Communication practices of the Karen in Sheffield: seeking to navigate their three zones of displacement

This study investigates communication practices of a newly arrived Karen refugee community in the UK who, as well as establishing themselves in a strange country, seek to keep in touch, campaign politically and maintain identity collectively through communication and contact with their global diaspora. We look at the technologies, motivations and inhibiting factors applying to the communication by adult members of this community and construct the idea of three zones of displacement which help to model the particular contexts, challenges and methods of their communication. We find that, overall, they are using a wide range of internet-based technologies, with the aim to ‘keep-in-touch’ (personal contacts) and to ‘spread the word’ (political communication). This also includes archaic, traditional and hybrid methods to achieve extended communication with contacts in other ‘zones’. We also identify the importance of the notion of ‘village’ as metaphor and entity in their conceptualisation of diasporic and local community cohesion. We identify the key inhibitors to their communication as cost, education, literacy and age. Finally, we speculate on the uncertain outcomes of their approach to digital media in achieving their political aims.     

A Longitudinal Examination of Racial Identity and Racial Discrimination Among African American Adolescents

This study tested the longitudinal association between perceptions of racial discrimination and racial identity among a sample of 219 African American adolescents, aged 14 to 18. Structural equation modeling was used to test relations between perceptions of racial discrimination and racial identity dimensions, namely, racial centrality, private regard, and public regard at 3 time points. The results indicated that perceived racial discrimination at Time 1 was negatively linked to public regard at Time 2. Nested analyses using age were conducted, and perceptions of racial discrimination at Time 2 were negatively linked to private regard at Time 3 among older adolescents. The findings imply that perceived racial discrimination is linked to negative views that the broader society has of African Americans.     

Ethnic and Racial Identity in Adolescence: Implications for Psychosocial,Academic, and Health Outcomes

The construction of an ethnic or racial identity is considered an important developmental milestone for youth of color. This review summarizes research on links between ethnic and racial identity (ERI) with psychosocial, academic, and health risk outcomes among ethnic minority adolescents. With notable exceptions, aspects of ERI are generally associated with adaptive outcomes. ERI are generally beneficial for African American adolescents' adjustment across all three domains, whereas the evidence is somewhat mixed for Latino and American Indian youth. There is a dearth of research for academic and health risk outcomes among Asian American and Pacific Islander adolescents. The review concludes with suggestions for future research on ERI among minority youth.     

Listening to Students: Customer Journey Mapping at Birmingham City University Library and Learning Resources

Birmingham City University's Library and Learning Resources’ strategic aim is to improve student satisfaction. A key element is the achievement of the Customer Excellence Standard. An important component of the standard is the mapping of services to improve quality. Library and Learning Resources has developed a methodology to map these “customer journeys” with students. The article considers themes in the published literature and provides an overview of a pilot project and its outcomes. The project's aims are evaluated including an assessment of the effectiveness of the mapping methodology in engaging students, the staff resource implications, and the identification of service improvements.     

Only By Moving Their Bodies

Physical education can achieve a stronger place in higher education, but to do so it will have to confront at least three important alternatives. These are strengthening its mission versus improving its accountability, limiting versus expanding this mission, and educating liberally versus schooling more narrowly. It is argued that redefining and limiting its mission, in addition to choosing some brand of liberal education, will best strengthen physical education in the arena of higher education. Alternately it is suggested that attempts to gain support by proving that physical education accomplishes traditional objectives (i.e., that it is maximally accountable), by expanding its goals to cover yet more educational turf, or by holding on to health and recreational “schooling” objectives will prove ineffectual if not also harmful for any attempt by physical education to seek a more central place in higher education.     

Professional Identity and Pedagogical Space: Negotiating difference in teacher workplaces

This paper explores “spatial struggle” in the formation of professional identities of overseas‐born teachers. The basis of this struggle arises from a limited number of subject positions available for them in pedagogical spaces of the Australian system of education. We argue that relations of power/professional knowledge in teacher workplaces as well as the binary strategy of “us” and “them” generate marginal locations for overseas‐born teachers within schools. This construction of marginality is informed not only by discourses of what counts as being a professional but also by the conception of workplace as a monocultural, pre‐given and bounded entity. By rethinking workplaces as relational, as locations that are connected to other socioculturally produced places through spaces of semiotic flows, we can also rethink the professional becoming of overseas‐born teachers. This involves a critical understanding of their situationality, which can be conceptualised as a struggle for professional recognition, voice and place within the real and imagined communities of teachers.     

Cultural considerations in teachers’ perceptions of student classroom behavior and achievement

This study examines teachers’ perceptions of classroom motivation and achievement among students displaying culture-based classroom behaviors. Sixty-two elementary school teachers read scenarios of hypothetical students who behaviorally manifested themes purported to be consistent with a European/mainstream cultural ethos (competition, individualism) or Afrocultural ethos (communalism, verve). Teachers then rated students’ motivation and achievement as if they were in their classrooms. Motivation and achievement ratings were significantly higher for students displaying competitive and individualistic classroom behaviors than communal or vervistic behaviors. These findings suggest that the value teachers assign to academic success should not be understood in the absence of cultural considerations.