Driving educational improvement through transformative agency by double stimulation in a high school change laboratory

The research programme on transformative agency by double stimulation within cultural-historical activity theory is a resource for responding to pressing societal needs of our time. The peculiarity of this programme lies in the ambition to develop a rigorous approach to grasping processes of collective transformative agency and generating viable pedagogical instruments to support them. The metaphor of warping is useful for this endeavour. In this article the metaphor is applied to three empirical examples to show how collectives generate transformative agency, how the process evolves or flounders, and how it can be supported. The first example stems from a waiting experiment originally described by Vygotsky as a prototypical example of this type of agency. The second and third examples stem from data collected in a study on eradicating homelessness in Finland. The article discusses the implications of this approach for research and practice.

A wide variety of public and private initiatives aim to support on-farm sustainable development. But these sustainable farming initiatives (SFIs) show considerable variation in their success to do so. To understand success factors and propose appropriate strategies for continuing and expanding SFI’s, we scrutinized the developmental history of Veldleeuwerik (VL), a Dutch SFI, by using concepts from Engeström’s Cultural-Historical Activity Theory (CHAT); i.e. activity system, contradictions, zone of proximal development (ZPD) and expansive learning (Engeström, Y. (1987). Learning by expanding: An activity-theoretical approach to developmental research. Orienta-Konsultit). We found how contradictions between the components of an activity system were dealt with by VL’s participating actors and how they contributed to expansion of its possibilities. By distinguishing eight dimensions in VL’s expansive learning, six potential strategies to expand an SFI’s developmental possibilities could be derived: (i) embed in and align with the agri-food system, (ii) communicate with and towards the broader society, (iii) attract more participants, (iv) guarantee a variety of knowledge exchange on sustainable development, (v) increase the longevity, (vi) guarantee equal positions in decision making. CHAT proved a comprehensive theory to understand change and development at the level of the SFI.

Supporting transformative agency in initial teacher education: A Change Laboratory in China

This paper presents findings on the relationship between high school sport participation and involvement in sport as adults. The data are provided by a survey of a large representative national sample of adult Canadians. For different age subgroups among women and men, we tested the school sport experiences hypothesis that sport involvement during the high school years contributes to later adult involvement in sport. The measurement of sport involvement in the high school years is concerned with intramural and inter-school activities. Adult sport activity has three measures: sport involvement per se, involvement in an organized setting, and competitive involvement. The results are consistent with the school experiences hypothesis. High school sport involvement, for inter-school sport activities, is a comparatively strong predictor of adult sport involvement. The effects of high school involvement persist after controlling for correlated social background factors. Moreover, the effects of school sport experiences hold across age and gender subgroups. Although diminished with temporal distance from the high school years, the effects of high school involvement nonetheless extend even to respondents aged 40-59 (i.e., those approximately 22 to 42 years beyond their school years) among both genders. Interpretations of the results are discussed.

The relationship of parental nurturance to self-esteem for seven distinct adolescent and early-adulthood age groups (N = 784) was investigated. Analysis showed that even though mothers' and fathers' nurturance together were more strongly related to self-esteem during the junior high school years (R2 values greater than 50% were obtained in each of the junior high samples) than during the high school and college years (R2 values less than 40% were obtained in each of these samples), parental nurturance still remained a robust predictor of self-esteem during these latter years. These results were discussed within the context of (a) the stability at different ages of the bases upon which one's judgments of self-esteem are made, and (b) parental nurturance as a stabilizing influence during the transitional years of adolescence and early adulthood.

To be in the struggle for justice and liberation is ... to be in a luta continua, the struggle that always continues.1I. THE GHOST OF PHARAOHThe recently produced movie Exodus: Gods and Kings,2 highlights that Moses was raised as an Egyptian prince in Pharaoh's court together with the real prince, who later became a new oppressive Pharaoh to the Hebrews. Moses and the prince grew up as family and friends. Later, Moses goes into exile and then returns to solicit Pharaoh for the liberation of his people from oppression. Pharaoh resists until the plagues break his hard heart after the death of his first son. He sets the enslaved Hebrews free but then regrets this decision. Taking his best soldiers and chariots he pursues them, intending to bring them back. The Hebrews are crossing the Red Sea when the Egyptian army catches up, entering into the dry sea. The water reverts to its normal state, drowning the Egyptian army with their chariots. Pharaoh, however, is washed by a high wave to the shore, where the Hebrews have crossed. As the movie ends, he is seen walking on the shore with Moses! With this ending the movie makes an unflattering point: the ghosts of oppressors stay and travel with the oppressed, even when it seems the latter have crossed over to the place of liberation. The oppressed of yesterday therefore embody the former oppressors and become the oppressors of today. Kenneth Ngwa's exposition of postwar hermeneutics thus cites Masiiwa Gunda's observation that many Moseses of African countries have become Pharaohs of today.The pursuit and presence of Pharaoh also highlight the obvious, namely, that the oppressors do not give up on their subjects-they want their labor and resources. They therefore harness their best horses and chariots to keep following them and reaching them in one way or another to persist with their agendas of oppression and exploitation. If there is something instructive in Pharaoh's long pursuit and his survival in the movie, it is that the struggle is never finished. It is rather a luta continua,3 the struggle that continues. One is never really free from the various oppressive structures; one is always pursued. This situation calls for trickster intellectuals4 and communities, who are perpetually in suspicion of the powerful and their institutions, for all possible forms of oppression and exploitation. In my response to Kenneth Ngwa's proposed postwar framework of reading, I begin by tracing the southern African wars of liberation and the ghosts of pharaohs that have haunted the region. This remembering of history is an act of divination5 that sets the stage for trickster6 reengagement with Egypt. As I understand it, Egypt refers to our very own national, regional, and international structures, institutions, and communities where our relationships occur.II. REMEMBERING THE HISTORY OF WARMy high school and university years were marked by southern African regional wars of liberation.7 The 1970s saw intensified Mozambique, Zimbabwean, South West African (Nambian) wars of independence and the South African struggle against apartheid.8 Although Botswana was then regarded as an island of peace (given that the country was surrounded by the regional wars of liberation), it hosted refugees, who were fleeing, staying, or passing through en route to training centers in other countries such as Zambia, Angola, Mozambique, the Soviet Union, or China. The black student uprising against apartheid and the massacre of protesters on 16 June 1976 happened at the end of my high school years. The unrest forced scores of students to flee to countries in the region for safety and for military training to fight the white minority regime of South Africa.Botswana may have hosted other liberation-struggle personalities who ventured into the oppressed countries, to wage war against the colonizing powers. I remember a night of systematic bombing of houses in my city that were known to host liberation fighters. …

Age of entry and the high school performance of immigrant youth

This qualitative within-site case study (N = 10) is a follow-up study to a 2006–2007 investigation that analyzed how 1 high school created a community of care for its ninth-grade students through the implementation of a ninth-grade transition program—Freshman Focus. All participants were interviewed again 3 years later during students’ senior year to investigate how Freshman Focus might have fostered a long-lasting community of care that extended throughout students’ high school years. Findings suggest teacher–student and program–student relationships served as ways to foster a community of care that promoted a positive school experience for students. While findings indicate that Freshman Focus fostered a community of care that lasted throughout these students’ high school years, it is unclear whether this caring community extended to the broader school community.

Objectives The purpose of this study is to examine the trend of changes in adolescents' physical activity using data on adolescents' physical activity over the past five years from the first year of middle school to the second year of high school. In addition, it is intended to provide basic data for improving healthy physical activity by checking how the participation time of adolescent survey participants who experienced the COVID-19 epidemic has changed. Methods This is a secondary analysis study using data from the ‘Korean Children and Youth Panel Survey 2018’. Analyses were conducted using descriptive statistics, frequency analysis, correlation analysis, and latent growth model analysis with the SPSS/AMOS 25 program. Results First, The average physical activity time of adolescents decreased each year from middle school to high school, but remained at similar levels during the first and second years of high school. Second, The physical activity during the first and second years of middle school showed the highest positive correlation, while the correlation between the first year of middle school and the second year of high school was the lowest. Third, the latent growth model analysis showed that a nonlinear change model was more appropriate than a linear change model for the trends in adolescent physical activity. Specifically, the decrease in average physical activity time was pronounced during the middle school years and became more gradual during the high school years. Lastly, the changes in physical activity before and after the COVID-19 pandemic were significant, and the reduced levels of physical activity persisted thereafter. Conclusions Changes in adolescent physical activity were related to transitions between school levels, with particularly rapid changes observed before and after the COVID-19 pandemic. This highlights the need for appropriate encouragement of physical activity tailored to the growth stages of adolescents and active measures to enhance physical activity levels that declined after the COVID-19 pandemic.

An Interview With Emily Ann Smith by DELMAS W. ABBOTT This interview with Emily Ann Smith was conducted on paper—with the asking end in New York and the answering end in Berea; so it may seem to lack the spontaneity, the give and take of a face-to-face conversation. Nevertheless, much of the essence of dedicated teacher, compassionate human being, woman of special intelligence comes vividly alive in the answers to the interview questions. Much of the person is here for all to admire. I first talked to Emily Ann on the phone when she was out on Long Island spending the year-end holidays with her sister Virginia. We were not able to arrange an interview time, which would have been face-to-face with a tape recorder picking it all up. Emily Ann agreed to attempt answers to written questions which I would send to her at Berea. When she sent me the answers to my questions, Emily Ann began her accompanying letter like this: "Here it is. Everybody who ever took an assignment from me is avenged." That seems delightfully in character with the woman. Here it is: D.W.A. I know your home is in Mayfield, Graves County, Kentucky. That is flat country in the western end of the state, and it has always had for me a more southern flavor than any other part of the state. I'm wondering if there is anything in your ancestral background that relates to Southern Appalachian mountain people in a way to influence you to devote your life to a career of teaching at Berea College which draws its students mainly from the Southern Appalachian area? E.A.S. No. The area was brand new to me when I came to Berea. I think you are right about West Kentucky. It seems to have more southern flavor than other parts of the state. My people came from North Carolina and Virginia, some through Tennessee, some by barge down the Cumberland River. I had two great-grandfathers living in Mayfield during the Civil War—one Federal, the other Confederate. In private life they were friends. Why did I come to Berea? Just out of graduate school, I had to look for a job in order to pay back money I had borrowed to go to graduate school. I already knew that eventually I wanted to live somewhere in Kentucky—a sort of Br'er Rabbit preference for the briar patch. Also I wanted to move from high school teaching—which I enjoyed —to college teaching. Just to see. And I was attracted to the special differences of Berea College. I liked the idea of its Labor System, reinforcing academic training. I heard good things about the independence and strong purpose of the Berea students. I thought it would be good to work with them. It was. D.W.A. How did you happen to choose English literature and writing as your teaching discipline? Were you early exposed to good literature? Did you have some inner compulsion to read, imagine, and then to write tales of your own? 6 E.A.S. I have always liked words—mine or somebody else's—and I was inclined, when nobody was looking, to count on my fingers. I come from a big tribe, most of whom like to read and talk and write. Any sign of creativity in us children was encouraged by my parents. They praised my early third and fourth grade compositions on such subjects as the origin of the dandelion or why a beaver has a flat tail. They suggested here and there, but mostly they cheered. And writing seemed to come naturally. I read as fast and as much as possible. I learned to see and hear and feel and smell consciously and to convert my reactions into words to suit myself. D.W.A. Perhaps you'd mention something of the educational background that prepared you for teaching. E.A.S. Briefly, as remembered from old resumes, my training was as follows: 3 years of high school in Mayfield 1 year of the Louisville Girl's High School (for better college preparation in Latin...

Does the Direction of Effects in the Association Between Depressive Symptoms and Health-Risk Behaviors Differ by Behavior? A Longitudinal Study Across the High School Years

Language development of students during the high school years has not received a great deal of attention from researchers. More has been learned about developments in this period through studies carried out by educators. Further, these studies are largely concerned with analyses of written language rather than spoken language. There are some exceptions and these are studies of pragmatic knowledge during this age period. The results of the written language analyses indicate that, in general, with age there is increasing use of sentence-combining structures. Sentences become lengthier and more complex. It is not surprising that there is no large body of research on structural language development in this period because, presumably, there are no longer remarkable changes in what students know.KeywordsNative SpeakerLanguage DevelopmentOral LanguageAcademic WritingAcademic LanguageThese keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.

YOU'LL find the winners of the blue ribbons for state policy right down the aisle from the prize-winning canned peaches and lattice-top cherry pies. Many more deserved blue ribbons, and the competition was fierce. Beefy intent and symmetry won out over pretty. The Beefiest Award. A number of states passed omnibus bills this year. The meatiest emerged from Iowa, New Mexico, Utah, Nevada, Oklahoma, and Arkansas. Evenhandedness Award. Tough budgetary times call for fairness. Louisiana H.B. 573 requires that when education appropriations are reduced to avoid a deficit, the total dollar amount of the reductions must be split equally between the board of regents and the state board of elementary and secondary education. Good for Kids Awards. Connecticut S.B. 886 requires the State Prevention Council to determine long-term goals, strategies, and outcome measures related to the health and well-being of children and families. These include early intervention strategies, an increase in the proportion of healthy pregnant women and newborns, a decrease in child neglect and abuse, an increase in school-ready children, an increase in children who succeed in school, a decrease in children who are unsupervised after school, and a decrease in juvenile suicide and crime. The Carrot Award. Oklahoma H.B. 326 offers higher education assistance to eighth- to 10th-grade students who qualify on the basis of financial need, providing they 1) attend school regularly and do homework regularly; 2) refrain from substance abuse; 3) refrain from committing crimes or delinquent acts; 4) have schoolwork and school records reviewed by mentors designated by the program; 5) provide information requested by the Oklahoma State Regents for Higher Education or by the state board of education; and 6) participate in program activities. Arts Supporters Awards. Kentucky S.B. 154 requires the education department to create a program to promote the integration of the arts and foreign languages into the elementary school program. Meanwhile, New Mexico enacted the Fine Arts Education Act (H.B. 12), which provides funding for fine arts in public schools. Care and Feeding Award. H.B. 1094 creates the Oklahoma Partnership for School Readiness Board. The board is to promote school readiness by supporting community-based efforts to increase the number of children who are ready to succeed by the time they enter school. Productive High School Awards. New Mexico H.B. 305 requires next-step plans for high school students in which the students set personal postgraduation goals. The law requires a final next-step plan as a prerequisite for graduation. North Carolina created the Innovative Education Initiatives Act to develop cooperative efforts between secondary schools and institutions of higher education. The goals are to reduce dropout rates, increase high school and college graduation rates, and decrease the need for remedial programs in higher education. In addition, H.B. 601 in North Carolina encourages early entry of motivated students into four-year college programs. Part of Texas S.B. 1108 requires staff members to identify each student who 1) hasn't performed well on assessments and 2) is not likely to receive a diploma before the fifth year of high school. For each such student, a graduation plan is to be developed that identifies educational goals and includes diagnostic information, appropriate monitoring and intervention, and so on. Connecticut H.B. 6391 acknowledges and addresses the educational needs of children in the juvenile justice system. Part of Texas S.B. 976 establishes the Middle College Education Pilot Program to serve students who are at risk of dropping out of school or who wish to complete high school at an accelerated pace. Yardstick Awards. North Dakota S.B. 2065 requires the state to develop and implement state assessments and specifies that the fiscal impact will fall entirely on the state. …

This paper underscores the methodological affordances of using video data as a boundary object to foster expansive learning. Based on a study conducted in a school in the war-affected Northern province of Sri Lanka, we demonstrate how expansive learning was catalyzed by video elicitation practices embedded in the methodology, revealing underlying tensions. In research contexts that examine complex systems such as classrooms – where teachers, students and researchers share a bounded space yet occupy distinct roles – this approach offered strategies to deepen data analysis and interpretation, ultimately creating potential ways to disrupt problematic learning and teaching practices. We use cultural historical activity theory in conjunction with boundary crossing to describe how expansive learning was triggered, facilitated by video elicitationand generated granular, discursive and context-rich conversations among participants. Video data was recast from a static data source into one that catalyzed expansive learning and collaborative knowledge generation among participants, demonstrating the methodological affordances of video data as a medium for meaningful shifts in classroom practices.

Research has identified successful transitions from middle to high school as critical for students’ academic success. Identifying risks and protective factors associated with challenge or success in the early years of high school is crucial, especially for African American students who are disproportionately represented in the ranks of adolescents who underachieve in academics, receive school discipline sanctions, and drop out of high school. The present study examined risks associated with perceived discrimination and the protective function of school racial support and two aspects of African American adolescent identity (identification with academics and racial centrality). This study followed a sample of 46 low-achieving African American students through the first 2 years of high school. Findings showed that over and above the negative influence of discrimination and levels of ninth-grade classroom engagement, students’ identification with academics in the ninth grade was a strong predictor of tenth-grade classroom engagement. This finding points to the promise of identification with academics as a protective factor which could help adolescents reach their academic potential.