Joanna Higgins

Artifacts, Tools, and Classrooms

Although schools contain many material artifacts, studies in classrooms have tended to focus on discourse and quality of social interaction even when artifacts are being used. Responding to Engstroms (1999) invitation to take artifacts seriously, three studies are described in which a material object was essential to a classroom activity. The first artifact was an enlarged text which had been transferred to a flip chart for the purpose of shared reading. The second was a jigsaw used in a mathematics session. The third was a textbook used by Vietnamese university students who were learning English. The three material objects central to the events are explored from the viewpoint of human functioning and in relation to Wartofskys (1979) three categories of artifact.

Configurations of Instructional Leadership Enactments That Promote the Teaching and Learning of Mathematics in a New Zealand Elementary School

Purpose: This article examines how and why four leadership functions are enacted in an elementary school, with a focus on hierarchical and “heterarchical” configurations of leadership. Research Design: The data were collected using an exploratory 2-year case study approach, and the data set comprises one-on-one interviews and relevant school documentation from school leaders and numeracy lead teachers engaged in reforming their mathematics teaching at an urban elementary school in a large New Zealand city. Four interrelated core functions of leadership are combined with configurations of leadership enactments to guide the analysis. Findings: The interplay between hierarchical and heterarchical enactments of leadership functions in hybrid forms appeared to strengthen the school’s work toward embedding the reform. Results indicate that the lead teacher can effectively support reform goals when this role is shared with others and when one lead teacher also holds a designated leadership role in the school, such as that of assistant principal. A list of strategies that supported embedding a reform in this school was developed from the findings. Conclusions: Combining leadership functions and configurations into one analytical frame is useful in building an understanding of the complexities of school-based leadership by capturing leadership enactments across all members of a school staff, not just those in designated leadership positions. What appears to be important in promoting instructional improvement is hybrid patterns of leadership—the combination of hierarchical and heterarchical leadership enactments—rather than either of these on their own.

Addressing the baseline: Erving Goffman and ethics in a postgraduate degree for practising teachers

In response to the claim that students who have received an undergraduate degree in education lack adequate preparation for postgraduate study, the designers of a masters course in research methods set an assignment at the first meeting which asked practising teachers to match Goffmans dramaturgical concepts to observation of behaviour in public. Results based on assignments from five classes were analysed from the perspective of theoretical understanding and what the collected assignments revealed about the students’ perception of the ethics of naturalistic observation. It was found that theoretical understanding was achieved and that the discussions of ethics produced findings that illustrated Goffmans distinction between ethics and etiquette.

Researching Curriculum, Policy and Leadership in Mathematics Education

This chapter reviews research regarding the official mathematics curriculum and its enactment, the educational leadership to support this enactment, and the associated influential policy, such as national testing. It explores the interrelationships between inherent issues such as the potential influence of textbooks, curriculum equity, and the complexities of implementing numeracy across disciplines. Substantial research has led to the development of robust theoretical models to inform both future research and practical developments across a range of aspects of curriculum, policy and leadership. However, the seemingly diverse research perspectives are all drawn towards the teacher in the classroom as the critical context for further research.

Mindfulness Interventions in Classroom Learning Environments

The potential benefits of mindfulness – the cultivation of non-judgmental awareness and attention to the present moment – is an emerging field of inquiry for psychology and education researchers. Findings from a growing body of studies suggest that undertaking mindfulness-based breathing for a short time each day can mediate the impact of emotions in classroom events. We focus on ways in which two teachers and their students and the researchers developed emerging understandings of mindfulness during a three-month breathing intervention. Drawing on video data of the teachers leading classroom breathing sessions and associated conversations with teachers as well as a training session, we highlight some of the challenges encountered as teachers introduced mindfulness-based breathing in classroom settings.

Emerging understandings of mindfulness through experiential awareness

ABSTRACT Mindfulness practices are increasingly used in classrooms to enhance the well-being dimensions of learning environments. New Zealand policy documents draw on a bicultural perspective that promotes a holistic framing of well-being. This paper will consider the transformative possibilities of a mindfulness-based breathing intervention in two New Zealand classrooms of students aged between 10 and 12 years old. Operational definitions of mindfulness include awareness of emotional, cognitive, and physical experiences rather than a focus on a state of mind. Using authentic inquiry, we draw on multi-theoretical and multi-methodological perspectives to explore observing/noticing/attending to sensations/perceptions/thoughts/feelings associated with a classroom mindfulness intervention. Specifically, we examine students’ increased awareness and evolving understandings of mind | body connections that emerged during cogenerative dialoguing. We found that students puzzled over whether it is possible to separate physical, mental and emotional states. We consider the implications of the mindfulness-breathing intervention in generating participants’ insights into well-being and wellness.

Generating New Knowledge Through A System-Level Network

The strategic objectives of the Inservice Teacher Education Practice project – strengthening the quality and consistency of inservice teacher education practice across the education system to ensure teachers’ access to high quality professional learning opportunities – were ambitious and challenging. In the design of the project, policy-makers adopted a research and development approach to improving the quality of inservice teacher education practice across an education system and made provision for the deliberate use of networks of practice at all levels of the system in order to achieve this.

Improving Inservice Teacher Education Practice

In his discussion of professional development as a policy pathway, Knapp (2003) highlighted the need to pay attention not only to the design and implementation of professional learning opportunities, but also to the development of sufficient expertise at various levels of the system in “supporting professional learning through policy in such a way that teaching practice and student learning are affected” (p. 147). Internationally, the role of external expertise (a role variously described by such terms as inservice teacher educator, professional developer and facilitator) is increasingly recognised as critical in improving classroom practice and outcomes for diverse learners.