University Students and Parents Together: Expanding Undergraduates' Experiential Base

Preservice teachers have few opportunities to work directly with parents prior to classroom teaching. This experiment allows seniors pursuing early childhood certification to gain experience working with parents of young children.     

The English Advanced Extension Award: the twin crossroads

English is the most popular and successful of the subjects currently offered at Advanced Extension Award, a UK examination for the ablest 18‐year‐olds. Government plans for post‐16 reform suggest that AEAs may not continue as a separate examination for much longer. This paper discusses the reasons for the popularity of AEA English, and two key issues for the future which its success raises: the way forward for curriculum reform of English subjects post‐16, and whether AEA, or AEA‐style assessment, can satisfy the demand of elite universities for a means of identifying top students.     

Maintaining Open Adoption Relationships: Practitioner Insights on Adoptive Parents’ Regulation of Adoption Kinship Networks

The present study explores practitioner perceptions of and observations about the adoptive parent, birth parent, and adoptee interactions that regulate open adoption relationships. Grounded in family systems theory, practitioner interviews (N = 19) were analyzed to understand the degree to which open adoption shapes the family system as well as the opportunities, challenges, and considerations experienced by individuals in open adoption. Findings reveal that open adoption relationships consist of numerous complex relationships. This complexity generates significant opportunities for connection. At the same time, the complexity of the system generates challenges. Social networking provides costs and rewards that require consideration on an individual basis. Findings offer implications for the utility of family systems theory in illuminating diverse family construction as well as open adoption communication research.