Reconciling Political and Economic Goals in the Net Neutrality Debate

The net neutrality debate is one of several sites of struggles to adapt and redefine rights and obligations of stakeholders in the Internet-centric communications system. Its outcomes will shape the future of the Internet and influence the level and distribution of its benefits. We identify key values that drive the net neutrality discussion and examine the governance mechanisms proposed to achieve these objectives. We find that there is no single policy instrument that allows realization of the range of valued political and economic objectives simultaneously. Contrary to some of the claims advanced in the current debate, safeguarding multiple goals requires a combination of instruments that will likely involve government and nongovernment measures. Furthermore, promoting goals such as the freedom of speech, political participation, investment, and innovation calls for complementary policies.     

The impact of childhood foster care and other out-of-home placement on homeless women and their children

OBJECTIVE: This study compares homeless women who had childhood histories of foster care or other out-of-home placement to those who have not. METHOD: A countywide probability sample of homeless women (n = 179) received structured interviews. RESULTS: One-third of homeless women reported being raised apart from their parents. Among women with children under age 18, most (61.5%) had children who had lived in foster care or other out-of-home placements. Variables associated with homeless mothers' children living in foster care or other out-of-home placements were: Child was school-age, mother was age 35 or older, mother had a current alcohol or drug use disorder, mother experienced childhood sexual abuse, and mother ran away from home (when under age 18). CONCLUSIONS: Parenting is difficult for homeless mothers who may need to place their children with others to facilitate school attendance. Parent-child interaction may be problematic in family shelters where privacy is rare. Thus, programs promoting family preservation for homeless mothers should provide parenting support as well as permanent housing.     

Social Class and Educational Research

Social class has always been one of the most prominent variables in educational research, yet the various ways of classifying it have never ceased to be controversial. The author reviews the major classifications, assesses their validity, surveys the use made of them in research literature, suggests how they should be interpreted, and assesses to what degree findings couched in these terms correspond to the reality of social differences in Britain.     

Obtaining Diagnostic Classification Model Estimates Using Mplus

Diagnostic classification models (aka cognitive or skills diagnosis models) have shown great promise for evaluating mastery on a multidimensional profile of skills as assessed through examinee responses, but continued development and application of these models has been hindered by a lack of readily available software. In this article we demonstrate how diagnostic classification models may be estimated as confirmatory latent class models using Mplus, thus bridging the gap between the technical presentation of these models and their practical use for assessment in research and applied settings. Using a sample English test of three grammatical skills, we describe how diagnostic classification models can be phrased as latent class models within Mplus and how to obtain the syntax and output needed for estimation and interpretation of the model parameters. We also have written a freely available SAS program that can be used to automatically generate the Mplus syntax. We hope this work will ultimately result in greater access to diagnostic classification models throughout the testing community, from researchers to practitioners.     

Listening differently: A pedagogy for expanded listening

Mainstream education promotes a narrow conception of listening, centred on the reception and comprehension of human meanings. As such, it is ill‐equipped to hear how sound propagates affects, generates atmospheres, shapes environments and enacts power. Yet these aspects of sound are vital to how education functions. We therefore argue that there is a need to expand listening in education, and suggest that listening walks could provide a pedagogy for this purpose. Using interview data in which early years practitioners reflect on a listening walk, we show how the method can: (i) produce heightened multisensory experiences of spaces; (ii) generate forms of difficulty and discomfort that produce new learning; and (iii) influence practice, particularly practitioners’ ability to empathise with young children. Listening walks function by disrupting everyday sensory habits, provoking listeners to listen anew to their own listening, in an open‐ended way that is not tied to predetermined learning outcomes. The method therefore has wider pedagogic potential for rethinking education and childhood beyond rationality, representation and meaning.     

Decoding the phonics screening check

The statutory ‘phonics screening check’ was introduced in 2012 and reflects the current emphasis in England on teaching early reading through systematic synthetic phonics. The check is intended to assess children's phonic abilities and their knowledge of 85 grapheme–phoneme correspondences (GPCs) through decoding 20 real words and 20 pseudo words. Since the national rollout, little attention has been devoted to the content of the checks. The current paper, therefore, reviews the first three years of the check between 2012 and 2014 to examine how the 85 specified GPCs have been assessed and whether children are only using decoding skills to read the words. The analysis found that out of the 85 GPCs considered testable by the check, just 15 GPCs accounted for 67% of all GPC occurrences, with 27 of the 85 specified GPCs (31.8%) not appearing at all. Where a grapheme represented more than one phoneme, the most frequently occurring pronunciation was assessed in 72.2% of cases, with vocabulary knowledge being required to determine the correct pronunciation within real words where multiple pronunciations were possible. The GPCs assessed, therefore, do not reflect the full range of GPCs that it is expected will be taught within a systematic synthetic phonics approach. Furthermore, children's ability to decode real words is dependent on their vocabulary knowledge, not just their phonic skills. These results question the purpose and validity of the phonics screening check and the role of synthetic phonics for teaching early reading.     

Trust: the power that binds in team supervision of doctoral students

Team supervision of doctoral students adds new dimensions and complexities to relationships within the teams that impact functionality of the team. Trust emerged as a significant theme in recent qualitative research into the quality of team supervision of doctoral students. Trust was cited as a key component in successful team collaborations, and the missing component in dysfunctional teams. Definitions refer to trust as the belief of truthfulness, reliability or faith in another person’s abilities. My hypothesis is that trust operates as a form of power in team supervision. It is a form of power that enables voice, resilience and creativity in teams. This article concludes that placing trust in others in supervisory teams is a deliberate decision by candidates and supervisors. It is a decision to engage in a team context despite known risks and may be understood as a gamble on the reliability of others in the expectation of reciprocity. By conceptualising trust as a form of power, strategies that engender and maintain trust may be utilised more intentionally.