Associations of Warmth and Control of Filipina Domestic Helpers and Mothers to Hong Kong Kindergarten Children's Social Competence

Research Findings: Across 63 Hong Kong families, both Filipina domestic helpers and mothers separately rated their own caregiving style (warmth and control) and kindergarten children's social competence. Results indicated that Filipina helpers rated themselves as higher in warmth than mothers did. In addition, self-rated warmth of both caregivers, and Filipina domestic helpers' self-perceived control were correlated with children's social competence. With ratings of warmth and control from both Filipina helpers and mothers included in separate regression equations, mothers' warmth was a strong unique correlate of all measures of children's social competence. However, Filipinas' warmth was uniquely associated with children's responsibility only, whereas their control was uniquely associated with children's assertion and responsibility. Practice or Policy: Results extend previous research on the importance of nonparental caregivers for children's social development in a new cultural context.     

‘We live and learn’: English and ambivalence in a new capitalist state

This article reports on data drawn from a larger critical ethnographic study of English language use and instruction in Slovakia at the moment of capitalist integration. Slovaks who sought to learn English at the turn of the millenium were driven by the brand new anxiety of job insecurity. English lessons at this time sold themselves as the pathway to upward mobility, teaching Slovaks not only phrases of speech, but also the rudiments of capitalism: how to shop, how to drive, and especially, how to learn ever more English to keep your job. Although domestically produced textbooks taught these lessons with subtle notes of ambivalence, those textbooks imported from Anglophone countries modeled an unabashed embrace of capitalism. It was most often ambivalence that was echoed by the Slovaks interviewed for this study, however, who were mindful that their pursuit of English thrust them into a race against peers both at home and abroad. These years reveal this paradox of English in the new capitalist world: offering the path to betterment it had become the idiom for the anxiety of falling behind.     

Mediating third-wave feminism: appropriation as postmodern media practice

In this essay, we explore how sensibilities of third-wave feminism are appropriated by and in the context of postmodern media such that they are commodified, reinscribed, and sold to audiences in an hegemonic fashion. To this end, we analyze gendered representations of women located at various mediated sites of popular culture in whom gender is conspicuous and primary: Alanis Morissette, Kate Moss, and Ally McBeal. We argue that, in each case, the appropriation of third-wave feminist tenets is accomplished via a postmodern aesthetic code of juxtaposition that serves to recontextualize and reinscribe those sensibilities in a way that ultimately functions to reify dominant patriarchal codes and discourses.     

Social stratification and life chances: An interactive learning strategy for criminal justice classes

Social class is an important issue that must be taken into consideration when examining crime and criminal behavior in the United States. Social class is often viewed as a critical factor that influences the motivation to commit criminal activities. This article describes an interactive exercise that helps students better understand how social class may influence deviant and/or criminal behavior as a response to wanting to maintain status quo (particularly those in middle to upper class levels), economic hardships (that may occur at various class levels), the lack of social power, income inequality, or the lack of resources.     

BUILDING A LEARNING EXPERIENCE: THE IMPLEMENTATION OF A CLERKSHIP IN GERIATRIC MEDICINE

Recent curriculum changes at McGill University include a mandatory 4-week clerkship for third-year medical students. The basis of this clerkship is the assessment and management of frail elderly who have a combination of complex acute and chronic medical problems and functional disabilities. It includes the understanding of the need for continuity of care across settings and the transition from hospital to the community. Our main purpose is to offer students a learning experience based upon self-reflection, access to technology, interactive learning and permanent feedback. To accomplish the technological goals, didactic sessions were mostly electronic-based with two main components: web-based interactive modules that include the contents in seven web-based interactive lectures complemented with pre- and post-tests, and an electronic portfolio to assess students' acquisition of skills and attitudes. We expect that implementation of this model of clinical clerkship will prepare future physicians, not only for the practice of geriatric medicine, but also for different medical and surgical specialties, and will enhance the attitudes, knowledge, and skills practitioners need to care for older people.     

Integrating service learning and technical communication: Benefits and challenges

Our ethnographic study of a service‐learning class revealed some students benefited in developing civic values, improving academic learning, and accepting responsibility for their own education. Other students struggled to see the connection between technical communication and service learning, felt frustrated with nonacademic writing, and experienced team conflict. We must redefine both technical communication and service learning, help students make the transition to the workplace, and educate community organizations about the role of technical communicators.