The IAFOR Academic Review Volume 2 Issue 1

The IAFOR Academic Review Volume 2 | Issue 1

Collected Essays on Learning and Education

ISSN: 2188-9570

THE IAFOR ACADEMIC REVIEW

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CONTENTS

24

15

1.

24.

46.

Introduction

Education After the

The Wolf in Sheep’s

Michael Liam Kedzlie

Arab Spring: Alternative

Clothing: The Continuing

3.

Philosophy to Develop

Accountability Discourse

A School’s Journey in

Awareness Towards the

in Education

‘Living and Sustaining’

“Other”

Yvonne Masters

Transformative Pedagogy: Heyam Loutfi ElZein

56.

A Case Study of a New

37 .

Transcending

Zealand Primary School

Re-evaluating the

Teacher Professional

Jane Cavanagh-Eyre

Relationship Between

Development: From

15.

Millennial Students, their

Determinism to

Can Computer Science

Parents, and Professors

Complexity

Students Do Without the

When Teaching a Study-

Abdul Rahman, Garry

Desktop?

Abroad Course: Searching Hoban & Wendy Nielsen

Dave Towey & Tianchong

for More Success

Wang

J. McClanahan

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37 Editorial Committee

Rev. Professor Stuart PickenIAFOR Chairman Dr. Joe Haldane IAFOR President & CEO Mr. Michael Liam Kedzlie IAFOR Research and Policy Manager

The IAFOR Academic Review

Advisory Board, Conference Chairs and Cultural Studies

Volume 2 – Issue 1 – Jan 2016

Professor Sue Jackson, Birkbeck, University of London, UK –

Editor Michael Liam Kedzlie

Professor Barbara Lockee, Virginia Tech, USA – IAFOR

Production Rachel Dyer

Information and Society

Published by The International Academic Forum (IAFOR), Japan IAFOR Publications © Copyright 2016 ISSN: 2188-9570 (online) www.iafor.org Sakae 1-16-26-201, Nakaward, Aichi, Japan 460-0008

Programme Advisors

IAFOR Interdisciplinary Programme Director for Education

International Director of Programme for Technology, Education, Professor Michiko Nakano, Waseda University, Tokyo, Japan – ACE/ASCET2015 Conference Co-Chair

Professor Keith W. Miller, The University of Missouri, USA – ACSET2015 Conference Co-Chair

Front cover image FlickrCreativeCommons/UNICEF/NYHQ2010-1316/Ramoneda

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FROM THE EDITOR

Editorial Committee Introduction

Welcome to Volume 2 Issue I of The IAFOR Academic Review. One of the central missions of The International Academic Forum (IAFOR) is to provide avenues for academics and researchers to be international, intercultural and interdisciplinary. One of the ways in which we do this is through our in-house publication, Eye Magazine, our various conference proceedings, our Journals, and now beginning in 2015, our special editions of The IAFOR International Academic Review. In this edition we, the editorial committee, bring together a selection of the most interesting contributions from our conferences with respect to the discussion of Learning and Education. In many educational settings and contexts throughout the world, there remains an assumption that teachers are the possessors of knowledge, which is to be imparted to students, and that this happens in neutral, impartial and objective ways. However, learning is about making meaning, and learners can experience the same teaching in very different ways. Students (as well as educators) are part of complex social, cultural, political, ideological and personal circumstances, and current experiences of learning will depend in part on previous ones, as well as on age, gender, social class, culture, ethnicity, varying abilities and more. The papers selected by the editorial committee for this special edition certainly reflect the international, intercultural and interdisciplinary approach that lies at the heart of both IAFOR and the global goals of education that we both work and live in as career academics. Sincerely, Michael Liam Kedzlie Editor mkedzlie@iafor.org

Contributors

Jane Cavanagh-Eyre is currently the Principal at Epsom Normal Primary School in Auckland, New Zealand. She was previously Associate Head at the School of Education of AUT University in Auckland. Jane has also been Principal of Sir Edmund Hillary Collegiate in Otara, Auckland, an Education Review Officer, reviewing New Zealand schools and a Lecturer in Literacy at the University of Auckland. Heyam Loutfi ElZein is an Associate Professor in Educational Management at Rafic Hariri University. Dr. Loutfi’s research interest is in trauma and conflict, early childhood development, justice, ethics and peace education. She has conducted a large number of hours of teacher training workshops about ECE, Peace Education and the Rights of Children, Conflict Transformation, Teachers and Parental Empowerment in Lebanon and abroad and has presented papers in regional and international conferences. Heyman has also published books, chapters in books and articles in a number of regional and international journals. Dave Towey is currently an Assistant Professor of Computer Science at University of Nottingham Ningbo China (UNNC). After graduating from University of Dublin, Trinity

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FROM THE EDITOR

College (TCD) he worked in Japan in the late 1990s, helping develop a breast cancer screening tool using ultrasound imaging technology and fuzzy reasoning. After this, he lived in Hong Kong from 2000 to 2006, where, as well as completing his Ph.D., he worked at University of Hong Kong (HKU), and as a teacher and teacher trainer in the local school system. In 2005, he became involved in a newly created liberal arts college in Zhuhai, Mainland China, the Beijing Normal University – Hong Kong Baptist University: United International College (UIC), where he remained until 2013. His research interests span a number of areas, including technology-enhanced instruction and learning, and software quality assurance, with a current focus on software testing. Alex Tianchong Wang is currently working as a Research Assistant in the Centre for the Advancement of Information Technology in Education (CAITE) at the Chinese University of Hong Kong where he is studying for his Doctorate of Education, focusing his research on Curriculum and Instruction. Yvonne Masters is currently a Senior Lecturer in Professional Classroom Practice in the School of Education, University of New England (UNE), Australia, a position that she accepted after five years as Director of Professional Experience in the same school. Prior to taking up her position at UNE Yvonne had 30 years’ experience in secondary schools, including in the roles of Curriculum Coordinator, Deputy Principal and Principal. Yvonne’s research interests centre on teacher education, professional experience and virtual worlds, with a particular focus on distance education students. Yvonne has collaborated in an Office of Teaching and Learning Grant, VirtualPREX: Innovative assessment using a 3D virtual world with pre-service teachers, and is currently conducting research into both teacher standards and teacher quality. Joseph ( José) McClanahan is an Associate Professor of Spanish and Associate Chair of the Department of Modern Languages and Literatures at Creighton University in Omaha, Nebraska. There, he teaches at all levels of the curriculum, including language and culture courses abroad. He has taught in both Latin America and in Spain. Recently, his research interests have focused on the area of teaching courses related to Languages for Special Purposes, in particular courses related to teaching Spanish to future healthcare professionals. He also has a strong interest in curricular development and design that centers on new students entering the university. He has led student educational trips to almost every continent on the globe. Garry Hoban is a Professor of Science Education and Teacher Education in the Faculty of Education at the University of Wollongong, Australia. He spent the first 14 years of his working life as a secondary science teacher, department head and K-12 Science Consultant in schools before moving into universities as a teacher educator. His teaching and research focus is student-created digital media for learning and explaining science. Abdul Rahman is currently a Doctoral Student at University of Wollongong, Australia. His research interests lie in the areas of Teacher Education and Professional Development. Wendy Nielsen is a science educator who was a high school science teacher prior to graduate studies in Canada. Currently a Senior Lecturer at the University of Wollongong, Australia her research interests include pre-service teacher education and group contexts for learning. Current research projects include how pre-service teachers use social media to learn science content; how teachers utilise digital technologies in teaching science; and, learning processes when generating a semiotic progression of digital representations in such multimodal products as slow-mation and blended media.

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Emerging into a Different Way of Becoming and Belonging: A Case Study of a New Zealand Primary School’s Journey in ‘Living and Sustaining’ Transformative Pedagogy

By Jane Cavanagh-Eyre Abstract Every school has an organisational storyline that relates to people, objects, relationships and experiences. At a deeper level, a school’s storyline might be retold in terms of its aspirational intentions and its achievements. Deeper still, a school’s storyline can be told ideologically in terms of the shared understandings, shifting discourses, and the construction and reconstruction of meaning related to the learning and teaching in the school. Using an ideological framework that focuses on the development and consensus of shared understandings, this presentation will outline a collaborative research project involving an Australian university and a New Zealand primary school. In this project the school’s storyline was tracked for five years, beginning in 2009 from the appointment of a new principal. The participants included the school governance body, school leadership, the staff and students. The research findings reveal changes in a school’s storyline during a time of transforming the learning and teaching in the school. The research illuminates the relational movements of stakeholders in re-purposing the learning and teaching so it is transformative for all learners. The school’s learning priorities fully embrace an inclusive, strength-focused, creative and

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critical pedagogy. The school’s learning priorities transform not only how and what the students learn, but also the school’s culture, enabling a different way of ‘becoming’ and ‘belonging’ to emerge. As contributors to an unfolding story, leaders act as guardians of a particular storyline that provides a framework for living and sustaining a transformative pedagogy. Keywords: transformative, inclusive, strength-focused, critical, creative, pedagogy Introduction This is a story of a school’s journey over the last five years. Through shared understandings, shifting discourses, and the construction and re-construction of meaning, a learning and teaching culture purposefully evolved into a different way of ‘becoming’ and ‘belonging’. Flinders University in Adelaide, Australia, and a primary school in Auckland, New Zealand, conducted a collaborative research project on the school. The collaborative research project examined the emergence of a new way of being; a new ideology that became prominent over time (Giles, 2014). This paper examines more closely how, by transforming the learning and teaching, the culture of the school was also transformed. As the school moves into its next stages of ‘becoming and belonging’, the storytelling will continue. In this paper, I (Jane Cavanagh-Eyre, principal of Epsom Normal Primary School) tell the school’s story in collaboration with my students, staff and community. Professor David Giles, the researcher from Flinders University, introduced to the school community a shared storytelling approach. A school’s storyline, he suggested, can be told ideologically in terms of the shared understandings, shifting discourses, and the construction and re-construction of meaning. The process of storytelling created ideological positions, which in turn shaped the learning culture of the school. Using an ideological framework that focuses on the development and consensus of shared understandings (Giles, 2014), this paper tracks the school’s storyline over a five year period from the appointment of a new principal. This collaborative research project focused on the deliberate repurposing of the school’s strategic development and everyday practice towards a strengths-focused approach. The continuation of this research focuses more precisely on how the learning was transformed for students during periods of change. Literature Review Organisational storylines as ideological positions In Giles’ (2014) research on the primary school, the researcher discusses the notion of school leaders engendering shared understandings through on-going dialogue with the school community. They re-tell and re-craft a school’s storyline. School leaders provide a lens on the school’s life by acting as tellers of a particular organisational storyline (Giles & CavanaghEyre, 2012). By deliberately articulating a school’s storyline, future-oriented visions and endeavors gain greater clarity of meaning for the way learning is transformed for the students (Celik, 2010 cited in Giles, 2014). Leading transformative learning and cultural change

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There is a large body of research literature on educational leadership. Leithwood and Jantzi (2000) list various approaches to educational leadership including transformational, moral, participative, managerial and contingent leadership. Lingard, Hayes, Mills & Christie, (2003) add pedagogical leadership to this list. They argue that pedagogical leaders empower their staff to create programmes that actively achieve identified learning outcomes. They believe that the central purpose of leadership in schools is to maximise a student’s academic and social outcomes via improvements to teaching practices. Educational leaders need to work creatively with complexity, if schools are to meet the goal of providing the most equitable ways possible for all students to achieve (Lingard et al, 2003). According to Schein (2004) successful leaders must be perpetual learners themselves. Educators need to be perceptive and capable of having deep insights into the realities of the world in which their students operate. Inviting teachers to challenge ideas and thinking so they can arrive at new insights will ultimately deepen their sense of practice (Senge, Kleiner, Roberts, Ross & Smith, 1994). Leading transformational pedagogical change requires educational leaders to challenge the ‘existing way of being’. Freire (1975) argues that education should be a liberating process that exposes dehumanisation and unjust practices in the world. Barry (2005) also suggests that to be effective citizens, students require new skills and virtues so they can resist illegitimate power with courage (cited in Hayward, 2012). Teachers should be driven by a moral and visionary imperative that empowers students to become confident global citizens who can think critically so as to make a positive difference in the world (Giles & Cavanagh-Eyre, 2012). When transforming learning for students it is vital that school leaders have a future-focused vision for student learning. In recent years educational writers and researchers, both nationally and internationally (Bishop & Berryman, 2005; and Palmer, 2000), have argued that the essence of teaching is encapsulated in the essence of relationships between teachers and students. Whilst strongly acknowledging the importance of such relationships, of equal significance is the need for school leaders to develop teachers capable of creatively designing innovative learning programmes that will inspire students and generate high levels of enquiry and engagement (Giles & Cavanagh-Eyre, 2012). Inspirational teachers demonstrate a preparedness to cultivate creativity and innovation (Gibbs, 2006). In New Zealand there are fine examples of inspirational teachers and Gibbs (2006) asserts that we have much to learn from these teachers of the past. Sylvia Ashton-Warner and Elwyn Richardson, for example, attempted new ways of teaching. These inspirational teachers continually reflected on their practice and cultivated a sense of relational connectedness. They demonstrated a high level of self-efficacy and were prepared to be innovative and take risks, even if this meant taking on the establishment. According to Gibbs (2006), inspirational teachers have a strong sense of purpose, and show eagerness to deal with the unknown and the unpredictable. To sustain inspirational teaching throughout the duration of their teaching careers, teachers need to be capable of developing meaningful relationships with their students and be driven by creativity (Gibbs, 2006). Over the last two decades there has been increasing international interest in educational strengths-focused approaches. Strength-focused approaches are underpinned by holistic and humanistic imperatives; learning is embodied, relational and meaningful (Giles, 2011). Strength-focused, emancipatory and holistic approaches not only empower learners but also challenge deficit theories of education (Freire, 2003; Hooks, 2003). As the learning is

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transformed for students so, too, the learning organisation evolves into new ways of operating. Educational organisations are now embracing Appreciative Inquiry (AI), which focuses on what is working well, and encourages generative thinking to create strategic revitalisation and change (Bushe, 1999; Cooperrider, Sorenson, Whitney & Yaegar, 2000; Cooperrider & Srivastva, 1987; Elleven, 2007; Lopez & Louis, 2009, cited in Giles, 2014). Methodology The context for this research project was a public school in Auckland, New Zealand. This innercity school engages with 46 ethnic groups and is governed by a Board of Trustees, which is elected by the parent community. The school also serves as a demonstration and practice school for student teachers from local universities. As a learning community the school is committed to working collaboratively with local, national and international universities to ensure that the learning programmes of the school reflect the most innovative and up-to-date developments in educational research and practice. The research methodology was underpinned by a phenomenological, qualitative approach. This approach is concerned, first and foremost, with human experience (Denscombe, 2003). Elsewhere, Giles (2014) outlines that the collaborative research required the university researcher to conduct semi-structured interviews with trustees, school leaders and staff. To continue the storyline, I (the principal) reviewed and analysed relevant school documentation. The school governance body gave permission for the research and the Ethics Committee for the Faculty of Education, Law and Theology at Flinders University granted its ethical approval. Participants were given assurances relating to the confidentiality and anonymity of the data and its representations. The semi-structured interviews produced school data across the following three phases of development: • Phase One: Re-visioning the school’s purpose; • Phase Two: Re-aligning the school’s purpose and deliberate philosophical exploration; and, • Phase Three: The emergence of a new and alternative ideology. Professor Giles interviewed participants on the deliberate decisions that followed a strategic planning day in 2009, through to the school’s decision, in 2010, to give strategic priority to the implementation of strength-focused creative initiatives. When analyzing the data from the interviews, the researcher employed two approaches; a thematic analysis that identified emerging themes, and a hermeneutic analysis that considered the meanings within the text. Further analysis of school documentation, including ‘student voice’ and information from parent consultations, provided insight into the process of embedding transformative learning experiences into the day-to-day learning programmes. In 2013 the Education Review Office, a government inspectorate/audit organisation, reviewed the school and its report provided further evidence and validation of how the school has and is continuing to was realise its vision. Findings Research findings show the subtleties within a school’s storyline during a time of transforming the learning and teaching in the school. The research focuses on the relational movements of

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stakeholders in re-purposing the learning and teaching so that it is transformative for all learners. The research findings illustrate that over time the school was able to develop, embed and sustain: • A transformational school vision; • A transformational pedagogy; and, • A transformational school culture. A transformational school vision Analysis of the school’s documentation shows that a new school vision was shaped, embedded and embraced over a five-year period. The visionary aspirations and intentions outlined in the school’s Curriculum Design Document were validated by the Education Review Office Report (2013). At the beginning of the five-year period the school was operating without a stated vision. The school community worked together to formulate a new vision for the school. During Phase One, through in-depth consultation with the students, staff and community, the vision for the school was crafted as follows: Students are: • Nurtured by community (inclusive) • Inspired by optimism (teaching) • Motivated by empowerment (learning) • To be responsible global achievers (sustaining the world). In the first phase of the transformational journey, teaching staff were challenged to become ‘inspirational teachers’ supporting students to be optimistic about their lives now and in the future. Dialogue with staff about ‘what makes an inspirational teacher’ provided a platform for teachers to reflect on their own practice. In this phase staff discussed the ground-breaking and creative teachers of the past in New Zealand, namely Sylvia Ashton Warner, who taught Maori children to learn to read through composing and reading their own stories, and Elwyn Richardson, who developed experiential learning opportunities that enabled children to produce creative works. The analysis of the school documentation demonstrates a refining of the emerging ideology over time. The new vision was reworded in the third phase of transformation to include the word ‘creativity’, using ‘empower’ in relation to students’ strengths and a strengthened resolve of the school for the students to act as citizens of change now and in the future. The school community (including the students, board of trustees and staff) worked collaboratively to shape the new vision. The Education Review Office noted in its report that: The board has recently reviewed and modified its vision and values in consultation with the school’s community (Education Review Office School Report, 2013, p.1). The refined vision states that: Students are: • • • •

Nurtured by community (inclusive) Inspired by creativity (teaching) Empowered by strengths (learning) To be responsible global citizens (thinking critically to make a positive difference)

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Moreover, the school’s Curriculum Design Document (2012-201) provides the necessary elaboration for staff to fully understand school expectations in relation to vision (Curriculum Design Document (2012-2015). As example of this elaboration for the first line of the vision ‘nurtured by community’, the Curriculum Design Document states that staff and students have a right to live and work within an inclusive and respectful school community and students’ cultural heritage is to be valued and recognised (Curriculum Design Document, 2012-2015, p.4). The Education Review Office also noted the realisation of the vision; … there is a shared understanding of the approach by parents, teachers and students... Staff reflect the diversity of the school’s community and capably support the high numbers of students who are English speakers of other languages (Education Review Office School Report, August, 2013, p.1). Inclusive learning programmes acknowledge the bi-cultural foundations of Aotearoa New Zealand. In particular, its founding document, the Treaty of Waitangi, and its now commonly accepted principles: Participation, Protection and Partnership. All students have the opportunity to acquire knowledge of te reo Maori (Maori language) and me ona tikanga (Maori culture practices). In 2013 the Education Review Office reported that at Epsom Normal Primary School, Bicultural practices are valued within a culture of innovation, respect and care (Education Review Office School Report, August, 2013, p.1). In the second and third line of the vision ‘inspired by creativity’ (teaching) and ‘empowered by strengths (learning) the Curriculum Design Document states that all students have unique and often undiscovered strengths. The school curriculum is carefully planned to empower students to uncover their strengths and to become successful, creative self-motivated learners. (Curriculum Design Document, 2012-2015, p.5). The Education Review Office further noted that; Learning opportunities are relevant, authentic and are aligned to the school’s curriculum planning. …Students’ individual learning strengths are at the heart of school curriculum design. Extensive opportunities for student creativity are offered and collaborative learning is encouraged (Education Review Office report, August, 2013, p.2). In the fourth line of the vision ‘to be responsible global citizens’ (thinking critically to make a positive difference) the Curriculum Design Document states that students can make a positive difference now and in the future. Students are encouraged to be globally responsible citizens of the world, who will proactively guard the world’s resources so that future generations will benefit from the actions and decisions of today’s learners (Curriculum Design Document, 2012-2015, p.16). The emerging ideology led to social constructivist ideas and critical pedagogy (Giles, 2014). A transformational pedagogy: The school’s learning priorities The research findings reveal how the school’s vision was realised through the learning priorities. The four learning priorities determine what was and is taught and these priorities transform not only how and what the students learn, but also the school’s culture, enabling a different way of ‘becoming’ and ‘belonging’ to emerge overtime. In the first phase of the school’s journey the learning priorities were ‘enhancing potential’, ‘empowering learning’ and ‘enriching learning’. The learning priority ‘enhancing potential’ focused on developing student talent. Students were placed in Development of Talent (DOT) workshops for two days, enabling them to grow their talents. The DOT workshops were and still are a very successful initiative, and have become part of the school’s tradition. At parent consultation week in 2010, one of the parents likened the anticipation of DOT Days to

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Christmas; children counted the days until they arrived. As the ideology shifted in Phase Two to a more strength-focused philosophy, the senior leadership team made a structural change to the timetable that enabled students to spend an hour a week exploring their strengths. Students’ strengths were also recorded in the school database system and reflected in report writing to parents. By Phase Three, strength-focused learning was and still is well-embedded in the practices of the school. A social critical constructivist philosophy emerged through on-going dialogue with the various stakeholders in Phase Two and Phase Three. Subsequently the new vision included ‘inspired by creativity’ (teaching) and ‘to be responsible global citizens (thinking critically to make a positive difference). Teachers believed it was important that students needed to know how to be creative and how to be critical. Students emerged into a different way of ‘becoming’. Creative and critical questions were formulated and published symbolically on large charts for each classroom. The questions are as follows: Being Creative What ideas can I generate? What possibilities can I explore? What ideas can I play with? What new connections can I make? In what new ways can I express my thinking? (Curriculum Design Document, 2012-2015,p.16). Being Critical Where have these thoughts come from? Is this the truth? Is this inclusive of everybody? Have you put yourself in somebody else’s shoes? Are these ideas making a positive difference? (Curriculum Design Document, 2012-2015,p.16). The school’s learning priorities are now embedded in the implementation of the learning programmes. The Education Review Office School Report states: Students respond positively to high quality creative and inquiry-based learning programmes where critical thinking, expression and invention are promoted (Education Review Office report, August, 2013, p1). A Transformational Pedagogy: The School’s Curriculum The over-arching learning theme for the school is ‘Together we are strong’. The research findings show that this theme has been consistently implemented since 2010, when strengthfocused pedagogy began to become one of the central learning priorities of the new ideology. The Maori Whakatauki (proverb) for the school is: Kia ngatahi ai te tu, E pakari ai te tuara (Stand united, stand strong), which has also been actively promoted. The curriculum design reflects the vision, values and learning priorities of the school. One creative initiative which became as essential component of the core curriculum – the ‘I am’s’ – invites students to imagine themselves in various roles. The ‘I am’s’ provide student opportunities in ‘becoming’ and create the context for the learning focus each term in all year levels of the school. Examples of the ‘I am’s’ include; I am a researcher, I am a volunteer, I am an environmentalist, I am a historian, I am a geographer, I am a chemist, I am a physicist, I am an archaeologist. There is great excitement every year when the students, staff and community

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decide together on the ‘I am’s’ for the following year. The students particularly enjoy the science-focused topics (Student Voice Documentation 2010-2013). Two other successful topic foci have come directly from the parent community: ‘I am a polyglot’ and ‘I am a philosopher’ (Parent Consultation Notes, 2010-2011). The 2013 Education Review Office School Report stated that: The curriculum is broad, carefully designed, and effectively promotes and supports student learning. It is enacted through a philosophy of student-centered learning and includes input from the community’ (Education Review Office School Report, August, 2013, p.2). As the ‘I am’s’ evolved, other school-wide curriculum initiatives emerged. Each year all students study the ‘artist of the year’ and the ‘composer of the year’. Recently a student voice group in the school sought consultation with other groups on whether all students together should study a ‘writer of the year’. If all groups agree, the school will implement this new initiative in 2015. Through the ‘I ams’ the over-arching theme Together we are strong and the Whakatauki influence school traditions and celebrations. The school follows a three-year cycle in the final term of the school year. ‘I am a creative designer’ involves students designing, gardening, cooking, and performing for ten weeks in preparation for a Garden Party attended by the community. The following year in the final term the topic is ‘I am an artist’. Students complete numerous art works for an art exhibition. Parents, community members and local artists attend this event. The last topic to complete the cycle is; ‘I am a performer’. All students study for ten weeks what it is to be an actor/dancer/singer and two school productions are performed. The school’s curriculum design shapes, not only the lives of our learners, but also the wider community. A transformational school culture: Researchers of influence When considering the transformation of the learning programmes and the strategic direction for the school, both the school leaders and the trustees worked from Bolman and Deal’s (2008) organisational cultural model. This model takes into account relational, structural, symbolic and political factors when positioning a new way of ‘being’ School leaders also used appreciative inquiry to promote organisational strengths aligned with the strength-focused pedagogy provided for the students. As the school journey continues, different educational researchers are given prominence overtime and shape the thinking of the staff and trustees. Research findings show that focusing on strengths is a more effective way of learning than a conventional approach that patches up weaknesses. For one trustee the ‘light came on’ for him around the philosophy. He described the experience as a profound shift in his thinking and an important lesson to remember, especially to focus on the positive and the powerful strengths of individuals (Giles, 2014). For staff, the work of American Professor Duncan-Andrade, a critical theorist, was pivotal in them developing quality critical literacy learning for students. Educational researchers (including Giles, Palmer, Bishop, Duncan-Andrade, Buckingham, Robinson, Renzulli and Gardner) guide the school’s learning direction. The 2013 Education Review Office School Report reinforced that the school operates in a research-based environment with professional and academic links to local and international universities (Education Review Office report, August, 2013, p.1). A transformational school culture: Growing teachers’ strengths At the school, teachers are expected to be innovative practitioners at the ‘cutting edge’ of educational research and practice (Curriculum Design Document 2013-2015). The senior leadership team developed a school research model to grow the strengths of their staff. Staff

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work in teams to conduct their own learning inquires and then present their findings at an annual in-house-conference, where visiting academics critique their work (Giles, 2014). Examples of these projects include: Intergenerational Literacy, Peer-tutoring, Embedding Critical Literacy, Developing Year 1 Students as Creative and Critical Learners, and Creating an Optimal Physical Learning Environment. The Intergenerational Literacy Impact Research Project involved a parent who could not speak English. She attended her child’s writing lesson with the teacher each day. By the end of the year the child’s learning had accelerated and the parent became a confident speaker and writer of English (Giles, 2014). A significant research finding was that these impact research projects have impacted on student achievement results. The 2013 Education Review Office reported that: Senior leaders have a deep knowledge of the teaching capabilities of the staff. Teachers are supported to research areas of educational interest that impact on student learning. Evidence of the positive outcomes of these projects is visible in students’ achievement results (Education Review Office School Report, August, 2013, p.2). Giles’ (2014) research and analysis of school documentation, demonstrates that school leaders and trustees carefully selected ‘significant others’ to support the school to sustain transformative pedagogy for its students. With the exception of conferences that staff attended, professional development was either delivered by the school’s internal experts or by a very small number of external consultants. Over the last five years for example, Gaye Byers, an external writing consultant, supported teachers to become writers so they in turn could effectively teach their students to become writers, while Tony Burkin from Interlead Consultants mentored leaders and emergent leaders in a way of ‘leading’. Discussion Living and sustaining a transformational pedagogy The findings presented in this paper explore the ideological processes of a school’s journey in ‘becoming’ and ‘belonging’. The storyline of a deliberate and sustained focus approach to learning within a school always involves the interrelationships and experiences of the participants (Celik, 2010b). The on-going dialogue of all the participants in this particular storyline has provided the necessary framework for the school to live and sustain a transformative pedagogy (Giles, 2014). As the pedagogy was transformed for the learner, a transformative school culture also evolved and continues to evolve daily, into a different way of ‘becoming’ and ‘belonging’. The school’s philosophy in this research project is founded on a critical humanistic tradition of education that promotes the holistic development of the child. Initially the agenda for change focused on an inclusive, strength-focused and creative pedagogy. As the school’s journey continued, social constructivist ideas and critical pedagogy evolved. The on-going discourse about what students should learn and how they should learn resulted in staff sharing a common language. As the participants dialogued throughout the journey it not only reinforced the school’s philosophy and vision, and developed a shared language, but also enabled an emergence of ‘a philosophy in action’. The school’s educational approach is best understood as a philosophical stance and daily practices by the teacher shapes how the learner engages in the teaching and learning process (Lopez & Louis, 2009, p. 1).

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Bringing together over forty different ethnic student groups and their families to learn together in an inclusive learning environment required the school leaders to provide clarity of meaning about what students learn and how students learn. Staff designed a school curriculum where the ‘I am’s’ provide students with opportunities to develop a greater level of ‘agency’. The ‘I am’s’ acknowledge the importance of the ‘unique self’. The school’s learning environment reinforces how vital it is for every student to learn about who he or she is; that they have their own life-stories and their own unique strengths. With the knowledge of themselves as learners they can contribute their strengths to the group, and together the group becomes stronger. Parker Palmer (1998) an educational visionary who advocates strongly for the learner to know the essence of who he/she is, argues that when I choose integrity I become more whole, I become more real and I acknowledge the whole of who I am. In order for an organisation to meet its creative goals, Robinson (2001) believes it is important to identify the creative strengths of individual staff, provide an environment that is conducive for creative thinking and harness creative endeavours that are aligned to the core objectives of the organisation. Peter Senge (1990) supports a generative process in a learning organisation to enhance and extend an organization’s creativity. An organisation’s ability to stimulate creativity and innovation on the part of its teachers is becoming increasingly important, as the environment that our young people are coming from is forever changing (Stoll & Seashore Louis, 2007). The research demonstrates that school leaders were and are supportive of generative pursuits of staff if their initiatives are aligned to the school vision. The impact inquiry research projects create opportunities for staff to participate in a generative process where their creative endeavours have a direct impact on student learning. Participating in the process of on-going research inquiries enables staff to incorporate an ideology that fosters sustainable practices (Meighan, Harber, & Siraj-Blatchford, 2007). When considering the transformation of the learning programmes and the strategic direction for the school, both the school leaders and the trustees utilised existing organisatonal models to assist the progression of the school’s new ideology. Both Bolman and Deal’s (2008) organisational cultural model and the appreciative inquiry model provided the school leaders and the trustees with a way of working collaboratively to revitalise the strategic direction of the school (Bushe et al, cited in Giles 2014). The shared wisdom of ‘significant others’ supported the school on its journey of transforming learning for students. Dialoguing with selected academics from local, national and international universities provided rigorous debate with the school and enabled staff to develop a reflective yet deliberate approach aimed at progressing a change agenda. The collaborative research with Flinders University reinforced that the school leaders are guardians of the school’s storyline. The experience of re-telling the school’s storylines provided the school leaders with on-going renewal and reflection. Careful selection of significant others, namely the external consultants, supported school staff to self-review school practices and processes, and purposefully plan the next steps of the school’s journey. As ‘significant belongers’ the collective wisdom of the trustees and the parents also guided the day-to-day decisions staff were making about curriculum design and programmes of learning. It is evident in the shifting language of the school and in the document analysis that all involved in this transformation of the school were challenged by the ideological shifts either at a personal or professional level. But through their on-going dialogue, it is clearly demonstrated in the

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findings that all participants shared one critical goal: ‘learning needs to be transformational for all learners’. The most creative periods in the lives of organisations are often in the early stages of development. People are excited about the possibilities and have greater opportunities to be creative before the organisation itself has settled into fixed institutional structures and routines (Robinson, 2001). The greatest challenge for an organisation is to sustain this level of creativity. Currently senior leaders, together with staff and trustees, are in purposeful dialogue creating the next steps in the journey of the school. Conclusion Leaders need to be highly creative in analysing and challenging cultural assumptions and, most importantly, have an ability to involve others and elicit their participation (Schein, 2004). As schools are never static, school leaders are advised to stay attuned to the nature of the dominant and emerging ideologies within a school (Giles, 2014). As contributors to an unfolding story, educational leaders act as guardians of the school’s particular storyline, providing a framework for living and sustaining a transformative pedagogy. Educational leaders need to continue to reconstruct a school’s storyline and work strategically for the moral imperative of growing and developing every learner at the forefront of the schooling experience (Fullan, 2011). Through these endeavours a school’s learning priorities will transform not only how and what the students learn, but also the school’s culture into a different way of ‘becoming’ and ‘belonging’. Finally, Giles states; Being a leader in education is not for the faint-hearted as the practical wisdom, strategic thinking and planning, tenacity and courage to sustain an ideological course for a greater public good is dramatic as much as it is subtle (Giles, 2014, p.17). With thanks The school wishes to continue to work with Dr. David Giles of Flinders University in the next phase of the school’s journey. His involvement in researching the journey of the school has had a significant impact on the way this school’s story has unfolded to new ways of ‘becoming and belonging’. Thank-you David.

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References Bishop, R. & Berryman, M. (2006). Culture speaks: Cultural relationships & classroom learning. Wellington: Huia Publishers. Bolman, L G. & Deal , T. E. (2008). Reframing organisations: Artistry, choice and leadership. San Francisco: Jossey Bass. Buckingham, M. (2007). Go put your strengths to work. New York: Free Press. Education Review Office. (2013). Education review office school report. Auckland: Education Review Office. Denscombe, M. (2003). The good research guide, for small-scale social research projects. Maidenhead, Philadelphia: Open University Press, second edition. Duncan-Andrade J., Morrell, E., (2008). The art of critical pedagogy. New York: Peter Lang. Freire, P. (2003). Pedagogy of the oppressed (30th Anniversary ed.) (M.B. Ramos, Trans.)., New York: Continuum. Fullan, M. ( 2011). The moral imperative realised. California: Corwin. Gibbs, C. (2006). To be a teacher: Journey towards authenticity. Auckland: Pearson Education. Giles, D. L & Cavanagh-Eyre, J. (2012). Looking more closely at the subtleties of an organisation’s storyline: A case study of a New Zealand primary school. Paper presented at the ACEL conference, October 3-5. Giles, D. L (2014) in press. A storyline of ideological change in a New Zealand primary school. International Journal of Organisational Analysis. Giles, D. L. (2011). Relationships always matter in education: Findings from a phenomenological inquiry. Australian Journal of Teacher Education, vol. 36, no. 6, pp. 80-91. Hooks, B. (2003). Teaching community: A pedagogy of hope. London: Routledge. Leithwood, K., & Jantzi, D. (2001). The effects of different sources of leadership in student engagement in school, in K.S. Louis and K.A. Riley (eds) Leadership for learning: Intermational: perspectives on leadership for change and school reform. London: Routledge. Lingard, B., Hayes, D., Mills, M., Christie P. (2003). Leading learning. Berkshire: Open University Press. Lopez, SJ & Louis, MC., (2009). The principles of strengths-based education. Journal of College & Character, vol.10, no. 4, pp.1-8) Meighan, R., Harber, C. & Siraj-Blatchford, I. (2007). A Sociology of educating, London:Continuum. Palmer J. (1998). The courage to teach: Exploring the inner landscape of a teacher’s life. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. Robinson, K. (2001). Out of our minds: Learning to be creative. Chichester: Capstone Publishing Limited. Schein, E. (2004). Organizational culture and leadership. San Francisco: Jossey-Boss. Senge, P., Kleiner, L., Roberts, C., Ross, R. & Smith, B. (1994). The fifth discipline fieldbook. Doubleday, New York. Stroll, L. & Seashore, L. (2007). Professional learning communities: Divergence, depth and dilemmas. New York: Open University Press. Zohar, D., & Marshall I. (2004). Spiritual captial: Wealth we can live by. London: Opening image credit: Flickr Creative Commons/Jocelyn Kinghorn

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Can Computer Science Students do Without the Desktop?

By Dave Towey, The University of Nottingham Ningbo, China and Tianchong Wang, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong Abstract Prompted partly by potential space release and reuse, and also by international trends in moving away from desktop computer learning environments and traditional classroom set-ups, we have begun exploring alternatives to computer science (and other) students' use of fixed desktop computers in traditional computer laboratory configurations. Although many studies and reports detail how mobile computing, especially tablet and smart phone use, have been replacing desktops, certain disciplines (particularly engineering and sciences) have continued to rely on the greater computing power available in the desktop. This has resulted in, amongst other things, a continued enforcement of older classroom seating arrangements where rows of individual students face a single teacher at the front – an arrangement widely viewed as nonconducive to optimal student collaboration and learning. This paper looks at a new institution of higher education in the People's Republic of China, HEI-A, and examines how suggestions of reallocation of computer laboratory space are being received by some students and staff within the computer science department. Keywords: learning environment, mobile learning, higher education

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1. Introduction We have witnessed many changes in education, including the reform of classroom practice made possible by evolving computing device use, particularly personal mobile devices and the Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) trend (Sangani 2013). With the advances in pedagogical practice that we have seen, an observed irony is that many of these changes which have been facilitated by computer science (such as the mobile devices) have impacted mainly on disciplines outside of computer science and engineering — computer science students, for example, are often still constrained in the devices that they can use, sometimes still needing the greater processing power of the older desktop computer set-up, often configured in a traditionally laid out classroom of rows of computers facing a single teacher’s computer (Hollingsworth & Powell 2011). The economy of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) has been developing very strongly, and linked to planned future economic success are recent reforms in higher education (HE), including an opening up of the sector to foreign input. The institution under study, HEI-A, one of the newly introduced Sino-foreign partnerships, has developed very successfully over the ten years since its establishment in 2004. HEI-A has been able to introduce many innovations, and has grown both significantly and quickly. The rapid growth at HEI-A has led to pressure on space allocation and usage, a phenomenon common to many other educational institutions. This pressure has included recent suggestions that perhaps the time has come to cease provision of larger computer laboratories containing only desktop computers, and reassign these spaces. The rest of this paper is structured as follows. In Section 2, some background information is presented, including China’s economic growth, and some recent changes in Chinese higher education. The institution involved in our study, HEI- A, is also introduced. Section 3 describes how student use of computing devices has been changing, which has partly prompted an examination at HEI-A of how current computer laboratory space might be revised. Section 4 looks at how computer science students, amongst others, face challenges in adoption of many of the modern smaller devices, and, by extension, how they may not be able to benefit as easily from some advances in classroom techniques. Some initial reaction to computer laboratory reallocation suggestions from HEI-A computer science students and staff is also included. Finally, Section 5 concludes the paper. 2. Background 2.1 PRC Economic Growth As discussed in Towey (2014), China has seen incredible economic growth over the past thirty years, fuelled by a manufacturing industry boom that, it has been suggested, may now be coming to an end (The World Bank 2013). It has been argued that the best hope for continued economic growth may involve the Chinese economy changing from manufacturing to a more service-oriented economy (Brown 2012, Morrison 2013, Phillips 2012). A challenge to this is a predicted shortage of appropriately skilled workers, especially in terms of tertiary-level education (Marsh 2012, Ray et al. 2012): Figure 1 shows the predicted 2020 Chinese labour demand and supply (by education level), according to which the PRC will face a shortage of university and vocational labour of about 24 million workers (Chen, Mourshed & Grant 2013). To address this problem, China has already initiated strategies to enhance its HE provision. 2.2 Changing PRC HE Landscape

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Higher education in the PRC refers to that “conducted on the basis of the completion of senior middle-school education” (PRC MoE 1998). It has been noted that an interesting feature of recent PRC educational reforms has been the focus on tertiary level, rather than on primary or secondary (Li et al. 2012). These reforms have included a number of projects aimed at enhancing the quality and prestige of some of China’s universities, such as: Project 985, Project 211, and the C9 League (CEC n.d., Lixu 2004, Sainsbury 2009, THE 2011). Since joining the World Trade Organisation (WTO) in 2001, the PRC has allowed foreign investment in the education sector in the form of Chinese-foreign cooperatively-run schools (CFCRS), which require a partnership with a Chinese institution. By 2013, there were 775 approved Sino-foreign projects (including joint venture universities and programmes leading to foreign degrees) (QAA 2013, p.6), and estimates of over a thousand foreign institutions expressing interest in establishing private universities in the PRC (Tsang 2013, p.655).

Figure 1: Predicted 2020 PRC labour demand and supply, by education level (from Chen et al. 2013, p.4). 2.3 HEI-A The institution under study, HEI-A, was one of the first Sino-foreign partnerships resulting in a tertiary institution. It was established in 2004, and has since then grown in both student numbers and provision of academic programmes. Due partly to its successful development, HEI-A has recently faced space challenges, in particular, the pressure to schedule classes and to house staff and tutorials has meant that the institution has had to look again at its allocation and usage of all university spaces. One suggestion currently being examined by the administration at HEI-A is to reduce the number of large computer rooms currently housing desktop computers. It has been argued that these computer rooms, which have been laid out in a traditional configuration of rows of computers on desks facing towards a single teacher’s computer and desk at the front, are no longer necessary, and would represent an opportunity to reuse significant space on campus. Some of the arguments for reducing the desktop computer room provision include the reported changes in how students are using and owning computing devices.

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3. Changing Student Computing Device Use Over the past twenty or so years, we have witnessed many changes in how university students (and others) have made use of computing devices. In the late eighties and even early nineties, most students made use of the university provided desktop computing environments (Allan 2001). In the nineties, as laptop computers became more affordable and accessible to students, we saw more students making use of these more portable devices, although, often in addition to, rather than in place of the university desktops. A smaller version of the laptop, often referred to as the netbook (Descy 2009), began to appear over the last ten years. Typically, the netbook was less powerful than the laptop, but was also usually considerably cheaper, and more portable (Demb, Erickson & Hawkins-Wilding 2004, Surry, Stefurak & Gray 2010). Interestingly, it seemed that few students actually used netbooks instead of their laptops — Smith & Caruso (2010) found that only about 13% of students favoured the netbook over the laptop; while Cassidy et al. (2011) found only about 8%. Perhaps the most well-known innovation in mobile computing devices has been in the advent of the iPad: the tablet computer. Tablet computers — and their smaller cousin, the smart phone — have become ubiquitous devices. Johnston et al. (2013) reported that more than 85 million iPads had been sold by 2013, and predicted that this would rise to over 377 million by 2016. Similar devices (such as the Amazon Kindle Fire, Samsung Galaxy, Google Nexus and Microsoft Surface) have also reportedly seen a significant increase in their adoption (John- son et al. 2013). Although many of the tablet devices lack the computational power of the desktop (or even the laptop or netbook), we have been seeing their processing power grow, and Bradley (2011) has noted that they already suffice for most users’ computing needs. The power of the apps (applications, especially those designed to run on mobile devices), and the recent trends for Cloud computing have made it possible for the tablet to replace other computing devices for many students (Hollingsworth & Powell 2011). One of the most exciting things about the tablet devices has been the impact that they have had on the classroom, and on how lectures and classes can be delivered (Eichenlaub et al. 2011, Fischer et al. 2013, Keller 2011, Mang & Wardley 2012). 4. Challenges for Computer Science Students While we have seen a number of changes in the classrooms of many disciplines, and these changes can be connected to developments in computer science devices, we have also noticed that some disciplines, including computer science, have continued to use older devices and classroom configurations, such as the desktop environment laid out in a traditional classroom arrangement of rows of student desks facing the teacher in the front (Hollingsworth & Powell 2011). When HEI-A first began investigating the possibility of reassigning the space currently occupied by computer laboratories, some of the experience of other institutions, as reported in the literature, was examined. Current computer science faculty and students at HEI-A were also invited to give their opinion on this proposal, and to offer suggestions for either how best to implement it, or, if against the proposal, to suggest alternative, space-saving initiatives. The rest of this section presents some of the main obstacles facing a removal of the desktop environment, including when proposing BYOD as an alternative.

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4.1 Text Input Text input has been identified as a challenge for students using both smart phones and tablet computers, especially when using a virtual keyboard, with interviewees often expressing a preference for traditional keyboards (Chaparro et al. 2010, Edwards & Barnette 2004). Given the large amount of text entry associated with programming and other computer science subjects, the view of computer science students that tablets and smart phones are ill-suited to their needs can be understood. 4.2 Display Size As Bradley (2011) also found, reactions from both students and faculty at HEI- A to suggestions of replacing desktop computers with laptops or other devices were met with complaints that the screen size would not suffice. Indeed, in many cases, the larger monitors and displays attached to some desktop computers are augmented by second or third displays to further facilitate programming and debugging. 4.3 Multi-tasking & Processing Power Bradley (2011) also found that more efficient multitasking is often needed than is (currently) possible with the smaller computing devices. When using iOS (Apple’s mobile device operating system), apps behave differently in the background compared with when in the foreground due to system limitations, and battery life is also often adversely affected (Apple Inc. 2013). Therefore, for some very intensive operations, common in computer science and engineering, the only computing option is the desktop. 4.4 Collaboration One of the major advantages identified with mobile computing devices has been the associated facility in collaboration in the classroom. In computer science, however, because of the greater need to share files and content, many of the current apps targeting, for example, software development, make this kind of sharing and collaboration more challenging. As Mang & Wardley (2012) reported, tablet operating systems lack a central file management system, which may mean that files stored within an app cannot be accessed without opening that app, and cannot be shared across apps. Although a possible solution may be to share files in a Cloud storage service (such as Dropbox or Google Drive), such an approach is not yet supported by all apps, and may also represent a new challenge where such Cloud services are not available (Huang & Towey 2010). 4.5 Subject Identity One of the major themes which has been emerging from conversations with HEI-A computer science students and staff is a sense of how strongly the identity of computer science seems connected to the computer laboratories (Stets & Burke 2000). Students report that, although they may also use laptops, netbooks, tablets, and smart phones, they still tend to gravitate to the computer laboratories to meet other computer science students, and to work on their coursework. This highlighting of the computer laboratory as an integral part of the university, and especially the student life of the computer science student, has been one of the most strongly voiced aspects of the stakeholder feedback. 5.  Conclusion

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As the use of computing devices by students has been evolving, and in particular with the economic and educational developments seen in the PRC, the need for traditional computing facilities, especially computer laboratories configured with desktop computers, will be further eroded. As seen in HEI-A, this declining need, combined with ever-increasing pressure on space, is causing a rethink of how universities can provide for the computing needs of all students. An ironic aspect of the many innovations brought about in the classroom through advances in computer science and computing devices is the fact that, in many cases, computer science students themselves are not yet able to be free of the desktop computer — they need, and express a preference for, not only the superior processing power, text input facilities, and displays, but also the actual physical space which they can identify with as their own. Even as the processing power, displays, and other current shortcomings of the mobile devices are overcome, this need for a space to identify with may well continue, and represent the most significant challenge to the BYOD culture and to the goal of freeing the computer science student from the desktop. Acknowledgements This research was partly supported by a Small Research Grant from the Faculty of Science and Engineering, The University of Nottingham Ningbo China.

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References Allan, R. A. (2001). A History of the Personal Computer: The People and the Technology, Allan Publishing. Available from http://www.retrocomputing.net/info/allan/ (Accessed 19 August 2014). Apple Inc. (2013). App States and Multitasking, iOS App Programming Guide. Available from https://developer.apple.com/library/ios/documentation/iphone/conceptual/iphoneosprogr ammingguide/ManagingYourApplicationsFlow/ManagingYourApplicationsFlow.html (Accessed 18 August 2014). Bradley, T. (2011). Apple iPad, Day 30: The Verdict–Can an iPad Replace a PC?, PC-World. Available from http://www.pcworld.com/article/236995/apple_ipad_ day_30_the_verdict_can_an_ipad_replace_a_pc.html (Accessed 20 May 2014). Brown, A. (2012). A Changing Chinese Economy Can Aid American Manufacturing, Forbes (March 07, 2012). Available from http://www.forbes.com/sites/abrambrown/2012/03/07/a-changing-chinese-economy-canaid-american-manufacturing/ (Accessed 30 April 2014). Cassidy, E. D., Britsch, J., Griffin, G., Manolovitz, T., Shen, L. & Turney, L. (2011). Higher Education and Emerging Technologies, Reference & User Services Quarterly 50(4): 380– 391. CEC (n.d.). China Education Center Ltd.: Project 211 and Project 985. Available from http://www.chinaeducenter.com/en/cedu/ceduproject211.php (Accessed 23 July 2013). Chaparro, B., Nguyen, B., Phan, M., Smith, A. & Teves, J. (2010). Keyboard Performance: iPad versus Netbook, Software Usability Research Lab. Available from http://usabilitynews.org/keyboard-performance-ipad-versus-netbook/ (Accessed 20 May 2014). Chen, L.-K., Mourshed, M. & Grant, A. (2013). The $250 billion question: Can China close the skills gap?, McKinsey on Society (May 2013). Available from http://mckinseyonsociety.com/downloads/reports/Education/china-skills-gap.pdf (Accessed 25 July 2013). Demb, A., Erickson, D. & Hawkins-Wilding, S. (2004). The laptop alternative: Student reactions and strategic implications, Computers & Education 43(4): 383–401. Descy, D. E. (2009). Netbooks: Small but Powerful Friends. TechTrends: Linking Research & Practice to Improve Learning 53(2): 9–10. Edwards, S. H. & Barnette, N. D. (2004). Experiences Using Tablet PCs in a Programming Laboratory, Proceedings of the 5th Conference on Information Technology Education, CITC5 ’04, ACM, New York, NY, USA, pp. 160–164. Eichenlaub, N., Gabel, L., Jakubek, D., McCarthy, G. & Wang, W. (2011). Project iPad: Investigating Tablet Integration in Learning and Libraries at Ryerson University, Computers in Libraries 31(7): 17–21. Fischer, N., Smolnik, S. & Galletta, D. (2013). Examining the Potential for Tablet Use in a Higher Education Context, Wirtschaftsinformatik Proceedings, AIS. Hollingsworth, J. & Powell, D. J. (2011). Requiring web-based cloud and mobile computing in a computer science undergraduate curriculum, Proceedings of the 49th Annual Southeast Regional Conference, ACM-SE ’11, ACM, New York, NY, USA, pp. 19–24. Huang, H. & Towey, D. (2010). Teaching Introductory Information Technology Through English in China: Innovative Approaches to Information Technology Education, Proceedings of the 2010 International Conference on Educational and Information Technology ICEIT 2010, September 17-19, IEEE, Chongqing, China.

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Johnson, L., Adams, S., Cummins, M., Estrada, V., Freeman, A. & Ludgate, H. (2013). The NMC horizon report: 2013 higher education edition, Technical report, NMC. Available from http://www.nmc.org/pdf/2013-horizon-report-HE.pdf (Accessed 19 August 2014). Keller, J. (2011). The Slow-motion Mobile Campus, Chronicle of Higher Education 57(36): B4–B6. Li, Y., Whalley, J., Zhang, S. & Zhao, X. (2012). The Higher Educational Transformation of China and its Global Implications, The Globalization of Higher Education, Palgrave Macmillan, chapter 10, pp. 135–162. Available from http://books.google.com.hk/books?id=qe2R7YrNj-sC (Accessed 23 July 2013). Lixu, L. (2004). China’s Higher Education Reform 1998-2003: A Summary, Asia Pacific Education Review 5(1). Available from http://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ720523.pdf (Accessed 23 July 2013). Mang, C. F. & Wardley, L. J. (2012). Effective Adoption of Tablets in Post-Secondary Education: Recommendations Based on a Trial of iPads in University Classes, Journal of Information Technology Education 11: 301–317. Marsh, P. (2012). Skilled workers shortfall of 40m forecast, Financial Times (November 18, 2012). Available from http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/13e0ae56-316f-11e2-b68b00144feabdc0.html#axzz2ZrA5Znwe (Accessed 23 July 2013). Morrison, W. M. (2013). China’s Economic Rise: History, Trends, Challenges, and Implications for the United States, (RL33534). Available from http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/row/RL33534.pdf (Accessed 23 July 2013). Phillips, M. (2012). China eyes services sector of economy, The Washington Times (July 07, 2012). Available from http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2010/jul/7/china-eyesservices-sector-of-economy (Accessed 23 July 2013). PRC MoE (1998). General Provisions, Higher Education Law of the People’s Republic of China, Chinese Ministry of Education, Beijing, Article 2. Available from http://www.moe.edu.cn/publicfiles/business/htmlfiles/moe/moe_2803/200905/48454.ht ml (Accessed 13 September 2013). QAA (2013). Review of UK transnational education in China 2012: Overview, The Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education. Available from http://www.qaa.ac.uk/Publications/InformationAndGuidance/Documents/TNE-ChinaOverview.pdf (Accessed 03 July 2013). Ray, R. L., Mitchell, C., Abel, A., Phillips, P. P., Watson, A., Weddle, B., Hancock, B. & Lawson, E. (2012). The State of Human Capital 2012: False Summit. Available from http://www.mckinsey.com/~/media/McKinsey/dotcom/client_service/Organization/PDF s/State_of_human_capital_2012.ashx (Accessed 02 May 2014). Sainsbury, M. (2009). China establishes group of Ivy League universities, The Australian (November 04, 2009). Available from http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/world/china-establishes-group-of-ivy-leagueuniversities/story-e6frg6so-1225794050411 (Accessed 23 April 2014). Sangani, K. (2013). BYOD to the classroom, Engineering Technology 8(3): 42–45. Smith, S. D. & Caruso, J. B. (2010). The ECAR Study of Undergraduate Students and Information Technology, 2010, Research Study. Stets, J. E. & Burke, P. J. (2000). Identity Theory and Social Identity Theory, Social Psychology Quarterly 63(3): 224–237. Available from http://www.jstor.org/stable/2695870 (Accessed 19 August 2014). Surry, D., Stefurak, J. & Gray, R. (2010). Technology Integration in Higher Education: Social and Organizational Aspects, Information Science Reference, New York.

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THE (2011). Eastern stars: Universities of China’s C9 League excel in select fields, Times Higher Education (February 17, 2011). Available from http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/415193.article (Accessed 23 April 2014). The World Bank (2013). China Overview. Available from http://www.worldbank.org/en/country/china/overview (Accessed 23 April 2014). Towey, D. (2014). Meeting the higher education needs of mainland China, in K. S. Yuen & K. C. Li (eds), Inaugural International Conference on Open and Flexible Education (ICOFE 2014), The Open University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR, China, pp. 322–332. Tsang, E. Y.-h. (2013). The quest for higher education by the Chinese middle class: retrenching social mobility?, Higher Education (March, 2013): 1–16. Available from http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10734-013-9627-7 (Accessed 23 April 2014). Opening image credit: Flickr Creative Commons/júbilo haku

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Education After the Arab Spring: Alternative Philosophy to Develop Awareness Towards the “Other�

By Heyam Loutfi ElZein, Rafik Hariri University, Lebanon

Abstract Young children of Arab countries after the Arab Spring and especially the Lebanese are, unfortunately, experiencing great political pressure, conflicting ideologies, humanistic annihilation, and are becoming a laboratory for violence and warfare, lacking positive relationships, community participation, and responsibility. What can be done to respond effectively to the seriousness of this problem? What is needed is a foundational system of values that the communities have to be aware of. Based on these values we have to put mechanisms and guidelines for ourselves so as to have a mutual acceptance and cooperation between the entire world's ideologies, spiritual movements, and ethical dimensions. In my point of view an evolutionary jump in the consciousness of the Arab families is needed for conflict resolution, anti-racial ideologies, multiculturalism, and techniques of negotiation. This jump as I see it is an education for a culture of peace that will help in developing humanity and communities. To introduce this culture of peace educating holistically, reorganizing the content of the curriculum and its delivery, and empowering caregivers are the ways that awaken the Arab families to the realities of oppression, violence, and suffering. These steps serve as a guide for revitalization of society and coexistence. This will be the focus of this paper. Specific ideas and strategies as well as suggestions will be discussed to bring each step into reality. In the end, a summative idea about the importance of revitalization and the link of these steps will be explored with few recommendations. Keywords: peace education, equity, conflict resolution, social justice, multiculturalism

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1. Introduction Young children in the 21st century are facing many challenges that are affecting their lives, to name few: social inequity, political instability, conflicting ideologies, fragile economy, health issues, and migration (The World Bank, 2013). Consequently these children, among other groups, are expected to excel under the pressure of these conflicts in this challenging and fast changing world. Hence, to face the challenges, children need to be equipped with the necessary skills enabling them to be successful citizens contributing to their own good and to the good of their societies and humankind globally. It is true that young people worldwide share common challenges and basic developmental needs but different aspects of development may be more important in different contexts (Palmer & Zajon, 2010). For instance, Lebanese people have been suffering from unstable political, economic and social conditions for forty years. This unstable period has started with the civil war (1975) that lasted fifteen years, and continues until our present time. In addition, they witnessed and still witnessing major dramatic events such as the assassination of Prime Minister Rafik El Hariri in 2005, the 2006 Israeli war, explosions, terrorist attacks, rise in sectarian divisions, periodic street clashes and the “Arab spring� that created a big turmoil in the Arab world affecting Lebanon among other countries. Children achieve better outcomes when their diverse strengths, abilities, interests, and cultural practices are understood and supported. Valuing and respecting diversity is vital for children to develop a strong sense of identity. Principles of equity and diversity are linked to children developing a sense of belonging, identity, and wellbeing so that they become effective communicators and confident, involved learners (DEEWR, 2009; DEECD, 2009). Among all of these events, parents, communities, as well as schools generally do not teach children what peace looks like or that we can live it. Peace education receives little to no coverage in traditional school curricula and materials. Further, when war is covered it is done with a sense of passion and excitement, while peace, when it is included, is portrayed as passive and boring. Even when we look at our curricular materials and try to analyze its content we find that it offers political culture. It often makes it sound as though there is no opposition to war and no human ability to live in peace because humans are by nature, aggressive. As a result the Lebanese children are, unfortunately, experiencing great political pressure, conflicting ideologies, humanistic annihilation, and are becoming a laboratory for violence and warfare, lacking positive relationships, common identity due to the nation’s sectarian segregation and social injustice among the different socio-economic groups (Nahas, 2009; Frayha, 2012). These national challenges coupled with the global ones require from education in Lebanon to plan programs that are culture fair and context specific. In fact, the UNESCO report (2009) concludes that factors critical to the future of education in the world of today and tomorrow should take into account the profile of cultures, values, and circumstances of each region and nation. Having acknowledged the seriousness of our problems, what can we possibly do to respond effectively? Where do we start? The crisis we face is complex and multidimensional. How might we bring about a meaningful education that could truly lead to a culture of peace? What is needed is a foundational system of values that the communities have to be aware of. Based on these values we have to put mechanisms and guidelines for ourselves so as to have a

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mutual acceptance and cooperation between the entire world's ideologies, spiritual movements, and ethical dimensions, in addition to developing an ecological sense of worth, and convictions. In my point of view an evolutionary jump in the consciousness of the Arab families in general and Lebanese family in particular is needed for conflict resolution, anti-racial ideologies, multiculturalism, and techniques of negotiation. This jump as I see it is an education for a culture of peace that will help in developing humanity and communities. To introduce this culture of peace educating holistically, reorganizing the content of the curriculum and its delivery, and empowering caregivers and stakeholders are the ways that awaken the Arab families to the realities of oppression, violence, and suffering. A holistic approach comprising different methods: dialogue, training, awareness raising, advocacy, capacity building, and formation of alliances and network building. These steps serve as a guide for revitalization of society and coexistence. By revitalization and coexistence, I do not mean refining and improving the old system of education. I mean re-conceptualizing what schools are and how they should function when a culture of peace is introduced to the educational system. Families would interact and react when they acquire skills of dealing, understanding and communicating with the other. It is my intention to prove that when individuals change their level and way of thinking to the way they think, and break the barriers that bind them to the old ineffective structures revitalization and coexistence are attained. In setting the foundation for revitalization, I suggest some basic steps, which will lead to a better transformation in educational and social system. The first step is introducing a vision of peace education that offers the idea of replacing the archaic relationship that exists between educators, children, and their parents by a more dynamic performance-oriented progress. When this vision is correctly planned and supported by key players and educators then growth is endless. The second step has to do with quality improvement, introducing peace education skills to teachers, and familiarizing them with these skills, the teaching profession will be enhanced, and working conditions will allow the teachers to think, reflect, and interact in professional development activities. In addition, students will develop a positive self-esteem and a positive reaction toward the other and toward learning. To reach this high level of performance, educators must keep on working and offering constant quality improvement thus making it a norm in their organization. The last step has to do with partnership where the stress will be on parental and community involvement. The link that has to be established between the parents, the community and the school will create a difference in the lives of the children. In this case certain questions have to be answered in order to create a peaceful society with no discrimination and understanding of the other. The first is “what is needed to help children to be physically, socially and mentally accepting and understanding the other?’ The second, “how to interact with the needs of children and how would be our attitude and behavior when implementing the core values derived from the first question?” Thirdly, “what would be the behavior and attitude of the ‘Other” when all the community lives by these values?” Lastly, “how do we enumerate and evaluate the achieved standards and performance in order to add or delete goals?” The answer to these questions will be reflected through a vision, quality improvement, partnership and sustainability.

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2. The Vision One of the first obstacles that will come up is people's fear of change. Creating or adjusting a vision statement is an unmistakable indicator of imminent change. As important as the vision is, keeping it alive throughout the year is not an easy task. To get the most out of the vision, we must first remove the barriers from making it an integral, vibrant facet of the school and the community. Peace education could be taken for granted, or it could be reflected through a foundational system of values that ensures a shared existence with different groups. These shared values are not very far from our understanding but we forgot to implement them. Bamburg (1994: 14) notes, "The schools that have been most successful in addressing and increasing the academic achievement of their students have benefited from a clarity of purpose that is grounded in a shared set of core values". If applied they should help in developing humanity and communities: - All individuals are equal and have same rights and duties. - Individual's happiness is built on the basis of love that leads to ultimate good and happiness. - Collaboration and mutual respect are the basis of understanding. - The true freedom of the individual is built on the knowledge of doing to others what you want others to do to you. - Promotion of a universal language for communication worldwide, with no melting pot of the language of the other. - Belief that interfaith and intercultural dialogues lead to unity and after that will lead to universal homogeneity in the world. Based on these values we have to put mechanisms and guidelines for ourselves so as to have a mutual acceptance and cooperation between all the world's ideologies, spiritual and political movements and convictions. In this situation, I will present six important points that can be considered the essential requirements that every school can follow to achieve peace and justice on its grounds and spread it to all the people on earth. Accepting these points might be the first step to a unified world without problems and without annihilating the other: 1. Mutual understanding through respecting others' individuality. 2. Belief that all people belong to the same Origin and Destination. 3. Faith in the potentials of all the individuals in the community will help in creating a better world ruled by peace and justice. 4. No exclusion and zero reject. All ideologies, religions, sects, spiritual movements and convictions had their origin in their culture and developed on the basis of their cultural beliefs, concepts and values. 5. Testifying and not converting. The believers should present their ideas in an understandable language, that the dialogue between cultures, religions, and traditions will lead to a better understanding, and to an exchange of values so as to enrich one's faith and the others' faith. 6. Our world is suffering from ecological, economical, social and financial problems. The best way to solve these problems is through global collaboration between religious and faith communities and the world of politics/economics. These practical reasons will raise the expectations; create energy to change since the focus is on the future with no blame for the past, and generate foundation for decision making.

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3. Quality Improvement As for the second question of our vision, “how to interact with the needs of children and how would be our attitude and behaviour when implementing the core values derived from the first question, the answer will be through quality improvement. Talking about quality improvement, the challenge that we will face is how to make the transition from a traditional system of teaching to a system of various roles and wide variety of tasks to offer a cooperative and comprehensive program in peace education as an equal partner with educational programs. The response will be through empowering the whole constituents of the school starting by administrators, staff, teachers, stakeholders, students and peers and whoever present in school environment. There is evidence that human beings perform better, will cope more effectively, when they perceive themselves as possessed of inviolable dignity and worthy of unconditional respect (Norcross & Grencavage, 1989). With the continued emphasis on child development, the integration of Maslow pyramid, Cognitive Behaviour Coping Skills Therapy, and Social Ecology model can demonstrate success in helping these people change. 2.1 Teachers’ Empowerment Lebanese schools are diverse in social class, sexual orientation, gender identity and expression, age, ability, religious background, national and geographical origin, and language and culture. Like schools around the world, the Lebanese schools have become, in the last four years, diverse institutions with some identified trends: younger children are joining schools, in addition to Palestinian children; schools have to enrol Syrian, Iraqi children and children with learning or physical disabilities due to their exposure to traumatic situations (Frayha, 2012). The thing is how to offer an educational environment that provides equitable treatment and supports identity development, learning and success of all students. Diversifying the curriculum is central in achieving this goal. Further, research shows that a diverse environment enhances the quality of the learning process for all children (Quaye and Harper 2007). As such teachers are in need of assistance to develop skills pertinent to deal with diverse children and diverse topics. To prepare teachers who will be both multicultural persons, practitioners and change agents, I view teaching for social change as teaching for educational equity, social justice, and activism. To the researcher the first step that has to be done is to improve the well-being of teachers by improving their attitudes towards themselves and towards others: Developing competence, managing emotions, moving through autonomy toward interdependence, developing mature interpersonal relationships, establishing identity, developing purpose, and developing integrity. Cuban (2001: 26) articulates, "people who develop skills in redefining familiar situations have in their heads more than one way of seeing the world. They have developed their capacity to juggle diverse ways of viewing daily occurrences, to the degree that one can hold in his or her mind multiple ways to see a situation, to that degree opportunity to reframe a problem and dilemma multiply". Here a question that comes to mind is how to support teachers to reframe their views of diverse learners and challenges that they are experiencing? A response would be quoting Bolman and

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Deal (1994: 7), who argue that when teachers are able to reframe, they are able to see new possibilities and become more versatile and effective in their responses". Reframing enables the teacher to see a situation from multiple perspectives: managerial level, human relations and political level. 3.1.1 Managerial Level When it comes to classroom behaviour, and although group stereotyping is a common occurrence, the teacher has to strive to ensure to make accurate statements about people opposed to group stereotyping. Whenever appropriate, discussions of diversity should be encouraged in department meetings, especially with respect to topics such as curriculum, classroom climate, course content, course requirements... To teach in such environment is very challenging. As a result teachers have to be trained in how to teach diverse learners and to deal with them as individuals with unique abilities and unique challenges (Kuh 2005). In this sense teachers will be as “cultural workers” (Freire, 1998), “border crossers” (Giroux, 1991) or bridge builders across language, social class, racial, cultural differences and academic abilities. As such, all teachers should be trained in the basic skills of psychosocial support, teaching diversity, communication skills, critical thinking... When teachers are trained on these basic skills, they will be able to help students cope with particular challenge in some cases. By applying this, the teacher will be using the first key to peace education: a helping and healing relationship. 3.1.2 Human Relations Level The human relations level identifies the classroom as a community defined by relationships between individuals with feelings and needs. Like the human resource frame from Bolman and Deal (1994, 1997), it spotlights the social system of the classroom, the caring interactions necessary between teacher and students, and among students. In an effort to foster an environment of equity, teachers have to be aware about their knowledge of different groups other than their own, and learn as much as possible about these groups. Teachers have to understand that marginalized people have the right to define themselves and their own issues, and have to recognize and strive to meet their distinctive needs. 3.1.3 Political Level The political frame acknowledges the power differentials in the classroom and society, and can work to change them. In this case the teacher will be a helper and a facilitator in teaching, learning, and personality developer of the student. In addition, when I stress the importance of acquiring these skills, I am not devaluing teaching and academic skills, nor disregarding the value of knowledge that the teacher has, but I am trying to show that deficiency in interpersonal and intra-personal skills has a negative effect on teaching and learning. Today it is no longer enough for teachers merely to learn how to be sensitive to diverse students and their cultures; they must possess the habits of transformative practice and change agency (Cochran-Smith, 2004; Freire, 1973; Nieto, 2000; Oakes and Lipton, 2007). 3.2 Administrators’ Leadership Another important figure that plays a role in creating and developing peace education is the principal and stake holders. If they are supportive, involved, and engaged in what is happening,

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all the positive powers of students, teachers, teachers' assistants, and counsellors will be unleashed to their fullest. In this situation, they will be facilitators and managers at the same time. One of the key findings of research carried out on successful leadership in multiethnic schools in England (Walker et al. 2005: 3) was that it is “based on the articulation and implementation of explicit values that promote an agenda of equality, fairness and respect” and that these leaders define their leadership ‘in terms of their commitment to principles of social justice’. Leaders in education may benefit from ‘auditing’ their own views and encouraging and leading their staff to do the same (Begley 2003). Discussing the leadership of multiethnic schools, Shah (2006: 530) draws on the Muslim concept of Adab as a tool for leaders, arguing that this (roughly translated as respect) ‘underpins diverse aspects of relationships, celebrates diversity, supports vulnerability, rejects discrimination (racism!) and promotes innate human dignity’. 3.2.1 Professional development Professional development in the form of training should be inclusive to all who often act as education developers, caregivers, stakeholders, and the gatekeepers who recruit and interview prospective senior staff (Coleman 2005; Coleman and Campbell Stephens 2009). Mentoring is a particularly useful form of professional development. It can be used for supporting individuals who face the additional difficulties of overcoming stereotypes and prejudice. The more that a school or other educational institution has integrated its values into the thinking of staff, students, governors and parents, the easier it will be to ensure that a united front is presented to those who are outside the immediate boundaries. It is particularly important that leadership training includes training for social justice and awareness of diversity issues, stereotyping and discrimination. 3.3 Students’ empowerment Empowerment can be attained by creating awareness at the levels of mental, emotional and social. The common problems experienced by Lebanese children have to do with the unsafe setting of the country itself, physical, mental and social. As for the physical setting, children are interacting with displaced Syrian and Iraqi’s poor general conditions of which hygiene, nutrition, isolation, overcrowding, varied socio-cultural conditions…etc (Frayha, 2012). They are developing a fear of losing some of safety that leads in its turn to anxiety, depression, low mood, low-self esteem and emotional behaviour disorder. As a result they turn out to see the displaced as a threat to their existence and so refusing to accept them as normal children like them. Each of these factors may influence the children in one way or another. The negative effects of the prevalent conditions can be reduced through the holistic integrated program that offers developmental and preventive measures. Thus the provision of adequate prevention and intervention services is both beneficial to the Lebanese children as well as to their peers. To start with, the first thing to do in the provision of intervention program is to apply Maslow’s Pyramid of hierarchy of needs. The most important basic needs for the children are: - Safety, environmental stability and predictability; - Reliable assistance from persons and settings;

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- A sense of being appreciated and cared for, and a desire for relationships that provide emotional sustenance and empathy; - Services that facilitate self-advancement, self-improvement and autonomy. - Privacy and autonomy; - Personal development and respect from others. When these basic needs are satisfied then the next step is moving to the complex needs those that are related to psychological problems. Factors that may account for psychological problems can be due to lack of coping skills and discrimination, or day- to -day stresses. Moreover, continuous exposure to conflict and threatening events may represent a loss of freedom, and loss of social support, fear of the unknown, uncertainty and fear about the future (Fosket & Hemsley-Brown, 2001). A suggested comprehensive prevention program that is characterized by a number of cognitive, behavioral and social activities will create basis for understanding. 3.3.1 Cognitive activities: - Assessing the nature and type of skill deficits in every child. - Increasing the child’s ability to cope with high-risk situations including both interpersonal difficulties and intrapersonal discomfort (such as anger or depression) - Training children to use active behavioral or cognitive coping methods to deal with problems. - Through simulation, children will develop the skill of self-efficacy and be persuaded by the possibility of change. - Teach coping behavior through instruction, modeling, directed practice and feedback. - Teach specific problem-solving strategies. - Elicit from the significant other some important positive aspects and explore how they can work together to overcome the discomfort. 3.3.2 Behavioral and Social Activities: Physical activity constitutes an important factor in creating a culture of acceptance and equity. In fact, physically active people tend to have better mental health than their inactive counterparts. The physically active usually score better in regards to positive self-concept, and self-esteem. Physical activity has also been used to treat mental health problems such as depression (Active Living Research, 2009). Practical ways of enhancing resilience include but not limited to: - Access to sports and fitness facilities - Opportunities to participate in the arts - Opportunities to practice enjoyable and fulfilling use of time, for example involvement in the theatre, arts, music, drama or exercise - Opportunities for socially useful activity, for example through peer support or community involvement etc... 4. Collaboration Thirdly, “what would be the behaviour and attitude of the ‘Other” when all the community lives by these values?” Collaboration between teachers, staff, administrators, families and stakeholders can be grouped into shared core values and respect, proper training, and continued cooperation. Each level depends on and potentiates the other.

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In establishing the program of collaboration we need to be cognizant of what really bothers each group if we are going to develop ways of genuine empathy and caring. We have to be aware about the issues and problems that make individuals anxious, such as lack of justice, equality, security, rights, equal opportunities, survival… Emphasizes in this section is on the social ecological model as a form for collaboration where interaction in relationships have to be between the parents and the surrounding community. The researcher suggests horizontal multilateral rather than vertical approaches to service delivery through creative use of volunteers, paraprofessionals, peer support, and social networks, in addition to professional services. 4.1 Partnership with Parents/Organizations In establishing the program for peace education, we need to be cognizant of what really bothers each group if we are going to develop ways of genuine empathy and caring. We have to be aware about the issues and problems that make individuals anxious, such as lack of justice, equality, security, rights, equal opportunities, survival etc. Families need help in developing parenting skills that will encourage the kind of conditions that promote cooperation and the development of a positive self-concept and acceptance in their children. Parent involvement in developing a culture of peace is an important assistance to school revitalization and individual coexistence, especially when parents are exposed to different psychosocial support programs and learn the necessary skills relevant to today’s conflicting situation. Harris and Goodall (2008: 286) point out that: ‘parental engagement increases with social status, income and parents’ level of education’ and that ‘differential strategies are needed to secure the engagement of a diverse range of parents’ Jeynes (2003) asserts that parental involvement positively affects the academic achievement of minority students, higher test scores, regular school attendance, better social skills and improved behaviour, as well as more positive attitude about school, completed homework assignments, graduation and continued education. If you want your school to be a good and safe place, you must enhance family collaboration. For example Foskett and Hemsley- Brown (1999: 222) identify the fives Cs: ‘consistency, clarity, concern, cooperation and confidence as key components of the interface between the institution and the community’ Parents have to be offered instruction in effective child management techniques to help them with parent-child conflicts. They need assistance in dealing with aggression, developing their children’s self- confidence, improving family communication, and getting their children to assume responsibility. So by increasing parents’ involvement, building collaborative relationships and providing extended services we move towards making revitalization a reality. Possible programs include films, speakers or discussions for parents and guardians on topics such as bullying prevention, identity development, racial experiences, gender expression, sexuality, learning differences and family diversity. A core component of anti-bias education is learning to take action against exclusion, prejudice and discrimination; it can be especially powerful for students to do this in their own schools and local communities. Research shows that when parents are involved students have higher grades, better attendance, increased levels of self-esteem & motivation, decreased use of drugs & alcohol, and fewer instances of violence (Jeynes, W., 2010). When parents come to school regularly, it reinforces the view in the child’s mind that school and home are connected (Horvat, E., Weininger, E., & Lareau, A., 2003).

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Certain steps can be done to establish partnership with parents and the community, if implemented it will lead to involvement that is more parental. These suggestions include: - Finding out about the needs of parents and communities - The second, if you cannot bring parents to you, try to go to them. This will allow the educators to get to know the families, their values expectations, and customs. - A third point is to use positive communication strategies with parents to erase the negative attitude established through experience. - Fourth, the environment of the school has to become a receptive of diverse individuals, comfortable, and encouraging one. Administrators as well as teachers and key players have to create ways for parents to know how to help in order to create an excellent atmosphere for the children. - Implementing these, strategies will take time and might be frustrating when response from parents in the beginning of the implementation of the program might not be up to the intended goals. In this situation, creative ways and insistence on cooperation in a positive and gradual way will lead to change. In general this horizontal cross-training can plant the seeds for the development of awareness, knowledge and appreciation especially if all the working members are receptive to these messages. The triangular relationship established between the parents, staff, NGOs and teachers is the ultimate goal to a just and safe society. 5. Sustainability Fourth question asked in developing the framework for social justice and equity was: “how do we enumerate and evaluate the achieved standards and performance in order to add or delete goals?” The researcher considers four steps to be followed in order to answer this question; implementation of governance, accountability and order, abiding by legislations around the world that stipulate information about dealing with displaced and diverse children and their rights, enhancing partnership with educational organizations and the children’s community and exchanging practices (Brown, 2011; Clark, 2011). The success in delivering all the services needed demands dedicated and well-trained educators, but they in their turn need support and recognition from the administrators. The more this positive environment is maintained the clearer the emotional resilience among children is observed. Cooperation with community agencies is vital to secure continuity of psychosocial support and to facilitate acceptance of diverse children into the school community (Epstein, 2001). Another factor that leads to sustainability of intervention program is to do continuous evaluation of the program in terms of: - Respect of children’s rights - Application of the processes suggested - Quality of care and equity - Continued meetings between parents, professionals and teachers - Quality of the physical and social climate of the child

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6. Summary Lebanese children are the most valuable asset. We have to provide support for their personal, educational and emotional needs, taking into consideration the stress and vicissitudes of life. Offering education for a culture of peace extends beyond techniques of negotiation and conflict resolution, beyond multicultural and anti-racist curricula, even beyond spiritual practice: it is an education for a new, expanded worldview, an evolutionary leap in consciousness. Skills, knowledge, strategies and cooperative community are the key elements for sustaining integrity, multiplicity and social justice in educational organizations. Whether the individual is a teacher, administrator, parent or student there is a need for empowerment, guidance and counselling, support and practice. This paper was intended to offer a framework to help facilitate the important work of promoting equity and social justice for the benefit of the Arab community in general and the Lebanese children in special.

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References Active Living Research (2009). Active education: Physical education, physical activity and academic performance, Research Brief. Retrieved from www.activelivingresearch.org. Bamburg, Jerry D. (1994) . Raising expectations to improve student learning. ERIC document ED 378 290. Begley, P.T. (2003). In pursuit of authentic school leadership practices. in Begley, P.T. and Johansson, O. (Ed.), The Ethical Dimensions of School Leadership (pp. 1-12). Kluwer Academic Press, Dordrecht. Brown, BC. (2011). Conscious leadership for sustainability: How leaders with a late stage action logic design and engage in sustainability initiatives. Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation. Fielding Graduate University, Santa Barbara, CA. (http://integralthinkers.com/wp-content/uploads/Brown_2011_ConsciousLeadership-for-Sustainability_Short-Excerpt1.pdf) . Bolman, L. G. and Deal, T. E. (1994). On Becoming a Teacher-Leader: From isolation to collaboration. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin. Bolman, L. G. and Deal, T. E. (1997). Reframing organizations: Artistry, choice and leadership, 2d edition. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. Clark S., Gilmour, J. (2011) Approach to community cultural development. Cult Loc Governance 3(1–2):59–70 (http://137.122.31.42/ojs-2.2/index.php/clg-cgl) Cochran-Smith, M. (2004). Walking the road: Race, diversity, and social justice in teacher education. New York: Teachers College Press. Coleman, M. (2005). Theories and practice of leadership: An introduction. In m. Coleman, & Early, P. (Ed.), Leadership and management in education: Culture, change and context (pp.6-25). Oxford, England: Oxford University Press. Coleman, M. & Campbell- Stephens, R. (2009). Factors affecting career progress: perceptions of BME deputy and assistant head-teachers from the program investing in diversity, occasional papers in work-based learning. London, ULE Institute of Education. Cuban, L. (2000). Why is it so hard to get good schools? In L. Cuban & D. Shipps (Ed.), Reconstructing the common good in education: Coping with intractable American dilemmas (pp. 148-169). Stanford, CT: Stanford University Press. Cuban, L. (1993). How teachers taught: Constancy and change in American classrooms 1880-1990. New York: Teachers College, Columbia University. Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations (DEEWR) (2009). Belonging, being and becoming. The early years learning framework for Australia. Canberra: DEEWR. Department of Education and Early Childhood Development (DEECD) (2009). Maternal and Childhood Health Program Standards. Melbourne: DEECD. Epstein, J. (2001). School, family, and community partnerships: Preparing educators and improving schools. Westview Press, Boulder, CO. Foskett, N and Hemsley-Brown, J (2001). Choosing futures young people's decision making in education, training and careers markets. Routledge Falmer: London. Frayha, N. (2012). Education as a Means for Building Social Cohesion in Lebanon: An Unfinished Task. In M. Shuayeb, & P. Macmillan, Rethinking Education for Social Cohesion: International Case Studies (pp. 103-113). New York: Palgrave Macmillan. Freire, P. (1998). Learning to question: A pedagogy of liberation. World Council of Churches.

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Freire, P. (1973). Education for critical consciousness. New York: Continuum. Giroux, H. (1991). Toward a postmodern Pedagogy. Section of the Introduction to Postmodernism, Feminism, and cultural Politics. Albany: State University of New York press. Harris, A and Goodall, J. (2008). Do parents know they matter? Engaging all parents in learning. Educational Research, 50(3), 277 – 289. Horvat, E., Weininger, E., & Lareau, A. (2003). From social ties to social capital: Class differences in the relations between schools and parent networks. American Educational Research Journal, 40(2), 319-351. Jeynes, W. (2003). A Meta-Analysis: The effects of parental involvement on minority children’s academic achievement. Education and Urban Society, 35 (2), 202-218. Jeynes, W. (2010a). Parental involvement and children’s academic achievement. New York, NY: Taylor & Francis. Kuh, G. D. (2005). Student engagement in the fFirst year of college. In Challenging and Supporting the First-Year Student: A Handbook for Improving the First Year of College, edited by M. L. Upcraft, J. N. Gardner, and B. O. Barefoot, 86-107. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. Nahas, C. (2009). Financing and political economy of higher education in Lebanon. Beirut: Economic Research Forum. Nieto, S. (2004). Affirming diversity: The socio-political context of multicultural education. New York, NY: Longman. Norcross, J.C. & Grencavage, L. (1989). Eclecticism and integration in counseling and psychotherapy: major themes and obstacles. British Journal of Guidance and Counseling, 17(3), 227-243. Oakes, J, and Lipton, M. (2007). Teaching to Change the World. McGraw-Hill, Inc. Palmer, p., & Zajon, A. (2010). The heart of higher education: a call to renewal. San Francisco CA: Jossey-Bass. Quaye, S. J., & Harper, S. R. (2007). Faculty accountability for culturally inclusive pedagogy and curricula. Liberal Education, 93(3), 32-39. Shah, S. (2006) Leading Multicultural Schools: A Concept of Adab for Managing Diversity; pp 439-56; in J. K. Richards (ed) International Perspectives on Education and Training. ATINER. The World Bank. (2013). The Annual Report 2013. Washington, DC: The World Bank. UNESCO. (2009). Student Affairs and Services in Higher Education: Global Foundations, Issues and Best Practices. Paris: UNESCO. Walker, A. dimmock, C. Stevenson, H., Bingold, B., Shah, S. and Middlewood, D. (2005). Effective leadership in multi-ethnic schools. National College for School Leadership. Retrieved from: http://www.ncsl.org.uk/media-7a6-59-effective-leadership-in-multiethnicschools.pdf. Opening image credit: Flickr Creative Commons/Michael_Swan

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Reevaluating the Relationship between Millennial Students, their Parents, and Professors When Teaching a Study-Abroad Course: Searching for More Success

By J. McClanahan, Creighton University, USA Abstract When the new millennium approached, educators looked toward the 21st century with either excitement or concern. As a perfect time for self-reflection, many universities and colleges began to pay attention to a new generation of students that began arriving on campuses in 2000. Since then, much of the research has focused on identifying their distinctiveness, how they develop, and their overall impact on campus life. Yet, what do the curiosities of this generation of students mean for foreign language learners; and in particular, for students who plan to study abroad? As campuses across the country continue to globalize their curriculum, how can professors help these students learn and make the most of international educational opportunities? Known for being naturally global in their thinking, this generation exhibits various attributes that are ideally suited for study abroad. Therefore, this paper focuses on how we turn perceived challenges of the millennial student population into benefits in the context of international educational experiences, specifically looking at how family plays an important component in the encounter. It is often said that parents of this generation are an obstacle to professors and campus personnel in their academic endeavors. But upon reflection, I believe this may not be true; and as such, I will examine how faculty can best utilize this perceived difficulty to reveal how, in fact, parents can serve as a real asset and viability to the success of a study abroad program. Keywords: millennial students, study abroad, family-educator relationships

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Introduction As the magical year 2000 approached, many university educators anticipated the new century with either excitement or trepidation. In this environment of self-reflection, universities and colleges across the nation began to pay attention to the new generation of students that began arriving on campuses in 2000. Reasoning for much of this interest stems from census data indicating that this generation will be the largest (U.S. Census Bureau, Jan. 2000). Even though the generation is going on fourteen years, much of the research still focuses on identifying their distinctiveness, how they develop, and their impact on campus life. It is only recently that researchers have started to examine the relationship between these students and how they learn. Yet, what does this generation of students mean for foreign language learners, and in particular, for students who study abroad? As campuses across the country continue to globalize their curriculum in new and different ways, how can we best help these students learn and make the most of international educational opportunities for universities and colleges? Inherently global and multicultural in their thinking, this generation exhibits various attributes that are ideally suited for study abroad, and as a result of this; faculty and administrators examine these questions of implications for type of study. Therefore, the focus here is on how faculty can turn the challenges of the millennial student population into benefits in the context of international educational experiences, specifically looking at the role family plays in the overall success of the student in the program. Often, the parents of this generation have been characterized as an obstacle to professors and campus personnel in their academic endeavors. As such, this paper examines how faculty can best utilize this perceived difficulty to reveal how, in fact, parents can serve as a real asset and viability to the success of a study abroad program. Who are they? Characteristics of the Millennial Generation One of the primary challenges for educators is to understand the unique characteristics of these students. Often referred to as the “Y Generation” or “Generation Next”, the identifying name that has come to dominate these students is the Millennial Generation or Millennial students. Neil Howe and William Strauss in their pioneering studies that began in the 1990’s sought to categorize the special qualities that these incoming college students possess when they reached college campuses as we entered into the new millennium. In their research they discovered seven distinct traits that distinguish them from previous generations. First, they are described as special. As a group, their parents and society have instilled in them that they are vitally important both personally and to the nation. This specialness also had led these students to have high expectations of themselves and those around them, which in some cases has been perceived as entitlement. They have constant need for feedback, reinforcement, and structure. Even so, these students feel that they have a sense of purpose because of the increased amount of attention that has been given to them. Secondly, they are sheltered. As a nation, the United States began in the 1980’s to implement a series of new laws intended to protect children, creating the most wide-ranging safety movement in America’s history and fashioning an environment where the defense of children is commonplace. From “baby on board” window decals and “child-proof” caps on over-the-counter medications to amber alerts, the amount of regulatory legislation has created an environment of protection for the nation’s children. Moreover, these students are confident. Having solid relationships with their parents and high levels of optimism and trust, this generation often equates good news about themselves with their country. They are aware of their place in the nation and their perceived power and potential within it. Even so, they take fewer intellectual risks because a fear of failure. Also, they are team-oriented. As a result of team sports (soccer, football, volleyball, etc.) and a focus

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on group learning in schools, this generation has developed strong team instincts and bonds closely with their peers. As politics determined and attempted to reform educational policies throughout their lives, these students have become achievers. They have defined goals and believe that their potential has no limits. As a whole, they are anticipated to be the mosteducated and well-mannered generation in the history of the United States. As a result of their desire to be the “best of the best,” these students are pressured. They endeavor to take full advantage of the opportunities that adults have provided for them, and therefore, they are pushed to study hard and avoid personal risk. They feel an undercurrent of pressure to excel in all that they do, and they want to do it all. This push is evident in the number of students that faculty and staff advise who have two or three majors, with a list of minors, extra-curricular activities, and sports. Lastly, this generation is conventional. This is conventional not conservative. These students take pride in their improved behavior and are more at ease with their parents’ values than any previous generation. They support convention or the notion that social rules can and will help the greater whole (Howe and Strauss, 1997, 2007). All told, these students possess qualities that at the onset may appear to be overwhelming or “high maintenance.” Yet, these traits also reveal a determined and purposeful group of individuals, who, at the core, have attributes that are desirable to many members of the faculty. Millenials and their Professors Now, fourteen years into having the millennial generation on campuses, their characteristics are established and well defined. While the millennial students began arriving on campus in 2000, the majority of the university and college professors teaching in campuses across the nation belong to another generation, and as such, they possess different qualities that can come into conflict with these new students. The greater part of these professors belongs to the Boomers or Gen Xers (Debard, 39). Therefore, the priorities and how the professors view areas such as education, careers, or parent-child involvement vary noticeably from that of their students. Whereas the Boomers desire to have freedom of expression in education, want to build a stellar career, and demonstrate a receding relationship with children; the Gen Xers have a pragmatic view of education, aspire for portability in their careers, and have a somewhat distant relationship with parents. It is against this background that the Boomers and Gen Xers meet the Millennials, who need structure of accountability in education, wish to build parallel careers, and have ever-present parents (Debard, 40). As we can see, the views are at times opposing and conflictive. Consequently, educators need to be able to step out of the comfort of their generational perspectives and be very cognizant of these students’ characteristics and views when planning for and developing programs for non-traditional learning opportunities. Recognizing these differences is a key point when thinking or rethinking about how one can develop diverse areas for learning while on or off campus. Universities and the Millennials As previously mentioned, when this generation of student began arriving on campus, faculty, individuals in charge of student life, resident life, and within the educational administration earnestly took note. Faculty had to start addressing these students in a different way and offer them with a new notion of what the university or college experience could be. The idea of “onestop shopping” became a call to universities as they moved at recruiting this generation of students and their parents. This concept provided a framework by which everyone involved with students could seek out new patterns of thinking about the college experience. No longer do we only talk about our outstanding curriculum and faculty. It is necessary to accentuate the positive in all aspects of university life: from Residence living in community to broad

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technological advances available and from internships to intermural sports, academic clubs, and international educational opportunities. Even though this new attention to the university experience appears to draw away from the fundamental educational underpinning by which we have built our institutions, the reality is that if we approach it from a new perspective, we are able to see how they can add to it. Now, study abroad experience can take on a new significance and appeal to the students and their parents as another opportunity to learn. Both are not merely satisfied now with just a stellar education. Students need to have a variety of “experiences” during their time at university or college, which can translate into “marketable skills.” This notion of marketable skills, borrowing beneficially or not from the business world opens the door for faculty and staff to rethink the different manners that we can maximize education, which is the ultimate goal for all students. Moreover, this idea of garnering multiple benefits from a singular task appeals to both parents and students alike. Due to the continually rising costs of attending university or college, the investment in higher education is real and respected. Therefore, parents and students alike are trying to acquire more out of the university experience, and they have pushed universities to start offering more opportunities, if they want the tuition dollars or enrollments to continue. For this reason, when one thinks about teaching millennials, there is another set of parameters to take into account when looking at study abroad, especially if they are faculty directed or lead. Millennials and Learning Not only do millennial students exhibit unique characteristics in their lives, how they learn prompts faculty to reflect more on their approach to teaching in general and study abroad in particular. Robert Debard points out that “millennials are likely to invest themselves to meet high and clear expectations” (65). Linda Sax furthers this sentiment by stating that these “students, who have achieved academic success with relatively little effort [early on in their education], may have unrealistic expectations about what is necessary to be academically successful in college” (16). These two sides of expectations – rising to meet them and unrealistic in nature – require careful consideration by educators to create and foster new learning skills by a student population that already believes itself to be in an elite, unique group. This notion is especially important when these students are confronted with an unfamiliar environment or country, such as in the case of study abroad. The harsh reality of not knowing “everything” hits hard and produces wide-ranging new challenges for this generation of students. Therefore, in order to address these high expectations, as educators we have to rethink how we can engage students and their families in new ways which will allow the opportunity to gain a sense of accomplishment and purpose through study abroad. Whether it is about learning a different language or becoming absorbed into the new cultural encounters, their expectations about study abroad differ greatly. As such, they come individually and collectively to these new experiences with distinct, personal objectives. Their goals may be geared toward language fluency or cultural competency; and as a result of this variety, these students offer opportunities and challenges for the learning environment. Studying in a “foreign” location produces a new set of learning parameters, which can play into or against the high expectations of the millennials. The focus of the educator is to underscore the benefits that overshadow the problems. One way to accentuate these advantages of these students is in how we incorporate their families into the mix By creating new ways of connecting with the curriculum to the student and their families, professors can now allow students to be address some of the

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insecurities that their learning styles present, and we are now able to tackle their previous perceptions or misconceptions in a beneficial manner. Taking advantage of being in a new locale where students have not been previously, their academic framework for learning can be adapted to link them with the new material. Moreover, students can have equal baseline for learning. Parents and Millennials While there are many aspects of this generation of students that deserve attention, the role that parents and families play in the study abroad experience is crucial. More specifically, how faculty can take the perceived difficulties of parent’s involvement and turn them into benefits becomes even more necessary. The direction that professors take to involve the parents of a millennial student needs to be more comprehensive. From the onset of recruiting, through the pre-departure preparations, and during the actual study abroad experience and the return home, all represent areas where faculty needs to reticent of their role and how to include parents. Along with a new generation of students, faculty and universities have to deal with a new generation of parents as well. They have been traditionally referred to as “helicopter parents”, a term coined by Cline and Foster in 1990. They are seen as hovering or over-parenting. These parents are involved at every stage of the educational process, including many of the decisionmaking steps. They are often considered as “micro-managers” and believe that because they “have done it before” they know better. Yet Roiphe points out that helicopter parenting is not the product of "bad or pathetic people with deranged values. [...] It is not necessarily a sign of parents who are ridiculous or unhappy or nastily controlling. It can be a product of good intentions gone awry, the play of culture on natural parental fears." Remembering on how the government has played a role in this new role of parenting by instituting a series of new laws and regulations that has resulted in the society “over protecting” this new generation of students, it is not a far leap to see how partents, raised in that context, possess these characteristics. As such, the need to get the parents “on-board” for a study abroad experience is paramount. Involving them from the onset provides opportunity for faculty to gain a strong support from one of the most important factors in the student’s life. Moreover, it is the parents who often pay for the education of the students, and as such, it is important that faculty include the parents from the beginning of the process. As with many “millennial parents”, it is necessary to underscore the value of this type of educational experience. The incarnations of that a study abroad experience can vary greatly depending on the university and the focus it has. Yet, each of them can provide new prospects for students (and their parents) who are looking to broaden their academics. Moreover, the variety of skills that a student can take away from an experience abroad reaches beyond the traditional academic realm. Therefore, faculty should maximize the value for both parents and students as they begin the recruitment process. Additionally, the application in the recruitment process has to include the parents. When recruiting or conducting interviews for a study-abroad course, two of the key questions in the application should be: “Have you talked with your parents about this educational experience?” and “Do you have the support of your parents for this program?” Moreover, it is important to continually remind students to share the information with their parent. By doing this, professors have the opportunity to involve the parents sooner, which will aid in the students having a positive outcome from it.

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After completing the recruitment and acceptance phase, the pre-departure of the process begins. In this stage, we are preparing students prior to leaving the US for their study-abroad experience. Here, as in every other stage of the overall encounter, parents need to be a part. Like their children, many parents have engaged technology as a means of information and communication. As such, faculty must be willing to adapt. By incorporating many free, available technologies, faculty can create platforms to reach out to parents and inform them. Knowing that they will want to be involved in most aspects of their student’s lives, having access to information is comforting and indispensable at the same time. Currently, it is not required that faculty be computer programmers in order to create websites, blogs, or listserves. Whether through a Google account sponsored website or free online blog, we are now able to create new ways of communicating and keeping informed parents of these students.

Here, the very basic website provides information for parents so that they will be informed about what the student is learning and doing while abroad. And subsequently, they will be able to support their children and the faculty through the study abroad course. As these parents are continually connected to their children more than at any time previously, the mere act of including them into the communication circle allows what was once believed an intrusive parent into an active partner in education. By providing additional information through an electronic medium, faculty can assure parents (and students), given the “foreign� nature of this educational experience. A simple blog can further grant access to information, which can be viewed by participants and parents alike.

Like a website, the course or study-abroad blog offers the opportunity for faculty to communicate to both students and their parents. Moreover, it provides professors the chance

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to control information that is released and when. In turn, everyone is provided with the same information at the same time. As much as we would like students to give their parents up-todate and complete information from pre-departure, informational meetings, or about what a student is learning while abroad, every faculty member understands that sometimes the best intentions are not always followed through. Therefore, a simple, informative blog can allow access to information and create a space for dialogue with parents (and students). This additional method of communication allows for a new collaboration with parents and students at the same time, and it can relieve a lot of the stresses found in a learning environment that can often is “flexible” and reducing the anxiety of the millennial’s desire for a structured learning space. Further still, the information is current and timely. In order for a study-abroad program to continue to be successful, there needs to be reflection by the teaching faculty about the successes and the areas where improvements can be made. Here again, parents can help. By changing our perceptions about millennial parents and their role in the education of their children through study abroad offers faculty the chance to have a more positive, ongoing experience. While student evaluations have long been a standard for teaching, now, technology permits professors to extend to parents the chance to provide feedback as well. While it may not be traditional for faculty to reach out to parents in this way, I believe we are able to garner a lot of valuable information about how we best provide such an outstanding international experience to our students, especially when we think about the preparation we provide them. The questions can illicit information in the areas where the parent is most present: access to information (before and during), understanding about the mission of the experience, and the value that study-abroad has in the lives of their children. Conclusions As Higher Education becomes more competitive and resources are continually reduced or limited, professors and universities need to support and offer educational opportunities for the student population. Study-abroad has long been regarded a valuable gem in education. Yet, it is important to adapt and change how we conduct these international educational experiences. How we engage the new generation of students that have been arriving on our campus requires a new way of thinking about how we teach them and through what mediums, and even more important, the need to include the family of the student in the “extended” experiences. Taking this into consideration, the role that parents play in study-abroad becomes incredibly important. Encourage students to engage their parents in the mix before leaving and updating them through their time abroad. Professors can aid in and make the sharing more appreciated if they can reach out through current technologies to extend their modes of communication. Remembering what role parents can play in the lives of this generation of students, it is necessary to take this into consideration when taking a group of students abroad. Also, we are able to take was appears to be intangible – education – and make it more tangible by demonstrating how this experience has a true academic value. Including the parents in the communication cycle can do this. Leaving them to hear about it tangentially through their children is really leaving it up to chance. We need to be purposeful and direct in underscoring the inherent worth of study abroad, especially if it is a faculty-lead program. Furthermore, we are able to highlight the practical applications and skills that students are continually acquiring through their time in a different learning environment. Again, we cannot leave to chance the opportunity to share this information. It is essential that faculty actively communicate to students and their family the significance of what the students are doing.

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All told, the millenials as a generation provide the opportunity for revitalization and reexamination of study abroad. As professors, we can now take advantage of an inadvertent fortune. This new generation of students (and their parents) possesses the raw material by which we can continue to strengthen and build and enhance our programs of study. Their unique characteristics present challenges and opportunities, and as reflective educators, we are able to capitalize on this moment by mining these students’ inherent connectedness to the world in which they live, their desire to be part of a larger community, and a desire to learn. We understand that one of the overriding goals in higher education is fostering the growth of the whole student, and by tapping into their distinctive traits as a generation, educators who take students abroad are uniquely situated to benefit from these interests.

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References Carney Strange, C. (2004). “Constuctions of Student Development Across the Generations.” In Coomes, Michael D, and Robert DeBard. Serving the Millennial Generation. New directions for student services, no. 106. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. pp. 47-57. Cline, Foster W.; Fay, Jim (1990). Parenting with Love and Logic: Teaching Children Responsibility. Colorado Springs: Pinon Press. pp. 23–25. Coomes, Michael D, and Robert DeBard. (2004). Serving the Millennial Generation. New directions for student services, no. 106. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. Cress, C.M., and Sax, Linda. (1998). “Campus climate Issues to Consider for the Next Decade.” In K.W.Bauer (ed.), Campus Climate: Understanding the Critical components of Today’s Colleges and Universities. New Directions for Institutional Research, no. 98. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. Debard, Robert. (2004). “Millenials Coming to College.” Coomes, Michael D, and Robert DeBard. Serving the Millennial Generation. New directions for student services, no. 106. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. Howe, Timothy and William Strauss. (1997). Generations: The History of America's Future, 1584 to 2069. New York: Harper Perennial. -----. Millennials go to college. 2nd ed. (2007). New York: Life Course Associates. -----. Millenials Rising. The Next Great Generation. (2000). New York: Vintage. Jacobson, J. (2003, July 18) “Help Not Wanted.” Chronicle of Higher Education. pp. A27–A28. Projected Population of the United States, by Age and Sex: 2000 to 2050. (2004) Washington, D.C.: U.S. Bureau of the Census,. Retrieved Sep. 15, 2010, from http://www.census.gov/population/www/projections/usinterimproj. Roiphe, Katie (July 31, 2012). "The Seven Myths of Helicopter Parenting" (http:/ / www. slate. com/ articles/ double_x/ roiphe/ 2012/ 07/ madeline_levine_s_teach_your_children_well_we_are_all_helicopter_parents. html). Slate. Retrieved August 1, 2012. Sax, Linda J. (2003). “Our Incoming Students: What Are They Like?” About Campus, 8(3), pp. 15-20. Opening image credit: Flickr Creative Commons/John Walker

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The Wolf in Sheep’s Clothing: The Continuing Accountability Discourse In Education

By Yvonne Masters, University of New England, Australia Abstract The Australian government has, for some time, shone a strong spotlight on education and teacher quality. This has particularly resulted from literacy and numeracy results slipping over the last few years in the OECD’s Programme for International Student Assessment measures of student performance. Such performance and teacher quality become inextricably linked and, almost inevitably, education is the subject of reform. In this paper, the author analyses the competing discourses of a recent government campaign for ‘better’ schools and improved teacher quality. The campaign examined is the 2012 Commonwealth Government campaign, launched through various media, officially known as the National School Improvement Plan, but promoted as “Better Schools for Australia”. Here, the discourse of inclusive opportunity is set against that of economic rationalism. The discussion of the government campaign is firstly grounded in the literature of contesting views of the purposes of education and the ways in which the campaign contains elements of several discourses. The author demonstrates how the economic and accountability discourses dominate and deflate the other discourses of need and inclusion. The paper is concluded with a discussion of what these prevailing discourses mean for teachers and pre-service teachers and how teachers and their teaching are being positioned by the accountability discourse. Keywords: purposes of education, teacher quality, accountability, discourse analysis

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Introduction In Australia, as elsewhere around the globe, education is a highly contested arena, discussed within the discourses of accountability and quality. It has been the subject of numerous government reports and funding initiatives designed to address the issue of teacher quality (Bradley, Noonan, Nugent, & Scales, 2008; Council of Australian Governments, 2009; Department of Education Employment and Work Relations, 2010; House of Representatives Standing Committee on Education and Vocational Training, 2007; Skilbeck & Connell, 2004). More recently, extensive, and at times heated, debate has occurred after the publication of the “Great Teaching, Inspired Learning” document in New South Wales (New South Wales Government, 2013) and the promotion of the National Plan for School Improvement, or “Better Schools for Australia”, through the Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations on behalf of the Australian Government (Australian Government, 2013). A large component of the debate arises from competing discourses regarding the purpose of education. An analysis of the Better Schools for Australia campaign reveals that there are competing discourses: that of economic rationalism against the discourse of inclusive opportunity. In this paper, there is a discussion of how these discourses are subtly nuanced in the text of the television advertisements and they are also juxtaposed against differing views of the purpose of education. Better Schools for Australia In 2013 the Australian Government began a campaign to promote a new education initiative, the National Plan for School Improvement. It did this through a range of media including television, print media and public fact sheets. The initiative was to commence in 2014 and, by 26 July 2013 the government had expended $2,648.171.30 on the production of campaign material and a further $10,390,091.86 was paid to commercial companies to air the advertisements (Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations [DEEWR], 2013). In total, there were eight television commercials (each with a perspective from different characters), four print advertisements and four fact sheets. In the print advertisements, each provides a selected quotation from one of the television advertisements, but all give details as to why this new initiative was introduced and what it would deliver. The latter is far ranging and reflects a discourse of opportunity. It promises to deliver: ∗ “Ongoing teacher training; ∗ A national curriculum; ∗ Fairer funding for Australian school students” (Australian Government, 2013). Very few would argue that there is a need for equitable funding for education and also ongoing teacher training to meet the demands of a changing world. In contrast to the discourse of what is to be delivered, the reasons for the introduction of this initiative reflect competing discourses. The same print advertisement describes the reasons for its introduction as: ∗ “Australia’s international results have dropped from 2nd to 7th in reading and 5th to 13th in maths over the last decade;

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∗ By Year 9, disadvantaged students are over two years behind their peers; ∗ The number of high performing students has dropped by 5% in reading literacy over the last decade (Australian Government, 2013). Here there is a tension between the discourses of performance (with implications that will be discussed later) and disadvantage. It is noteworthy that all advertisements and fact sheets describe the main purpose of Better Schools for Australia is to improve the education system either with the tag line “to take Australian schools into the top five countries in the world by 2025” or a statement that it will “will help to give Australian kids a world class education” (Australian Government, 2013). Purposes of Education In 1897 Dewey wrote that education is “a process of living and not a preparation for future living” (p.80). His writings on education were to become staples of philosophy of education units in many teacher education programs. However, the purposes of education have been intensely debated with no consensus being reached. Murphy and Gale (2004) argue that there are “parallel discourses of ‘human capital’ and ‘social and cultural capital’” (p. 3). The former relates to terms such as ‘performance’ and ‘competence’ and provides “a view that implies a direct and singular connection between quality teaching learning, student achievement and labour market outcomes (Murphy & Gale, 2004, p.3). In contrast, they argue that “discourses of ‘social and cultural capital’ are characterised by issues of ‘difference’, ‘equity’ and ‘social justice’ (Murphy & Gale, 2004, p. 4). Arising from this argument, for the purposes of this discussion, a framework of three main educational purposes has been adopted. Firstly, there is what Gillies (2011) discusses as the development of human capital wherein “the more and better education that individuals possess, the better their returns in financial rewards and the better the national economy flourishes” (p. 225). He sounds a warning about this purpose of education because: there is a risk of education being narrowed to economic goals, of the broader aims and purposes of education being submerged, and of the person being reduced merely to ‘human capital’, not as a life to be lived, but as mere economic potential to be exploited (Gillies, 2011, p. 225) . Biesta (2009) also refers to this function of education as one of ‘qualification’ which is: connected to economic arguments … an important rationale [that] can be seen in ongoing discussions … about the apparent failure of education to provide adequate preparation for work (p.40). It is this purpose that frequently seems to dominate government discussions of education, at the expense of two other purposes. Biesta (2009) describes two other important purposes of education. The first of these is ‘socialisation’, the “ways in which, through education, we become members of and part of particular social, cultural and political ‘orders’” (p. 40). Plato would have subscribed to this view of education with his statement that the individual should be subordinate to a just state (Plato, 1955). The other purpose is ‘individuation’ or ‘subjectification’ where education provides “processes . . . that allow those being educated to become more autonomous and

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independent in their thinking and acting” (p. 40). Kennedy (2014) extends the discussion of the difference between the two in her explanation that socialisation positions those being educated as ““novice” members of society who need to be inculcated into the culture and practices of that particular society” (p. 2) and subjectification as positioning students as “individual members of society whose interests and talents should be fostered and encouraged with the express intention of fostering independence and creativity” (p. 2). With this framework as an underpinning for analysis of the discourses of the better Schools for Australia campaign, attention is now turned to five television advertisements as examples. Discourses of the Better Schools Plan The eight television advertisements are each scripted to promote the view that many different groups of people understand that there are advantages to the new initiative. Seven of the advertisements are spoken from the point of view of different characters: a mother, a student, a teacher, a grandfather, a youth worker, a builder and an economist. The eighth advertisement was used as the launch and contained brief quotes from several of these characters. All of the advertisements have a similar thrust in terms of the tag lines already mentioned: “to take Australian schools into the top five countries in the world by 2025” or “will help to give Australian kids a world class education” (Australian Government, 2013). In this section of the paper, the specific scripts of five of the characters, the economist, the builder, the student, the grandfather and the social worker are examined. It is important to note that these are scripts for actors rather than the spontaneous response of real people and, as such, these scripts cast light on the government’s underlying views of the purpose of education. Sections of the scripts in italics and different colours are there for the purpose of exposition and are not in the original. The first script is that attributed to Karl, an economist, who argues that: to me, nothing is more important to our country than education. To stay economically competitive we need a well-educated population. We've already got good schools and teachers but we've got to keep pushing to get our literacy, numeracy and science scores back amongst the world's best (Australian Government, 2013). Here, the voice of economic rationalism speaks loudly, perhaps to be expected from an economist’s point of view. Education here falls clearly into the rhetoric of the first purpose described in the framework, the development of human capital. There is no reference to education having any individual purpose, but is rather a description of education as providing national good such that the country can be economically competitive. Even in the comment about raising literacy and numeracy scores the rhetoric is about competitiveness, being amongst the world's best, whilst not referring to the other aspect of human capital development described by Gillies (2011) as providing better educated people with “better … returns in financial rewards” (p. 225). Along similar lines is the script for Darren, a builder. Darren is concerned about business getting ahead and having ‘job-ready’ employees. He explains that:

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I'm a builder. This job's not just about banging nails in. I need apprentices who are able to measure, calculate, read plans - people who can think on their feet. Lifting education standards will help make well-rounded employees - people who can think on their feet and that's got to be good for all businesses, big and small. A strong education system is not just important, it's a must for my business. Darren is discussing the need for educated employees so that not only his own business, but all businesses can grow and prosper. Certainly it is important that employees can meet the requirements of the jobs that they hold, and this links with subjectification loosely as it must be assumed that the employee wishes to improve his or herself, but the underlying discourse is still economic and gaining a necessary qualification. Turning our attention to the script for a student, Adam, he states that: my mum reckons, there's nothing more important than an education. What I reckon is, if I get a good education, I'm more likely to get a good job, and do something I really love. And, if I get a great education, who knows. At this stage, I don't really know what I want to be, but I really want the chance to be whatever that is (Australian Government, 2013). In this script, two purposes are at play. Adam reveals the development of human capital approach to education: I’m more likely to get a good job. At a time of high youth unemployment and uncertainty about the youth job future this is a common comment from many students in schools. While playing into the economic rationalism rhetoric, it is certainly a very real comment. Adam’s other comments move out of the human capital paradigm and into that of subjectification. In his statement regarding doing something I really love and, while not yet knowing what future he wants, he really want[s] to be whatever that is, we can see at work what Kennedy (20140 has described as Adam being “individual members of society whose interests and talents should be fostered and encouraged with the express intention of fostering independence and creativity” (p. 2). While the dominant discourse of the economist is still apparent, it is subservient in this script to a more individual purpose to education. Peter, who purports to be Adam’s grandfather, has the fourth script for discussion. Peter states that: for me, there's nothing more important than my grandchildren's education. It's more important now than when I went to school. Nowadays, we have got all this global technology. If things happen as fast as they have in the last 50 years, we have to work smarter. The National Plan for School Improvement means children will have a better opportunity to get a great education for the world they'll live in tomorrow. In this script we see the only instance of what might be considered the socialisation purpose of education. Here, peter is describing how his grandchildren will need to have a good education to fit into the world they’ll live in tomorrow. This script begins to touch on how students can be assisted to fit into the society of which they are a part through their education. The fifth script considered here is one that can be argued is more problematic. It is that of Rebecca, a youth worker.

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As a community youth worker, I believe nothing is more important than education. I see the cycle of disadvantage every day and I believe a great education has the power to change lives. From what I know, the National Plan for School Improvement will fund schools based on the needs of students so kids who need extra support, get extra support, giving them a better chance to finish school and get a great job. If we put opportunity in front of our kids through a stronger education system, we grow stronger as a country (Australian Government, 2013). Here, the discourse of inclusivity and disadvantage is strong at the start. Rebecca argues the cycle of disadvantage, the needs of students and imbues education with the power to change lives. In all of the advertisements, this script most closely argues the subjectification purpose of education. However, Rebecca is then scripted to move from this discourse into the government’s dominant discourse of national growth and economic rationalism. While it could be argued that stating the initiative will permit the disadvantaged to get a great job, the linking of this statement with the statement that an opportunity for education will allow us to grow stronger as a country deflates the former argument. Each of the scripts considered here has a slightly different approach to what the purpose of education might be. However, when coupled with the tag lines already mentioned and also with the reasons for the initiative, explained in an earlier section, the strong discourse is that of economic rationalism and development of human capital. This has been re-stated in a recent media release (Phillips & Walters, 2014) where, discussing recently released statistics on Australia’s poor world position across six measures in science, technology, engineering and mathematics, the journalists state is important because “science and innovation boost our standard of living and contribute to economic growth and jobs”. The economic imperative is still being promoted in the media. Discussion of Australia’s results in comparison to the rest of the world, one of the reasons publicly stated for the introduction of the Better Schools for Australia initiative, falls squarely into the development of human capital agenda for education. Kennedy (2014) explains how: the human capital function is evident in the way in which international measures of student achievement are used as proxy measurements for the success of individual nation states’ education systems (and by implication, the success of their teachers) and therefore are seen to be measures of the human capital produced by these countries (p. 2). While this discourse positions schools and funding arrangements, and by corollary, students in particular ways, it is also a discourse that positions teachers and pre-service teachers in important, and contestable, ways. This positioning is the subject of the next section. Teacher and Teacher Education in the Accountability Era For decades, debates and decisions about teacher education have been permeated with discourses of accountability and quality. While few would argue against the need for teachers

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both to be accountable and to be quality educators, the positioning of teachers within the profession is being subtly refashioned by the development of professional teaching standards that define what it means to be a quality teacher. However, the calls for greater accountability and better quality have emerged as the result of performance on international measures such as the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) (Australian Government, 2013; New South Wales Government, 2013). These calls have resulted in professional teaching standards which purport to describe what it means to be a quality teacher (Australian Institute for Teaching and School Leadership [AITSL], 2011) as well as new measures for accreditation of teacher education programs. Conway and Murphy (2013), writing about ireland while acknowledging the global trend, refer to this coupling of a range of accountability issues with measures of perfomance as a “rising tide meeting a perfect storm” (p. 11) and they argue that this is part of a global education reform with its “with its new emphasis on standardisation, a narrow focus on literacy and numeracy and a reconfiguration from low/moderate to high-stakes accountability (p. 29). Kennedy (2014) describes how teachers are positioned in the accountability milieu by drawing on the same framework of the purposes of education as previously described (p. 3). She argues that teachers can be positioned as “‘novice’ members of the profession who need to be inculcated into the existing culture and practices of the profession, and thereafter help to maintain the status quo” (socialisation) or “state functionaries who will enable students to enhance the standing of the country through increased success in international league tables of performance” (development of human capital) or “autonomous educators who can contribute to the common good through the fostering of their own specific interests and talents in creative ways” (p. 3). It can be argued that professional teaching standards promote one view of what it means to be a quality teacher, a view that can be argued as technicist in its approach. Ryan and Bourke (2012) further argue that “bureaucratic, hierarchical and managerial controls replace cultures of collaboration; there are competencies and licensing rather than trust” (p. 2). In the race to prove that teachers and teacher education are accountable to the public and to the government, there is the possibility that the questions of being accountable to whom, for what and why could be ignored. One of the unfortunate aspects of professional teaching standards is that, given their claim to ensure quality, there will be no critique of what quality might mean. Is it quality to ensure that the devilment of human capital occurs so that a nation can be seen as ‘better’ than others in measures of particular subject areas? Is it quality to have all teachers subscribing to a ‘one size fits all’ view of what a quality teacher is? Sachs (2003) states that: while any attempt to develop a ‘one size fits all’ version of standards may be attractive to governments, it may not be in the best interests of teachers teaching in remote areas, in difficult schools, or in multi-age settings where their competence will be judged on the basis of some idealized notion of what competent or excellent teaching might be (p. 185). It is clear that there needs to be sound critique of the discourses of education, teacher quality and accountability. Conclusion It is clear, both from an examination of the rhetoric of the Better Schools for Australia campaign and from the current literature that the dominant discourse for education is one of

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economic rationalism and the standardisation of what it means to be a teacher. However, there is a long history of opposing views as to what the purposes of education are/should be. The discussion seems to be encapsulated in the framework of three distinct purposes as outlined in this paper. Plato (1955) would espouse the socialisation view of education. Many governments are less philosophical, but would probably agree with Plato providing that the economic rationalist view, the development of human capital, was also dominant. However, many teachers and educational researchers are questioing this view of education, preferring to look to the ways in which the individual can achieve self-actualization. It seems, in the current climate, that discussions about the purposes of education and what quality education might be is at an impasse. It is suggested here that one possible way forward is global collaborative research into the how the purposes of education can be melded. It is not suggested that there is only one purpose: indeed, there is an constant interplay between competing purposes. However, it is imperative that there not be one dominant discourse, one that looks only to the economic good of the nation.

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References Australian Government. (2013). The National Plan for School Improvement. Capital Hill, Canberra: Australian Government. Australian Institute for Teaching and School Leadership [AITSL]. (2011). Australian Professional Standards for Teachers. Canberra: Education Services Australia Biesta, G. (2009). Good education in an age of measurement: on the need to reconnect with the question of purpose in education. Educational Assessment, Evaluation and Accountability, 21(1), 33 - 46. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11092-008-9064-9. Bradley, D., Noonan, P., Nugent, H., & Scales, B. (2008). Review of Australian Higher Education discussion paper. Canberra: Department of Education Science and Technology. Conway, P. F., & Murphy, R. (2013). A rising tide meets a perfect storm: new accountabilities in teaching and teacher education in Ireland. Irish Educational Studies, 32(1), 11-36. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/03323315.2013.773227. Council of Australian Governments. (2009). National Partnership Agreement on Improving Teacher Quality. Canberra: Commonwealth of Australia. Department of Education Employment and Work Relations. (2010). Building the Education Revolution. Retrieved 3 June 2011, from http://www.deewr.gov.au/Schooling/BuildingTheEducationRevolution/Pages/default.asp x. Department of Education Employment and Work Relations. (2013). Expenditure on the 'Better Schools for Australia' campaign in 2013. Freedom of Information Disclosure Log. Canberra: Department of Education Employment and Work Relations. Retrieved 26 July 2014, from https://docs.education.gov.au/documents/expenditure-better-schoolsaustralia-campaign-2013. Dewey, J. (1897). My pedagogic creed. The School Journal, LIV(3), 77 - 80. Gillies, D. (2011). State education as high-yield investment: Human capital theory in European policy discourse. Journal of Pedagogy, 2(2), 224 - 245. doi: http://dx.dio.org/10.2478/v10159-011-0011-3. House of Representatives Standing Committee on Education and Vocational Training. (2007). Top of the Class. Canberra: Commonwealth of Australia. Kennedy, A. (2014). What do professional learning policies say about purposes of teacher education? Asia-Pacific Journal of Teacher Education, 1 - 12. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/1359866x.2014.940279. Murphy, E., & Gale, T. (2004, 28 November - 2 December). A new story for quality teaching and teacher learning: Talking across conceptual and contextual boundaries. Paper presented at the Australian Association for Research in Education 2004, Melbourne, Victoria. Phillips, N., & Walters, C. (2014, 1st December). Australian science and innovation in six charts. The Age. Melbourne, Victoria. Retrieved 1 December 2014, from http://www.theage.com.au/technology/sci-tech/australian-science-and-innovation-in-sixcharts-20141130-11wg87.html. Plato (1955). The Republic. (H. D. P. Lee, Trans.). London: Penguin Books. (Original work published c. 380 BC) New South Wales Government. (2013). Great Teaching, Inspired Learning: A blueprint for action. Sydney, NSW: New South Wales Government.

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Ryan, M., & Bourke, T. (2012). The teacher as reflexive professional: making visible the excluded discourse in teacher standards. Discourse: Studies in the Cultural Politics of Education, 1-13. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/01596306.2012.717193. Sachs, J. (2003). Teacher professional standards: Controlling or developing teaching? Teachers and Teaching, 9(2), 175-186. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13540600309373. Skilbeck, M., & Connell, H. (2004). Teachers for the Future - The Changing Nature of Society and Related Issues for the Teaching Workforce. A Report to the Teacher Quality and Educational Leadership Taskforce of the Ministerial Council for Education, Employment Training and Youth Affairs. Canberra: Ministerial Council for Education, Employment Training and Youth Affairs.

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Transcending Teacher Professional Development:

From Determinism to Complexity

Abdul Rahman, Garry Hoban & Wendy Nielsen University of Wollongong, Australia Abstract There is a multiplicity of factors and actors that come into play to make teacher professional development (TPD) a strategic and powerful scheme for improving teacher practices. This multiplicity is evident in educational practices and theories. Consequently, traditional perspectives that take a simple view of TPD as a single, independent entity in teacher learning in isolation from other factors and actors are problematic. To better understand how TPD can bring about change in teacher practices–transforming teacher learning, there is a need to transcend the linear, causal, deterministic assumption about TPD. Here, in this discussion paper, I argue that powerful TPD is neither determined nor directed, but rather emerges. Powerful TPD emerges from many interconnected agents and these agents interact and combine in different ways depending on the situation, are reciprocal and are always nested, thus TPD is a complex enterprise. In order to showcase the complexity of the enterprise, TPD in the Indonesian context will be scrutinised using the lens of complexity theory. Keywords: teacher professional development, teacher learning, teacher change, complexity theory, Indonesia

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Introduction Teacher professional development (TPD) has become a major focus of a worldwide educational reform agenda because of the belief that students’ learning and achievement is largely dependent on the quality of teachers’ instructional practices (DarlingHammond, Wei, Andree, Richardson, & Orphanos, 2009; Doecke et al., 2008; OECD, 2009; World Bank, 2011). In this sense, TPD can be seen as a powerful mechanism for enhancing teachers’ instructional practices (Desimone, Porter, Garet, Yoon, & Birman, 2002). If the educational reform agenda is to improve students’ performance, then a powerful TPD is fundamental. Yet, providing TPD that is powerful to enhance teachers’ instructional practice is neither simple nor straightforward as a proposition or undertaking. Literature on TPD suggests that a number of factors need to be taken into account to provide powerful TPD. The factors range from contents, types and processes of TPD (Burney & Elmore, 1999; Darling-Hammond & McLaughlin, 1995; Desimone et al., 2002; Ingvarson, Meiers, & Beavis, 2005), to teacher characteristics (Cohen, Manion, & Morrison, 2007; Guskey, 2002; Little, 1993; Pajares, 1992; Putnam & Borko, 2000; Smylie, 1988) and the conditions in schools (Bredeson & Johansson, 2000; Jurasaite-Harbison & Rex, 2010; Wermke, 2011). These research studies not only illuminate the importance of these influential factors in TPD, but they also illustrate that powerful TPD is influenced by a multiplicity of factors. This discussion paper presents a perspective on the complexity nature of TPD. It examines the multidimensionality and non-linear dynamics of TPD to shape teacher change and argues for a need to transcend the linear, causal, deterministic assumption underlying TPD practices –how TPD is conceived and conducted. The examination begins with an outline of perspectives on TPD and the corresponding implications of the perspectives. The paper then develops a proposition of TPD based on complexity theory and to illuminate the proposition, following the discussion is a showcase of TPD in the Indonesian context that is explored from the perspective of complexity theory. Contemporary Perspectives on TPD In the literature, there is a variety of terms and definitions related to the notion of teacher learning and change. Among those commonly used terms are teacher training, inservice education and training (INSET), in-service learning, staff development, continuing professional development (CPD), staff development, professional development, continuing education, professional learning and life-long learning along with their respective definitions. Yet, the ideas or meanings of these terms are mostly often overlapped. Burke (2000) illustrated that “when educators think of professional development, they usually think of in-service days” (p. 29). Therefore, these terms are sometimes used loosely and interchangeably (see for examples; Bolam & McMahon, 2004; Burke, 2000; Craft, 2000; Day, 1999). In this paper, the term teacher professional development (TPD) is adopted to mean “a learning system in which influential factors and actors interrelate and interact to shape teacher learning and change”. A number of different perspectives have informed the practice of TPD over time. The first perspective views TPD as activities, events, or opportunities. Fenstermacher and

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Berliner (1983), for instance, viewed TPD as “the provision of activities designed to advance the knowledge, skills, and understanding of teachers in ways that lead to change in their thinking and classroom behaviour” (p. 4, emphasis added). In a similar vein, Bolam (2000) argued: [T]PD embraces those education, training and job-embedded support activities engaged in by teachers, following their initial certification, and head-teachers. Such activities are aimed primarily at adding to their professional knowledge, improving their professional skills and helping them to clarify their professional values so that they can educate their students more effectively. (p. 267, emphasis added) The focus of this perspective of TPD is then on formulating the types of learning activities that can effectively and efficiently deliver the expected knowledge and skills for teachers. This perspective is concerned with the quest of “what” types, forms and models of TPD that work best to improve teachers’ instructional practices. Thus, in the current discussion of TPD, the supporters of this perspective compel to replace the socalled “traditional” learning activities to “reform” ones such as changing workshops, seminars, and in-service training with action research, collaborative learning, or peer network. The second perspective regards TPD as a process by which teacher quality can be enhanced (Evans, 2002; Sparks & Loucks-Horsley, 1989). Evans, for example, interpreted TPD, or ‘teacher development’ to use her term, as “the process whereby teachers’ professionality and/or professionalism may be considered to be enhanced” (p. 131, emphasis in original). In this perspective, the concern is about uncovering the processes that work best for developing teachers’ knowledge and skills. Therefore, the proponents of this perspective are likely to concentrate their attention on the “how” of TPD can be best delivered so that teacher quality is enhanced. Common issues in this perspective include whether to let teachers plan and pursue their own learning, to send them on courses, to present teachers with problems and challenges or to impose changes on them. The third perspective combines the previous two perspectives and conceives of TPD as both activities and processes. Guskey (2000) defined TPD “as those processes and activities designed to enhance the professional knowledge, skills, and attitudes of educators so that they might, in return, improve learning of students” (p. 16, emphasis added). In an overarching and commonly cited definition, Day (1999) explained: Professional development consists of all natural learning experiences and those conscious and planned activities which are intended to be of direct or indirect benefit to the individual, group or school and which contribute, through these, to the quality of education in the classroom. It is the process by which, alone and with others, teachers review, renew and extend their commitment as change agents to the moral purposes of teaching; and by which they acquire and develop critically the knowledge, skills and emotional intelligence essential to good professional thinking, planning and practice with children, young people and colleagues through each phase of their teaching lives. (p. 4, emphasis added)

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This perspective is the combination of both the “what” and “how” of TPD. Theoretically the activity and process of TPD are dependent on one another and, in most cases, a particular TPD activity informs the process that it entails and vice versa. For example, action research as a TPD activity, involves an investigative process whereby teachers examine their practices in order to improve them. This third perspective is evident among the scholars who propose a set of those “effective” features of TPD (e.g. Ball & Cohen, 1999; Burney & Elmore, 1999; Darling-Hammond & McLaughlin, 1995; Desimone et al., 2002; Hawley & Valli, 1999; Knapp, 2003). The last perspective views TPD as a complex system rather than just an activity or a process, or both (Davis & Sumara, 2007; Hoban, 2002; Knight, 2002; Morrison, 2008; Opfer & Pedder, 2011). Opfer and Pedder (2011), for example, construed ”teacher learning as a complex system representing recursive interactions between systems and elements that coalesce in ways that are unpredictable but also highly patterned” (p. 379, emphasis added). With the same orientation, Hoban (2002) coined the term “professional learning system” to advocate a theoretical framework in teacher learning “based on a combination of … conditions for teacher learning that need to complement each other to support educational change as a complex system” (p. 68, emphasis added). The next section discusses why it is more appropriate to conceptualise TPD as a complex system rather than just an activity, a process or both an activity and a process. Teacher Professional Development as a Complex System Complexity theory underlies the argument in this paper. While the theory originates in other fields, such as physics, biology, mathematics and economics, complexity theory has been increasingly employed in the social sciences, including education (Davis & Sumara, 2006; Hoban, 2002; Lemke & Sabelli, 2008; Nielsen, Clarke, Triggs, & Collins, 2010; Opfer & Pedder, 2011; Reigeluth, 2004). Complexity theory is a way of thinking and acting that perceives and conceives living systems to consist of multiple elements or agents that interact in many different ways, and further, the organisation of these systems cannot be understood in simple mechanistic or linear ways (AlhadeffJones, 2008; Mason, 2008; Waldrop, 1992). According to Mainzer (2007), “[t]he principles of complex systems suggest that the physical, social, and mental world is nonlinear, [and] complex” (p. 417, emphasis added). The systems are nonlinear because a direct causal connection cannot be specified. Semetsky (2008)_ENREF_45 explicated that “[a] single cause may in fact lead to a multiplicity of effects; conversely, a single effect may be produced by a multiplicity of causes” (p. 80). The physical, social, and mental worlds are complex because “a great many independent agents are interacting with each other in a great many ways” (Waldrop, 1992, p. 11). From this complex systems perspective, the paper builds on and extends the work of those who conceptualise TPD as a complex system in an attempt to develop a more dynamic understanding of TPD. There are at least two primary reasons for conceptualising (TPD) as a complex system. First, casting TPD as a complex system implies that numerous factors come into play in TPD. As described in the earlier perspectives, TPD is multidimensional in nature. Therefore, when teachers participate in a TPD program, their learning and change cannot be attributed to a single factor. Teacher learning and change are made possible by other elements or agents being already in place. Teacher learning and change occur, for example, when among others, a learning activity is available; the teachers have a

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need and/or motivation for the learning; their beliefs, knowledge and experience are compatible with the knowledge or skills to be learned; and supports are provided by principals or administrators (Ball, 1996; Bransford & Schwartz, 1999; Caffarella & Barnett, 1994; Cochran-Smith & Lytle, 1999; Richter, Kunter, Klusmann, Lüdtke, & Baumert, 2011). The presence of these agents and elements means that a perspective that views TPD as an activity is too narrow and restrictive. The second reason for conceptualising TPD as a complex system relates to the process of TPD. A number of scholars argue that TPD researchers and practitioners have committed an epistemological flaw by approaching TPD in a linear, causal and deterministic way (Gravani, 2007; Hoban, 2002; Opfer & Pedder, 2011; WebsterWright, 2009). Guskey (1986, 2002) and Desimone (2009), for example, proposed the following models of TPD: Figure 1. Guskey’s (1986, 2002) model

Figure 2. Desimone’s (2009) model

Although the two models are different in some aspects such as the order of changes and the nature of relationship among factors and actors, both of the models are presented visually in a linear, cause-effect, deterministic way. The models assume that: 1) an activity or reality occurs in a sequential process; 2) one part of an entity causes or affects another part in a linear way; and 3) because of this linear, cause-effect relationship, the outcome of an activity is pre-determined and known. This view holds that a known input will repeatedly produce a similar effect (Jayasinghe, 2011). Thus, it is a common belief in the field of TPD that once teachers attend “effective” TPD, the desired learning and change will follow. Unfortunately, the relationship of agents (factors and actors) that interrelate in TPD is highly complex, which means that the outcomes of TPD are mostly unpredictable (Gravani, 2007; Knight, 2002). TPD is more than just a process or a compilation of an activity (by an agent) and a process, but is a nonlinear system in which “the effect is disproportionate to the cause” (Larsen-Freeman, 1997, p. 143).

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It is from this multidimensionality and non-linearity of TPD that the paper argues for TPD as a complex system. Figure 3 depicts a representation of TPD as a complex system. However, Figure 3 presents only a simplified image of a much more complex set of processes and structures. First, there are multiple factors and actors (small circles) operating in one system (the larger circle). Second, as the two-way arrows suggest, the processes at play in a system are not linear but rather one element or agent can feed back or influence (or be influenced by) other elements. Third, the arrows outside the larger circle indicate that there are other systems, elements or agents operating outside this particular system that are influential to this one. In sum, through the lens of complexity theory, TPD is a learning system with multiple elements and agents that interact in non-linear ways to occasion the emergence of teacher learning and change. Figure 3. Conceptual framework of TPD as a complex system (Adapted from Davis & Sumara, 2006)

TPD in Indonesia from a Complexity Perspective This section presents a description of typical TPD in Indonesia. Some basic concepts of complexity theory are useful in attempting to understand the complex nature of TPD. Among these concepts include: nested structure, feedback and sensitivity to initial conditions, and emergent and self-organisation.

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TPD in Indonesia: A glimpse A typical TPD program in Indonesia starts with a letter of invitation but mostly in a sense of a request received by schools from educational authorities (districts, provinces, or central government) or TPD providers. This letter specifies the information about contents, duration, venues for the TPD program and most importantly the allocated number of teachers or subject teachers required to attend the program. The principals then choose teachers to represent the schools at the TPD programs. Although, there is sometimes a guideline or a set of criteria for choosing the teachers, in most cases, the decision on which teachers to choose is at the principals’ discretion. Thus, a TPD program commonly involves teachers from various backgrounds (e.g. districts, school types, career status and qualifications). Generally, TPD learning activity takes the form of workshop training which is held at training centres or hotels in districts, provinces or a state capital. The duration of this workshop training ranges from a one-day workshop to a 15-day workshop training. In the workshop training, teacher participants receive intensive lectures on specified educational topics such as teaching methods, curriculum or assessment from 08:00 to 17:00 and then a second session in the evening from 19:30 to 21:30. Training instructors are not only required to follow specified teaching methodologies to assure consistent delivery, but also to ensure that the same outcomes are achieved by all participants. Upon their return to their schools, teachers have the responsibility to cascade the newly gained knowledge and skills to their fellow teachers through a series of learning activities in their districts and schools (Adey, Hewitt, Hewitt, & Landau, 2004; Supriatna, 2011; Thair & Treagust, 1997). With this kind of TPD practices, many have argued that TPD has a little or limited impact on teachers’ instructional practices for several reasons. First, schools do not provide adequate support for teachers to share their learning experiences with other teachers as well as to experiment the newly gained knowledge and skills. Second, what teachers learn from their TPD is often not applicable or practical to their school and classroom conditions. Third, teachers have restricted time and energy to have professional talks with their colleagues due to the fact that many teachers hold a second job to supplement their low incomes (Saito, Imansyah, Kubok, & Hendayana, 2007; Supriatna, 2011; Yuwono & Harbon, 2010). Put differently, "[t]he impact of training in transforming Indonesian educational institutions is not clearly established at all. The effects of training are arbitrary and, too often, dependent on the unplanned interactions of returning trainees, their supervisors and opportunities in their working environments. Much training leads nowhere except to unrealized potential, frustration and waste" (Cannon & Arlianti, 2008, p. 79). Nested Structure Complex systems are made up of elements or agents that are simultaneously agents of other systems (Davis & Sumara, 2007; Doll, 2008). Each whole system is a collection of interacting agents and at the same time is a part of a more inclusive whole. In this arrangement, “the part-whole relationship is a nested one” (Doll, 2008, p. 187). Therefore, in the nested structure of a complex system, everything is inextricably interrelated with everything else and the development and change of one agent/system influences and is influenced by that of other agents/systems. The concept of nested structure helps us to embrace the idea that TPD is composed of and comprises other agents/systems. TPD is itself a system along with its constituent parts including

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instructors, activities, learning materials and participants and at the same time it is a part a greater system such as a TPD system or an educational system for a country. Thus, TPD is not an isolated or independent system disconnected from other systems in which it operates and to which it is related. It is commonly argued that TPD in Indonesia brings about little impact on teacher learning and instructional practices. One of the important reasons for this small impact is the types of TPD activity that are made available to the teachers. The answer is then to look for and introduce new types of TPD that are “empirically effective” to improve teacher quality such as lesson study and action research. However, something which is assumed to have a positive impact often does not yield the expected outcomes. The introduction of lesson study in TPD program in Indonesia, for example, does not in itself guarantee teachers’ improved learning and instructional practices. Sometimes quite the opposite is true. Teachers who attempt a lesson study in their schools may become resentful to their fellow teachers or principal who are not “in the same page” which in turn badly influences school dynamic. Other teachers may feel the lesson study to be too demanding or time-consuming, which may lead them to withdraw their participation. Schools may become over-reliant on this new type of TPD and then fall into a traditional view of TPD where the procedure or activity is supposed to be a quick fix for quality improvement that has been mandated by authorities. Thus, impact of TPD cannot be solely attributed the type of TPD/learning activity. There are other actors and factors, such as teachers, principals, and members of schools that affect the TPD impact at teacher or school level.TPD cannot be fully understood without reference to other agents and systems within which it operates. Feedback and Sensitivity to Initial Conditions A feedback loop is a mechanism that either keeps a system in an overall steady state by dampening perturbations or amplifying a specific quality in the system so as to ensure the change is noticed and a response enabled (Davis & Sumara, 1997; Haggis, 2008). On one hand, a feedback loop that functions to regulate and control the course and the outcome of the system is called a negative or regulatory feedback loop. On the other hand, a feedback loop that functions to notice or inform the system when something new happens and thus amplify it into messages that signal a need for change is called a negative or regulatory feedback loop (Wheatley, 2009). A feedback loop, both negative and positive one, occurs between the interacting agents of a system and the feedback continually adjusts and modifies both the agents of the system and the system itself (Haggis, 2008). A complex system has also “initial characteristics [that] can have profound effects on later behaviour … [and] small variations at the beginning of a process can have large effects in the end” (Buell & Cassidy, 2001, p. 212). In the realm of complexity, this is understood as ‘sensitivity to initial conditions’. The initial condition of a complex system involves many different combinations of interactions which are possible at that point in time (Haggis, 2008). Haggis further explained that “[t]his untrackable history of interactions (both within and beyond the system) is crucial in determining the form of future emergences, making time and history of central importance [in complex systems]” (p. 158). The ideas of feedback loop and sensitivity to initial conditions suggest the necessity to acknowledge and engage with the history of the particular TPD system and its interacting parts. The feedback loop mechanisms help us to recognise

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that the outcome of TPD is shaped by the kind of responses that are fed back into the interacting parts and the TPD system. The sensitivity to initial conditions suggests that a similar TPD program can produce different outcomes at the teacher and school level because of the diversity of teachers’ or schools’ initial characteristics. TPD programs in Indonesia commonly emanate from agents (districts, provinces or central authorities) external to teachers and that operate at a different level of the system. To assure the smooth and successful implementation of TPD programs, the authorities have virtually developed every aspect of the TPD including content, duration, number of participants and so on. Based on these pre-specifications, policy makers, TPD providers, instructors, and principals evaluate the progress or outcome of the programs. Teachers, in turn, are expected to adjust their behaviour and attitude towards these criteria. This kind of evaluation is essentially a negative feedback loop that aims to regulate and control the courses and outcomes of TPD programs on teachers. A deviation from the specified processes and outcomes is not tolerated and, thus, should be abandoned, leaving teachers no room for improvisation. A powerful TPD program should allow and stimulate any single ideas and experiences to be amplified into innovations or novel practices, instead. It indicates that TPD also needs to incorporate positive feedback mechanisms so that a seemingly small event can be amplified to bring about a bigger impact. The idea of sensitivity to initial conditions means that the starting point of any TPD program is different from one teacher or a group of teachers to another. These are initial conditions that are consequential in terms of the impacts of TPD on teachers. Where teachers start with a particular TPD program often has a big impact on where they end up. Some teachers may have already accessed materials or ideas presented in the TPD programs, and thus, could feel bored and/or influence the dynamic of group in the program. Others might have had prior negative TPD experiences that could influence their present response to a new program. In a more positive circumstance, a teacher may point out a particular practice that he has been doing in his class and this point could trigger other teachers to engage in an in-depth group discussion that could presage the development of a learning community. Feedback mechanisms and sensitivity to initial conditions help us to recognise that while some aspects of TPD can be carefully managed and controlled, others cannot. Further, it is almost impossible to know in advance which interactions will be significant, what interactions have preceded the TPD, and what has resulted from these previous and unknown interactions (Haggis, 2008). Sometimes, those who involve in TPD just need to observe until they recognise what emerges and provide necessary positive feedback. Emergent and Self-Organising From a complexity theory, change is natural, evolutionary, and emergent from a process that is neither imposed nor directed (Byrne, 2001; Morrison, 2008; Waldrop, 1992). What emerges at a system level is the result of interactions among the agents of the system. The popular example is termites that develop into a colony and as a collective can build an incredible structure (e.g. the termite mound) relative to the size of the builders. Yet, in the process of building the mound, there is no chief termite, architect termite or master plan. Each individual termite acts locally, following a few simple

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shared rules: the termite mound emerges from a process of self-organisation. This manner of organisation means that most of the interactions between agents within such systems are with their closest neighbours and are based on simple sets of local rules. Self-organising systems, like the termite colony, demonstrate the ability of all social or living systems to organise into a web of interactions that increases capacity: this capacity cannot be reduced to the sum of its parts. The emergent and self-organising principles help us to understand that providing TPD opportunities to all teachers in the same way will not yield the same outcomes for every teacher. Outcomes of TPD are shaped by the kind of local needs, interests, or conventions that shape teachers’ behaviours and responses toward their TPD experiences. The principles also posit that local actors in TPD such as teachers, principals, and administrators have the capacity to behave adaptively and produce the expected outcomes without directions detailing their actions. The emphasis of TPD in Indonesia is often on careful, top-down organization rather than encouraging local interactions. As mentioned previously, most TPD programs are imposed on teachers by superior authorities who envisage particular changes in the participating teachers. However, most teachers do not achieve or display the envisaged changes because teachers need to adapt what they take from the TPD to what already exists or applies in their schools. For example, delivering an ICT training program to teachers and asking them to integrate ICT into their instruction does not necessarily mean that all teachers will use ICT-based learning activities. Teacher capacity to develop and implement such learning activities may be enabled or hindered by local factors, such as IT resources at the school, teacher values and beliefs about ICT, school culture and the principal. Those involved in delivering such training have little or no control over such local factors. The principles of emergence and self-organisation suggest that particular outcomes or effects cannot be imposed on teachers by external authorities. TPD providers cannot position themselves as authorities that can direct the courses and hence outcomes of particular TPD activities. Instead, the system in which teachers is a part of, say a school, “decides” what is and is not desirable, acceptable or applicable. Implications and Conclusion What specifically, then, are the implications of complexity theory for the practices of TPD? Complexity theory presents a number of challenges to conventional ways of thinking about TPD. First, people who are involved in TPD need to redefine TPD. It is a common practice that when one thinks of TPD, the focus of attention is on the activity of TPD to the exclusion or little attention of other factors and actors. However, if TPD is regarded as a complex system then the attention needs to be extended from a focus on individual consideration of activity to the TPD as a whole. A complexity perspective enables people to view TPD as a system of relationships and participations (Davis, 2003). Second, whoever has a stake in TPD needs to surrender certainty and predictability. A complexity perspective informs the inevitability of changes in the courses and outcomes of TPD on teachers. Attempts to hold or fix the courses and outcomes of TPD as constant are impossible and indicate a perspective on learning that “assumes learning

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can be isolated, separated, and controlled from the milieu in which it is embedded” (Clarke & Collins, 2007). From a complexity perspective TPD providers, administrators, and principals cannot determine completely the courses and outcomes of TPD in advance. However, this indeterminacy does not mean that anything goes randomly or that plans, expectations or standards for TPD are abandoned. Rather, it is an acknowledgment that expecting teachers to perform neatly to a predetermined set of outcomes (practices) of TPD and at the same time to allow for “rich” learning for teachers is highly improbable. Last, people who are involved in TPD need to allow for improvisation. Too often teachers are positioned and treated to be passive recipients of knowledge and skills. They cheerfully forgo inquiry and mindlessly submit to what they are being told to do. However, in many literature about TPD this is not the sort of learning that can help teachers improve themselves. Teachers have to be reflective practitioners in their learning (Shulman & Shulman, 2004) and the generative space created by improvisation is essential for the emergence of such properties. Improvisation is “a willingness to hold in abeyance patterned responses and allow for the possibility of something new to emerge” (Clarke & Collins, 2007, p. 170). Clarke and Collins further explicated that improvisation is a not a solitary act but relies on interaction, communication and a willingness to explore from others. To sum up, if people who are involved in the provision of TPD are to understand the potential of TPD to enhance teachers’ instructional practices, there is a need to transcend the linear, causal, deterministic assumption underlying current TPD practices. Complexity theory helps us to understand and acknowledge the complex interplay of factors that influence teacher learning and change. It also helps us to accept and capitalise on the fact that TPD opportunities may not influence teachers, schools, and ultimately students, in the same ways as expected or predicted. TPD is a complex enterprise of practices, and thus approaches underpinned by a “one size fits all” approach will likely flounder because they fail to take into account the inherently complex nature of TPD.

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(Ed.), Complexity theory and the philosophy of education. Chichester, West Sussex: John Wiley & Sons Ltd. Hawley, W. D., & Valli, L. (1999). The essentials of effective professional development. In L. Darling-Hammond & G. Sykes (Eds.), Teaching as the learning profession: Handbook of policy and practice. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass. Hoban, G. F. (2002). Teacher learning for educational change: A systems thinking approach. Buckhingham: Open University Press. Ingvarson, L., Meiers, M., & Beavis, A. (2005). Factors affecting the impact of professional development programs on teachers' knowledge, practice, student outcomes and self-efficacy. Education Policy Analysis Archives, 13(10). Jayasinghe, S. (2011). Conceptualising population health: From mechanistic to complexity science. Emerging Themes in Epidemiology, 8(2), 1-7. Jurasaite-Harbison, E., & Rex, L. A. (2010). School cultures as contexts for informal teacher learning. Teaching and Teacher Education, 26(267-277). Knapp, M. S. (2003). Professional development as a policy pathway. Review of Research in Education, 27(1), 109-157. doi: 10.3102/0091732x027001109 Knight, P. (2002). A systematic approach to professional development. Teaching and Teacher Education, 18, 229-241. Larsen-Freeman, D. (1997). Chaos/complexity science and second language acquisition. Applied Linguitics, 8(2), 141-165. Lemke, J. L., & Sabelli, N. H. (2008). Complex systems and educational change: Towards a new research agenda. In M. Mason (Ed.), Complexity theory and the philosophy of education. West Sussex: John Wiley & Sons Ltd. Little, J. W. (1993). Teachers' professional development in a climate of educational reform. Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis, 15(2), 129-151. doi: 10.3102/01623737015002129 Mainzer, K. (2007). Thinking in complexity: The computational dynamics of matter, mind, and mankind (5th ed.). New York: Springer. Mason, M. (2008). What is complexity theory and what are its implications for educational change? In M. Mason (Ed.), Complexity Theory and the Philosophy of Education. West Sussex: John Wiley & Sons Ltd. Morrison, K. (2008). Educational philosophy and the challenge of complexity theory. In M. Mason (Ed.), Complexity theory and the philosophy of education. West Sussex: John Wiley & Sons Ltd. Nielsen, W., Clarke, A., Triggs, V., & Collins, J. (2010). The teacher education conversation: A network of cooperating teachers. Canadian Journal of Education, 33(4), 837-868. OECD. (2009). Creating effective teaching and learning environments: First result from TALIS. Paris: Organisation for Economic Co-Operation and Development. Opfer, V. D., & Pedder, D. (2011). Conceptualising teacher professional learning. Review of Educational Research, 81(3), 376-407. Pajares, M. F. (1992). Teachers' beliefs and educational research: Cleaning up a messy construct. Review of Educational Research, 62(3), 307-332. Putnam, R. T., & Borko, H. (2000). What do new views of knowledge and thinking have to say about research on teacher learning? Educational Researcher, 29(415). Reigeluth, C. M. (2004). Chaos theory and the sciences of complexity: Foundations for transforming education. Paper presented at the American Educational Research Association, San Diego, CA.

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The IAFOR Academic Review Volume 2 | Issue I

Collected Essays on Learning and Education

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