A comprehensive survey on the status of social and professional issues in United States undergraduate computer science programs and recommendations

A national web-based survey was administered to 700 undergraduate computer science (CS) programs in the United States as part of a stratified random sample of 797 undergraduate CS programs. The 251 program responses (36% response rate) regarding social and professional issues are presented. This article describes the demographics of the respondents, presents results concerning whether programs teach social and professional issues, how social and professional issues are integrated, perceptions of CS faculty regarding the importance of social and professional issues, pedagogies used to teach social and professional issues, and what specific social and professional topics have been included in the CS curriculum. Additionally, we (a) provide suggestions for CS programs regarding the integration of social and professional issues into the CS curriculum, (b) suggest ways to encourage more social and professional coverage in CS programs, pedagogy, and (c) recommend what social and professional topics should be included in future CS curriculum reports.     

Beyond the ‘two cultures’ in the teaching of disaster: or how disaster education and science education could benefit each other

Abstract

Looking at the current discourse on how to teach disaster, one apparent gap is that the scientific aspect of disaster is discussed and taught mostly in isolation from its human aspect. Disaster educators seem to be primarily interested in addressing issues such as social vulnerability, community resilience, personal action-related knowledge and emotion rather than the scientific basis of disasters, whereas science educators often fail to make connections between the scientific accounts of disasters and the social and political contexts that surround them. In this theoretical paper, I claim that this disconnect is problematic and that overcoming it is a key to understanding and teaching disaster in a more nuanced and comprehensive manner. Drawing primarily on science and technology studies (STS) on disaster, I explore the potential of interpreting disasters as failures of socio-technical systems, which helps us unearth the inner workings of the complex network of science, technology and society in the wake of calamities. STS challenges the dichotomous understanding of the material and social worlds and takes a view that they shape each other to constitute socio-technical systems. Taking such an approach to disaster allows a synthetic understanding of the natural, technological and human-made disasters that we are faced with in the age of uncertainty and complexity. Based on the ideas of STS and examples of recent disasters in East Asian countries, I argue that disaster education and science education can cross-pollinate in tackling the post-disaster hardship and cultivating responsible citizens.     

Globalization and science education: The implications of science in the new economy

Science has seen considerable change in recent decades with the emergence of a new economic and sociopolitical contract between science, the nation, state, and private commercial interests. Generally regarded as having been precipitated by globalization, these changes in the sciences are beginning to be documented by a range of commentators. Clearly, science's changing forms hold profound implications for the development of science education. As there is little science education scholarship exploring the implications sciences' altering forms, this paper attempts to investigate the relationship at more depth. Detailing this relationship is important because it can help formulate new questions, and methods for their investigation, relevant to the work of science education in the newly global world. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 45: 617–633, 2008     

Teaching Shabanu: the challenges of using world literature in the US social studies classroom

This paper discusses inclusion of global literature in social studies curricula, especially in teaching about women of the world. It analyses the attraction of, and difficulties with, a popular work of young adult fiction, Shabanu, often taught in US middle‐school social studies and humanities classrooms. It uses the framework of post‐colonial, feminist theorizing and critical, post‐structuralist considerations in history and literature to analyse the novel. It draws on several sources: my experiences in incorporating the book into a teacher‐education course in social studies education; interviews with teachers and teacher educators; testimonials about the book available on the Internet, including the reactions of Muslim groups in the USA; and interviews with Pakistani‐American students about their reactions to the book.     

A framework for implementing and teaching the social and ethical impact of computing

This article describes the work of Project ImpactCS, which was initiated to define the core content and pedagogical objectives for integrating social impact and ethics into the computer science (CS) curriculum. Over a three year period the project will address three major problems that hamper the implementation of across-the-board curriculum change: the lack of a well-specified definition of what the core content and learning objectives should include, the lack of a strategy for adapting and adopting existing materials that address the core topics into the existing CS curriculum, and the lack of awareness and expertise on the part of most CS faculties regarding the need and methodology for presenting such material in their courses. This report provides the conceptual frame-work and describes the learning objectives, called knowledge units, for defining a new content area in the computer science curriculum. It also discusses strategies and innovative pedagogical techniques for implementing the knowledge units into the curriculum.     

Resisting the marginalization of science in an urban school: Coactivating social,cultural, material,and strategic resources

This study describes the resources and strategies middle school teachers, urban fellows, and a district science staff developer coactivated to resist the marginalization of science in a high‐poverty, low‐performing urban school. Through critical narrative inquiry, I document factors that marginalized science in three teachers' classrooms. The narratives show that constraints related to cultural, material, and social resources contributed to a more global symbolic resource constraint, the low status and priority of science in the school. The narratives develop a new category of strategic resources embodied or controlled by others and leveraged to improve students' opportunities to learn science. Attention to a broader array of resources, including social, symbolic, and strategic resources, helps to excavate some of the inertial forces that might derail efforts to teach for social justice. The findings provide a sense of how and why teachers might activate resources to resist the marginalization of science in their classrooms. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 47:840–860, 2010     

Deconstructing neoliberalism in global citizenship discourses: an analysis of Korean social studies textbooks

ABSTRACT

This study explored ways in which official social studies textbooks in South Korea promote global citizenship given the dominant neoliberal ideology in the field of education. Employing soft versus critical global citizenship education (GCE) and critical discourse analysis, this study analyzed 12 middle-school (seventh to ninth grades) social studies textbooks that are mandatory in Korean public schools. The findings of this study demonstrate the prevalence of a neoliberal agenda and nationalist rhetoric in the global citizenship discourses in the textbooks. We discussed the extent to which themes for GCE including globalization, cultural diversity, peace, sustainability, and associated skills and dispositions were instrumental in perpetuating neoliberal economic values and nationalism while marginalizing social justice and multiculturalism in official textbooks.     

Extending science beyond the classroom door: Learning from students' experiences with the Choice,Control and Change (C3) curriculum

This article describes the experiences of seventh‐grade students living in high poverty areas of New York City who participated in the Choice, Control and Change (C3) science curriculum. Data were collected from eight case study students in the form of individual interviews, classroom observations, and student artifacts. Analysis of these data revealed that students were able to extend their C3 science understandings beyond the classroom door by developing and expressing science agency in the following ways: (1) critically analyze the conditions of their food environment, (2) purposefully make healthier choices, and (3) expand the food and activity options available to themselves and others. Through participation in the C3 curriculum, and the science content and practices addressed therein, students began to view their worlds with a more critical mindset and to devise ways to transform themselves and the conditions of their own and others' lives. Based on the findings, we propose taking a closer look at how we might create meaningful and relevant learning opportunities for students through connecting school science with issues of personal and social significance in students' lives outside of school. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 49: 244–269, 2012     

21世纪:哲学社会科学面临的机遇与挑战

〕2 1世纪 ,随着我国市场经济的进一步完善和发展 ,随着国际交往的进一步增多 ,我国社会的各个方面将会发生翻天覆地的变化。这种变化对我国哲学社会科学的发展既是机遇 ,又是挑战。积极应对挑战 ,去解决社会生活中重大的理论和实践课题 ,将会使我国哲学社会科学取得空前的繁荣和发展     

哲学社会科学期刊新编辑自我定位的探讨

文章从哲学社会科学期刊新编辑的自我定位及其实现途径的角度 ,探讨如何使新编辑尽可能快地适应自身的编辑工作岗位。     

A study of practical‐moral knowledge in science teaching: Case studies in physical science classrooms

This study further extends a conceptual framework that explores science teaching as a “practice” not reducible to the application of formal knowledge, but as informed by teachers' practical‐moral knowledge. A hermeneutic model was developed to examine practical‐moral knowledge indirectly by investigating teachers' commitments, interpretations, actions, and dialectic interactions between them. The study also aimed to analyze teachers' actions in terms of their interpretations and commitments as they realize “internal goods” of their practice. Ethnographic case studies of three science teachers were conducted through classroom observation, in‐depth interviews and dialogues, and artifact analysis. A commitment of preparing students for national exams was common to the three teachers but was manifested differently in classroom practices. This commitment originated from interpretations about the duty of “good” teachers not letting students and schools down. Other emergent commitments were commitments: to conceptual understandings, to “challenge” learners, and to social modeling. We present each with associated interpretations and actions. The concepts of practical wisdom (phronesis) and gap closing are used to characterize teachers' practical knowledge and its development respectively. Implications for teacher education are discussed. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 47: 929–951, 2010     

Learning environments at the margin: Case studies of disenfranchised youth doing science in an aquarium and an after-school program

In this article, we explore how two informal educational contexts—an aquarium and an after-school science program—enabled disenfranchised learners to adopt an identity as insiders to the world of science. We tell the stories of four youth, relating what doing science meant to them and how they positioned themselves in relation to science. We contribute to the extensive literature on the value of learning beyond the school walls, yet focus on ethnically and linguistically diverse youth from low-income backgrounds who have often been excluded from such settings. We suggest that such out-of-school settings are particularly important to youth who have few other opportunities to interact with and relate to science in positive ways.     

中央政府与社会教育:理学教育的视角

社会教育由于其在社会治理与发展中的重要作用而被人们所重视。理学教育家也极为关注社会教育问题,对于如何推行社会教育进行了诸多的思考与探索。理学教育家认为,在社会教育的网络体系中,中央政府处于最高的决策与管理地位,发挥着非常重要的作用。对于中央政府如何确定自身在国家社会教育中的地位并充分发挥其作用,理学教育家提出了一些很有价值的建议。     

Intercultural PhD supervision: exploring the hidden curriculum in a social science faculty doctoral programme

International knowledge markets rely heavily on a ready supply of highly mobile doctoral students, many of whom are from the global South, to bring in revenue. The supervision of these PhD students, however, can reproduce neo-colonial knowledge relations, often in subtle ways. In settler nations, international PhD students may find that they are assigned subaltern status in their university departments and this can have a significant impact on their learning. This paper explores the experiences of a group of international PhD students in a social science faculty in a New Zealand university during the first two years of their doctoral studies. It examines how they responded to the displacement of their cultural values and priorities, the way they navigated intercultural engagements with supervisors, and their ensuing relationships with indigenous and ethnic allies in the faculty. Despite considerable pressure to conform to the dominant modes of academic knowledge production that characterise universities in settler nations, it is concluded that international students find ways of speaking out, often in highly coded forms, that complicate their subaltern academic status.     

Whiteness and social studies teacher education: tensions in the pedagogical task

Utilizing a critical whiteness studies framework, the authors analyzed the experiences of a cohort of predominantly White pre-service social studies teachers discussing race and Whiteness in relation to education. The pre-service teachers resisted identifying White privilege as a form of structural racism, instead preferring individualized understandings of racism. The participants also utilized their personal biographies to accept or reject aspects of race privilege. The authors highlighted three tensions for teacher educators to consider when engaging pre-service teachers in discussions about race privilege, including recognizing the unfamiliar nature of structural thinking, appreciating the limitations of personal experience, and acknowledging the challenges of structural considerations within individual classrooms. The authors’ findings – and the tensions they highlight– depart from previous literature on White teachers and race by paying specific attention to pedagogical issues related to developing a critical racial consciousness in White teachers and by attending to the ways in which Whiteness, as a structural force, limits the ability of White teachers to engage in conversations about race. The authors attempt to trouble the assumption that the pedagogical practices in teacher education adequately create an environment in which White teachers can thoroughly engage in the problematics of race, racism, and Whiteness.     

National monitoring in social studies: the reliability of assessment interviews

The National Education Monitoring Project (NEMP) is responsible in New Zealand for the national assessment of primary school children's achievement in the essential learning areas, one of which is social studies. Individual interviews are one of the approaches used to assess students' understanding. The assessors are registered teachers, selected by NEMP, who attend a training week where they learn how to conduct the standardised assessment tasks and associated interviews. This study examines the reliability of the assessment interviews used in the 2005 round of social studies monitoring, in particular the variations between teacher administrators (TAs) in their use of prompts and probes. The extent of variation observed in the use of three kinds of prompt was sufficient to raise questions about the reliability of the assessment process. A surprising outcome was the consistent failure of TAs to clarify and elucidate students' social studies understandings through the judicious use of probes. The prompt-related variations between TAs and their failure fully to ‘tap into’ understandings assessed by interview-based tasks are serious threats to the validity of claims regarding students' achievement in social studies. This is particularly concerning as NEMP data are used as the basis for identifying and reporting national patterns and trends in educational performance and making recommendations to policy-makers, curriculum planners and educators.     

关于完善国家社科基金项目评审制度的若干思考

现行的国家社会科学项目评审制度在实践中证明是行之有效的,但仍存在不足,主要是学科评审专家的遴选多是从一级学科层次上考虑,且只通过他们的一次会议评审确定立项和资助额。为保证基金项目评审立项的科学性和公正性,有必要建立一个包括同行评议制度、回避制度,违纪处理制度、申诉制度、监督制度以及项目成果公开制度在内的管理体系。其中构建专家库和每年同行评议专家的选择非常重要     

Learning from students,inquiry into practice,and participation in professional communities: Beginning teachers' uneven progress toward equitable science teaching

In this research project, we investigated two beginning secondary science teachers' efforts to learn to teach science in ways that build from and celebrate the ethnic, gender, linguistic, and academic diversity of their students. To do so, we followed Troy and Brian from their preservice teacher education experiences through their first year of teaching 8th grade physical science at local junior high schools. We also conducted a follow‐up observation and interview with each participant after he had moved past the beginning stage of survival in the teaching profession—once in his fourth year of public school science teaching. Through qualitative analysis of interviews, classroom observations, and teachers' written work, we identified patterns and explored commonalities and differences in Troy and Brian's views and practices tied to equity over time. In particular, we examined successes and challenges they encountered in learning to teach science for all (a) from their students, (b) from inquiry into practice, and (c) from participation in professional communities. In our implications, we suggest ways teacher educators and induction professionals can better support beginning teachers in learning to teach science to all students. In particular, we highlight the central roles both individual colleagues and collective school cultures play in aiding or impeding beginning teachers' efforts to learn from students, from practice, and from professional communities. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 44: 586–612, 2007.     

Learning contexts,black Cultural Ethos,and the science achievement of African American students in an urban middle school

As other countries vigorously promote rapid advancement in science, optimizing the participation of all students in the United States in science is imperative. This study focused on African American students and examined their science achievement in relation to Black Cultural Ethos (BCE), a construct rooted in psychology. Via qualitative and quantitative data obtained from a non‐random control group design, the study addressed three questions: (1) With respect to BCE, what characterizes the natural instructional contexts of two middle school science teachers? (2) What characterizes the achievement of African American students in contexts that incorporate BCE and contexts that do not? (3) What achievement patterns, if any, exist in BCE and non‐BCE instructional contexts? With regard to the natural contexts, the teachers did not incorporate BCE even when the opportunities were available to do so. Within these non‐BCE contexts, the group's mean scores on the study‐specific test that aligned with instruction decreased from pretest to posttest with approximately one‐third of the students' scores improving. When a context was altered with a moderate effect size of 0.47 to include BCE, the group's mean scores on the aforementioned test increased from pretest to posttest with two‐thirds of the students' scores improving. An illustration of the interplay between BCE and context and a consideration of the interplay as a mediating factor in research involving African American students encapsulate the significance and implications of the study's findings. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 45: 665–683, 2008