Volume contents

Volume Contents

Volume contents     

On Building Islands of Decency

In this article, I argue that at its best, work in the foundations of education is about building islands of decency, borrowing from a metaphor originally used by Myles Horton. Horton suggests that in times of crisis and despair, we can work our way out of pessimism by surrounding ourselves with people who share some of our goals for a better world and working with them to create pockets of decency that are contagious. I begin by describing some of the commitments we share in the foundations field, focusing specifically on the ways we work toward social justice, diversity, and democracy. I then describe three tensions we must navigate in our work to be decent as scholars and people, unpacking the meaning of decency throughout the article. These are tensions between construction and critique, inquiry and advocacy, and humanist and instrumentalist rationality. I end by sketching some visions of hope and possibility, what the American Educational Studies Association can be in our next 50 years if we nourish the best of our habits and tendencies, and work to address some of our challenges.     

“We’ve been wastin’ a whole million watchin’ her doin’ her shoes” situated practice within a pedagogy of multiliteracies

Communication in society today is characterised by rapidly changing and emergent forms of meaning-making in a context of increased cultural and linguistic diversity. The need to teach these new literacy practices referred to as multiliteracies, is now embedded within systemic policies in Australia. This research paper is a response to these imperatives, releasing key findings of a critical ethnographic study concerning interactions between pedagogy and access to multiliteracies among culturally and linguistically diverse learners. A salient finding was that situated practice was enacted as an isolated stage rather than occurring concurrently with overt instruction. This had significant connections to some learners’ inability to access new, multimodal, and digitally-mediated designs of meaning. More importantly, culturally and linguistically non-students who were not of the dominant culture were least served by the separation of overt instruction and situated practice. The article concludes with the recommendation that multimodal meaning-making requires an instructional model that involves both practice and instruction.     

Towards another kind of borderlessness: online students with disabilities

Online learning is crucial to success for higher education institutions. Whilst the existing literature predominantly focused on its economic advantages, we focused on its inclusivity. At an online learning unit of a UK university, the number of students with disabilities (SWD) is three times higher than the national average. Having a degree makes significant financial and psychological differences in the lives of SWD. Though recent literature focused on inclusivity of online learning, an appraisal of first-hand experience of SWD studying online is a missing perspective. Accordingly, we aimed to explore their experience, using thematic analysis of semi-structured interviews involving ten SWD. Three themes emerged: (1) having control over studies as an advantage of online learning, (2) personal touch helps SWD’s online learning, and (3) challenges SWD experience with the social element of online learning. Our findings will help to develop the inclusivity of online learning to a new level.     

The mathematics problem: the construction of a market-led education discourse in the Republic of Ireland

Educational change in the neoliberal state is permeated by the effects of forces from outside the field of education itself. The process of governmentality welcomes, indeed demands, the participation of those non-state actors valorised by neoliberalism as well as government agencies dedicated to the advancement of such groups. Inevitably, the concerns of such organisations become central to how the state sees education. This article traces the assembly of national and international agents from industry, business and special interest groups around the concept of ‘knowledge economy’. It treats this assemblage as an apparatus (dispositif), examining how the construction of an economic problem is brought to bear on the demand for educational change, and how this construction of the problem is used to shape public opinion in order to prepare the public for a radical change of direction. Confining itself to the reform of mathematics education introduced in the Republic of Ireland in 2010, this article traces the emergence of a mathematics discourse focused on market-led education. It interrogates the construction of ‘the mathematics problem’ or ‘crisis in maths’ and argues that the discourse of the present construction is economic in nature, centring as it does on human capital production and market-led reform.     

Using rapid application development to improve the usability of a preservice teacher technology course

The aim of this research was to examine the use of a rapid application development (RAD) approach in improving the usability (effectiveness, efficiency, and appeal) of instructional materials for preservice teachers. The RAD approach used was the analysis, synthesis, evaluation and change (ASEC) model (Reigeluth & Nelson, 1997). After examining existing materials, 11 units of instruction were prototyped, tested, modified, and retested with the requisite changes being implemented over the course of three semesters. Qualitative and quantitative data were collected from 570 students, 7 instructional designers, and 4 lab assistants. Results of the study showed significant increases in usability scores between the second and third semester. Both positive and negative experiences in using a rapid development model are discussed.     

A study of an adapted social–emotional learning: Small group curriculum in a school setting

Clinicians and training programs strive to implement evidence‐based practices and manualized treatments with fidelity. However, the constraints of a local setting may limit the extent to which this is possible. In the current study, an adapted model of an evidence‐based social–emotional learning small group curriculum, the Incredible Years Children’s Small Group Training Series (Webster‐Stratton, 2004), was implemented and evaluated in an elementary school setting. Results of the study demonstrated statistically significant decreases in problem behaviors and intensity of problem behaviors, as rated by teachers. Teachers also reported improvement in classroom behavior, emotion regulation, problem‐solving, and friendship skills, as well as a high overall level of satisfaction with the intervention itself. Discussion of the results includes a review of the strengths and limitations associated with outcome research in a naturalistic setting, suggestions to consider when adapting evidence‐based programs, and recommendations for future research.     

The interaction of conditioned taste aversions and schedule-induced polydipsia: Availability of alternative behaviors

Animals poisoned following exposure to saccharin subsequently avoided the schedule-induced consumption of saccharin. While this suppression was transient for subjects who had access only to the saccharin solution during the free-food presentations, recovery of schedule-induced saccharin consumption was significantly retarded for subjects who had concurrent access to saccharin and a running wheel. It has been suggested that the transient suppression of schedule-induced polydipsia by conditioned taste aversions results from the pellet-induced tendency to drink within the schedule-induced polydipsia procedure. That access to the running wheel reduces schedule-induced polydipsia in general and prolongs the suppression of schedule-induced polydipsia by taste aversions supports this view.     

The relationship of teacher ratings of executive functions to emergent literacy in Head Start

Reading and Writing - The purpose of this study was to investigate the concurrent relationships between selected teacher-rated executive function (EF) and a comprehensive array of emergent literacy...