School Policies Research Articles

Model Konseptual Untuk Keterlibatan Orang Tua, Sikap Siswa, Kebijakan Sekolah, dan Prestasi Siswa dalam Pembelajaran Agama Islam

This research aims to construct a conceptual model by testing influential relationships among parental engagement, Students’ attitudes towards Islamic religious learning, school policies, and student academic achievement. Using PLS-SEM, six hypotheses modeled based on the interactions of the four variables were analyzed. 500 students from Madrasah Aliyah Negeri (MAN) located in Bengkulu were recruited using a convenient sampling technique. Data were collected using a valid and reliable questionnaire and analyzed based on measurement models and structural models. This research found a significant influence of variables related to Islamic religious learning. The analysis showed that parental engagement had a big impact on Students’ attitudes (original sample value: 0.698, T-statistics: 23.268, p-values: 0.000), school policies (original sample value: 0.327, T-statistics: 12.332, p-values: 0.000), and students’ achievements in learning Islamic religion (original sample value: 0.224, T-statistics: 6.984, p-values: 0.000). Apart from that, students' attitudes also contributed significantly to school policies and their academic achievement in learning Islamic religion (original sample value: 0.147, T-statistics: 5.871, p-values: 0.000). School policies were also proven to substantially influence students’ achievements in religious learning (original sample value: 0.536, T-statistics: 8.498, p-values: 0.000). These results emphasize that the model has been well-established and well-confirmed, demonstrating the important roles of parental engagement, Students’ attitudes, and school policies in advancing Islamic religious education. Keywords: parental engagement, students’ attitudes, school policies, and students’ achievements in Islamic religious learning

Manajemen Sekolah: Meningkatkan Efektivitas dan Efisiensi Pendidikan SDN 12 Banda Aceh

This article discusses school management at SD Negeri 12 Banda Aceh as an effort to increase the effectiveness and efficiency of education. Observation methods include direct observation, interviews with relevant stakeholders, and analysis of documents related to school management, with a focus on management of facilities and infrastructure, curriculum, students, human resources, and school budget. Observation results show that school management at SD Negeri 12 Banda Aceh includes resource management, school policies, interactions between staff and students, as well as implementation of educational programs. The main aim of this observation is to understand in depth the management practices implemented in daily activities at the school in order to achieve the stated educational goals. The observation process includes observing various situations and interactions at school, both inside and outside the classroom, including school leadership, policy implementation, and interactions between school stakeholders. The results of observations are recorded in the form of field notes, audio/video, or images and then analyzed to identify patterns, themes, and important findings related to research objectives. School management observations are often used in conjunction with other data collection methods, such as interviews or document analysis, to provide a comprehensive understanding of management practices in schools. From the results of observations at SD Negeri 12 Banda Aceh, important findings were found regarding school management including management of facilities and infrastructure, teacher and student recruitment processes, and budget management. Recommendations for improvement are provided to increase the effectiveness and efficiency of education at the school. Evaluations and improvements continue to be carried out in order to achieve better educational standards, with the hope that the positive contribution from these observations can bring about significant changes in the quality of education at SD Negeri 12 Banda Aceh and become a reference for other educational institutions.

Implementation of Child Friendly School Policy: Study in State Junior High School 1 Pesawaran Regency

Implementation of Child Friendly School Policy: Study in State Junior High School 1 Pesawaran Regency

Model Interaksi antara Kebijakan Sekolah, Iklim Sekolah, dan Pembelajaran Agama Islam dalam Konteks Ketahanan Siswa

This research aims to build and confirm a conceptual interaction model between school policy, school climate, and Islamic religious learning in the context of student resilience. These four variables were tested by formulating six hypotheses. This research uses the Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM) method to explore the interactive effects of school policies, school climate, and Islamic religious learning on student resilience. With a sample of 500 teachers and 500 students from Madrasah Aliyah Negeri in Bengkulu, this research used a validated questionnaire to measure these variables. Data were analyzed using the SmartPLS 4 application to evaluate measurement and structural models. The results of the analysis show that school policies have a positive and significant impact on student resilience with a coefficient of 0.212, a T value of 6.495, and a P value approaching 0.000; towards Islamic religious learning with a coefficient of 0.398, a T value of 14.137, and a P value approaching 0.000; and on school climate with a coefficient of 0.683, a T value of 22.063, and a P value approaching 0.000. School climate also positively and significantly impacts Islamic religious learning with a coefficient of 0.542, a T value of 19.079, and a P value of close to 0.000. It has a more minor but significant effect on student resilience with a coefficient of 0.164, a T value of 2.387, and a P value of 0.017. Islamic religious learning strongly impacts student resilience with a coefficient of 0.539, a T value of 10.580, and a P value approaching 0.000. In conclusion, these results confirm that the model built is well-structured and can be generalized. Keywords: Islamic Learning , School Policy, School Climate, Student Resilience

Doing difference differently? Exploring inclusion at an elementary school in Austria

PurposeThe purpose of this study is to highlight a paradox between inclusion/exclusion at the level of the organisation and classroom practices, as well as between general and disability/special educational needs (SEN)-specific approaches to diversity in the classroom. The authors recommend better alignment between school policies and teaching practices to offer all students an equal chance to benefit from inclusive pedagogies.Design/methodology/approachThis study analyses a school that has gained public reputation as an innovative, inclusive school in Austria. Applying a case study with an ethnographic methodological approach, the authors explore what strategies are implemented to become more inclusive at the level of school organisation and classroom practices? What are the pedagogical beliefs and actions relating to diversity that drive inclusive efforts? How is this school's general approach to diversity enacted with students with SEN?FindingsThe findings show that context-specific circumstances shape inclusive school development, which comes with a set of affordances and challenges. The authors argue that in this case, striving for inclusion indicated two ways of “doing difference differently”. First, the school has built on many cornerstones of inclusion when relating and responding to student diversity, that was remarkably different than in other mainstream schools in Austria. On the contrary, while creating new educational and pedagogical norms, it also recycled conventional segregating tendencies, and as such, reproduced hierarchised difference, but in other ways than schools typically do in mainstream schooling.Originality/valueThis school and its pedagogical mission have never been analysed through the rich data that two researchers were able to gather and work through.

Distributed leadership in Irish post-primary schools: mapping the state of the art

ABSTRACT Distributed leadership is currently to the forefront of emerging educational leadership literature, policy, and practice. It is suggested that the pressures exerted on schools during the COVID-19 pandemic have resulted in distributed leadership becoming a default leadership style in schools. The adoption of a distributed leadership approach is supported by Irish school policy, yet little is known about its implementation. The aim of this study was to map the current state of distributed leadership in Irish post-primary schools from the perspective of school personnel. Data were collected from 337 participants using an online survey comprising Likert-type statements complimented with open-ended questions. Descriptive statistics and thematic analysis were used to analyse the data. Findings reveal disparities specific to how distributed leadership is implemented in schools, (if at all), including the division of labour, the impact of culture and complexities in relationships among staff. In this paper, recommendations are made regarding the need to further conceptualise the culture required for distributed leadership to flourish, the division of labour, and teacher leadership in a distributed leadership approach, as well as a focus on building positive relationships.

Secondary school smartphone policies in England: a descriptive analysis of how schools rationalize, design, and implement restrictive and permissive phone policies

This study provides a descriptive analysis of the content and implementation of smartphone policies across 30 secondary schools in England, comparing schools that do (permissive) or do not (restrictive) allow phone use during recreational time. School policy documents were collected, along with survey data from pupil (n = 1198), teacher (n = 53), and SLT (n = 30) participants. Phones were positioned as benefitting safety, learning, and communication. However, most schools adopted restrictive policies, aiming to improve attainment, behavior, and safeguarding. Significant differences were found between pupils and teachers, and between pupils at permissive vs restrictive schools, regarding their support for the rules. Implications are discussed.

Analyzing the Relationships between State School Policies and Absenteeism Rates for 9-12th Grade Students in Texas-Mexico Border Districts

Analyzing the Relationships between State School Policies and Absenteeism Rates for 9-12th Grade Students in Texas-Mexico Border Districts

마을교육 생태계 조성을 위한 서울시 초·중등 마을결합형학교 운영사례 분석 및 함의

Objectives The purposes of this study were to examine the cases of village-linked schools’ operation report that were operated in elementary and secondary level schools between 2015 year and 2020 in Seoul ito identify the features and implications of village-linked schools policy. Methods The conceptual framework of analysis was developed to analyze the village-linked schools’ operation reports and then examine the 40 reports of schools using the content analysis methods. Results First, the village-linked schools appears to understand the importance of philosophy and visions of vil-lage-linked schools but they were unable to create the circumstance and cultures of schools for the task. Second, most schools only set up a task-force team with just several staff members for village-linked school activities showing limitations to construct an effective system and organization for the task. Third, the curriculum and les-sons for village-linked schools were limited to foster the students’ competency and achievement of study. Fourth, the schools tried to share their resources with the village but encountered leadership role limitations in the village. Fifth, most village-linked schools didn’t make an effort to assess students’ competencies and share their achievement. They need to emphasize and share the students’ positive results and achievements obtained by this task with society. Conclusions First, the operation and system based on the five main divisions of village-linked schools that were utilized for this analysis need close and effective cooperation to succeed and reach the goals of the policy. Second, the people in the schools need to understand the philosophy and values of village-linked schools and then to maintain the operation for many years. Third, most importantly the effective curriculum should be developed and the innovation of lesson and assessment of students’ achievement also should be conducted to succeed the new educational paradigm of village-linked schools.

Studying gender and sexuality in school health education: an exploration of the intersection between the official curriculum and student-led activism

ABSTRACT In response to their experiences of heteronormative and cisnormative cultures in school contexts, some young people undertake various forms of action within their schools with the intention of changing practices, school environments, or school policies. This student-led action can be understood as a form of activism but it may also be seen as the enactment of sexual citizenship. Both activism and sexual citizenship usually sit outside of the formal curriculum in schools. So, what happens when activism and sexual citizenship are recognised in official curriculum policy and are formally studied as part of school programmes in senior high school? In this article, we draw on findings from two ethnographic projects conducted in two different school sites in Aotearoa New Zealand to explore the intersection between official curriculum practices in relationships and sexuality education (RSE) and student-led activism. We wonder what emerges at the intersection of activist approaches and sexual citizenship when these are domesticated by official technologies for curriculum design and assessment.

Assessing the Socio-Economic Implications of Free Senior High School (SHS) Policy on Tertiary Institutions in Ghana: A Case Study of the Western Region

Assessing the Socio-Economic Implications of Free Senior High School (SHS) Policy on Tertiary Institutions in Ghana: A Case Study of the Western Region

Inequalities in the Cape Flats: Principals’ perspectives on children’s schooling

Background: A separate, apartheid system of schooling in South Africa entrenched European racialised ideologies of white supremacy that left a legacy of social, economic, and educational inequalities. The 1995 White Paper for Education, the 1996 South African Schools Act, and the Revised National Curriculum Statement outlined steps for equalising education. However, inequalities within the schooling system remain.Aim: The study aimed to understand how principals experience the lasting effects of apartheid-era segregationist policies in primary schools and to document principals’ solutions.Setting: A meeting of principals who work at primary schools in the Western Cape province.Methods: Researchers purposively sampled four principals from the primary schools represented at the meeting, conducted semi-structured interviews with the principals chosen, and adopted an interpretive approach to analyse findings.Results: This study finds from principals’ perspectives that neighbourhood gang violence, and highly unequal funding for schools in different neighbourhoods adversely impact primary school children’s education and principals’ abilities to lead as a result of context, overcrowding and inequality. Principals note that when parent-led programmes such as the Walking Bus produce a positive effect, the government tends to undercut parents’ efforts to work with principals to secure and equalise young children’s schooling.Conclusion: Giving greater governance power to parents and principals may help to equalise the extremes of inequalities in primary schools remaining from Nationalist Party policies of the pre-1994 apartheid era.Contribution: This study contributes to primary school principals’ ideas for improving primary schoolchildren’s education.

Considering the assessment landscape in 2024

With the new National-led government now in office, we can expect changes to assessment policy for schools. Given the critical role assessment plays in schooling, it is important that any proposed policy shifts are carefully scrutinised. In this Assessment News column, we identify some possible proposals the new government may be considering and make some brief comments on each one. We conclude with some recommendations.

‘We have- we had a digital debt’: a case of digitalized school leadership practice

ABSTRACT The article adopts a critical approach regarding the political ambition of educational technologies (edtech) in schools. The focus of the article is to understand how school digitalization policy works on people in schools through meaning-making objects for thinking and acting towards digitalization in schools. A case of Swedish principals working with digitalization in schools was investigated in their municipal context of school development, where they were guided by a policy instrument of the Swedish National Agency for Education. Policy documents, from the agency’s instrument, transcribed interviews with principals, and principals ‘development plans’ (local policy), were analyzed with a focus on what objects seem to guide the thinking and actions of the principals. Specifically, the focus of the analysis regards what meaning digitalization school policy may be conveying to principals in schools, what meanings they attribute to edtech, and how they orient their and teachers’ work towards objects of digitalization in schools.

Embedding Racialized Selves into the Creation of Research-Practice Partnerships

ABSTRACT There is a great need to understand how we might leverage research-practice partnerships (RPPs) to change K–12 school practices, organizations, and policies that continue to reflect structural racism in schooling. In this paper, we present case vignettes of RPPs that aim to create educational improvement efforts but focus on building from the racialized understandings of student and educator experiences. The case vignettes explore the tensions and obstacles that RPPs might face in this context and how partnerships might operationalize processes to create conditions for positive change when putting racial experiences at the center of their work. We illustrate how the creation of RPPs and the moves we made helped us understand the connection between race and the personal, interpersonal, and systemic dynamics of partnership work. These cases contribute a deeper conceptual understanding that may be transferable to other RPP contexts and inform the work of other RPPs.

Teachers' Views on Tanzania Corporal Punishment Legal Policy in Schools: Level and Manner of Implementation

Teachers' Views on Tanzania Corporal Punishment Legal Policy in Schools: Level and Manner of Implementation

The politics of distraction in planning English-medium education policy in schools

ABSTRACT This article presents the findings of a critical ethnography focused on the English-medium instruction (EMI) policy in Nepal’s public schools. Through the analysis of policy documents and interviews with policymakers, the study reveals that policymakers view the EMI policy as a solution to the crisis in public schools by enhancing their competitiveness with private English-medium schools. However, this approach is identified as a ‘politics of distraction’, as it diverts attention from broader issues such as implicit privatization, funding cuts, and accountability deficits for implementing multilingual education policy. By framing EMI as a public policy doctrine using discursive strategies (e.g. neoliberal rationalization and justification) and suggesting that the crisis can be resolved through school privatization, which in turn promotes commodified languages like English and the national dominant language, Nepali, over local/Indigenous languages, policymakers largely disregard inequalities, structural conditions, and reinforce the existing unequal power relations. By diverting attention from critical issues, policymakers perpetuate historical marginalization, colonial agendas and ideologies, and unequal power asymmetries, failing to address systemic challenges. The research underscores the necessity of scrutinizing the motivations and agendas underlying the promotion of EMI in mainstream schools in multilingual contexts.

Implementation of Policy for the Implementation of Islamic State Vocational School in the Ministry of Religious Affairs of The Republic of Indonesia

Policy implementation of Islamic State Vocational School under the management of the Ministry of Religious Affairs of the Republic of Indonesia is expected to contribute to preparing high-quality, competent, and religiously charactered graduates. However, several challenges are faced, including resource limitations and curriculum inadequacies that do not align with the needs of the business and industrial sectors. The research aims to analyze the implementation of Islamic State Vocational School policy implementation and the obstacles encountered, with the subsequent design of an Islamic State Vocational School implementation model. The research uses a qualitative descriptive method with a case study approach. Data research was collected through interviews, observations, and document studies. The purposive sampling technique is employed; the selected informants are individuals who are directly or indirectly involved in the implementation of policies for Islamic State Vocational Schools. They possess the necessary competence, knowledge, insight, authority, or related expertise to manage these schools. The study includes eight informants categorized into three roles: policy makers, policy implementers, and policy recipients. Data analysis techniques use descriptive techniques such as data collection, data condensation, data presentation, and drawing conclusions. The research findings indicate: 1) The implementation of Islamic State Vocational School policy is not yet optimal from a resource perspective, encompassing deficiencies in budgetary, human resources, and infrastructure aspects; 2) Obstacles in the implementation of Islamic State Vocational School policy are identified in relation to the lack of government involvement in collaborating with other parties to create an ecosystem of relationships between vocational education institutions and the business and industrial sector; budgetary resource constraints leading to a shortage of certified professional human resources and infrastructure; poorly structured vocational education systems resulting in curriculum programs that are not in line with the needs of the business and industrial sector.

BIMBINGAN BAGI ANAK BERKESULITAN BELAJAR SD SWASTA MUHAMMADIYAH 43 KECAMATAN KABANJAHE KABUPATEN KARO

This research aims to assist students in developing their potential optimally through comprehensive learning guidance. This research aims to explore and develop an effective guidance program for children with learning difficulties in Elementary School (SD). This activity was carried out at SD Swasta Muhammadiyah 43 Kabanjahe, on May 5, 2024. Learning difficulties experienced by children can affect their academic achievement as well as their emotional and social development. This research uses a qualitative method, namely by conducting orientation to elementary school teachers and parents, providing learning support and mentoring services, as well as monitoring and evaluating program activities. The approach used is an individual technique that applies directive counseling, group guidance applies the home room outside of lesson hours. Data was collected through in-depth interviews with teachers, counselors, and parents, as well as direct observation of students with learning difficulties. The research results show that the guidance given to children with learning difficulties must be individual and tailored to the needs of each child. An effective guidance program involves collaboration between teachers, counselors, and parents, as well as the use of creative and diverse learning strategies. Some effective strategies found include a multisensory approach, project-based learning, and the use of educational technology. In addition, emotional support and motivation were also found to be key factors in helping children overcome their learning difficulties.This research concludes that structured and ongoing guidance is very important in supporting children with learning difficulties in elementary school. Recommendations for the implementation of guidance programs include training for teachers and counselors, increasing parental involvement, and developing school policies that support inclusion and diversity in teaching methods.

Developing critical consciousness for culturally responsive teaching: an international teacher exchange program

ABSTRACT The increasing diversity of the student population in classrooms across the United States demands the adoption of pedagogical principles based on the concept of culturally responsive teaching. This study adopts the notion that culturally responsive teaching only becomes possible when teachers implement self-reflection and critical consciousness. Using a qualitative approach, the authors aimed at examining the effects of an international professional development experience on a group of elementary teachers from the United States and Costa Rica with a focus on their perceptions about linguistic and cultural diversity in schools. The analysis of the interviews and reflective journal entries revealed that participation in an international teacher exchange program prompted participants to examine their personal beliefs about education and question, not only their own instructional practices, but also broader school systems and policies related to language, culture, and ethnicity.