Community Reciprocity in the Work of African‐American Teachers

The scholarship on historical and contemporary African‐American teachers highlights the emphasis on community connections in their work. As such, the scholarship portrays African‐American teachers almost exclusively as givers without fully considering what teachers derive from community connections. This paper describes a qualitative study in which intergenerational African‐American teachers illustrate the dual nature of community connections and the ways in which constructs of community informed their work. Three distinct points along the professional spectrum—entry, career development, and long‐term career trajectories—illuminate the ways in which community reciprocity impacts and informs the teachers under study. Study findings elucidated a communal reciprocity in that community connections influenced professional entry contributed to feelings of personal and professional self‐worth and impacted long‐term career goals.     

A comparison of political,cultural, and economic indicators of access to information in Arab and non-Arab states

As more and more countries adopt access-to-information (ATI) laws to advance economic development and democratic self-governance, efforts are under way to foster ATI movements in the Arab world. While one nation in that region already has adopted the legislation, the likelihood of adoption in other Arab states is unknown. This comparative study analyzed 12 quantitative indicators measuring political, cultural, and economic factors associated with access to information. Results indicate that Arab countries, as a whole, contrast sharply in nearly all areas with non-Arab countries that have ATI laws and are consistent with non-Arab countries that do not have ATI laws. However, the study also found that the most recent ATI law adopters had weaker political, cultural, and economic enabling environments for government information access, which may portend a global phenomenon that will continue and could explain the interest in adopting the legislation in the Arab world. Findings also suggest that while a handful of Arab countries might have the wealth to effectively implement ATI laws, political and cultural conditions may be substantial obstacles for greater government transparency. Other results regarding the use of quantitative indicators of ATI adoption, particularly structural pluralism, are discussed.     

Watchdog journalism: India's three largest English-language newspapers and the Right to Information Act

India's Right to Information Act (RTIA) has been described as one of the strongest laws in the world for access to public information. The preamble spells out its promise to expose government corruption. Given that the Indian news media is the largest in the world and has a storied history of unearthing public corruption, this exploratory study employed the normative theory of the monitorial role of the news media to examine the extent that the RTIA was used to uncover government corruption. This content analysis examined a census of 221 articles published in India's three largest English-language newspapers in the period after the RTIA was adopted in October 2005 and then five years later. Slightly more than 80% of the articles referencing corruption fell into four thematic categories: progress on implementing the law, public education about the legislation, the watchdog role of activists and other non-journalists, and a brief mention of the RTIA. During this period the English-language dailies reported their own use of the RTIA to expose corruption in 2% of the articles.     

Mentoring beginning primary teachers for exemplary teaching practices

In exploring the potential for mentoring to support novice teachers’ use of effective teaching practices, we conducted a grounded theory analysis about change potential. Themes emerging from cross-case analysis of survey, interview, and observation data from six beginning primary teachers in the US and their mentors revealed factors, other than type of mentoring programme, that related to beginning teachers’ success in improving classroom practices. More effective beginning teachers’ mentors had more experience as mentors and were more effective teachers than other mentors. More effective beginning teachers communicated more with mentors, more accurately self-reported use of effective teaching practices, and were more open to mentoring.     

Evaluating two approaches to helping college students understand evolutionary trees through diagramming tasks

To understand evolutionary theory, students must be able to understand and use evolutionary trees and their underlying concepts. Active, hands-on curricula relevant to macroevolution can be challenging to implement across large college-level classes where textbook learning is the norm. We evaluated two approaches to helping students learn macroevolutionary topics. Treatment 1 is a laboratory for the software program EvoBeaker designed to teach students about evolutionary trees. We tested Treatment 1 among nine college-level biology classes and administered pre/posttests to assess learning gains. We then sought to determine whether the learning gains from Treatment 1 were comparable to those derived from an alternate hands-on treatment, specifically the combination of a prerecorded lecture on DVD and paper-based activity based on Goldsmith's Great Clade Race (Treatment 2). Comparisons of pre- and posttests among participants using either Treatment 1 or 2 show large learning gains on some misconceptions and skills beyond knowledge gained from reading standard textbook entries. Both treatments performed equivalently in overall learning gains, though both had areas where they performed better or worse. Furthermore, gains among students who used Treatment 1 representing a wide range of universities suggest that outcomes are potentially applicable to a variety of "real-world" biology classes.