Implementation of the 2012 upper secondary school curriculum in Mexico: a 21st-century framework enquiry

Objective. This study aims to analyze how the new upper secondary school curriculum in Mexico captures 21st-century skills and teachers’ perceptions of success. Method. The design of the study complies a comparison analysis between the Mexican upper secondary school curriculum and a 21st-century skills framework. Additionally, qualitative data on teachers’ perceptions of success is collected through eight focus groups with 72 participants in 4 States of Mexico. Results. The findings show that the curriculum is short in strategies for the development of 21st-century skills. Moreover, although teachers welcome them, they perceive a lack of support and doubt about students’ learning capabilities. Conclusions. Although Mexico has progressed in providing a 21st-century skills learning environment through the new curriculum, the educational system remains with the opportunity to offer a more suitable and adequate framework as well as support and training for teachers.

The Impact on French Upper Secondary Schools of Reforms Aiming to Improve Students’ Transition to Higher Education

For a long time, the French education system has been characterized by strong institutional disconnection between secondary education (enseignement secondaire) and higher education (enseignement supérieur). This situation has nevertheless started to change over the last 20 years as the “need-to-adapt” argument has been widely used to push for three sets of interrelated reforms with the official aim of improving student flows to, and readiness for, higher education (HE). The first reforms relate to the end-of-upper-secondary-school baccalauréat qualification and were carried out in two waves. The second set of reforms concerns educational guidance for transition from upper secondary school to HE, including widening participation policies targeting socially disadvantaged youths. Finally, the third set has established a national digital platform, launched in 2009, to manage and regulate HE applications and admissions. These reforms with strong neoliberal leanings have nevertheless been implemented within a system that remains profoundly conservative. Changes to the baccalauréat, to educational guidance, and to the HE admissions system have made only minor alterations to the conservative system of hierarchical tracks, both at the level of the lycée (upper secondary school) and in HE, thus strongly weakening their potential effects. Moreover, the reforms themselves combine neoliberal discourse and decisions with other perspectives and approaches aiming to preserve and even reinforce this conservative structure. This discrepancy is evident in the conflicting aims ascribed both to guidance and to the new online application and admissions platform, expected, on the one hand, to raise students’ ambitions and give them greater latitude to satisfy their wishes but also, on the other hand, to help them make “rational” choices in light of both their educational abilities and trajectories and their existing HE provision and job prospects. This mixed ideological and structural landscape is also the result of a significant gap in France between policy intentions and implementation at a local level, especially in schools. Several factors are responsible for this discrepancy: the fact that in order to ward off criticism and protest, reforms are often couched in very abstract terms open to multiple interpretations; the length and complexity of the reform circuit in a centralized educational system; the lack of administrative means through which to oversee implementation; teachers’ capacity to resist reform, both individually and collectively. This half-conservative, half-liberal educational regime is likely to increase inequalities across social and ethnoracial lines for two main reasons. The first is that the potential benefits of “universal” neoliberal policies promising greater choice and opportunity for all—and even of policies directly targeting working-class and ethnic minority students, such as widening participation schemes—are frequently only reaped by students in academic tracks, with a good school record, who are mostly upper- or middle-class and White. The second is that, under the traditional conservative regime, in addition to being the victims of these students’ advantages and strategies, working-class students also continue to be channeled and chartered toward educational tracks and then jobs located at the bottom of the educational and social hierarchy.

Schoolscaping in the third space

The aim of this paper is to trace students’ multilingualism and agency in the schoolscape of the Language Introduction Programme (LIP) in one Swedish upper secondary school. Through linguistic schoolscaping, the study contributes to a deeper understanding of LIP. The schoolscape is analysed as reconstructions of photographs of displayed images, objects, symbols, and written language on walls and elsewhere in the school area. The photographs are analysed in terms of how they orient to time, place, and space; control behaviour; and shape discourses. Through the analysis, discourses of an organized, inclusive, and tolerant society appear, that simultaneously shape a discourse of behaviour: in this school (and in Sweden) we (want to) follow (the) rules. Students’ multilingualism is nearly absent in the schoolscape, as is their agency. In line with Bhabha’s concept third space, the schoolscape may be understood as a space for Swedishness, where inclusion demands mastery of Swedish. The in-betweenness of the LIP, as a transitional programme, appears as a space to escape otherness by changing language, which is the requirement for inclusion. Thus, in this case, the signage displayed in the schoolscape does not open up spaces for identity development related to multilingualism or multiculturalism. Opening space for students as agents in the schoolscape and making their diverse linguistic resources visible would also open up a third space for negotiation of norms, through contestation, resistance, and manifestation. Thus students’ development of multiple identities would be enabled and their opportunities to be (co-)creators of their own futures widened.

More than a matter of qualification: Teachers’ thoughts on the purpose of social studies and history teaching in vocational preparation programmes in Swedish upper-secondary school

The aim of this article is to increase our understanding of how history and social studies teachers in vocational preparation programmes (VET) in Sweden relate to the obligation of preparing students for their future lives as citizens. Previous research on VET programmes has primarily emphasised predetermined roles of education. Different critical perspectives have established how different VET practices contribute to reproducing specific values and a type of knowledge that leaves less room for students to act as independent subjects. In part, the findings of this article contribute to problematising such a description. In a series of interviews, teachers expressed what can best be described as a clear will to prepare students for a future as broadminded and tolerant citizens. The multi-perspective approach emphasised by these teachers not only illustrates the socialisation and qualification functions of education, it also gives prominence to the importance of student subjectification. Furthermore, this article stresses that the teachers do not view the question of the purpose of their subjects in terms of either/or. Rather, it suggests they see their obligations as a matter of professional judgment and customised responses to unique didactic situations.

Magic muzzles? The silencing of teachers through HRM, performance appraisal and reputation concern

PurposeIn the deregulated public sector upper secondary school field in Oslo, Norway, teachers’ voice is found to be restricted. The purpose of the present paper is to examine human resource management (HRM) approach, satisfaction with the performance appraisal (PA) system and concern for reputation as possible antecedents to voice restrictions.Design/methodology/approachThe present study is based on a survey (N = 1,055) carried out among upper secondary school teachers in one urban, one suburban and one rural area of Norway. Data were analyzed with path analysis, including analyses of mediation, moderation and moderated mediation.FindingsAnalyses reveal that there is a positive relationship between voice restrictions and control-oriented HRM, PA dissatisfaction and reputation concern, respectively. Low-quality leader–member exchange (LMX) mediates the relationships between voice restrictions and control-oriented HRM, and voice restrictions and PA dissatisfaction, but not between voice restrictions and reputation concerns. No moderation or moderated mediation effects were found.Originality/valueWhile there is a broad literature on deregulation and marketization of public sector schools, research on its consequences is limited, and scholarship on the consequences for teachers’ voice is in its infancy. To the best of the author’s knowledge, this study is among the first to explore these issues, and, in addition, makes a rare contribution by unveiling that both PA satisfaction and reputation concern is related to voice restrictions.

PENGGUNAAN MEDIA PEMBELAJARAN TIGA DIMENSI DALAM MENINGKATKAN PEMAHAMAN KONSEP MATERI JARAK TITIK, GARIS, DAN BIDANG PESERTA DIDIK DI SMK

Based on the phenomenon that we encounter in Mathematics Learning from Primary School to Upper Secondary School or Vocational High School, it is still not satisfactory. Mathematics learning tends to still be at the achievement of curriculum targets or books used as compulsory books. Learning is still dominated by teachers, where learners are more likely to accept the knowledge provided by teachers without the process of processing the existing potential. Learning does not emphasize on the understanding of the material studied and is not associated with the actual experience of the participants. In other words, the learning of mathematics is not meaningful because the learning has not been associated with the scheme that has been possessed by learners. Based on the above phenomenon, research was conducted on the use of three-dimensional learning media in improving the understanding of the concept of point distance, line, and field of XII OTKP-2 students in SMK Negeri 1 Bandung academic year 2021-2022. This research is a classroom action research that aims to improve students' understanding of mathematics learning concepts by using three-dimensional learning media on the material of point distances, lines, and fields in XII OTKP-2 class SMK Negeri 1 Bandung academic year 2021-2022. Each learner can use this three -dimensional learning media in accordance with their interests, and potential. Because the learning media used is the result of the learners themselves, it means that this learning media will be better understood by learners and more interested. ABSTRAKBerdasarkan fenomena yang kita temui dalam Pembelajaran Matematika mulai dari Sekolah Dasar sampai dengan Sekolah Menengah Atas atau Sekolah Menengah Kejuruan masih belum memuaskan. Pembelajaran Matematika cenderung masih pada pencapaian target kurikulum atau buku yang digunakan sebagai buku wajib. Pembelajaran masih didominasi guru, dimana peserta didik lebih cenderung menerima pengetahuan yang diberikan guru tanpa proses pengolahan potensi yang telah ada. Pembelajaran kurang menekankan pada pemahaman akan materi yang dipelajari dan tidak dikaitkan dengan pengalaman nyata peserta didk. Dengan kata lain, pembelajaran matematika belum bermakna karena pembelajaran belum dikaitkan dengan skema yang telah dimiliki oleh peserta didik. Berdasarkan fenomena di atas, dilakukan penelitian tentang penggunaan media pembelajaran tiga dimensi dalam meningkatkan pemahaman konsep materi jarak titik, garis, dan bidang peserta didik kelas XII OTKP-2 SMK Negeri 1 Bandung tahun pelajaran 2021-2022. Penelitian ini merupakan penelitian tindakan kelas yang bertujuan untuk meningkatkan pemahaman konsep belajar matematika peserta didik dengan menggunakan media pembelajaran tiga dimensi pada materi jarak titik, garis, dan bidang di kelas XII OTKP-2 SMK Negeri 1 Bandung tahun pelajaran 2021-2022. Setiap peserta didik dapat menggunakan media pembelajaran tiga dimensi ini sesuai dengan minat, dan potensi yang dimilikinya. Karena media pembelajaran yang digunakan adalah hasil dari buatan peserta didik sendiri, artinya media pembelajaran ini akan lebih dipahami oleh peserta didik dan lebih tertarik.