Federal Teachers Research Articles

Teachers’ Perceptions Regarding Multiple Assessment Paradigms in English Teaching and Its’ Influence on Learning Achievement of Secondary Class Students

Teachers’ assessment practices are pre-dominated by their perceptions, beliefs and attitudes. Review of literature on assessment indicates five assessment paradigms in relation to aims of assessment in teaching. The present study discovers the English teachers’ paradigm preference of multiple assessments to explore the purposes of assessment of English teachers in searching most suitable assessment paradigm for improvement of students’ achievement scores in examinations. The participants of the study were 344 English teachers working in secondary level of federal and provincial schools in Pakistan. A five-point Likert scale based on 20 items was used for collecting the data of this study. The descriptive analysis revealed that teachers give the maximum importance to the communicative function of assessment. It was derived that English teachers’ first priority of using assessment was to inform which was followed by assessment for learning as their second priority, assessment as learning at the third grade, and assessment of learning at fourth level. The least importance teachers give is to assessment as instruction. The inferential analysis explored that gender of teachers has no effect in relation to their assessment approach except the approach assessment for learning that displays the significant difference of assessment for learning. Provincial and federal teachers showed the significant difference of all multiple assessment areas that suggested their diverse preference of all assessment areas. Teaching experience had insignificant impact upon four assessment dimensions except “assessment to inform” that suggested that teaching experience effects on communicative purpose of assessment. Students’ strength in class had a significant influence on assessments as learning, of learning, for learning and as instruction areas except assessment to inform dimension. On the whole, a positive and strong relationship was found between teachers’ assessment to inform paradigms and students’ grades in English in Board examinations but unfortunately, teachers in majority used to prefer this paradigm in their perceptions.

Desarrollo institucional y conflicto magisterial en México, 1939-1948. El caso del Instituto Federal de Capacitación del Magisterio y los maestros federales de San Luis Potosí

El objetivo de este artículo es analizar los factores que intervinieron en la creación del Instituto Federal de Capacitación del Magisterio con el fin de demostrar la influencia de este en el conflicto magisterial protagonizado por maestros federales de San Luis Potosí en 1948. La metodología consistió en la revisión de documentos oficiales, testimoniales y bibliográficos acerca de los maestros federales agremiados en la Sección XXVI del Sindicato Nacional de Trabajadores de la Educación en San Luis Potosí, así como de fuentes primarias del Archivo General de la Nación, de los fondos Secretaría de Educación Pública y Presidentes. Lo relativo a la reforma educativa y a los decretos se revisó en el Diario Oficial de la Federación. La información se sistematizó mediante el análisis de contenido en varias etapas. En la primera etapa, de análisis temático, se efectuó un preanálisis para conocer la estructura de los expedientes relativos al conflicto. Se hizo una primera revisión general y se generó, a partir de esta, la distribución de frecuencia simple para organizar el material. En la segunda etapa, de exploración minuciosa, se encontró el sentido de las agrupaciones iniciales, con base en expresiones y palabras muy significativas. En la etapa final, de tratamiento de resultados e interpretación, se formularon inferencias de mayor consistencia y se hizo un cruce con enunciaciones teóricas para integrar el cuerpo argumental del escrito. En cuanto a los resultados de la investigación, se establece que se crearon iniciativas de fortalecimiento institucional que, sin fundamentos suficientes, estuvieron lejos de garantizar una respuesta efectiva a la formación de maestros en servicio. Entre las limitaciones del estudio está la falta de información sobre la solución final de los conflictos aquí abordados y la manera en que se ajustó la operación del Instituto Federal de Capacitación del Magisterio (en diferentes etapas) ante el crecimiento del sistema educativo y la diversificación de perfiles de ingreso de los maestros. Este trabajo es meritorio porque prueba las implicaciones de factores políticos, económicos y sociales y el papel del Estado en la formación del magisterio en servicio; asimismo, porque ahonda en un tema escasamente tratado: el Instituto Federal de Capacitación del Magisterio, el devenir de este, los conflictos que su operación le generó al sistema educativo federal y sus maestros. Se concluye que los maestros federales agrupados en el Sindicato Nacional de Trabajadores de la Educación hicieron de una coyuntura la ocasión para manifestar su descontento por rezagos de vieja data, por lo que usaron renovadas tácticas de presión para reclamar beneficios que “por ley” les correspondían.

Leitura como formação, formação como leitura: processos narrativos/formativos em questão

Este artigo apresenta pesquisas realizadas com professoras da rede pública do Distrito Federal e com professores egressos de licenciatura em pedagogia do Rio de Janeiro, com a proposta de resgatar leituras e narrativas sobre suas experiências de formação. Nessa perspectiva, buscamos pensar as concepções dos sujeitos sobre suas experiências de leitura ao longo de sua trajetória escolar, bem como compreender a existência de um diálogo dessas leituras com suas práticas pedagógicas atuais. Concluímos que a narrativa se revelou um importante espaço para o estabelecimento de novas possibilidades de leitura das relações entre memórias escolares relacionadas à leitura e questões da prática profissional.

Indigenismo Occupied: Indigenous Youth and Mexico's Democratic Opening (1968–1975)

In April 1975, indigenous youth in Mexico occupied regional development centers throughout the southern state of Oaxaca. From the Sierra Sur town of Miahuatlán, to the arid highlands of the Mixteca Alta, to the valley of the Papaloapan Dam project, these youth took control of Instituto Nacional Indigenista (INI) coordinating centers and held them for more than a month. Trained aspromotores bilingües(bilingual agents of education and development projects) by a separate regional development agency (the Instituto de Investigación y Integración Social del Estado de Oaxaca, or IIISEO), they demanded professional training and the creation of positions for themselves as federal teachers. Their banners accused the Mexican government of ethnocide against native peoples, denouncing the government's celebration of indigenous culture as a mask for continued exploitation.

Vocation or Vacation? Perspectives on Teachers' Union Struggles in Southern Mexico1

AbstractFor decades following the 1910 to 1917 Mexican Revolution, rural maestros (teachers) in the Mexican state of Oaxaca were respected for their “vocation” and the hardships they suffered while working in poor, remote, rural communities where they played an instrumental role in forging a national culture. Since the early 1980s, politicization of Oaxaca's Local 22 of the national educators' union and work stoppages that close schools coupled with teachers' high salaries contribute to negative attitudes toward the profession. Using ethnographic data collected in Oaxaca among teachers and other members of the public, I discuss the support and opposition for federal teachers who practice what was long considered a “noble” profession, and union members' justifications of their labor actions.

Federalization of education in Chihuahua1

This article examines the politics behind the initial centralization of primary education in Chihuahua, Mexico during the 1920s and 1930s. The article argues that the centralization of primary education was one of many tools used by the federal government to consolidate its power in the wake of the Mexican Revolution (1910–1917) and create a corporatist state. Even before the Revolution, federal officials were concerned that neither states nor municipalities were capable of providing primary education (especially in rural areas) adequate to Mexico’s needs. Even though the 1917 Constitution gave control over primary education to the municipal government, Education Ministry (SEP) officials began taking major steps in centralizing primary education under the auspices of the federal government during the administration of Alvaro Obregón (1920–1924) by subsidizing state‐run primary schools and refusing to deal with municipal governments. Under Plutarco Elías Calles (1924–1928) the SEP undermined state‐run education by annulling all existing contracts with state governments and creating a parallel federal primary schools system. The federal government also tried to gain control over federal teachers by centralizing control over grassroots unions. The SEP’s drive to centralize control over schooling reached its climax during this period with the federalization of all primary schools in Chihuahua and Queretaro in 1935.

Rethinking Mayan Resistance: Changing Relations between Federal Teachers and Mayan Communities in Eastern Yucatan, 1929-1935

Rethinking Mayan Resistance: Changing Relations between Federal Teachers and Mayan Communities in Eastern Yucatan, 1929-1935

Rethinking Mayan Resistance: Changing Relations between Federal Teachers and Mayan Communities in Eastern Yucatan, 1929–1935

RESUMENEn las escuelas federales abiertas en el oriente de Valladolid ent e 1928 y 1935, se suponía que las comunidades Mayas rechazaron a los maest os en defensa de su cultura e identitad. De hecho, la esistencia cont a las escuelas fue por ot as causas: el apoyo económico exigido por las escuelas a las comunidades, el echazo de la coeducación, y la envidia de los políticos. Vista desde esta perspectiva, es necesario modificar substancialmente la idea de resistencia étnica de los Maya.

A Service-Learning Approach to Wilderness Education

This article has provided a brief look at a service-learning approach to wilderness education. The partnership has been highly successful, receiving accolades from students, teachers, and industry and university personnel. In the six years that the environmental and wilderness education course at Cal Poly has included wilderness education, almost 2,000 children on the California central coast have been given a glimpse of wilderness. There are 10 designated wilderness areas in the Los Padres National Forest that virtually lie in the backyards of many of these children. Although there are no expectations that wilderness behavior has been significantly influenced, the Cal Poly students feel a sense of community accomplishment and a connection to what they learn in the class and through the service they provide. They were instrumental in reaching an audience that would not have been touched if the WEP had relied solely on federal employees and teachers to take the Wilderness and Land Ethic Curriculum into the classroom.

The State School Teachers Decision (High Court 1929) Revisited

The State School Teachers decision of 1929 was recently overturned in the High Court (June 1986) thereby opening up the possibility for federal teachers organizations to obtain registration in the federal arbitration system, and eventually obtain one or more federal awards. The 1929 decision by the High Court of Australia was a significant decision in education and industrial relations, because it prevented state teachers and other public employees obtaining access to federal awards for the next 54 years. The decision, however, was veiled in unsettled legal argument, because the High Court overturned much of its expansive thinking of the 1918–25 period. Later generations of academic lawyers described the decision as a ‘bad one’ or ‘an anomalous decision’, but they and the current High Court failed to give any satisfactory explanation of why the Court had reached its decision. This paper offers such an explanation, arguing that the decision was not based on law (or the educational situation) but on the High Court's perceptions of the politics of federal-state relations in the period. The state teachers who had asked for a High Court ruling on the application of the Commonwealth's industrial relations powers (section 51 XXXV of the Constitution) to their work and employment were thus dragged momentarily onto the centre stage of Australian politics and law. They found themselves denied access to a federal award because the High Court felt that the federal arbitration ‘experiment’ had caused too much embarrassment to the federal system of government.

Tuberculosis in Western Alaska, 1900–1950

ABSTRACTTuberculosis was the major cause of death among Alaska Native peoples during the first half of the twentieth century, with a crude death rate estimated at 810 per 100,000. Apart from a few medical articles, not much is known of the impact of the disease on the people. This paper reviews published articles, unpublished reports by government teachers, hospital records and other materials for several Native villages in western Alaska from the period 1900–50. These archival sources suggest that tuberculosis was prevalent at the start of the century, that tuberculosis morbidity and mortality increased until the public health efforts of the 1950s and '60s, and that highest mortality rates were found among women between the ages of 15 and 35. Traditional cultural practices that brought people together for fatiguing activities in confined areas may have contributed to the spread of the disease. Public health efforts of federal teachers aimed to improve personal hygiene, household cleanliness and ventilation. Their efforts were thwarted by environmental and economic factors, primarily the limited amount of wood. Ultimately, the comments of these public officials may have reflected more their own moral beliefs than the actual etiology of the disease.