An Exploratory Study of Part-Time Minorities: Finding Home as a Minority Member

This study examines an atypical population of immigrants in Taiwan who immigrated in search of home, self-discovery, and career opportunities. Many of these immigrants sit at the nexus of privilege and othering with their ability to pass as Caucasian. Through the participatory method Photovoice and semi-structured interviews, I investigate the fluid nature of identity processes, the extent that acculturation hinges on predetermined factors, and the benefits and costs of biculturalism, which include cultural fusion and liminality. Additionally, I investigate the impact of context on acculturation strategies and the experience of transformation.     

Doing a science project: Gender differences during childhood

By adolescence, men's participation and achievement in science exceeds women's. This article reports a case study that examined the beginnings of this gender differentiation during a naturally occurring academic activity that was designed to support and guide young children's interest in doing science. Data were collected during 2 successive years of a science fair for children in Grades 1–6 of a progressive private school. A total of 268 projects were characterized in terms of achievement and area of science. Parents provided information about the way children selected and created projects. In both years and in all grade levels, boys tended to choose to work in the physical sciences, and girls in the biological and social sciences. Peer collaborations were exclusively same sex. Achievement and parental involvement were not gender related. Factors are discussed that might lead to an early divergence of boys' and girls' interests in science within a context that promotes its exploration. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 35: 845–857, 1998.     

Preparing Doctoral-Level Consultants for Systems Change: Implementing and Supervising Multitiered Practices in Early Childhood Education

Implementing changes that support a preventative approach in early childhood education (ECE) requires the collaboration of skilled professionals. The present case study describes a change effort to implement multitiered systems of support (MTSS) in early childhood settings that included collaboration of agency personnel, school psychology program faculty and trainees, and ECE faculty. It describes a competency-based training initiative that provides applied experiences in consultation, supervision, and change facilitation for systems change efforts. The implementation of a systems-level approach for promoting positive behavior at three ECE agencies is described, with resulting teacher and child outcomes. Implications for future consultation research, training, and practice are discussed in relation to a consultation training model that provides competency-based field experiences to support change in ECE.     

Prospective Elementary Teachers’ Analysis of Children’s Science Talk in an Undergraduate Physics Course

We investigated how prospective teachers used physics content knowledge when analyzing the talk of elementary children during special activities in an undergraduate physics content course designed for prospective teachers. We found that prospective teachers used content knowledge to reflect on their own learning and to identify students’ science ideas and restate these ideas in scientific terms. Based on this research, we inferred that analyzing children’s ideas through videos provides a meaningful context for applying conceptual physics knowledge in physics courses. Activities that are embedded within a disciplinary curriculum, such as those studied here, may help prospective teachers learn to use disciplinary knowledge in exactly the type of activity in which their content knowledge will be most useful: listening to and interpreting children’s science ideas.     

The pragmatics of payment: adventures in first-person economy with Bill Maurer

Bill Maurer, Dean of the School of Social Sciences, Professor of Anthropology and Law, and Director of the Institute for Money, Technology and Financial Inclusion, all at the University of California, Irvine, has recently joined the Journal of Cultural Economy editorial team. Here, we reproduce an interview with him by Lauren Tooker from September 2014.     

The duty to succeed: honor versus happiness in college and career choices of East Asian students in the United States

To better understand factors underlying educational and career choices, this study used both survey data from an online networking tool and data collected in college classrooms to gauge differences between Asians (primarily Korean) and white students in the United States. More Asians (41%) than whites (9%) prioritized prestige over happiness, while more white students (67%) than Asian‐American students (28%) deemed happiness as paramount in selecting a college. When assessing their parents, more Asian Americans thought their mothers (51%) and fathers (34%) emphasized prestige in choosing a college than white mothers (9%) and fathers (17%). In addition, Asian parents were assessed as much more prone to stress the importance of financial independence in career selection while white parents were perceived as prioritizing career enjoyment. Certain parenting techniques were much more common among Asians, such as reminding children of parental sacrifices made for the next generation, teaching them that academic performance is a matter of family honor and prodding academic success by comparing their accomplishments with those of children of family and friends. These findings may reflect a conscious strategy to overcome racial discrimination if education is seen as the primary path to upward social mobility. Awareness of the social and emotional cost of the staunch emphasis on the duty to succeed is important for those involved in educating and providing career counseling for college students with an Asian family background. Acknowledgement of pressure to honor parental expectations of narrowly defined acceptable academic and career achievement should be a part of counseling sessions that might otherwise focus exclusively on individual aspirations without due recognition of an interdependent, collectivistic orientation where upholding family expectations is integral to perceived success.