Values In England Research Articles

Revisiting Rancière’s ‘radical democracy’ for contemporary education policy analysis

Just over a decade on from a spike of interest in Jacques Rancière’s writing within educational philosophy and theory, I revisit his interventions on democracy and education to make the case for (re)engaging with Rancière’s writing now to address important questions about contemporary education policy, the role of schools in democratic societies and public debate over the curriculum. Specifically, I argue that Rancière’s interventions on the Platonism that characterises both ‘progressive’ and ‘traditional’ arguments about school curricula in such contexts offer a vital tool for understanding the shifts in education policy and educational debate that animate our current political moment. Building on work that has applied Rancière’s writing to analyse neoliberal education policy, I argue that Rancière’s writing provides a distinctive analytical lens for interpreting a recent shift towards neo-conservative education policy agendas, and the imbrication of schools within the ‘culture-wars’ that characterise the contemporary political landscape in several national settings. Taking recent policies concerned with the teaching of values in England as an example, I argue that a Rancierian perspective on such policy is helpful for revitalising research concerned with education and the role of public schooling in societies that wish to maintain some claim to democracy.

Cycle Threshold Values as Indication of Increasing SARS-CoV-2 New Variants, England, 2020-2022.

Early detection of increased infections or new variants of SARS-CoV-2 is critical for public health response. To determine whether cycle threshold (Ct) data from PCR tests for SARS-CoV-2 could serve as an early indicator of epidemic growth, we analyzed daily mean Ct values in England, UK, by gene target and used iterative sequential regression to detect break points in mean Ct values (and positive test counts). To monitor the epidemic in England, we continued those analyses in real time. During September 2020-January 2022, a total of 7,611,153 positive SARS-CoV-2 PCR test results with Ct data were reported. Spike (S) gene target (S+/S-)-specific mean Ct values decreased 6-29 days before positive test counts increased, and S-gene Ct values provided early indication of increasing new variants (Delta and Omicron). Our approach was beneficial in the context of the first waves of the COVID-19 pandemic and can be used to support future infectious disease monitoring.

Justifying Gender Inequality in the Church of England

Despite being a national institution, the Church of England is legally permitted to discriminate against its ordained female clergy in a number of ways, a phenomenon that is at odds with wider societal values in England. It is argued that this makes the gender values of this institution’s representatives worthy of examination. This article explores the gender attitudes of theologically conservative male clergy and the psychological processes that shape these attitudes. In order to do so, semi-structured interviews were conducted with fourteen evangelical priests in one diocese within the Church of England. A thematic narrative analysis was employed to interpret the data using descriptive, focused, and pattern coding. Three themes in particular emerged from the data, namely: “Theological parallel between the Church and the family”, “Created order of male headship and female submission”, and “Separation between Church and society”. The content of these themes reveals significant overlap with the contents of system justification theory, and so this was used to interpret the themes further. In light of this it is concluded that a perceived loss of social privilege and control shape participants’ traditionalist gender values.

Protecting the natural and cultural heritage of local landscapes: Finding substance in law and legal decision making

Local landscapes enrich the lives of the communities that live and work within them by reflecting their natural and cultural heritage. This heritage emerges from the physical formation of landscape and its relationship with the heritage assets and sites within it, for example, historic buildings, wildlife and protected habitats. This paper seeks to explore how these values are given substance in law and legal decision making. It outlines the conceptual framework for the protection of local landscape values in England and then reflects upon the way in which they are identified in land use planning decisions. It does so by focusing on the narratives that emerge around these values in the reports of Planning Inspectors. Two case studies are used to illustrate the possible challenges that might be encountered in attempting to adopt local and holistic perspectives, and a broad interpretation of the heritage that lies in the local landscape. The paper concludes by considering a possible future research agenda, especially the means of appreciating the role and significance of law in a multi-disciplinary approach.

Contraste de la distribución Logística Generalizada en 31 registros históricos de eventos máximos anuales

The Generalized Logistic distribution is the most recent whose application has been established as precept. Thus, comparing it with the other two that preceded it: the Log-Pearson type III in USA and the General Extreme Values in England, is of high importance. In this work, the relevance of probabilistic analysis and the above mentioned distributions in design flood estimation is pointed out. For the most recent, a fitting method of L-moments is described in detail for the estimation of its three parameters, also a fitting by minimizing the quadratic mean error through numerical optimization is proposed. The results of the application of this distribution to 31 records, using both cited methods, are compared with the optimal ones obtained using the General Extreme Values and Log-Pearson type III models. It is concluded that the Generalized Logistic distribution is a good choice for records with high L-kurtosis quotients and its predictions in general are more extreme in high return periods when applied to records with outliers.

"The price you pay": The impact of state-funded secondary school performance on residential property values in England

This paper examines the relationship between state-funded secondary school performance and local residential property values in seven major English cities. When choosing which secondary school they wish their children to attend, parents will be aware of the school?s performance in Key Stage 3, GCSE and A- level examinations. We suggest that GCSE examination results will be the measure of school performance that parental choice will be most closely correlated with. Therefore, secondary schools with good GCSE examination results will be ?oversubscribed? in that more students will wish to attend these schools than there are places available. Schools will then have to develop mechanisms for rationing the available places - central to rationing strategies in English schools at the moment is geographical proximity of the family home to the school of choice. Parents will thus have a strong incentive to purchase houses in the ?catchment? area of high performing schools. Our results suggest that this is the case, with high performing schools stimulating a price premium in local residential property markets of between 1% and 3% for each additional 10% point improvement in the pass rate in GCSE examinations.

Still Worlds Apart

This study draws together two research traditions: John Greer's pioneering research among pupils in Protestant and Catholic schools in Northern Ireland and Leslie J. Francis's research concerning teenage religion and values in England and Wales. A sample of 1,585 13- to 15-year-old male pupils attending Catholic schools (n = 712) and Protestant schools (n = 873) completed the Teenage Religion and Values Survey. The present analyses highlight the significant differences in world views between the Catholic and Protestant adolescents across eight domains defined as: religious beliefs, paranormal beliefs, church-related attitudes, attitudes toward sex and family life, law-related attitudes, school-related attitudes, locality-related attitudes, and personal anxiety and depression. These data confirm that in many key ways young people growing up in these two religious communities are still living worlds apart.

‘No Room for Religion or Spirituality or Cooking Tips’: Exploring Practical Atheism as an Unspoken Consensus in the Development of Social Work Values in England

Academic interest in the subject of social work and religion is a relatively new phenomenon in Britain. This article draws on material derived from a doctorate on the history, development and current practice of church-based social work in Britain to examine the reasons for the absence of debate on this topic dating back to professional social work's earliest days. It takes Alistair McFayden's concept of ‘practical atheism’ and shows how, in different ways, this concept has been prevalent in church-based social work. It argues that social work in England (rather than Britain as a whole) has been secular in part by default, because those who might be expected to oppose such a position have, for a number of reasons, failed to do so. The result has been an absence of debate concerning matters of religion, replaced instead by an unspoken but widespread practical atheism. The secular humanism found within English social work has never been required to define itself, to test itself against a position that argues for a social work suffused with theological insights. The article concludes that a more open debate on this topic would be of benefit to all concerned.

Student Choices and Values in England

What do students in England think about school? This article examines the findings of educational research in England on the aspirations and expectations of young people themselves, and how well these are met through schooling. It focuses on the following issues: liking for school; attitudes towards schoolwork; disaffected pupils; attitudes towards teachers; views on the purposes of education; perceptions of parental interest and support; educational aspirations; students’ views on the curriculum; and absence and related factors. It concludes by bringing together and discussing those findings which might well be regarded as positive and those which might instead be regarded as cause for concern.In order to set these research findings in context, a brief overview of schooling in England is given, followed by information on ways in which educational research is funded and conducted.

Negotiating conflicting values: the role of law in educating for values in England and Wales

Negotiating conflicting values: the role of law in educating for values in England and Wales

Personal and Moral Adolescent Values in England and Saudi Arabia

Abstract This paper compares the results of two surveys. The subjects comprised 89 adolescents in two schools in Saudi Arabia and 96 adolescents in an English comprehensive school with a modal age of 14 years. The open‐ended questionnaire comprised 10 prompts designed to elicit responses concerning ideals and least ideals, most and least preferred companions, use of solitude, summum bonum, most and least desired outcomes to life and nascent philosophies. Two methods of analysis were used. First, references to dominant themes were totalled; secondly, responses were assigned to six categories according to the dominant values expressed from materialistic to altruistic. Similarities but also significant differences were found in the dominant themes and significant differences were also apparent between the values expressed by the two samples. Most marked was the prominence given to Islam by the Saudi Arabian adolescents and the high value placed on parents and friendship by the English young people.

Farm Tenure and Land Values in England, c. 1750-1950

Farm Tenure and Land Values in England, c. 1750-1950

Mirror Images? Three Analyses of Values in England and the United States

In his studies of cultural evolution, Talcott Parsons suggested that, in the modern era, core Western values were essentially unified and stable. This was most particularly the case when considering England and the United States, two societies from the same cultural stock. But the evidence Parsons used to substantiate his claims was selective and the empirical literature comparing values in England and the United States disagrees as to whether value similarities or differences are predominant. Indeed, some of that literature suggests that value comparisons can take place on at least two different levels, allowing the possibility of simultaneous diversity within unity. Consequently, hypotheses concerning the (1) unity, (2) diversity, and (3) stability of value patterns in these two countries are explored using three distinct cross-national data sets-interviews with a cross-section of adults in two matched urban settings, questionnaire surveys administered to students at colleges and universities, and a content analysis of mass-circulated magazines and counterculture literature sampled in time periods from 1937 to 1979. Results provide strong support for all three hypotheses and suggest that the empirical variation of values is much more complex than earlier theory supposed.

Mirror Images? Three Analyses of Values in England and the United States

Mirror Images? Three Analyses of Values in England and the United States

The Distribution of Property Values in England and Wales in 1798

The Distribution of Property Values in England and Wales in 1798

The Distribution of Property Values in England and Wales in 1798

The recorded yearly values of property available from the British land tax of 1798 and the accompanying Redemption Act provide the raw data necessary for a realistic measure of English wealth inequality in all counties at the end of the eighteenth century. Admittedly, there are exasperating weaknesses in the appraised rental values which stem from the varying regional procedures employed by various parish officials. Of more concern are the inequitable quotas assigned to the counties or even to the parishes which were based on economic relationships existing a century earlier. Yet these problems should not detract from the force of general quantitative statements about inequality 75 years prior to the new domesday survey of I 873.1 Thus, a finding that the number of owneroccupied properties accounted for only i O per cent of the number of families probably signifies that the top i o per cent held at least go per cent of the wealth; a sample study of multiple-property ownership signifies an even greater concentration. This article is an initial report of the distribution of property values in 1798, with an emphasis on property use. Some implications of ownership will be derived in making statements about wealth distribution in general. Statistical tests can be applied to establish bounds on inaccuracies of data and estimates of distribution parameters. The records of land ownership for the i 87os, and earlier for the inheritance tax, definitely establish the fact that there was very large inequality of wealthholding in Britain by the second half of the nineteenth century, but there is a degree of silence about the extent of this inequality in the earlier stages of the industrial revolution a century earlier. More is known about income distribution than about the use and ownership of tangible and intangible assets.2 At least one

Regional Differences in Rates and Rateable Values in England and Wales, 1921-1936

Purpose and scope of the study; reasons for excluding Scottish data, 624. — The four composite areas, 627.— The averages used, 628.— Conclusions apparent when data are graphed, 628.— Implications of these characteristics, 634.— The significance of underassessment, 636.— Revaluation in 1929 left much to be done, 638.— Organization employed, 641.— Distribution of government grants, 642.— Revaluation in 1934 brought some improvement, 646. — Derating of industrial properties, 648.— Opposition to derating, 651.— seq=a General conclusions concerning the significance of underassessment, 653.

Regional Differences in Rates and Rateable Values in England and Wales, 1921-1936

Regional Differences in Rates and Rateable Values in England and Wales, 1921-1936