Maternal Insightfulness and Resolution of the Diagnosis Are Associated With Secure Attachment in Preschoolers With Autism Spectrum Disorders

In the current study (a) maternal insightfulness into the experience of the child and (b) resolution with respect to the child's diagnosis and their associations with children's security of attachment were examined in a sample of 45 preschoolers (mean age = 49 months) with autism spectrum disorders (ASD). It was hypothesized that mothers who were insightful and resolved would be more likely to have securely attached children than mothers who were neither insightful nor resolved. The findings supported this hypothesis. The implications of insightfulness and resolution for child attachment in the context of ASD are discussed.     

Viewing students consistently: how stable are teachers’ expectations?

ABSTRACT

Over the past 50 years, research has shown that teacher expectations can influence student outcomes. Many studies have examined within-year effects. There is, however, a paucity of research that has investigated the stability of teachers’ expectations across a single year, and there are no studies that have examined stability beyond 1 year. The current study examined the stability of 94 teachers’ expectations within 3 separate years and across 3 years in mathematics and reading. In both subject areas, teachers’ expectations remained relatively stable from beginning to end-of-year for each separate year and also across 3 years. Additionally, teachers who under- or overestimated their students by more than half a standard deviation continued to do so across all periods in the study. This was despite the teachers having different students each year. The study suggests that teachers view students’ capabilities similarly despite having different student cohorts.     

Black youth, identity, and ethics

This article examines stage models of racial identity that researchers and educators use to explain the subjective processes that influence how black youth navigate school. Despite the explicit challenge that most models of racial identity have posed to racist discourses in the research literature, the underlying ethics of their developmental trajectories is constrained by a politics of respectability that subverts a larger project of affirming black humanity. I use interview data to propose an alternative model for how black adolescent identity is formed. I conclude with a discussion of the importance of rethinking black adolescence in the context of changes in communication technologies associated with postindustrialism and globalization.     

Book Review

Digital Copyright (2nd Edition) Paul Pedley. London, Facet Publishing, 2007, 184 pp. ISBN 978 1 85604 608 4, £34.95, paperback.