‘I never imagined I’d have to teach these children’: providing authentic learning experiences for secondary pre‐service teachers in teaching students with special needs

This article describes a collaborative and cross‐curricula initiative undertaken in the School of Education at the University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia. The project involved developing an integrated approach to providing professional year pre‐service secondary teacher education students with experiences that would assist them to develop their knowledge and skills to teach students with special needs in their classrooms. These experiences were undertaken in the authentic teaching and learning context of a post‐school literacy program for young adults with intellectual disabilities. In preliminary interviews pre‐service teachers revealed that they lacked experience, knowledge and understanding related to teaching students with special needs, and felt that their teacher education program lacked focus in this field. This project was developed in response to these expressed needs. Through participating in the project, pre‐service teachers’ knowledge and understanding about working with students with diverse learning needs were developed as they undertook real and purposeful tasks in an authentic context.     

Who has a Problem,the Student or the Teacher? Differences in Teachers' Beliefs About Their Work with At‐risk and Integrated Exceptional Students

In this study, teachers' assumptions and beliefs are explored about the needs of at‐risk and exceptional students, and about their roles and responsibilities in meeting such needs. Teachers appear to hold consistent and coherent belief systems which differ along an ordinal scale. At one end, ‘restorative’ beliefs assume that problems reside largely within the pupil, and therefore the teacher's duty is to refer the pupil for confirmatory assessment as soon as possible. At the other ‘preventive’ end, teachers assume that the environment, including instruction, plays a part in a student's problems. The teacher therefore attempts prereferral interventions, and requests assessment to identify instructional alternatives. This study provides evidence for the validity of the restorative‐preventive construct, reporting the results of both quantitative and qualitative analyses of interviews with 27 regular class elementary teachers. Teachers' ratings on the construct correlated significantly with their self‐ratings of teaching efficacy (Gibson & Dembo, 1984). Teachers with preventive beliefs had higher self‐efficacy scores than those with a restorative profile. Further, teachers with restorative beliefs rated the withdrawal of problem pupils from the classroom as a more desirable resource service than preventive teachers, who preferred in‐class consultative support.     

Emotional Labour in Magazine Work

This ethnographic research concerns the management of emotions in the editorial offices of the Finnish fashion-oriented lifestyle magazines, Elle Finland and Trendi. The material was collected through focused interviews and participant observation in editorial shoots. The analysis focuses on the informants’ ways of acting in the editorial shoots and their experiences in their work and the role of emotions in content production and co-operative work practices. The study demonstrates that emotional labour is required in production of content that is aimed to move, please or surprise the model reader and through her, the actual readers of the magazine. The members of the photography team are inclined to suppress feelings of anxiety and at the same time support and encourage other team members and the photographed subject. Emotional labour maintains stability in a tightly scheduled and goal-oriented teamwork, and enables team members to attune to the intimate and convivial atmosphere. The study also gives evidence about cruel optimism as it points out how magazine staff adjust to the uncertainty of the magazine field and the increased personal workload by invoking in themselves feelings of enjoyment and suppressing feelings of strain.     

Towards a reframing of student support: a case study approach

This paper reports on a study that investigated the range of institutional support needs of international students at one Australian university with a view to increasing understanding of their needs and the ways in which support was provided. The study involved a number of data collection methods including focus groups, key informant interviews and a larger scale survey, undertaken in an inductive and sequential process. The results indicated that the levels of awareness about services differed, that lack of knowledge of how to access a service and finding information about it were key reasons for non-use, and that the helpfulness of staff impacted on the perception of services as useful. The paper concludes by recommending a reconsideration of current practices to move towards a model of student support service provision in which the student is at the centre.     

The impact of culture upon child rearing practices and definitions of maltreatment

OBJECTIVE: The aim of the present study was to assess the relationship between a childhood history of abuse that a parent may have experienced and the cultural beliefs/factors that an individual may subscribe to with current parenting behaviors and attitudes. It was hypothesized that cultural factors would be more predictive of parenting behaviors and attitudes than ethnicity as a demographic label. METHOD: Using a survey design, 150 parents of Hispanic, African American and European American descent participated. Participants completed the Conflict Tactics Scale, a Familism Scale, a Machismo Scale, a Valuing Children Scale, the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire, and assigned seriousness ratings to vignettes depicting child maltreatment. RESULTS: A history of childhood abuse was found to be predictive of the use of both physical and verbal punishment by mothers, but not for fathers. Cultural factors/beliefs were predictive of fathers' parenting behaviors, but not mothers'. Ethnicity, as a demographic variable, continued to be a significant predictor of parenting behaviors and attitudes for all parents, controlling for cultural factors. DISCUSSION: The present study adds to our understanding of diverse parenting styles, of definitions of child abuse and neglect, and of ethnicity. The findings indicate that ethnicity is a complex factor, one demanding further examination with regard to its components.     

Collaborative Amateur Production of Educational Videos,which are Viewed on Mobiles: Addressing Poor Technical Resources for Nigerian Creative Arts Academics

This research was a co‐creation and co‐assessment exercise between the researchers, participating printmaking and weaving academics and their students in a Nigerian university. The poor technical resources and increasingly large student groups in the design department, which severely hampers the delivery of an effective education, were addressed. The academics were supported to learn how to create their own instructional videos for their students, demonstrating identified designer‐maker skills and how to use required equipment. These academics are now empowered and have the knowledge to produce their own instructional videos without professional assistance. This is also irrespective of their previous experiences of using video equipment and developing video content.     

Children of torture victims: Reactions and coping

The aim of this study was to describe mental reactions and coping strategies among children of torture victims. The study comprised 11 children from 5 exiled families with at least one of the parents having been subjected to torture. Investigation methods applied were qualitative interviews in three different settings and two projective tests. The children were anxious, depressive, and regressive. Moreover, they presented psychosomatic symptoms, sleep disorders, and family and school problems. The children's ways of dealing with their experiences were divided into four main coping strategies: (a) isolation and withdrawal, (b) mental flight, (c) eagerness to acclimatize, and (d) strength of will and fighting. A lack of flexibility in the children's development of coping strategies was mainly explained by the strength of challenges in the families' overall situation before and after escape and exilation. A lack of openness about imprisonment and torture seemed to be an essential way of parental coping. The observation methods chosen all proved to be applicable and informative. Moreover, the qualitative interview showed to be the crucial method.