Gill Hope

Wild woods or urban jungle: playing it safe or freedom to roam

The rationale and focus for this paper is a discussion from five perspectives on the issues surrounding childhood freedoms and levels of physical activity. From our different perspectives we argue that beneath these very real and proper concerns that parents have for their childrens safety are societal concerns and perceptions concerning the nature of childhood within contemporary English society. The knock-on effects for children, in terms of physical, emotional, social and creative development are the issues that the paper seeks to raise. Writing this paper together has enabled the continuation and extension of an on-going discussion between the five authors.

Taking Ideas on a Journey

This couplet, along with other bits of idiosyncratic terminology, enabled me to placemark my journey through the maze of learning to be a researcher: from being an angry middle-aged infant teacher (demanding to know on what research data were based the English Design and Technology National Curriculum’s (1990) claims of what six year olds will do) to being a university lecturer with a Ph.D. behind her (2003), wanting to move into reflective “scholarly” work, developing “conclusions” rather than reporting “findings”.

Technology in Malaysian Primary Schools

Since independence from Britain in 1957, a unified system of education for all has been an ongoing priority, in order to ensure Malaysia’s economic future, political stability and civil cohesion. Geographically, Malaysia consists of West (peninsular) Malaysia and East Malaysia (on the island of Borneo).

Perceptions of Primary Design and Technology

In 2002 a joint seminar ‘Developing and celebrating good practice in primary Design and Technology’ (Nuffield Foundation, Design and Technology Association and the Centre for Research in Primary Technology (CRIPT)) formed the impetus for this research. One of the recommendations from the seminar was that a small working party of key players should develop a research framework and plan co-operative research activity utilising school and university links across participating universities.