Why Diversity Matters in Rural America: Women Faculty of Color Challenging Whiteness

Using critical race theory as an analytical framework to examine White privilege and institutional racism, two teacher educators, in a rural predominantly White university tell counterstories about teaching for social justice in literacy and mathematics education courses. In sharing our counterstories in this paper, we, women faculty of color, challenge Whiteness and institutional racism with the hopes of: (1) promoting social justice teaching in order to globally prepare (pre-and-in-service) teachers and educational leaders to motivate and empower ALL students to learn; (2) dismantling racism to promote better wellbeing for women faculty of color; and (3) moving educational communities at large closer toward equitable education, which is a fundamental civil right. After analyzing the counterstories, we suggest that university leaders establish policies and practices to support (recruit, retain, and promote) faculty/leaders of color, not just mainstream academics. Working toward equity and justice, we strive to form alliances between Whites and Others.     

A winter holiday party that involves families

Communicating the goals and values of a preschool program to parents is one of the most important jobs of teachers and administrators. Doing this job well can enhance the program of the school and also its reputation in the community.Jacqueline Osborne is the Coordinator and Supervising Teacher for the three-and four-year-old classes in the Child Development Center of Kilby Elementary School, Florence, AL.     

Instructional design for distance learning

An intrinsic link exists between instructional design (ID) and distance learning (DL). Their inextricability in the real world raises specific problems of interest in the field of ID. In no other teaching/learning situation is ID so essential as in DL. The conditions of DL make it a necessity to have long-term instructional planning, cost analysis, curriculum and course development, instructional materials development and maintenance, delivery plans, and detailed evaluation rules. Without all of these components, DL simply could not happen. It took some time for this neccessity to be acknowledged, as can be seen in the history of DL. However, ID becomes even more critical as increasingly costly and complex means are used. Conditions of learning have special features in DL, such as the role of media, since the professor, teacher or instructor is replaced by media for either transmitting information or for organizing learning activities. In this paper, the term distance learning will be used to mean media-based, remote or asynchronous learning supported by an instructional system. This paper introduces general features of DL and examines essential aspects of ID for DL, with special emphasis on ID methodologies and on media selection.     

Concerns of families of children with learning disabilities

The purpose of this report is to share the experiences and concerns of a group of parents of children with learning disabilities. Parents of eight different families were interviewed in depth, and seven themes emerged from the interviews. Parents discussed their involvement in their child's education, and their positive and negative experiences with school personnel as well as with seeking other sources of support. They expressed concerns about the social isolation and future well-being of their children with learning disabilities. They indicated many emotional strains from parenting children with learning disabilities, and that there are both positive and negative effects on the families. Implications for further research and practice are discussed.     

Generalization of the CS- preexposure effect transfers to taste- aversion learning

Rats repeatedly exposed to a maple, vanilla, banana, or water solution were subsequently poisoned with lithium chloride after drinking the maple solution. Subjects preexposed to water showed the strongest aversions to maple, followed, in descending order, by rats preexposed to banana, vanilla, and maple. These results suggest that the effects of prepoisoning experience with a novel flavor generalized to the maple CS and interfered with the development of the maple aversion. The technique reported here is potentially applicable to study of gustatory discrimination processes.     

Education on an Equal Basis: A Comparison of Persons With and Without Disabilities in South Africa

The South African education crisis is well documented in the literature. While strides have been made to rectify the inequalities in education arising from apartheid era policies, and while South Africa ratified the United Nations Conventions for the Rights of People with Disabilities, these actions have yet to translate into meaningful changes for persons with disabilities. To investigate the status of educational attainment, this article uses South Africa’s National Income Dynamics Study to analyse the disparities in education for adults with and without disabilities. Education is a key mechanism of leverage for functionings. The findings show that persons with disabilities fare worse in educational attainment than persons without disabilities, but that race and geographic location play a larger role in predicting educational attainment than disabilities. In addition, age also contributes to educational disparities. The findings of this study are integral in the call from the Presidency to ‘strengthen the country’s response to the needs of [persons with disabilities] … and to monitor progress’ of educational attainment for persons with disabilities (20-year review, 2014, p. 73).     

Measuring Pedagogy and the Integration of Engineering Design in STEM Classrooms

The present study examined changes in high school biology and technology education pedagogy during the first year of a three-year professional development (PD) program using the INSPIRES educative curriculum. The Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) calls for the integration of science and engineering through inquiry-based pedagogy that shifts the burden of thinking from the teacher to the student. This call is especially challenging for teachers untrained in inquiry teaching and engineering or science concepts. The INSPIRES educative curriculum materials and PD provided a mechanism for teachers to transform their teaching to meet the NGSS challenges. This study followed a longitudinal triangulation mixed methods design. Selected lessons were video recorded, scored on the Reformed Teaching Observation Protocol (RTOP) rubric, and examined for qualitative trends. Year 1 results indicated that teachers had begun to transform their teaching and pointed to particular lessons within the INSPIRES curriculum that most facilitated the reform. Instructional practices of participants improved significantly as a result of the INSPIRES PD program and also aligned with previous, similar studies. These findings provide insights for rethinking the structure of professional development, particularly in the integrated use of an educative curriculum aligned with intended professional development goals.

     

Archaeology in the classroom: An intra-university continuing education workshop for K-12 teachers

In this article the authors describe an innovative program in continuing education for teachers at the University of Georgia. The program, developed by the Museum of Natural History, the Georgia Center for Continuing Education, and the Department of Anthropology within the university and an independent research institute, offered teachers an opportunity to do archaeological field work as they learned about new discoveries in archaeology and Native American history and culture. The workshop design incorporated principles of adult and experiential learning. With the help of the workshop leaders, teachers developed their own materials for presenting integrated thematic units in their classrooms. Teachers responded enthusiastically to the workshops in a two-stage evaluation process. The authors conclude that intrauniversity cooperation is necessary if teachers are to benefit from all the resources of the university.Jacqueline J. Saindon obtained her M.A. in Anthropology at Hunter College, CUNY. She is Associate Director of the Multicultural Population and Resources Project at Georgia State University. Her special area of interest is in developing continuing education workshops and curriculum for teachers on anthropology, archaeology and ecology. Carol M. Downs obtained her M.A. and Ed.D. in Adult Education, and a Graduate Certificate in Gerontology, at the University of Georgia. She is Program Director of the Office of Continuing Education and Public Service at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Her special area of interest includes continuing education in the arts, humanities, education and historic preservation.     

Culture and early social interactions. The example of mother-infant object play in African and native French Families

Data from cross-cultural studies on parental behaviour during early social interaction suggest that structural and universal features should be differentiated from culturally specific ones. No direct relations can be assumed to exist between specific forms of child rearing and development of skills in the child. However child rearing practices can have long term effects and affect social behaviours. As an illustration, we compare interactive styles of 40 French and African mothers living in Paris in an object play situation, with their 10 and 15 month-olds. French mothers’ interactions with their children are illustrative of tight connections between verbal and non-verbal behaviour. Action is the basis or anchor point for verbal exchange; and this repetition or verbal redundnacy yields discourse-on-actions which to a certain extent distances the action and allows for a generalization process to take place. In contrast, African mothers’ interactions with their infants present less verbal scaffolding of non-verbal behaviour. This type of interaction allows for a greater «disjunction» or separation of non-verbal and verbal communication. African cultures do not assign the spoken word with the educational function of structuring and planning activities. However, the models generated by the school system correspond to other types of obligations which are strongly affected by temporal perspectives.     

Covert and overt forms of maltreatment in the preschools

This paper examines the preschool environment, finding within it forms and patterns of maltreatment. The preschool is defined as an educational facility for children 2$\text{1}\text{2}$ to 5 years. Described are the major models of preschools, public and private, conservatively estimated at 50.000 in the United States. The study is based on data from observations by the author of 60–70 preschools in the New York City metropolitan area, 1976–1981. This five-year period witnessed a substantial increase in the preschool movement. Explored are factors related to this increase, one significant factor being the idea that early childhood education can never be too early. Demand for early academic competence in young children when combined with longer time periods spent in preschools creates difficulties for children Societal pressure upon preschool teachers to produce cognitively and emotionally competent young children while assuring their health and safety needs leads to outcomes which are cause for concern. Covert forms of maltreatment lie predominantly in staff (directors, teachers, assistants) attitudes toward young children. These include: insistence that children learn to be independent while reinforcing dependent behavior: overemphasis on the acquisition of academic skills, irrespective of age; excessive reliance on packaged “educational” materials; non-use of materials that have intrinsic interest for children; lack of enthusiasm for working with young children; rigid adherence to routine for convenience; dislike of particular children. Overt forms of maltreatment to gain compliance or obedience from young children range from direct verbal attack (insult, sarcasm, ridicule, threats, name calling, humiliation) through emotional abuse (withholding of affection or compassion) to clear physical coercion (pulling, pushing, shoving, yanking, expulsion from class, isolation in class). Such patterns are not limited to a particular model but can occur in each preschool category. Their significance suggests that caring for and educating young children in group settings may not be the panacea society wants it to be. Special preparation for early childhood educators with well supervised internships is certainly a forward step, among many others, which are cooperatively needed at this juncture to improve the preschool environment for all children.