Toward an epistemology of a brown body

In its current emphasis on all that is analytic and cognitive, the absence and elusiveness of the body in educational research defines and delineates any consideration of how new identities, particularly the emerging identities of Latina/o lesbian and gay youth, are being invented within a contestation of dominant discourses of race, class, gender, and sexuality. In a reevaluation of the writings of Chicana theorists Cherrie Moraga and Gloria Anzaldua, this paper locates the brown body as central in an ongoing practice of negotiation in which multiple, often opposing, ideas and ways of being are addressed, appropriated, and negotiated. The brown body, with its multiple and often oppositional intersections of sociopolitical locations, must be acknowledged in its centrality in creating new knowledges. For the educational researcher, understanding the brown body and the regulation of its movements is fundamental in the reclamation of narrative and the development of radical projects of transformation and liberation.     

ASSESSING STUDENT PERFORMANCE USING VIDEO IN COMBINATION WITH SELF,PEER, AND INSTRUCTOR EVALUATION CHECKLISTS

Abstract

In this article, the authors propose six standards for the work of Intergenerational Specialists in an emerging field of professional practice. These standards are intended to guide students in academic settings who are preparing to work as Intergenerational Specialists in direct service roles, administrative capacities, or the supervision and training of others in the field. In addition, they might also be considered useful guidelines for program developers who want to ensure mutually beneficial interactions between younger people and older adults in any kind of organized intergenerational context. The proposed Standards for Intergenerational Practice are currently being piloted by students in a graduate degree program, and eventually will be submitted to Generations United for endorsement and widespread acceptance by the field. These basic principles are consistent with NAEYC's Developmentally Appropriate Practices for early childhood programs, and they are also consistent with ethical practices in programs for older adults.     

Women Returners to Further Education: employment and gender relations in the home

The education and retraining of ‘women returners’ to the labour market was an innovative development in further education in Britain in the 1980s. Fifty‐six women who undertook a part‐time information technology course at a college of further education in Birmingham were the subjects of this study. They were the respondents to a questionnaire sent to all women who had studied on the courses run between early 1987 and late 1989. A small number were subsequently interviewed. The aims of the research were twofold: firstly, to study their current employment situations and secondly to investigate the impact of employment on gender relations in the home. Almost all the women had been able to re‐enter employment, most using the skills they had learned on the course. However the course had not been instrumental in breaking down gender segregation in computing and few women worked in professional or male dominated jobs. The majority were in clerical, secretarial or administrative work, though this did mean that most had been able to rejoin the labour force at the same occupational level at which they had left. Some women, including half the black women in the study, improved their occupational position. It is argued that training for women who are in employment needs to be more available, otherwise the women in the study will not be able to progress into better jobs as their confidence grows and family commitments lessen. The study confirmed the continued pervasiveness of ideologies which prioritise men's employment and position of ‘breadwinners’ and women's continued responsibility for home and children. The conclusion of the study is that although feminists and others keen to promote equality for women in employment have made child care and more flexible working conditions the central issues, marriage and the sexual division of labour in the home, whilst equally significant, have been neglected and need to be given more consideration, both theoretically and strategically.     

Systematic quality development work in a Swedish leisure-time centre

There is increasing activity in the area of quality issues in education in Europe. Diverse discourses of policy for quality are encountered in daily practice. This article explores systematic quality development work in a Swedish educational setting: the leisure-time centre. By following 2 teachers’ enactments of policy in planning, organising, documenting, and evaluating the quality of a leisure-time centre and children's achievement of objectives, different logics were found. Tensions in practice that visualise pluralistic intentions in policy and educational approaches were also revealed. Planning and organising as parts of systematic quality development work reveal an emerging individualistic perspective. However, when teachers carry out documentation and evaluation, they reconstruct a social pedagogical approach grounded in the tradition of the leisure-time centre with a group-oriented focus.     

A Comparison of Child-rearing Practices among Chinese, Immigrant Chinese, and Caucasian-American Parents

This study investigated the differences and similarities in child-rearing practices among Chinese, immigrant Chinese, and Caucasian-American parents. The subjects of this study were the mothers and fathers of 138 children enrolled in kindergarten, first grade, and second grade in Taiwan and the United States. The child-rearing variables under study were: parental control, encouragement of independence, expression of affection, and emphasis on achievement. MANOVA yielded significant group effects on the parental variables. It was found that Chinese and immigrant Chinese parents tended to rate higher on parental control, encouragement of independence, and emphasis on achievement than Caucasian-American parents. The adaptability of the immigrant Chinese to the conditions of life and social structures of the United States, while maintaining traditional patterns of socialization, is discussed.     

Enrollment management and career services: Translating concepts into practice

Summary We in career services must move from feeling that enrollment management is not our job to the realization that much of what we already do positively impacts recruitment and retention. We must become more proactive in our efforts, and more demonstrative of our impact. Our image with students, parents, staff, faculty and alumni should include what we do to help bring students to our campus, and what we do to help make them successful learners, both while on campus and throughout their work life.     

Profiles of Parenting for Low-Income Families and Links to Children’s Preschool Outcomes

Parenting is a multidimensional construct that includes practices, attitudes, and emotional capacity. The aims of the study were to examine variation within parenting through a person-centered approach and the extent to which child and family characteristics were associated with profiles of parenting as well as the link between parenting profiles and children’s preacademic skills, language, and behavior outcomes in preschool. This study used data from low-income, ethnically diverse, preschool-aged children (n = 740) and their parents (n = 713) who were participants in a network of high-quality early care and education programs across the United States. Latent profile analyses uncovered four parenting profiles: (1) low enrichment, conflict-oriented, and distressed parent; (2) average enrichment, conflict-oriented, and distressed parent; (3) low to average enrichment, emotionally close, and low distressed parent; and (4) high enrichment, emotionally close, and low distressed parent. Child (age, minority status) and parent (family structure, home language, maternal age, level of education, school/training status, and depressive symptomatology) characteristics were predictive of being in a particular parenting group. Further, parenting profiles were predictive of children’s preschool outcomes. Implications for intervention and programming are discussed.     

Child abuse in Hong Kong revisited after 15 years: Characteristics of victims and abusers

The purpose of this paper was to examine the characteristics of the victims and abusers of child abuse cases on the Child Protection Registry in Hong Kong as of March 1995 and to compare findings with a similar community report of child abuse in Hong Kong conducted approximately 15 years earlier. As of March 31, 1995, there were 457 active cases of child abuse or suspected child abuse (44% male and 56% female) on the computerized Child Protection Registry. Fifty percent of the victims were grade school age children between 7–12, and 62.4% suffered physical abuse. The abusers or suspected abusers were 52% male and 48% female with nearly half (49%) in their thirties. The majority of abusers were married/cohabiting (75%) with only a grade school education (60%). As compared to 1979, there was an increase of sexual child abuse cases, female victims of child abuse, and an increase in male abusers or suspected abusers.