Competitive opportunity and liberal culture: the significance of Scottish education in the twentieth century

Three of the great social ambitions of educational reform since the late nineteenth century are now seriously problematical. Although education does offer individuals a way of bettering themselves, we now know that it does little to change the terms of the competition among people who start from different social classes: it probably does not, by itself, affect relative social mobility. Education in advanced economies has little effect on overall rates of growth: it is now clear that the analogy between individual and economic development is untenable. And the main other option to these instrumental goals—that education should pass on the best that has been thought and said—is now deeply unfashionable with policy‐makers, radical activists and most shades of academic opinion. Scotland is a telling case of these shifts. In the past century, it has held quite firmly to all three older views, and has tried quite thoroughly to implement educational reforms in pursuit of them. Its experience is as good a demonstration as any that the first two ambitions—of social mobility and of economic development—cannot be realised by educational change alone. The country is also moving deliberately away from the third ambition, its old humanism of knowledge. The implications of this experience and these developments are discussed.     

The middle years slump: addressing student-reported barriers to academic progress

First-year university student attrition has been widely explored. However, there is a gap in our understanding when it comes to later years. Why do students who successfully navigate the hurdles of transition into university become at risk of exclusion in the middle years of study because of poor academic progress? This qualitative project develops a student-centred understanding of the problem of attrition through academic failure. It investigates the reasons given by students wishing to avoid involuntary exclusion from their course. Specifically, we address why middle-year students say they fail when they wish to succeed by examining self-reports. We find six main self-reported themes in three categories. The problems faced by mid-degree undergraduates are broader and more complex than those encountered in the first year. Our findings contrast with previous work on first-year attrition, which found that negative expectations of their own ability to succeed were a major factor in students’ decisions to drop out, although our study is constructed differently in that we analyse people wishing to continue their studies. The results expand our understanding of student involuntary attrition in the middle years. The overarching major issues in the themes we identified were financial, family/personal issues and health problems. In particular, mental health issues were remarkably apparent. This has significant implications for future student support. We find that there are commonly multiple reasons underlying each student’s at-risk status and provide suggestions for managers of programs that help students succeed.     

Not Just "Ghosts in the Nursery":1 Contemporaneous Intergenerational Relationships and Parenting in Young African-American Families

The association of the mother-grandmother relationship with parenting of preschoolers was examined in a sample of 96 African-American multigenerational families. Mother-grandmother and parent-child interactions were assessed at home with videotaped problem-solving tasks. The Scale of Intergenerational Relationship Quality (SIRQ), a global observational coding system, was developed to assess the quality of the mother-grandmother relationship via observational ratings of mothers' and grandmothers' discussion of conflict. It yielded 4 factors: Emotional Closeness (connectedness), Positive Affect (upbeat tone), Grandmother Directness (demandingness and clarity), and Individuation (balance of autonomy and mutuality). Regression analyses controlling for socioeco-nomic background variables showed that SIRQ factors, particularly Individuation, were consistently related to mothers' parenting. Relationship effects varied when interacted with age and coresidence. The importance of a multigenerational, contextual perspective for research and intervention with young African-American mothers is discussed.     

Facilitating communication between education and health services: the provision for children with speech and language needs

In this article, James Law, Marie Gascoigne and Nina Soloff, of the Department of Language and Communication Science at City University, London; Geoff Lindsay and Sue Band, of the Institute of Education, University of Warwick; and Nick Peacey and Julie Radford, of the Institute of Education, University of London, explore provision for children with speech and language needs. The authors report the outcomes of Government-funded research into the provision of speech and language therapy services and identify 13 key themes which emerge from a review of these findings. They proceed to make a series of important and challenging recommendations, many of which focus on the need for enhanced collaboration at a range of levels.     

Healing Images and Narratives: Undocumented Chicana/Latina Pedagogies of Resistance

This article draws from a longitudinal study of 38 in-depth testimonio interviews with 10 undocumented Chicanas/Latinas from 2008 to 2014, first as college students and then as professionals. A Chicana feminist theoretical perspective in education was utilized to explore how undocumented Chicana/Latina ways of knowing emerged in the ways they worked with and for immigrant communities as professionals. The study found that participants drew from their multiple identities, social locations, and life experiences as undocumented Chicana/Latina women to engage in pedagogies of resistance—everyday forms of teaching and learning that challenge the subjugation of undocumented communities, and are shaped by personal and collective experiences, knowledge, and identities. The study found that participants utilized mestiza consciousness, convivencia, and bodymindspirit to employ these pedagogies of resistance in their professional work with and for immigrant communities.     

Teaching Evidence-Based Practice in the Hospital and the Library: Two Different Groups,One Course

Key roles in teaching evidence-based practice (EBP) are of interest to many hospital and academic librarians. This article describes how three academic librarians, in collaboration with the academic medical center's EBP Nursing Council, developed a seminar consisting of three credit hours of instruction in the basics of evidence-based practice. The seminar consists of three core elements: basic principles of EBP and finding literature, clinical experience and integration of knowledge into the hospital setting, and patient education and participation. Emphasis is placed upon analysis of the literature, institutional models of practice change, and the importance of patient roles in guideline development.     

The Effect of Television Viewing on Adolescents' Civic Participation: Political Efficacy as a Mediating Mechanism

Pundits, parents, and scholars express concern about youth attention to late-night political comedy shows, such as The Daily Show, suggesting that such viewing is deleterious for an active, efficacious citizenry. Yet as civic participation declines among adults, it appears to be growing among adolescents. This study assessed the effects of television viewing on high school students' civic participation. Results demonstrate that viewing late-night TV and local TV news had a positive, significant effect on civic participation, and this relationship was mediated by political efficacy. Implications for the study of late-night TV and applications to research on political socialization are discussed.     

Fine motor skills and executive function both contribute to kindergarten achievement

This study examined the contribution of executive function (EF) and multiple aspects of fine motor skills to achievement on 6 standardized assessments in a sample of middle-socioeconomic status kindergarteners. Three- and 4-year-olds' (n=213) fine and gross motor skills were assessed in a home visit before kindergarten, EF was measured at fall of kindergarten, and Woodcock-Johnson III Tests of Academic Achievement were administered at fall and spring. Correlations indicated that EF and fine motor skills appeared distinct. Further, controlling for background variables, higher levels of both EF and fine motor skills, specifically design copy, predicted higher achievement on multiple subtests at kindergarten entry, as well as improvement from fall to spring. Implications for research on school readiness are discussed.     

Exploring time-lapse photography as a means for qualitative data collection

Collecting information via time-lapse photography is nothing new. Scientists and artists have been using this kind of data since the late 1800s. However, my research and experiments with time-lapse have shown that great potential may lie in its application to educational and social scientific research methods. This article is part history, part research method, and part methodology. As I uncover the science and art of time-lapse and sort through theory and practice from a number of fields, I share these findings, collect my own time-lapse data, and pose new queries into the use of time-lapse data collection for qualitative and social research.