The role of "genetics" in popular understandings of race in the United States

The increase in public representation of the science-based concept "genetics" in the mass media might be expected to have a major impact on public understanding of the concept of "race." A model of lay understandings of the role of genetics in the contemporary United States is offered based on focus group research, random digit dial surveys, and community based surveys. That model indicates that lay people identify are primarily by physical features, but these identifications are categorized into a variety of groupings that may be regional, national, or linguistic. Although they believe that physical appearance is caused largely by genetics, and therefore that race has a genetic basis, they do not uniformly conclude, however, that all perceived racial characteristics are genetically based. Instead, they vary in the extent to which they attribute differences to cultural, personal, and genetic factors.     

Visual Attention Preference for Intermediate Predictability in Young Children

How do children allocate their attention? There is too much information in the world to encode it all, so children must pick and choose. How do they organize their sampling to make the most of the learning opportunities that surround them? Previous work shows infants actively seek intermediately predictable information. Here we employ eye-tracking and computational modeling to examine the impact of stimulus predictability across early childhood (ages 3–6 years, n = 72, predominantly Non-Hispanic White, middle- to upper-middle-income), by chronological age and cognitive ability. Results indicated that children prefer attending to stimuli of intermediate predictability, with no differences in this pattern based on age or cognitive ability. The consistency may suggest a robust general information-processing mechanism that operates across the lifespan.     

SciJourn is magic: construction of a science journalism community of practice

This article is the first to describe the discoursal construction of an adolescent community of practice (CoP) in a non-school setting. CoPs can provide optimal learning environments. The adolescent community centered around science journalism and positioned itself dichotomously in relationship to school literacy practices. The analysis focuses on recordings from a panel-style research interview from an early implementation of the Science Literacy Through Science Journalism (SciJourn) project. Researchers trained high school students participating in a youth development program to write science news articles. Students engaged in the authentic practices of professional science journalists, received feedback from a professional editor, and submitted articles for publication. I used a fine-grained critical discourse analysis of genre, discourse, and style to analyze student responses about differences between writing in SciJourn and in school. Students described themselves as agentic in SciJourn and passive in school, using an academic writing discourse of deficit to describe schooling experiences. They affiliated with and defined a SciJourn CoP, constructing positive journalistic identities therein. Educators are encouraged to develop similar CoPs. The discursive features presented may be used to monitor the development of communities of practice in a variety of settings.     

The mentor as artist: a poetic exploration of listening,creating, and mentoring

In this article I integrate the process of the artist with the practice of mentoring. The acts of listening to inquiry into their lives and research. Particular attention is made to the context of working with graduate students in a faculty of education. I specifically draw on arts‐based educational research methods to explore a poetic way of articulating the connection between the art of mentoring, leadership and art‐making. Highlighted is the relationship between a deep listening to ourselves and to each other as integral to expanding the notion of research to one of including our own lives as art‐works. Connections are made through poetic form to the natural world and the notion of mentoring as an invitation to the art of co‐creating.     

Meeting of the Minds: Online Matching Program for Teaching and Learning Styles?

Although there are many disagreements on the major causes of problems in the educational system in the United States, few would disagree that the importance of ensuring the success of our students is not only a moral obligation to our youth, but imperative to our national resilience. And, as a nation, we are responding to this urgent need. The College Completion Agenda mandates that 55% of the nation’s 25-to-35-year olds will be degree holders by the year 2025 (Lee & Rawls, 2010). But how do we accomplish the ambitious challenge and a necessary aspiration to elevate America’s status as a world leader in educational attainment among its citizenry? Innovative ideas and technologies that can counterbalance the barriers that threaten student success must be identified and advanced. The purpose of this article is to discuss the opportunity to leverage the marvel of online phenomena and technology in innovative ways to help students reach their full potential. Specifically, we introduce a new conceptual tool that replicates the power of social networking online matching services to link student learning preference with faculty instructional style.     

The impact of federal financial aid policy upon higher education access

This article reviews the history of financial aid policy from the Higher Education Act of 1965 to its reauthorisation in 1992 and the subsequent ramifications upon African-American students. It considers issues of race and class with regard to college access. This work concludes with a look at contemporary aid, as well as offers race- and class-conscious financial aid by increasing college affordability to low-income students, as potential solutions to broadening educational access to Black Americans.     

Race and Genetics from a Modal Materialist Perspective

Prevailing idealist and materialist theories of rhetoric fail to account for the continual circulation and recirculation of “racism” as a scientific discourse. An alternative theory of modal materialism addresses this problem by suggesting that the properties of all being are constituted through three distinguishable forms of matter that include the “physical,” the “biological,” and the “symbolic.” A sufficiently lush and nimble conceptualization of human action requires consideration of the interaction of all three modes in theory and in practice. The theory of modal materialism is illustrated through a consideration of the discourse of race and genetics as it was recirculated and modified in 2005 and 2006 by publications in the journal Science, and which were amplified for a larger reading public through circulation in the New York Times.     

Book reviews

Schwandt, Thomas A. (1997) Qualitative Inquiry: a Dictionary of Terms. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications, Inc. 183 pp. $ 23.95 ISBN‐0–7619–0254–6

VanTassel‐Baska, J. (1998). Excellence in Educating Gifted and Talented Learners, Third Edition with chapters by Camilla Persson Benbow, John F. Feldhusen, Kenneth Seeley, and Linda Kreger Silverman. Denver, CO: Love Publishing Co. (532pp., $58.00 hb, ISBN 0–89108–255–7.

Moore, D.P. and Buttner, E.H. (1997). Women entrepreneurs: Moving beyond the glass ceiling. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, Inc. (262 pp., $19.95 pb, ISBN 0–7619–0464–6)

Tomlinson, C. A. (1999). The differentiated classroom: Responding to the needs of all learners. Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development (132 pp., $21.95 pb, ISBN 0–87120–342–1).     

IGF1–PI3K-induced physiological cardiac hypertrophy: Implications for new heart failure therapies,biomarkers, and predicting cardiotoxicity

Heart failure represents the end point of a variety of cardiovascular diseases. It is a growing health burden and a leading cause of death worldwide. To date, limited treatment options exist for the treatment of heart failure, but exercise has been well-established as one of the few safe and effective interventions, leading to improved outcomes in patients. However, a lack of patient adherence remains a significant barrier in the implementation of exercise-based therapy for the treatment of heart failure. The insulin-like growth factor 1 (IGF1)–phosphoinositide 3-kinase (PI3K) pathway has been recognized as perhaps the most critical pathway for mediating exercised-induced heart growth and protection. Here, we discuss how modulating activity of the IGF1–PI3K pathway may be a valuable approach for the development of therapies that mimic the protective effects of exercise on the heart. We outline some of the promising approaches being investigated that utilize PI3K-based therapy for the treatment of heart failure. We discuss the implications for cardiac pathology and cardiotoxicity that arise in a setting of reduced PI3K activity. Finally, we discuss the use of animal models of cardiac health and disease, and genetic mice with increased or decreased cardiac PI3K activity for the discovery of novel drug targets and biomarkers of cardiovascular disease.