The power of positioning: on the normalisation of gender,race/ethnicity,nation and class positions in a Swedish social work textbook

This article presents a feminist reading of a Swedish social work academic textbook as a case study. We use a discourse analytic approach and positioning theory, focusing on author positions through different story lines. The aim is to make visible how differences are created and positions of the author/reader normalised in terms of gender, race/ethnicity and class. The analysis illustrates how the organisation of the book privileges a particular story line by presenting gender research in a special section of the book and as a perspective. A neutral, unmarked author position is assumed, presented as a common ‘we’ by identifying ‘women researchers’ and ‘feminist’ points of departure as different. If the unmarked author/reader ‘we’ position appears desirable and morally superior, the clients’ gender, ethnicity and class are often openly discussed in relation to social problems, positioning them as ‘the other’. Finally there is also a story line of more critical and ambivalent knowledge positions.     

Different Methods – Different Results: How the Swedish Results in Mathematics Vary Depending on Methodological Approach

The results for TIMSS population 2 in Sweden indicated that Swedish student achievement in mathematics was average. There were even mass media reports that indicated that Swedish students had some of the lowest results in mathematics. The issue that is addressed in this article is whether the performance of Swedish students is average or even low. To answer this, the basis of comparison between the different countries needs to be discussed. Mass media, for example, based its comparison on all 45 countries participating in TIMSS population 2 and in its national TIMSS report, the Swedish National Agency for Education presented a different selection of countries. The report compared the results of the 25 countries that met the sampling requirements set by the TIMSS International Study Centre. This focuses the discussion on what approaches are used when comparing results from different countries in an international comparative study. In this article the TIMSS results, as presented by the Swedish National Agency for Education, are compared with the results obtained with other methodological approaches. The comparison is based on the importance of three variables for the results of the comparison: equal number of years in school, the selection of countries, and the contents of the textbooks in the different countries. The results indicate that the number of years in school, as well as the content of the textbooks in each country, are important factors when comparing the results for different countries.     

Production Methods

Nathan J. Sambul, ed., THE HANDBOOK OF PRIVATE TELEVISION: A COMPLETE GUIDE FOR VIDEO FACILITIES AND NETWORKS WITHIN CORPORATIONS, NON-PROFIT INSTITUTIONS AND GOVERNMENT AGENCIES (New York: McGraw-Hill Book Co., 1982---$64.95)

Mark Beach, EDITING YOUR NEWSLETTER: A GUIDE TO WRITING, DESIGN, AND PRODUCTION (Coast-to-Coast Books, 2934 N.E. 16th Avenue, Portland, Oregon, 97212---$9.95 plus $1.50 packing and postage, paper)

Charles J. Sippl and Fred Dahl VIDEO/COMPUTERS: HOW TO SELECT, MIX, AND OPERATE PERSONAL COMPUTERS AND HOME VIDEO SYSTEMS (Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall, 1981--- $15.95)

Daniel E. Garvey and William L. Rivers BROADCAST WRITING (New York: Longman, 1982---$13.95, paper)

Garvey and Rivers BROADCAST WRITING HANDBOOK ($10.95, paper)

Courtland L. Bove and William F. Arens CONTEMPORARY ADVERTISING (Homewood, Illinois: Richard D. Irwin, 1982---$26.95)     

Remembering Nina Lenček, 18 January 1924–25 November 2014

Columbia University Libraries’ longtime Slavic & East European Studies Librarian Nina Len?ek passed away on November 25, 2014, at the age of 90. On January 22, 2015, a large group of her friends, family, and colleagues gathered at Butler Library to remember, honor, and celebrate her remarkable life and legacy.     

Lifelong learning from natural disasters: transformative group-based learning at Philippine universities

This study explores reflective experience during transformative, group-based learning among university leaders following a natural disaster such as a typhoon in two Philippine universities. Natural disasters are recurrent phenomena in many parts of the world, but the literature largely ignores their impact on lifelong human learning, for instance regarding preparing the university setting for future natural disasters. The study used interviews and document analysis, drawing on a body of interrelated works in transformative learning theory, critical educational theory and conceptions about group processes and reflective practice to understand university leaders’ lifelong learning from natural disasters as experiential, transformative, reflective and group oriented. The findings document that university leaders’ reflective, transformative learning depends on individuals’ experience of natural disasters as disorienting dilemmas, and that reflection is facilitated by decisive group dynamics rather than only personal reflection. Facilitating a learning space for transformative, reflective learning in university settings might assist university leaders to enhance disaster risk preparedness, for instance through local policy change.     

Preparing the educational interpreter. A survey of sign language interpreter training programs

Despite rapid growth in the field of educational interpreting little is known about the formal training of educational interpreters. This gap in the research is the focus of this study. A questionnaire was sent to the directors of 50 interpreter training programs nationwide asking for information about their course work in educational interpreting and related areas; instruction in signed English systems; and the directors' opinions on certain ethical and professional questions facing the educational interpreter. The results suggest that graduates of interpreter training programs who obtain employment as public school interpreters are not adequately prepared. Training programs provide few courses on the education of deaf children, on the language systems used, and on issues specific to classroom interpreting. The directors of these programs overwhelmingly support the development of guidelines on the educational interpreter's role. They show some support for the "interpreter as tutor" role but are equivocal about the development of a special certification for educational interpreters.     

A Conceptual Characterization of Online Videos Explaining Natural Selection

Educational videos on the Internet comprise a vast and highly diverse source of information. Online search engines facilitate access to numerous videos claiming to explain natural selection, but little is known about the degree to which the video content match key evolutionary content identified as important in evolution education research. In this study, we therefore analyzed the content of 60 videos accessed through the Internet, using a criteria catalog with 38 operationalized variables derived from research literature. The variables were sorted into four categories: (a) key concepts (e.g. limited resources and inherited variation), (b) threshold concepts (abstract concepts with a transforming and integrative function), (c) misconceptions (e.g. that evolution is driven by need), and (d) organismal context (e.g. animal or plant). The results indicate that some concepts are frequently communicated, and certain taxa are commonly used to illustrate concepts, while others are seldom included. In addition, evolutionary phenomena at small temporal and spatial scales, such as subcellular processes, are rarely covered. Rather, the focus is on population-level events over time scales spanning years or longer. This is consistent with an observed lack of explanations regarding how randomly occurring mutations provide the basis for variation (and thus natural selection). The findings imply, among other things, that some components of natural selection warrant far more attention in biology teaching and science education research.     

Influences of family based prerequisites,reading attitude,and self-regulation on reading ability

This study investigated the effect of self-regulated learning, as indicated by academic self-concept, motivation and learning strategies, reading attitude and family based prerequisites on reading ability. Students (n = 4018) in the eighth grade answered the IEA reading literacy test, the self-regulated learning questionnaire and a student questionnaire about their background. The exploratory factor analysis (EFA) revealed that the self-regulated learning questionnaire did not measure the intended three dimensions, but only two: Verbal/General academic self-concept and a new dimension called Goal oriented strategies. Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) with a cross-validation sample was conducted to determine the effects in the final model. The strongest effect on reading ability was from Verbal/General academic self-concept (β = .43 for final and β = .56 for cross-validation model). Gender differences revealed that girls read better on narrative and expository texts, had a more positive reading attitude, and more positive verbal self-concept, whereas boys had a higher academic self-concept (not domain-specific), self-efficacy, control expectation, reported more memorising, elaboration, and instrumental motivation (all differences p < .001).     

Effects of biology teachers’ professional knowledge and cognitive activation on students’ achievement

This study examined the effects of teachers’ biology-specific dimensions of professional knowledge – pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) and content knowledge (CK) – and cognitively activating biology instruction, as a feature of instructional quality, on students’ learning. The sample comprised 39 German secondary school teachers whose lessons on the topic neurobiology were videotaped twice. Teachers’ instruction was coded with regard to cognitive activation using a rating manual. Multilevel path analysis results showed a positive significant effect of cognitive activation on students’ learning and an indirect effect of teachers’ PCK on students’ learning mediated through cognitive activation. These findings highlight the importance of PCK in preservice biology teachers’ education. Items of the rating manual may be used to provide exemplars of concrete teaching situations during university seminars for preservice teacher education or professional development initiatives for in-service teachers.