Mansa College of Education

Items

• The ‘Reluctant State’: ‘Academic Technologies’ in Stephen Ball’s Policy Sociology
• Teachers’ perceptions of cyberbullying: a comparative multilevel modeling approach
  Teachers’ perceptions of bullying and cyberbullying in schools are an increasingly important field in educational research. Teachers play a very important role in reducing bullying, and many psychological theories (such as Social Cognitive Theory and Expectancy Theory) would suggest that teachers’ perceptions of bullying may influence their likelihood of responding. The aim of the research was to explore how teachers’ perceptions affected their likelihood of responding to varied cyberbullying scenarios (e.g., whether at home or school). Using multilevel modeling, this study investigated the relationships between teachers’ likelihood of response and key psychological factors and background characteristics, drawing on a convenience sample of 212 new and experienced teachers from England and the United States. Some of these factors include valence (severity of cyberbullying), expectancy (level of teacher self-confidence), and instrumentality (confidence in selected task). Findings show that valence, expectancy, and location of the cyberbullying were statistically significant predictors of teachers’ likelihood of response to situations of cyberbullying. This study has potential implications for the design of teacher training programs that could help address cyberbullying in schools.
• Does Cogmed Working Memory Training Improve School-age ADHD Children’s Academic Achievement?
  Working memory deficits are consistently found in ADHD children, which might underlie core ADHD symptoms, hindering ADHD children’s academic achievement. Thus, one way to enhance ADHD children’s academic achievement is to mitigate their working memory deficits through working memory training. A widely applied training is Cogmed Working Memory Training (WMT). Despite the prevalence of this training, its effect on ADHD children has been rarely reviewed. This study aims to fill this gap by systematically reviewing the effect of Cogmed WMT on ADHD school-age children’s working memory, ADHD symptoms, and academic achievement. It systematically searched PsycINFO, Google Scholar (for accessing grey literature), and Cogmed websites. Eleven randomised controlled trials met the eligibility criteria. Findings of these studies were qualitatively synthesised. The internal and external validity of studies included in this review were critically assessed. Results showed that Cogmed WMT might have a positive effect on school-age ADHD children’s performance on trained working memory tasks. However, the effect of this training was spurious for untrained working memory tasks, ADHD symptoms, and academic achievement. Findings of this study therefore did not yield strong support for Cogmed WMT having a positive effect on ADHD school-age children’s academic achievement. Hence, educational practitioners need to maintain a critical attitude when considering whether to adopt Cogmed WMT for ADHD children. More research on the effect of Cogmed WMT on ADHD children is also needed.
• Breaking Barriers: The Struggle for Equal Access to Higher Education in Israel's Palestinian Arab Minority
  This article undertakes a historical and contemporary examination of barriers to equal and equitable access to higher education for Israel's Palestinian Arab minority, with a specific emphasis on the pre-university examination criterion. Rooted in the aftermath of the 'Nakba' of 1948 and subsequent systemic erasures of Palestinian history and identity, the analysis uncovers how the segregated education system, compounded by socio-economic factors, has persistently hindered the learning outcomes of Arab students. These layered challenges reveal a sustained pattern of discrimination against Israel's Arab citizens, leading to a state of cultural and cognitive dissonance. Drawing on frameworks of Fanon and Sen, the paper argues for achieving more equitable educational outcomes through authentic integration models that value the minority's indigenous culture. This necessitates political resolve, historical acknowledgment, and a decolonial approach. The article concludes by outlining directions for future research focused on restructuring education policy to enhance Arab students' outcomes
• The Role of Parents in the Education of their Children with Disabilities in Sub-Saharan Africa: A Critical Review of the Literature
  Parents of children with disabilities (CWDs) play important and varied roles in their children’s education. Policies, including the United Nations Convention of the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD), underscore the need for parent-teacher partnerships to improve a child’s learning environment. This paper explores the extent to which countries in Sub-Saharan Africa have integrated the UNCRPD’s tenets on parental involvement in inclusive education into their own cultural contexts. To achieve this, the paper analyzes the literature written on parents of CWDs in the Sub-Saharan context to identify the different conceptualizations of the roles played by parents in the education of their CWDs. Findings of the literature review reflect consistent barriers faced by and responsibilities expected of parents of CWDs in educational settings. Future research should focus directly on parents of CWDs’ experiences in schools.
• Can humour help the Early Years supply teacher in developing positive relationships with staff and pupils?
• To mix or not to mix: A critical review of literature on mixed-age groups in primary schools
  In this review, I explore mixed-age grouping in primary schools, illustrating, through a review of scholarly research, its position within current education paradigms and in the field of education research. I justify my investigation into this topic and explicate my literature search procedure, considering the difficulties around establishing consistent terminology in mixed-age research. I explain various circumstances that give rise to mixed-age groupings and propose using four circumstantial categories – default, by-product, mandate, and preference – as a conceptual framework for understanding mixed-age phenomena. I then summarize findings from methodologically diverse inquiries into the effects of mixed-age grouping. These studies, conducted over the last sixty years, focus on many forms of mixed-age groups from around the world and consider both academic and social outcomes. Broadly speaking, outcome-based findings are inconsistent across time and place. Systematically measured differences are often small or non-existent. In the context of ambiguous empirical findings, I discuss the perspectives held by parents, teachers, and researchers around mixed-age grouping and highlight limitations of utilizing findings from comparative studies to inform education practice. I position the outcomes of my reviewed literature within the proposed circumstantial framework and discuss the implications of this standpoint. I deconstruct arguments for and against mixed-age grouping by posing the question “to mix or not to mix”, offering apparent reasoning for each position. I extend my perspective on the future of mixed-age research, focusing on the need for thorough description and clear definition of all investigated mixed-age groups, and conclude by critically considering mixed-age grouping as a promising education reform.
• The Relationship between Secondary Education and Economic Growth in Sub-Saharan Africa: A Review of the Literature
  Education plays a vital role in a person's life as it provides them with the necessary knowledge, skills and tools needed for the working world later on. With the introduction of the Millennium and Sustainable Development Goals in the 21st century by the international community, more children, especially in Africa, are attending school. With fast-growing economies, such as Kenya and Ghana, and the Sustainable Development Goals' particular focus on secondary education, the relationship between secondary education and economic development becomes fascinating. While most studies on this topic have looked at primary education's association with economic growth, this literature review tries to fill the gap in the academic literature by documenting and analysing the relationship between secondary education and economic growth in Sub-Saharan Africa. A general overview of the field and three detailed case studies are given. In addition, human capital theory is used to explain how people acquire knowledge and use it to their benefit to contribute and be productive in an economy. For this literature review, six major academic research databases have been searched for quantitative studies examining the relationship between education and economic growth in Sub-Saharan Africa. Most studies found a positive association between secondary education, largely proxied through enrolment rates, and national economic growth. This shows that investments in secondary education can boost local economies and provide people with more opportunities. However, more research must be conducted as the quality of education has been neglected in studies examining the relationship between secondary education and economic growth in Sub-Saharan Africa.
• Equitable Education: Opportunity and Entrepreneurship within the Spatio-Temporal Liminality of the Refugee Camp
  Refugees are spending increasingly protracted amounts of time in refugee camps, ‘waiting’ for a distant future outside of the camp to arrive. The notion of the camp as a temporary space of transition is contradicted by a reality in which this state of being ‘in limbo’ becomes indefinite, and at times even permanent. This essay presents a critical literature review to investigate what ‘equitable education’ means within this spatio-temporally liminal context of refugee settlement camps. While Amartya Sen’s capability approach and John Rawls’ theory of justice underpin many conceptualizations of equity, these do not hold in the inhumane condition of ‘bare life’, where refugees’ freedoms and rights are limited, and futures are continually delayed. Alternative reconceptualizations of the camp as a ‘third space’ of opportunity – with its refugee inhabitants as entrepreneurs rather than helpless victims – are supporting currently popular policies of (neo-liberal) self-reliance. By examining different interpretations of the triangle of concepts of ‘equity’, ‘refugee camp’ and ‘refugee’ within a framework of spatio-temporal liminality, this essay attempts to show that none of the various approaches discussed are unproblematic. Non-formal, self-led entrepreneurship education, however, may provide a chance to soften the ambiguous tensions of living in time-spaces of liminality, and facilitate a shift from education focussed on indefinitely delayed futures outside the camp towards supporting refugees’ creation of possible futures within the camp, ‘here and now’.
• Understanding Attitudes Towards Mathematics (ATM) using a Multimodal Model: An Exploratory Case Study with Secondary School Children in England
• Imagining Inclusive Education through Systemic Compassion
  School inclusion is a key United Nations priority (UNESCO, 2017). Their goal for education by 2030, is that everyone, without exception, will access their entitlement to an “inclusive and equitable quality education” (UNESCO, 2017, p. 2). There is rising support for the role that compassion might play in achieving this goal (UNESCO MGIEP, 2021). This paper explores compassion as a mechanism for promoting equitable and inclusive education in schools in England. The research aimed to stimulate the participants’ imaginations and emotions, to envision how a compassion-informed school might be realised. The paper presents the results of two comparative focus groups of education professionals with a shared interest in compassion and inclusion: one comprising teachers, and one comprising school leaders. The focus groups discussed the potential scope of compassion in facilitating and furthering inclusive practice, and imagined how this might be accomplished in a school setting. Thematic analysis was applied to the data, and the interpretation of the findings drew on systemic approaches and social network theory. The findings suggest compassionate approaches modelled by leadership as the most important priority, and external pressures on schools as the most significant barrier, in the development of a whole school approach to compassion. The paper argues the case for the role of compassion in facilitating inclusion, finding that this is most effective when compassion informs and infuses all aspects of school life.
• Reviewing Different Types of Working Memory Training on Reading Ability among Children with Reading Difficulties
  This review evaluates the effectiveness of different types of working memory training on reading performance among children with reading difficulties. Reading performance is closely related to academic achievement whilst working memory (WM) serves as a crucial cognitive component to reading. Some researchers believe that WM training can improve WM capacity, intelligence and other cognitive functions. However, whether the effect extends to reading performance has rarely been examined. According to the multi-component WM model, the current review classifies WM training into domain-general, domain-specific (verbal WM and visuospatial WM), and mixed training and evaluates their effectiveness to reading ability correspondingly. According to the existing studies, verbal WM training seems to be most effective for improving reading ability, while other types of training show effects on WM or cognitive skills but only limited effects for reading. Limitations of these findings and reasons for transfer failure are discussed.
• Building a Global Community in Educational Research Through Open-Review
• Usage-Inspired Insights into Second Language Learning: A Comparative Review of Usage-Based Studies on Vocabulary Development
  This paper examines how usage-based perspectives make contributions to insights about second language (L2) learning in the field of education. It first locates usage-based approaches in language learning, in particular L2 learning. It moves on to highlight two key usage-based features, namely frequency and salience, that have been applied successfully in the context of L2 learning and particularly in the two selected usage-based studies in this paper. Based on these two core features and chosen pieces of research, this paper aims to underpin usage-based investigations on lexical development in L2 learners, which is believed to not yet be researched substantially in the field. In marked contrast to the paucity of such studies, this paper seeks to illustrate how research focus on vocabulary learning could complement the predominantly studied acquisition of syntactic constructions. Despite the real likelihood of conducting usage-based lexical analyses, this paper subsequently counterargues that considerable limitations exist in researching lexicons from usage-based approaches. With a view to fulfilling these study aims, a comparative analysis of two chosen studies was carried out to draw on empirical evidence, affording usage-inspired insights into L2 learning in the educational discipline.
• Can Psycholinguistics Inform Second Language Learning? Educational Implications Arising from the Shared Asymmetrical Model
• Touching collage: examining haptic potential in arts-based research through the lens of "Lucy's Picture"
  Collage in Arts-Based Research has great potential as a tactile, collaborative process but, in existing research, it is often presented as a predominantly visual medium. Using the children’s book Lucy’s Picture (Moon & Ayliffe, 1994) as a framework for my discussion, I examine the untapped haptic potential of collage and the resulting repercussions for ideas of inclusion. In the process, I draw on ten categories that provide fruitful sites for new understandings of collage to emerge and interact: embodiment; a conceptualisation of collage; touch; texture; play; memory; revolt; inclusion; intergenerational communication; and tactile illustration. While I conceptualise collage broadly as a piecing together of fragments in any context, in this article I explore collage as a specifically haptic medium that valorises embodied ways of knowing, rather than making recourse to the false dichotomy of body and mind.
• “That’s my kind of ideal but that’s not necessarily what happens” A Case Study of English as an Additional Language (EAL) Policy Enactment in a UK Primary School: Policy, Understanding and Practice
  The increasing number of English as an Additional Language (EAL) learners integrated into UK primary schools has heightened the need to research how teachers “enact” policies or make them happen. This qualitative case study investigated eleven participants’ views about EAL provision within one primary school in the East of England. The study addressed 1) the extent to which national guidance underpins the school’s own approach towards EAL provision, 2) the understandings classroom teachers have about teaching EAL pupils, and 3) the extent to which teachers’ enacted practices align with policy guidance and their own understandings. The data collection methods included policy document analysis, classroom observations, and semi-structured interviews with the Senior Leadership Team (SLT), and interviews with teachers involving a stimulus card task and semi-structured questioning. Emergent themes were identified using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA). Unlike previous research, the study drew on teacher sensemaking theory to frame its inquiry around the intersection between teacher understandings, policy messages, and enacted practices in the context of EAL provision. The positioning of these constructs as interdependent challenges traditional assumptions that policy is superior to teachers’ own implementation. This MPhil study found that while tensions between EAL-specificity and generality emerged in all teachers’ reports and observed enacted practices, the school employed “macro-adaptive” approaches that included EAL learners (Cronbach, 1954). The study argues that the lack of systematic EAL-specific information and communication shaped teacher sensemaking. Despite no written EAL-specific school policy, teachers made sense of EAL provision by enacting shared unwritten approaches. Through the dissemination of its findings, the study has immediate implications at micro-level, shaping the case school’s provisional development of an EAL-specific policy.
• Pen and Paper Cyborgs: Queer Embodiment in Baum and Denslow’s The New Wizard of Oz
  The Wizard of Oz has often been depicted as a Queer text. Its pop cultural references extend from monikers for queer identities (i.e., friend of Dorothy) to a general Judy Garland fandom to iconic drag performances. However, very little attention has been paid to the original children’s literature source of the many queer forms of The Wizard of Oz. Using theories of reproductive futurism and cyborg bodies, this paper interprets the many ways in which the inhabitants of Oz manifest queer embodiment and perform non-cis-heteronormative identity within the text. This analysis focuses especially on a 1903 illustrated edition of The New Wizard of Oz and the role the archive can have in creating new ways to interpret classic children’s literature texts. The tangibility of the archival materials also contributes to the idea that making and unmaking corporeality can dramatically influence the potential queer interpretations of an imagined world.
• Using a Participatory Approach to Explore What Young Girls and Their Teachers Want from Physical Activity Interventions in Primary School
  Evidence suggests that young girls are less likely than boys to be physically active at school and are less responsive to physical activity interventions. This study employs a participatory case study approach to explore what young girls and their teachers want from physical activity interventions during the school day. The project aims to distance itself from a hierarchical researcher-participant dynamic and make sense of the issues through a shared conceptualisation and co-researching partnership. One class of British Year 2 girls, their class teacher and their head teacher participated in this study. The girls and their teachers designed their own physical activity intervention, implemented it, measured changes in step count (using pedometers) pre- and post-intervention and reflected on the process. Qualitative data were gathered via focus groups with the girls and semi-structured interviews with their teachers. Key themes that emerged were a desire for choice in how they were active, and an interest in working together as a team within a social framework to increase activity.
• England is blue and China is red: a case study of two Chinese adolescents’ expression of linguistic identity through the construction of English as a second language (ESL) poetry
  This paper reconceptualises linguistic identity for the contemporary era by recognising the integral role of socioeconomic influence in the construction of linguistic identities. By building upon Rampton’s (1990) framework of linguistic repertoire, this case study of two Chinese adolescents explores how linguistic identity is creatively expressed through the construction of twelve English as Second Language (ESL) poems. The data consist of a three-week, online poetry workshop and follow-up interviews. The poems and interview transcripts were coded for each facet of linguistic repertoire using Rampton’s framework (inheritance, affiliation, and expertise) as the thematic analytical tool. Two additional facets (expectation and affluence) were found, resulting in a total of five facets of linguistic repertoire. Participants displayed a strong sense of language inheritance toward their L1 (Mandarin Chinese) and mixed feelings of affiliation towards their L2 (English). They demonstrated strong sentiments of language expertise and an inclination to show off their bilingualism while possessing high expectations of their English abilities. Themes of affluence revealed an awareness of educational privilege; English was seen as a “tool” to acquire more capital and access international communities. Therefore, inheritance, affiliation, expertise, expectation, and affluence comprise these Chinese adolescents’ linguistic identity, revealing socioeconomic influence to be integral to contemporary expressions of linguistic identity.
• Gender Euphoria, Affirmation, and Joy: Positive Approaches to Transgender Youth in Educational Settings
  This literature review critiques mainstream deficit-based approaches to studies of transgender people and LGBT+ communities. Studies that primarily focus on deficits in the trans community may contribute to an overemphasis on pain and suffering as inherent in the trans experience. This review then defines an alternative positive approach based in gender euphoria and gender pleasure, or positive experiences and affirmation of gender. The review examines both community and academic understandings of these topics. Finally, it explores the value of a focus on gender euphoria in educational contexts. This review concludes that a focus on euphoria and pleasure may be instrumental in allowing all youth to thrive in education and recommends further study on gender euphoria and pleasure.
• The Stress Coping Mechanisms of Vietnamese Students In Gifted Schools
  This article takes the familiar subject of student stress and transports it to an unfamiliar setting – “gifted schools” in Vietnam. Research by Vietnamese academics into stress among Vietnamese adolescents, has so far largely been quantitative and has focused on identifying the nature of this problem within Vietnam’s high outcomes but high-pressure education system. This paper takes an alternative qualitative approach, focusing on accessing student voice and using this to understand the coping strategies that Vietnamese students develop. The focus on ‘gifted schools’, is because these highly selective institutions attain exceptionally high academic outcomes according to international comparisons but also consequently place upon their students very high expectations and an extremely high workload. It is also because these schools and their students were supportive in co-creating this study. Via the innovative use of text-based interview, a method that was co-designed in conversation with the participants, this article explores the coping strategies that these students have developed, and in the findings presents a story of how they have developed sophisticated and individualised strategies to cope with stress. This article therefore approaches this issue from a positive and empowering perspective in partnership with the participants in this study. As revealed in this study - the students emphasised the importance of self-reliance when finding strategies, accompanied by the need for self-definition of whether strategies are positive or negative. As one example: rumination, which in Western research is typically portrayed as negative was seen more positively by these Vietnamese students. However, despite the emphasis on finding their own solutions they also welcomed increases in formal mental health support. The results of this study have the potential to inform practice and also lay the groundwork for future research, particularly within the context of education in Vietnam but also within the area of student voice research more broadly.
• Pushing metacognition: an evaluation of the use of process interviews as a means of talking to international students about their learning
  Conducting research into how students learn is exceptionally difficult. The metacognition required for a student to explain their learning process necessitates drawing on complex conceptual ideas. For international students who are not operating in their first language, the vocabulary involved in such explanations forms a further obstacle. My doctoral action research required the elicitation of explanations from postgraduate international students about the ways, and the extent to which, the use of visual metaphors in lectures contributes to understanding abstract concepts. This was achieved using process interviews. The interviews, conducted in small groups, involved a staged process in which participants completed tasks, then described and evaluated the outcomes from them. While the metacognitive demands were not completely removed, the use of process interviews generated rich data that provided valuable insights into the students’ learning and the circumstances in which visual metaphors helped to unlock meaning. Although presenting the findings from the research is beyond the scope of this paper, it is asserted that these insights would not have been possible without the use of process interviews. This paper provides an evaluation of process interviews as a data collection method.
• Teacher Education NGOs in India: Agents of Change in a Complex System
  The Indian education sector is striking in terms of its scale, complexity, and the diversity of actors involved, including NGOs. Many different types of NGO support the Government of India in its mandate to ensure the right to education. This paper focuses on a relatively new cohort of NGOs which support the right to education by providing teacher education. To understand them better, and as part of my Masters research, I interviewed staff members from nine teacher education NGOs to explore their perspectives on their role and to learn about the challenges they face. I found that teacher education NGOs value and pursue changes in teacher identity and lasting changes in practice, and they encounter significant and sometimes surprising challenges at all levels of the education system. I examine my findings with an ecological lens and show how the work and impact of these NGOs are limited by a complex and almost unyielding system. I argue that if NGOs are to assist the state in raising teaching quality, then they require accommodations to allow them to be effective.
• Some Intercultural Implications of ASEAN and Thai Educational Policies for Thai Higher Education