Analysis of measures for attention to diversity in Compulsory Secondary Education: the case of the Region of Murcia,Spain

In this paper, we present an analysis of the implementation of measures of attention to diversity for students with special educational support needs studying Compulsory Secondary Education (12–16 years) in the Region of Murcia, Spain. Our aim is to learn about the organisational and curricular structures implemented in five secondary education schools with a total of 1967 students. These structures are used to deal with student diversity through common and specific measures of attention to diversity and are established by law. We intend to verify and assess whether these are properly and effectively implemented, providing a quality educational response in conformity with the discourse on inclusion and social cohesion. A review of existing legislation suggests that it may be advisable to apply common measures before specific ones in the event that a student has educational support needs and, if possible, in the usual context, that is, within the regular classroom.     

Domain-Specific Knowledge and Why Teaching Generic Skills Does Not Work

Domain-general cognitive knowledge has frequently been used to explain skill when domain-specific knowledge held in long-term memory may provide a better explanation. An emphasis on domain-general knowledge may be misplaced if domain-specific knowledge is the primary factor driving acquired intellectual skills. We trace the long history of attempts to explain human cognition by placing a primary emphasis on domain-general skills with a reduced emphasis on domain-specific knowledge and indicate how otherwise unintelligible data can be easily explained by assumptions concerning the primacy of domain-specific knowledge. That primacy can be explained by aspects of evolutionary educational psychology. Once the importance of domain-specific knowledge is accepted, instructional design theories and processes are transformed.     

Una Perspectiva Crítica Racial de la Opresión Lingüística Desde el Lente de Voces Chicanas

En este artículo los autores recurren a voces de personajes chicanos para analizar y discutir la opresión lingüística del méxico americano durante las décadas de 1920 a 1960. Utilizando la teoría racial crítica y la teoría latina del racismo (CRT y LatCrit por sus siglas en inglés) los autores hacen referencia específica a pasajes, documentos históricos y piezas de la literatura para argumentar que cuestiones de poder y racismo han impactado la restricción en el uso del idioma español en los Estados Unidos. De manera específica, se hace referencia a los castigos sufrido por varias generaciones de hispanoparlantes.

In this article, the authors analyze and discuss the linguistic oppression faced by Mexican-Americans from the 1920s to the 1960s as narrated by Chicano voices. Critical Race Theory and Latino/a Critical Race Theory permeate the argument that issues of power and racism have impacted the use of Spanish in the United States. This oppression is reflected in historical documents, passages, and segments of Chicano literature. Specifically, the article describes instances of punishment suffered by several generations of Spanish speakers.     

Adult Attachment States of Mind: Measurement Invariance Across Ethnicity and Associations With Maternal Sensitivity

This study examined the developmental significance of mothers' adult attachment representations assessed prenatally with the Adult Attachment Interview in relation to observed maternal sensitivity at 6 months postpartum in an ethnically diverse sample (N = 131 African American; N = 128 European American). Multiple‐group confirmatory factor analyses provided evidence for partial measurement invariance of a two‐factor dismissing and preoccupied latent structure of adult attachment across the two ethnic groups of women. African American women showed modest elevations on the preoccupied factor relative to European American women. Although the dismissing factor showed an empirically equivalent negative association with maternal sensitivity in both ethnic groups, this effect was reduced to marginal significance when controlling for maternal socioeconomic status.     

Promotion of autonomy for participation in physical activity: a study based on the trans-contextual model of motivation

The aim of this study was to analyse the effects of a school-based intervention to promote physical activity, utilising the postulates of the trans-contextual model of motivation. The study examined two separate classes of elementary school students (mean age 11.28?years), one of which served as the control group (n?=?26) and the other as the experimental group (n?=?21). The intervention in the experimental group consisted of showing videos related to physical activity participation, conducting discussions and doing tasks related to the content presented in the videos and conducting family discussions. Autonomy support from teachers, peers and parents; motivation in physical education and leisure time physical activity; the different variables of theory of planned behaviour; and physical activity, were measured before and after the intervention. Results showed an increase in teacher autonomy support, identified regulation in physical education, autonomy support from parents and peers, integrated and identified regulation in leisure time physical activity, control, subjective norm, intention and physical activity in the experimental group. Furthermore, this increase resulted in post-intervention differences across groups in such variables. Results are discussed in relation to the important role of families in the promotion of physical activity participation.     

Quasi-appropriation of dialectical materialism: a critical reading of Marxism in Vygotskian approaches to cultural studies in science education

In this review essay we examine five categories of dialectical materialism proposed by Paulo Lima Junior, Fernanda Ostermann, and Flavia Rezende in their study of the extent to which the articles published in Cultural Studies of Science Education, that use a Vygotskian approach, are committed to Marxism/dialectical materialism. By closely examining these categories (“thesis, antithesis and synthesis,” “unity of analysis,” “History,” “revolution,” “materialism”) we expect to enrich the general discussion about the possible contributions of Marxism to science education. We perceive part of science education practice as orientating toward positivism, which reduces human beings—teachers, learners and researchers—to isolated individuals who construct knowledge by themselves. The very same approach aggravates the inner contradiction of the capitalist society demanding commitments from researchers to continually build innovative science education from human praxis. Nevertheless, it is necessary to situate ourselves beyond a formal commitment with dialectical materialism and hence reach the heart of this method. Besides understanding the researchers’ commitments, we question the extent to which the respective research helps to radically refresh the current view on science, science education practice, and research in science education.     

Biotechnology education as social and cultural production/reproduction of the biotechnology community

This paper is a commentary to a paper by Anne Solli, Frank Bach and Björn Åkerman on how students at a technical university learn to argue as biotechnologists. Solli and her colleagues report from an ethnographic study performed during the first semester of a 5-year program in biotechnology at a technical university in Sweden. Their study demonstrates how students begin to acquire ‘the right way’ of approaching the controversial issue of producing and consuming genetically modified organisms. In my response I discuss the ethnographic account of this particular educational practice in terms of social and cultural production/reproduction of a biotechnology community and how the participants (students and teaching professors) deal with the dialectic of individual and collective transformation. In the perspective of the biotechnology community, the work done by the teaching professor becomes a way of ensuring the future of the biotechnology community in terms of what values and objectives are held highly in the community of practice.