Carmel Roofe

Cultures of Educational Leadership

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Why can’t everyone pass? Context responsive teaching and learning in urban primary schools

Abstract This qualitative scoping study explored how a small sample of teachers in urban primary schools in Jamaica responded to meeting the needs of students with low levels of reading. Data from interviews and observation, analysed through the lens of human learning theory and culturally responsive pedagogy, provided thick descriptions of participants’ shared views of context responsive teaching and learning. Findings suggested that context responsive teaching and learning was enacted by catering to students’ unmet physical, academic and emotional needs (a whole child approach) as means of improving their performance. The findings further indicated that individual teacher agency was the main means of responding to the situated context. Arguments are made that curriculum reform seeking to improve urban students’ performance needs to include strategies for meeting their unmet physical, and emotional needs in addition to the academic needs. The paper concludes that this can help to reduce the challenges that prevent students from performing well in urban contexts.

Social Justice and the Teacher Preparation Curriculum: A Cross-Cultural Analysis

Social justice is fundamental to achieving quality educational outcomes for all. Its main goal is the full participation of all groups in society. The curriculum is an important cornerstone in determining the quality of educational outcomes. The curriculum is the what and how of preparing students to function effectively in the democratic process and to respond in socially just or responsible ways. The extent to which students are able to do this is dependent on the quality of the curriculum content and delivery approaches. Therefore, those who develop curriculum and those who prepare teachers to deliver the curriculum are important stakeholders in ensuring a socially just curriculum. Since teacher educators perform both functions, they are responsible for helping teachers to bring social justice practice to their classrooms. In this chapter we explore the perspectives of teacher educators on a social justice orientation towards how curriculum is developed and enacted in teacher preparation programmes. Case studies of three teacher educators in Jamaica, Malta and England are used to provide cross-cultural analysis of the social justice function of the curriculum in each context. Data collected from each country was guided by a common methodological approach for conducting in-depth interviews and analysing the findings. The findings indicated that teacher educators across contexts had a shared understanding of social justice and believed that the teacher preparation curriculum and those who enact it should provide prospective teachers with regular and ample opportunities for reflection and discussion of real-life experiences of social justice issues as imperatives in preparing teachers to teach for social justice.

Conclusion: The Emerging Curriculum Agenda

Life’s purposes are often derived from the education system that a country provides for its populace. These purposes are also influenced by cultures of the global village, and are often recorded in political agendas and policies that influence schooling within a society. This chapter provides a critical dialogue that extends the main perspectives put forward by authors of the various chapters in this text. Ideas are discussed regarding an emerging curriculum agenda where collaboration between those working in schools and those outside is valued and the uniqueness of contexts is respected. The authors argue that creating this balance will inculcate in students the kinds of values that are needed in society.

A Social Justice Perspective on Women in Educational Leadership

Social justice is fundamental to feminism. Feminist theorists place women’s experiences of gender inequalities at the centre of their theorisations about leadership. Feminist critiques of leadership are set in a wider social context. In this chapter, the perspectives of women educational leaders are explored within the wider ‘social justice leadership’ perspective. Internationally, social justice leadership represents a major theme within policy, research and literature with a resurgence of interest into the experiences and perceptions of women in educational leadership. This chapter critically appraises women’s perspectives on educational leadership, by drawing on the experiences of four women head teachers/principals in each of four international contexts, 16 women in total. Case studies, conducted in Scotland, England, Jamaica and New Zealand, provide contrasting, cross-national contexts to compare the influences, possibilities and challenges that women school leaders experience. Each of the country researcher teams was guided by the same interview questions, adopting a common methodological approach for conducting in-depth interviews and the analysis of findings.