The scope of sexual, physical, and psychological abuse in a Bedouin-Arab community of female adolescents: The interplay of racism, urbanization, polygamy, family honor, and the social marginalization of women

OBJECTIVES: This is an exploratory study of the abuse-especially sexual-of female adolescents in a conservative and traditional Bedouin-Arab community in southern Israel. The objectives were (1) to examine the rate of sexual abuse, (2) to examine the rate of physical and psychological abuse, and (3) to develop regression models to predict these forms of abuse. METHODS: : A self-administered survey that measured demographic characteristics and psychological abuse was distributed to 217 female high-school students (aged 14-18 years). Sexual and physical abuse were measured via the Finkelhor's scale [Finkelhor, D. (1979). Sexually victimized children. New York: Free Press]. RESULTS: Sixty-nine percent of the participants (n=149) reported no sexual abuse experiences, 16% reported one or two experiences, 11% reported three or four, and 4% reported more than four. Most participants indicated that they had been physically abused at least once by their father (37.1%), mother (43.7%), or siblings (44%) during the previous month. More than 50% of the participants reported being psychologically abused by members of their immediate families. Mother's age and closeness to mother significantly predicted physical abuse, and marital satisfaction and mother's age significantly predicted psychological abuse. CONCLUSION: This study addresses a topic that has never before been fully investigated--the maltreatment of females in a conservative, tribal Arab community. Although this was an exploratory study, the results attest that female abuse is a serious social problem in this community, and that the rate of abuse exceeds that of other Palestinian groups. These findings demonstrate an immediate need for professional intervention and prevention to address this problem.     

Development of an Online Education Program for Midwives in Australia to Improve Perinatal Oral Health

It is recommended that all pregnant women should receive a comprehensive oral health evaluation because poor maternal oral health may affect pregnancy outcomes and the general health of the woman and her baby. Midwives are well placed to provide dental health advice and referral. However, in Australia, little emphasis has been placed on the educational needs of midwives to undertake this role. This article outlines the development of an online education program designed to improve midwives’ dental health knowledge, prepare them to assess the oral health of women, refer when required, and provide appropriate dental education to women and their families. The program consists of reading and visual material to assist with the oral health assessment process and includes competency testing.     

Teaching Teachers About Energy: Lessons from an Inquiry-Based Workshop for K-8 Teachers

We report results and impressions from a three-day inquiry-based workshop for K-8 teachers, aimed at improving their understanding of energy from a science and engineering perspective. Results suggest that the teachers made significant gains in understanding and appreciation of important energy concepts, but their comprehension of some key ideas remained incomplete. The dissipation of energy into thermal energy of the environment proved to be a particularly difficult idea, and one that represents a serious obstacle to understanding the principle of the conservation of energy.     

鼓励私营部门参与教育的框架

私营部门以适当的方式参与教育,能够有效地帮助政府提高教育的质量与公平。本文论述了一个私营部门参与教育以实现有效教育供给的框架。在分析各国目前如何引入私营部门参与教育之后,基于满足有效教育供给的核心要素的要求,本文设计了一个分析这种参与之有效性的工具。这一工具概括了政府与家长各自的角色。本文综述了有关文献的内容,并应用此工具讨论了荷兰的案例。     

Preservice Teachers’ Conceptions and Enactments of Project-Based Instruction

We present results of an investigation of preservice secondary mathematics and science teachers’ conceptions of project-based instruction (PBI) and their enactments of PBI in apprentice (student) teaching. We evaluated their thinking and implementations within a composite framework based on the work of education researchers. We analyzed survey responses, both qualitatively and statistically, from three cohorts of preservice teachers both before and after apprentice teaching. In addition we interviewed and observed a subset of these future teachers. We found that in general the preservice teachers held superficial views of PBI, as compared to the researcher framework. Participants reported time and curriculum restrictions as major barriers; however, teachers for whom enactment of PBI was presented as an explicit goal, and who were given support toward that end, were more likely to enact authentic implementations, regardless of previous reservations about PBI. Without this additional scaffolding, even teachers with high affinity for PBI were unlikely to implement it authentically.     

Gender Differences in College Preparedness: A Statewide Study

In this study, the authors investigated the extent to which boys and girls differed in their college-ready performance in reading, in math, and in both subjects for the 2006–2007 school year for the state of Texas (n = 1,099 high schools). Also examined were the extent to which boys and girls differed in their performance on the Scholastic Assessment Test (SAT) and the American College Test (ACT) for the 2005–2006 and 2006–2007 school years. Differences in criterion scores, as well as how many boys and girls actually took these exams, were examined in addition to their average scores. Statistically significant differences were present between the college-ready scores of boys and of girls in reading, math, and in both subject areas. Of special note is that less than one-third of all students were deemed to be college-ready in both subject areas. Statistically significant differences also were revealed between boys and girls in the percentage taking the SAT or ACT, in the percentage meeting the SAT or ACT criterion, and in their SAT average scores, but not in their ACT average scores. Implications of these findings are discussed.     

Social Justice: A National Imperative for Counselor Education and Supervision

In this introduction to the special issue of the Counselor Education and Supervision journal, the guest editors provide a brief history of the social justice movement within the Association for Counselor Education and Supervision and discuss the importance of addressing social justice issues in counselor education and supervision. The authors challenge all counselors to make social justice an integral part of their work.     

In defence of anonymity: Rejoining the criticism

This article is a response to the growing criticisms of the British Educational Research Association (BERA) and Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) ethical guidelines on anonymity and pseudonymity as default positions for participants in qualitative educational research. It discusses and responds to those criticisms under four headings—illusion, impossibility and undesirability, access and quality—and extends the explication of difficulties to quantitative approaches using an example from value‐added effectiveness research. The article discusses potential flaws in the arguments made against anonymous and pseudonymous research, and presents some issues for the research community to take forward. Finally, some suggestions are offered for a modified code of practice regarding anonymity and pseudonymity, which attempts a more subtle capture of difficulties in the field and qualifies the existing rationale to take account of previously unconsidered technical concerns.