Getting Grandma Online: Are Tablets the Answer for Increasing Digital Inclusion for Older Adults in the U.S.?

Using information and communication technologies (ICTs) can improve older adults’ quality of life. ICT use is associated with decreased feelings of loneliness and depression, along with increased feelings of independence and personal growth. However, limited access and low technological self-efficacy are key reasons why some groups, especially older adults, are excluded from being fully engaged in the digital world. In this study, we focus on older adults’ technological self-efficacy, which is related to their actual use of technology and the second level digital divide. Specifically, we examine: (a) how older adults decide to use a new technology, tablet computers; (b) how they conquer the barrier of technological self-efficacy through using tablets; and (c) the impacts of using this new technology in their lives. Twenty-one in-depth interviews were conducted with older adults residing in independent living communities in a medium-sized city in the Deep South region of the United States. Observational and enactive learning played important roles for older adults in using tablets. Seeing others use tablets, getting recommendations from family members, or having tablets given to them were the primary reasons they started to use tablet computers. The ease of use feature of tablets helped solve the problem of lacking technological self-efficacy. Using tablets helped increase a sense of connectedness. Tablet computers may be one way to increase digital inclusion among older adults.     

Beyond the Black–White Binary of U.S. Race Relations: A Next Step in Religious Education

Abstract

Many if not most people in the academy as well as the public sphere tend to regard race and racism in the United States in terms of a default frame of reference (i.e., a paradigm): the black–white binary. Although this frame is constructive as well as compelling, it displays serious liabilities. This article outlines, for religious educators, nine expressions of the black–white paradigm—three variations of the binary, three approaches from black studies/theology, and three models that express efforts to transcend binary thinking. A concluding comparative exercise illustrates how participants may discern, address, and ideally revise the paradigm.     

Accommodation and Adjudication in Student–Administration Conflicts: The Difficult Legacy of the U.S. Supreme Court

In this article, we consider a series of U.S. Supreme Court rulings that place public school students under an expansive shield of constitutional rights while often hampering the ability of administrators to engage in flexible and creative conflict resolution in the context of the school's mission. The court's readiness to adjudicate a large range of student–administration conflicts has weakened schools’ ability to pragmatically accommodate conflicts that, by their nature, do not have principled solutions at the level of the law. We argue that as long as adjudication is the privileged course of action, the court seems locked into a philosophical zigzag, now endowing 8th graders with due process and constitutional rights, now framing them as mere “subjects.” To strengthen schools as educational and moral institutions, school leaders need to be able to construct systems of accommodation that are sensitive to their special educational nature and mission.     

Internet Use Among Middle School Students in School and at Home: What Can We Learn From a U.S.–China Comparison?

Based on data collected from middle school students in a U.S. school (N = 159) and a Chinese school (N = 183), this study compared Internet use in school and at home between American students and Chinese students, explored what affected students’ use of the Internet, and examined how students’ Internet use related to their learning. Results reveal that (a) significant differences in online activities between American students and Chinese students were found in school, but not at home. Further analysis suggests that different pedagogical practices in these two cultural contexts led to the different uses of the Internet in school between American students and Chinese students. (b) There were significant school/home differences in Internet use for American students, but not much school/home difference was found for Chinese students. (c) There were salient similarities between American students and Chinese students in terms of the most popular activities they engaged in online. (d) Internet use in teaching and learning in school had some influence on students’ interest in learning specific subjects.     

Does a paradox exist in child well-being risks among foreign-born Latinos,U.S.-born Latinos,and Whites? Findings from 50 California cities

Past research has identified “paradoxes” in infant health and child welfare services involvement, whereby children of Latinos and immigrants often demonstrate better health and decreased risk for child protective services involvement when compared to whites of similar socioeconomic position. This population-based study examined whether a paradox exists among immigrant and U.S.-born Latino caregivers in the prevalence and magnitude of risks to child well-being when compared to whites of similar socioeconomic position. Data were drawn from a random, general population telephone survey of parenting practices in 50 California cities (n = 2,259), which was administered in English and Spanish. The sample included 1,625 U.S.-born whites (72.0%), 351 U.S.-born Latinos (15.5%) and 283 foreign-born Latino respondents (12.5%). After adjusting for covariates in logistic regression models stratified by household income, immigrant caregivers in lower income households reported odds of insufficient food for the child that were 12 times as large as those for whites (OR 11.97, 95% CI 2.87, 49.86); odds of reported inability to take the child to the doctor and leaving a child in a place of questionable safety were nearly eight times as large (OR 7.92, 95% CI 2.38, 26.36 and OR 7.93, 95% CI 1.73, 36.46 respectively). These relationships were attenuated or insignificant for immigrant caregivers in households with greater resources. Therefore, a paradoxical relationship between socioeconomic position and risks to child well-being was not identified. Further research is needed to better understand the complex relationships between such risks, child health, and child protective services involvement.     

Using psychological constructs from the MUSIC Model of Motivation to predict students’ science identification and career goals: results from the U.S. and Iceland

ABSTRACT

We investigated students’ perceptions related to psychological constructs in their science classes and the influence of these perceptions on their science identification and science career goals. Participants included 575 middle school students from two countries (334 students in the U.S. and 241 students in Iceland). Students completed a self-report questionnaire that included items from several measures. We conducted correlational analyses, confirmatory factor analyses, and structural equation modelling to test our hypotheses. Students’ class perceptions (i.e. empowerment, usefulness, success, interest, and caring) were significantly correlated with their science identification, which was correlated positively with their science career goals. Combining students’ science class perceptions, science identification, and career goals into one model, we documented that the U.S. and Icelandic samples fit the data reasonably well. However, not all of the hypothesised paths were statistically significant. For example, only students’ perceptions of usefulness (for the U.S. and Icelandic students) and success (for the U.S. students only) significantly predicted students’ career goals in the full model. Theoretically, our findings are consistent with results from samples of university engineering students, yet different in some ways. Our results provide evidence for the theoretical relationships between students’ perceptions of science classes and their career goals.     

Youth,skills development,and work in the Education for All Global Monitoring Report 2012: Learning from Asia or for Asia?

The article underlines the historic importance of the treatment of skills development, finally, by the Education for All Global Monitoring Report (GMR) team. Among the many challenges in its analysis are the multiple and overlapping meanings of the word skill, and the consequent difficulties of quantifying and monitoring efforts at skills development. The positioning of skills development within secondary education is a further area of huge diversity and contestation. Beyond this, the claimed relationships between skills and growth require careful teasing out. As important as any, however, are the relations amongst skills, work, and employment (and unemployment) in both the urban and rural informal sectors. The article argues that although GMR 2012 breaks a great deal of new ground in addressing skills development, it ends up being rather a school-based account of skill; very little attention is given to post-school skills development in the further education and training colleges of many societies. Equally, it underplays the impact of the wider macroeconomic environment on skills development. Finally, the article suggests that much can be learned from Asia, as well as for Asia, in this crucial world of skills development.     

International students and the neoliberal marketplace of higher education: the lived experiences of graduate students from sub-Saharan countries in Africa of a U.S. university’s internationalization policy

Higher Education - Prior to the pandemic, approxiately 42,000 students from countries in sub-Saharan countries in Africa enrolled in U.S. universities (IIE 2021). Despite this strong and growing...     

Where are the “People Like me”?: A Collaborative Autoethnography of Transnational Lives and Teacher Education in the U.S.

ABSTRACT

Global multicultural teacher education courses and programs have made claims to offer Prospective Teachers (PSTs) a global understanding of diversity and multiculturalism. However, there is very little research that has examined the classroom experiences of PSTs and teacher educators. Drawing on a collaborative autoethnography, this article explores the ways our transnational identities shaped our experiences (as a PST and a teacher educator) in a global teacher education course focused on diversity and multiculturalism. We were guided by the following research question: How do we, as South Asian transnational migrants, experience the curriculum of a global multicultural education course in the United States? We found that the curricular nationalism within multicultural education courses often negates any critical engagement with the influence of transnationalism on immigrants and their educational experiences. Transnational migrants are expected to translate their experiences, cultural practices, and life ways to fit into the container of the U.S. nation-state. Furthermore, there was a visible absence of narratives and research about transnational lives and identities in the course curriculum. As teacher education programs prepare PSTs to enter classrooms with growing immigrant populations, it is important that we attend to this glaring gap in both practice and research.     

The learner experience of Curriculum 2000: implications for the reform of 14–19 education in England

In September 2000, new qualifications for 16–19 year olds, known as Curriculum 2000, were introduced in England, Wales, and Northern Ireland with the aim of broadening the advanced level curriculum. It was left to schools, colleges, and their learners, however, to decide how these new qualifications would be used to build learner programmes of study. In this voluntarist context, the views and actions of learners have been an important factor in determining the course of the reforms. This article, which is based primarily on a study of 42 learners in a school/college consortium in the south west of England, provides a chronological account of learner experiences of these reforms during their first 2 years of implementation. The consortium discussed here offered a high‐volume study programme similar in size and content to those being proposed by the Tomlinson Working Group on 14–19 curriculum and qualifications reform in England. Learners found their expanded programmes onerous, due in part to the nature of the new qualifications and in part to the context of their implementation. The article concludes by identifying a number of policy lessons for 14–19 reform arising from this research.     

‘Playing with or like the girls’: advancing the performance of ‘multiple masculinities in Black boys’ childhood play’ in U.S. early childhood classrooms

Play is a gendered activity among young children, especially boys. Boys often tend to be more actively engaged in the (re)production of gendered play. However, most research studies and conceptual papers have misread, ignored, devalued, or scrutinized the gendered ways Black boys engage in play. This idea is particularly true for Black boys who may not play within the monolithic gendered expectations of childhood play. Drawing from [Connell, R. W. (1995). Masculinities. Berkeley: University of California Press] notion of multiple masculinities, I propose what I call the performance of ‘multiple masculinities of Black boys’ childhood play’ to embrace the ways some Black boys engage in play activities, which may not fit within the performance of hegemonic and Black masculine norms and expectations. In so doing, I call for educators to broaden how we view Black boys, and our definition of Black masculinity so that embracing what might be traditionally called ‘less masculine’ and/or stereotypically feminine could be valued male traits. Recommendations are provided for early childhood educators to support the confluence of ways Black boys engage in play experiences.     

“You have to know the past to (blog) the present:” Using an Educational Blog to Engage Students in U.S. History

In this study the authors investigate whether a whole-class educational blog could facilitate culturally relevant instruction and authentic intellectual work in U.S. history. Qualitative data were collected and analyzed that included student comments posted to an educational blog, classroom observations, and follow-up interviews. Based on the analysis, the authors determined four major findings: (a) Students were able to engage in historical analysis while working in the blog environment when it was focused on a single source and included a hard scaffold; (b) when students situated the activities in relevant cultural experiences, they were able to better use their prior knowledge;(c) a variety of affordances related to blogging encouraged and supported students as they completed their work; and (d) the blogging activities were constrained by the limits of students’ literacy and historical skills, and the limits of technology.     

University entrepreneurship in a developing country: The case of the P. Universidad Católica de Chile, 1985–2000

Privatization in higher education is usually understood either as the surge of private institutions or as universities’ growing reliance on private sources of funding or otherwise operating more like firms. Joining the growing literature on university entrepreneurship, this is a case study on the less examined problem of entrepreneurial universities in developing countries. In a period of roughly 15 years, the Pontificia Universidad Católica of Chile, founded in 1888, turned itself from a mostly teaching institution to a research-oriented university, responsible for one-fourth of the Chile’s mainstream scientific output and 40% of all Ph.D.s awarded nationally. Yet, public funding represents today only 17% of its revenues, down from almost 90% in 1972. How such academic development could have occurred as the State withdrew and the market took hold of Chilean higher education after the reforms introduced by the military rule of Augusto Pinochet (1973–1990) is the theme of this work. Universidad Católica’s policies and strategies are described, and the factors contributing to its success, together with their limitations, identified. The case suggests that orientation to the market can be more a means for survival and growth under the pressure of privatization, than a result of a ‘Triple Helix’ strategy of universities, government and industry to generate innovation out of academic knowledge. Secondly, while in the industrialized world, higher education entrepreneurship is associated with knowledge production for economic development (‘Mode 2’), entrepreneurial universities in the context of developing countries may just be finding their way to the academic, disciplinary mode of research.     

Mediatising childhood religion: the BBC,John G. Williams and collective worship for schools in England, 1940–1975

As part of its stated mission to Christianise Britain, from its earliest years the BBC broadcast religious programmes intended for a child audience. Directed at sites domestic and educational, these broadcasts constituted a means of the mediatisation of religion for children. This paper explores the work of the pioneer children’s religious broadcaster John G. Williams, the nature and character of childhood religion and its nurture espoused by him whilst at the BBC, and as an educationist in the years following the 1944 Education Act. Setting a close reading of Williams’ views on childhood religion and school worship alongside those of a later critique, from the religious educationist John Hull in his School Worship: An Obituary (1975), this article argues that the differences between these two religious educators illustrate fracture lines occurring between religious education in the home, school and broadcast spaces in the long 1960s. Additionally, the historical evidence presented here provides a nuanced understanding of mediatisation as a process, indicating that other social processes in any national context, for example de-Christianisation in the English one, disrupt media logic. Finally, further research is called for on the historical intersections of religious education, and schools and religious broadcasting, as well as the more recent effects of broadcast collective worship in mediatising religion for children.     

A Catholic Public School in the making: Beaumont College during the Rectorate of the reverend Joseph M. Bampton,S.J. (1901–1908). His implementation of the “Captain” system of discipline

This article traces the rectorate of Fr. Joseph M. Bampton, S.J. at St. Stanislaus' College (or “Beaumont College”), a Jesuit boarding school for boys opened in 1861 near Windsor (Berkshire, England). Although Bampton did not succeed to a flourishing school (the number of students was then extremely small), his term of office (1901–1908) was so productive that Beaumont received recognition as a public school with the admission of its Rector to the Headmasters' Conference (HMC) in 1906. Several factors which made this recognition possible, and which Beaumont shared with its Protestant counterparts (Eton was only a few miles upstream on the other side of the Thames), are analysed: character formation, athleticism, scholarship, Oxford and Cambridge links, leadership, gentry aspirations, intimacy with aristocracy and royalty, and military spirit. Prominent among them (and of special relevance in this study), is Bampton's introduction of the “Captain” system of discipline, or government of boys by boys, as opposed to the age‐long Jesuit system of strict and “ceaseless” boy supervision by masters of discipline or prefects. The latter was the method pursued at Stonyhurst (Lancashire), the “doyen” of the Jesuit colleges in England, and also at the sister educational establishments of France and Spain. The practice of surveillance in French and Spanish colleges run by the Society of Jesus also receives its due share of attention. At once, Bampton's method invites comparison with the reforms introduced by Thomas Arnold (1795–1842) at Rugby in the 1830s. Like Arnold, Fr. Bampton had to face opposition from his community, but his strong will and determination enabled him to pass on to his successor a school restored to its former prosperity. By the 1920s, the “Captain” system of discipline had become a Beaumont tradition which was copied even by Stonyhurst, for so long the sanctuary of Jesuit orthodoxy. For the explanation of Bampton's scheme, “revolutionary” in a Jesuit college, both unpublished material written in the Rector's own hand and the expository articles from his pen which appeared in The Beaumont Review, the school magazine, have been drawn upon. An Appendix at the end of the article gives the names of all the Beaumont Captains between 1901 and 1908.     

Comparative study of middle school students’ attitudes towards science: Rasch analysis of entire TIMSS 2011 attitudinal data for England,Singapore and the U.S.A. as well as psychometric properties of attitudes scale

We report here on a comparative study of middle school students’ attitudes towards science involving three countries: England, Singapore and the U.S.A. Complete attitudinal data sets from TIMSS (Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study) 2011 were used, thus giving a very large sample size (N?=?20,246), compared to other studies in the journal literature. The Rasch model was used to analyse the data, and the findings have shed some useful light on not only how the Western and Asian students responded on a comparative basis in the various scales related to attitudes but also on the validity, reliability, and unidimensionality of the attitudes instrument used in TIMSS 2011. There may be a need for TIMSS test developers to consider doing away with negatively phrased items in the attitudes instrument and phrasing these positively as the Rasch framework shows that response bias is associated with these statements.