Kitwe College of Education

Items

• Towards a more equitable future: CERJ efforts to advance equity in a post-pandemic era
• A Critical Review of School Choice and Egalitarian Justice with Special Reference to the Philippines
  The complexities of many societies in the world today, coupled with the dire need to achieve quality education and social justice in every society, makes the issue of school choice and justice topical at national and international levels. The Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 4: Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all by 2030, has established that quality education for all can significantly contribute to sustainable societal development. This paper employed a critical review of John Rawls's A Theory of Justice (1971) and Harry Brighouse’s (2000) work on school choice and social justice. The paper applies this examination to the Philippines case, paying close attention to the relationship between school choice and egalitarian justice within the Philippines education sector. This article considers egalitarian justice as a theoretical framework relevant to its discussion on school choice in the Philippines within the context of the SDG 4 – Education 2030 agenda. Findings from this review show that many Filipino parents want the best education and future for their children, and this drives their decision on school choice. Where the public system fails to provide quality education for their children, parents tend to choose other school options to enrol their children, and they remain loyal to affordable schools. The Government of the Philippines provides educational vouchers for private schooling to ensure accessible, equitable and quality education for all. Consequently, private schools are developed at the cost of public schools, while many Filipino children still attend public schools. This creates unintended inequalities within society. This paper concludes that realising egalitarian justice in a society under the school choice system will be quite problematic. Although school choice could help in making education available to some, it could spell doom for others. This review paper is relevant because, with less than 11 years left to achieve SDG 4, challenges historically inherent in many education systems and current problems being faced by educational actors on achieving the SDG 4 are worthy of our attention. Therefore, the paper calls for more research to be done on school choice and egalitarian justice in different socio-political contexts.
• Digital translanguaging and Arabic-English transliteration (Arabizi): Insights from Syria and Lebanon
  In a globalised and technologically advancing world, an increasing number of people practice digital translanguaging. However, monoglossic ideological resistance to such practices remains, some of which can be conceptualised through the lens of moral panic. This research navigates one example of digital translanguaging, Arabic English Transliteration (AET), sometimes referred to as Arabizi. AET is the act of using English characters to write Arabic words. The current study employs a small-scale qualitative survey involving 26 Syrian and Lebanese youth with tertiary education experience. It addresses gaps in the AET literature by exploring attitudes and perceptions of AET use and examining the reasons that underlie its adoption. Analysis reveals a difference in the attitudes of Lebanese and Syrians, suggesting a need to move away from an exclusive focus on digital texts towards examining the socially-situated nature of their production and interpretation. An in-depth interview was then conducted with one participant who reported changes in her practice, from shunning AET to ample use of it, which corresponded with a study abroad learning experience. This interview provides nuanced evidence of the need to account for the educational, social and cultural contexts in the study of digital translanguaging. The article concludes with a discussion of the findings and the potential connections between AET use and socio-cultural factors as well as a series of questions and directions for future research including the potential implications for English as a medium of instruction in education contexts.
• Predictors of Parental Attitudes Towards Inclusion in China
  Few studies have investigated predictors of parental attitudes (PA) towards inclusion in China. There was also contradictory evidence on the role of several predictors of PA towards inclusion among studies in the Chinese context and between studies conducted in China and the Western world. This study aimed to identify the strongest predictors of PA towards inclusion in China by investigating and comparing different variables, including parental gender, income, education level, exposure to inclusion and the number of children with special education needs and disabilities in the household. A total of 203 participants completed an online quantitative questionnaire. The results showed that a higher parental education level, more exposure to inclusion and a larger number of children with SEND in the household significantly predicted more positive attitudes towards inclusion. Among them, exposure to inclusion was the strongest predictor. Several limitations of the current study were discussed followed by recommendations for future research. Implications of the current work for policymaking and home-school collaborations were outlined.
• Does ‘WOW’ translate to an ‘A’? Exploring the effects of virtual reality assisted multimodal text on Chinese Grade 8 EFL learners’ reading comprehension
  In recent years, the incorporation of multimedia into linguistic input has opened a new horizon in the field of second language acquisition (SLA). In the reading aspect, the advent of virtual reality (VR) technology extends the landscape of reading repertoire by engaging learners with auditory, visual and tactile multimodal input. However, few studies have yet examined the pedagogical potential of VR technology in enhancing learners’ reading comprehension. This study aims to fill this gap by assessing the effects of VR-assisted multimodal input on learners’ expository reading comprehension. Three classes including 140 Chinese 8th grade EFL students participate in this study, and these classes are randomly assigned into two experimental groups and one control group: VR-assisted multimodal text group, video-assisted multimodal text group and print-based monomodal text group. This study adopts mixed methods methodology and triangulates pre-post-retention tests, questionnaires and interview data to compare three modes of text input on learners’ reading performance and explore learners’ cognitive processing in the multimodal learning environment. This study is the first attempt to integrate VR technology with input presentation and cognitive processing in second language reading comprehension and offered a new line of theorisation of VR-assisted multimodal learning in the cognitive field of SLA.
• How Does Sociolinguistic Theory Contribute to Insights About Second Language Learning: A Comparative Analysis of Two Empirical Studies
• Turning Friends into Research Participants: Rationale, Possibilities and Challenges
• Assessing formal written ability in Mathematics 
• Celebrating 5 years of CORERJ
• A Curriculum of Contradictions: State-Sponsored Children's Literature in Egypt (1954-2011)
• ‘Gender’ Doesn’t Mean ‘Female’: Gender Minorities’ Exclusion in Development Education as Ontological Violence
  This paper explores the intersections of gender, education, and international development, specifically noting the spaces in which gender minorities are either highlighted or discounted. It begins by providing a basic introduction to the history of conceptualizations of gender in education for international development settings as a way of foregrounding how the term ‘gender’ has become ubiquitous within the field to mean ‘female.’ It uses this background to explore both the invisibilization of gender minorities and the intersectional ways in which systemic violence is perpetuated against them. The sources analysed in this paper range from the past 20 years of academic findings from major journals across educational fields, Millennium Development Goals and Sustainable Development Goals policy documents, and the GEM Report 2020 (which focused on gender equality in education). Because the explicit inclusion of non-cisgender identities in education settings is defined as a crucial tool in preventing violence against gender minorities (Meyer & Keenan, 2018), this paper argues that the decision to ignore and exclude gender minorities in international education development research therefore 1) contributes to the systemic forces of violence that they face and 2) is itself an act of ontological violence as well.
• ‘Should I stay or should I go?’ Staff turnover in secondary schools – voices from four case studies in Cambridgeshire
  This is a dual-purpose paper. It is both a work-in-progress report as well as the expansion of a presentation to be given at the forthcoming Kaleidoscope 2023 conference. It therefore addresses one of the Kaleidoscope 2023 themes, resilience in education. The paper uses qualitative data extracted from my ongoing PhD research project that investigates the relationship between the everyday lives of all school staff, their working conditions, and their wellbeing. The aim of that project is to see if there are policies and design interventions that might improve the working lives of all school workers. The Introduction summarises the problem of recruitment and retention, both locally and globally. By reference to recent post-Pandemic research and current (April 2023) industrial unrest it suggests the importance of continuing research in this area. The Methodologies section details the theories underpinning the mixture of qualitative and quantitative methods that have been used in my PhD research and the way in which I have extracted the ‘voices’ that form the body of this paper. The Results are selected quotations from the interviews conducted with 12 members of staff in the 4 schools that were studied. My Discussion focusses on the interviewees’ feelings about themselves, and sheds light on sources of job satisfaction and dissatisfaction. The article concludes with ideas about what these voices tell us about resilience and suggests possible future work based on employee experience design.
• The Role of Digital Media in Empowerment Education: Conceptualizing Participatory Methodology
  This paper provides an overview of advantages and issues surrounding fictional digital media in empowerment education and participatory action research involving youth. Following theoretical underpinnings of Freire expanded by Nicholl’s Pedagogy of the Privileged, the discussions first consider digital media as alternative mental spaces for pedagogy, engagement, and dissemination of knowledge. First, for oppressed youth, digital media can be employed as a Safespace in which some level of mental health respite is offered amidst forces of oppression in an individual's physical context of marginalization. Second, digital media can provide a Non-Safespace in which privileged and oppressed youth are engaged towards collaborative discourse. Social justice themes which lead to incongruent perspectives between different youth can be presented as less confrontational by digital media - which can be utilized to offer multiple, iterative chances of collaborative learning. Thirdly, digital media can be applied in research engagement as Experimental Space, in which youth access opportunities to take on the perspectives and lived experiences of characters in both privilege and oppression classes alike. This immersion in the lived experiences of the other can lead to greater understanding and potential empathy towards future action against oppression. These three spaces offered by digital media may help overcome the need to self-censor that oppressed youth face in classroom and research settings. Negative emotions associated with living in oppression can be perceived as what Stephen Kemmis identifies as society’s “unwelcome truths”, often silenced, but given potential outlet via the digital realm. The complex interplay between reimbursement in research, social mobility, and societal expectations of oppressed youth to self-help are discussed in relation to inequitable power structures. Here, digital media presents an additional interrogation of inequality, as it allows youth to be creators - who amplify their own voice without needing approval from society.
• Teachers’ Perceptions about the Mission Buniyaad Programme – A Large-Scale Foundational Literacy and Numeracy Initiative in Delhi Government Schools
  There is a prominent shift in the discourse surrounding education policy and practice in India, specifically addressing the need to improve students’ learning outcomes. Several national and global reports have pointed out students’ dismally low foundational learning levels across India. In a bid to improve the learning levels of the students, the government runs national, as well as state-level intervention programmes. This study explores the perceptions of teachers and mentor teachers regarding one such state-level intervention programme: the Mission Buniyaad programme, a foundational literacy and numeracy improvement initiative implemented by the Delhi Government in its Directorate of Education (DoE) schools from 3-8 grades. It is grounded in qualitative research design, employing semi-structured interviews with 10 teachers and 5 mentor-teachers actively involved in the programme. The data is analysed via Braun and Clarke’s (2006) thematic analysis. The following four major themes emerged from the interviews, providing a comprehensive understanding of the participants’ perspectives – the programme’s need, its design and pedagogical approach, its impact on students’ learning outcomes, and implementational challenges and improvement suggestions. The findings from this study summarize the process, complexity, and overall dynamic nature of implementing the Mission Buniyaad programme. By analysing teachers’ and mentor teachers’ voices and thematically decoding their experiences, it presents a comprehensive understanding of the Mission Buniyaad programme and its impact on learning outcomes against the everyday realities of government schools in Delhi. The key findings pointed towards improvement in foundational learning of children who participated in the programme, inconsistent cascading of the programme, teacher shortage, and resource and infrastructural constraints. Overall, the insights gained from this study hold significant potential to inform policymakers, educators, and programme designers in refining and enhancing the FLN programmes.
• A hole in my stocking: Disrupting power through play in the Kickstarter Creative Arts project
  This article focuses on the importance of play as a necessary and developmental tool for creating democratic spaces in rural South African Primary schools through examples in the Kickstarter Creative Arts pilot project case study (The KS project). The KS project is an Educational teacher empowerment and artist in residency programme, designed as a case study to assess the impact of the Creative Arts at the Intermediate level (Grade 4, 5 and 6). The project illustrates how play, as supported by Winnicott and Vygotsky, is developmental and can be a mechanism for greater humanization in the classroom. The metaphor of a stocking is employed to advocate for experience, as per the work of John Dewey. As the methodology of the Kickstarter project is experiential, it encourages personal artistic growth for teachers, allowing play and creating shifts in the power dynamics and relationship between teachers and pupils within the classroom. As teachers engage with a democratic approach, they find learners more willing, more empathetic and more engaged. It is proposed that the KS project become aligned with the Basic Department of Education and rolled out nationwide in South Africa for the “Arts as method” approach to all subjects.
• Negotiating the Incorporation of Multimodal Materials in Literacy Learning: Some Observations in One Secondary School in Uganda
• The Intercorrelation Between Executive Function, Physics Problem Solving, Mathematical, and Matrix Reasoning Skills: Reflections from a Small-Scale Experiment
  There are now many studies in the disciplines of psychology, neuroscience, and education concerning the contribution of executive function skills to the student learning process during school. Less work has been conducted on links with executive function skills and science, especially physics, compared to other school subjects. Here, we focus on physics problem solving skills because they are core elements of physics instruction in secondary education. In addition, teachers are concerned that students are not reaching the desired level of physics problems solving ability by the end of formal schooling. Physics problem solving skills seem to rely on strong mathematical skills, an area where there is robust evidence of links to executive function skills. In addition, matrix reasoning skills seem to impact executive function and mathematical skills. However, little is known about the complex links between these skills. Such work would elucidate cognitive processes underlying physics problem solving. In this small-scale study, 20 Greek high school students (Mage = 16.81 years, SD = 1.87) completed a battery of tasks measuring executive function, physics problem solving, mathematics, and matrix reasoning skills. The results indicated strong positive correlations between physics problem solving skills and mathematical skills. One of the executive function skills (i.e., switching) had significant positive correlations with physics problem solving and mathematical skills. Matrix reasoning skills positively correlated with physics problem solving and mathematical skills, and two of the executive function skills (i.e., switching and working memory). These findings suggest complex intercorrelations between executive function, physics problem solving, mathematical, and matrix reasoning skills. These findings could be the springboard for further studies involving more detailed measurements of these skills. In the long run, results from this type of work could lead to designing pedagogical interventions in physics education based on executive function skills to address teachers' concerns about students’ acquisition of physics problem solving skills.
• The Potential Benefits of Using Film as Part of Literacy Lessons- An Introduction to the Bradford City of Film Media Literacy Scheme and PhD
• Pragmatics in the Saudi EFL Classroom: Investigating Textbook Content and Teachers’ Perceptions and Practices
  Pragmatic competence is a crucial component of communicative competence and language knowledge. It plays a significant role in second language learning and teaching, especially in English as a foreign language (EFL) context (Cohen, 2012). Despite its recognition as a core objective in the EFL curriculum by the Saudi Ministry of Education, recent studies highlight a concerning lack of pragmatic awareness and conversational proficiency among Saudi EFL learners (Almegren, 2022). Furthermore, there is limited information available on the pragmatic content covered in EFL textbooks designed for Saudi students. Consequently, this study analyses the pragmatic content of a textbook series used nationwide in Saudi secondary schools. It specifically examines the type, frequency and distribution of speech acts, with the metapragmatic information covering topics of politeness, appropriacy, register, usage, illocutionary force, and cultural aspects. Quantitative and qualitative content analyses are employed to analyse the textbook data, using checklists based on Searle’s (1979) taxonomy of speech acts and on metapragmatic information, drawing on the framework of Vellenga (2004). Furthermore, the study investigates whether teachers follow or diverge from these textbooks when teaching pragmatics, and their perceptions of the covered pragmatic content. The initial findings indicate that the textbooks include a wide range of speech act types; that there is limited coverage of contextual and metapragmatic information; that there is a lack of a discernible pattern in the distribution of pragmatic information across textbooks; and that teachers mostly rely on textbooks to teach pragmatics; with unanimous dissatisfaction among them regarding the quality, albeit perceived adequacy in quantity, of SA in the textbooks. Based on these findings, pedagogical suggestions are proposed to enhance learners’ pragmatic competence through improved teaching materials and classroom instruction
• Rethinking Employability of International Student Graduates of US and UK Universities from a Postcolonial and Critical Realist Lens: A Narrative Review
  From a critical realist and postcolonial angle, this paper explores the underlying socio-cultural mechanisms driving international students in their decisions and actions when transitioning from university to employment. For international students coming from the Global South (Asia, Africa, and Latin America), studying in a university in the US or UK requires not only multiple steps of actions involving a lot of money, effort, and time, it places them in a consistent state of uncertainty and emotional struggle from systemic racism, insecurity, and structural integration. In this paper, I will use Homi Bhabha’s (1994) concept of ‘third space’ or ‘hybridity’ and Roy Bhaskar’s (1975, 1989) critical realist ‘stratified ontology’ to rethink international students' employability and provide an alternative perspective to understand the realities of international student employability. This narrative review explores the conditions that enable students to transition to the workplace and experience shifting their identity from an international student to an international employee. Rather than problematizing international students’ ability to gain employment, I will take away the general focus from ‘student competence’ and use a morphogenetic approach (Archer, 1995), where I rethink employability as a process rather than as an ability. This allows us to uncover the cycle of social injustices that international students encounter since coming to study in the US/UK. In this review, I illustrated how current ways of learning in universities in the global north might oppress their transition options and mobility. I will conclude by discussing how hybridity can be used to uncover sociocultural mechanisms in international student transitions to the workplace and suggest perspectives that can be useful for universities, employers, policymakers, and future international students.
• Teach or Treat: How do Teachers and Applied Behaviour Analysis Therapists in Hong Kong Conceptualise Autism?
  Relatively scant research has been conducted on linking conceptualisations of autism to practice, especially in non-western contexts. To gain an in-depth understanding of how frontline staff for autistic students conceptualise autism in Hong Kong educational settings, 5 mainstream classroom teachers and 5 Applied Behaviour Analysis (ABA) therapists based in Hong Kong were virtually interviewed. The semi-structured interviews were coded using an abductive thematic analysis. It was found that teachers and ABA therapists in Hong Kong generally demonstrated a medical conceptualisation of autism while teachers showed a weaker understanding of autism and more negative attitudes towards autism. Moreover, therapists and teachers were also consistent in showing an ableist approach in instruction and intervention. These findings are subject to a small sample size. The findings of this study indicate an unchallenging deficit-based model of understanding autism in Hong Kong education, and call for proactive interventions from the local government to shift the landscape of conceptualisations of autism to provide an equitable education for autistic students.
• Learning Beyond School in Mentoring for Leadership development of middle managers in Singapore primary schools