Differential susceptibility to adolescent externalizing trajectories: examining the interplay between CHRM2 and peer group antisocial behavior

The present study characterized prototypical patterns of development in self-reported externalizing behavior, between 12 and 22 years of age, within a community sample of 452 genotyped individuals. A Caucasian subset (n = 378) was then examined to determine whether their probabilities of displaying discrete trajectories were differentially associated with CHRM2, a gene implicated in self-regulatory processes across a range of externalizing behaviors, and if affiliating with antisocial peers moderated these associations. Findings indicate that relative to a normative "lower risk" externalizing trajectory, likelihood of membership in two "higher risk" trajectories increased with each additional copy of the minor allelic variant at CHRM2, and that this association was exacerbated among those exposed to higher levels of peer group antisocial behavior.     

Between Student and Teacher: Learning to teach as translation

In this article, I propose that teacher educators use the metaphor of translation to illuminate the process of preparing to teach. Drawing on my analysis of the experience of preservice teachers enrolled in a methods course required for certification to teach at the secondary level, I explain how a project based in that class supports the preservice teachers' translations. Through a weekly exchange of letters with selected students who attend a local public high school, and ongoing reflection on that exchange, preservice teachers enrolled in this methods course face two challenges: to translate what it means to be a teacher as they translate themselves into teachers, and to translate the language they use with students as they interact with those students.     

Stress in Year 11 Students

Over the past decade, teacher stress has been well studied. However, comparatively little research has been carried out on student stress. This article reproduces a study carried out by Kyriacou and Butcher in 1993 to observe whether the main stressors for year 11 students have changed over the past 10 years. Students at one comprehensive school completed a questionnaire about their own stress, which was also completed by the teachers. The main sources of stress were academic, as was found in 1993; however, coursework featured more in 2002. There were a number of differences between girls and boys and between the students and their teachers.     

The Cultural Production of Classroom Practice

With reference to ethnographic data, this paper indicates how working class Polynesian and middle class Pakeha (European) girls actively and rationally ‘produce’ classroom practice in a New Zealand secondary school. It is argued that empirical analyses of classrooms within a radical theoretical framework, such as the work of Jean Anyon, need to be informed by an understanding of student practice as structurally‐located cultural production. This is necessary in order to discuss actually how schooling contributes to social reproduction and how it might be engaged in social transformation.     

‘Men Must be Educated and Women Must Do If: the National Federation (later Union) of Women Teachers and contemporary feminism 1910‐30

This article explores the feminist politics of the National Union of Women Teachers (NUWT) between 1910 and 1930. It argues that the Union was as much a part of contemporary feminism as educational trade unionism. The feminist teachers were conscious of the effect of the State on their lives and saw their enfranchisement as a way of obtaining a voice in the educational and political arena. The article explores their development as equal rights feminists in the 1920s and indicates the relevance of much of their educational and political views for modern feminists.     

How Relevant is Transaction Cost Economics to Inter-Firm Relationships in the Music Industry?

This paper applies the transaction cost framework to the organisation of product sourcing and development (PS&D) activities within the popular music industry. Two firm types characterise the industry and this particular set of activities; large multinational firms (`majors') and smaller regionally bound companies (`independents'). We find that the Transaction CostEconomies framework of Oliver Williamson (1985, 1999) provides only a partial explanation for the observed hybrid organisational structures established by the two firm types. A more sensitive model can be achieved by including a number of moderating variables drawn from the socially constructed and situationally dependent idiosyncrasies of the assets involved in the PS&D activities under consideration.     

Stepping out of the classroom: involving teachers in the evaluation of national special education policy

Since Richard Rose relaunched BJSE's Research Section as a forum for the discussion of practitioner research, BJSE has published a series of very successful accounts of individual teacher enquiry and action research. In this article from New Zealand, Roseanna Bourke, now working at the Ministry of Education in Wellington, and her two colleagues, Alison Kearney and Jill Bevan-Brown, both from the Department of Learning and Teaching at Massey University, present an alternative view of the involvement of teachers in research.
In 1999, the Ministry of Education asked a team of researchers from Massey University to evaluate the introduction of New Zealand's first national policy for special education, known as Special Education 2000. The 16-member research team was contracted to provide a three-year, multi-method, longitudinal evaluation incorporating both quantitative and qualitative approaches. This article looks specifically at one aspect of the approach used in the evaluation – the use of teachers as fieldworkers. Teachers across the country were trained as fieldworkers to assist in the collection of data in schools and early childhood centres. Training was given to all teachers on the research aims, methods, ethics, including cultural sensitivity, and rationale for the evaluation. By participating in large-scale research and acting as 'fieldworkers', 68 teachers had the opportunity to develop their skills as researchers, while learning about other schools' perceptions and experiences of the special education policy. The experience provided a means for teachers to become apprenticed into a research culture, and to talk with principals and other teachers about common areas of interest. It also ensured that the research had knowledgeable and credible fieldworkers to collect data in schools.     

The wicked problem of embedding academic literacies: exploring rhizomatic ways of working through an adaptive leadership approach

Embedding academic literacies in higher education courses has been a major focus of the work of learning advisers. A number of studies present the results of embedding in specific courses without discussing the processes of negotiation or the different people involved. This paper is about embedding academic literacies in the Business faculty as part of an English language proficiency model at an Australian university. After initial slow progress, a team of learning advisers began to evaluate the process by reflecting on practice. This reflection focused on the space between the top-down process as planned and what actually happened in the complex academic environment. There were tensions between the proposed plan and the expectations and understandings of the disciplinary academics. These were used as a starting point to explore the issues in more detail. This paper argues that the task of embedding academic literacies bears all the hallmarks of a ‘wicked problem’ which eludes a linear formulation and is open to multiple framings. The botanical metaphor of the rhizome from the philosophy of Deleuze and Guattari and an adaptive leadership approach offer ways of responding to this problem. This paper reinterprets the team’s experiences using these theories and suggests alternative work practices. By moving away from the concept of a model, more opportunities to bring about attitudinal and curriculum change can be created to make academic literacies explicit for students.