Building alliance for preschool inclusion: Parents of typically developing children,attitudes and perceptions

The current study investigated perceptions, thoughts, and attitudes of parents of typically developing children enrolled in inclusive 3-year-old and 4-year-old preschool classrooms. Using a qualitative approach, guided by ecological system theory semi-structured interviews with parents (N = 7) were completed. Several common themes related to inclusive preschool interactions were identified. Results indicated that parental perspectives, perceptions, and experiences vary. While parents were supportive of inclusion philosophy in child care centers, they felt less confident in their ability to explain the limitations associated with special needs to their young children. Parental support and involvement within inclusive preschool classrooms may be strengthened through the development of educational programs and family–professional partnerships. The role and involvement of teachers in facilitating parental support of inclusion philosophy is also addressed.     

Doctoral Education,Danger and Risk Management

This paper examines how risk management is reworking the doctoral supervisor/candidate relationship. We argue that a larger and more diverse population of doctoral students means special challenges for universities worldwide in managing doctoral programs to optimise their productivity and minimise the risk of failure, costliness and/or litigation. An effect of this is that professional and personal relationships in universities, as in many other public and private institutions, are being reshaped in order to be more closely aligned with risk minimisation policy directives and strategies. To understand what effects such reshaping is having on doctoral education, we bring together anthropological theorising of risk with pedagogical theorising of power and identity in education contexts. This theoretical cross-over between anthropology and education situates the pedagogic work of doctoral training within a culturally constituted order of professional care and risk management. We utilise this framework to interrogate "soft marking" as a specific domain in which risk minimisation is producing new relational identities for both supervisors and students involved in doctoral studies programs.     

“Our Leaders Are Us”: Youth Activism in Social Movements Project

In this article, we describe the development and implementation of a project, “Our Leaders Are Us: Youth Activism in Social Movements”, that we undertook with New York City high school students exploring events leading up to and following the Supreme Court’s landmark decision in Brown. As part of a 50th anniversary celebration of the Brown decision, we designed a series of three workshops that sought to extend urban students’ knowledge of Brown, segregation, and activism and to examine the roles of young people in critical civil rights campaigns. In addition, we discussed with students the ways in which young people can be involved in contemporary social movements and the strategies they can use to effect what they perceive to be needed changes in their lives. Along with the researchers’ extensive field notes, the participating students completed questionnaires throughout the project so that their understanding of Brown and related issues could be documented. Using our findings, we suggest ways that educators can develop and implement similar programs for use in schools.

Relationships Among Teachers’ Use of Mental State Verbs and Children’s Vocabulary Growth

Research Findings: Mental state verbs (MSV), a component of literate and academic language, may facilitate vocabulary growth, as they relate to metacognitive and metalinguistic awareness as well as decontextualized talk, all of which have been associated with vocabulary growth. In this study, we examined teacher MSV use in group content instruction and book reading in Head Start classrooms (N = 49) to determine the prevalence of teachers’ use of MSV. We sought to determine whether there was an association between teachers’ MSV use and children’s (N = 402) receptive and expressive vocabulary scores across 1 year of preschool. Results from hierarchical linear modeling revealed that teachers’ use of MSV in group content instruction was positively associated with children’s end-of-year receptive, but not expressive, vocabulary scores. No significant relations emerged for book reading. Positive associations between MSV in which the child was the referent of the verb and children’s receptive vocabulary were found, which indicates a potential scaffolding effect. Practice or Policy: Results indicate that teachers should consider including MSV in their content-rich instruction and provide support by placing the child as the referent of the verb. Additional instructional implications are addressed.     

Towards Teaching in Partnership: lessons still to be learned

This article seeks to analyse current dilemmas in responding to calls to narrow “the gap’ between academic and school culture in the area of preservice teacher preparation. It critiques traditional practices and current policies which focus on the narrowly vocational at the expense of the contextual. Further, it acknowledges the problems in the teaching of theory as it has been traditionally undertood. Finally, it assesses the benefits for teachers and academics of forms of pedagogical partnership and the likelihood of progress in this area, and suggests that a number of fundamental changes need to be made in academic culture for genuine partnerships to become a reality.