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Don’t panic (yet): The implications of ChatGPT for Education Studies in the UK
Get PDFThis theoretical article explores the recent furore surrounding the emergence of
generative Artificial Intelligence tools, particularly ChatGPT. Both AI and ChatGPT are
discussed, before recent debate is contextualised against historical reactions to the
adoption of technologies in education. An example generated 'essay' is critiqued,
before discussing more recent educational responses, and the implications of
ChatGPT and other AI tools for Education Studies as an academic discipline, with
reference made to the QAA Benchmarks (2019). Amidst calls for the return to more
authentic assessment procedures, it is argued that Education Studies is already in a
strong position to meet the challenges posed by generative Artificial Intelligence
software. Furthermore, it is stressed that we should be critically engaging with these
emerging technologies, discussing their ethical implications with students, and
exploring their potential as both pedagogical and assistive tools
Abstraction in Storytelling
Get PDFDiscussions of storytelling and narrative have encompassed abstraction in different ways including master narratives (Bamberg, 1997) and storylines (Harre & van Lagenhove, 1998).
These discussions, however, have often viewed storytelling and abstraction as a binary distinction, rather than a spectrum where speakers move between different levels of abstraction when recounting experiences. This article argues for a nuanced approach to abstraction in storytelling that considers how specific details of stories — namely, actors, actions, contexts, and time — are excluded or abstracted in the recounting of experience, with a link between increased abstraction and implied moral judgement. The article first outlines the theoretical basis for this argument, and then shows specific examples of abstraction taken from stories about religious experience. Finally, the productive implications of a nuanced view of abstraction are outlined, including for narrative and discourse analysis, for understanding of storytelling and cognition, and for critical analysis of racist language
Support group or transgender lobby? Representing Mermaids in the British press
No full textThis article examines representations of Mermaids, a charity that supports trans young people and their families, in the British press. Using corpus-assisted critical discourse analysis, we identify and chart patterns in reporting between Mermaids’ inception as a charity in 2015, and 2022, a turbulent year for both the charity and trans people in the UK more generally. The findings show that, in the early years, there is relatively little attention to Mermaids in the press. Where they are mentioned, the charity is represented as a useful source of advice and support, and their service users as happy and united. However, 2018 represents a turning point, with increasingly negative and misleading portrayals of Mermaids coinciding with a rise in public interest and funding. By 2019, media interest in the charity has surged and the impression of Mermaids as a support group for families is supplanted by the image of a powerful, dangerous and controversial organisation. We argue that the increasingly excessive, negative and polarised reporting around Mermaids is a strategy for indirectly delegitimising and attacking the lives of trans young people themselves. In a burgeoning culture war, Mermaids is used as a weapon against the very people they seek to support
Torrens Imperatives for SADC Fast-track Land Reform Programmes
No full textThe most successful economies are underpinned and characterised by very clear governance of acquisition, disposal, and transferability of land or, as it is properly called in law – real property. This article examines the evolving post-apartheid land governance practices under the Southern African Development Community’s (SADC) fast-track land reform programmes for their potential to enhance land’s utility in framing economic development in concerned states. It shows a worrying potential diminution of land’s utility as real property as a direct consequence of insufficient consideration to ensure that agricultural land contributes optimally to the national treasury. The article recommends the integration into the SADC’s fast-track land reform programmes of the Torrens system for protecting land’s utility as the foundation and cornerstone of powerful and successful economies. The benefits for SADC states would be endless. They include the nurturing of an in-built resilience of SADC economies to withstand the ruthless vagaries of World Trade Organization- (WTO) sponsored trade liberalisation practices in the increasingly deeply integrated world economy. Failure to adopt and implement the Torrens principles on the recognition and protection of land titles would be suicidal for the agrarian economies of the SADC because it would either lower significantly or, in some cases, wipe out altogether land’s potential to make a meaningful and consistent contribution to the national treasury. Consequently, land’s potential to contribute optimally to the nurturing and development of national economies of affected SADC states would be severely curtailed and, in some cases, hindered from generation to generation
Close and Conflictual: How Pupil–Teacher Relationships Can Contribute to the Alienation of Pupils from Secondary School
Get PDFThis article presents previously unreported findings from a larger grounded theory study
which explored the intersection between pupil–teacher relationships and secondary pupils who are
experiencing school alienation. Mixed data were gathered, using a questionnaire exploring teachers’ perceptions of their relationships with their students, alongside semi-structured, exploratory
interviews with teachers and alienated pupils. A critical realist grounded theory design was employed, identifying closeness and conflict as causative mechanisms contributing new insights into
the phenomena of school alienation. This approach allowed for data to be triangulated, constantly
compared, and used to verify findings. This study discovered some pupils experience a more pronounced subset of alienation, where teachers perceive their relationships with such pupils as being
less close and more conflictual when compared to their peers. It also identified that these pupils place
an emphasis on negative experiences early into the formation of relationships with their teachers.
Such experiences are viewed as critical incidents which are difficult to forget by alienated pupils. A
diagram summarising this mechanism is presented, and the paper concludes with some professional
strategies for teachers to help repair the relationship and reduce pupils’ feelings of alienatio
School-led Initial Teacher Training: Why are schools so attracted to the idea 'growing their own teachers'?
Get PDFSchool-led Initial Teacher Training (ITT) is not a new concept, the current position of
schools in ITT has been developed in line with government neoliberal agendas since
the 1980s. The origins of school-led ITT, however, can be traced back to the Monitorial
system of the early nineteenth century where teacher helpers were drawn from more
able pupils, replaced in 1846 by the Victorian Pupil-Teacher model (Dent, 1977). This
paper focuses specifically on one recent school-led model, School Direct (SD), which
promoted schools’ role in recruiting, training and employing teachers as a means of
‘growing their own’. The paper problematises notions of ‘growing your own’,
questioning why ‘growing’ teachers has become a seemingly attractive model for
schools.
The research basis for the paper drew on data from sixteen participants across four
Teaching School Alliances (TSAs) which are school networks who developed and led
SD training routes. It embraced multiple stakeholders’ lenses, including both those
involved in, and those experiencing training.
My findings conclude that there can be much advantage for schools in ‘growing’
teachers who know and can deliver school pedagogies from the start of their ECT
year. However, this purpose of growing your own is very school-centred giving
insufficient consideration of training teachers’ needs. For trainees, SD experiences
can be very uncomfortable, they describe the subjectivity of being ‘moulded’ to fit
within schools’ specific settings along with feelings of powerlessness to challenge
pressures exerted on them
A Cross-Sectional Study Exploring the Physical Activity Levels of Afghans and Other South Asian Youth in the UK
Get PDF: Introduction: Participating in regular physical activity (PA) has numerous benefits, such
as reducing obesity, chronic degenerative conditions, and depression. Despite many health-related
benefits, physical inactivity is increasing in young people worldwide, especially in ethnic minority
groups, such as British South Asians (BSAs). The aim of this study was to explore the PA levels
of BSAs, specifically focusing on youth from Afghan, Pakistani, Bangladeshi, and Indian groups.
Methods: A total of 191 (Afghans N = 44; Bangladeshi N = 39; Indian N = 56, Pakistani N = 52) youth
from the West Midlands (UK) participated in this study (mean age 15.4 ± 0.5). The International
Physical Activity Questionnaire—Short Form was used to measure PA levels. Data were modelled
using a Bayesian approach to determine differences in PA levels. Results: The results indicated that
88.5% Afghans, 80% Bangladeshi, 78.6% Indians and 63% Pakistani reported engaging in <30 min
of PA per day. Additionally, boys were more active than girls across all ethnic groups. Discussion:
This study highlighted an alarmingly low proportion of young people from each BSA ethnic group
meeting the PA guidelines. To the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study to explore and compare
PA levels of the young British Afghan population, thus contributing novel findings to the area of BSA
PA. Conclusion: Overall, the vast majority of BSA young people failed to meet the recommended
PA guidelines of 60 min per day. Future research could utilise objective methods, such as Global
Positioning System, pedometers and accelerometery to track and monitor PA levels, and could adopt
an ecological approach to explore determinants of PA within each ethnic and gender group
Normative Values for Measures of Physical Fitness Among Tunisian School Children
Get PDFBACKGROUND: This study aimed to i) provide normative data for measures of physical fitness (PF) (i.e., muscle strength, muscle power, linear sprint speed) in 8- to 14-year-old Tunisian children and ii) to examine sex and age group differences in these measures. METHODS: A total of 597 subjects participated in this study. RESULTS: The two-way ANOVA showed credible age by sex interactions for all measures of PF (Effect Size (ES) ranged from 0.28 to 0.68; p<0.05). The findings indicated a main effect of age in handgrip strength, countermovement jump (CMJ) height, and linear sprint speed (all p<0.05), regardless of sex. Post-hoc analyses showed early increases in handgrip strength for boys from 8 to 14 years. For CMJ height, an increase in performance was observed from 10 to 11 years (ES= 0.23) and 12 to 13 years (ES= 0.14) (all p<0.05). For linear sprint speed, performance enhancement was observed from 10 to 11 years (ES= 1.00). In girls, an increase in handgrip strength was noted from 9 to 12 years (ES= 1.00). However, the changes across age were less convincing for CMJ height and linear sprint speed tests, suggesting that differences for girls were not supported by the collected data. Boys outperformed girls in all measures of PF (p<0.05). A summary of the estimated centiles of 10 and 30-m sprint speed, grip strength, and CMJ height for boys and girls allow a particular child’s test values to be compared to the norms for the group. CONCLUSIONS: In summary, this study provides normative data that can be used as a tool to classify sprint speed, strength, and jump height performance in children of both sexes aged 8 to 14 years
‘Balancing family time with fighting villains’: Gender, agency and social action in the representation of Disney Heroes.
Get PDFThis study provides a feminist stylistic account of gendered agency in a set of ‘Disney Heroes’ collectible trading cards designed for young children to play with. Through a mixed-methods analysis of grammatical, semantic and social agency in the texts, we show how the representation of male and female characters in these cards reinforces limiting, and potentially damaging, gender norms around men being more socially agentive, having more impact on the world around them, and ultimately being more ‘heroic’, than women. There is some cause for optimism in terms of the improved representation of female characters over time, and the foregrounding of female heroes’ agentive roles in their worlds, but ultimately the cards uphold the hegemonic status quo. The quantitative and qualitative dimensions of this analysis also revealed quite different insights, demonstrating the importance of analyses that account for the way linguistic strategies are deployed in context, and in combination with a range of other resources
