Thesis--Columbia University. / Published also without thesis statement. Vita. "Bibliographical note": p. [231]-238.

Inaug.-Diss.--Jena.

In Unione Sovietica il partito mette in atto un sistema di istituzioni per controllare il mondo culturale e la produzione scritta: il Glavlit, il massimo istituto censorio, l’Unione degli scrittori, un’editoria centralizzata e statalizzata e un unico metodo creativo possibile, il realismo socialista. Il settore della traduzione letteraria e della ricezione della letteratura straniera vengono ugualmente posti sotto controllo. All’interno dell’Unione degli scrittori operano la Sezione dei Traduttori, a cui spetta la formazione dei nuovi traduttori sovietici, e la Commissione Straniera, che stabilisce quali autori e quali libri occidentali debbano essere tradotti. Il Reparto straniero del Glavlit controlla il materiale a stampa proveniente dall’estero, la sua distribuzione e le modalità di consultazione e si occupa di effettuare una censura sia sul testo in lingua straniera che su quello tradotto in lingua russa. Parallelamente, il codice estetico e normativo del realismo socialista comincia a influenzare lo sviluppo della teoria della traduzione. La traduttologia si allinea alla critica letteraria ufficiale e promuove un approccio libero al testo che permetta l’introduzione di modifiche testuali arbitrarie da parte del traduttore o del redattore. / In the Soviet Union the party develops a system of institutions aiming at controlling the cultural sphere and the written production. Such a complex system is formed by the Glavlit, the most important censorial institution, the Union of Writers, the world of publishing (which is nationalized and centralized), and a unique creative method, the socialist realism. The section of literary translation and of reception of foreign literature is equally kept under control. The Translators' section is charged of training new soviet translators; the foreign Commission decides which western authors and books can be translated. Both of them are part of the Union of Writers. The foreign department of Glavlit controls the printed material coming from abroad and its distribution. It also decides the conditions of reading and is charged of censoring both the foreign text and the translated one. At the same time, the aesthetic and normative code of socialist realism begins to influence translation theory, which follows the instructions of official literary criticism and promotes a free translation approach to texts. Such an approach allows translators and editors to introduce textual changes in an arbitrary way.

The preliminary study sought to identify the main areas of the first year biology curriculum where students tended to encounter difficulties. These areas were seen to encompass potential themes where open-ended problems might be devised: light and dark reactions in photosynthesis, phytochrome and germination, cell mediated immunity, antibodies, the immunological armoury and gene function and gene expression in plant growth. The main experiment had three stages. In each stage, a battery of tests (cognitive and attitudinal) was used and the outcomes related to students' performance on an open-ended problem. Four new open-ended problem-solving units were developed. The battery of tests in the first stage 9with 642 students) were True-False tests, a Word Association Test, a Structural Communication Grid test and assessments of attitudes to learning (using a Perry Position Questionnaire). Several open-ended problems were devised and used but the outcomes from the cognitive tests were related to one individual problem-solving unit on the topic: forests that Need Fires. This stage attempted to gain some kind of insight into the extent to which nodes and links in long term memory contribute to success in problem solving. The results indicated that problem-solving success might be related to factual knowledge, links between nodes of knowledge and understanding. However, generic ability in biology might offer an alternative explanation. To test the latter, stage two involved the same sample of students in a second battery of tests, most which were on a parallel but unrelated topic: Evolution. The outcomes showed that, while some kind of generic biological ability was a factor, this did not seem to explain all the correlations observed in the first stage. The third stage approached from a fresh perspective. Working with 525 students, this involved the same four problem based units but a new set of tests was applied: tests of Lateral Thinking, a test of Convergency / Divergency, another Ranking test and a Self-Report Questionnaire. The results suggested that the number of accessible nodes and links in long term memory (reflecting 'brain architecture' and, perhaps, aspects of cognitive styles) do seem to be related to success in a problem-solving task. However, it is recognised that the validity of the test battery is an important issue in drawing such conclusions. This study raised important questions: is the way of string the knowledge or the order of storage a factor? Is it something relating to the physical factors such as structure of the brain (architecture) in terms of neurons and synapses, psychological factors such as structure of information in terms of nodes and links or emotional factors such as desire and willingness to store specific ideas other than others (knowledge filtration)? While it is well known that working memory is a key factor in determining problem-solving success (and this was not explored further in this study), the study suggests that the following factors may be important in leading to success with open-ended problems in biology: Factual knowledge held in long term memory; Understanding of conceptual knowledge; Generic biological ability (skill); Number of accessible nodes and links in long term memory; Effect of 'brain architecture'; and Aspects of cognitive styles (divergency, creativity or lateral thinking).

Within concepts on intercultural language learning it is generally acknowledged that the ‘context’ of the individual learning experience plays an important role for the acquisition of a foreign language and intercultural learning processes. A detailed understanding of what it is we call ‘context’ is still missing – as are studies that focus particularly on the language learning environment outside the classroom and the role of everyday space and place for intercultural encounter. This thesis draws largely on spatial theory in addressing space and place as a site of geo-political and social-cultural change, and as a crucial element of intercultural language learning processes. Narratives, de Certeau (1984: 116) says, are “written by footsteps.” The methodological orientation of this thesis follows both the narratives and footsteps of language learners, and as such is anchored in and around the element of movement. In creating a spatial ‘method assemblage’ (Law 2004) that engages both mobile and visual elements, I am arguing for a methodological change in perspective while giving credit to the perspective of language learners and their everyday routes and learning environments. This argument correlates with the particular methodological tool of ‘guided walks’, in which researcher and language learner walk together on daily routes within places of significance. Giving walking a central methodological and analytic role within this thesis underlines those moments of intercultural experience, which are based on movement, transformation and the search for the ephemeral. The particular understanding of intercultural language learning as a ‘spatial-embodied practice’ emerges from an ethnographic study as well as from a detailed examination of the ‘intercultural field’. The various imbalances of the ‘intercultural field’ effect intercultural language learning through the body, as well as the senses and practices of diversity, and re-shape an awareness of space. Not only increased physical mobility, but the complex networks of flows and transnational interrelations, increasingly transform intercultural experience. From this perspective, this thesis argues that language learners weave their intercultural experience through practices of ‘place making’ (Ingold 2011), and by moving in between myriad borders and boundaries.

Detailed examination of the nature of social change in Oman pinpoints the various ways in which the role of the family has diminished, and that of the state increased. In particular, the somewhat haphazard way in which, inevitably, the state has assumed the responsibilities for social welfare and education which were previously the sole province of the family, has weakened the framework of child socialisation which was once the bulwark of an Islamic society. This framework derives from the whole ethos of the child's socialising environment - previously the extended family with its spoken and unspoken Islamic ideals; now far more often the world of the nanny; alien, sometimes uncaring, and often imperfectly understood. That this environment is the enemy of successful socialisation was the hypothesis designed to be tested by the research. Current theories of socialisation in the earliest years of childhood, especially those of the `learning theorists', such as Bandura, emphasise the importance to the very young child of `bonding' - stable emotional attachment to one or two adult carers - for successful later emotional development. The child's cognitive, linguistic, psychological and social development is likely thereafter to depend on its role-models, on whose explicit and implicit assumptions about life the child is likely to base his own actions. How much these are in tune with his society will depend on how far these role models reflect, especially linguistically, the cultural assumptions of that society. To some extent, therefore, the closer the bond between child and nanny, the less likely he is (if she is non-Omani) to socialise successfully. It is in this context that the research set out to test the effects of foreign nannies on Omani children. Its objectives were therefore to see why families employed nannies; to see how they were employed; to study their personal lifestyles and even more importantly their backgrounds and the cultures from which they came; to try to discover their effects on the children in their charge, and to make some recommendations about their deployment.

The arguments presented in this thesis extend the existing discourse in the field of educational research. With support from empirical evidence and conceptual argument I will contend that the role of the teacher, and teacher beliefs, are central to changing practice and that a fine-grained understanding of teachers’ attitudes is crucial if we are to bridge the disjunction between research, policy and practice. The papers presented in this submission make a significant contribution to our understanding of the complex nature of learning and teaching. Empirical research to date has tended to be carried out in discrete disciplines within education such as psychology, sociology or early years. In contrast the portfolio of work presented here extends this knowledge by innovatively synthesising different fields of research and knowledge and challenges traditional practices where evidence was often restricted within a distinct field of study. There are increasingly nuanced debates in the academic literature about interconnectedness and the research/policy/practice nexus. The work presented here is located within this nexus. This portfolio of publications brings together work I have completed in the field since 2000. The publications are empirical and conceptual and progress knowledge related to teacher beliefs, classroom organisation, curriculum, early years and gifted and talented education. This submission provides a unique contribution to understanding the complex processes of learning and teaching by means of synthesising existing evidence and generating new evidence that not only contributes to the discourse but crucially is disseminated in a way that is accessible and practical in nature. The central claim underlying the work in this research portfolio is that providing for children can best be understood as resulting from three connected perspectives: 1. The complex interactions between teachers’ universal understandings about learning, teaching and ability; 2. The synthesis of previously discrete fields of research; 3. The policy context teachers find themselves working in and practical application in the classroom. This submission includes four jointly authored and four single authored peer-reviewed published papers together with two systematic reviews of literature. A range of work will be presented as evidence of knowledge exchange outputs emanating from the empirical and conceptual work. The submission will be organised under three key themes, each of which contributes to the intellectual development of knowledge and understanding about learning and teaching. Theme 1: Teachers, Learning and Learners The three papers presented in this theme directly address the teachers’ role and interrogate through: a literature review; the development of a model and an empirical study; how teachers might understand their role within the process. The first paper (1) reports the findings of a systematic review of literature about motivation to learn. Paper two (2) reports on a two-dimensional model for motivation. Paper (3) presents findings from a study carried out with teachers undertaking postgraduate qualifications in Special Educational Needs. Synthesising the findings from these papers contributes to discourse in the field by generating overarching patterns that relate to learners and effective learning regardless of their age. Theme 2: Classroom Organisation The four papers in this theme focus on curriculum and the mediation of the curriculum for learners. They demonstrate how the research undertaken reveals similar concerns within the field of gifted education and education generally, thus strengthening the thesis that greater synthesis of discrete fields of research is required. Paper four (4) critiques the current curricular framework being implemented in Scottish schools in relation to pupils who demonstrate high ability. Paper five (5) examines findings from a pilot study in one Education Authority in Scotland. Papers six (6) and seven (7) present findings from a study that examined classroom organisation from the perspectives of both teachers and pupils. Evidence is presented through knowledge exchange outputs in the form of a national staff development pack. Intellectually the papers contribute to the theoretical debates that exist around the organisation of pupils for learning and teaching. The findings corroborate the thesis that no one approach will meet the needs of all pupils. Theme 3: High ability Each of the three papers in this theme provides a unique contribution to the contentious debate around the most appropriate way to educate gifted and talented learners. The field is dominated by arguments for the need for specialised education for this cohort. The papers in this submission challenge this position arguing for the benefits of a more inclusive approach. Paper eight (8) is a literature review of interventions aimed at improving the educational achievement of gifted and talented pupils. Paper nine (9) explores parents’ views about high ability. Paper ten (10) presents initial findings from a study of staff working in one Education Authority in Scotland. Further evidence will be presented indicating how my empirical and conceptual work translates into accessible books and reports for use by teachers, students and Education Authorities, thus demonstrating impact “on the ground” and extending my work to include both an academic and practitioner audience. Conceptually the work submitted in this section evidences the central thesis that it is the implementation of a variety of methodological and pedagogical approaches by a knowledgeable educator that will best support gifted and talented learners. Conclusion It is important that the individuality, personal knowledge, beliefs and understanding teachers bring to the learning and teaching processes are explored, challenged and enhanced from a theoretical and methodological base. The syntheses of findings that are presented in this portfolio provide a critical and fine-grained understanding of teaching and learning across rarely connected disparate and discrete elements within education. It is this critical interrogation of existing practice that offers a unique contribution to the field. Explicitly such insights have yet to pass down into educational practice to produce more critically informed forms of educational praxis. The work presented in this submission offers a distinctive empirical and conceptual base from which to move forward.

This qualitative study provides new insight into how the sensitive management of the emotional climate of an early years setting contributes to a beneficial context for child development by focusing on enhancing the emotional well-being of the workforce. This action research centred on the experiences of staff employed to care for young children and explored the wide range of skills and responsibilities that are required of managers and staff teams in settings that provide day care and early education. It also considered the extent to which the needs and best interests of children are being adequately addressed. This enquiry contributes to the ongoing debate over how well young children are served by the use of early childcare and education settings and whether some young children may be at risk of emotional neglect if relationships and interactions in the setting are not sensitive and responsive to the emotional needs of the children and their carers. This research approach provides insight into how management actions and organisational practices in early years settings can impact on children’s well-being, learning and development, and draws on many viewpoints using a variety of research tools. After an initial survey of early years staff and managers of a range of settings in the East Midlands, the focus moves to data gathering activities arising in one main setting based in the region. The findings from the preliminary survey and the main setting raise important questions about the experiences of young children. Reflective management tools have been developed and successfully piloted in the main study setting. The findings demonstrate a significant link between the implementation of beneficial organisational practices in early years settings and the development of a positive emotional climate through addressing issues affecting the staff and children’s well-being. Although this study is located in one region with data collected from one main setting in particular, the research tools and findings have relevance to the organisational practices in other early years settings v Personal well-being and team morale of early years staff are shown to contribute to the quality of interactions that impact on children’s well-being. The issue of ‘being valued and appreciated’ is revealed as a key factor to be addressed in order to raise and maintain staff morale. Practitioners in the main setting identified positive leadership and management behaviours as contributing to feeling valued and appreciated. The development of a management style that empowers and motivates staff, is recognised here as compensatory in overcoming the inherent low pay and the sense of being undervalued often associated with early years work. A nurturing management style is shown to contribute to a positive emotional climate by improving staff retention and team stability. A positive emotional climate is described as an environment that supports children’s emotional development, cognitive development and subsequent educational achievement and social integration. The task of providing early years care and education at a level that promotes children’s emotional well-being is one that requires training in an holistic approach to care and development and high professional standards for those with a leadership responsibility. A young child’s positive emotional well-being is identified as a major factor in helping children to establish themselves as life-long learners and this study concludes that the development of critical reflective management skills is essential if early years settings are able to provide an environment in which children can thrive. The concept of a beneficial childhood is defined and the study recommends that a focus on child emotional well-being is the top priority that underpins local and national policy. The teamwork skills of staff are extended to include the child’s parents or main carers such that the adults collectively take responsibility for creating a coherent and consistent community of practice within which the children can thrive. The development of an identifiable and supportive group culture is regarded as the responsibility of the most senior person involved in the setting and this research identifies that this role requires assistance and support from others internal and external to the setting. The overall conclusions and recommendations focus on the following areas: · Recognition of the impact of adult well-being on children’s experiences; · Description of a beneficial leadership style for early years settings; · Clarification of specific organisational practices to be developed; · Consideration of parental involvement and shared responsibility for childhood; · Proposal of specific training activities to support development of practice.

Framed within the ‘narrative turn’ in the human sciences, this thesis aims to explore the negotiation of professional identities in higher education during a time of uncertainty and redundancy. Drawing on narrative interviews with ten English language teachers at a higher education institution in Northern Cyprus, the lived experience of redundancy is explored from the perspectives of the redundant teachers, who had to leave their institution after redundancy, and the retained teachers, who remained at the institution after redundancy. Narratives constructed before and after redundancy shed light on the socially constructed and dynamic nature of negotiating professional identities and reveal that while individuals’ identities are shaped within their communities of practice, the institutional and group identities are also mutually reconstructed during this complex and continuous process. In this respect, this thesis is a story of collective becoming of a community of practice which experienced disintegration as a result of redundancy and uncertainty. In this thesis I argue that the experience of losing one’s job can have a profound influence on both professional and personal identities and may result in identity shifts as well as the rejection of a new identity. The lived experience of redundancy and what happens to a community of practice when it experiences disintegration are both under-researched areas in applied linguistics, English language teaching (ELT) and studies in higher education (HE), yet at a time when the impact of the economic crisis on higher education around the world is being keenly felt, they are particularly relevant. In addressing this gap in the literature, the thesis offers insights that will be of value to teacher trainers and managers in both ELT and HE.

This study can be regarded as the first study that has focused on exploring citizenship and citizenship education in initial teacher education not only in the Omani context but also in Arabic contexts. Specifically, the main purpose of the present study was to identify the perceptions and practices relating to citizenship education within the initial teacher education programmes for social studies in the seven Colleges of Education. In particular, the research considers the following three issues: (a) the policy context of citizenship education in the educational system in general and in teacher education in particular; (b) the perceptions of stakeholders: the policy-makers, the tutors and the student teachers about citizenship and citizenship education. The perceptions about citizenship education were explored in terms of the rationale, goals, content and approaches of introduction in the curriculum and pedagogy; and (c) the practices of citizenship education by the tutors and the student teachers in order to identify to what extent the perceptions of citizenship education are applied in reality. This broad purpose was achieved by adopting a methodology that was based on an interpretive paradigm, which assumes that educational phenomena can be understood from different viewpoints. Therefore, policy documents were first analysed in order to locate citizenship education in Omani educational policy. Then, thirteen policy-makers from both the Ministry of Education and Teacher Education Institutions were interviewed to explore their perceptions regarding citizenship and citizenship education. In addition, the perceptions of student teachers of social studies in their fourth year and their tutors from seven Colleges of Education were surveyed and then a small sample of them was interviewed to deepen their responses in the questionnaires. Finally, the findings were used to build a framework to develop citizenship education in teacher education in Oman. The study came up with a range of interesting findings about the meanings of citizenship and the current provision of citizenship education in school education in general and teacher education in particular. The data showed that citizenship in the Omani context is, as is the case in other contexts, a multifaceted concept with emphasis being attached to citizens’ duties. The participants were convinced that citizenship is not a static idea; rather, it has always been influenced by the world’s development. Therefore, the stakeholders, except the student teachers, clearly acknowledged that citizenship in the era of globalisation has two dimensions: national citizenship and international citizenship. According to this view, they believed that the duties of Omani citizens stretch beyond their country’s borders. With regard to citizenship education, the study revealed that the participants viewed citizenship education as a means to build national pride and unity which are necessary to maintain stability in the country. Both the tutors and the student teachers experienced the limited and traditional implementations of citizenship education in the preparation programme of social studies. This result related to the dissatisfaction of the policy-makers, especially from the Ministry of Education, about the inadequate preparation of teachers to develop citizenship. Overall, the present study revealed a gap in the intentions of educational policy the requirements of teaching citizenship education in the schools and the actual practices of teacher education preparation programmes. Therefore, the study provided a framework to develop citizenship education in initial teacher education.