A Phenomenological Exploration of Bhutanese Counselors’ Experiences with Western Counseling

Bhutan has recently invited the profession of counseling to aid in responding to growing mental health problems, social and family issues, and school and career guidance needs. This study is a phenomenological investigation of the experiences of Bhutanese counselors with Western counseling in order to understand the cultural fit between Bhutan and Western counseling orientations. Eleven participants were interviewed and four themes identified: conceptualization of counseling, Bhutanese culture, Bhutanese counseling, and the relationship between Western counseling and Bhutan. Suggestions are made for a potential model of Bhutanese counseling, counselor training, ongoing Western contributions, and the further development of the counseling profession.     

Students’ Experience of Working with Socioscientific Issues - a Quantitative Study in Secondary School

This research project aims to investigate how students in lower secondary school experience work with socioscientific issues (SSI). The six socioscientific cases developed and used in this project are relevant according to characteristics of SSI and to the national curriculum. Approximately 1,500 students in Sweden have worked with one SSI case chosen by the teachers. A questionnaire-based instrument was used to measure the affective domain of students?? attitudes towards and interest in science before starting to work with the case and a second questionnaire after finishing a case. The second student questionnaire, measured the situational characteristics of the SSI work and perceived cognitive and affective outcomes. According to the students?? self-reported experience, all cases were interesting and related to a current issue. Most cases were equally interesting to boys and girls, the only exception was You are what you eat, which girls found more interesting than boys did. Almost all students claim that they learnt new facts, learnt to argue for their standpoint and to search and evaluate information during the work with the cases. The girls?? average scores were higher on several aspects of learning outcomes. Furthermore the students, especially the girls, perceived that the outcome of working with SSI had relevance for their future, with some cases more relevant than others. The more interesting the student found the case, the more they claimed they learnt. The students do not, however, claim that they learnt more science than during ordinary lessons.     

Single Mothers’ Experiences of Support at Their Young Children’s School: An Interpretative Phenomenological Approach

This phenomenological study explored six single mothers’ experiences of support at their young children’s school. Themes resulting from interpretative phenomenological analysis suggest the single mothers experienced tangible (e.g., school resources, school-wide events, structural flexibility, teachers’ formal communication) and intangible (e.g., caring relationships with school faculty and staff, experiencing teachers as parenting partners, perceiving acceptance from the school environment) forms of support from their children’s school. Furthermore, results suggest these single mothers experienced intangible supports more prominently than tangible forms of support. The support needs of these single mothers at their young children’s school were also explored including the mothers’ desire for stronger relationships with other parents and families at the school.     

Prestige Among Graduate and Professional Schools: Comparing the U.S. News’ Graduate School Reputation Ratings Between Disciplines

Using a conceptual model, this study examines the variables associated with the U.S. News and World Report peer assessment ratings of graduate and professional schools in business, education, engineering, law, and medicine. What are the correlates of prestige among the nation’s leading graduate and professional schools, and are they consistent with prior studies of prestige? Not since the studies of the 1995 National Research Council (NRC) data have scholars examined the correlates of prestige for individual graduate programs, and no study has ever extensively examined the U.S. News graduate ratings. Using available data from U.S. News, as well as institutional websites and ISI Web of Science information, this analysis finds robust relationships between the U.S. News graduate school reputation ratings and the model-relevant indicators, especially enrollment size, admissions test scores, and faculty publications per capita.     

Counselor Trainees’ Experiences in Triadic Supervision: A Qualitative Exploration of Transcendent Themes

Triadic supervision has been considered a credible and effective form of clinical supervision within counselor education programs since being included in the 2001 standards for the Council for Accreditation of Counseling and Related Educational Programs (CACREP). A phenomenological study was conducted to examine the experiences of masters-level counselor trainees in practicum with triadic supervision. Several transcendent themes emerged, namely: Initial Apprehensions, Shared Developmental Process, Vicarious Learning, Multiple Perspectives, and Safety through Trust and Relationship. The results of this study are discussed as they impact the field of counselor education and supervision.     

“The Monkey King Meets the Spiderman”: Narrative Inquiry into Chinese Students’ Academic Socialization Experiences in a U.S. University

This narrative study explores four Chinese students’ academic socialization experiences in one research-intensive public university in the US. By drawing upon Wenger’s (1998) communities of practice and Gee’s (2000) theorizing on identity as the synthesized theoretical framework, this research uncovers four Chinese students’ academic socialization stories nestled in the shifting cross-cultural landscape. Meanwhile, this study reveals that the Chinese students’ academic socialization intersects a matrix of factors, which can be categorized into “personal landscape” and “professional landscape.” Last, this narrative case study concluded that the Chinese students’ academic socialization involves the continuous negotiations of their multiple identities embedded in the cross-cultural contexts.     

Teaching Students from Other Cultures: An Exploration of Language Teachers’ Experiences with Ethnic Minority Students

This article reports on a qualitative study investigating a group of novice ESL teachers’ teaching experiences with ethnic minority students in secondary schools in Hong Kong. It finds that, while teachers argue that society has not been tolerant enough of ethnic minorities, they nonetheless believe that ethnic minorities should comply with societal expectations in order to gain respect and more opportunities. In passing judgement on ethnic minority students’ learning style and life attitudes, and in urging that they be changed, the teachers have, perhaps unconsciously, perpetuated and reified underlying societal stereotypes. It is found that the accented English spoken by ethnic minority students has been devalued and delegitimized, which may disempower them in educational settings and prevent them from expressing and defending their ideas. Implications for education pre-service and novice ESL teachers working with ethnically diverse students are discussed.     

School Leaders’ and Teachers’ Perceptions of Learning Disabilities: Implications for Support in Inclusive Schools in the Sultanate of Oman

The study examined school leaders’ and teachers’ perceptions of Learning Disabilities (LDs) in Key Stage1 Schools in a sample drawn from schools in Muscat, the capital city of Oman. A sample of 175 school leaders and 175 teachers completed The Survey on Learning Disabilities (SLD), an instrument developed to explore beliefs and perceptions of the causes of LDs. A principal component analysis indicated that six factors underlie perceptions of LDs: The governmental formal educational system, repertoire of teachers’ skills and school support, familial and cultural background, students, academic curriculum, and social change. Multivariate analyses showed that school leaders perceive more strongly than teachers that the governmental formal educational system and academic curriculum as main causal factors for LDs. Implications for support of students with LDs in inclusive settings in Oman are discussed.     

Role of Computers in Educating Young Children: U.S. and Japanese Teachers’ Perspectives

This study was conducted with kindergarten teachers in the United States and Japan with respect to their beliefs about the role of computers in educating young children. Overall findings indicated significant differences in responses of teachers in the two countries. Generally, U.S. teachers had a more positive attitude toward computers in educating young children, while the Japanese teachers had more concerns. The teachers’ own sense of competence with computers was not related to their beliefs about computers and young children in either country. Respondents from both countries identified a lack of resources and clear guidelines for integrating computers in the classroom as challenges. These findings highlighted the need for training of early childhood teachers in integrating and using computers in the classroom.     

The Importance of Art Viewing Experiences in Early Childhood Visual Arts: The Exploration of a Master Art Teacher’s Strategies for Meaningful Early Arts Experiences

The visual arts can be an important and rich domain of learning for young children. In PreK education, The Task Force on Children’s Learning and the Arts: Birth to Age Eight (Young children and the arts: Making creative connections, Washington, DC: Arts Education Partnership, 1998) recommends that art experiences for young children include activities designed to introduce children to works of art that are high quality and developmentally appropriate in both content and presentation. This paper documents the teaching strategies utilized by a master art teacher at the Denver Art Museum to engage preschool-age students in art viewing experiences which were part of a museum-based art program. This research provides support for integrating rich, meaningful art viewing experiences as a regular part of young children’s arts experiences while offering early childhood educators teaching strategies for early art viewing experiences.

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.     

Recognizing and Managing Countertransference in the College Classroom: An Exploration of Expert Teachers’ Inner Experiences

Teacher countertransference refers to conscious and unconscious, negative or positive emotional reactions to certain students that arise from the teacher’s own areas of personal conflict. Our investigation of 14 expert teachers’ countertransference experiences in the college classroom, yielded several themes. Countertransference triggers included challenging behaviors (e.g., student disengagement from learning, hostility, manipulation). Countertransference reactions included frustration, the questioning of one’s own judgment, and identification with students. Participants managed countertransference by seeking social support, maintaining their professionalism, thinking before responding, practicing self-reflection, building relationships with students, and drawing upon personal characteristics (values, empathy, conceptualization skills) and teaching experience. We suggest implications for teaching and recommendations for research.     

Multimedia e-Learning and Self-Regulated Science Learning: a Study of Primary School Learners’ Experiences and Perceptions

Journal of Science Education and Technology - Multimedia-supported e-learning is considered useful as it can offer an enjoyable independent learning experience to learners. However, the...     

Do Charters Pose a Threat to Private Schools? Evidence from Nationally Representative Surveys of U.S. Parents

Charter schools increasingly challenge both district and private schools for student enrollments in the United States. With more parents able to choose among the sectors, the success of each in attracting students will turn in part on the levels of satisfaction provided to families who enroll. We analyze data from two nationally representative surveys of parental perceptions. Private school parents are the most satisfied with the climate, student behavior, and school-to-parent communications in their child’s school, but the gap between private school parents and charter parents is much less than the one between private school parents and those in district schools. We find little difference across sectors in satisfaction with school infrastructure and in school–parent communications about student behavior. Because charters, like district schools, are free, this narrowing of the satisfaction gap between the tuition-based and free school sectors may erode the size of the private sector.     

Examining Latina/o Students’ Experiences of Injustice: LatCrit Insights from a Texas High School

We used Latina/Latino Critical Race Theory (LatCrit) to re-analyze survey and interview data from earlier research in which we found that Latina/o students reported less positive experiences than other students in this high school. We found racial injustice in class enrollments, in students’ experiences with stereotypes and prejudice, in student-teacher relationships, and in school policies and norms. LatCrit principles illustrate interconnections among racism, interest convergence, and colorblindness that create racial injustice for Latinas/os. We argue that counterstorytelling could emerge to resist that injustice and that educators must understand how racism functions in their schools and interrogate relevant policies and norms.     

Differentiation of Two Working Memory Tasks Normed on a Large U.S. Sample of Children 2–7 Years Old

The Wechsler Preschool and Primary Scale of Intelligence, 4th ed. includes two measures of working memory normed on children 2;6–7;7. The present analyses of the typically developing children (N = 1,591, 812 female, 779 male, with an ethnic distribution approximating the United States) provide new, theoretically important information about these working memory tasks, Picture Memory and Zoo Locations. These new analyses establish developmental trends, individual-difference properties, and cognitive task properties. They show comparable developmental trends for the two tasks, but Picture Memory picks up more individual-difference variation and is more sensitive to knowledge. This analysis of normed tasks starting very young makes possible new methods for research on the early stages of childhood working memory development, about which little is currently known.     

Major Survey Findings of Listening to MothersSM III: Pregnancy and Birth: Report of the Third National U.S. Survey of Women’s Childbearing Experiences

To understand the experiences and views of childbearing women in the United States and trends over time, Childbirth Connection carried out the third national Listening to Mothers survey among 2,400 women who gave birth in U.S. hospitals to a single baby from mid-2011 to mid-2012 and could participate in English. Harris Interactive conducted the survey using a validated methodology that includes data weighting to ensure that results closely reflect the target population. Results of the initial survey describe experiences from before pregnancy through the early postpartum period, and were reported in Listening to Mothers III: Pregnancy and Birth. A follow-up survey directed to the same participants explored postpartum experiences, attitudes about maternity care, and some additional pregnancy and birth items.     

‘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.     

The Role of School Managers in Monitoring and Evaluating the Work of a School: inspectors’ judgements and schools’ responses

The paper presents an analysis of inspection findings for 22 secondary schools, selected from a larger sample of 100, in order to explore the nature of, and the responses to, OFSTED inspectors’ recommendations about the use of internal monitoring and evaluation to improve classroom practice. Inspectors’ reports, and schools’ action plans, were examined in order to determine inspectors’ expectations of senior managers in schools in relation to monitoring responsibilities and the means managers intend to use to meet these expectations. In their action plans some schools respond with bureaucratic procedures, while others indicate a more collaborative approach. This paper describes the first stage of a research project; the differences in implementation of the planned changes in schools will be the subject of further research.