Taking WGU Seriously: Implications of the Western Governors University

After much attention during its development, the continued importance of the Western Governors University (WGU) has not been significantly addressed since it opened in 1998. While certainly not dominating the higher education environment as predicted by its founders, it has nonetheless demonstrated a new competency-based distance education model for higher education. For that reason, the implications of WGU should be taken seriously. Three potential implications for colleges and universities are outlined: accreditation policies, organizational models, and faculty roles. While its survival as an institution is questionable, the concepts behind WGU remain important in changes in American higher education.     

Peer bullying,self-serving cognitive distortions and school moral climate perception in Spanish and Dutch secondary school students / Acoso escolar,distorsiones cognitivas en beneficio propio y percepción del clima moral escolar en estudiantes de secundaria de España y Holanda

Students’ role in traditional bullying and cyberbullying was investigated in relation to self-serving cognitive distortions (SSCD), perception of school moral climate and bullying observation. Participants were secondary school students from Spain (n = 568; 286 girls) and the Netherlands (n = 421; 223 girls). The results demonstrated that in both country samples, bullies and bully-victims had higher levels of SSCD. Both Spanish and Dutch students who were directly involved in traditional bullying situations showed more negative perceptions of the school moral climate. In cyberbullying situations, bystanders scored higher on school moral climate perception than bullies and bully-victims. Furthermore, school moral climate perception was negatively associated with traditional bullying observation in the group of victims, and with cyberbullying observation in the case of victims and bystanders. The present findings suggest that future research should focus on the cause-effect relations of these factors, which could include measuring the effects on bullying prevalence of an intervention aimed at SSCD reduction in bullies and bystanders and the improvement of the school moral climate.     

From Designing to Organizing New Social Futures: Multiliteracies Pedagogies for Today

Abstract

More than 20 years ago, literacy pedagogies informed by the emerging networked world defined by local diversity and global connectedness, new digital media and fast capitalism. Modern people now fully inhabit the world they described, but the contours of that world’s racial dynamics and growing inequality call for a refinement of pedagogies that embrace a more activist metaphor than that of design. Our pedagogies of multiliteracies must now embrace the ‘organizing of social futures’ in ways that apprentice young people to repertoires of collective action, in which literacy becomes more fully a means of supporting community efforts to promote and bring about more just futures.     

Signs of protest rhetoric: From Logos to logistics in Luther's Ninety-Five Theses

Our paper conceptualizes protest rhetoric in order to theorize the underlying relationship between communication and subjectivity. We do this by highlighting how rhetorical protest challenges the sovereignty of voice. Our argument is that Martin Luther's Ninety-Five Theses is an example of a sign that protests. To make this argument, we use a materialist method from media studies that simultaneously examines the formal capacities of a sign that protests and maps its historical transformation. Our analysis opens with the two prevailing accounts of Luther's theses: disputation and dissemination. We extend both disputation and dissemination by placing them in a “universal history” of protest rhetoric that grounds many accepted critical rhetorical theories in specific systems of representation. Drawing together our findings, we conclude by urging the replacement of logos and logocentrism with the logistics of protest rhetoric in order to link together disputation and dissemination as a mechanism for both change and subjection.     

Communicating Effectively with Parents and Families Who Are Homeless

Parents and families who are homeless need positive communication experiences with early childhood programs. This article provides several examples of ways to connect with families who are homeless and to meet their needs through continuous communication. Staff development ideas, parent and family involvement, and school-community support strategies are especially noted.     

The effects on the student-teacher relationship in a one-to-one technology classroom

This embedded case study explores the student-teacher relationship in a one-to-one technology environment. The actual change in relationship in a one-to-one classroom was examined. The study was guided by the self-system theory of motivation and its three characteristics of autonomy, relatedness, and competency as a theoretical framework. To explore this topic, the researchers considered the perspectives of four classroom teachers and 207 high school students at a suburban public high school in New Jersey. The case study research utilized teacher interviews, classroom observations, student surveys, and a student focus group. The findings revealed a notable change in the relationship between teachers and students within the one-to-one environment. The change existed in the connectivity between the teachers and their students beyond the classroom and school. The researchers concluded that the teachers and their students did have a positive relationship in a one-to-one environment and that relationship depended on the teacher’s ability to engage students using the one-to-one device. The researchers concluded that the one-to-one environment creates an autonomous learning environment for students; teachers and students have a relatedness that extends beyond the traditional boundaries of a school; and a higher level of competency in both teachers and students creates a more engaging classroom. As one-to-one technology environments are becoming more popular across the country, this study contributes to a better understanding of the expected changes in teacher-student relationships before issues of conflict occur.     

Group norms, threat, and children's racial prejudice

To assess predictions from social identity development theory (SIDT; Nesdale, 2004) concerning children's ethnic/racial prejudice, 197 Anglo-Australian children ages 7 or 9 years participated in a minimal group study as a member of a team that had a norm of inclusion or exclusion. The team was threatened or not threatened by an out-group that was of the same or different race. Consistent with SIDT, prejudice was greater when the in-group had a norm of exclusion and there was threat from the out-group. Norms and threat also interacted with participant age to influence ethnic attitudes, although prejudice was greatest when the in-group had an exclusion norm and there was out-group threat. The implications of the findings for SIDT are discussed.     

Co-Researching the Concept of 'Noticing and Adjusting' in Monitoring Literacy Learning

The present article describes the rationale, development and initial evaluation of a framework for enquiry that enabled a team of educational psychologists from four local education authorities to co-research the concept of 'noticing and adjusting' in relation to children's literacy progress. The work is based on reflective practice where psychologists and teachers considered the usefulness of the framework in developing interactive assessment and teaching approaches in the classroom. The collaborative work helped us to focus on teacher practice and innovative thinking rather than child, teacher or resource/environmental deficits.     

Lifelong learning policies for vulnerable young adults in post-recession Scotland

Abstract

This article shows how the Scottish Government’s (SG) political management of the Global Financial Crisis (GFC) has reinforced the economic goals of lifelong learning (LLL) under the skills for work agenda. Youth unemployment has been prioritized as the main social problem to be addressed, and most of the limited public resources for LLL have been targeted towards youth at risk of unemployment at the expense of the rest of the adult population. The article adopts a Cultural Political Economy perspective to examine LLL policy discourses contained in 12 policy documents published by the SG during the period between the Scottish National Party’s arrival in power and the Independence Referendum (2007–2014). The analysis draws attention to the fact that the GFC has been used by the SG to legitimize selective cuts to the further education sector as well as a stronger labour market orientation within LLL provision.