Mindfulness and discussing “thorny” issues in the classroom

Being in the moment, showing compassion, being non-judgmental, acknowledging deep emotional challenges without getting stuck: these are mindfulness characteristics important to us as teachers, yet not often included in teacher preparation. These concerns become magnified when we focus on difficult knowledge and thorny issues, like topics related to gender and race. Using a sociocultural framework, we address how mindfulness, heuristics, and other contemplative practices can be adopted to create safe, supporting, and healing spaces for such complex, often emotionally painful discussions. Participant narratives are used extensively to provide a voice to those marginalized or hurt. Drawing from these narratives and their experience in discussing thorny issues, we put forth possible solutions and interventions that can create spaces that encourage and support critical discourse through mindful practices. The development of a heuristic for discussing thorny issues whose characteristics can be adopted by interested teachers and educators to help frame and mediate this type of difficult discussion is an outcome of this research.     

Occupational sex segregation and job satisfaction of women

The results of this study indicate wide variation in the effect of occupational sex segregation on the job satisfaction of women college graduates employed in public and private organizations. Women employed in sex-balanced and male- and female-dominated occupations in the public sector have comparable levels of job satisfaction. In private firms, however, women college graduates employed in sex-balanced careers are more satisfied with theintrinsic andoverall nature of their jobs than those employed in female-dominated occupations, and those in female-dominated jobs are more satisfied with theextrinsic nature of their careers than women in male-dominated jobs. The implications of these findings for those who conduct research on the career consequences of women employed in sex-dominated career fields and for college officials responsible for the educational and professional development of women college students are discussed.     

Intergenerational effects of college graduation on career sex atypicality in women

This study was designed to determine whether parents' possession of a baccalaureate degree influenced the sex atypicality of the careers attained by their college-educated daughters. The intergenerational effect of mother's or father's possession of a baccalaureate degree was examined for members of two racial groups who were included among respondents to the 1971 and 1980 CIRP surveys. The sample was limited to females who attended a single four-year college or university as first-time matriculants in 1971 and were also full-time participants in the labor force in 1980. A final sample of 1,596 respondents (1,269 whites and 327 blacks) met all selection criteria. A 15-variable block recursive model was estimated to study vocational behavior processes in the subjects as related to five categories of variables: (1) student background characteristics; (2) precollege variables; (3) institutional characteristics of the college attended; (4) measures of the collegiate experience; and (5) outcome measures (educational attainment, sex atypicality of career). Results substantiated the indirect influence of father's and mother's college education on the women's educational attainment and career sex atypicality 9 years after matriculation in college. Intergroup differences in effects suggested differences in family and vocational processes.     

Free-Time Activities in Middle Childhood: Links with Adjustment in Early Adolescence

This study assessed links between free-time activities in middle childhood (hobbies, sports, toys and games, outdoor play, reading, television viewing, and hanging out) and school grades, conduct, and depression symptoms both concurrently and 2 years later, in early adolescence. It also explored two mechanisms that might underlie activity-adjustment links: whether the social contexts of children's activities mediate these links, child effects explain these connections, or both. Participants were 198 children (M = 10.9 years, SD = .54 years) in Year 1, and their parents. In home interviews in Years 1 and 3 of the study, mothers rated children's conduct problems, children reported on their depression symptoms, and information was collected on school grades from report cards. In seven evening phone interviews, children reported on the time they spent in free-time activities during the day of the call and their companions in each activity. Links were found between the nature of children's free-time activities and their adjustment. The social contexts of free-time activities explained activity-adjustment links to a limited degree; with respect to child effects, evidence also suggested that better adjusted children became more involved in adaptive activities over time.     

The pedagogical logics of arts-rich schools: a Bourdieusian analysis

The arts are under threat in English schools. But some schools and teachers work against the trend. To understand how they continue to offer rich arts experiences to students, we bring Bourdieusian thinking to arts teacher practices that were common across the 30 secondary schools we studied for three years. In addition to a flexible approach to the curriculum which encouraged independence, intellectual challenge and risk-taking, teachers also engaged in arts brokerage – embodiment of arts engagement, ensuring students regularly visit cultural events/institutions, using local cultural resources, organising visits from artists/cultural organisations, enabling students to exhibit and perform for wider audiences, connecting students with arts workplaces and enhancing community arts participation. We approach this as a logic of practice associated with arts broker dis/positions drawn from teachers simultaneously occupying two chiasmatic fields – art and education.     

Ecotoxicity assessment using ciliate cells in millifluidic droplets

Precise analysis of the aquatic cells and their responses to the toxic chemicals, i.e., water disinfective agents, is of crucial importance due to their role in the ecosystem. We demonstrate the application of the droplets based millifluidic tool for isolating and longtime monitoring of single Paramecium tetraurelia cells using a large number of water-in-oil emulsion droplets. Due to the automated monitoring of the fluorescence signal, the droplets containing cells are distinguished from the empty reservoirs. A viability indicator is used to follow the metabolic dynamic of the cells in every single droplet. Finally, we perform ecotoxicity tests in droplets, exposing the encapsulated paramecia cells to silver nitrate for determination of EC50 levels, and compare the output with the conventional microtiter plate assay.     

Notes on Contributors

Place is material, conceptual and symbolic. Physically, the Library at Townsville College of Advanced Education was central, visible and distinctive. Internally, it provided a dramatically different environment from other college buildings. It functioned as the (metaphorical) ‘hub’ of the external studies programme and, when the college was under threat, it formed a symbolic rallying point.