Child care in poor communities: early learning effects of type, quality, and stability

Young children in poor communities are spending more hours in nonparental care because of policy reforms and expansion of early childhood programs. Studies show positive effects of high-quality center-based care on children's cognitive growth. Yet, little is known about the effects of center care typically available in poor communities or the effects of home-based care. Using a sample of children who were between 12 and 42 months when their mothers entered welfare-to-work programs, this paper finds positive cognitive effects for children in center care. Children also display stronger cognitive growth when caregivers are more sensitive and responsive, and stronger social development when providers have education beyond high school. Children in family child care homes show more behavioral problems but no cognitive differences.     

Cultural Images of Children, Parents and Professionals: Italian Interpretations of Home-School Relationships

This article explicates selected findings from a recently completed collaborative investigation of home-school relations in five Italian cities: Reggio Emilia, Milano, Trento, Parma, and San Miniato. The purpose of the investigation was to understand the transactional relationships among national social policy, cultural values, and local practice relative to infant care and preprimary education. The article focuses on both the continuity and sub-cultural variations associated with two national guidelines-gestione sociale [participatory social management] and l'inserimento [the initial entry of young children into out-of-home care]. These cultural concepts served as the basis for an examination of home-school relationships as interpreted at the policy, programmatic, and interpersonal level. Common themes relative to gestione sociale and l'inserimento were identified across the five cities; local and regional differences were also apparent in the translation of policy into practices. The study revealed diverse sociopolitical and theoretical interpretations of effective home-school relationships, leading to structural variations in how each guideline is operationalized and valued. Collaborative analyses led to a deeper understanding of the Italian cultural value of relationships as central to definitions of program quality, the emotional well- being of adults as well as children, and the situatedness of early childhood education within community and national contexts.     

Globalisation and its Consequences for Scholarship in Philosophy of Education

A manifestation of globalisation as an economic imperative has occurred at the national level in Australia.This manifestation is in the form of political policies, administrative practices and funding distribution ostensibly aimed at creating a more competitive national economy.Philosophy of Education, as a practice and product of some employees in the higher education industry in Australia, is being influenced by this manifestation of globalisation.Reflection on ways in which established concepts are being reshaped to suit the agenda of globalising political policies may assist those engaged in philosophising about education to enhance their practice in ways they desire.It is argued here that such reflection should lead many academics in Australian universities to the conclusion that they should not undertake research and that research should not be part of the job specification for most academics employed in Australian universities.
The argument in this paper is based on a set of epistemological assumptions about the nature of academic practices or traditions (cf.Toulmin, 1972).Philosophy of Education is one such academic tradition or practice.A university may be conceived of as a community of academics engaged in a range of traditions or practices.A university may also be conceived of as a quasi-governmental administrative entity employing workers to value-add to customers intending to maximise personal economic rewards from future engagement in a more competitive national economy.     

Higher Education Policy Change in Europe: Academic Research Funding and the Impact Agenda

In the policy period following the Lisbon Strategy of 2000, European governments increasingly regard universities, and the research they produce, as key to enhancing economic performance. With this heightened respect for the value of university-based research, comes an impatience to see returns on the public investments made. We analyze how policy is being used to influence the academic research process through the evaluations and funding allocation that accompany public funding. This paper features examples from the European Union and recent policy developments in two nation states to investigate how policy seeks to enhance the non-academic impacts of academic research.     

Social Mobility,Ethnicity and Sport

This paper considers the extent and possible cultural significance of Afro‐Caribbean male involvement in U.K. sport. An appraisal of the available evidence on ethnic differences in participation, at school and post‐school levels, is undertaken in an attempt to show that not only do members of the group in question seem to place a high value on achievement in sport, but that a growing number may now perceive a sporting career as a potential means of upward social mobility. It is suggested that the apparent orientation of Afro‐Caribbeans towards sport is conditioned by both class and ethnic‐specific factors. The respective influences of the parent culture, school, peer group and mass media are considered, along with the structure of opportunities in both the popular professional sports and the expanding area of recreational sport, in an attempt to assess the causes and consequences of this phenomenon.     

Using technology to break gender barriers: gender differences in teachers’ information and communication technology use in Saudi Arabian classrooms

How does teachers’ gender influence their information and communication technology-based instruction in Saudi Arabian government schools? Using unique data collected in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, in 2014, the analyses presented here show that male and female teachers in intermediate school classrooms differently use information and communication technology. As one of the only completely gender-separated educational systems in the world, the differing pedagogies, knowledge and skills of teachers by gender in Saudi Arabia reveal the unique approaches that both the Saudi and technology context provide for students’ learning. Female teachers’ use of technology in the classroom is more frequent and of different types than that of males. Implications are discussed for teacher professional development and for understanding the important role of cultural context around gender and information and communications technology in education.     

GTravels towards Problem Based Learning in Medical Education (VPBL)

This paper reports the results and insights ofan exploratory investigation of theeffectiveness of a prototypic virtualproblem-based learning (VPBL) exercisedelivered via the WWW, that uses HypermediaAssisted Instructional Technologies (HAIT). The study targeted all first year medicalstudents at a south-central University Schoolof Medicine who were enrolled in the humanphysiology course during the Spring 2000 (n =150). A quasi-experimental, post-test onlyresearch design compared the VPBL and atext-based version of the same PBL exercise onstudents' achievement, as measured by a set ofselected physiology examination items, andtheir perceptions of the learning environment,as measured by the Teaching and LearningEnvironment Questionnaire (TLEQ) (Chauvin &Bowdish, 1998). Findings suggest that the VPBLis equally as effective as the text-basedversion for enhancing students' learning andtheir learning environment in small group, PBLsessions. In this paper, we examine theevidence supporting the VPBL innovation andexplore what constitutes necessary andsufficient evidence that an educationalinnovation should be incorporated appropriatelyinto the medical educational practice of aschool. We examine instructional design issuessuch as learner control, instructional control,and teacher and learner roles as related toinstructional development for the WWW, bycomparing and contrasting our observations ofthe VPBL design experiment with theprofessional literature.     

The language of mathematics teaching: a text mining approach to explore the zeitgeist of US mathematics education

Educational Studies in Mathematics - Exploring language provides us with one approach to better understanding the practices and beliefs of a community. With advances in...     

Body Donation after Medically Assisted Death: An Emerging Consideration for Donor Programs

Around the world, the recent introduction of assisted death laws has meant that undertaking medical assistance in dying (MAID) is now an option for some persons wishing to end their life. Some of these people donate their bodies to medical science, and by doing so have created a new route from which donor programs can now receive bodies. Such donations have also illuminated a myriad of novel ethical questions. This article considers the emotive and controversial topic of MAID in relation to body donation, describing the experiences of McMaster University, Canada, where several MAID body donors have been received by the anatomical donor program. It provides background on the development and implementation of MAID in Canada, and describes the experience of staff and students at McMaster to MAID donations. It also explores the relevance of MAID to body donation programs, and discusses several of the ethical challenges facing body donation programs who may encounter MAID body donors. These include the appropriateness of accepting MAID donors, issues with informed consent, the effect of personal engagement with MAID donors, information sharing around MAID donations, governance issues, and negative historical parallels between MAID and euthanasia. Suggestions on how to manage MAID body donation focus on how issues affecting institutions, faculty, and students may be approached utilizing appropriate transparency and communication, some of which may facilitate student professional development around the topic of MAID. It is also suggested that the development of ethically appropriate guidelines on MAID body donations may positively guide the anatomical community.