Independent Contributions of Mothers’ and Fathers’ Language and Literacy Practices: Associations With Children’s Kindergarten Skills Across Linguistically Diverse Households

Research Findings: Home language and literacy inputs have been consistently linked with enhanced language and literacy skills among children. Most studies have focused on maternal inputs among monolingual populations. Though the proportion of American children growing up in primarily non-English-speaking homes is growing and the role of fathers in early development is increasingly emphasized, less is known about these associations in primarily non-English-speaking households or how mothers and fathers independently contribute to children’s skills. Using a subsample of data from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study–Birth Cohort (N = 5,450), this study assessed the frequency of maternal and paternal inputs during early childhood and their prospective connections with children’s English language and literacy skills at age 5 across White, Mexican, and Chinese children from linguistically diverse households. Analyses revealed significant differences in inputs by ethnic/language group membership and significant associations between both maternal and paternal inputs and children’s skills. These associations did not differ across ethnic/language group membership. Practice or Policy: These results point to the importance of promoting rich home language and literacy environments across diverse households regardless of the language in which they take place or the parent from which they derive.     

How do teachers support their students on the autism spectrum in Australian primary schools?

This study investigated the supports and modifications made available to students on the autism spectrum in Australian schools. Teachers rated the importance of several factors in determining the grades of their students and reported on the frequency of student engagement with a range of instructional materials. Eighty‐seven teachers identified the modifications, accommodations and additional assistance provide to primary school students on the autism spectrum. Teachers also compared the frequency of class engagement and methods of evaluating outcomes for students with and without autism. A range of modifications and adjustments were implemented to support students on the spectrum. There were no significant differences in the frequency of instructional material use of students on the autism spectrum compared to their classmates. However, teachers did report differences in their methods of determining the grades of their students with and without autism. This is an important first step in understanding the experiences of teachers who are educating students on the autism spectrum in Australian schools. The findings reveal that teachers are working to support the diverse learning needs of their students on the autism spectrum. Further investigation of the factors that are driving teachers’ use of school‐based supports is warranted.     

Conceptualizing educational leadership in an academic development program

Promoting the development of educational leadership in higher education is essential for strengthening the quality of teaching and learning. Additional research is needed to conceptualize educational leadership, especially within informal roles. We analysed how faculty members in an academic development program conceptualized educational leadership. Five key characteristics emerged that inform the development of educational leadership capacity in postsecondary contexts: affective qualities, mentoring and empowering, action-orientation, teaching excellence, and research and scholarship. Three characteristics of academic programs aimed at developing educational leadership were also identified: funding and resources to implement a change initiative, building interdisciplinary communities, and embracing identity.     

Food deprivation and conditioned flavor preferences based on sweetened and unsweetened foods

In four experiments, rats’ preferences for flavors consumed under high deprivation versus low deprivation were measured. In Experiment 1, rats preferred flavors received in unsweetened food under high deprivation to flavors received in unsweetened food under low deprivation. This preference did not vary with amount of food used to deliver the flavors (1-g vs. 16-g wet mash). Sweetening the food (0.10% saccharin) eliminated this preference when 16 g of mash was received, but not when 1 g of mash was received (Experiments 2 and 3). Sweetening the mash even more (0.15% saccharin) eliminated the preference when 1 g of mash was received, as well as when 20 g of mash was received. We suggested that the reinforcing value of sweetness is reduced by increasing deprivation level.     

Negotiating Shame,Silence, Abstinence,and Period Sex: Women’s Shift from Harmful Memorable Messages about Reproductive and Sexual Health

Abstract

Early messages about reproductive and sexual health influence personal identities, health behaviors, and ongoing perceptions of sex and sexuality. Women are often socialized with negatively-valenced messages toward understanding their reproductive and sexual health. However, scholarship emphasizes a communicative approach for socializing intimate health behaviors and needs. The present study addresses the communication that prompts a shift in perception from early, harmful memorable messages to a more comprehensive perspective on sexuality. To do so, we qualitatively analyze open-ended survey responses from 191 women. Findings reinforce previous memorable message literature by revealing messages of shame, sex, abortion, childbearing, and fears of infertility. In addition, we extend the memorable messages construct by exploring how more positively valenced messages and individual moments of intervention redirect women in how they understand their intimate health and sexuality.     

Institutional storytelling and personal narratives: reflecting on the ‘value’ of narrative inquiry

With the ‘narrative turn’, a momentum gathered in the wider social sciences that asserted that listening to, asking for, gathering and analysing stories provided a new impetus to researching human behaviour. The argument evolved: people are storied beings and to generate a more in-depth understanding of people and their experiences, researchers need to begin with their stories. But the stories people tell are also deeply embedded in narrative frameworks and narrative environments that make up what I conceptualise as institutional storytelling. Arguably, institutional storytelling has a profound impact on the stories people can and do tell. Narrative inquiry has much to offer to the analysis of institutional and personal narratives. In this article, I will address the question of the relevance of narrative inquiry to gather and analyse the stories that people and institutions tell. Drawn from an empirical sociological study of women’s narratives of their weight management experiences in the context of their participation in weight management classes, I present a case for narrative ethnography as a critical methodological strategy to analyse the complex relationship between institutional and personal narratives.     

Immediate Effects of a School Readiness Intervention for Children in Foster Care

Research Findings: School readiness is a strong predictor of adjustment in elementary school and beyond. Children in foster care are at particular risk for academic and social difficulties in school. Limitations in self-regulatory skills and caregiver involvement among these children might contribute to a lack of school readiness. This study presents the immediate effects on school readiness of a targeted, short-term intervention designed to improve children's early literacy, prosocial, and self-regulatory skills during the summer before kindergarten entry: Kids in Transition to School. Using a randomized controlled trial design, we assigned 192 children in foster care to either an intervention or services as usual comparison condition. Multimethod, multi-informant assessments were conducted immediately prior to and following the completion of the intervention. The results from structural equation modeling indicated that the intervention had significant positive effects on early literacy and self-regulatory skills. Practice or Policy: An efficacious, short-term, readily scalable, theoretically based intervention targeted at specific vulnerabilities for children in foster care may help to improve the school readiness and eventual school adjustment of these children.     

Bureaucratic constructions of sexual diversity: ‘sensitive’, ‘controversial’ and silencing

National research illustrates the high degree of discrimination that prevails against lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer (LGBTQ) students resulting in diminished educational outcomes, both academic and social. This phenomenon is influenced by the prevalence of whole-school silences around LGBTQ topics in many Australian schools. This paper presents an analysis of the New South Wales (NSW) homophobia in schools policy, as well as both NSW state and Australian federal curriculum and syllabus documents in the health and physical education key learning area. This analysis illustrates how contradictory framing and messages; silences and omission; and various discursive constructions of the LGBTQ subject together produce silencing technologies that have critical implications for the implementation of education, both in this key learning area and across the schooling sector.     

Solution-focused assessment: rethinking labels to support inclusive education

In the Netherlands and the USA, the assessment process is changing for children who present learning and behavioural challenges in school. Evaluations for eligibility determinations and support planning are shifting along with disability models and tensions over the provision of inclusive schooling. Legislative edicts influence the assessment process differently in these two countries while both nations seem to be headed in a similar direction. This paper relates evolving disability models to the changing assessment process in each country and proposes that a solution-focused perspective offers an assessment concept which supports the goal of inclusive education. Specifically discussed are the implications of a solution-focused approach on the identification of disability, the assessment of special educational needs, individualised support planning and the essential cooperation within evolving schools as well as the environment beyond.