Roland Meighan

A REVIEW OF SCHOOLING AND SEX ROLES, WITH PARTICULAR REFERENCE TO THE EXPERIENCE OF GIRLS IN SECONDARY SCHOOLS

Abstract After leaving primary school, most girls experience an ever decreasing set of possibilities so that they gradually become channelled into the traditional female occupations of teaching, nursing, catering, office work, retailing or hairdressing. The secondary years of schooling would appear to be crucial in defining a girls future, since this is when the selection of subjects to study is made, and decisions are taken about staying on for ‘A’ levels and eventually about entry for further education. The feminist propositions that our society has institutions and attitudes intentionally or unintentionally harmful to both the self concept of women and their life chances, may well include schools. On the evidence so far, there appears to be a strong possibility that in secondary schools in particular, this is the case, and that a complex web of influences is involved.

The Parents and the Schools — alternative role definitions

The role of parents in respect of schools and education is defined in starkly contrasting ways in different countries and within particular countries. There is a repertoire of role definitions from which selections are made. These include parents as problem, as police, as para‐professional aide, as partner, as preschool educator, and as the prime educator. Some role definitions are rigid and limiting, others more flexible and developmental. Defining the parent as the prime educator is the most daring, and only a country confident in its practice of democracy in everyday life can have the courage to make this the normal rather than the exceptional.

Democratic Learning in Teacher Education: a review of experience at one institution

Abstract The authoritarian approach adopted in most initial teacher training courses rejects the possibility of obtaining a mandate from the learners. The methods course described adopts a consultative approach at the outset so that some shared responsibility and some mandate is established. The students may opt for authoritarian or autonomous or democratic approaches to their learning. The experience of implementing the democratic approach in the case of five of the courses is described and evaluated. Both students and tutors had to adjust to a different theory of learning since both had previously been used to authoritarian styles. Students were able to bridge back into the authoritarian styles of schools with the positive effect that they were well able to cope with schools as they are but also having had experiences and visions of possible alternatives and modifications to the status quo should the situation require them. They were prepared both for survival and for alternative futures. Of a good lead...

THE PUPIL AS CLIENT: THE LEARNER'S EXPERIENCE OF SCHOOLING

Abstract The research available on the pupils’ point of view regarding schooling is limited, yet there is a degree of consensus in the findings. Primary schoolchildren state that they enjoy school, secondary pupils show a reverse tendency. The dissatisfaction with secondary schooling is stated by both successful and unsuccessful pupils. The pupils are often able to give constructive comments and state alternatives, recognise some aspects of a hidden curriculum and identify a preferred teaching style.

A Pupils Eye View of Teaching Performance

Abstarct From research into the reliability and validity of pupils’ perceptions of teaching performance, the answers of pupils to sixteen questions are recorded. The questions and the pupils’ comments sample the areas of preparation of lessons, presentation, attitudes to pupils and general class management. In the overwhelming majority of cases the comments of pupils can be interpreted as helpful, sympathetic and constructive.

Political Consciousness and Home‐based Education

Abstract The growth of home‐based education in the UK has exposed a range of political issues, some having implications for political education. The response to the idea of home‐based education is frequently that of a political stance in that it is assumed that such families must be radical, de‐schoolers or anti‐establishment. The evidence exposes this view as a myth. The authoritarian vision of education characterises the majority of home‐based educators at the outset though it can change with experience. The organisation Education Otherwise achieves one significant piece of political education: it gives its members the confidence to refute the myth that schooling is compulsory or the illusion that only qualified teachers can educate at home. Parents also learn that the law does not allow for Local Education Authorities to impose their particular vision of education on families and permits the view that there is no one right way of educating. The behaviour of LEA officials displays considerable confusion...

A Case Study of Democratic Learning in Teacher Education.

Students training to be teachers on a one year post‐graduate course are presented with a choice of course methodologies. This paper is a case study of one group that chose to operate as a democratic learning co‐operative. The students wrote their own syllabus, selected teaching methods, shared the tasks of teaching and organising course sessions, located appropriate resources and evaluated the outcomes. The tutors were able to take on the roles of participant observers and to monitor the evolution and development of the course. The efficacy of this approach in preparing teachers for work in local secondary schools is discussed.

CHILDREN'S JUDGEMENTS OF THE TEACHING PERFORMANCE OF STUDENT TEACHERS

Abstract The study reported here is an attempt to isolate one limited aspect of the complex area of the pupils’ view of school. This aspect is the perception of the teaching techniques of teachers in training. There are practical implications here for teacher training since these perceptions are potential feedback for student teachers. The study is an attempt to establish the degree of reliability and validity of pupils’ perceptions and to develop a means of converting them into a readily available and relatively systematic form.

A New Teaching Force? Some Issues Raised by Seeing Parents as Educators and the Implications for Teacher Education

ABSTRACT The possibility that parents, instead of being part of the problem in education, may be part of the solution is supported by various pieces of evidence. Parents of successful pupils often teach them at home, whilst being careful not to admit this to teachers. Home teaching methods devised in the USA have proved their success. Research in the UK and New Zealand has demonstrated the improvement possible when parents, whose children have reading difficulties, are helped to teach at home. The World‐ Wide Education Service has successfully aided parents teaching at home for some one hundred years. The experiences of families in Education Otherwise undertaking home‐based education have shown how such programmes can be implemented. In a changing social context of expanding information systems, the knowledge explosion, the collapse of work, and educational developments like the Open University and Flexistudy, these parental involvements may have crucial significance in pointing the way to a regenerated e...