Exploring the utility of workload models in academe: a pilot study

The workload of academics in Australia is increasing. Among the potential ramifications of this are work-related stress and burnout. Unions have negotiated workload models in employment agreements as a means of distributing workload in a fair and transparent manner. This qualitative pilot study aimed to explore how academics perceive their current workload and the utility of workload formulas within their workplace. The findings revealed five themes: scepticism, anger, vindication, justice and balance. Workload models appear to have utility within academia as a means of balancing role expectations in an equitable and transparent manner. They are also useful for demonstrating workloads to management objectively and identifying staff at increased risk of burnout because of inappropriately high workloads. Problematic issues identified were perceptions that workload models are management tools to control and monitor the workplace, and their implementation would not result in change.     

Educational psychology service contribution to community cohesion: an appreciative inquiry

ABSTRACT

The United Nations Convention on the Rights of a Child (UNCRC) calls for education to prepare children for ‘ … responsible life in a free society, in the spirit of understanding, peace, tolerance, equality of sexes, and friendship among all peoples, ethnic, national and religious groups and persons of indigenous origin’. The current study examines the potential role of Educational Psychologists (EPs) in addressing the UNCRC call to promote community cohesion through their work in schools. Through an Appreciative Inquiry cycle EPs considered facilitators of and barriers to working with communities. Facilitators included EP practices, skills and knowledge and seeing schools as communities in themselves. Barriers included public service funding and aspects of service delivery. A multi-level approach to promoting community cohesion is put forward, including acknowledgement of the context within which the work takes place as well as positing a continuum of community cohesion to community conflict.     

Identity and place-based teacher identities: what connects across diverse personal and professional landscapes?

ABSTRACT

Given that identity continually evolves within socio-cultural contexts of meaning, is there any perceived connectedness between place-based identity and the development of teacher identity? How might shifting personal and professional stories of experience influence teachers’ sense of place, whereby place is conceptualized through interconnected ways of living and working in time and place with others in early childhood contexts? In this ongoing Sydney-based project, six teachers working in prior-to-school (long day care) settings critically reflected on and represented their identity journeys across the professional experience. Using a new place-based framework for exploring identity development, teachers traced their encounters with the place(s), with multi-modal forms of representation and reflection supporting teachers’ re-examination of significant biography events and social-cultural locatedness. Using aesthetic ways of thinking and representing, this article provides insight into the place-based nature of early childhood teachers’ lives and work, illustrating the interwoven nature of teacher identity often formed “out of view”. Challenges associated with shifting personal and professional terrains are clarified, opening possibilities for renewal of pedagogies and transformation of identity understandings.     

Early Indications of Resilience and Their Relation to Experiences in the Home Environments of Low Birthweight, Premature Children Living in Poverty

The caregiving environment experienced by 243 premature, low birthweight (LBW) children living in poverty was examined to determine whether the quality of care such children receive affords them some measure of protection from the generally deleterious consequences of poverty and prematurity. Only 26 children were identified as functioning in the normal range for cognitive, social/adaptive, health, and growth parameters at age 3. These children, who showed early signs of resiliency, differed from nonresilient children in that they were receiving more responsive, accepting, stimulating, and organized care. They were also living in safer, less crowded homes. 6 "protective" aspects of caregiving were identified and used as part of a cumulative protection index. Children with less than 3 protective aspects of caregiving present at age 1 had only a 2% probability of being resilient, and only a 6% probability if fewer than 3 were present at age 3. Overall, premature LBW children born into conditions of poverty have a very poor prognosis of functioning within normal ranges across all the dimensions of health and development assessed. However, those raised in a setting with 3 or more protective factors were more likely to show early signs of resiliency.     

Which cognitive abilities at age four are the best predictors of reading ability at age seven?

A longitudinal study investigated the relationship between cognitive abilities at age four and reading at age seven. Reading ability was significantly positively correlated with knowledge of grapheme-phoneme correspondence, visual memory, auditory sequential memory, and Draw-a-man scores (intelligence). Once age (20ro) and intelligence (12%) were partialled out, auditory sequential memory scores at age four accounted for 13% of the variance in reading scores with visual sequential memory scores predicting a further 5%. Implications of results are discussed.     

Oral traditions: a contextual framework for complex science concepts—laying the foundation for a paradigm of promise in rural science education

The overarching goal of this paper is to bring a diverse educational context—rural sayings and oral traditions situated in ecological habitats—to light and emphasize that they need to be taken into consideration regarding twenty-first century science education. The rural sayings or tenets presented here are also considered alternative ways of learning and knowing that rural people (elders and children) acquire outside of school in rural places of home and habitat. Throughout this paper we explore the complex nature of rural sayings or tenets that have been shared by community elders and examine their historic scientific roots. In so doing, we uncover a wealth of information regarding the diverse rural sociocultural and ecological connections and the situated macro and micro-contexts from which these tenets arise. We argue for a preservation and educational revitalization of these tenets for current and future generations. We show how this knowledge both augments and differs from traditional western science and science curricula by illuminating the ways in which oral traditions are embedded in place, people, memory and culture. We close by presenting an alternative paradigm for science education that incorporates pluralism as a means to enrich current place-based pedagogies and practices. We suggest that in order to tackle the complex problems in this new age of the Anthropocene, revitalizing elders' wisdom as well as valuing rural children’s diverse knowledge and the inherent connectivity to their habitats needs be cultivated and not expunged by the current trends that standardize learning. As stated in the call for this special issue, “rurality has a real positionality” and much can be learned from individual and unique rural contexts.     

Early Home Environment and Mental Test Performance: A Structural Analysis

A theoretical model of early environment action was examined on a sample of 282 infants representing two racial groups (Caucasian, African-American). Children were obtained from three different sites in the United States. The model examined included the following variables: socioeconomic status (SES), early cognitive status (Bayley MDI at 12 months), stimulation within the home environment (subscales from the HOME Inventory at 12 and 24 months), parents use of negative control (subscales from the HOME Inventory at 12 and 24 months), and later cognitive status (36-month Stanford-Binet IQ). Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) with the LISREL software was used to confirm the fit of the model for African-Americans and Caucasians and for males and females separately. The models for males and females had similar structures, but not equal coefficients for all paths in the model. The models showed significant paths from socioeconomic status and early cognitive status to stimulation with the home environment, a significant path from SES to negative parental control, and a significant path from stimulation within the home environment to later cognitive status. The models for African-Americans and Caucasians differed in structure. For African-Americans, there was no evidence that the link between SES and 36-month IQ was mediated through negative control but SES and early cognitive status were linked to later IQ via the amount of stimulation provided in the home. For Caucasians, early cognitive status did not appear related to 36- month IQ but negative control did appear to mediate the relation between SES and IQ.     

Increasing the Involvement of People with an Intellectual Disability in Choice Making Situations: A Practical Approach

This paper describes a participant observation approach to exploring choice making by people with an intellectual disability in three different home settings‐‐a private family home, a community group home and an independent living situation. It identifies some of the factors which affect choice making, including experience at making choices, routines, the role of support people, and communication. The paper illustrates these factors with examples from the different settings. Finally, it provides practical suggestions for service providers to increase the involvement of people with an intellectual disability in choice making situations.