How age and race affect the frequency,timing, and content of conversations about race with children

Anti-racist efforts require talking with children about race. The present work tested the predictors of U.S. adults' (N = 441; 52% female; 32% BIPOC participants; M_age = 35 years) conversations about race with children across two timepoints in 2019. Approximately 60% of adult participants talked to their children (3–12 years) about race during the preceding week; only 29% talked to other adults about race during the same period. This paper describes the content and predictors of conversations about race, revealing how conversations differ depending on the participant's race, a child's age, and whether the conversation occurs with children or another adult. These data have important implications for theorizing about when, why, and how adults actually talk about race with children and adults.     

Reforming practice or modifying reforms?: Elementary teachers' response to the tools of reform

Understanding the interaction between internally constructed and externally imposed aspects of the teaching context may be the missing link between calls for school reform and teachers' interpretation and implementation of that reform. Although the context of the local school culture has a profound impact on teachers, there are other external forces that are specifically aimed at influencing teachers' pedagogical and curricular decisions. These externally imposed aspects of context include some of the existing tools of reform, such as national standards, mandated state core curricula, and related criterion‐referenced testing. However, little is known about how these reform tools impact teachers' thinking about science and science teaching or how teachers respond to such tools. This study examined the interactions between individual teachers' beliefs about teaching and learning science in elementary school and the tools of reform that are imposed upon them. Comparative case studies were conducted in which two elementary teachers' science instruction, teaching context, and related beliefs were examined, described, and analyzed. In this study, the teachers' fundamental beliefs about science and what it means to teach and learn science influenced their interpretations of the sometimes contradictory messages of reform as they are represented in the standards, mandated curriculum, and end‐of‐level tests. Suggestions about what these findings mean for needed aspects of teacher professional development are offered. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 44: 396–423, 2007     

The Impact of Race,Gender, and Socioeconomic Status on School Counselors’ Alternative Learning Program Placement Decisions: An Experimental Study

As a form of exclusionary discipline, student placement into an alternative learning program (ALP) may lead to negative outcomes for students (e.g., lower academic achievement, attrition, involvement in the juvenile justice system; Anderson and Ritter in Educ Policy Anal Arch 25(49):1–33, 2017). School counselors are called to address inequitable policies, procedures, and conditions that may limit students’ personal/social and academic development, college access, and career readiness (ASCA, The ASCA national model: a framework for school counseling programs, 3rd edn. American School Counselor Association, Alexandria, VA, 2012). Additionally, school counselors should be unbiased in their decision-making (ASCA, Ethical standards for school counselors. American School Counselor Association, Alexandria, VA, 2016). The researchers utilized a true experimental design to examine the impact of student race (African American or White), gender (male or female), and socioeconomic status (SES; economically advantaged or disadvantaged) on practicing school counselors’ (N?=?334) decisions to place students in ALPs for disciplinary reasons. A factorial analysis of variance revealed no statistically significant differences in school counselors’ likelihood of placing students in ALPs for disciplinary reasons based these student demographic factors. The study also revealed a statistically significant positive relationship between school counselors’ belief in a just world, as measured by the Global Belief in a Just World Scale (GBJWS; Lipkus in Personal Individ Differ, 12(11): 1171–1178. https://doi.org/10.1016/0191-8869(91)90081-L, 1991), and likelihood of referring students to ALPs for disciplinary reasons. Implications for school counselors and educational stakeholders are discussed.

     

Principles and practices of literacy development for deaf learners: a historical overview

Since the very beginning of formal approaches to deaf education, the development of literacy has been a priority issue. The history of educational initiatives in this area is entwined with the history of prevailing attitudes and practices toward the impact of deafness on the development of deaf children more generally. In particular, arguments about whether a visual input (reading) can take the place of a diminished auditory input and whether educators should accommodate or seek to ameliorate the effects of the special linguistic characteristics of deaf learner-readers have resulted in a wide variety of practices and perspectives. These varied practices and perspectives continue to have impacts on current educational debate and practice. This article provides a brief historical overview of these educational endeavors, noting the enduring questions and issues that remain for the field to address.     

Fostering wise judgement: professional decisions in development programmes for early career engineers

This paper reviews literature that explores the role of judgement in professional practice. It discusses how workplace decisions, work activities and reflection on these activities may contribute to the development of wise judgements, or ‘wisdom’, and how workplaces can leverage these activities for induction and transition to work programmes. This review of the literature is prompted by survey results inviting engineering graduates and professionals to identify the capabilities they believe are most significant to success in the engineering workplace. The requirement for sound professional judgement resonates in participant responses. The paper summarises views of expertise, the relationship between experience and the development of professional judgement and the broader contribution of expansive and participatory learning environments to developing professional judgement. It concludes that the organisation of work and job design can facilitate the articulation of new engineers to professional practice, and that organisational learning programmes can leverage workplace activities to foster wise judgement in graduate engineers.     

Differences between residential and non-residential fathers on sexual socialisation of African American youth

This study investigated differences between residential and non-residential fathers on topics discussed during father–child sex communication and factors associated with child sexual socialisation. Young people (N = 159, 53% female) provided self-reports using computer surveys on the role of their fathers on father–child sex communication, general communication, parental monitoring, father social support and topics discussed during father–child sex communication. The analysis revealed differences in topics discussed between young people with residential vs. non-residential fathers. Independent group t-tests revealed significant differences between young people with residential vs. non-residential fathers on social support and parental monitoring for sons and parental monitoring for daughters. Sons and daughters with residential fathers had higher scores on these variables. Discriminant function analyses, chi-square tests and hierarchical linear regression analyses were carried out to determine whether there were meaningful distinctions between young people with residential vs. non-residential fathers. The analysis revealed social support and parental monitoring provided the most meaningful distinction between young people with residential vs. non-residential fathers. These results highlight the importance of non-residential fathers in the sexual socialisation of their young people through parent–child sex communication. Discussion focuses on the need for development of interventions to promote the inclusion of non-residential fathers in the sexual socialisation of African American youth.     

The Reciprocal Relationship Between Technology and Psychology

This article describes the design and implementation of the year 2 curriculum and student learning experiences in the Michigan State University Master of Arts in Educational Technology program. We discuss the ways that this second set of courses builds on the first year of the program that students encounter, and also describe the theoretical impetus and design-based implications for learning how to teach with technology in effective and creative ways. Students in this group usually come in with some prior knowledge of educational theory, as well as some experience of working with classroom technologies. We intentionally build upon this prior knowledge, to take it to the next level of a more sophisticated TPACK-oriented understanding of learning in technology-driven contexts. Our year 2 courses move classical educational psychology theories of learning, along with educational research issues, squarely into the modern context of educational technology and teacher leadership. Our curriculum design focuses centrally on making meaningful experiences for teachers around technology, and helping them develop the knowledge and skills to create such experiences for their students. Our goal is to develop teachers who see themselves as flexible designers of learning experiences through the creative re-purposing of existing technologies.     

From mountaintop to corporate ladder – what new professionals really really want in a capstone experience!

Capstone subjects are increasingly used in Universities worldwide to complete the undergraduate program experience and to transition graduates into the workplace. As such, capstones fulfil a large role consolidating one experience and traversing the gap to another. Yet, little is known or understood about their design, their implementation or evaluation. In this study we investigate the final-year experience from the student's perspective. We surveyed graduates from five Business Schools in Australia to identify perceptions of their final-year experience. Findings indicate that the transition experience of the student to professional is unique. In their liminal or intermediate state between student and professional they recognise the value of process skills, in particular the development of generic business skills related to application and the importance of opportunities for experiencing the application of theory in practice. The findings add a new understanding to the current literature which has not previously acknowledged the insight of the transitioning professional.     

Beyond the difference: from the margins to inclusion

In recent years mounting evidence reveals that many children, for different reasons, do not receive equal opportunities for learning, and therefore are marginalised. However, despite the fact that many education systems have attempted to solve this problem and respond to the contemporary needs of all children by deploying a variety of policies for inclusive education, and despite the improvements already achieved, the phenomenon of marginalisation still persists as a difficult problem still awaiting a solution. The paper attempts to deconstruct the term ‘difference’ from a post‐modern point of view, and also considers it genealogically from a philosophical perspective. The purpose is to improve teaching practice in order for teachers to provide equal opportunities in learning for all students. Naturally, the acceptance of ‘difference’ stimulates thinking and expands the parameters of free will. It will therefore be considered that while broad margins (or the marginal) persist, the possibility of difference will also continue to prevail and thus require sustained liberalism in education.     

Preparing,Facilitating, Assessing: A Reflection on Digital Humanities Consultations

Abstract

A key component of the Digital Humanities Librarian’s work, the consultation, involves the skills of listening, questioning, parsing, and planning aided by an understanding of the broader digital humanities landscape, project requirements, and the campus environment. Productive consultations provide researchers the direction they need to get their projects started or advanced to the next stage, often resulting in sustained, collaborative engagement that makes assessing the impact of this work challenging.