Disrupting White Privilege: Diving beneath Shame and Guilt

Abstract

The persistence of white privilege and escalating racism in the United States challenges religious educators to analyze the roots and destructive potential of both. This article draws on historical and contemporary analyses in dialogue with personal reflection and the oral histories of two leaders who seek to recognize and live beyond their own privilege. The purpose of the study is to describe the landscape of white privilege and analyze the intersections of public and personal dynamics. The analysis reveals the educational potential of personal narratives and structural analysis in understanding and transforming white privilege into humble work for justice.     

Optical engineering for children – a structured approach

The present paper focuses on the application of a structured template, maximum impact flow (MIF), in order to encourage young students in the area of optics and optical engineering. MIF introduces a template in terms of individual steps and linked functionality and is shown to fuse separate learning tools together into a cohesive unit. Prioritization and teaching structures are also discussed with the promotion of technology identified as a key factor.     

Pupil Speech during Morning News: the effects of reducing teacher questions and increasing pauses and praise

Classroom discourse patterns were examined in the morning news sessions of a primary school classroom. The effects of reducing teacher questions and increasing rates of teacher pauses, praise and directives were investigated. Child words spoken and child expansions were recorded, as well as class call‐outs and teacher control statements. Frequencies of child words spoken showed no significant changes across the phases of the study. However, reducing teacher questions and increasing teacher pauses significantly decreased child expansions, while reducing teacher questions and increasing teacher praise significantly increased child expansions. Replacing teacher questions with directives had no significant effect upon child expansions. Class call‐outs and teacher control statements showed no significant changes across the intervention phases. The results of this study suggest that, for this teacher and class, teacher questions may be decreased without adversely affecting either child utterances or class behaviour, and that replacing questions with praise may increase children's contributions — particularly in the form of verbal expansions — to morning news talks.     

The effects of isolation and handling on reactivity to footshock and tactile dorsal stimulation

The effects of isolation and handling on the reactivity of rats to two tactile stimuli were assessed in two experiments. In the first experiment, reactivity to more intense footshock was increased in rats raised in isolation but was not affected by handling by an experimenter. In the second experiment, increased reactivity to airpuff stimuli presented to the dorsal surface of isolation-reared rats was reduced by handling. The data suggest that the effects of handling on shock-motivated behaviors are not due to altered reactivity to shock and that the effect of housing or handling must be considered in behavioral tests in which reactivity to tactile stimulation might play a role as dependent or independent variables.     

Empathetic-Reflective-Dialogical Restorying for decolonisation: an emancipatory teaching-learning strategy for Religion Education

ABSTRACT

This article argues for the inclusion of Empathetic-Reflective-Dialogical Restorying as a teaching-learning strategy for Religion Education. This strategy, employed in three small-scale research projects in a South African Higher Education Institution, addresses decolonisation of the Religion Education curriculum in the following ways: changing how teaching-learning takes place; transdisciplinary engagement; empowering students as agents of their own learning; depatriarchisation; and dispelling the myth of African inferiority. Both self-dialogue and self-narrative were used to create open space stories when approaching content that is relevant to the lived experience of gender (in)equality and patriarchy. Engaging in a safe space in Communities in Conversation, Communities in Dialogue, and Communities for Transformation, students troubled entrenched beliefs and worldviews and co-constructed (restoried) understandings. They expressed the view that this emancipatory teaching-learning strategy has the potential to facilitate classroom praxis that is both reflective and reflexive. This can be transformative for the greater society.     

Increasing cesarean birth rates: a clash of cultures?

Cesarean birth rates in the United States reached a high of 27.6% in 2003, a 6% increase over 2002. A cultural conflict appears to exist between the views of those who believe that birth is normal and many cesareans are unnecessary and the views of those who feel that higher rates are justifiable. Childbirth educators can share cultural concepts of normal birth in their classroom.     

Language development: A complex,systematic, and natural process

Conclusions Although we do not understand very well what the processes are that contribute to language development, it is clear that communication plays a central role. As children strive to become increasingly skilled at communicating their ideas (White, 1959), as they have increasingly complex ideas to communicate (Piaget, 1955), and as they encounter an increasingly diverse set of people with whom to communicate (Brown, 1973), they must learn to use language which is richer and more flexible.When children come to school or to a day care center they already know a great deal about language. They have readily and actively mastered words, sentences and forms of communication which they need in their own family and community. In their new environment—the school or center—children's language development can further be fostered by adults who are receptive to children's efforts at communication. Adults who encourage children to use language in new ways, who attend to what children mean to say and who recognize that children's errors are often not mistakes, are likely to play a positive role in children's language development.Janet H. Kane and Karen Sheingold are on the Staff at Bank Street College of Education.