Critiquing Calypso: Authorial and Academic Bias in the Reading of a Young Adult Novel

The position of authors of fiction in relation to critical discussion of their work is an unsettled one. While recognized as having knowledge and expertise regarding their texts, they are typically regarded as unreliable sources when it comes to critical analysis, and as partial witnesses whose personal association with the text is liable to influence their judgement. This article reconsiders that position, not by arguing that authors lack bias but by showing that bias is the normal condition of all critical reading and writing, whether by authors of fiction or by academic critics. I take as a case study my novel Calypso Dreaming (2002), comparing my own understanding of the text with a recent discussion by four influential critics. I argue that the rhetorical and methodological framing of critical discussion is a necessarily procrustean exercise, that may yield insights into texts but is also characterized by distortion and selectivity. Moreover, the conventional positioning of critics as “disinterested,” in contrast to “biased” authors, disguises the extent to which academic discussions are subject to the same personal and professional influences as those of other writers.     

Reviews

Books reviewed:

Red Rose Chain/Alpha Films, Four Carrier Bags and a Buggy

Alison Closs, The Education of Children with Medical Conditions

Ralph L. Klicker, A Student Dies, A School Mourns     

Moral Frameworks for Leaders of Gifted Programs and Services

Given the complexities of being an educational leader and, specifically, an educational leader of a gifted program or school, should there be a moral guide or framework that can inform the daily practices of leaders within an ever-changing educational context of competing demands? Should leaders of gifted programs employ the same ethos as any leader or by virtue of leading a program of a special interest group, be guided by a different, moral approach? This article posits that leaders of gifted programs and schools should operationalize an integrated approach drawing upon a variety of historical and more current theories of moral reasoning and intuition coupled with theories that draw on distributive, transformational, and situational leadership in order to make their advocacy and leadership more effective.     

Accountability for Quality: One State’s Experience in Improving Practice

South Carolina recently implemented a new initiative to improve the quality of pre-kindergarten and kindergarten classrooms in primary schools. This article describes the initiative and examines evidence that such an effort can have a positive effect on early childhood program quality. Data from both classroom observations using the ECERS-R scale, and from teacher surveys, are used to examine the effectiveness of the quality improvement effort. Results indicate that training and support coupled with accountability requirements can facilitate positive changes within classrooms. Examples of positive changes teachers report they made as the result of this process are included, along with changes in ECERS-R quality rating scores.     

Assisting teachers and students to reform the mathematics classroom

This study examines the usefulness of selected aspects of Tharp and Gallimore's (1988) theory of assistance as a theoretical framework for describing and analyzing change efforts in a middle school mathematics reform project. Drawing upon Tharp and Gallimore's redefinition of teaching as assisting performance and learning as the result of assisted performance, the social organization of a school-based mathematics reform effort in which teacher educators, mathematics teachers, and students both assist and are assisted is analyzed. In addition, one particular classroom assistance activity is presented and analyzed in terms of characteristics of assistance that, according to the theory, should lead to significant learning.     

Mother-child bookreading in low-income families: correlates and outcomes during the first three years of life

About half of 2,581 low-income mothers reported reading daily to their children. At 14 months, the odds of reading daily increased by the child being firstborn or female. At 24 and 36 months, these odds increased by maternal verbal ability or education and by the child being firstborn or of Early Head Start status. White mothers read more than did Hispanic or African American mothers. For English-speaking children, concurrent reading was associated with vocabulary and comprehension at 14 months, and with vocabulary and cognitive development at 24 months. A pattern of daily reading over the 3 data points for English-speaking children and daily reading at any 1 data point for Spanish-speaking children predicted children's language and cognition at 36 months. Path analyses suggest reciprocal and snowballing relations between maternal bookreading and children's vocabulary.     

Remedial Testing and Placement in Community Colleges

Almost half of students who enter college require some sort of remedial coursework. Further, states are increasingly moving the responsibility of postsecondary remediation away from four-year campuses to two-year institutions. Scholars and policymakers have grappled with best practice for successfully filling in academic gaps and moving students forward, and there is variation both within and between states as to the ways in which remediation is defined, determined, and administered (Perin, 2006 Perin , D. ( 2006 ). Can community colleges protect both access and standards? The problem of remediation . Teachers College Record 108 ( 3 ), 339 – 373 .[Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]). Using a regression discontinuity design, this study seeks to answer the following question on one community college campus: How does placement into remedial services affect student outcomes, in particular, successful completion of an introductory college-level English course? Although this study focuses on a single community college system, the findings have bearing on a wider sector as the developmental placement practices of Harper Community College District are not unlike those implemented by two- and four-year campuses across the country.     

Academic self-concept,autonomous academic motivation,and academic achievement: Mediating and additive effects

Three conceptual models were tested to examine the relationships among academic self-concept, autonomous academic motivation, and academic achievement. This allowed us to determine whether 1) autonomous academic motivation mediates the relation between academic self-concept and achievement, 2) academic self-concept mediates the relation between autonomous academic motivation and achievement, or 3) both motivational constructs have an additive effect on academic achievement. A total of 925 high school students (404 boys and 521 girls) were asked to complete a questionnaire on two occasions separated by a year interval. Results from SEM analyses provided good support for the hypothesized model positing that autonomous academic motivation mediates the academic self-concept–academic achievement relation. Results are discussed in light of self-determination theory and self-concept theory.     

Parental perceptions of neighborhood processes,stress, personal control,and risk for physical child abuse and neglect

ObjectiveThis study set out to examine whether mothers’ individual perceptions of their neighborhood social processes predict their risk for physical child abuse and neglect directly and/or indirectly via pathways involving parents’ reported stress and sense of personal control in the parenting role.MethodsIn-home and phone interview data were examined cross-sectionally from a national birth cohort sample of 3,356 mothers across 20 US cities when the index child was 3 years of age. Mothers’ perceptions of neighborhood social processes, parenting stress, and personal control were examined as predictors, and three subscales of the Parent-To-Child Conflict Tactics Scale (CTS-PC) were employed as proxies of physical child abuse and neglect risk. Structural equation modeling (SEM) was employed to test direct and indirect pathways (via parenting stress and control) from perceived neighborhood processes to proxy measures of physical child abuse and neglect. Multiple group SEM was conducted to test for differences across major ethnic groups: African American, Hispanic, and White.ResultsAlthough perceived negative neighborhood processes had only a mild direct role in predicting risk for physical child abuse, and no direct role on child neglect, these perceptions had a discernable indirect role in predicting risk via parenting stress and personal control pathways. Parenting stress exerted the clearest direct role on both physical abuse and neglect risk. This predictor model did not significantly differ across ethnic groups.ConclusionsAlthough neighborhood conditions may not play a clear directly observable role on physical child abuse and neglect risk, the indirect role they play underscores the importance of parents’ perceptions of their neighborhoods, and especially the role they play via parents’ reported stress and personal control.Practice implicationsSuch findings suggest that targeting parents’ sense of control and stress in relation to their immediate social environment holds particular potential to reduce physical child abuse and neglect risk. Addressing parents’ perceptions of their neighborhood challenges may serve to reduce parenting risk via improving parents’ felt control and stress.