Association between attitudes of filial responsibility and parent caregiving behavior

Objective: To analyze the association between attitudes of filial responsibility and adult child caregivers’ behaviors in the Southern Region of Brazil.

Methods: Cross-sectional study with 100 child caregivers of older adults. The data were collected through an interview using the protocol of filial responsibility adapted and validated to Brazilian Portuguese. Filial Expectation and Filial Piety scales evaluated the attitudes of filial responsibility. Caring behaviors assessed were: instrumental support, emotional, financial support, and companionship. The variables that presented p< .20 value in the bivariate analysis were inserted into a multivariate Poisson regression model.

Results: Financial and emotional support behaviors were significantly associated with filial piety (p = .050 and p = .001, respectively) and filial expectation (p = .013 and p = .023, respectively). Providing companionship was associated with filial piety (p = .015).

Conclusion: Attitudes of filial responsibility are associated with some but not all caregiving behaviors. Brazilians caring for older parents show more similarities to Chinese than to Canadian caregivers. Furthermore, filial responsibility and caregiving behaviors are strongly affected by Brazilian social and cultural norms. Reasons are discussed.     

In the shadow of Sputnik: a transnational approach to Menzies support for science education in Australia, 1957–1964

Abstract

This paper examines prime minister Robert Menzies decision to support science education in Australian schools in 1963. This was a landmark shift in policy for the federal government, but in many ways mirrors the decision of Eisenhower who brought down the National Defense Education Act (NDEA) in 1958. The paper uses a transnational approach to offer a new way of looking at the 1963 decision by focusing on the need for science education and the environment which supported science advocacy rather than the traditional interpretation of political expediency to court the Catholic vote.     

Revisioning professionalism from the periphery

Abstract

The issue of who should be included and recognised as professionals in the early childhood education and care (ECEC) service system is both contested and pressing in the current policy climate. At stake is a high-quality early childhood care and education service system that is both responsive and appropriate to the constituency it serves. A review of the history of ECEC professionalism reveals complex entanglements and debates regarding professional belonging. Services that deliver education and care to children and families living in high poverty contexts are often excluded from ECEC professionalism debates. Drawing on notions of rationality, emotionality and criticality presented in recent accounts of ECEC professionalism, we use data collected from interviews with service providers delivering services to children and families living in high poverty contexts in Australia to develop an account of criticality that is pertinent to current funding and policy contexts. We argue that these service providers’ perspectives about their own professionalism have much to offer broader debates.     

An Investigation of How Culture Shapes Curriculum in Early Care and Education Programs on a Native American Indian Reservation

This article investigates how culture shapes instruction in three early care and education programs on the Flathead Indian Reservation. Interviews with eight early childhood teachers as well as classroom observations were conducted. The investigation is framed by the following research question: How does the culture of the family and community shape curriculum? Data analysis suggested that ongoing communication with parents and community about teaching within a culturally relevant context, building a sense of belongingness and community through ritual, and respecting children, families, and community were essential to defining the Native American Indian culture within these early learning programs.     

Second-order conditioning of the rabbit’s nictitating membrane response as a function of the CS2-CS1 and CS1-US intervals

Three experiments investigated conditioning of the rabbit’s nictitating membrane response (NMR) in a second-order conditioning procedure which intermixed first-order trials (CS1-US) and second-order trials (CS2-CS1) from the outset of training. Experiment 1 provided a controlled demonstration that substantial levels of second-order conditioning can be obtained with the NMR preparation. Experiment 2 showed that the level of CR acquisition to CS2 was an inverse function of the CS2-CS1 interval over the values of 400, 800, and 2,400 msec. Experiment 3 found that CR acquisition to CS2 and CS1 in second-order conditioning varied in a parallel fashion across CS1-US intervals. Similarly, Experiment 3A found that the level of CR acquisition to the two components of a serial compound (CSA-CSB-US) varied in a parallel fashion as a function of the CSB-US interval. The results of the CS2-CS1 and CS1-US interval manipulations were all predictable from the known CS-US interval effects in NMR conditioning with a single CS. The present results are discussed with regard to their implications for accounts of serial compound conditioning and second-order conditioning.     

The craftivists: Pushing for affective,materially informed pedagogy

The idea of making as a form of activism or, as we refer to it in this paper, craftivism, underpins our ambition to transform pedagogical environments into spaces of possibility through sensory and affective making practices. A craftivist agenda pushes for open teaching and learning with materials so that students can inhabit a what if space which ruptures institutional time and space. Beginning with a theorization of disruptive making and dissensus and then moving on to foreground a materialist stance on making, the paper illustrates how students experience materialities across two very different classroom environments and how these experiences led to greater presence, voice and agency for students. There is an underlying focus in the paper on embodied responses and affective flows. After theorizing craftivism, there are three sections that explore making, teaching and feeling through craftivist, postdigital methods.     

The Needs-Based Assessment of Parental (Guardian) Support: a test of its validity and reliability

OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this paper is to present a newly developed measure of guardian support, the Needs-Based Assessment of Parental (Guardian) Support (NAPS), an empirical evaluation of that measure, and its comparison with another measure of guardian support. The theoretical model that underlies this measure applies humanistic theory and Maslow's hierarchy of needs to the understanding of guardian support. METHOD: The study employed a cross-sectional nonexperimental survey design using 183 nonoffending guardians who accompanied children presenting for a medical/forensic examination for sexual abuse. The NAPS and an existing measure of guardian support were administered during the hospital outpatient visit, and basic information concerning the child and abuse situations were gathered. RESULTS: The NAPS had robust psychometric properties and was culturally sensitive. Tests of specific hypotheses supported the construct validity of the measure and a conceptualization of guardian support as hierarchical, with four stages of support. CONCLUSIONS: The brevity and ease of administration of the NAPS for both the clinician and guardian suggest that it is a viable assessment tool. The strong support for the NAPS' underlying theoretical model suggests that the nonoffending guardians' available resources need to be considered when assessing guardian support.     

Deep Participation in Underserved Communities: A Quantitative Analysis of Hearken’s Model for Engagement Journalism

ABSTRACT

Hearken is a proprietary news engagement platform growing in popularity. Under the Hearken approach, audience members are invited to participate in the newsmaking process. Hearken strives to assist news organizations in providing local and hyperlocal content that meets audience needs and demands while preserving elements of the journalist’s role as gatekeeper. Hearken has also worked to help news organizations reach underrepresented populations with mixed results per its own anecdotal analyses. This study employs a quantitative content analysis comparing one year’s worth of coverage at four different local NPR affiliates in the United States to provide a breakdown of Hearken content versus traditional reporter-driven content in the following four categories: emphasis on hyperlocal coverage, story topic prevalence within local and hyperlocal coverage, emphasis on coverage of underrepresented communities, and story topic prevalence within coverage of underrepresented communities. Findings reveal listener-driven Hearken content favors hyperlocal news on lifestyle issues while reporter-driven stories emphasize state-level governance and politics as well as local crime. These indicate a stark contrast between the content audiences want and that which journalists tend to report. The nuanced normative implications, possibilities and limitations of Hearken’s model of “deep participation” are addressed in some detail.