Reading and rereading 'Shrek'

This article presents the findings of a small-scale research project which aimed to enable young people to reflect on their childhood responses to the popular films, 'Shrek' and 'Shrek 2'. During the project the participants develop new readings of the films in the light of their own recent experiences both of life and of other texts. The research draws on reader response theories to describe the complex readings of the films made by two young women from Rotherham. These readings include an engagement with an element of the films' narrative structure, the relationship dilemma between the main characters. There was also clearly recollection of enjoyment of the animation style, the humour and the fairytale intertextuality of the film. However, the strongest response was based on more recent experiences and involved considerable empathy with the characters. This has important implications for both educational research and classroom practice. This paper argues for an increased recognition of the significance of children and young people's engagements with popular children's films as integral to their development as readers and creators of narrative texts.     

Language as capital,or language as identity? Chinese complementary school pupils' perspectives on the purposes and benefits of complementary schools

Pupils' experiences of complementary education are neglected in the research literature, yet they are highly important in terms of understanding complementary schools and their impact on pupils' educational and social identities. This article explores British-Chinese pupils' discursive constructions of the purposes and benefits of Chinese complementary schools, drawing on data from an Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC)-funded study of six Chinese schools in England, including interviews with 60 of their British-Chinese pupils. Findings demonstrate that British-Chinese pupils overwhelmingly see the purpose of these schools as perpetuating the mother tongue. They produced a variety of explanations for the benefit of this perpetuation, and we analyse how these fall under two themes: instrumental benefits, and identity. In elaborating these themes we focus particularly on the ways in which language was constructed as identity, and draw out some theoretical implications for thinking around identity and ‘culture’.     

永随我心

许多次,我们并不确信一定能做成某事,纸面上的显示毫无意义,内在的感受才是真的心情。     

Professional education as a structural barrier to lifelong learning in the NHS

The concept of the learning society is analysed in relation to the healthcare sector and various occupations within it. It is maintained that although traditional boundaries have been blurred or eroded in the workplace in recent years, there remains strong opposition to this erosion on the part of many healthcare professions. This professional demarcation is particularly illustrated by the educational arrangements for various healthcare occupations, where it has prevented recognition of any overlap in the initial education and training of these groups. The resulting educational boundaries are argued to be incompatible with the concept of a learning society, as well as holding negative consequences for the provision of health care. Suggestions are made for a new approach to health care education.     

The Culture Project: diasporic negotiations of ethnicity,identity and culture among teachers,pupils and parents in Chinese language schools

Notions of culture, ethnicity and identity are highly political (and also personally meaningful) issues within diasporic communities. Complementary schools are particularly interesting sites in this respect, as they are often set up with an explicit cultural agenda of ‘preserving’ or ‘maintaining’ ‘traditional’ culture and language within diasporic communities. In this paper, we draw on qualitative data from an ESRC funded study conducted in six Chinese complementary schools to consider how pupils (n=60), parents (n=24) and teachers (n=21) in these schools construct and negotiate issues of culture and identity. We consider the ways in which the cultural agenda of the schools is constructed and experienced, teasing out the ways in which cultural discourses and pupil identities are deployed (and resisted, reworked) within the space of Chinese schools. Finally we consider the extent to which the schools are perceived by the young people to be ‘successful’ (or not) in their efforts to make pupils feel ‘more Chinese’.     

Extending an information processing model of language intensity effects

The information processing model of persuasion was used as the basis for a mathematical model of language intensity effects. The model proposes that attitude change is a product of message discrepancy, source evaluation, and message strength. The results show strong support for the model. The salient source evaluation dimension was perceived trustworthiness. Language intensity enhanced attitude change directly, by acting as a multiplier of message strength, and indirectly, by increasing message discrepancy. These effects held for female as well as male sources. Path analysis indicated the presence of source evaluation heuristics. Intensity enhanced source ratings through a positively linked causal chain from intensity to dynamism to expertise to trustworthiness. Intensity also had negative effects on post‐message expertise and trustworthiness unmediated by dynamism.     

Models of Emotion Skills and Social Competence in the Head Start Classroom

Research Findings: Fostering the social competence of at-risk preschoolers would be facilitated by knowing which of children's emotion skills are most salient to social outcomes. We examined the emotion skills and social competence of 44 children enrolled in a Head Start program. Emotion skills were examined in terms of children's emotional lability and emotion regulation, whereas social competence was measured in terms of three aspects of preschoolers' social relationships: social skills, student–teacher relationships, and peer likeability. Although emotion regulation emerged as an important predictor for social skills and positive relationships with teachers, emotional lability was a significant predictor of student–teacher conflict and peer likeability. In fact, emotional lability mediated the relation between student–teacher conflict and peer likeability. Practice or Policy: The findings are discussed in terms of the complex associations between children's emotion skills and early social relationships.     

The Boss

妈妈生病了,爸爸出门给她买果汁。哥哥、妹妹和我会为妈妈做什么呢?It was Sunday morning. Mum was sick* in bed." Mum needs someorange juice," Dad said." I’ll go to the store and get some for her. Begood while I’m gone(不在)."*" Dad is gone," said my big brother." Now I’m the boss."" I want to文∕Becky Mann