Pre-Service Teachers’ Views of the Child—Reproducing or Challenging Gender Stereotypes in Science in Preschool

We report how 47 pre-service teachers during their preschool placement in Sweden identify events related to gender and emerging science. We analysed their reflections on the situations with Gee’s Discourse analysis. Two dominant discourse models were identified: the Discourse Construare, where pre-service teachers assumed that children have potential interests in a variety of subjects, and the Discourse Essentia, where children were regarded to have a stable core identity. In the latter discourse, the pre-service teachers’ task would be to encourage the children to be who they are. The analysis found a connection between pre-service teachers’ views of the child and whether gender stereotypes were reproduced or counteracted. The Discourse Essentia is in conflict with the goal in the Swedish national curriculum that all children should learn science. We discuss how the different discourses affect whether children are stimulated or inhibited in their emerging science activities and interests. Based on the results from an analysis of answers reflecting the Discourse Construare, we have designed a model illustrating a process for gender-aware teaching.     

Cognitive Endophenotypes of Dyslexia

The study investigated cognitive deficits associated with dyslexia and familial risk of dyslexia (endophenotypes) by comparing children from families with and without a history of dyslexia. Eighty-eight school-aged children were assessed on measures of phonology, language and rapid automatized naming. A series of regression analyses with family risk and dyslexia status as predictors indicated that word recall, morphology, and rapid automatized naming were associated with the deficit, whereas the two phonological measures (phoneme awareness and nonword repetition) were associated with both literacy deficits and family risk, suggesting that the phonological deficit is an endophenotype of dyslexia. Whereas the association with familial risk was similar for the two phonological measures, they differed in their relation to dyslexia status: Phoneme awareness showed a stronger association with dyslexia than risk status, whereas nonword repetition was more strongly related to the risk. The data are interpreted within the framework of multiple deficit models of dyslexia.     

Voicing Resistance: Adolescent boys and the cultural practice of leisure reading

This article describes a theoretically informed methodology for eliciting the voices of adolescent boys identified by their teachers and parents as reluctant leisure time readers. Similar methods have also been used to draw out the voices of the boys’ parents to understand their efforts to guide and maintain their sons’ literacy practices, within the context of one middle class Australian school community. The concept of “voice” in our research of boys as capable but differently committed leisure time readers is informed by a socio-cultural theory that foregrounds the processes of enculturation, appropriation, and agency as fundamental to identity formation. In this regard the varied ways in which the boys in the study have taken up the reading practices valued in their families is illustrative of the mutuality of individual agency and cultural processes. In describing both the theoretical and conceptual framing of a methodology designed to investigate in particular those boys who have resisted their families’ reading dispositions we hope to highlight how individuals struggle to construct new values within patterns of cultural practice.     

Ethics Considerations Related to Legal Research Practices: A Selective Annotated Bibliography

This selective annotated bibliography is a helpful guide to an issue that is regularly encountered by all who do, and teach, legal research: What are the ethical obligations of the legal researcher?     

Chat Widgets: Placing Your Virtual Reference Services at Your User's Point(s) of Need

The senior population in America is expected to double from 35 million in 2004 to 70 million by 2030, creating an ever-growing need for libraries to provide quality senior services and programs. This article discusses the services and programs that the San Antonio Public Library (SAPL) offers for senior groups, the issue of additional services that the SAPL can provide in the future to accommodate the needs of seniors groups and those with disabilities, and what services other public libraries provide to senior citizens.     

Teach-In: Positive Responses during Divisive Times

In response to the well documented divisiveness throughout the 2016 presidential campaign, faculty members at one university developed a “teach-in” to help students identify and respond to the resulting difficult communications in positive ways. This was accomplished through planned activities implementing micro/macro theories and skills. In March 2017, as part of Social Work Month, 71 BSW and MSW students participated in a Teach-in event. Paired sample t-tests showed significant differences between pre-post test scores on seven measured items. The teach-in appeared to be successful in increasing student preparedness to talk to individuals with differing political opinions through self-reflective participatory exercises related to their own (and conflicting) political perspectives, knowledge related to understanding contemporary political conflicts, and instruction on positively and professionally responding to divisive communications. Social work educators are important catalysts in helping students effectively respond to and advocate for those threatened during these divisive times. Teach-ins may also be an appropriate tool for addressing contemporary issues when curriculum requirements provide limited options for additional elective course offerings.     

Examining the association between procrastination and decreases in academic achievement during the transition from high school to university: a piecewise growth model

European Journal of Psychology of Education - The grades of students have been shown to severely decrease during the transition from high school to university. Although past findings have shown...     

Inclusive education in Sweden? A critical analysis

When it comes to pupils in need of special support and pupils with disabilities, Sweden’s compulsory school system is sometimes considered a one‐track system. This article analyses and critically discusses current policy and practices at various levels of Sweden’s compulsory school system for these pupils. The analysis traces three themes at the national and municipal levels: (1) values and goals; (2) organisation and placement of pupils; and (3) importance of categories in obtaining support. A rather complex picture emerges from this analysis. Several conclusions are made: (1) state policies leave a lot of room for interpretation at the municipal and school levels, and this results in an extensive variation; (2) Swedish state policy is not as inclusive as is often stated; (3) celebration of difference seems to be hard to achieve; (4) learning goals can be a double‐edged sword with regard to inclusion; and (5) most pupils appear to enjoy participation in school, and in an international perspective, Swedish classrooms seem to be largely democratic.