A social realist challenge to the structuring of professional practice knowledge for initial teacher education in England

Professional practice knowledge for beginning teachers involves grappling with the extent to which ‘theory’ and ‘practice’ should be evident during initial teacher education courses. The end point assessment tool for such programmes in England is that of the Teachers’ Standards (DfE, 2011). Successful achievement in relation to these, results in the award of Qualified Teacher Status (QTS). Of concern is the number of teachers who successfully secure QTS and subsequently leave the profession early. This thesis contributes an analysis of the particular way that the theory/practice relationship has been structured within the Teachers’ Standards and the impact that this form has had on professional agency.The prioritisation of the observable is contrasted with manifestations that recognise that within a moment of practice, invisible yet durable knowledge structuring mechanisms are also present. In order to accord these mechanisms due agency, the concept of diffraction (the physical phenomenon of wave interference), (Barad 2007) was drawn upon to enrich Bernstein’s (2000) social realist analysis of discourse. The data was gathered from a School Centered Initial Teacher Training (SCITT) provider in the West Midlands. The knowledge structuring dialogues from eight pairs of Teacher Educators and Beginning Teachers were analysed using Legitimation Code Theory (Maton, 2014) to reveal the extent to which practice was time and space bound.The findings suggest that when context-transcending forms of knowledge specialise observable practices relationally, there is increased potential for coherent professional knowledges to result. Structuring professional practice knowledge in this way, contrasts with forms of knowledge particularisation evident within the Teachers’ Standards and the knowledge dualisms that are often conspicuous in the literature. Therefore a challenge is offered to existing forms of professional practice knowledge structuring by drawing on quantum (entangling materials and minds) rather than Cartesian (separation of mind and matter) conceptions of time and space

The Berkeley Sample of Stripped-Envelope Supernovae

We present the complete sample of stripped-envelope supernova (SN) spectra observed by the Lick Observatory Supernova Search (LOSS) collaboration over the last three decades: 888 spectra of 302 SNe, 652 published here for the first time, with 384 spectra (of 92 SNe) having photometrically-determined phases. After correcting for redshift and Milky Way dust reddening and reevaluating the spectroscopic classifications for each SN, we construct mean spectra of the three major spectral subtypes (Types IIb, Ib, and Ic) binned by phase. We compare measures of line strengths and widths made from this sample to the results of previous efforts, confirming that O I {\lambda}7774 absorption is stronger and found at higher velocity in Type Ic SNe than in Types Ib or IIb SNe in the first 30 days after peak brightness, though the widths of nebular emission lines are consistent across subtypes. We also highlight newly available observations for a few rare subpopulations of interest.Comment: 13 pages; 14 figures; 3 tables. Accepted for publication in MNRA

Teacher education and the curriculum

In this chapter we analyse the development of primary teachers’ curriculum design capabilities through a case study from England. We examine how teachers, as co-researchers used the Curriculum Design Coherence (CDC) Model to gain insights into professional learning, as well as offering considerations in relation to the further development of the CDC Model itself. We explore the means of developing teachers’ relationship with knowledge and agency by cleaving open the intellectual space between lesson planning and curriculum specifications. We make the case that the approach to curriculum design currently predominate in the English context is largely transactional, limiting professionalism. We offer an alternative approach on based on developing teachers’ relationship with knowledge, foregrounding teachers as professionals with agency. Furthermore, we show how the systematic process of examining a curriculum can combat the conflation of curriculum and pedagogy, and deepen teachers’ understanding of subject knowledge

Improved Standardization of Type II-P Supernovae: Application to an Expanded Sample

In the epoch of precise and accurate cosmology, cross-confirmation using a variety of cosmographic methods is paramount to circumvent systematic uncertainties. Owing to progenitor histories and explosion physics differing from those of Type Ia SNe (SNe Ia), Type II-plateau supernovae (SNe II-P) are unlikely to be affected by evolution in the same way. Based on a new analysis of 17 SNe II-P, and on an improved methodology, we find that SNe II-P are good standardizable candles, almost comparable to SNe Ia. We derive a tight Hubble diagram with a dispersion of 10% in distance, using the simple correlation between luminosity and photospheric velocity introduced by Hamuy & Pinto 2002. We show that the descendent method of Nugent et al. 2006 can be further simplified and that the correction for dust extinction has low statistical impact. We find that our SN sample favors, on average, a very steep dust law with total to selective extinction R_V<2. Such an extinction law has been recently inferred for many SNe Ia. Our results indicate that a distance measurement can be obtained with a single spectrum of a SN II-P during the plateau phase combined with sparse photometric measurements.Comment: ApJ accepted version. Minor change

Berkeley Supernova Ia Program I: Observations, Data Reduction, and Spectroscopic Sample of 582 Low-Redshift Type Ia Supernovae

In this first paper in a series we present 1298 low-redshift (z\leq0.2) optical spectra of 582 Type Ia supernovae (SNe Ia) observed from 1989 through 2008 as part of the Berkeley SN Ia Program (BSNIP). 584 spectra of 199 SNe Ia have well-calibrated light curves with measured distance moduli, and many of the spectra have been corrected for host-galaxy contamination. Most of the data were obtained using the Kast double spectrograph mounted on the Shane 3 m telescope at Lick Observatory and have a typical wavelength range of 3300-10,400 Ang., roughly twice as wide as spectra from most previously published datasets. We present our observing and reduction procedures, and we describe the resulting SN Database (SNDB), which will be an online, public, searchable database containing all of our fully reduced spectra and companion photometry. In addition, we discuss our spectral classification scheme (using the SuperNova IDentification code, SNID; Blondin & Tonry 2007), utilising our newly constructed set of SNID spectral templates. These templates allow us to accurately classify our entire dataset, and by doing so we are able to reclassify a handful of objects as bona fide SNe Ia and a few other objects as members of some of the peculiar SN Ia subtypes. In fact, our dataset includes spectra of nearly 90 spectroscopically peculiar SNe Ia. We also present spectroscopic host-galaxy redshifts of some SNe Ia where these values were previously unknown. [Abridged]Comment: 34 pages, 11 figures, 11 tables, revised version, re-submitted to MNRAS. Spectra will be released in January 2013. The SN Database homepage (http://hercules.berkeley.edu/database/index_public.html) contains the full tables, plots of all spectra, and our new SNID template

Developing a national barometer of prejudice and discrimination in Britain

This is the first national survey of prejudice for over a decade. It measures prejudice and discrimination in Britain experienced by people with a wide range of protected characteristics: age, disability, race, sex, religion or belief, sexual orientation, pregnancy and maternity, and gender reassignment. Our report demonstrates the value of using a national survey of this type to measure prejudice and discrimination in Britain and to set out a benchmark for future surveys. The purpose of this research is to help establish a national ‘barometer’ for monitoring changes in the attitudes and experiences of the general population. We were commissioned by the Equality and Human Rights Commission to design and run a national survey of prejudice, using a consistent set of measures across a range of protected characteristics. We surveyed 2,853 adults in Britain using the NatCen Panel surveys and carried out an additional survey to target minority groups that may otherwise not be well represented in the survey. Our approach provides new insights into the form and prevalence of prejudice and discrimination in Britain. Measuring these issues in a consistent way across protected characteristics groups and across England, Scotland and Wales, gives us a uniquely recent and comparable overview. It enables us to look across a range of measures to paint a meaningful picture of the prejudice affecting a particular protected characteristic, rather than looking at individual measures on their own. Although it does not yet provide a picture of prejudice and discrimination for all protected characteristics – which would require a larger and further-developed survey – it sets out a workable model for a future national instrument for monitoring these issues in Britain. This report provides an overview of what we have found out about people’s experiences and expressions of prejudice in Britain

Developing a national barometer of prejudice and discrimination in Britain

This is the first national survey of prejudice in Britain for over a decade. It measures prejudice and discrimination experienced by people with a wide range of protected characteristics. The aim of this report is to demonstrate the value of using a national survey of this type to measure people’s experiences of prejudice in Britain, as well as people’s attitudes towards others. It also aims to set a benchmark for future surveys. The research was designed by Professor Dominic Abrams and Dr Hannah Swift from the Centre for the Study of Group Processes, University of Kent, and Professor Diane Houston from Birkbeck, University of London. It was conducted by the National Centre for Social Research

Sustaining professionalism: Teachers as co‐enquirers in curriculum design

In England, the development of teachers' curriculum design capabilities has been identified as a ‘challenge remaining’ (Department for Education [DfE]. (2022). Opportunity for all: Strong schools with great teachers for your child. https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/opportunity-for-all-strong-schools-with-great-teachers-for-your-child ). A recent White Paper (Department for Education [DfE]. (2022). Opportunity for all: Strong schools with great teachers for your child. https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/opportunity-for-all-strong-schools-with-great-teachers-for-your-child ) offered access to a publicly funded online platform as a solution. Drawing on Stenhouse's concepts of teachers as researchers and curriculum as an inquiry process, this article argues that such a policy initiative restricts both curriculum and professional development. An alternative approach to curriculum design, one based on Stenhouse's conception of the iterative development of teachers' professional and curriculum knowledge is profiled. In this article, we, as four teacher-researchers, analyse a project which featured the Curriculum Design Coherence (CDC) model. We share insights gained from our involvement, both in relation to our professional learning and the impact of our curriculum design work on our pupils. We argue that the ‘othering’ of teachers in research contributes towards the under valuing of practice-informed evidence in policy making. We draw on the work of Lawrence Stenhouse to inform a different means of generating educational research evidence, one that sustains teacher-researchers through engagement with principles and concepts so as to inform policy and curriculum development