Things Fall Apart and Come Together: Using the Visual for Reflection in Alternative Teacher Education Programmes

In this article, we focus on the use of the visual for reflection in ‘alternative’ pre‐service teacher education and, in particular, we address the question: How and what can we learn about teacher education using the visual? By way of illustration, we focus on the use of pre‐service teachers’ photographs in a public exhibition, participatory video documentary production and pre‐service teachers’ use of photographs in their professional teaching portfolios. The article draws from research done in relation to three alternative pre‐service teacher education projects based at McGill University in Canada and the University of KwaZulu‐Natal in South Africa.     

Spatial imaginaries: universities,internationalization, and feminist geographies

In this article, we conduct a discourse analysis of the strategic plans of two universities, one from the global South and the other from the global North, to understand how the constitution of space and place reconfigures human experience in the two institutions. We argue that universities do not simply respond to dominant logics of globalization but are active participants in its production. We draw on feminist geographers to elaborate how these universities’ discourses of internationalization reify a division of higher education as local ‘place’ and globalization as abstract global space, ‘out there’. This imaginary spatiality obscures the work of the ‘local’ in producing the ‘global’ with important implications for the redefinition of the student-citizen, useful knowledge, and managerial practices.     

Learning About Students’ Culture and Language Through Family Stories Elicited by Dichos

Teachers’ knowing about students and their families is critical to ensuring relevant classroom instruction. The Family Storytelling through Dichos approach is explored as a culturally and linguistically appropriate mechanism for learning about students’ backgrounds. This article posits that this approach may be a viable one, since it is rooted in the Hispanic culture and language and integrates three critical elements (a) familism, a core Hispanic cultural value; (b) storytelling, a vehicle for exploring families’ identities; and (c) dichos or popular sayings in the Spanish language, authentic cultural constructs present in Hispanics’ everyday oral discourse.     

Reading Anxiety in L1: Reviewing the Concept

Elevated levels of anxiety have been associated with students’ poor academic performance. Research on domain-specific anxiety patterns in reading has demonstrated that reading anxiety is associated with, yet distinctive from, general anxiety. Reading anxiety is an unpleasant emotional reaction experienced by students when reading; it is a specific phobia, situational type. Although reading anxiety has been largely studied in the context of second language acquisition (L2), there is a lack of new research on reading anxiety related to first language learning (L1). In this article we investigate the concept of reading anxiety, as well as the instruments that have been used to evaluate it. Finally, we present the repercussions of reading anxiety upon students’ reading performance and discuss the importance of evaluating reading anxiety as a route to better understandings of reading disabilities.     

The terracotta modelli of Palazzo Venezia in Rome: Investigation of the constituent materials for fundamental knowledge and to aid conservation decisions

This work presents the results of the investigation carried out on a group of terracotta sculptures (modelli) (sixteenth to eighteenth century) belonging to the extraordinary collection of Palazzo Venezia in Rome. The study, the diagnostic analysis, and the conservation work, were possible thanks to the grant supplied by the Getty Foundation of Los Angeles and by the bank Intesa San Paolo. The terracotta modelli had a practical function as they were of great use as sketches to the creation of the final masterpieces or as models for restoration. As a consequence, the terracotta models allow reconstructing the creative process of artists and restorers, fundamental to outlining the ancient workshop production. X-ray fluorescence spectroscopy, micro-stratigraphic investigation, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, and micro-Raman spectroscopy were chosen as useful techniques to study the morphology and composition of the surface-painted layers. Usually the surfaces were painted in order to simulate the materials of the sculpture for which the model was created, for example lead white was used to obtain a white surface simulating marble. But, often the models were re-painted to make them more attractive for the antique trade. So, several pigments have been found on the surfaces such as zinc white, Prussian blue, chrome yellow, and mono-azo pigment. In some cases, the characterization of the surface paintings was particularly important to the final decision about removing or leaving the surface paint in place.     

The prevalence of risk factors for general recidivism in female adolescent sexual offenders: A comparison of three subgroups

To our knowledge, there are no former studies in which subgroups of female adolescent sexual offenders are studied. Therefore, we examined differences in risk factors for general recidivism between female adolescents who have committed a felony sexual offense against a younger child (CSO, n = 25), female adolescents who have committed a felony sexual offense with a peer victim (PSO, n = 15) and female adolescents who have committed a misdemeanor sexual offenses (MSO, n = 31). Results showed that CSOs had considerably fewer problems in the domains of school (truancy, behavior problems, dropping out of school), family (e.g., parental alcohol problems, parental mental health problems, poor authority and control, out of home placements and run away from home) and friends (antisocial friends) than MSOs and/or PSOs. No differences were found in the prevalence of mental health problems, physical abuse, sexual abuse and neglect. Implications for theory and practice are discussed.