Co/productive practitioner relations for children with SLCN: an affect inflected agentic frame

ABSTRACT

This paper examines how school-based practitioners supporting children with speech, language and communication needs (SLCN) use particular social capital relations. Social capital theory together with selected ‘Productive Pedagogies’ items, are applied to re-frame and understand the co/production of support for such children. Empirical data from the ‘Language for All’ study, which investigates SLCN provision in schools in England, are analysed to understand support network social capital. Novel insights on the types and purposes of inter-professional connectedness within SLCN support networks, in particular how relational agency is inflected by affect, are offered.     

Balancing Institutional Demands with Effective Practice: A Lesson in Curricular and Professional Development

ABSTRACT

Online writing courses have developed in importance to meet student learning and institutional expectations; over time, a controversy about training online instructors and building sustainable programs has emerged. This article relates training demands within the University of Arizona’s Writing Program and development of an online professional & technical writing certificate. The article proposes training instructors with master courses and building a sustained program through a participatory design to create a professional and integrated environment.     

When differences do not matter: inclusion in a Mexican primary school / Cuando las diferencias no importan: la inclusión en una escuela primaria mexicana

Studies show that disability is a cause of educational exclusion worldwide. Different countries adopt different views of the inclusion movement. Different variables seem to be associated with the success or failure of inclusion. This study takes place in a primary school located in Mexico. It aims to identify how inclusion is experienced by children with and without special needs, and the connections between inclusion and quality of life. Measures utilized were the questionnaire My Primary School from the Index for Inclusion and the Questionnaires on Assessment of Quality of Life for Children, self-report, and parents’ report. Participants are 69 regular students and 15 students with special education needs. Self-reports from regular children and proxy reports from the mothers of the special education needs students were analysed. Results indicated that there is an association between perceived inclusion and experiencing quality of life; having special needs does not impact on scores on QoL or inclusion; educational level does not impact on perceived QoL or inclusion for special education students. These results are discussed in light of a culture that appreciates diversity.     

A mind of her own. Hélène Metzger to Emile Meyerson, 1933

In May 1933 the historian of chemistry Hélène Metzger addressed a letter to the renowned historian and philosopher of science Emile Meyerson, a cri de coeur against Meyerson's patronizing attitude toward her. This recently discovered letter is published and translated here because it is an exceptional human document reflecting the gender power structure of our discipline in interwar France. At the age of forty-three, and with five books to her credit. Metzger was still a junior scholar in the exclusively male community of French historians and philosophers of science. We sketch the institutional setting of higher learning in France at the time, noting the limited openings it offered to would-be femmes savantes, and situate Metzger in this context. We also describe the philosophical differences between Metzger and Meyerson. Though Metzger never managed to obtain a post of her own, in her letter to Meyerson she forcefully lays claim, at least, to a mind of her own.     

Guided portfolio writing as a scaffold for reflective learning in in-service contexts: a case study1

Language is widely recognized as an inescapable mediating tool for professional learning, and with this text we want to contribute to a better understanding of the particular role that guided writing can play in in-service professional reflective learning. We analysed one pre-school teacher’s written portfolio, the construction of which was guided to scaffold deep thinking about (and the transference of theory into) practice during participation in an in-service program about language education. Our case study shows that the writing process sustained robust learning about professional knowing, doing and learning itself: The teacher elaborated an integrative ethical understanding of the discussed theory, fully experienced newly informed practices and assessed her own learning by using theory to confront her previous knowledge and practices. Throughout the portfolio, the learning stance revealed by her voice varied accordingly. The study illustrates the potential of guided writing to scaffold reflective learning in in-service contexts.     

Predatory and exploitative behaviour in academic publishing: An assessment

The issue of “predatory” publishing continues to affect many scholars around the world who publish. When one reads the fairly vast literature surrounding “predatory” publishing, there is an erroneous tendency to continue pivoting around Jeffrey Beall's blacklists of “predatory” open access (OA) journals and publishers. However, to be “predatory” involves much more than defining a handful of select behaviours, and it is becoming increasingly important to start defining, or curtailing, the lexicon to avoid referring to any journal or publisher that might display one of the following qualities (exploitative, deceptive, excessive, unscrupulous, abusive, advantageous, manipulative, profit-seeking, or others) as synonymously meaning “predatory”. This paper focuses mainly on the oft-interchangeable terms “predatory” and “exploitation”, and explores the morality of predatory and exploitative actions by applying a deontological ethics approach which implies that certain actions are wrong even if they achieve good consequences, with the understanding that because a predatory entity aims to exploit others, these actions would be considered morally wrong from a deontologist's perspective. In articulating our argument, we attempt to expand the conversation around this important topic, with the hope that it might bring additional clarity to the issue of what might constitute a “predatory” journal or publisher.     

School to Work： Using Active Learning to Teach Business Writing

To succeed as tomorrow＇s workers in the knowledge society of the new century---a world characterized by ceaseless change, boundless knowledge and endless doubt, today＇s business writing students must develop the skills and traits needed to become creative problem-solvers, flexible team-players and risk-taking life-time learners （Bereiter, 2002a）. And teachers must play an important role in helping students transit successfuUy from school to work by finding ways to develop useful life skills and the flexibility that facilitates a willingness to work cooperatively and a readiness to learn continuously. Preparing today＇s students for tomorrow＇s work world challenges 21st century teachers to reinvent their professional personas by creating a fresh professionalism founded not on old, comfortable abilities and attitudes, but on new, unfamiliar skills and traits. For many teachers （most of whom teach exactly as they were taught--typically, following the talk-chalk model that fills a classroom with five or 10 rows of passive listeners in fixed seats, and fills a class period with 50 or 60 minutes of garbled monotones in lecture format）, learning to teach in ways they were not taught represents the greatest challenge of their careers （Silberman, 1996; Hargreaves, 2003）. Challenging students and teachers to rearrange the furniture and to reconfigure the lecture, a well-considered active learning model （Bonwell ＆ Eison, 1991） can be applied to the business writing classroom （an application unexplored in the literature） to help students develop the abilities and attitudes most required for success in the work world of the 21st century （an area explored in the ＂futuristic business literature＂）--to help students learn and transit. In fact, classes in business writing, professional writing and tecl＇mical writing can function, through the use of active learning strategies, as dynamic workshops in which students can prepare for the change and doubt of the knowledge society by becoming creat     

More students and more diverse: new trends in international mobility to Portugal

Tertiary Education and Management - Growing numbers of students from non-Portuguese speaking countries, designated as ‘non-Lusophone students’, signal the diversification of the...     

Cross-Border Higher Education: The Expansion of International Branch Campuses

Research in Higher Education - The international expansion of higher education has intensified in recent decades with a rapidly growing number of international branch campuses appearing on the...     

What’s in a word? Effects of morphologically rich vocabulary instruction on writing outcomes among elementary students

Reading and Writing - We examined effects of a 12-week, teacher-delivered, morphology-infused vocabulary intervention on writing outcomes for 4th and 5th grade U.S. students. The intervention (1)...