Academic identity,confidence and belonging: The role of contextualised admissions and foundation years in higher education

This article presents a cross-national exploration of responses to widening participation (WP), with a specific focus on the provision of foundation year (FY) programmes and the use of contextualised admissions (CA) in selective Irish and UK institutions. There remains a dearth of research on these routes, with little understanding of the characteristics of students who utilise them, of why students use these routes and little knowledge of their effect on students’ experiences in university and their overall sense of belonging. A year-long longitudinal comparative case study design examined three alternative entry routes in two selective higher education institutions (HEIs) in England and Ireland: a well-established FY; a newly formed FY; and a CA pathway. Data were collected through a mixed-method approach. Questionnaires and in-depth focus groups were employed at fixed points with participating students in each route. Results indicated that FY students had lower levels of familial educational history and parental occupation. FY students’ sense of belonging significantly increased over the year, with students reporting increased confidence and sense of belonging due to the relationships established during the FY. CA students’ sense of belonging remained the same, with students reporting feeling different and isolated. Results indicate that while students utilising FYs may be ‘more disadvantaged’ than CA students, their experiences helped establish a sense of belonging; illustrating the need for diverse WP routes catering to a wide range of needs. Results highlight the importance of providing opportunities to develop social and bridging social capital for all non-traditional students.     

Coping resources of maltreated children in the family: a salutogenic approach.

OBJECTIVE: Most research in child maltreatment within family focuses mainly on the pathological damage caused to the battered child. This study, based on a salutogenic approach, focuses on the resources that may help maltreated children to cope with their state and stay well. METHOD: Resilience was measured by two variables: perceived competence and psychological distress. The moderating or buffering variables that may contribute to better coping were: sense of family coherence, psychological sense of school membership, and social support. Two hundred and twenty-six 8th graders answered an anonymous self-report inventory. Based on the students' answers, they were divided into two groups: those who reported that they had been maltreated (MC) (n = 81) and those who did not (NMC) (n = 145). RESULTS: The study revealed a significantly high percentage of adolescents (35.6%) who reported having been maltreated within their families. A significant difference was found between the MC and the NMC in levels of perceived competence (higher for the NMC) and psychological distress (higher for the MC group). The moderating variables were found to have a differential effect on the dependent variables within the two groups. Sense of family coherence was found to be the main contributor to variance explanation of perceived competence among the MC, while sense of school membership had the main effect among NMC. CONCLUSIONS: The findings support a salutogenic approach in studying maltreated children. Implications on the possible detection of maltreated children in the community and on their coping resources that may contribute to resilience are discussed.     

Experienced Teachers' Perspectives on Cultural and Social Class Diversity: Which Differences Matter?

This article reports on a pilot study that investigated the beliefs, values, and pedagogies of experienced high school teachers who worked with student populations of non-English speaking and economically disadvantaged immigrants or refugees in Australia. Qualitative research methods, including focus groups and in-depth individual interviews with teachers, produced data that were examined using Critical Discourse Analysis. Close reading of the teachers' comments suggests that there are a number of key discourses that teachers use to make sense of differences among culturally diverse and economically disadvantaged groups of students. Specifically, teachers distinguish between cultural groups on the basis of students' life experiences prior to arrival in Australia; students' collective and individual educational experiences; and the different social class positioning of students within the same ethnic group. In their comments, teachers at times categorised students in generalised and stereotypical ways but also were able to critique and reflect on their personal assumptions. An analysis of the teachers' reflections provides insights into how they made sense of “diversity” and how, as teachers, they try to work productively with ethnically diverse and economically disadvantaged students.     

How can Korean older adults be encouraged to become more involved in volunteer activities?

ABSTRACT

This qualitative study explored how Korean older adults can be encouraged to become more involved in volunteer activities. The study utilized in-depth, face-to-face interviews with twelve practitioners in senior volunteering fields in South Korea. The themes were (a) helping seniors become involved in volunteer activities; (b) developing programs to satisfy both the demand for and the needs of senior volunteers; (c) leveraging volunteer groups with elderly group leaders; (d) providing financial support for the cost of volunteer activities; (e) preventing dropout through personal support and mediation; (f) empowering service recipients for recruitment through one-to-one contact; (g) establishing a dedicated volunteer manager for senior volunteers; and (h) cultivating a privately led organization dedicated to senior volunteering. The results are expected to promote volunteer involvement among older adults based on the experiences of practitioners and to provide practical educational implications for instructors teaching and equipping college/graduate students or field practitioners who are new to the older population.     

How Do Parents Support Preschoolers’ Numeracy Learning Experiences at Home?

This study described the kinds of early numeracy experiences that parents provide for their preschoolers, and determined the extent to which parental experiences and involvement in home activities enhanced preschoolers’ numeracy knowledge. Twenty-five parents completed a home activity questionnaire, a 2-week diary study, and a videotaped play session where they were asked to draw out numerical content. Preschoolers’ numeracy scores were predicted by: (1) parental reports of positive personal experiences with mathematics and (2) involvement in activities with complex (versus basic) numeracy goals. Parents felt that most activities had important or essential mathematical value, but focused on number sense goals. Finally, parents who reportedly spent more time on numeracy tasks received high quality interaction ratings in the videotaped sessions; but these variables did not predict numeracy scores. The findings are discussed in terms of educating parents about incorporating numeracy concepts.     

“Nobody’s Rich and Nobody’s Poor … It Sounds Good,but It’s Actually Not”: Affluent Students Learning Mathematics and Social Justice

This article investigates how affluent students made sense of social justice issues that were embedded in mathematics learning activities. I present 2 case studies of such activities at the intermediate and secondary levels in 2 different schools. The analysis draws on video records and classroom artifacts and applies the theoretical framework of figured worlds to consider how students drew on their past experiences and on the structure of the classroom activities to understand the mathematics and the social justice issues. The analysis demonstrates how the 1st activity provided a familiar figured world to support learning about issues of wealth distribution. In the 2nd activity, because of a lack of what are termed intermediary figured worlds, students were left to draw on only their own experiences and background knowledge, including stereotypes about poor neighborhoods.     

How teacher emotional support motivates students: The mediating roles of perceived peer relatedness,autonomy support,and competence

Multilevel mediation analyses test whether students' mid-year reports of classroom experiences of autonomy, relatedness with peers, and competence mediate associations between early in the school year emotionally-supportive teacher-student interactions (independently observed) and student-reported academic year changes in mastery motivation and behavioral engagement. When teachers were observed to be more emotionally-supportive in the beginning of the school year, adolescents reported academic year increases in their behavioral engagement and mastery motivation. Mid-year student reports indicated that in emotionally-supportive classrooms, adolescents experienced more developmentally-appropriate opportunities to exercise autonomy in their day-to-day activities and had more positive relationships with their peers. Analyses of the indirect effects of teacher emotional support on students' engagement and motivation indicated significant mediating effects of autonomy and peer relatedness experiences, but not competence beliefs, in this sample of 960 students (ages 11–17) in the classrooms of 68 middle and high school teachers in 12 U.S. schools.     

“We’re not just sat at home in our pyjamas!”: a thematic analysis of the social lives of home educated adolescents in the UK

A common perception of home education is that despite potential beneficial educational outcomes, children who are home educated lack social experiences and therefore show poor social development. However, previous research in this area suggests that home educated children demonstrate a range of age-appropriate social skills. This research has mainly focused on children younger than 12; thus, we have much less of an understanding of the social impacts of home education on adolescents. Furthermore, previous research has often used social skills questionnaires and has not explored the experiences of home educating families from their own perspectives. The current study addresses these gaps in the literature by interviewing three home educated adolescents and their mothers about their social experiences and development with the research question of ‘how do home educated adolescents and their parents experience and understand socialisation?’. In one-to-one interviews, young people (aged 11–14) were asked about their experiences and perceptions of their social lives. In a separate interview, mothers were asked about how they facilitated these social experiences and their perceptions of the impact this had on their child’s development. Data from the interviews was thematically analysed. Results suggested that adolescents participated in a range of social experiences that promoted their social skills, happiness and confidence. Participants felt that this created a positive social environment and sense of community, and encouraged the adolescents to interact with a diverse range of people. However, further research is needed to explore whether this finding is generalisable to the broader community of home educated adolescents.

     

Multiple Service Use: The impact of consistency in service quality for vulnerable youth

Little is known about the way in which variations in service quality influence outcomes when youth are clients of more than one service system. This article reports on a study of 1,210 adolescents (aged 13–17 years), half were concurrent clients of two or more services and half were not involved in two or more services. Youth completed a self-report questionnaire administered by a trained interviewer. It was hypothesized that youth reporting two positive service experiences would report lower risks, higher resilience, and better outcomes than youth reporting inconsistent or two negative service experiences and that their resilience, risks, and outcomes would be similar to those of youth not involved in two or more services. MANCOVA was used to determine the relationship among service quality and resilience, risk, and outcomes with four covariates that assessed family and neighborhood environments, history of abuse and neglect, and chronic need. Results indicate that service quality had an effect on resilience, risks, and outcomes. These relationships were mediated quite strongly by the influence of the risks youth faced in their neighborhoods and to a lesser extent by the other three covariates. Of the three dependent variables, risk appeared to be the most consistently influenced by all the covariates, and it also differentiated service experience groups. Results point to the importance of services developing strategies to effectively address risks confronted by youth and also to ensure that when more than one service is involved with youth, consistency in service delivery is achieved.     

Rethinking the Cultural Context of Schooling Decisions in Disadvantaged Neighborhoods: From Deviant Subculture to Cultural Heterogeneity

The literature on neighborhood effects on schooling theorizes that neighborhood cultural context is an important mechanism generating such effects. However, explanations that rely on subcultural theories, such as oppositional culture, have met with considerable criticism on empirical grounds, and no alternative account of the cultural context of disadvantaged neighborhoods has been developed in the education literature. This study develops a new account of the cultural context of schooling decisions in disadvantaged neighborhoods based on the concept of cultural heterogeneity, defined as the presence of a wide array of competing and conflicting cultural models. It applies this concept to neighborhood effects on college enrollment. Using survey data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health, this study shows that disadvantaged neighborhoods exhibit greater heterogeneity in college goals and that adolescents in more heterogeneous neighborhoods are less likely to act in concert with the college goals that they articulate.     

情绪干预对中学体育弱势群体影响的研究

运用情绪干预方法,对44名体育弱势的中学生进行1年的教学实践,测定其身心变化,探讨情绪干预方法对体育弱势群体的身心影响,结果表明：经过1学年的干预,这部分学生已基本摆脱体育弱势的阴影,在运动能力、自我评价、身体状况、成就感等方面差异显著,心理健康水平明显提升。     

The teacher education curriculum and the world of work: A study of teachers of disadvantaged children in Nigeria

A key element in the current attempt to actualise the goals of the Dakar Framework of Action for Education for All in Nigeria is the broadening of access to education for disadvantaged groups. These groups include: nomadic pastoralists; migrant fishermen; and out-of-school children and youth. Special educational programs are being provided for them so as, inter alia, to: integrate them into the mainstream of Nigeria's social and political life; disseminate modern occupational and life skills; and promote cultural renewal based on reconstructionist principles.The major concern of this paper is to analyse the teacher education curriculum in Nigeria vis-à-vis the concrete existential realities in which teachers of these disadvantaged groups teach. It critically examines the extent to which the curriculum prepares teachers for the world of minority children, particularly the realities of the schools and the cultural contexts within which teaching takes place. To what extent has the teacher education curriculum adequately prepared teachers for the realities and challenges of teaching disadvantaged children? What do the teachers themselves think of the training they have received? How have their experiences as teachers of disadvantaged groups influenced their sense of marginalisation, professionalism and sense of worth? These questions are posed using quantitative and qualitative strategies so as to determine the level of congruence or incongruence between the existential realities of teachers’ work and the teacher education curriculum. Finally the paper highlights the suggestions made by the teachers sampled for this study about how to reform the teacher education curriculum in order most effectively to address the peculiarities and challenges of the cultural and educational contexts in which they work.     

Can supportive parenting protect against school delay amongst violence-exposed adolescents in South Africa?

Exposure to multiple forms of violence is common amongst adolescents from socioeconomically disadvantaged communities in South Africa. Adolescents’ exposure to violence at home, in school and in their communities can lead to detrimental outcomes in education. In particular, adolescents who are more frequently exposed to multiple forms of violence are at risk of school delay. This paper investigates the potential for supportive parenting to protect against adolescents’ school delay in this context. With this aim, this paper applies structural equation modelling to a sample of 503 adolescents exposed to multiple forms of violence from 40 socioeconomically disadvantaged communities. Adolescents’ self-report data on child abuse in the family, school and community, and adolescents’ perceptions of positive parenting, consistent discipline, good monitoring, parental involvement and social support were analyzed. Results showed that perceptions of more positive parenting and consistent discipline moderated the relationship between more frequent exposure to multiple forms of violence and school delay. Our findings suggest that supportive parenting has the potential to protect against school delay for poly-victimized adolescents in South Africa.     

How Social Class Differences Affect Students' Experience of University

The present paper outlines the experiences reported by students from different social class backgrounds who have recently graduated from university. Students from manual skilled and partly skilled backgrounds were classed as disadvantaged, while students from professional or intermediate backgrounds were classed as advantaged. Data were collected from the same cohort of students on seven occasions across their university career. Students completed questions about their family background, paid employment, financial concerns, participation in recreational activities, perceptions of academic quality and perceptions of social support. Results showed that students from disadvantaged backgrounds were less likely to have parents that attended university, more likely to have been in paid employment, less likely to have participated in non‐academic activities and spent fewer evenings per week socializing compared with students from advantaged backgrounds. Also, there was some evidence of less positive perceptions of social support among disadvantaged students. However, there were no social class differences in ratings of teaching quality and all students reported high levels of financial concern. These findings are discussed in relation to proposed changes to the way higher education is funded in Britain and the implications these changes will have on recruiting students from disadvantaged backgrounds.     

Understanding resilience in diverse,talented students in an urban high school

This article summarizes findings from a 3‐year study of 35 economically disadvantaged, ethnically diverse, academically talented high school students who either achieved or underachieved in their urban high school. In particular, the resilience of these two groups of high ability students is explored. Comparative case study and ethnographic methods were used to examine the ways in which some academically talented students develop and/or employ strategies associated with resilience to achieve at high levels. Both risk factors and protective factors are examined to explore participants’ pathways toward either positive or negative outcomes. The results of this study suggest that some protective factors helped some academically talented students to achieve at high levels. The protective factors include supportive adults; friendships with other achieving students; opportunity to take honors and advanced classes; participation in multiple extracurricular activities both after school and during the summer; the development of a strong belief in self; and ways to cope with the negative aspects of their school and urban environment; and in some cases, their family lives. Other protective factors include students’ relationships with supportive adults and their previous participation in a gifted and talented program.

Students who underachieved had specific risk factors, such as having older siblings who dropped out of school or became involved in drugs and/or alcohol. They also appeared to have developed fewer protective factors. The combination of the presence of risk factors and the absence of protective factors may ha ve impeded the ability of some underachieving students to achieve at higher levels.     

公益伦理主张的道德义务——论对弱势群体的救助

公益伦理主张的道德义务,主要指公益主体的道德义务,从根本上来说,它就在于通过慈善捐赠和志愿服务等公益活动无偿地救助弱势群体。在履行救助弱势群体的道德义务中,公益主体应当平等地对待弱势群体;注意救助方式的合理性和科学性;有一种"到心"的道德责任感。     

Mathematical experiences and parental involvement of parents who are and who are not mathematicians

Previous studies suggest that parental involvement in children’s mathematics education is more established for parents who feel competent in mathematics. This qualitative study aimed to gain an in-depth insight into the experiences of parental involvement of two different groups of parents: those who are mathematicians and those who are not. Data were collected through narrative interviews with parents. A thematic analysis of the data revealed findings within two distinct but interrelated themes: parents’ mathematical experiences and parental involvement in their children’s mathematics education. The findings indicated that the two groups of participating parents differ in their own experiences of mathematics as well as in their parental involvement. The main difference in parental involvement was indicated in the area of children’s school mathematics, since mathematician parents, compared to non-mathematician parents, according to their narratives almost never get involved in their children’s mathematics homework. In addition, the data revealed a large gap in the coverage and content of the mathematical activities that parents in both groups provided to their children.     

Social problem-solving among disadvantaged and non-disadvantaged adolescents

The study examined the differences of social problem-solving (SPS) among 12-, 14- and 16-year-old Hungarian disadvantaged and non-disadvantaged adolescents (N = 382) and investigated the relationship between SPS and family background (FB). SPS was measured through students’ own and their teachers’ evaluations by an adapted questionnaire (Social Problem-Solving Inventory–Revised, factors: negative/positive problem orientation, rationality, impulsivity and avoidance). Based on the total values of SPS, the difference between disadvantaged and non-disadvantaged adolescents was significant in all age groups in the case of negative orientation. The difference was significant in the case of impulsivity at the age of 12; in the case of avoidance at the age of 14; in the case of rationality and avoidance at the age of 16. FB had the strongest link with negative orientation, impulsivity and avoidance. In case of impulsivity and avoidance, variance explained by FB was higher among 16-year olds than among 12- and 14-year olds.     

Where have they gone? Issues in transition and progression for special school leavers

This paper reports on semi-structured interviews with 76 former special school students now aged between 16 and 25. These young people were 'disadvantaged' rather than 'disabled' and many were experiencing 'fractured' transitions from school. Although they were more positive about their schools than similarly disadvantaged peers who had attended mainstream provision, they nonetheless raised concerns about the quality and usefulness of their experiences. On leaving school they had, in many cases, moved from one unsatisfactory activity to another, without any obvious signs of progression. They displayed a high level of purposefulness but lacked personal and social resources to support their progression within somewhat unsupportive structures. The paper argues that an exclusive focus on transition from school is inadequate and that young people may need support well after this point, possibly from the Connexions service. It also suggests that the notion of 'resilience' may have more to offer than traditional special education discourses.     

The influence of neighborhood disadvantage, collective socialization, and parenting on African American children's affiliation with deviant peers

This study focused on hypotheses about the contributions of neighborhood disadvantage, collective socialization, and parenting to African American children's affiliation with deviant peers. A total of 867 families living in Georgia and Iowa, each with a 10- to 12-year-old child, participated. Unique contributions to deviant peer affiliation were examined using a hierarchical linear model. Community disadvantage derived from census data had a significant positive effect on deviant peer affiliations. Nurturant/involved parenting and collective socialization processes were inversely associated, and harsh/inconsistent parenting was positively associated, with deviant peer affiliations. The effects of nurturant/involved parenting and collective socialization were most pronounced for children residing in the most disadvantaged neighborhoods.