and education》2014,26(5):539-552

In this article I explore two questions – how does, Thatho, a transgendered life orientation teacher enact, resist and reproduce dominant understandings of gender and sexuality in terms of his own identity and practice; and what specific possibilities, challenges and resistances exist for a transgender educator in the rural. Using life-history research, I show that Thatho challenges essentialist assumptions of gender and identity as he enacts multiple masculinities. My article troubles the common typification of men solely as hegemonic, marginalised or subordinate when indeed the actual accounts of their lives are far more fluid than these rigid distinctions. Thatho's enactment of multiple masculinities talks to the ‘durability or survivability of non-hegemonic patterns of masculinity’ outlined by Connell and Messershmidt [2005. “Hegemonic Masculinity Rethinking the Concept.” Gender & Society 19 (6): 829–859. doi:10.1177/0891243205278639], which in many ways characterises a well-crafted response to his own marginalisation and stigmatised sexuality. Yet, Thatho's narrative also suggests a significant flexibility in the gender order in Qwaqwa, which looks different from the sometimes inflexibility of rural society and in some research from the developed world and, perhaps, from some urban contexts in contemporary South Africa.  相似文献   

The symbolic violence of setting: A Bourdieusian analysis of mixed methods data on secondary students’ views about setting          下载免费PDF全文

Louise Archer  Becky Francis  Sarah Miller  Becky Taylor  Antonina Tereshchenko  Anna Mazenod  David Pepper  Mary‐Claire Travers 《British Educational Research Journal》2018,44(1):119-140

‘Setting’ is a widespread practice in the UK, despite little evidence of its efficacy and substantial evidence of its detrimental impact on those allocated to the lowest sets. Taking a Bourdieusian approach, we propose that setting can be understood as a practice through which the social and cultural reproduction of dominant power relations is enacted within schools. Drawing on survey data from 12,178 Year 7 (age 11/12) students and discussion groups and individual interviews with 33 students, conducted as part of a wider project on secondary school grouping practices, we examine the views of students who experience setting, exploring the extent to which the legitimacy of the practice is accepted or challenged, focusing on students’ negative views about setting. Analyses show that privileged students (White, middle class) were most likely to be in top sets whereas working‐class and Black students were more likely to be in bottom sets. Students in the lowest sets (and boys, Black students and those in receipt of free school meals) were the most likely to express negative views of setting and to question the legitimacy and ‘fairness’ of setting as a practice, whereas top‐set students defended the legitimacy of setting and set allocations as ‘natural’ and ‘deserved’. This paper argues that setting is incompatible with social justice approaches to education and calls for the foregrounding of the views of those who are disadvantaged by the practice as a tool for challenging the doxa of setting.  相似文献   

Comparing student,instructor, classroom and institutional data to evaluate a seven-year department-wide science education initiative     

Francis Jones 《Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education》2018,43(2):323-338

We compared seven unrelated data-sets to evaluate a major education improvement initiative. Perceptions of students in 54 course sections were surveyed regarding the helpfulness of 39 specific teaching or learning strategies, and relative workloads and enthusiasm were compared to their other courses. Classes were observed using an established protocol, instructors completed a teaching practices inventory, and their experience with evidence-based pedagogies was established. A graduation exit survey provided longitudinal indications of changes prior to the study, and institutional student ratings of instruction were obtained. This study sought to determine whether improvements were consistently revealed by these data, how perceptions depended upon class size, course improvement model and instructor experience, and whether student ratings captured consistent perceptions about effectiveness. Overall, results compared favourably. Student perceptions and observed effectiveness depended mainly upon class size and improvement strategy. Students found experiences more effective in courses taught by experienced instructors and in classes observed to be more active. Relative workloads were not correlated with any measure of effectiveness while relative enthusiasm was higher in courses perceived to be more effective. Student ratings were consistent with other data-sets, although they did not provide information specific enough for informing further improvements.  相似文献   

Whatever Happened to Progressive Education? A comparison of primary school teachers’ attitudes in 1982 and 1996     

Leslie J. Francis  Zo? Grindle 《Educational studies》1998,24(3):269-279

Two cohorts of teachers working full‐time in Church of England voluntary‐aided and voluntary‐controlled first, primary and middle (deemed primary) schools within the Diocese of St Edmundsbury and Ipswich were invited to complete a questionnaire concerned with teaching styles in 1982 and again in 1996. The data demonstrate a significant shift toward placing greater value on traditional teaching styles between 1982 and 1996.  相似文献   

Pacing during a cross-country mountain bike mass-participation event according to race performance,experience, age and sex     

Samantha Louise Moss  Ben Francis  Giovanna Calogiuri  Jamie Highton 《European Journal of Sport Science》2019,19(6):793-801

This study describes pacing strategies adopted in an 86-km mass-participation cross-country marathon mountain bike race (the ‘Birkebeinerrittet’). Absolute (km·h^?1) and relative speed (% average race speed) and speed coefficient of variation (%CV) in five race sections (15.1, 31.4, 52.3, 74.4 and 100% of total distance) were calculated for 8182 participants. Data were grouped and analysed according to race performance, age, sex and race experience. The highest average speed was observed in males (21.8?±?3.7?km/h), 16–24?yr olds (23.0?±?4.8?km/h) and those that had previously completed >4 Birkebeinerrittet races (22.5?±?3.4?km/h). Independent of these factors, the fastest performers exhibited faster speeds across all race sections, whilst their relative speed was higher in early and late climbing sections (Cohen's d?=?0.45–1.15) and slower in the final descending race section (d?=?0.64–0.98). Similar trends were observed in the quicker age, sex and race experience groups, who tended to have a higher average speed in earlier race sections and a lower average speed during the final race section compared to slower groups. In all comparisons, faster groups also had a lower %CV for speed than slower groups (fastest %CV?=?24.02%, slowest %CV?=?32.03%), indicating a lower variation in speed across the race. Pacing in a cross-country mountain bike marathon is related to performance, age, sex and race experience. Better performance appears to be associated with higher relative speed during climbing sections, resulting in a more consistent overall race speed.  相似文献