A Model for Creating a Common Health Promoting School Environment

Introduction: Deterioration of students’ health, the absence of scientific substantiation of consistent actions, key directions and indicators of work of comprehensive schools in the sphere of health protection of participants in the educational process determine the purpose of the study to give a rationale for the algorithm and model of creating a common health promoting school environment. Materials and methods: The study was carried out in four directions: 1) study of health promoting activities in modern schools; 2) analysis of indicators of socio-psychological climate of schools; 3) study of the lifestyle, work pressure and schedule, health status and psychological well-being of teachers; and 4) study of foreign instruments for assessing health promotion interventions at schools. The objects of the study included comprehensive schools, schoolchildren, teachers, and foreign instruments for assessing health promotion interventions at schools. The research materials were statistically processed by nonparametric methods using Statistica 13.3 software. Results: Most of the surveyed Russian schools are at the initial stages of developing health promoting frameworks. Based on the expert statistical analysis of health promotion interventions of Russian schools at different levels of development and having different achievements in the field of preventive activities, effective directions and specific indicators for assessing results at each stage of creating a common preventive environment in a comprehensive school were identified and substantiated. Conclusions: An algorithm and a model of a common preventive school environment consisting of seven components have been developed and a system for its monitoring by key indicators, the subjects and objects of which are students, their parents and teachers, has been substantiated. The results of health promoting activities at school include health improvement in schoolchildren and teachers, their emotional well-being, a decreased prevalence of behavioral risk factors, and improvement of knowledge and skills in relation to health and of the academic performance of students.

4. Big ideas from the 20th century

‘Big ideas from the 20th century’ explores how the changes in the 20th century created the conditions for John Dewey to talk about the relationship of education to democracy. For Dewey, reflective thinking is at the centre of education: education is not about learning facts—it is about being sceptical and critical. Dewey’s thought provided one of the foundation stones for the introduction of the comprehensive schools. In the UK, it is the Plowden Report of the 1960s that is generally credited with the more systematic introduction of progressive ideas. The turn to neoliberalism has had a profound effect on education in terms at segregation in schools and marketization in education.

“You Can Make a Difference”: Teachers’ Agency in Addressing Social Differences in the Student Body

Teachers are key players in transforming the education system (van der Heijden et al., 2015). They shape educational processes, influence school policies, and make day‐to‐day decisions that have a direct effect on students (Vähäsantanen, 2015). Yet we currently know very little about whether they can contribute to the creation of social equality of opportunity. This article focuses by way of example on the experiences and interpretative schemes of teachers in Germany, as the country is known for its highly selective school system. It draws on data from an exploratory study based on 20 narrative interviews (Rosenthal, 2018) with schoolteachers at three comprehensive schools in East and West Germany, which were selected because comprehensive schools in Germany see themselves as a more equal‐opportunity form of education. The article begins by identifying four types of teacher action orientations in addressing the social differences of schoolchildren. Unexpectedly, only a few teachers exhibited a socially conscious inclination to act—for example, by providing targeted support to schoolchildren from socially disadvantaged households. In the second step, by comparing teacher biographies, school environments, and historical imprints, the article attempts to identify certain conditions under which teachers perceive themselves as responsible for addressing social differences among students. Beyond illustrating the interplay of biographical experiences and school culture, the study’s east–west contextualization opens up a new perspective for examining the lingering implications of the German half‐day schooling model even after the introduction of all‐day schooling in 2003. One possible conclusion is that the transformation of the German school system from a half‐day to an all‐day model has not taken the tasks of teachers into account, which, as this article points out, would be important in making them aware of schoolchildren’s different social backgrounds and their effects on achievement.

Middle leaders translating knowledge about improvement: Making change in the school and preschool organisation

This article deepens the knowledge of middle leaders’ impact on school improvement and organisation development. More precisely, it focuses on how middle leaders from comprehensive schools and preschools translated improvement strategies and tools from a municipal course on leading school improvement into their own organisations. It is based on interviews with middle leaders, teachers, and principals at two schools and two preschools. Translation theory is used as a theoretical frame. The findings show that the middle leaders translated improvement strategies based on local needs, and for several reasons: for clarification and reduction of roles and improvement areas; structuring improvement work; engaging and involving colleagues in school improvement; and developing a professional culture. When taking the role of translators, the middle leaders became central to progressing the developmental elements of local school organisations. The study recommends investing to provide middle leaders with improvement strategies and an understanding of translation theory to enable translations that aid the development of school organisations.

Educational Institutions in the Urban Environment of Tyumen in the Mid-1950s - Mid-1960s

The article examines the network of educational institutions in the urban environment of Tyumen within the most dynamic period in the regional center's history - from the mid-1950s till the mid-1960s. We explore the establishment of educational institutions in the city as closely connected to real estate and residential development. We also take the peculiarities of the development of the specific city districts into consideration and focus on the evolution of the interior and exterior design of the educational institutions. A number of specific methods of historical research were applied. Thus, we used the concrete-historical method that allowed us to find out basic features of the state policy in the field of education. Having studied a wide range of different sources, we analyzed the ways this policy used to influence the local formation of the educational institutions network in the territory of the city. The comparative historical method allowed us to evaluate and compare some aspects of urban development (number of population, ways of real estate development) and different characteristics of educational institutions in Tyumen in the mid-1950s - mid-1960s (their number, facilities, architecture, etc.). The analysis of the issue under consideration allowed us to conclude that by the mid-1960s the main complex of high-rise residential buildings was located on the vacant territories in the south-eastern and western parts of the city, not far from plants and factories. New residential areas (microdistricts) were created there. The projects of these areas included not only residential units but also all the necessary social and cultural institutions. It was a real opportunity to form a relevant social environment in the city that allowed raising the living standards of the population. A wide network of educational institutions became one of the most important components of this new structure of urban environment. In the mid1950s - mid-1960s, the number of educational institutions in the city and their diversity substantially increased. For instance, in 1956 the regional center had thirty-three comprehensive schools, three colleges, five vocational-technical schools, and a few part-time schools. By 1965 the number of comprehensive schools increased to forty-one, there were also nine vocational secondary schools, ten vocational-technical schools, and sixteen part-time schools. Within the period of time we researched, three institutions of higher education were founded in the regional center. New educational institutions became training centers to provide qualified workers that were highly demanded due to the quick industrial development of the city and due to the population growth. Intense construction of new buildings in accordance with all the contemporary standard projects granted residents of different districts a better access to education; it also contributed to the quality of the educational process. However, due to a big influx of new residents to the city, the educational institutions network that had been formed by the mid-1960s failed to satisfy all the demands of the population.

The Bhāṭṭa School of Benares

This chapter examines the reception of Dāyabhāga-centred, Gauḍa jurisprudence and Navya-Nyāya theories of ownership in the Dharmaśāstra and Mīmāṃsā writings of the Bhaṭṭa family of Mahārāṣṭrian Deśastha brāhmaṇas who led the southern (Dākṣinātya) community of paṇḍitas in Vārāṇasī between the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. The Bhaṭṭas’ polemic against the Navadvīpan, Navya-Nyāya-inflected school of jurisprudence marks a watershed moment when the Mitākṣarā and its Mīmāṃsā-derived theory of ownership were incorporated into a broader, distinctively southern scale of Dharmaśāstra texts that framed the Mitākṣarā/Dāyabhāga divide as a debate between Mīmāṃsā and Navya-Nyāya theories of property. By the close of the seventeenth century, one could speak of two complex, comprehensive schools of Dharmaśāstric thought, inflected by Mīmāṃsā and Navya-Nyāya philosophy, centred around pedagogical networks in Vārāṇasī and Navadvīpa, taking paradigmatically divergent approaches to the problem of inheritance, and emanating from commentarial literature on the Mitākṣarā and Dāyabhāga respectively.