Hidden Gems: Creative Artists and Historical Society Libraries and Archives

Creative artists frequently turn to academic or public libraries for research. Rarely do they seem to turn to historical society libraries and archives. This article describes three benefits of using historical society libraries and archives to creative artists: the collections themselves, the different ways artists use the collections, and the staff expertise available at these institutions. It explores why resources at historical society libraries and archives may be underutilized. The role of reference librarians in promoting historical society repositories is discussed, and suggestions for reference providers (at historical societies and other types of institutions) are offered.     

Perceived Advantages and Disadvantages of an Online Charter School

This study examines data from focus group discussions with parents, students, and teachers at an online charter school. Standardized achievement test scores of children at the online charter school are compared with those in a similar school and across the state. Overall, the constituents involved in the online charter school were satisfied with the school's educational service. Students at the charter school performed lower than the state average of all schools (including public schools), but they performed better when compared to a similar school as defined by the state board of education. The online charter school experienced improvement in the report card rating from a designation of “Academic Watch” to “Continuous Improvement.” Evidence from constituent satisfaction and increasing student achievement suggests that the online charter school in this study is becoming competitive with traditional public schools.     

‘Does it answer the question or is it French fries?’: an exploration of language supports for scientific argumentation

ABSTRACT

Reform initiatives around the world are reconceptualising science education by stressing student engagement in science practices. Yet, science practices are language-intensive, requiring students to have strong receptive and productive language proficiencies. It is critical to address these rigorous language demands to ensure equitable learning opportunities for all students, including English language learners (ELLs). Little research has examined how to specifically support ELL students’ engagement in science practices, such as argumentation. Using case-study methodology, we examined one middle school science teacher's instructional strategies as she taught an argumentation-focused curriculum in a self-contained ELL classroom. Findings revealed that three trends characterized the teacher’s language supports for the structural and dialogic components of argumentation: (1) more language supports focused on argument structure, (2) dialogic interactions were most often facilitated by productive language supports, and (3) some language supports offered a rationale for argumentation. Findings suggest a need to identify and develop supports for the dialogic aspects of argumentation. Furthermore, engaging students in argumentation through productive language functions could be leveraged to support dialogic interactions. Lastly, our work points to the need for language supports that make the rationale for argumentation explicit since such transparency could further increase access for all students.     

Unhomely spaces and deviant subjectivity: The sociohistorical homelessness of female juvenile offenders

The girls inhabiting the deviant subject position of female juvenile offenders have no home in normalized total social institutions. This paper wonders about and wanders through various historical and contemporary studies "about" female juvenile offenders and discusses the intersections of the unhomely spaces (Bhabha, 1994) that exclude and even abandon those in this subject position. The juvenile female offender seems to be "outside" of culture, existing in an impossibly homeless space. This is vital work to interrupt and complicate the assumptions that limit the spaces of being for the girls studied. Using critical discourse analysis (Fairclough, 1995) and deviant historiography (Terry, 1991) in a hybrid methodology, the discursive spaces of im/possible being will be highlighted. A recent report from the American Bar Association and the National Bar Association highlights the gaps and failures of the system when it comes to girls. By analyzing the intersections of historical discourses constructing the female juvenile offender as deviant, this paper highlights the im/possibility of "home", that is the "unhomely spaces" of the social institutions catering to these girls and the homelessness of the deviant girl within and against the hegemonic discourses - thus troubling what it means to research the "homeless".     

Orientalism(s), world geography textbooks,and temporal paradox: questioning representations of Southwest Asia and North Africa

In this critical discourse analysis of six high-school world geography textbooks, we explore how constructions and representations of North Africa and Southwest Asia have served to reinforce Orientalist discourse in formal curriculum. Visual and written representations in these textbooks were overwhelmingly confounded by a traditional/modern dichotomy that constructed a paradoxical “Muslim world.” Gender and religion coding perpetuated the temporal paradox with women and Islam used as symbols of the traditional in need of western modernization. This paper begins with a contextualization of the study of textbooks and addresses investigations of media portrayals of Muslims, Arabs, and Islam. We then describe our theoretical grounding in criticalist perspectives and detail methods of analysis. Lastly, we present the three themes revealed through analysis and conclude with recommendations for enhancing geographic literacy in schools.     

INCREASING TEACHER TREATMENT INTEGRITY THROUGH PERFORMANCE FEEDBACK PROVIDED BY SCHOOL PERSONNEL

When implementing behavioral interventions in educational settings, some implementers need support to maintain high levels of treatment integrity. Performance feedback has a large body of research supporting it as a strategy for improving teachers’ implementation of classroom interventions. However, in most prior studies, performance feedback has been delivered by a researcher, not by a school staff member, which limits generalizability of results to applied settings. In this study, school personnel (i.e., internal consultants) assessed teachers’ treatment integrity when implementing a classwide behavioral intervention and, when low, provided performance feedback. Further, researchers assessed internal consultants’ treatment integrity and provided performance feedback as needed. Results indicate that internal consultants are able to assess and briefly increase teachers’ treatment integrity with performance feedback, although some teachers needed more support than did others. Likewise, internal consultants’ treatment integrity was fairly high initially, but required consistent performance feedback to increase treatment integrity levels toward the end of the study. Implications for research and practice are discussed.     

“'Are we going to now govern by anecdote?’: Rhetorical constructions of welfare recipients in congressional hearings,debates, and legislation, 1992–1996”

Through a rhetorical analysis of the welfare reform hearings and debates from the 102nd, 103rd, and 104th Congresses, all of which led to President Clinton's historical August 22, 1996 signing of the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act, P.L. 104–193, this essay contributes to our developing knowledge of deliberative hearings and debates as precursors to legislation. Relying on a narrative approach, this study challenges the liberatory and participatory functions of the narrative paradigm as conceived by Walter Fisher. The central argument developed in this essay is that some narrative forms facilitate elite discourse, discourage the inclusion of alternative public views, and delegitimize particular public voices.     

Write More,Grade Less: Five Practices for Effectively Grading Writing

This article describes five practices for effectively grading writing that demystify the grading process and focus on students, writing more and faculty grading less.     

Design lessons about participatory self-directed online learning in a graduate-level instructional technology course

This article reports on a case of participatory self-directed online learning within the context of a graduate-level instructional technology course. The course was about online learning environments and relied on both asynchronous and synchronous technologies. In this case, the instructor and students engaged in collaborative course design through one of the assignments where student teams and the instructor led one week’s worth of course activities and discussions. This article begins with a discussion of the literature on participatory self-directed online learning. Then, the article presents an overview of the course design, detailed discussion of the assignment that framed student participatory self-directed learning and two examples of student assignments. The framing question for organising this case was as follows: What lessons can a team of graduate students and the instructor learn about self-directed participatory online learning from a collaborative design project? The article ends with the overall lessons learned from the case and implications to future design of online activities.     

Understanding Interdisciplinarity: Curricular and Organizational Features of Undergraduate Interdisciplinary Programs

Though the number of interdisciplinary undergraduate programs has increased rapidly over the past several decades, little empirical research has characterized such programs. In this article we report on our investigation of the characteristics of interdisciplinary programs and develop typologies to describe the multiple ways in which such programs are structured with respect to curricular and organizational features. Using cluster analysis, we show differences in both curricular structures and organizational features across programs, irrespective of the program’s content focus. This typology will guide future research to explore differences in student learning outcomes across the interdisciplinary program types.