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- Curriculum autonomy policies: international trends, tensions and transformationsPublication . Almeida, Sílvia; Sousa, Francisco; Figueiredo, Maria PachecoThis book is based on the International Seminar “Curriculum Autonomy Policies in Europe: Trends, Tensions & Transformations”, which was held at Gulbenkian Foundation, Lisbon, on January 25 and 26, 2019. Besides including a set of papers that were presented in that context, this publication includes texts from other relevant authors who have conducted research on the topic under discussion – curriculum autonomy. This topic has received attention from many researchers, with different theoretical perspectives.
- Parent and student voice in evaluation and planning in schoolsPublication . Brown, Martin; McNamara, Gerry; O’Brien, Shivaun; Skerritt, Craig; O’Hara, Joe; Faddar, Jerich; Cinqir, Sakir; Vanhoof, Jan; Pacheco Figueiredo, Maria; Kurum, GülCurrent approaches to the regulation of schools in most jurisdictions tend to combine elements of external inspection with systems of internal self-evaluation. An increasingly important aspect of the theory and practice of both, but particularly the latter, revolves around the role of other actors, primarily parents and students, in the process. Using literature review and documentary analysis as the research method, this article explores the research literature from many countries around the concerns of schools and teachers about giving a more powerful voice to parents and pupils. Then, focusing on Ireland, this article tries to clarify three things, official policy concerning stakeholder voice in school self-evaluation and decision making, the efforts by schools to implement this policy and the response to date of school leaders and teachers to this rather changed environment. Using Hart’s ladder of genuine, as opposed to token, participation, it is argued that policy mandating parental and student involvement has evolved significantly, that schools have responded positively and that there is little evidence, as yet, of teacher concern or resistance. This response is explained by the low stakes and improvement-focused education environment; the controlled, structured and simplified nature of the self-evaluation process; and the limited extent of parental and student participation in decision making.
- Children and technology: preoccupations, practices and participation in Early Childhood EducationPublication . Pacheco Figueiredo, Maria; Alves, ValterChildren live in a complex world where technology plays different roles and influences several spheres of their existence. Research about the presence and educational impact of technology in childhood reveals several challenges. A particular challenge is connected to the need for a high-quality pedagogy regarding technology in Early Childhood Education. This paper contributes to that discussion from a Portuguese perspective. The pedagogical and curricular framework for Early Childhood Education in Portugal supports a significant use of technology in the daily practice and in children’s play. In this context, the paper explores three main axes to understand a high-quality pedagogy for using technology with children in educational contexts: technology presented as a tool with socially authentic practices; technology as supporting multiple languages that are relevant for children to understand the world around them; and technology as an arena for children’s participation. Each axis is supported by the analysis of specific projects developed locally at the School of Education. The projects were selected for highlighting tenets of each axis. Each axis is also connected to the three content areas of the Portuguese Curricular Guidelines and to dimensions of a sociocultural pedagogy for Early Childhood Education.
- Editorial introductionPublication . Almeida, Silvia; Sousa, Francisco; Figueiredo, Maria PachecoThis book is based on the International Seminar “Curriculum Autonomy Policies in Europe: Trends, Tensions & Transformations”, which was held at Gulbenkian Foundation, Lisbon, on January 25 and 26, 2019. Besides including a set of papers that were presented in that context, this publication includes texts from other relevant authors who have conducted research on the topic under discussion – curriculum autonomy. This topic has received attention from many researchers, with different theoretical perspectives. In the first decades of the 20th century, which were marked by the predominance of a technical perspective, the conceptualization of curriculum autonomy tended to be limited to the idea of adapting the means to the ends, the latter being usually regarded as instrumental to the satisfaction of societal needs. But by the end of the 1960s, when the first wave of re-conceptualization changed Curriculum Studies, such relation between means and ends was questioned, and the idea that curriculum autonomy may also entail the ends became increasingly accepted. Later on, the consolidation of Critical Theory strengthened this tendency, by contesting the assumption that the ultimate aim of curriculum construction should be to fulfill the needs of society, by uncovering relations between curriculum and interests pursued by different sectors of society, and by legitimating emancipatory ways of dealing with the curriculum. Postcritical approaches also reject a conceptualization of curriculum autonomy as permission to perform technical procedures in adapting curricula whose aims are taken for granted. The concept of curriculum autonomy is not even central in the latter approaches, which emphasize that changing the curriculum requires understanding it from multiple perspectives, which emerge from different identities, related to gender, race, sexual orientation, and other factors. Accordingly, for Pinar, Reynolds, Slattery, and Taubman (1995), curriculum change depends on issues of identity and power.
- Exploring parent and student engagement in school self-evaluation in four European countriesPublication . Brown, Martin; McNamara, Gerry; Cinkir, Sakir; Fadar, Jerich; Figueiredo, Maria Pacheco; Vanhoof, Jan; O’Hara, Joe; Skerritt, Craig; O’Brien, Shivaun; Kurum, Gül; Ramalho, Henrique; Rocha, JoãoThe purpose of this paper, which is part of a three-year EU Erasmus+-funded study titled ‘Distributed Evaluation and Planning in Schools’ (DEAPS), is to provide an analysis of policies, structures, processes, supports and barriers that exist to enable or inhibit the involvement of students and parents in school evaluation in four European countries (Belgium, Ireland, Portugal and Turkey). Document analysis was used for this study and some 348 peer-reviewed articles, and 28 national and transnational policy documents were included in the analysis. Based on this review it would be reasonable to suggest that the student/parent voice agenda around evaluation in schools remains, by and large, aspirational. It is extolled in policy but in practice is mainly tokenistic with very little evidence of impact on the work of schools. In light of this, it is argued that government and school-level policies and strategies need to be reconsidered to enhance students’ and parents’ engagement in school evaluation. As a first step, significant further empirical research on the limitations on and conditions necessary for stakeholder voice in education is required.