School Actors Research Articles

Home-school relationship in the context of reception of newly arrived emergent bilingual pupils. A comparative and exploratory study between Hamburg (Germany) and Franche-Comté (France).

This Franco-German exploratory and comparative study, rooted in the tradition of interdisciplinary qualitative empirical research (at the crossroads of sociology, language sciences and education sciences), aims at analysing and questioning the representations of the different actors concerning the reception of newly arrived allophone pupils and the home-school relationship in Germany (Gomolla 2009) and France (Asdih 2012, Lasne et al. 2021, Périer 2021), in two specific regions: Hamburg (Germany) and Franche-Comté (France), and in particular in pre-school/kindergarten and primary schools. We rely on various semi-structured interviews with families and educational actors in school in the German and French contexts. In this paper we seek to understand and compare the different relationships (home/school) according to the actors in the two research fields and question, among other things, the importance of the national field with its specific history in relation to welcoming policies and the promotion of the home-school relationship. The results will help to whether and how cooperation between school and newly arrived families can facilitate families’ transition to a new school culture.

Composting and Agroecological Garden of UnAPI: An Alternative for Recycling Organic Waste at UFMS

The composting process is an alternative for recycling organic waste, facilitated by microorganisms that produce compost or organic fertilizer in the presence of oxygen. The resulting compost can be used as fertilizer, significantly improving soil structure. The “Composta UFMS” project aims to environmentally manage organic solid waste generated on the UFMS University City campus in Campo Grande. Currently, dry leaves, pruning and weeding residues, wood shaving from vivarium, and organic waste from the University Restaurant are being directed for composting. In addition to valuing organic waste generated on the UFMS campus and used in the production of organic compost for the extension activities of the UnAPI Agroecological Garden project, the Biovalorization of Organic Waste project also includes scientific initiation subprojects, such as the study of growth potential of fungi of the genus Pleurotus on substrates derived from different organic residues and their mixtures for mushroom production. In addition to Environmental Education actions in schools with the Composting and Urban Agriculture in Schools project using the composting method directly on the soil, eliminating the need for turning. These actions resulted in the year 2023, the diversion of 4 tons of wood shavings from the vivarium and 4.8 tons of organic waste from the University Restaurant for composting, the care of around 60 elderly people in the UnAPI Agroecological Garden project and 5 schools in the Compostagem and Urban Agriculture in Schools. The results of this study will serve as a basis for the management of organic waste on the UFMS Campo Grande campus, as well as for future research on composting, as well as new Environmental Education and Scientific Dissemination actions.

Policy Framing, Social Networks, and Teacher Perspectives in a Technology Rollout

Drawing on theories of framing and social networks, we examine how educators define policy goals in a technology rollout, and how this framing process shapes teacher attitudes for technology. We analyzed social network data and 37 interviews with district leaders, digital learning coaches, and school staff from six elementary schools in a mid-sized district in California. These data suggest that school leaders and teachers re-framed district reform messages in different ways depending on the density of dialogue in their networks and who had social influence. These framings supported teacher motivation for using technology in ways that aligned to or built upon the district's instructional goals, or prompted teachers to resist change and/or make compliance-oriented and superficial shifts in their practice. We argue that district leaders should attend to school context when implementing technology rollouts and proactively engage school actors to define the goals of technology. We caution that technology rollouts demand sudden and intensive shifts in teacher work roles and can foster resistance to change without adequate time and support.

1910년대 신파극의 등장과 전통연희공연의 전개양상

This paper reexamines the aspects of yeonhui (traditional performing arts) unfolded in the relationship with sinpageuk (westernized theatrical play introduced from Japan) in the 1910s, which has been under-researched, focusing on the previous studies on the theater and Gyeongseong Gupa (lit. old school) Actors' Guild, which are key topics related to this period. As a result, there were significant differences from existing discussions in many ways. It has been assumed that yeonhui performances in theaters were reduced due to the introduction of sinpageuk in the 1910s. However, except for Yeonheungsa, which actively accepted sinpageuk and operated it as a dedicated theater among the representative Korean theaters in the 1910s, it was confirmed that yeonhui in Gwangmudae, Jangansa, and Danseongsa during the first and second half of the 1910s had a numerical advantage over sinpageuk in terms of the frequency of performances. Furthermore, the formation of the Gyeongseong Gupa Actors' Guild was not influenced by the decline of yeonhui performances due to the popularity of sinpageuk, but rather by the fact that it was organized with the permission of the Japanese government in order to take charge of entertainment at the exhibition Mulsan Gongjinhoe that the Japanese thoroughly prepared in 1915 for the purpose of promoting the legitimacy of their colonial rule. Moreover, the ‘new and old school performances’ promoted by the Gyeongseong Gupa Actors' Guild were the sinpageuk performance by old school actors, not by sinpageuk troupes, and the ‘sinpa gaeryangdan’ (lit. new school reform troupe) organized by the Gyeongseong Gupa Actors' Guild was a measure taken in cooperation with the Gyeongseong Gupa Actors' Guild for sinpa actors who were on the verge of extinction.

An ambiguous aspiration: school actors making sense of educational innovation policy

ABSTRACT Educational innovation has received significant attention in contemporary policy debates. Many countries and regions have initiated comprehensive reforms to reshape teaching methods and link innovative practices with improved equity and performance outcomes. In Catalonia (Spain), a clear example of this phenomenon, recent policy developments have pressured schools and teachers to introduce innovative teaching practices to enhance the overall quality of the educational system. Yet, the conceptual framework of school innovation in this context is broad and ambiguous. Therefore, the Catalan case offers a rich context to explore how educational innovation policy is interpreted and enacted in schools. This study uses enactment and sensemaking theories, considering material, symbolic, and cognitive factors that explain variations in practices across schools. The study employs a qualitative approach to examine teachers’ and principals’ interpretations of the innovation policy and to analyse innovation practices. The findings show that the broad and ambiguous nature of the innovation policy mandate allows for wide interpretation, adaptation, and enactment, highly dependent on school actors’ understandings of innovation and contextual factors. Additionally, schools often engage in innovation at a superficial level, with externally driven, fragmented, and standardized innovation practices being most frequent, although this varies across schools’ socioeconomic levels.

Comparing the Role of Attitudes on the Enactment of Academic and Non-Academic Education Performance Indicators

Chile has followed the international trend of implementing a standards-based reform, with the particularity of encompassing both academic and non-academic outcomes. Drawing on interview data from four school cases in Santiago, Chile, this study examines the role of attitudes in reform enactment, analyzing whether and how school actors’ attitudes toward academic and non-academic performance indicators influence practice change. Alignment between attitudes toward academic standards and practice change is often disrupted by subjective norms, whereas attitudes toward non-academic indicators consistently drive behavior. This research sheds light on the complex interplay between attitudes and policy enactment, offering valuable insights.

A Longitudinal Study on Body Image Perception and Size among Italian Early Adolescents: Changes over Time and Discrepancies between Genders.

The discrepancy between the current perceived body image (BI) and beauty ideals leads to dissatisfaction, which is believed to be common among adolescents. This study aimed to investigate the stability in BI perceptions and dissatisfaction during early adolescence. Another aim was to highlight differences in dissatisfaction according to Body Mass Index (BMI) and inconsistencies in weight status perception. Two hundred and nine participants (mean age at first survey: 11.33 ± 0.38 years) were enrolled in this longitudinal study with three years of follow-up. Data on size and BI perceptions were collected through individual interviews. Stature and weight were directly measured. Findings indicated significant changes over three years in anthropometric traits but not in weight status prevalence or BI perception and dissatisfaction, except for the ideal figure in males and weight control in females. The results also indicated a significant difference in BI perception and dissatisfaction by BMI categories. Self-reported body measurements were found to be unreliable with a weak-to-moderate agreement between self-perceived and actual weight status. BI perception appears quite stable across the three years considered. Dissatisfaction is similar in both genders, although a tendency toward different gender aesthetic ideals is already appreciable in early adolescence. We suggest that the lower frequency of normal-weight adolescents compared with peers in previous studies is attributable to the effects of the recent pandemic. Given the growing dissatisfaction with increasing BMI and misinterpretations of weight status, school actions to promote a healthy lifestyle and positive BI should be undertaken.

The quest for continuous improvement in light of power disciplinary, sovereign and pastoral power in a state-initiated school improvement programme

ABSTRACT There is a global movement of education reform, informed by a neoliberal agenda, emphasising continuous improvement and accountability through performance measurements, surveillance and monitoring. This puts local school actors under constant gaze and endless pressure to perform. This article uses a Swedish state-initiated school improvement programme, Co-operation for the Best School Possible (CBS), to investigate how power is exercised within the programme and to discuss possible implications for the local actors. A theoretical model based on Foucault’s power modes of sovereign, disciplinary and pastoral power as well as governmentality is used. Empirically, the article builds on a case study from a municipality participating in CBS. The analysis takes impression of Jackson and Mazzei’s “thinking with theory”. The CBS programme illustrates the widespread and multifaceted nature of power in educational governance, prompting local actors to internalise norms, self-regulate, and continuously evaluate their practices. This study highlights the importance of understanding the interplay of different power modes in shaping educational practices and the professional lives of local school actors. This article has contributed to questioning the common sensical, and it has made the exercises of power recognisable through the use of Foucault’s concepts.

Visualising the school: a critical study on co-designing a Moodle-based learning management system

ABSTRACT Critical research on data visualisations in education has so far mostly focused on the representation of numeric data in dashboards or graphs. Consequently, the question of how schools are made visible and (re)enacted through visual structures on data-mediated interfaces more broadly – what we call Graphic Data Visualisations (GDV) – has remained under-researched. Addressing that research gap, this study specifically scrutinises the role of GDV as non-human actors within the design process of a Moodle-based learning management system (LMS) in four schools. Following a critical co-design approach, the potential of GDV to reflect on how the visual design shapes educational practices, and to adapt it according to pedagogical and organisational needs is explored. Focusing on ‘critical incidents’ in the design process, we found that local practices substantially influenced the data-based, visual enactment of a school through specific GDV. At the same time, the use of certain GDV enhanced a general critical engagement with datafication among school actors.

Políticas públicas: O papel do Programa Saúde na Escola (PSE) como ferramenta para a integração entre saúde e educação

This research analyzed the School Health Program (PSE) as a tool for the integration between health and education, highlighting its importance and impact on the integral development of students. The objective was to evaluate how the PSE articulates the health and education networks to improve the quality of life and school performance of children and adolescents. A bibliographic research methodology was used, with a survey of articles on the SciELO, Web Of Science and Google Scholar platforms. The results showed that the PSE promotes an effective intersectoral approach, offering preventive and health promotion actions in schools, such as vaccination, visual screening, physical exercises, and educational campaigns. The analysis revealed that the program contributes to the reduction of social inequalities and improves the school environment by integrating health into the educational process. The conclusion reaffirms that the PSE is an innovative and essential strategy, as it combines health care and teaching to prepare students for academic and social challenges, demonstrating the effectiveness of public policies that promote intersectoral integration and the balanced development of the new generations.

The hidden costs of free services: how donations support the corporate platformization of education

ABSTRACT The adoption of ‘free’ large-scale proprietary platforms, such as Microsoft 365 for Education and Google Workspace for Education by public education has raised significant concerns, including student privacy, technological lock-in, as well as a privatization of educational governance. Because of their ‘non-onerous’ nature, there is limited open documentation to understand the scope and substance of these agreements. This study explores the associations between public education with large software corporations associated with surveillance capitalism in Brazil. The data, requested via formal requests for information sent to all states, demonstrate that the majority of states have adopted these platforms, with a sharp rise during the COVID-19 pandemic. An in-depth legal analysis of the contracts shows that the apparently ‘non-onerous’ nature of these contracts can be used to obscure the business models of surveillance capitalism, which are based on data extraction and processing. Implications for educational governance and school actors are discussed.

The school community's role in addressing vaping: Findings from qualitative research to inform pedagogy, practice and policy.

E-cigarettes are a significant concern in schools due to their rising use by adolescents. This research aimed to identify current and preferred intervention strategies to respond to vaping in the Western Australian school setting. Interviews and focus groups were held with 15 school professionals (leaders, teachers and nurses), parents (n = 12) and students aged 13-17 years (n = 32). Discussions were transcribed verbatim, anonymised and thematically analysed using a deductive approach aligned to the Health Promoting Schools Framework. Participants suggested that limited and varied attention has been directed towards policy in response to vaping in the school setting. Teaching and learning opportunities existed for students, parents and school professionals, albeit somewhat ad hoc in their approach. Additional training would benefit the whole-school community (students, parents and staff) to raise awareness of e-cigarette harms, increase knowledge and build skills in responding to student vaping. Clearly articulated policies are needed to guide school strategies and actions towards vaping. There needs to be a dedicated, developmentally appropriate, cross-subject vaping curriculum for students that incorporates mental health outcomes and social skills reinforcement; professional development for school staff; awareness of and access to school-based health services for help and information; visual cues to de-normalise vaping and parent and community involvement to support vape-free school environments. SO WHAT?: Comprehensive prevention activities are required to reduce the uptake of vaping among adolescents. Building students', school professionals' and parents' awareness of vaping and strategies to prevent use will contribute to de-normalising and reducing this practice among adolescents.

Producing accountability with autonomy in Denmark and England: the analytical potential of assemblage theory with critical realism in comparative education

ABSTRACT School autonomy with accountability (SAWA) reforms have developed in diverse forms in Northern Europe. Following processes of decentralization to the municipal and school levels, quality assurance and inspection became key to the test-based accountability agendas of Denmark and England respectively. With an abductive approach, we explore the epistemological potential of a hybrid theoretical framework, which combines assemblage theory with critical realism, to analyze the production stories of these two policy instruments. Drawing on data from an international comparative research project, and more recent policy document analyses, we examine the arrangement of social entities – discourses, instruments, technologies, artefacts, and actors – that led to particular accountability outcomes within these specific educational assemblages. We argue that, despite distinctions in their social entities, the dominant state assemblages of accountability in Denmark and England have been captured by the global SAWA and capitalist assemblages at distinct times. Although school actors are incorporated into, and antagonistic towards, the state assemblages, change is limited due to the resilience of the underlying logic of epistemic governance and the desire to improve educational standards for a global knowledge economy. We conclude briefly with an assessment of the utility of the hybrid framework to the comparison of SAWA.

Negotiating between the accountability and the innovation mandates: evidence from Italian schools

ABSTRACT In Italy, the National Evaluation System (SNV), encompassing both internal and external accountability components, is designed not only to hold school actors accountable but also to stimulate innovation and change in pedagogical practices. Nevertheless, existing literature presents inconclusive and contradictory findings regarding the effects and the relationship between school performance-based accountability (PBA) and educational innovation. Utilizing sensemaking and filtering theories, this paper analyses the negotiation of PBA and innovation mandates in Italian schools, emphasizing how school actors interpret, filter, and adapt the policy expectations to their organizational and educational practices. Special attention is given to the influence of local school contexts and performative pressures on this process. The primary data collection method involves interviews with school leadership teams and teachers analysed through an ideal type case analysis. Findings reveal diverse school responses to the double mandates of PBA and innovation. Varied logics of school enactment within the contemporary policy context are identified, influenced by teacher attitudes towards PBA and schools’ socio-economic conditions. Innovation is evident in both advantaged and disadvantaged school contexts, albeit with distinct applications and interpretations. Overall, the adaptation of PBA prerogatives in schools to foster innovation and change is neither uniform nor direct, although external pressures impact educational practices across contexts. Beyond socio-economic factors and administrative and marketing accountability pressures, additional intervening elements include school leadership and staff cohesion as well as school infrastructure and material resources.

Queer and trans activism in South African schools: Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) disrupting LGBT+ inequalities

This paper challenges the idea that schools can sufficiently address LGBT+ inequalities and makes a case for schools to forge alliances with non-governmental actors who provide advocacy and support. It draws on in-depth interviews with educational staff and NGO queer and trans activists to explore their agendas in responding to cisheteronormativity in schools. The paper argues that teachers and NGO interactions are underpinned by an ambivalent logic whereby the advocacy and support work by NGOs in schools is viewed as “matter out of place” on the one hand and as work that ultimately matters on the other.

Book review: Reforming lesson study in Japan: theories of action for schools as learning communities

Book review: Reforming lesson study in Japan: theories of action for schools as learning communities

Why do students choose to do an extended GP placement?

ABSTRACT The drivers for medical students’ decision making when considering which Student Selected Component (SSC) to undertake is poorly understood. Furthermore, it is unclear why students undertake a specific SSC allowing them to have an extended placement in GP in their final year. It is known that high quality GP placements encourage students to subsequently choose GP as their career, therefore if the decision-making process of students in this area can be better understood, then this may help inform medical school actions to encourage a greater uptake of these extended placements. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with final year medical students at a Scottish University. Students were selected to provide a mixture of those who had and had not chosen to undertake the extended placement. The data was transcribed and analysed using thematic analysis to generate themes which represented the data. This showed that career intention was a major factor driving SSC choice. Additionally, students sought peer feedback and tended to avoid specific SSCs if they felt a lack of internal motivation. Considering the choice for the extended placement, students tended, again, to choose based on career intentions, and they also based their decision on previous experiences of GP. Career intention and prior experience are key factors in student choice of SSC and whether to undertake an extended GP. In order to address the national shortage of GPs medical schools need to consider how they might influence these drivers.

EdTech in a Broken World: Breaking and Repairing in Argentinian and German Schools

This article offers insights into the everyday postdigital school life of two schools from two different world regions—Argentina and Germany. Based on ethnographic research in both contexts, it traces the introduction of one educational technology in each case, from the moment of its conception in policy documents to its landing in schools, its appropriation by various school actors and its integration into the socio-technical infrastructure of the classroom. Although both schools are situated differently and both technologies—a learning management system and a tablet computer—are of different quality, the article demonstrates the existence of a remarkable commonality in the journey of both educational technologies: their breakdown and the repair practices performed by various school actors. Breakdown and repair are analysed and conceptualised with reference to the Broken World Thinking exercise. By applying an Ethnography of Global Connections, the locally identified practices in both schools are framed as manifestations of global digitalisation processes in education. The article aims to shift the focus of critical EdTech studies towards two socio-material forces that are commonly addressed separately: material disruption and reassembling (and all the friction in between).

Large-scale school improvement: results of and conditions for systemic changes within coupled school systems

The aim of this study was to explore the results of and conditions for systemic large-scale school improvement. Through a multi-level analysis and a theoretical framework inspired by organization- and sensemaking-oriented theories, the study examines how a Swedish large-scale school improvement program, “Collaboration for the Best School Possible,” played out in two Swedish municipalities. School actors at four organizational levels (at the National Education Agency, Local Education Authority, school leader, and teacher levels) in the two municipalities were interviewed. Because these school actors’ sensemaking is linked to different aspects of the national largescale improvement program, the analysis shows a variation in the strengthening of the couplings between these organizational levels. The different nature of the couplings affected the implementation process and the results of the program. While the national large-scale program seemed to have contributed to an improvement in the schools’ quality assurance systems and leadership practices, there were difficulties in maintaining general and sustainable changes in schools’ instructional practices. The conclusion of the study was that, even if a national large-scale school improvement program is well designed and backed up with many resources, it must be perceived as legitimate among the local school actors at the different organizational levels. This points to the importance of managing the balance between top-down efforts and visions and local professional knowledge and experience.

Depending on the kindness of strangers: the affective dimension of inspection visits to low-performing schools in Chile

ABSTRACT School inspections constitute a common instrument of Performance-Based Accountability (PBA) policies but are rarely studied beyond its effects on practices and results. This paper examines inspection from an affective perspective through a qualitative case study of three low-performing schools in Chile, exploring to what extent the emotions and relationship between inspectors and school leaders encourage school actors to make sense of performance feedback received during inspections visit between 2016 and 2019. Results suggest that the affective and cognitive responses to performance evaluation of schools, together with the emotional and relational aspects of the inspection visit, influence the extent to which school leaders made sense of and translated the recommendations offered by inspectors into their improvement strategy, identifying kindness as a main affective force mediating sensemaking from school actors. Finally, we discuss the implications of employing the affective dimension as a novel way of understanding processes of policymaking in education.