Literature review: the gap between mentoring theory and practice for diverse women faculty

Mentoring remains a beneficial resource for faculty career advancement. Yet, women faculty across African, Latinx, Asian, and Native American Diasporas often report their career advancement needs are unfulfilled by mentors. As a result, a gap exists between mentoring theory and practical application in higher education. Some scholars identified one factor contributing to this gap is Caucasian mentors not addressing faculty gendered and ethnic intersectional identity and the implications of that identity in the professoriate. Also, mentoring literature discussions omit the importance of facilitating learning, particularly when exploring the needs of women faculty across ethnic groups. I explored the gap between the proposed functions of mentoring and the challenges of cross-cultural mentoring and learning as a component of mentoring. The aim is to bridge the gap between theory and practice by providing readers with key mentor behaviors identified in qualitative and quantitative research that facilitate learning.     

Sexual abuse and suicidality: gender differences in a large community sample of adolescents

OBJECTIVE: A cross-sectional study of gender specific relationships between self-reported child sexual abuse and suicidality in a community sample of adolescents. METHOD: Students aged 14 years on average (N = 2,485) from 27 schools in South Australia completed a questionnaire including items on sexual abuse and suicidality, and measures of depression (Centre for Epidemiological Studies Depression Scale), hopelessness (Beck Hopelessness Scale), and family functioning (McMaster Family Assessment Device General Functioning Subscale). Data analysis included logistic regression. RESULTS: In boys, self-report sexual abuse is strongly and independently associated with suicidal thoughts, plans, threats, deliberate self-injury, and suicide attempts, after controlling for current levels of depression, hopelessness, and family dysfunction. In girls, the relationship between sexual abuse and suicidality is mediated fully by depression, hopelessness, and family dysfunction. Girls who report current high distress about sexual abuse, however, have a threefold increased risk of suicidal thoughts and plans, compared to non-abused girls. Boys who report current high distress about sexual abuse have 10-fold increased risk for suicidal plans and threats, and 15-fold increased risk for suicide attempts, compared to non-abused boys. Fifty-five percent (n = 15) of sexually abused boys attempted suicide versus 29% (n = 17) girls. CONCLUSIONS: A history of sexual abuse should alert clinicians, professionals and carers in contact with adolescents, to greatly increased risks of suicidal behavior and attempts in boys, even in the absence of depression and hopelessness. Distress following sexual abuse, along with depression and hopelessness indicate increased risk of suicidal behavior in girls, as well as boys.     

Thirteen-month-olds rely on shared labels and shape similarity for inductive inferences

This study examined the influence of shape similarity and labels on 13-month-olds' inductive inferences. In 3 experiments, 123 infants were presented with novel target objects with or without a nonvisible property, followed by test objects that varied in shape similarity. When objects were not labeled, infants generalized the nonvisible property to high-similarity objects (Experiment 1). When objects were labeled with the same noun, infants generalized the nonvisible property to high- and low-similarity objects (Experiment 2). Finally, when objects were labeled with different nouns, infants generalized the nonvisible property to high-similarity objects (Experiment 3). Thus, infants who are beginning to acquire productive language rely on shared shape similarity and shared names to guide their inductive inferences.     

The career development of black and white South African university students

This study investigates the possible influence of gender and culture on the career maturity and study and work role salience of South African students. Responses to the Life Role Inventory and Career Development Questionnaire of 260 first-year university students (137 white, 123 black) were analyzed. Culture was found to have a significant effect on both career maturity and study and work role salience while gender had no significant effect. Results are related to previous findings from international and South African literature. Implications for counselling are discussed.Paper presented at the International Round Table for the Advancement of Counselling Conference, held at the University of Oporto, Oporto, Portugal, 2–5 April 1991.     

Almost 30 Years of Writing Research: Making Sense of It All with The Wrath of Khan

In this invited article, we present an ongoing research program in the area of writing. Although this program has focused on students with learning disabilities (LD) and other struggling writers, it has also concentrated more broadly on issues involving writing development and general writing instruction. One purpose of this review was to share our basic findings in each of these areas, as they have important implications for teaching writing to students with LD. Another purpose was to illustrate how an ongoing research program develops and grows over time. To make this process more concrete, we employed several different literacy devices, including drawing an analogy between the development of our research program and the development of the story line for Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan. Our final purpose was to describe the research we plan to do in the near future.     

The influence of asynchronous video communication on learner social presence: a narrative analysis of four cases

Online courses are increasingly using asynchronous video communication. However, little is known about how asynchronous video communication influences students’ communication patterns. This study presents four narratives of students with varying characteristics who engaged in asynchronous video communication. The extrovert valued the efficiency of making video comments but saw little value in viewing the video comments of her peers. Somewhat inversely, the English language learner valued the video comments of her peers but lacked the ability to fully participate herself. The introverted student valued the flexibility and richness of asynchronous video but spent an inordinate amount of time recording her videos. Lastly, the instructor video messages helped the student with low self-regulation to progress in the course.     

The educational experiences of Australian high school dropouts who return to school

This research examines the experiences of Australian high school dropouts once they have re‐entered high school. Using a survey in three Australian states of 1,233 re‐enterers aged 15 to 24 years it examines their enrolment process, their educational experiences, their difficulties and concerns, and their perceptions of services provided in the new educational institution they re‐enter. The data show that the majority of re‐enterers are enrolled in innovative high schools. Almost half are enrolled in Grade 12, are full‐time and attend day classes only. They are most frequently enrolled in four to six subjects; English, Maths and Science are the most popular. Reentry students generally hold quite positive attitudes to existing forms of assessment and credentials, and hold moderately positive attitudes towards their institution. Most re‐entry students believe they are working hard and performing well, and are confident of future success in their studies. They believe that their institution is supportive of their attempts to return to study, and regard their institution's services and facilities as good, rather than excellent. Implications are discussed for the quality of re‐entry students’ educational experience aimed at optimizing their satisfaction, performance and persistence     

Wherefore art thou,inclusion? Analysing the development of inclusive education in New South Wales,Alberta and Finland

Over the last two decades, moves toward ‘inclusion’ have prompted change in the formation of education policies, schooling structures and pedagogical practice. Yet, exclusion through the categorisation and segregation of students with diverse abilities has grown, particularly for students with challenging behaviour. This paper considers what has happened to inclusive education by focusing on three educational jurisdictions known to be experiencing different rates of growth in the identification of special educational needs: New South Wales (Australia), Alberta (Canada) and Finland (Europe). In our analysis, we consider the effects of competing policy forces that appear to thwart the development of inclusive schools in two of our case study regions.