THE PERSONAL IS THE POLITICAL: AN INQUIRY INTO THE LIVED EXPERIENCES AND EMOTIONS OF ENGLISH TEACHERS IN SINGAPORE SECONDARY SCHOOLS

Author(s):  
Warren Liew
2021 ◽  
pp. 1-17
Author(s):  
LASSE SCHMIDT HANSEN ◽  
MATHIAS HERUP NIELSEN

Abstract This article uses extensive ethnographic methods to explore the lived reality of a Danish workfare programme. The programme requires social assistance recipients to perform manual labour for their benefits at municipal work sites. The contrast between the political rhetoric that justifies the workfare programme and the lived reality of it is striking. While the programme is justified as a means to put the passive unemployed to work, there is a norm of working less, not more at the site. The participants spend most of their time waiting or conducting seemingly meaningless work assignments. However, over time, the majority of the participants begin to embrace this modus operandi at the site. This article answers this apparent paradox by turning to concepts from the anthropology of industrial work. Such concepts allow us to analyse how camaraderie exists amongst participants as well as work supervisors at the site. Particularly, the camaraderie is based on group solidarity, an informal regulation of work efficiency and an alternative system of value. Hereby, the article adds to previous findings on the ‘lived experiences’ of welfare recipients.


Author(s):  
Susanne Gannon ◽  
Jennifer Dove

AbstractIn secondary schools, English teachers are often made responsible for writing results in national testing. Yet there have been few studies that focussed on this key group, or on how pedagogical practices have been impacted in the teaching of writing in their classrooms. This study investigated practices of English teachers in four secondary schools across different states, systems and regions. It developed a novel method of case study at a distance that required no classroom presence or school visits for the researchers and allowed a multi-sited and geographically dispersed design. Teachers were invited to select classroom artefacts pertaining to the teaching of writing in their English classes, compile individualised e-portfolios and reflect on these items in writing and in digitally conducted interviews, as well as elaborating on their broader philosophies and feelings about the teaching of writing. Despite and sometimes because of NAPLAN, these teachers held strong views on explicit teaching of elements of writing, but approached these in different ways. The artefacts that they created animated their teaching practices, connected them to their students and their subject, suggested both the pressure of externally driven homogenising approaches to writing and the creative individualised responses of skilled teachers within their unique contexts. In addition to providing granular detail about pedagogical practices in the teaching of writing in the NAPLAN era, the contribution of this paper lies in its methodological adaptation of case study at a distance through teacher-curated artefact portfolios that enabled a deep dive into individual teachers’ practices.


Author(s):  
Ruth Patrick

This chapter outlines the rationale behind conducting repeat interviews with out-of-work benefit claimants in an effort to better understand lived experiences of welfare reform. It introduces readers to the political and theoretical context, and highlights the value in employing social citizenship as a theoretical lens in order to tease out citizenship from above and below. The recent context of welfare reform in the UK is also introduced, highlighting the extent to which successive rounds of welfare reform have cumulatively reworked the relationship between the citizen and the state. The research on which this book is based is detailed, and the value in working through and across time by taking a qualitative longitudinal approach highlighted.


1998 ◽  
Vol 28 (3) ◽  
pp. 593-602
Author(s):  
Paul E. Pezza

The American Cancer Society has produced and distributed for use in secondary schools a curriculum package entitled Right Choices. This article considers the development, testing, and marketing of the new cancer education program. Of particular interest is the selection of the theoretical perspective, evaluation methodology, and marketing strategy employed in its production, given the direction in which the field of health education is moving and the political context in which the curriculum has emerged. The author concludes that in selecting cancer prevention curricula for the schools, making the right choice may not be as simple as adopting what is available from the American Cancer Society. The case of Right Choices also serves to illuminate concerns about the American Cancer Society raised by others and bolsters the call for an examination of the organization's role in an effort to control cancer.


2015 ◽  
Vol 19 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 147-157
Author(s):  
SM Kamruddin Ropum ◽  
Md Yasin Arafat

Smart teacher smart class (STSC) is a portal developed by Dnet which contains curriculum, teachers’ guide, education policy, textbook, lesson plan, multimedia contents, and teaching-learning strategies on different subjects aiming to provide content and pedagogical support to the secondary school teachers in Bangladesh. Making an offline CD, the STSC portal is provided to the respective teachers of secondary schools Dnet works with. The regular use of the STSC portal helps the teachers to improve their knowledge about effective teaching-learning techniques. The study was designed as one group pre-test post-test quasi-experimental method to find the effect of STSC portal on secondary school English teachers’ English language teaching knowledge (ELTK). Twenty eight English teachers from 14 secondary schools were selected purposively to form the group and the tests were administered on them considering 6 months intervention (STSC portal) period. The test was adapted from Cambridge language teaching knowledge (TKT) test focusing on different ELT aspects. The tests scores of the teachers were categorized in 4 knowledge levels: limited, basic, deep and extensive. The findings of the study show that the STSC portal induces a significant improvement of the teachers’ ELTK. Most of the teachers showed better performances in the post-test than the pre-test. Moreover, significance (0.001) and effect size score (0.91) also depict a clear and large effect in enhancing teachers’ ELTK. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3126/nelta.v19i1-2.12087 Journal of NELTA, Vol 19 No. 1-2, December 2014: 147-157


2021 ◽  
Vol VI (I) ◽  
pp. 55-63
Author(s):  
Muhammad Arshad ◽  
Rashid Minas ◽  
Namra Munir

The decision of the Punjab Government to change teaching methods from Urdu to English has disturbed the students. They displayed less faith in their capacities and encountered difficulties adapting to the new world and providing students with education effectively. The thesis aims to examine schoolteachers self-efficacy and compare them based on career designation, i.e. PST, EST, SST or other. The sample of teachers who taught Urdu or English to Grade 1 to 10. The survey method used to collect data, and the multi-stage random sample method was stratified. Consequently, 452 taught English and 412 Urdu selected randomly from primary, elementary and secondary schools. The study concluded that Urdu teachers had a higher degree of automatic effectiveness than English teachers did on the total TSES scores and three instrument subscales.


Author(s):  
Felicitas Acosta

This article focuses on the origins of secondary education in Argentina. Inparticular, it explores the possible relations between the modelling of educationalinstitutions intended for the formation of political elites and the fabrication of thenation-state. In Argentina, the creation of free, compulsory elementary educationwas preceded by the development of secondary education through the setting up ofthe colegio nacional. These schools were formed during the political unification ofthe national territory after domestic post-independence wars. Note the name givento these institutions: national schools. How did the nation and the state appear inthe organization of national schools? The article explores this question analyzingschool curricula and rectors’ reports during the configuration of the colegio nacionalbetween 1863 and 1890.Key words: curricula; configuration; national; territory; secondary schools.


2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 145
Author(s):  
Xiaowei Xi

The present study aimed to 1) investigate English teachers’ perspectives on using music in English teaching in Thai secondary schools; and 2) explore the problems teachers met while using music to teach English in Thai secondary schools. Participants in the present study were 55 English teachers from different secondary schools in central Bangkok, Thailand. The instrument for the current study was a questionnaire which included 24 Likert-scale items about teachers’ perspectives involving the attitudes, beliefs, intentions and problems of using music in English teaching, and one open-ended question asking about the problems teachers met while using music in their English teaching. Results from the quantitative data of the current study revealed the significantly positive attitudes and beliefs of the English teachers in Thai secondary schools on using music in English teaching, however, the results of open-ended question mismatched with the teachers’ attitudes and beliefs, which indicated that teachers actually did not use music in their English teaching frequently. The reasons and recommendations for future research have been discussed.


2021 ◽  
Vol 8 (12) ◽  
Author(s):  
Lan Yen Thi Mai

<p>This article aims to provide scientific, accurate and overall information on the English teachers fostering activities at secondary schools in Ke Sach district, Soc Trang province. Via the sociological survey method and direct interview, this article has informed comprehensively about the status of teachers’ quality and students’ results in learning English, English teachers’ awareness of fostering activities, implementing teaching contents under the teaching and learning foreign languages project, as well as English teachers fostering activity methods, and forms of English teachers fostering activities of educational managers. The results of the study are the basis to improve the quality of teaching and learning foreign languages for students at secondary schools in Ke Sach district, Soc Trang province.</p><p> </p><p><strong> Article visualizations:</strong></p><p><img src="/-counters-/edu_01/0951/a.php" alt="Hit counter" /></p>


Author(s):  
Inga T. Winkler

Abstract Most articles on menstruation start by pointing out that menstruation is a normal biological process. This, of course, is true. But at the same time, menstruation is so much more for many people; in fact, it is fundamental. Menstruation unites the personal and the political, the intimate and the public, and the physiological and the socio-cultural. The chapters in this section demonstrate the importance—and indeed urgency—of considering the lived experiences of all menstruators. These vary widely and are shaped by a range of different factors including religion, culture, political systems, socialization, caste, disability, place of residence, among many others. In many cases, an intersection of factors such as gender and disability, or gender, religion, and caste determine menstrual experiences and the underlying power relations.


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