Roles, caring and learning to teach science

Classroom narratives and stories are rich and powerful in offering deep insights into classrooms and the reality of teaching—a reality critically re-examined in this forum. Discussing Maria’s narratives led to reflections about what it takes to support teachers to become agents of more equitable science practices. Factors such as time and identity-work are key dimensions of the authors’ struggle, but they also address understanding students in profound ways. The ways in which contradictions at different levels in the educational system can become sources of growth, reflection and action are discussed; yet no simple answers follow. Teaching and becoming a teacher are best understood as life-long processes of reflection and action and as political acts that entail challenging many boundaries. They also involve putting oneself into vulnerable roles and positions. This dialogue opens up many questions about how we can collaborate, guide and support both novices and experienced professionals in education as researchers, science staff developers, and teacher educators. It seeks to support the on-going quest to make science education authentic and equitable.     

Architects, captains, and dreamers: Creating advisor roles that foster youth-adult partnerships

While research has documented the many ways in which student voice can enable educational change, the process of how adults can help to enable student voice is less clear. This article examines how adults new to working as advisors of student voice initiatives begin to develop partnerships with young people. Using a Youth-Adult Partnership continuum as a framework, three cases represent a range of beliefs of student leadership. Using the archetypes of Captain, Dreamer, and Architect, the cases indicate how the adults began their work with youth with adult-centered, a student-centered, and an equilibrium approach, respectively. While the article highlights that adults must learn how to scaffold youth participation to help them to develop the leadership skills necessary to share in the work of the partnership, little training and materials exist for adults to learn how to scaffold learning. Part of this training includes the willingness for adults to recognize that they themselves need to change as well in order to facilitate youth leadership.     

“Nothing is impossible”: characteristics of Hispanic females participating in an informal STEM setting

Cultural Studies of Science Education - Factors that influence the underrepresentation of females in STEM careers begin early in childhood when gender biases and stereotypes emerge. Stereotypes...     

Web-based Loansome Doc, librarians, and end users: results from a survey of the Southeast Region

OBJECTIVES: The study examines how Loansome Doc services are implemented and used by libraries in the Southeast Region and describe end users' experiences with and attitudes toward Loansome Doc. METHODS: 251 active DOCLINE libraries and 867 Loansome Doc users were surveyed. RESULTS: Roughly one half of the libraries offered Loansome Doc services. Of those that did not, most indicated no plans to offer it in the future. The majority had a small number of end users and experienced minimal increases in interlibrary loan activity. Problems were relatively rare. Satisfaction with Loansome Doc was high among all types of libraries. End users were usually physicians or other health care professionals who requested articles for research and patient care. Most learned about Loansome Doc through PubMed or Internet Grateful Med. End users appeared to be largely self-taught or received informal instruction in Loansome Doc. Loansome Doc filled document requests in a timely manner, and end users reported being satisfied with the service. CONCLUSIONS: Greater promotion of what Loansome Doc is and how it can benefit libraries can increase the number of participating libraries. While satisfaction of Loansome Doc end users is high, satisfaction could be increased with more help on the PubMed screen, more library training, and faster delivery methods.     

Gendered Expectations for “Agreeableness” in Response to Requests and Opinions

To address the need for more direct assessment of gendered expectations for communication behaviors, we devised a novel experimental approach that tests whether expectations for “agreeableness” are more salient when evaluating male or female speakers in their affirmative responses to a friend’s request or expression of opinion. Briefly, as lag times are introduced, it appears that females are expected to be more agreeable (or male delay is more tolerated), particularly when alignment with opinion is at stake or when a female is responding to another female. Findings are discussed in the context of Expectation Violations Theory.