Power and Education

The promotion and progression of black and minority ethnic academics and teachers in England has been the subject of much debate. Although several theories have been put forward, racial equality has stood out as a major contributing factor. The experiences of black and minority ethnic academics and teachers in England are similar in terms of aspirations, and their experience of organisations also points to similar patterns of exclusions. This integrated study provides thick data from qualitative interviews with academics and teachers, theorised through the lens of whiteness theory and social identity theory, of their experience of promotion and progression, how they feel organisations respond to them and how they, in turn, are responding to promotion and progression challenges. There was a shared view amongst the participants that, for black and minority ethnic academics and teachers to progress in England, they need ‘white sanction’ – a form of endorsement from white colleagues that in itself has an enabling power.

In this paper I theorise a contemporary educational configuration, which comprises a physical classroom and an online space. I invoke the hybrid concept of the heterotopic affinity space as a tool for helping us think more clearly about this configuration. The paper thus contributes an alternative way of thinking about a contemporary educational space. Drawing on an empirical classroom research project, I pay particular attention to the way the disciplinary space of a Sixth Form ‘dyslexia support workshop’ is reconfigured into a space which exhibits features of both a heterotopia and an affinity space. However, neither of these concepts by itself can adequately explain the space. The concept of heterotopia is insufficient because although it indicates certain characteristics of the space, it does not adequately account for the shared learning endeavour; the concept of affinity space is insufficient because although it helps us understand aspects of learning within the space, it does not adequately account for the Otherness of the space. I propose the new hybrid concept of heterotopic affinity space as a way of better understanding the project space, and suggest this concept may be useful in coming to understand other contemporary educational configurations.

This study analyses the role that the gender difference of school constituents plays in rating the performance of high-performing principals in 125 schools across Jamaica. A Principal Components Analysis (PCA) generated four dimensions which conceptualized leadership performance in effective principals, and a confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was used to assess the fit between the resulting data and the hypothesis of gender difference in the performance of high-performing principals. The analysis from the independent-samples t-test showed that there was a significant difference between the rating of male and female school constituents on the dimensions of leadership and management, and community support and relationships. For the dimensions of personal philosophy and abilities, and student support systems there was no significant difference between male and female constituents. The similarities and differences in the rating of the dimensions of performance of high-performing principals by male and female school constituents may be influenced by factors related to the gender of the principals, the nature of the dimensions being rated, and the gender of the school constituents themselves.

The present article focuses on how the so-called War on terror discourse has merged into the educational system and brought about a securitization of education. As a part of efforts to prevent young people from becoming radicalized into terrorism, the educational system is expected to be able to detect individuals ‘at risk’ and deploy methods to prevent radicalization from happening. Through the critical discourse analysis of a collection of educational practices, sampled by the European Union working group Radicalisation Awareness Network, we have been able to generate knowledge about how the War on terror discourse tends to individualize and decontextualize tensions in society that may ultimately cause terrorism. With this individualized and decontextualized approach to preventing radicalization, it appears more important to control students rather than to develop their ability to analyse complex conflicts in society.