Examining IEPs of English Learners with Learning Disabilities for Cultural and Linguistic Responsiveness

Effective education of English learners (ELs) with learning disabilities requires special educators to deliver culturally/linguistically responsive instruction within the context of special services, embracing the interaction between exceptionality and diversity. A critical concept is the notion that cultural and linguistic features are mandated by law to remain integral to teaching and learning once ELs are appropriately placed for special services. We examined a sampling of IEPs for ELs receiving special education for learning disabilities for cultural/linguistic responsive features to inform instruction. We found from our pilot study that the IEPs contain little to no reference to ELs' diverse linguistic and cultural qualities to (1) meet legislative mandates, and (2) guide delivery of appropriate special education. Practitioner implications for developing culturally and linguistically responsive IEPs are provided to support educators who teach ELs with learning disabilities.     

Establishing the need for health communication research: best practices model for building transdisciplinary collaborations

The benefits of transdisciplinary collaboration for addressing complex health problems are widely accepted; however, acknowledging the bumps and twists along the road that are inherent in those collaborations is often considered taboo. Academic norms that prevent open discussion of these challenges can have counter-productive results. This essay describes the major education efforts, milestones, and footfalls in the development of an effective partnership between communication-trained researchers in a College of Journalism and Communications and medical researchers in a College of Medicine. We hope it can serve as “best practice” for understanding the value of team science and interdisciplinary research collaborations.     

In the Service of Technocratic Managerialism? History in UK Universities

Abstract

This article discusses the conceptualisation, organisation and philosophical orientation of academic history culture in UK higher education. It problematises the extent to which a dominant history culture in UK universities implies and uncritically reproduces normative understandings about the subject; about its epistemological standing, sociopolitical functions, and the presumed cultural value of the discipline practices that students learn to perform. We suggest that current conceptions of history degree curricula are overly thin and organised around a dominant managerialist discourse of skills, personal development and learning outcomes. In a historicised world, in which history-focused behaviour has a crucial, ideological, affirmatory role, and in which historical narratives have a privileged cognitive function, we argue that it is critical for university history students to be able to deconstruct the processes by which history legitimises itself, and reinforces matrices of power in our societies. The positioning of history in higher education as a form of technocratic managerialism closes down spaces in which students can explore the potential of historical practices as a means of engaging with issues of current sociopolitical and ethical concern. We ask in this article, is this what we want an academic history culture to do?     

Impact of a universal school-based violence prevention program on violent delinquency: distinctive benefits for youth with maltreatment histories

Objective

Child maltreatment constitutes a strong risk factor for violent delinquency in adolescence, with cumulative experiences of maltreatment creating increasingly greater risk. Our previous work demonstrated that a universal school-based violence prevention program could provide a protective impact for youth at risk for violent delinquency due to child maltreatment history. In this study we conducted a follow-up to determine if participation in a school-based violence prevention program in grade 9 continued to provide a buffering effect on engaging in acts of violent delinquency for maltreated youth, 2 years post-intervention.

Methods

Secondary analyses were conducted using data from a cluster randomized controlled trial of a comprehensive school-based violence prevention program. Students (N = 1,722; 52.8% female) from 20 schools participated in 21 75-min lessons in grade 9 health classes. Individual data (i.e., gender, child maltreatment experiences, and violent delinquency in grade 9) and school-level data (i.e., student perception of safety averaged across students in each school) were entered in a multilevel model to predict violent delinquency at the end of grade 11.

Results

Individual- and school-level factors predicting violent delinquency in grade 11 replicated previous findings from grade 9: being male, experiencing child maltreatment, being violent in grade 9, and attending a school with a lower perceived sense of safety among the entire student body increased violent delinquency. The cross-level interaction of individual maltreatment history and school-level intervention was also replicated: in non-intervention schools, youth with more maltreatment in their background were increasingly likely to engage in violent delinquency. The strength of this relationship was significantly attenuated in intervention schools.

Conclusions

Follow-up findings are consistent with the buffering effect of the prevention program previously found post-intervention for the subsample of youth with maltreatment histories.

Practice implications

A relative inexpensive school-based violence prevention program that has been shown to reduce dating violence among the whole student body also creates a protective effect for maltreated youth with respect to lowering their likelihood of engaging in violent delinquency.     

Physical violence and psychological aggression towards children: five-year trends in practices and attitudes from two population surveys

OBJECTIVE: To present prevalence rates of child psychological aggression and physical violence from a population survey conducted in 2004 and to compare the rates with the rates obtained in the 1999 edition of the survey. METHODS: The survey used a randomly generated telephone number methodology. Interviews were conducted using a computer-assisted telephone interview system with a representative sample of 3,148 mothers living in Quebec province, Canada. Responses relating to psychological aggression, minor and severe physical violence were collected using the Parent-Child Conflict Tactics Scales. RESULTS: Eighty percent of the mothers reported the use of psychological aggression towards a child by an adult living in the household, 43% reported at least one episode of minor violence, and 6% reported at least one episode of severe physical violence. When compared to the 1999 surveys, mothers reported 5% less minor physical violence in 2004, a result that is counterbalanced by a similar significant increase in the report of repeated psychological violence towards children in a year. Results also reveal a significant decrease in attitudes favoring the use of violence for discipline purpose between 2004 and 1999. CONCLUSIONS: The trends observed in violence towards children over the 5-year period may partly be attributed to a change in mother's attitudes concerning methods of disciplining children. Findings support the need to promote alternative methods of firm discipline that do not involve violence.     

Dylan's Birth: From His Mother's and Grandmother's Perspectives

In this column, an adolescent mother demonstrates how preparation, Lamaze education, supportive caregivers, and an inner wisdom about the normalcy of birth enabled her to have a safe and satisfying birth. The grandmother, an experienced Lamaze educator and doula, also tells of her transformational experience as she watched her daughter give birth with strength and wisdom.     

Connecting high school physics experiences,outcome expectations,physics identity,and physics career choice: A gender study

This study explores how students' physics identities are shaped by their experiences in high school physics classes and by their career outcome expectations. The theoretical framework focuses on physics identity and includes the dimensions of student performance, competence, recognition by others, and interest. Drawing data from the Persistence Research in Science and Engineering (PRiSE) project, which surveyed college English students nationally about their backgrounds, high school science experiences, and science attitudes, the study uses multiple regression to examine the responses of 3,829 students from 34 randomly selected US colleges/universities. Confirming the salience of the identity dimension for young persons' occupational plans, the measure for students' physics identity used in this study was found to strongly predict their intended choice of a physics career. Physics identity, in turn, was found to correlate positively with a desire for an intrinsically fulfilling career and negatively with a desire for personal/family time and opportunities to work with others. Physics identity was also positively predicted by several high school physics characteristics/experiences such as a focus on conceptual understanding, real‐world/contextual connections, students answering questions or making comments, students teaching classmates, and having an encouraging teacher. Even though equally beneficial for both genders, females reported experiencing a conceptual focus and real‐world/contextual connections less frequently. The explicit discussion of under‐representation of women in science was positively related to physics identity for female students but had no impact for male students. Surprisingly, several experiences that were hypothesized to be important for females' physics identity were found to be non‐significant including having female scientist guest speakers, discussion of women scientists' work, and the frequency of group work. This study exemplifies a useful theoretical framework based on identity, which can be employed to further examine persistence in science, and illustrates possible avenues for change in high school physics teaching. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 47: 978–1003, 2010