Using participatory action research to address absenteeism

Many urban high schools serving low-income families have below-average attendance rates, which can indicate that fewer students are prepared to matriculate into college and career opportunities. Through the use of participatory action research (PAR), we – a group of four educators at Wilson High School – have changed school policies and procedures in order to address our school's most problematic behavior: students cutting class. Through the processes and outcomes that our group, the Class Cutting Task Force, has experienced, we have called upon action learning (AL) in our focus on practical and experienced problems, and we have learned an important lesson: without clear and consistent school-wide expectations, our students cannot meet their potentials. Additionally, we have become empowered to drive a school-wide improvement initiative from the ground up by using the four-stage PAR process. It is our experience with the PAR process as a method of engagement in AL for school practitioners that we aim to share in this account of practice.     

"I Follow the Blue..." A Primary Teacher and the Impact of Packaged Curricula

In the primary grades, literacy teachers often face dual and competing challenges. On one hand, they are expected to provide developmentally appropriate practice in a contextually-sensitive manner. On the other hand, they are often charged with using packaged literacy curricula that contains components that are developmentally inappropriate for young learners. This piece provides a case study of the impact of mandated packaged curricula on one such teacher's beliefs and pedagogy.     

Talking About Teaching Episodes

This paper examines two types of discourse in which teachers engage when discussing case studies based on classroom episodes, and the ways in which the availability of video data of these episodes may motivate a shift in the mode of discourse used. We interviewed two pairs of secondary school mathematics teachers after they had read a case study based on a 16-minute mathematics classroom episode taped in a secondary school in the United States. During each interview, a multimedia version of the case study, including video of the original episode, was available to the participants. We identify two modes of discourse engaged in by the teachers during the interviews: Grounded Narrative and Evaluative Discourse. We examine and identify the characteristics of the two discourse forms, drawn from both video and textual analysis. These characteristics are self-reflective talk, perspective, ethics, and linguistic patterns. The identification of two modes of discourse is relevant for researchers and teacher educators using case studies or video recordings. In addition, the findings provide insight into how teachers are “seeing” classroom events in a video case study.     

A Model of Maternal and Paternal Ethnic Socialization of Mexican‐American Adolescents’ Self‐Views

Data from a sample of 462 Mexican‐American adolescents (M = 10.4 years, SD = .55; 48.1% girls), mothers, and fathers were used to test an ethnic socialization model of ethnic identity and self‐efficacy that also considered mainstream parenting styles (e.g., authoritative parenting). Findings supported the ethnic socialization model: parents’ endorsement of Mexican‐American values were associated with ethnic socialization at fifth grade and seventh grade; maternal ethnic socialization at fifth grade and paternal ethnic socialization at seventh grade were associated with adolescents’ ethnic identity exploration at 10th grade and, in turn, self‐efficacy at 12th grade. The findings support ethnic socialization conceptions of how self‐views of ethnicity develop from childhood across adolescence in Mexican‐American children.     

Factors affecting treatment acceptability for psychostimulant medication versus psychoeducational intervention

Future teachers' judgments of acceptability for two common treatments for children with the Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) label were examined. One hundred forty‐four pre‐service teachers were grouped according to their high school location at graduation (urban vs. rural) and were randomly assigned to read one of four vignettes. The content of the vignettes was held constant but label (ADHD vs no label) and treatments (special education placement vs. Ritalin) were varied. Results indicated a significant main effect on treatment acceptability for High School Location, a Label × Treatment interaction on the attention problems variable, a main effect for Label on the social problems variable, and a High School Location × Treatment interaction on the social problems variable. A number of implications can be made. Observer characteristics such as urban or rural high school experiences may influence judgments about a labeled child more than the characteristics of the child being observed. In this study, the ADHD label evoked greater expectations of attentional difficulties even when the pattern of functioning was similar to nonlabeled children. On the other hand, children with the ADHD label were judged as having better social functioning, which suggests that the ADHD label allows observers to attribute behavioral difficulties or the social problems displayed by these children to some factor that is outside the control of the child, or for which the child does not have personal responsibility. © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Working in Creative Partnership with Students to Co-Produce Neuroanatomy e-Learning Resources in a New Era of Blended Learning

Anatomists are well placed to tackle the transition from face-to-face to blended learning approaches as a result of the rapidly forced changes brought about by Covid-19. The subject is extremely visual and has, therefore, previously been a target for the development of technology-enhanced learning initiatives over the last ten years. Today's students have come to expect the integration of technology in the classroom and remotely. They adjust quickly to the innovative use of new applications and software and have begun to integrate it within their own workflow for note taking and study aids. Given the intense drive toward blended deliveries of anatomy as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic, it is easy to picture how the benefits of working in partnership with students (in order to achieve many of these aims) would be possible, particularly in difficult subjects like neuroanatomy. In doing so, it provides anatomists with new opportunities to engage students in a way that aligns well with best practice frameworks for engaging students through partnership. The current United Kingdom guidelines set out by Advance HE (a professional membership organization for promoting excellence in higher education) strongly encourages the higher education community to seek out appropriate academic contexts where a balance of power can be struck between staff and student to create a community of practice. If such an approach can be fully embraced by anatomists, a strong argument can be made for seizing the opportunity to optimize the benefits of student partnership work in this discipline.     

Dependency on elementary school caregivers: The role of parental intrusiveness and children's separation anxiety

A theoretical model of children's dependency on teachers and other caregivers in elementary school was tested and supported in this study. Based on attachment theory and social‐cognitive theory, parental intrusiveness and children's separation anxiety were hypothesized to heighten dependent behaviors with school caregivers. Families of children in Grades K–5 participated. Parent‐ and child‐report measures with good psychometric properties were employed. Parental intrusiveness and children's separation anxiety were associated with clingy, dependent relationships with school caregivers in cross‐informant correlational analyses. Intrusiveness and separation anxiety jointly accounted for 18%–29% of the variance in dependency scores. Results are consistent with attachment models of continuity between parent–child relationships and relations with other caregivers. Practice recommendations for teachers and school providers are given. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Psychol Schs 44: 823–837, 2007.