This study aimed to comparatively examine the self-efficacy and burnout levels of preschool teachers in Turkey and the United States. Of the general screening models, the study uses the relational screening model. A total of 90 teachers participated in the study. 32 of the participants were from the United States and 58 were from Turkey. The Teacher Self-Efficacy Scale and Burnout Scale were used in the study. The data were analyzed through the Whitney U-Test. According to the analyses regarding the self-efficacy levels of teachers, a significant difference in student participation sub-dimension as well as in total points in favor of the teachers in Turkey were found. However, no significant difference was found between the two countries with regards to teachers’ burnout levels. Regarding the self-efficacy levels of teachers working in Turkey, a significant difference was found in favor of teachers with two to five years of experience in the student participation sub-dimension, while no significant difference was found in the other sub-dimensions and in total points. On the other hand, no significant difference was determined was found between the self-efficacy levels and years of experience for the teachers in the United States.

This exploratory study is concerned about the extent to which a sample of 163 pre-school, primary and secondary Brazilian school teachers, expressed their opinion on how neuroscience might help their teaching and pupils´ learning. Evaluation instruments for Brazilian pupils were analysed. Two questionnaires were completed by the teachers. Results of a quantitative analysis indicated that in general teachers believe that neuroscience may contribute to the teaching and learning of their subject matter. An outline for an elective neuroscience and education course is presented. Educational implications are discussed.

The major purpose of this study was to explore the social studies teachers’ perceptions and understandings of citizenship education in primary schools in Botswana. The study adopted a post colonial lens by using the notions of the pedagogy of imperialism and contrapuntal criticism to interrogate the teachers’ perceptions of citizenship education. The study was qualitative in nature and employed the naturalistic inquiry paradigm. Qualitative methods were used to collect data. Data were analyzed using grounded theory through the constant comparative technique. The findings of the study revealed that social studies teachers perceived teaching about Botswana as citizenship education. The paradox lies in the teachers’ view that knowledge about Botswana’s cultures, histories and politics constitutes citizenship education. Therefore, the study recommends that citizenship education be re-imagined to take into account both the local and global trends on citizenship education. Furthermore, teachers have to be cognizant of the politics of mainstream academic knowledge and work towards knowledge construction devoid of imperialist ideologies.

The purpose of this study is to examine the opinions of middle school mathematics teachers on the integration of mathematics course and social issues. For this purpose, qualitative research method was used in this study. As for determining the participants of the research, criterion sampling among purposeful sampling methods was used. Being a middle school mathematics teacher as an occupation was considered as a criterion for determining the participants. The participants of the research consist of 13 middle school mathematics teachers in Turkey. So as to collect the research data, the semi-structured interview form created by the researchers was used. The data analysis was performed according to the content analysis, and Nvivo 10 program was used for the analysis. As a result of this study, the themes of the situation and methods of the integration of mathematics course and social issues, the attainment of democratic values in mathematics course and the ways of its attainment, gaining awareness of social justice and equality in mathematics course and the ways of its gaining, the activities performed by teachers for social issues in mathematics course and the teachers’ suggestions for the integration of mathematics course and social issues were reached and the results were discussed within this frame.

Higher education institutions (HEIs) demand from their faculty excellent teaching output and substantial number of quality productive scholarship, hence, balancing work and family demands becomes a central challenge among academics to maintain a healthy work-life balance. The decision to have children and family shapes the career trajectories of academics as well as their research productivity in particular. Striking a balance between attending to family matters and becoming scholarly productive is a tall order among Filipino women academics, having a culture that is just beginning to adopt to the more egalitarian aspect of attending to family matters. The empirical result of this study shows that indeed, parenting is a moderating factor between work-life balance and research productivity among Filipino women academics. Female faculty members in particular are susceptible to a balancing act between family commitments most especially in producing quality researches. Family life still pervades within the spectrum of research productivity on one side and work-life balance on the other end among women academics.

More and more student trajectories involve an academic stay abroad. To achieve the intercultural, personal or linguistic objectives associated with such placements, social inclusion with peers and faculty in the place of study is needed. This paper applies Bourdieu’s theory of capital as a conceptual framework to examine the experiences of students who have competed a placement abroad, in particular students from educationally disadvantaged families, students with disabilities, and migrant students. Longitudinal data were taken from the German National Education Panel Study (NEPS) with N=8.469 students. The findings show the interrelatedness of social inclusion and a placement abroad: students who experience high social inclusion with peers and faculty at the beginning of their studies are more likely to study abroad. Social capital with faculty increases after such a placement, in particular for at-risk student groups, while no difference in the increase in social inclusion is observed between student groups. The findings imply a need for early interventions as some of the effects already take place in the first semester.

This article contributes to the evidence base on the significance of context in enacting social justice leadership. It draws on data from the International School Leadership Development Network of 20+ countries who adopted a common qualitative approach involving interviews with principals identified as being social justice leaders. The article focuses on four case studies of Irish principals in varying primary elementary school contexts. Findings reveal local contextual features significantly impacted principals' perceptions, actions, and self-efficacy as social justice leaders. While the actions and motivation of the principals is similar, two of the principals, working in school contexts where the values and norms are not consonant with broader society, appear to lack confidence in their practice of social justice leadership. This article extends the existing evidence base by arguing for enhanced critical consciousness of all stakeholders related to the personal, institutional and community contexts in schools. It recommends a more flexible and iterative process of policy development to facilitate a more nuanced understanding of the cultural and ideological struggles in schools. Finally, it calls for governments and policy makers to take responsibility for and support disadvantaged communities as education alone cannot solve the issue of inequity.

Student dropout, defined as the temporary or definitive suspension of the exercise of the right to education, is attributable to multiple variables classified into individual, academic, institutional, and socioeconomic determinants which may be exacerbated in the context of the Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic. Consequently, this work aims to synthesize, from the available evidence, the behaviour and influence of the explanatory variables of school dropout in infant school, primary school and, high school in Colombia for the period 2014-2019 compared to the period 2020-2021 under the COVID-19 pandemic conditions. The research methodology consisted of a systematic review of 125 indexed articles for 2014-2019 and 32 reports related to dropout in Colombian Basic education for the 2020-2021 period. The systematic review of the 157 articles revealed that dropout was studied and explained in both time periods, mainly from the academic determinant whose most cited explanatory variables were: ‘teachers’, ‘curriculum’ and ‘methodologies used’. Moreover, it could be perceived that in the period 2014-2019, the socioeconomic variable was the second dropout determinant, considering ‘family income” as the most important indicator, while in 2020-2021 the “infrastructure” and the ‘political environment’ remained as the most dominant. Lastly, in 2020-2021, the variable ‘teachers’ was highly cited showing that their practice made students maintain their interest despite the physical distance.

The purpose of this paper is to explore if the learning of biographical writing contributes to the positive views and attitudes towards others of different groups. The paper used the Research and Development approach by designing and implementing a learning model of biographical writing. The subjects of this study were 200 seventh-grade students having different ethnic and religious backgrounds from nine junior high schools. The data-collecting method was pretest-posttest. The results of the study demonstrated that the average scores of the aspects of student empathy, student positive attitudes towards ethnic differences, and student positive attitudes towards religious differences increased in all the schools investigated. The increase of average score in the aspect of student empathy, positive attitudes towards ethnic differences, and positive attitudes towards religious differences could be classified into three categories: high, medium, and low. Most of the schools under study experienced medium and low increases of average score in all aspects.

The longitudinal changes of the average grades in four study semesters before and during the COVID-19 pandemic and distance learning are presented in the current study. 11th grade students’ (n=586; age M=17.38, SD=0.53) average grades were assessed, as well as their verbal and non-verbal reasoning abilities, and self-evaluations of problem-solving and self-management skills. The main findings of the study are: 1) There is a general pattern for the grades to increase during the four semesters from the autumn 2019 to the spring 2021; 2) The general tendency of changes in the grades is similar to various students’ groups based on their level of skills; 3) Higher level of students’ skills and cognitive abilities determined that students’ grades were higher and were more likely to increase during the “second wave of the pandemic”, compared to the middle and low-level skill groups. Results of the current study show a tendency for the average grades to increase during the pandemic and distance learning, however, there are group differences in the findings, relating the grade level to the individual level of students’ skills and abilities.

Recent educational policy initiatives in Ireland have focused on improving outcomes in reading and mathematics among students, particularly those experiencing educational disadvantage. However, science achievement in Irish primary schools has received much less research attention, especially in the context of educational disadvantage. This article examines science achievement and its relationship to school compositional effects in primary schools at the national level, including school-average indicators of the school context, as well as examining factors associated with science achievement in three distinct categories of schools (those with high, moderate, or minor levels of educational disadvantage). The data are drawn from the Fourth grade Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) 2015 database for Ireland. Multilevel analyses were implemented in a stepwise manner. Findings suggest the relevance of school contexts with regard to science achievement. Before including school-level contextual variables, students from ‘minor disadvantaged’ schools achieved significantly higher science scores than students from schools with ‘moderate’ or ‘high’ levels of disadvantaged. However, this difference disappears after controlling for predictors at the school level. The findings highlight the importance of the home environment, including early numeracy activities and skills before children start school. Results are discussed with regard to educational policy and educational practice in Ireland.

Numerous events occur in students' educational trajectories that are linked to school success. Some of these events are related to school-related factors. Moreover, these factors alter the quality of students' engagement, generating the risk of dropping out of school. The objective of this research has been to explore, compare and understand the different events that occur in the school trajectories of at-risk youths that are related to the existing dynamics in schools. In order to achieve this objective, a narrative research based on the life stories approach was developed. For the reconstruction of the stories, the technique of in-depth interviews and mixed data analysis was used, by means of different analysis techniques. The main conclusions reached after the research have been highly relevant for studies on educational trajectories of at-risk youth. The different factors associated with schools affect the trajectory and involvement of students. There are certain dynamics that have a greater presence in some stages or others, however, all of them can positively or negatively affect the quality of student engagement. Finally, it is shown that the key lies in the way in which the different dynamics of schools develop, i.e., how the dynamics associated with certain factors develop.