The Power of Parent Engagement: Sociocultural Considerations in the Quest for Equity

This article explores the difference between parental involvement, where parents' activity levels at school are primarily structured by schools, and parental engagement, where parents have a more active voice in how they take part in what goes on in schools. This difference is underscored as a means of illuminating ways of addressing the issue of racialized disproportionality in special education and acts of school discipline, particularly in urban settings. We highlight the ways schools need to transform the often microaggresively oppressive ways parents are invited into their children’s education process, as well as the way schools value the knowledge parents bring. Effective ways of activating parental engagement as a means of creating authentic community engagement are also examined. Additionally, recommendations are provided on how to prepare novice teachers to develop plans and goals alongside parents in order to help these new educators develop a pedagogical stance that authentically values the importance of one of schools’ most important stakeholders–parents.     

An investigation into the Sawtooth Effect in secondary school assessments in England

The ‘Sawtooth Effect’ is where cohort performance on high-stakes assessments drops after assessment reform, and then improves over time as test familiarity increases. Despite its importance, limited research has been conducted to date. In this study, we took a novel approach of using changes in grade boundaries (cut scores) over time as a proxy measure for performance change across a large number of secondary school assessments. Findings were generally consistent with the Sawtooth Effect, suggesting that it took students/teachers around 3 years on average to become familiar with the new tests. Estimates of the magnitude of these changes were also produced. Findings support the need for caution when interpreting changes in performance for new assessments, as any gains that occur may be due to test familiarity, rather than meaningful gains to subject mastery.

Abbreviation: GCSE: General Certificate of Secondary Education; GCE A level: General Certificate of Education Advanced Level     

Playing with Moon Sand: a narrative inquiry into a teacher’s experiences teaching alongside a student with a chronic illness

This paper inquires into the experiences of an early childhood educator named Claire who taught a young girl with a chronic illness at East Willows Elementary School, a western Canadian elementary school. Using narrative inquiry as the methodology, Claire’s experiences in her curriculum making alongside Madeline a young girl with Turner syndrome were explored and analyzed. In navigating through this curriculum around chronic illness, Claire negotiated liminal spaces between health and unhealth, sickness and wellness, capability and desire using stories of playful curriculum making. Through these liminal spaces, Claire created forward-looking stories of a new curriculum; a curriculum defined by playfulness, counterstories of play, the lived and planned curriculum, and the sharing of authority. This playful curriculum, this curriculum of play, became the negotiated story to live by for Claire and Madeline at East Willows Elementary School.     

Instructor Social Presence Effects on Learner Social Presence,Achievement, and Satisfaction

Instructor social presence involves instructors establishing their presence as “being there” in terms of frequency of communication and interaction with students as well as supporting students throughout the learning process (Lowenthal 2015). Instructor social presence can be constructed and maintained through the design and facilitation of online courses. Studies have indicated that instructor social presence can be correlated with increased learning satisfaction, engagement and achievement as well as learners perceptions of the instructor. This sequential explanatory mixed method study investigated the effects of instructor social presence on achievement, satisfaction and learner social presence and further sought to identify effective instructor social presence techniques in asynchronous online courses. The results of this study showed that the degree of instructor social presence significantly influenced instructor perceptions of student achievement. Findings also suggest that a well-designed collaborative learning activity can be an effective strategy for building instructor social presence.     

The Family Context of Gender Intensification in Early Adolescence

This longitudinal study of 144 young adolescents (ages 9–11 at phase 1) examined the hypothesis that boys and girls would experience increased "gender-differential socialization" across a 1-year period in early adolescence, and that such patterns would be stronger in families in which ( a ) parents maintained a traditional division of labor, and ( b ) there was a younger sibling of the opposite gender. Longitudinal analyses of 3 aspects of family socialization (adolescents' participation in "feminine" and "masculine" household chores; adolescents' involvement in dyadic activities with mothers and fathers; parental monitoring) revealed that gender intensification was apparent for some aspects of family socialization but not others. In addition, when gender intensification was apparent, it generally emerged in some family contexts but not in others. Only dyadic parent-adolescent involvement was characterized by an overall pattern of gender intensification in which girls became increasingly involved with their mothers and boys with their fathers; this pattern was exacerbated in contexts where adolescents had a younger, opposite-sex sibling.     

Developing grass roots writing resources: a novel approach to writing within the social work discipline

In this case study, we report on the development of a writing-specialist position, the ‘Writing Resource Coordinator (WRC)’, in a school of social work at a large state university in the southern USA. Such programs are facing increasing budgetary pressures at the same time as their growing enrollments strain available resources. Students who arrive under-prepared or un-acculturated to the discipline often suffer high writing-related anxiety, putting them at risk for low performance, or dropping out altogether. The WRC provides discipline-specific ‘grass roots’ writing assistance to the most at-risk students through a program aimed at both students and faculty, providing a two-pronged service strategy including: (a) individual consultations and (b) group-oriented seminars and workshops. We describe the implementation of this resource and offer recommendations for improving upon and adopting this approach in social science programs at comparable institutions.     

Support for Engaged Scholars: The Role of Mentoring Networks with Diverse Faculty

As internationalization initiatives on university campuses have increased in the past decade, the practice of mentoring diverse scholars has increased. In an exploratory study conducted at a doctoral/research-extensive university in the Midwest, researchers investigated the nature and functions of mentoring and the role of mentoring networks in nurturing the careers of engaged scholars in the teaching and human service professions. The twelve participants in the study self-identified as engaged scholars who (a) have been mentored within a mentoring network throughout their professional careers, and (b) are currently involved in mentoring diverse engaged scholars within mentoring networks. The study findings suggest the benefits of mentoring networks for diverse, engaged scholars and outline the nature of effective mentoring.     

Re´sume´ in Motion: Sensory self-awareness through movement

This small-scale, qualitative study explores the nature of sex and relationship education (SRE) in two primary schools in England. It investigates the similarities and differences in relation to the pedagogical approach and curriculum content of the SRE programmes from the perspectives of teachers and pupils. An illuminative evaluation methodology was used to investigate the cultural, social, historical and political contexts of those participating in the programme within the two schools. The main findings indicate that there were indeed similarities and differences in the provision of SRE: whilst the pupils involved showed an understanding of sex within a loving relationship, further findings suggest that some teachers were concerned about parental views of SRE content and this affected the scope of provision. A key concept of ‘bravery’ was identified as a highly compelling factor for teachers to create a context of and conditions for creativity in their approach to SRE with a view to capitalising on the inquisitive behaviour of the children. This highlights that effective SRE requires a bold pedagogical approach to curriculum design and content.     

The 2008 Presidential Election, 2.0: A Content Analysis of User-Generated Political Facebook Groups

Although Facebook is primarily known for building and maintaining relationships, the 2008 presidential election highlighted this social networking website as a viable tool for political communication. In fact, during primary season until Election Day in 2008, Facebook users created more than 1,000 Facebook group pages that focused on Barack Obama and John McCain. Using quantitative content analysis, the primary purpose of this study was to assess how both John McCain and Barack Obama were portrayed across these Facebook groups. Results indicated that group membership and activity levels were higher for Barack Obama than for John McCain. Overall, Barack Obama was portrayed more positively across Facebook groups than John McCain. In addition, profanity, racial, religious, and age-related language were also coded for and varied with regard to how each candidate was portrayed. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.