Parents,quality, and school choice: why parents in Nairobi choose low-cost private schools over public schools in Kenya’s free primary education era

Low-cost private schools (LCPS) are widespread in Kenya, particularly in urban areas. This study examines the reasons that parents send children to fee-charging schools in a context of free public primary education. Drawing on parent survey and interview data, as well as interviews with national policy makers, we found that parents who chose LCPS for their children were more driven by quality concerns than were public school parents. We also present data on the costs of the school types, compared to household income. Despite being termed ‘low cost’, the fees charged by schools primarily serving the poor were often a heavy burden on families. We conclude with recommendations for maximising the impact of LCPS on educational access and quality.     

Stimulus control of immunization against chronic learned helplessness

Two experiments investigated the effectiveness of multiple (five) sessions of signaled eseapable-shock pretraining in preventing (immunizing against) the shack-escape impairment produced by an equal number of sessions of signaled inescapable shock. In Experiment 1, rats were exposed to 50 pairings per session of a white-noise stimulus with escapable shock during the immunization phase. Subsequently, they were exposed to 50 pairings per session of a different (houselight) stimulus with inescapable shock. Shock-escape performance in a shuttlebox test with constant illumination revealed no evidence of immunization relative to the performance of rats given five prior sessions of light-signaled inescapable shock only. Experiment 2 was identical in all respects to Experiment 1, except that both the escapable- and the inescapable-shock phases for animals in the immunization treatment group involved the same stimulus (houseüght) as a shock signal. Under these circumstances, the prior escapable-shock training significantly reduced the shuttle-box escape deficit engendered by chronic exposure to signaled inescapable shock; performance in the shuttle-box was not reliably different from that of rats exposed to signaled escapable shock alone. These findings suggest that, under chronic conditions, the development of stimulus control using Pavlovian conditioning procedures may serve to modulate the normally prophylactic influence on later shock-escape acquisition of serial exposure to escapable and inescapable shocks.     

The Aftermath of Hobby Lobby and Obergefell: A Reconceptualization of Religious Freedom in the United States and its Potential Implications for Public Schools and Pluralist Democracies

Restricting public employees' free exercise rights or the State to maintain neutrality toward religion has been longstanding precedent in the United States. It has certainly been the case in US public schools beginning in the 1940s and affirmed through the courts over and again through much of the 20th century. The aftermath of 2 recent Supreme Court decisions challenges this long-held precedent, however, as it has led to several instances in which public employees have requested religious exemptions from their professional obligations (e.g., Kentucky court clerk Kim Davis' refusal to grant marriage certificates to same-sex couples). This article provides a foundational framework for exploring the recent reconceptualization of religious freedom and its possible implications for public schools and the larger project of advancing a liberal, pluralist democracy were teachers to refuse to fulfill central elements of their job on the basis of religious objections.     

Choosing College in the 2000s: An Updated Analysis Using the Conditional Logistic Choice Model

Research in Higher Education - In this paper I investigate the college enrollment decisions of a nationally representative cohort of students who first attended in the mid-2000s. I find that while...     

Tianshanbeilu and the Isotopic Millet Road: reviewing the late Neolithic/Bronze Age radiation of human millet consumption from north China to Europe

The westward expansion of human millet consumption from north China has important implications for understanding early interactions between the East and West. However, few studies have focused on the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, the vast geographical area directly linking the ancient cultures of the Eurasian Steppe and the Gansu Corridor of China. In this study, we present the largest isotopic investigation of Bronze Age China (n = 110) on material from the key site of Tianshanbeilu, in eastern Xinjiang. The large range of δ¹³C values (–17.6‰ to –7.2‰; –15.5 ± 1.2‰) provides direct evidence of unique dietary diversity and consumption of significant C₄ resources (millets). The high δ¹⁵N results (10.3‰ to 16.7‰; 14.7 ± 0.8‰) likely reflect sheep/goat and wild game consumption and the arid climate of the Taklamakan Desert. Radiocarbon dates from four individuals indicate Tianshanbeilu was in use between 1940 and 1215 cal bc. The Tianshanbeilu results are then analysed with respect to 52 Bronze Age sites from across Eurasia, to investigate the spread and chronology of significant human millet consumption and human migration. This isotopic survey finds novel evidence that the second millennium bc was a dynamic period, with significant dietary interconnectivity occurring between north China, Central Asia and Siberia. Further, we argue that this ‘Isotopic Millet Road’ extended all the way to the Mediterranean and Central Europe, and conclude that these C₄ dietary signatures of millet consumption reflect early links (migration and/or resource transfer) between the Bronze Age inhabitants of modern-day China and Europe.     

The new one-drop rule: challenging the persistence of white supremacy with in-service teachers

ABSTRACT

The one-drop rule refers to the process of being racialized Black when someone contains any amount of Black ancestry, i.e. one drop of Black blood. In this article, I use what I call ‘the new one-drop rule’ to explain how even the smallest presence of white discourse can disrupt racial equity work in schools. Based on a critical race study in a racially desegregated elementary school, I illustrate how one drop of white discourse from even one less racially literate white teacher can cause usually more racially literate white teachers to support white supremacy. I also share how collaborative research utilizing critical race theory (CRT) can help schools build greater racial literacy and resist white discourse. I argue that critical research on race with in-service teachers should not forefront the consciousness-raising of resistant white teachers but rather center the wants, needs, and racial knowledge of racially literate teachers and especially teachers of color.     

Making learning meaningful: facilitating interest development and transfer in at-risk college students

The Teaching for Transformative Experience in Science (TTES) model has shown to be a useful tool to generate learning and engagement in science. We investigated the effectiveness of TTES for facilitating transformative experience (TE), learning, the development of topic interest and transfer of course concepts to other courses employing a quasi-experimental design. Our goal was to determine the effectiveness of TTES compared to an alternative teaching method in a course designed for academically at-risk undergraduate students. Specifically, we explored the impact of TTES for teaching about motivation in a college success course. The results showed that TTES generated TE outside of the biological sciences, increased learning, developed student interest and facilitated self-reported transfer to other courses. The findings have important implications for facilitating learning and motivation in academically at-risk college students, which may subsequently impact college student retention and academic success.     

Lay theories of passion in the academic domain

Our aim was to study students’ beliefs about passion and its influence on academic performance and experiences, and determine whether these beliefs depend on harmonious or obsessive passion. In Study 1, participants estimated passion scores for the most successful, average and least successful students in university. In Study 2, participants viewed completed questionnaires that depicted students as having varying levels of passion, and then predicted the students’ performance and experiences in university. Across both studies, students expected that having passion for academics, regardless of predominant passion type, was related to substantially higher levels of performance compared to those who were not passionate. Participants also believed that students with strong levels of harmonious passion experienced more positive academic experiences than those without any harmonious passion. Although students likely overestimate the role that passion plays in determining academic performance, they distinguish between passion types when estimating one’s academic experiences.     

Non-native English speaking pre-service teachers in an EFL context: examining experiences through borderland discourse

This study examined borderland discourse emergent from the practicum experiences of non-native English speaking pre-service teachers (PSTs) in a Thai primary school. Borderland discourse is defined as a space where personal and professional constructs intersect, which is often in a state of dissonance. Over a ten-week practicum period, the PSTs narrated their experiences through a dialogic reflective journal with their teacher-educator. A main issue was the dissonance between PSTs’ expectations with the reality of their teaching context. Some of which were the Thai students’ inability to communicate in English and the use of a syllabus that did not reflect the students’ language abilities. This led to a renegotiation of PSTs’ pedagogical approaches. This study also highlighted potential challenges that non-native English speaking PSTs may face if teaching in a context that is linguistically or culturally different from theirs, as well as a brief account of English language education in Thailand.