Health inclusive education

When considering the relevance of contemporary learning theories to health education and promotion work in schools, it is necessary to inspect the kinds of discourses used therein for how they understand and thereby constitute people and their worlds. For instance, contemporary educational practices, teaching and learning included, are dominated by constructivist theory and its person-in-the-world purview. It follows that from these discourses potentials for inclusion (and exclusion) emanate helping to constitute the very form and nature of our schools. This paper contributes to an ongoing explication of existing and persisting discursive conditions in the cultural politics of education focussing on how these inform teaching and learning in health education. By critically examining the purposes of contemporary educational practice and the theoretical precepts which support its activities, we move closer to being able to realise the possibilities of a refocussed kind of work. Such practice is dedicated to engaging meaning as it is applied by those in the living of their daily lives and accordingly decentres teaching and learning to enable health inclusive education.     

Artful Dodgers: an arts education research project in early education settings

Artful Dodgers is an arts education project developed by two artists and delivered in two early years settings located in two areas of urban disadvantage. It is a music and visual arts programme designed and implemented with early years teachers of children aged 3–5 years. It explored whether the provision of high-quality arts experiences could enhance children’s emerging literacy and numeracy. A novel ‘artist in(formed) residency’ model was developed within a unique arts education research design. Piloting a tripartite relationship between researchers, artists and early years teachers, this study was situated within a qualitative action research paradigm, with both artists located in both services weekly over a 12-week period. The evaluation of the programme indicates changes in pedagogical planning and style in the early years teachers over the period of the artists’ residency. Their language became more reflective and their practice incorporated a wider and richer range of materials; there was greater evidence of more child-led activities and unstructured play opportunities over the duration of the study. The data suggest that children’s social, cooperative and communication skills were enhanced. Recommendations have implications for the professional development of artists and teachers working in early years settings.     

Diversity training,inclusive education and our inevitable lament

As education systems the world over acknowledge the significance of supporting students with disabilities and related conditions to maintain school enrolment, building the capacity of educators to fulfil an inclusive ambition is frequently promoted through activities like awareness training. Here, the intention is to potentially change how people living with disability are understood and related to. Traditionally, awareness raising work relies on psychological interventions targeting human being’s cognitive-behavioural triumvirate – thoughts, feelings and behaviours, nudging public policy and individual attitudes to sustain such changes. Yet, an inevitable lament typically befalls researchers and practitioners when inclusive ideals are not reached through the promotion of human rights, individualised support and positive attitudes. Advancing a conceptual approach to orientating to difference resourced by theory from critical psychology, critical disability and affirmative ethics, our discussion seeks to question the validity of current orientations to awareness training in favour of engaging difference differently. The discussion is relevant to education policy makers and practitioners seeking to reduce inequities, particularly among students living diverse ways of being within mainstream populations, so they might engage difference differently to reduce school exclusion.     

Fiscal Realities and the Illinois Community College System's Strategic Plan

Fiscal realities are forcing a review and potential refocusing of Illinois community colleges. This study compared the themes that emerged from interviewing an Illinois community college stakeholder group in 2005 to what emerged from a similar study in Iowa by Ebbers and Gardner in 2002 Ebbers , L. H. & Gardner , G. ( 2002 ). Seeking stakeholder views: Iowa community colleges @ 2000 . Journal of Applied Research , 10 ( 1 ), 19 – 24 . [Google Scholar]. Illinois stakeholders talked about their overall perceptions regarding community colleges, issues they see facing the system, and their views for the future. What emerged were seven themes, with access to education being the core around which the other six themes (partnerships, technology, local needs, value, funding, and outcomes) revolved. The end result of this research project was the preparation of a foundation document for the Illinois Community College Board, Illinois Council of Community College Presidents, and Illinois Community College Trustees Association to consider while updating the Illinois Community College System's strategic plan.     

Findings from the most recent Medical Library Association salary survey.

OBJECTIVE: The objective is to provide information on basic issues in library management identified by the Medical Library Association's (MLA's) seventh triennial salary survey. METHODS: The survey was a Web-based questionnaire. A nonrandom sample of persons was obtained by posting messages to MLA's membership and to the MEDLIB-L e-mail discussion list. Employed MLA members and nonmembers employed in medical library settings filled out a Web-based form designed using common gateway interface (CGI) programming. RESULTS: Six hundred forty-five usable responses were analyzed by the Hay Group and presented in the MLA publication, Hay Group/MLA 2001 Compensation and Benefits Survey. Results from the 2001 survey in this article focus on pay and job satisfaction. Salary survey results since 1983 were analyzed to review trends in seniority, diversity, and pay equity. CONCLUSIONS: Given the age progression of respondents from 1983 to 2001, it is clear that succession planning is a core issue for medical libraries. Although efforts to create more diversity in medical libraries in member organizations have started to yield results, pay for white respondents has increased at a higher rate than for other racial categories. The authors found that the pay-for-performance system in the organizations of approximately two-thirds of the respondents is suboptimized and that most of the reasons medical librarians cite for leaving their organization can be addressed and potentially changed by management. Results from the eighth salary survey, slated to be conducted in the fall of 2004, will further track these trends and issues.     

The benefit of assessment-based language and reading instruction: perspectives from a case study

We present a case study of the language and literacy development of a deaf child, Marcy, from preschool through sixth grade. The purpose of the project was to examine the connection between language and reading and to provide insight into the relationships between them. To compile the case study, we analyzed data from nine years of follow-up, including listening, speech articulation, semantic, syntactic, reading, and writing information drawn from a number of informal and formal assessments. Annual evaluation of language and literacy skills was used to select educational placements, as well as instructional methods, strategies, and materials. Given that Marcy began school at 4 years of age, mute and without expressive language of any form (oral or sign), it may at first appear remarkable that she read narrative and expository text as did her hearing peers by sixth grade, because a substantial body of research shows that most deaf students read at the fourth-grade level by high school graduation (review by Paul, 1998). However, those responsible for Marcy's education prevented reading failure by carefully planning, instituting, and monitoring elements of language and literacy instruction. We present Marcy's progress and instruction by grade level and discuss it within the framework of phases/stages of reading development. We hope that the resulting case study may serve as an example of the language-reading connection, an awareness important not only for the literacy instruction of deaf and language-challenged children but for hearing students as well.