Exploring how the national COVID-19 pandemic policy and its application exposed the fault lines of educational inequality

During the COVID-19 pandemic, many surveys in education were conducted. These revealed alarming statistics about learners losing half of the academic year, parents' anxiety about sending children to school, and a minority of education institutions being able to offer online teaching. In response to a cacophony from teachers' and students' unions, school governing body representatives, scientists and education experts, the government decided to close education institutions as part of what was known as the hard lockdown. Against this background, we used critical policy analysis (CPA) to explore decision-making by education departments and the enactment of these decisions at schools. This qualitative study revealed iniquity and inequity as departments of education made decisions to close and reopen institutions. The findings revealed a tension between expectations of producers of policy and enactors of policy within unequal school settings. We recommend a repositioning from the perspective of the dispossessed to inform future policy.

Key Considerations and Recommended Strategies for Conducting a School-Based Longitudinal RE-AIM Evaluation: Insights From a 28-School Cluster Randomized Trial

RE-AIM is an implementation science framework that provides a structure to promote data collection and analysis in the domains of Reach, Efficacy/ Effectiveness, Adoption, Implementation, and Maintenance. The RE-AIM approach promotes more data collection and reporting than typical evaluations so potential adopters can determine the potential program fit for their setting. RE-AIM has been used to evaluate a variety of programs; however, there are few resources that provide strategies for conducting a RE-AIM evaluation in the school setting. The purpose of this article is to inform future studies by elucidating experiences conducting a large, complex, multisite, longitudinal RE-AIM evaluation in schools in partnership with the state’s Departments of Education and Health, and to share strategies for overcoming obstacles. With the long-term goal of facilitating the translation of school-based intervention research into practice, we provide key considerations and recommend strategies for school-based RE-AIM evaluation success.

Teacher Candidates' Cyberloafing Behaviors in Terms of Different Variables

This is a descriptive study in the survey model conducted to examine teacher candidates' cyberloafing behaviors in terms of different variables. The study population consists of teacher candidates attending different departments of a state university in the academic year 2017-2018. To create the sample, students from all grade levels in randomly chosen fields of study from different departments of Education Faculty. Research data were collected using the “Scale of Cyberloafing Activities” and the “Personal Information Form”. The data collection tools were delivered from a total of 918 teacher candidates who participated in the study voluntarily. Descriptive statistics, the Mann-Whitney U, and the Kruskal-Wallis tests were applied for data analysis. As a result of the study, it was detected that the teacher candidates' level of cyberloafing in the educational setting was "low," and that they usually accessed social networks and news sites. With regard to gender, it was observed that male teacher candidates, and with regard to departments that Science, Social and Turkish Education students, engaged more in cyberloafing. More than half of the participants defined their internet usage skills on an advanced and expert level, and it was detected that the level of cyberloafing increased as expertise increased. It was determined that the level of cyberloafing increased in conjunction with an increasing frequency of teacher candidates' usage of the internet on their mobile phones during the lesson and increasing grade levels.

Satisfacción y aprendizaje a través de audiovisuales en entornos universitarios online

The following paper is an advance of the innovation project that has been undertaken by the Departments of Education and History of the Open University of Madrid; an institution that since its creation has managed all its activity by means of an online methodology. The main goal of the project is to establish the appropriate strategies to maximize the efficiency of the digital resources, with special attention to audiovisual material.Our work was articulated in two phases: a first one consisting of the implementation of audiovisual material in the virtual classrooms, and the second one, focused on analysing the degree of satisfaction that students showed with these resources.In general, the preliminary results show a positive perception of the students regarding the use of videos in their learning process. However, they also show interesting nuances, first because it is the students themselves who, from their experience, reject the videos as the main learning tool and, second, because clear differences are detected depending on the degree considered: a demand for much more pragmatic and short-term content in the degree of Education, and more speculative and medium-long-term in the History area.

Assessment of the Educational Needs of Preschool Teacher Candidates as regards Teaching Practice

The purpose of this study is to determine the educational needs of preschool pre-service teachers for teaching practice. In this descriptive study, a quantitative and qualitative blended method was preferred. 928 pre-service teachers who were enrolled at the Pre-School Teaching departments of Education Faculties of 3 different Universities in the 2018-2019 Spring Term attended the study. Findings obtained from quantitative and qualitative data revealed that pre-service teachers need training for the application of communication skills, classroom management, material use and evaluation methods. In this context, it is recommended to increase the number of practical courses in teacher training programs to improve the professional knowledge and skills of pre-service teachers. In addition, it should be ensured that pre-service teachers gain experience in teaching practices by extending their internship duration in preschool institutions.

Is Decentralisation a Suitable Response to Improve South African Rural Education?

South Africa (SA) has a decentralised education system. It is generally assumed that decentralisation improves the effectiveness and efficiency of education by responding to the needs, values, and expectations of both local and rural communities. A large part of SA could be described as rural and a large number of learners attend rural schools. This makes rural education a significant part of the South African education context. With education being decentralised, and with decentralisation being heralded as the panacea to the problems faced by rural communities as well as rural education, the assumption is that rural education should be of a high quality. This desk-top paper assesses the potential of decentralisation to improve the quality and effectiveness of South African rural education. This it does by locating decentralisation within neoliberalism which this paper argues is the impetus behind the decentralisation of South African education, and the reason for the decline in the quality and effectiveness of rural education. The paper also highlights certain tensions between the various decentralised spheres of governance, namely the central and provincial Departments of Education and school-level governance structures. The paper further indicates how these tensions potentially hamper the effectiveness and efficiency of rural education. The paper concludes with some recommendations aimed at improving rural education.

Recruitment and retention of male educators in preschools: Implications for teacher education policy and practices

In the study reported on here we employed the interpretivist qualitative approach to explore the recruitment and retention of male educators in preschool centres. Purposive sampling was used to select 2 preschool owners, 2 principals, 4 preschool educators and 2 male educators in the Foundation Phase. Data were obtained by in-depth interviewing and were analysed thematically. Results showed no male educators in preschools in the education district where the study was conducted. Misinterpretation of cultural roles, stigma, fear and prejudice, low educator status within the preschool sector and a lack of male recruitment policies were found to be negatively affecting the recruitment of males into the preschool sector. A gender balance that ensures that both female and male educators are recruited within the preschool sector would appear to be congruent with the philosophical underpinnings of the Social Role Theory (SRT). The Departments of Education and Social Development should, therefore, embark on awareness campaigns to educate all stakeholders on the need for a gender balance within the preschool sector.

The Development of Critical Consciousness in Adolescents of Color Attending “Opposing” Schooling Models

Critical consciousness refers to the ability to analyze and take action against oppressive social forces shaping society. This longitudinal, mixed methods study compared the critical consciousness development of adolescents of color (n = 453) attending two sets of high schools featuring schooling models that represent “opposing” approaches to education. The participating adolescents were 13-15 years old at the start of the study; the majority identified as African American or Latinx; and nearly 80% came from low-SES households. They attended public charter high schools located in five different northeastern cities. Analyses of longitudinal survey data revealed that the adolescents attending these two sets of high schools demonstrated greater rates of growth on different dimensions of critical consciousness over their four years of high school. Qualitative interviews with youth attending these two sets of schools(n = 70) offered evidence of the long-theorized relationship between critical consciousness and problem-posing education, but also that effective practices supporting youth critical consciousness can be found embedded in schools featuring a broader range of pedagogies. These findings offer support for ethnic studies and action civics programming that several state departments of education have recently added to secondary school curricula.

Responding to the Literacy Challenge Amidst its Resource-hungry Realities: The Case of Southern Mindanao, Philippines

Addressing the challenge of literacy is formidable for countries faced with chronic problems on finance. In Southern Mindanao, one of the most culturally diverse regions in the Philippines, scores of public school children remain with very limited access to libraries and other information infrastructures. Textbook ratio lies steadily between 1:3 to 1:7. Despite its resource-hungry realities, there are laudable moves by the local Departments of Education to boldly initiate development intervention programs at the level of the grassroots to combat the problem of illiteracy. The Province of Sultan Kudarat has the Drop Everything And Read (DEAR) and the Reading – At Reader’s Reach (REARER) Programs while South Cotabato boasts of its School and Home Advocacy Reading Program (SHARP), and the Education Summit it recently convened. These initiatives showcase the “bayanihan” spirit wherein Filipinos collectively contribute towards narrowing the local-level divide that separates those with access to technology, information and information infrastructures in the mainstream from those in far-flung portions of Southern Mindanao.

The Provision of school library resources in a changing environment

Before 1994 education in South Africa was divided along racial lines. There were separate departments of education for whites, coloureds (people of mixed decent), Indians (people of East Indian decent), and blacks (black Africans). Education for white children was much better funded than any of the others. The quality of the education that white children enjoyed was also much better as schools were better equipped, teachers were better qualified and classes were smaller. This inequality also applied to school library provision. All white schools had well-equipped libraries and full-time teacher-librarians. A start was made with libraries in the other departments, but , for example, only secondary schools for black learners had libraries. Black primary schools were just provided with classroom collections.