Professional encounters with the post-WWII immigrant: a privileged prism for studying the shaping of European welfare nation-states

Abstract

This introductory article argues that practices of professional thinking and acting on the presence of the immigrant offer a privileged analytical prism through which to study how post-WWII European welfare nation-states have been shaped and crafted. As such, study of the formation of post-WWII welfare nation-states where one usually does not look for them is suggested: that is, beyond the bureaucratic logic imposed by the state itself. Consequently, a wedge is driven into the mundane professional practices embedded in the immigrant/welfare nation-state nexus, through which may be observed the very heterogeneous production of problems and solutions with immense effect on human lives, communities, and societies. These practices demonstrate the boundary work of the welfare nation-state that shapes it and gives shape to the construction and reconstruction of immigrant children and their families as problems and, thus, objects of integration and professional intervention. In this sense, the prism offers a new approach to writing histories of immigrant children’s education and the shaping and crafting of welfare nation-states that displaces both objects of study to professional practices of their making. In the first part of the article, the privileging of this analytical prism is substantiated historically and theoretically. In the second part, the four contributions constituting this themed issue are introduced. Finally there is a discussion of how the four contributions demonstrate the analytical prism’s cross-national relevance and historical sensitivity, adding new histories of how immigrant children’s education has been caught up in the immigrant/welfare nation-state nexus.     

Madres para Niños: Engaging Latina Mothers as Consultees to Promote Their Children’s Early Elementary School Achievement

ABSTRACT

The Madres para Niños (MpN) program uses consultee-centered consultation as a vehicle to help immigrant Latino parents focus and reframe their preexisting child advocacy skills toward their children’s successful transition into elementary school in a new geographic and cultural context. This article describes the Latina mother’s experience as consultee during the MpN ten-week group consultation process.     

‘Modernising the comprehensive principle’: selection,setting and the institutionalisation of educational failure

This paper examines issues of selection, merging an analysis of policy with data from a qualitative case study. It focuses on the ‘modernisation of the comprehensive principle’ proposed by New Labour, in which selection within schools (through setting ‘by ability’) is increasingly encouraged. Data collected at an inner‐city, multi‐ethnic comprehensive school are used to illustrate how discourses on selection are being reworked locally. The school was largely supportive of setting, despite some teachers acknowledging that the practice prioritised high‐achieving pupils with perceived ‘good attitudes’. In the form under study, setting involved disadvantaged pupils from ethnic‐minority backgrounds, particularly those who received support in English as an Additional Language. It is concluded that setting did not contribute to an inclusive agenda for education, in spite of government claims of increased ‘standards for all’.     

School Adjustment in Sixth Graders: Parenting Transitions, Family Climate, and Peer Norm Effects

This study examined whether sixth graders' (mean age = 11.86 years) adjustment to the school context (assessed by grades, achievement scores, and disruptive behavior) was affected by factors from both the family context (represented by students' reports of the number of parenting transitions experienced as well as current levels of supervision, acceptance, autonomy granting, and conflict in the family) and the peer context (represented by students' perceptions of peer norms supporting academic excellence). School adjustment was related to the number of parenting transitions experienced, family climate, and peer norms as well as to higher-order relations involving family climate and peer norms such that ( a ) high grade point averages occurred at only moderate levels of family supervision, ( b ) achievement scores were positively related to supervision at only low levels of family autonomy granting, and ( c ) grade point average was positively related to peer norms at only high levels of family acceptance.     

Mentoring Online about Mentoring: Possibilities and practice

Mentoring is most often associated with direct personal contact between individuals. Computer-based learning, on the other hand, is more associated with the impersonal interaction between human and machine. Recent developments in online technology, however, have paved the way for more personal interactions between people via machines. This article reports on the experience of a university professor and her graduate students as they embarked on learning about the very personal domain of mentoring via face-to-face and online learning. The results in terms of student learning, professional practice and mentoring suggest the benefit of utilizing technology as a support and enhancement to direct personal interaction, not replace it.     

Teachers' beliefs and integration of information and communications technology in Italian schools

Abstract

The goal of the present study was to examine teaching styles with information and communications technology (ICT); in Italian schools and in particular to explore whether there is a relationship between personal theories of teaching and learning, levels of competence in ICT, and how ICT is integrated into classroom activities. Teachers with high and low levels of competence in ICT were interviewed in order to examine their beliefs, perceptions, and experiences related to teaching with and without the computer. They were asked to reflect both on themselves as teachers and on their pupils. The results of this preliminary study appeared to indicate that both personal theories of teaching and the level of competence with ICT play a major role in how teachers implement ICT and in their perception of their own and their pupils' motivation     

Film Directors

Andrew Sinclair, John Ford (New York: The Dial Press, 1979 – $11.95)

Jeanne Basinger, Anthony Mann (Boston: Twayne Publishers, 1979 – $10.95)

Richard Leiterman by Alison Reid (120 pages, $5.50 in paper)

Federico Fellini: A Guide to References and Resources by John C. Stubbs with Constance D. Markley and Marc Lenzini (246 pages, $30.00)

Richard Lester: A Guide to References and Resources by Diane Rosenfeldt (152 pages, $15.00)

Ernest Lubitsch: A Guide to References and Resources by Robert Carringer and Barry Sabath (262 pages, $20.00)

Sidney Lumet: A Guide to References and Resources by Stephen E. Bowles (151 pages, $15.50)

Ken Russell: A Guide to References and Resources by Diane Rosenfeldt (140 pages, $14.00)

John Schlesinger: A Guide to References and Resources by Nancy J. Brooker (130 pages, $14.00)

Frederick Wiseman: A Guide to References and Resources by Liz Ellsworth (212 pages, $ 24.95)     

An Initial Report on the Publishing Activities of the Italian Minority Communities in Croatia and the Istrian and Dalmatian Diasporic Communities in Italy

The report focuses on the publishing activities of the Italian minority communities in Croatia and the Istrian and Dalmatian diasporic communities in Italy. These publications take a variety of forms and include monographs, belle-lettres, reference works, Italian-language textbooks, contemporary literature, and academic journals. Some are published by local organizations, others by university and commercial presses, while others are privately funded. The report is a preliminary effort to document scholarly resources that are important to both Slavic and Italian studies.