Children's Facial Emotion Recognition Skills: Longitudinal Associations With Lateralization for Emotion Processing

This is the first longitudinal study to evaluate the relations between hemispheric laterality for emotion processing and the development of facial emotion recognition (FER) skills, both of which show similar developmental trajectories. Five to 12-year-old children (N = 160) completed an emotion discrimination task, emotion matching task, identity matching task, and behavioral lateralization for emotion processing task at baseline and 1 year later. Lateralization at baseline predicted later emotion discrimination, whereas change in strength of lateralization across the year predicted emotion matching ability. Lateralization was not a significant predictor of identity matching. These findings provide evidence that it is changes in laterality for emotion processing that contribute to improvements in FER skills between 5 and 12 years of age.     

Critical Pedagogy in Process: A Collaborative Self‐Study

... the most important consideration in formulating purpose in education is the happiness of the students themselves. — T. Makiguchi     

Making the Rice: Latina Performance Testimonios of Hybridity,Assimilation, and Resistance

This performance testimonio is the result of collaboration between two U.S. Latina graduate students/ university instructors: a Latina of Puerto Rican descent and a white Chicana. It is a dialogue in which the authors “come together to engage our differences, face-to-face, and work to find common ground” (The Latina Feminist Group, 2001 The Latina Feminist Group. 2001. Telling to live: Latina feminist testimonios, Durham, NC: Duke University Press. [Crossref] , [Google Scholar], p. 1). We offer this performance testimonio to interrogate and be accountable for our performances of hybrid/assimilated identities, as we strive to recognize the ways we produce, maintain, and resist dominant and oppressive cultural paradigms. To do this, we draw on the models of resistance found in Latina/Chicana feminist discourse and performance autoethnography. The text was created to be performed before an audience.     

A curriculum philosophy for higher education: socially critical vocationalism

In highlighting a gulf between inclusive policy intentions inherent in the advent of mass higher education in the UK and the lived experiences of students and staff, this paper aims to stimulate critical debate about the impact of this changed environment upon traditional personal tutoring relationships. In drawing upon qualitative research with a sample of students and personal tutors from one school in a post-92 university, this paper explores their respective experiences, expectations, needs and concerns. Although some students and tutors reported clear satisfaction with their personal tutoring relationships, this paper highlights the detrimental impact of the mass system upon the ability of many staff and students to engender such connectedness.     

Reducing Task-related Variance in Performance Assessment Using Concept Maps

Task-related variance causes scores from performance assessments not to be generalizable and thus inappropriate for high stakes use. It is possible that task-related variance is due, in part, to students’ inability to transfer their knowledge consistently from one assessment task to another. Therefore, concept-mapping, a cognitive tool, might be useful to aid this transfer. This study examines the effects of concept maps on the task-related variance components of Political Science performance assessments. On three quizzes, some students used concept maps while writing two essays, while other students did not. The task variance components remained unchanged across groups, but the person main effect components increased and the task-by-person interaction components decreased for those using concept maps. Also, the scores from the concept mapping groups had higher generalizability coefficients than for those who did not use a concept map.     

Discourses of forgiveness and resilience in stepchild–stepparent relationships

Challenges and conflicts experienced by stepfamilies are well documented, but researchers are increasingly focused on communication processes that facilitate resilience in these relationships. In other contexts, communicating forgiveness has been linked to relational healing after transgressions or adversity. In the current study, the researchers sought to understand how stepchildren talk about the role of forgiveness in the development of positive adult stepchild–stepparent relationships. Data were drawn from interviews with adult stepchildren who have a positive relationship with a stepparent. Following an interpretive analysis, the researchers identified five themes representing the ways forgiveness was conceptualized and enacted in these positive stepchild–stepparent relationships: forgiveness as (a) healing family connections, (b) explicit negotiation, (c) maturation and acceptance, (d) a response to vulnerability and compassion, and (e) evidence of relational growth. Theoretical and practical applications for understanding and fostering resilient stepfamilies and the role of forgiveness are discussed.     

Responding to the Americans with disabilities act: Contributions of interpersonal communication research and training

The enactment of the Americans With Disabilities Act (ADA), has resulted in considerable misinformation and resistance, especially when ablebodied individuals and persons with disabilities interact. This essay reviews contributions of interpersonal communication researchers who address the challenges persons with disabilities face when communicating with ablebodied others, suggesting ways to mitigate communication discomfort and to reduce problems in helping situations. The authors suggest foci for future research and training which can contribute to the acceptance and effectiveness of ADA and to facilitate communication between ablebodied persons and persons with disabilities.     

A binding tie: Supportive communication of family kinkeepers

Families are an important source of social support and little scholarship exists regarding how family members stay in touch and provide support for one another. Kinkeepers are said to provide support and keep family members informed about one another, yet there has been little research on who family kinkeepers are and how they communicate and enact this role. Two studies were undertaken. The first study used surveys to provide demographic data on kinkeepers and to ascertain information on their activities. The second study used diaries and interviews to document the activities of a set of kinkeepers and to describe outcomes of kinkeeping communication. These studies revealed that kinkeepers are mostly females between the ages of 40–59, who use the telephone and personal visits predominantly. Five outcomes of kinkeeping communication were identified: providing information, facilitating rituals, providing assistance, maintaining family relationships, and continuing a previous kinkeeper's work.