The invisible obstacle to educational equality: gender bias in textbooks

Gender bias in textbooks (GBIT) is a low-profile education issue, given the 72,000,000 children who still have no access to schooling, but this article argues that GBIT is: (1) an important, (2) near-universal, (3) remarkably uniform, (4) quite persistent but (5) virtually invisible obstacle on the road to gender equality in education—an obstacle camouflaged by taken-for-granted stereotypes about gender roles. Specifically, GBIT: (1) is important because (a) textbooks occupy ~80% of classroom time, and (b) it may contribute to lowering girls’ achievements, especially in weak schools in poor countries; (2) has been found worldwide to varying degrees (except, perhaps, Sweden in recent years); (3) involves nearly identical patterns of under-representation of females, plus stereotypes of both genders’ occupational and household roles that overwhelmingly underplay women’s rising worldly importance; (4) is decreasing very slowly, according to “second generation” re-studies; and (5) remains obscured by the “hidden-in-plain-sight” system of gender stratification and roles. Case studies from Syria, India, Romania, China and the US document these points. Other case studies from Sweden and Latin America describe government initiatives to reduce GBIT, with differing levels of success. Totally revising textbooks (and curricula) to eliminate this bias is quite unlikely, partly because it is very costly. The article concludes by presenting inexpensive alternate methods that can combat GBIT.     

Using Task Clarification,Checklists and Performance Feedback to Improve the Appearance of a Grocery Store

An intervention package of task clarification, checklists, and posted performance feedback was developed to increase completion of tasks contributing to the appearance of a local grocery store. The intervention package was based on an informal diagnostic assessment that examined antecedents, equipment and processes, knowledge and skills, and consequences in the organizational environment. A multiple baseline design across five departments was utilized to evaluate the effects of the intervention package on employee cleaning behavior related to the appearance of the store. The results suggest overall improvement of task completion across the five departments observed, with substantial increases resulting from application of the intervention. The mean percentage of tasks completed in the deli department increased by 36%; by 93% in the meat department; by 38% in the frozen department; by 25% in the produce department; and by 34% in the front‐end department. The average increase of task completion across departments was more than 45%. The results of this study are consistent with those of Anderson, Crowell, Hantula, and Siroky (1988), as well as with La Fleur and Hyten (1995), demonstrating that task clarification, checklists, and feedback have positive effects on work performance.     

An assessment of training volume in professional rugby union and its impact on the incidence, severity, and nature of match and training injuries

A prospective cohort study was used to assess the influence of training volume on injuries sustained by 502 professional rugby union players in England. Training volumes (excluding warm-ups, cool-downs, and recovery sessions), player injuries, and player match exposure times were reported weekly. Higher training volumes (>9.1 hours per week) did not increase the incidence of match or training injuries. However, higher training volumes did increase the severity of match injuries, particularly during the second half, and consequently resulted in a significant increase in the number of days' absence due to match injuries. Although lower-limb injuries were the most common match and training injuries, shoulder dislocations/instabilities resulted in more days' absence during weeks of higher training volumes, but the differences were not significant. The least number of days lost due to injuries occurred during weeks of intermediate training volumes (6.2-9.1 h per week). Training volume was not correlated with final league position. Fitness testing, defence, and rucking and mauling components were identified as being very high- or high-risk training activities. Our results provide evidence of the benefits of modifying the volume and content of rugby union training to reduce the risk associated with injuries to professional players.     

Learning to Teach Science: The Curriculum of Student Teaching in Hiroshima "Attached" Schools

Journal of Science Teacher Education -     

Lessons in Self-Betrayal: On the Pitfalls of Transformative Education

In this essay Ryan Kemp makes an unlikely case for value stability, arguing that people should almost never aspire to become radically different and that, given this, some people should be reluctant to pursue educational experiences that wildly broaden their life possibilities. His account is developed and structured around two borrowed examples, one literary and the other historical. Wendell Berry, his novel Hannah Coulter in particular, is the source of the first example; Jonathan Lear, specifically the case of Native American resettlement developed in Radical Hope, provides the second. The essay contains three sections structured around three related ideas. The first section explores the rationality of wanting to be a different person. The second section explores the rationality of wanting to be the same person while doing entirely different things. And the third section explores the rationality of desiring an education that teaches you to be suspicious of being anything in particular.