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Biotechnology Education: An Investigation of Corporate and Communal Science in the ClassroomMcLaughlin, John 24 July 2006 (has links)
It is impossible to imagine our schools or community without framing such a view around a corporate structure. Money, capital, and economic stakeholders are all around us, building a corporate landscape that all members of the community must travel through in the course of their everyday lives. To suggest that education should be void of any type of economic influence would be to deny that a very important thread of our communities' tapestry exists.
As we look at the way that these education intentions move outside our own communities and connect us to other communities and the world, we see corporate education economics framed in either a global or communal perspective. A corporate science education perspective tends to treat science with strict positivism, and technology with hard determinism. Communal theories of science education view science as post-positivistic and technology with a softer determinism; as a result social implications emerge, and the science becomes more socially constructed. It supports the personal capital of all students, regardless of their view of science or technology. It allows students to "border cross" more easily so they can "scaffold" new science information onto previous learning.
This research consists of exploring how biotechnology education emerged within the state, how the resources intersected within a biotechnology conference and how teachers conceptualized biotechnology practices in their own classrooms. The researcher pieced together a sketch of the history of how biotechnology curriculum arose in high school biology classes. The researcher also explored the hybrid nature of biotechnology resources such as an educational conference where teachers attend workshops and lectures. The practices of two teachers in a public high school and one in a private school setting were also analyzed. / Ph. D.
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Teacher attrition in Zambian schools : an educational management analysisKukano, Crispin 08 1900 (has links)
The purpose of this empirical study was to establish how school managers address the problem of teacher attrition in public secondary schools in Zambia with a view of developing strategies that may be used to reduce teacher attrition in schools. The objectives of the study were to examine how teacher attrition affects the functioning of public secondary schools; find out which factors influence teacher attrition in public secondary schools; and determine and describe which measures are used to sustain teacher retention in public secondary schools. The study adopted a case study design employing mainly the qualitative approach of data collection and analysis. However, quantitative methods of data collection and analysis were also employed to a lesser extent to complement the qualitative aspect. The data were collected through interviews and questionnaires. The sample consisted of 33 participants comprising 30 school managers and three (3) district education board Secretaries from Chongwe, Lusaka and Kafue Districts of Lusaka province. The qualitative data were analysed using thematic analysis while the quantitative data were analysed using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) Version 20 to generate descriptive statistics. The findings revealed that teacher attrition positively correlates to poor staffing levels and poor student achievement (r=0.812). The study further established factors influencing teacher attrition in public secondary schools as being poor working conditions, lack of administrative support, low salaries, low social status accorded to teachers and lack of continuous professional development were among the major causes of teacher attrition. In terms of measures used by school managers in addressing the issue of teacher attrition, these include: high salaries, reduced workload, adequate administrative support, fair promotion and fair treatment, participatory decision making, and creating a positive school climate. Basing on the study findings, the following recommendations are made; that school managers should coordinate organisation climate, that is, they should start with transformation of their individual school’s organisational climate in order to create an enabling atmosphere which reduces teacher attrition. School managers should effect strategies for teacher retention through continuous professional development; they should ensure that all programmes and activities aim at addressing the actual continuous professional development needs of the teachers. School managers should apply sufficient school management support. The MoE provide explicit preparation for school managers by providing and showing them the significance of managing teacher attrition. / Educational Management and Leadership / D. Ed. (Education Management)
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