Dark matter: the ‘gravitational pull’ of maternalist discourses on politicians’ decision making for early childhood policy in Australia

The article reports on a study investigating influences on Australian politicians’ decision making for early childhood education and care (ECEC) policy. The astronomical concept of dark matter is utilised as a metaphor for considering normalising, and therefore frequently difficult to detect and disrupt, influences implicated in politicians’ decision making for ECEC policy. The concept of dark matter connects with and extends Foucauldian conceptualisations of knowledge, power and discourse. The paper argues that maternalist discourses continue to shape the policy landscape for ECEC, though these are largely unacknowledged.     

Early Behavioral Inhibition and Emotion Regulation: Pathways Toward Social Competence in Middle Childhood

This study examined emotion regulation (ER) as a mediator in the relation between early behavioral inhibition (BI) and later social competence (N = 257), and whether this mediation varied depending on BI levels. Maternal report and observational measures were used to assess BI (ages 2 and 3). Children's ER strategies (age 5) and social competence with an unfamiliar peer (age 7) were measured using observational measures. Results showed that BI predicted less engaged ER strategies during a disappointment task, and engaged ER predicted higher social competence. Engaged ER mediated the effect of BI on social competence, but only for highly inhibited children. Findings elucidate developmental trajectories of risk and resilience, and suggest targeting regulatory strategies in early prevention efforts with highly inhibited children.     

Investigating Undergraduate Science Students’ Conceptions and Misconceptions of Ocean Acidification

Scientific research exploring ocean acidification has grown significantly in past decades. However, little science education research has investigated the extent to which undergraduate science students understand this topic. Of all undergraduate students, one might predict science students to be best able to understand ocean acidification. What conceptions and misconceptions of ocean acidification do these students hold? How does their awareness and knowledge compare across disciplines? Undergraduate biology, chemistry/biochemistry, and environmental studies students, and science faculty for comparison, were assessed on their awareness and understanding. Results revealed low awareness and understanding of ocean acidification among students compared with faculty. Compared with biology or chemistry/biochemistry students, more environmental studies students demonstrated awareness of ocean acidification and identified the key role of carbon dioxide. Novel misconceptions were also identified. These findings raise the question of whether undergraduate science students are prepared to navigate socioenvironmental issues such as ocean acidification.     

Prevention Through Consultation: A Model to Guide Future Developments in the Field of School Psychology

The Invitational Conference on the Future of School Psychology held at Indiana University in 2002 had implications for consultation. It addressed projected shortages in school psychologists that provide a rationale for service delivery models integrating consultation and prevention. The conference discussed the need for effective work with children, families, and professionals from diverse cultures; success in fostering productive home-school connections; optimal and ethical use of rapidly changing technologies; and the use of empirical evidence to inform practice. This article presents a model of consultation and prevention informed by recent research in positive psychology as well as public health models. This model is discussed in the context of these and other important developments in the field of school psychology.     

Finding a third space in teacher education: creating an urban teacher residency

This paper describes an urban teacher residency program, the Newark Montclair Urban Teacher Residency, a collaborative endeavor between the Newark, New Jersey Public Schools and Montclair State University, built on a decades-long partnership. The authors see the conceptual work of developing this program as creating a “third space” in teacher education. We detail the ways in which we conceptualize epistemology and clinical practice in teacher education, and changes in the roles of the community, and P-12 teachers that occur in a third space. Providing an account of our messy and nonlinear process demonstrates the struggles of creating new spaces for teacher education. We believe the theory that informs our work, the challenges we face, and the strategies for meeting those challenges illustrate the tenuous and ever-evolving nature of doing work in the “third space.”     

Politics,Identity, and College Protest: Then and Now

Kathryn Lynn Weiland, Amilcar Guzman, and KerryAnn O'Meara explore historical and contemporary student protest movements at three academic institutions and provide suggestions to educators on how to support students (and their learning) through their protest activities.     

To Me It’s Like Having a Kid,Kind Of: Analysis of Student Reflections in a Developmental Mentoring Program

This qualitative longitudinal study focuses on analyses of journals written by 31 sixth grade students who participated in the Chapel Buddy program. The Chapel Buddy program is a developmental mentoring program that pairs sixth graders with kindergarten students. Mentors responded to guided writing prompts three times during the course of the year. Prompts were designed to encourage mentors to explore their role as mentors and their understanding of the mentor–mentee relationship. Results indicated that the program presented a rich, experiential learning opportunity for the sixth graders to develop a relationship with a younger child, to reflect on what it means to be in a helping relationship, and to examine their experiences as “big kids.” Sixth graders varied in their ability to successfully engage and manage their kindergarten mentees, which in turn meaningfully affected the mentors’ satisfaction. Strategies to maximize the educational value of developmental mentoring programs with younger mentors are discussed.     

Portraits of Our Mentoring Experiences in Learning to Craft Journal Articles

Tenure demands for scholarship and publication are increasing, with relatively little research on mentoring junior faculty and less on mentoring to craft journal articles. This qualitative self-study of mentoring experiences of three junior faculty members and their experienced mentor used portraiture methodology to address the research question, How did the mentoring experience, from both mentor’s and mentees’ perspective, reshape our thinking and understanding of the journal article writing process? Portraiture was employed somewhat differently, with mentor and mentee “painting” each other. Five emergent themes were found in the dyadic portraits written by protégés and mentor: beginnings, relationships, fears and worries, support and scaffolding, and outcomes. The mentoring relationships evolved from traditional to more collaborative, simultaneously becoming less hierarchical and involving cognitive and affective aspects. Crafting journal articles involved finding focus, backwards design, iteration, problem-finding, affirmation, and support. Eleven implications offer guidance for mentoring in university contexts and for future research.