This article examines the political discourse surrounding NCLB, educational reform, and how that discourse shaped perceptions of public education during the Bush Administration. Examining mass media campaigns in the New York Times and Time Magazine, the article demonstrates how the media has visually and textually framed and reinforced NCLB and market reforms as the only solution to address the failures of public education by attacking teachers’ unions and individual teachers. Visual and textual data were collected, cataloged, and analyzed employing frame analysis in concert with critical discourse and visual analysis.Analysis revealed that media framing presented an overwhelmingly negative image of teachers’ unions as opposed to NCLB and other school reform efforts. Even in the rare instances where unions were presented positively, the debate resonated with general public perception so that even when individuals or the general public are critical of NLCB and educational reform efforts, they support overa...

Imaging the Frame: Media Representations of Teachers, Their Unions, NCLB, and Education Reform.

Combating the spread of HIV/AIDS in Uganda has involved massive public education campaigns. One of the challenges of these campaigns has always involved the need to simultaneously respect and trans...

Cartoon drawing as a means of accessing what students know about HIV/AIDS: an alternative method

/pdf/assessing-new-literacies-perspectives-from-the-classroom-2gp53isljl.pdf

Assessing new literacies: Perspectives from the classroom.

Objective In January 2001, the Nelson R. MandelaSchool of Medicine in Durban, South Africa imple-mented Year 1 of a problem-based learning (PBL)curriculum. In attempting to comprehensively evaluatethe ﬁrst year, every aspect was investigated. Problem-based learning requires that, in addition to skills com-petency and knowledge acquisition, students undergopersonal development on their journey towardsbecoming reﬂective professionals. Suitable methods ofevaluation are therefore necessary to measure some ofthe new objectives. This discussion appraises thepossible use of student drawings as a qualitative eval-uation tool.Methods At the end of the ﬁrst academic year, studentswere asked to reﬂect on their experiences during theyear by drawing (with brief explanations) how they sawthemselves at the beginning (retrospective) and then atthe end of the year. Drawings were interpreted in termsof reference to the new programme, and were catego-rised as disparaging, ambivalent or afﬁrming.Results The results far exceeded expectations, provi-ding a rich data source regarding student perceptions oftheir experiences in their ﬁrst year. In response to thedrawings, immediate remedial action was taken: forexample, continuous assessment was introduced forthe objective structured clinical examination (OSCE)and orientation was extended to 3 weeks to providestudents with a better understanding of the PBLprocess.Conclusions From this pilot study, there can be nodoubt that student drawings can give us valuable insightinto the world of the learner, providing us withinformation that cannot be gleaned from any otherevaluation. We will continue to use drawings forma-tively, perhaps extending their use into portfolios.Keywords curriculum, drawings, evaluation, qualitativeresearch, problem-based learning.Medical Education 2003;37:895–906

The possible contribution of student drawings to evaluation in a new problem-based learning medical programme: a pilot study.

This article examines as a critical case how newspapers reported the grant maintained schools policy. It argues that claims that press reporting of educational issues is frequently unfair are only partially substantiated. The quality press is more likely to be internally inconsistent and contradictory in its reportage of education policy and, on occasion, to inhibit debate through discourses of omision.

The press, public knowledge and the grant maintained schools policy

By reflecting on a variety of cartoon representations of teachers and their work, this paper outlines a semiotic approach to undertaking research on teachers’ professional cultures.

Terry Warburton

Papers

Representing Teachers' Professional Culture through Cartoons