Preserving respectability or blatant disrespect? A critical discourse analysis of the Morehouse Appropriate Attire Policy and implications for intersectional approaches to examining campus policies

In this paper, I conduct a critical discourse analysis of the Morehouse College Appropriate Attire Policy and discuss how issues of race, gender, and sexuality converge to reveal both overt and hidden meanings embedded in the policy. I also consider how power is used towards “other” black college men who neither fit neatly into prescribed gender norms, nor foster representations of “good” black men. I situate this critical policy analysis in the context of two ideas: bipolar masculinity and the politics of respectability, and offer implications for the use of intersectional frames in scholarship and research on men and institutional policies.     

Reconsidering the Bayh-Dole Act and the Current University Invention Ownership Model

The Bayh-Dole Act of 1980 provided U.S. universities with the right to commercialize employees’ inventions made while engaged in government-funded research. This paper argues that the current university invention ownership model, in which universities maintain de jure ownership of inventions, is not optimal either in terms of economic efficiency or for advancing the social interest of rapidly commercializing technology and encouraging entrepreneurship. We argue that this model is plagued by ineffective incentives, information asymmetries, and contradictory motivations for the university, the inventors, potential licensees, and university technology licensing offices (TLOs). These structural uncertainties can lead to delays in licensing, misaligned incentives among parties, and obstacles to the flow of scientific information and the materials necessary for scientific progress. The institutional arrangements within which TLOs are embedded have encouraged some of them to become revenue maximizers, rather than facilitators of technology dissemination for the good of the entire society.We suggest two alternative invention commercialization models as superior alternatives. The first alternative is to vest ownership with the inventor, who could choose the commercialization path for the invention. For this privilege the inventor would provide the university an ownership stake in any returns to the invention. The inventor would be free to contract with the university TLO or any other entity that might assist in commercialization. The second alternative is to make all inventions immediately publicly available through a public domain strategy or, through a requirement that all inventions be licensed non-exclusively. Both alternatives would address the current dysfunctional arrangements in university technology commercialization.     

A Review of Research on School Bullying Among African American Youth: An Ecological Systems Analysis

School bullying and peer victimization are social problems that affect African American youth across various environmental contexts. Regrettably, many of the empirical research on bullying and peer victimization among African American youth has examined individual and direct level influences in silos rather than a constellation of factors occurring in multiple settings, such as home, school, and neighborhood. As a holistic model, the social–ecological framework provides a context with which to situate and interpret findings and draw implications from a broader psychosocial framework, which can be applicable across various systems. We utilize Bronfenbrenner’s (American Psychologist 32:513–531, 1977) social–ecological framework as a springboard for investigating the accumulation of risk contributors and the presences of protective factors in relation to school bullying and peer victimization of African American youth. More specifically, we examine the risk and protective factors occurring in the micro- (i.e., parents, peers, school, and community), exo- (i.e., parental stress), and macrosystem levels (i.e., hypermasculinity, and gender role beliefs and stereotypes). We then discuss implications for research and school-based practice.     

Curriculum-Based Measurement as a Predictor of Performance on a State Assessment: Diagnostic Efficiency of Local Norms

With the concurrent emphasis on accountability, prevention, and early intervention, curriculum-based measurement of reading (R-CBM) is playing an increasingly important role in the educational process. This study investigated the differences in diagnostic accuracy and utility between commercial norms and local norms when making high-stakes, local decisions. Scores on Dynamic Indicators of Early Literacy Skills Oral Reading Fluency for 1,374 students in Grades 2 to 5 were used to predict outcomes the Georgia reading achievement test, the Criterion Referenced Competency Tests. Local norms were generated using logistic regression and receiver operator characteristic curve analysis. The generated cut scores were compared to the commercial norms for differences in diagnostic efficiency. The generated cut scores were lower than the commercial norms and had improved diagnostic efficiency. Implications related to educational policy and the use of R-CBM are discussed.     

Protecting privacy in public? Surveillance technologies and the value of public places

While maintaining the importance of privacy for critical evaluations of surveillance technologies, I suggest that privacy also constrains the debate by framing analyses in terms of the individual. Public space provides a site for considering what is at stake with surveillance technologies besides privacy. After describing two accounts of privacy and one of public space, I argue that surveillance technologies simultaneously add an ambiguityand a specificity to public places that are detrimental to the social, cultural, and civic importance of these places. By making public places accessible to other places and/or times, surveillance technologies make these social contexts ambiguous by blurring their spatial and temporal bounds. At the same time, surveillancetechnologies valence public places in functionally specificways that are detrimental to informal civic life. To complement defensive approaches to surveillance technologies based onindividual privacy, I conclude by suggesting how sociality as a relational value or an ethics of place as a contextual value could provide a proactive line of reasoning for affirming the value ofthat which is between people and places.     

Digitalisation in higher education: mapping institutional approaches for teaching and learning

This paper explores the digitalisation of teaching and learning understood as external processes, influenced by government and international trends and as internal processes within the institutions, in Denmark and Norway. These are countries with similarities regarding digitalisation and educational systems. In the internal processes, there was some use of digital technology in teaching and learning when initiated from administration including IT-staff, in collaboration with academic leaders. There was little or only limited reported use of technology for teaching and learning, when the processes were initiated by administration together with enthusiasts among faculty staff, who did not have leadership roles or influence on change. There was more reported use of technology in teaching and learning in Denmark than Norway. The paper discusses possible explanations for these findings and thus illuminates how processes of digitalisation are influenced by broader governance arrangements, institutional maturity and academic and administration staffs.     

Inclusion of preschool children with autism in Sweden: attitudes and perceived efficacy of preschool teachers

This pilot study examined the relations among preschool teachers' attitudes towards the inclusion of children with autism and perceived self‐efficacy, as well as demographic characteristics such as teachers' work experience and educational background. The cohort consisted of 21 participants who had degrees in preschool education and worked with children with autism in general preschool/kindergarten settings in central Sweden. Data were collected using the Autism Attitude Scale for Teachers, the Teacher Efficacy Scale and a demographic survey. In general, findings revealed that preschool teachers held positive attitudes towards children with autism, and this was significantly related to the number of credits in special education taken during pre‐service education. However, teachers showed neutral attitudes towards the inclusion of children with autism into general preschool classrooms. No relations were found between teachers' perceived self‐efficacy and attitudes towards inclusion, although a relationship was found between participation in in‐service training and efficacy to make decisions. Implications concerning early childhood education professional development and supervision are discussed.