SITUATING KNOWLEDGES AS COALITION WORK

A bstract .  In this essay Maureen Ford examines a selection of situated knowledges discourses in order to make explicit their attention to political effects. She contends, first, that the "epistemic public(s)" constituted through these discourses are multiple, interactive, performative, and layered, and further that they are explicitly political in ways that are denied by standard epistemological approaches. Furthermore, Ford maintains that the political effects circulated within standard and situated knowledges are epistemologically and educationally significant. Attending to the work of Donna Haraway, Patricia Hill Collins, and María Lugones, she teases out some of the various strategies through which their texts explicitly invoke politically salient, multidimensional, embodied engagement with spaces, people, and discourses in order to make sense . Ford explores the ramifications for educators and educational theorists of addressing such epistemic publics, noting that they are complex and almost inevitably uncomfortable. Taking up discourses of situated knowledges, she suggests, proliferates the avenues through which educators and educational theorists can contribute to the creation and contestation of "public" truths.     

The varieties of pathways to dysfluent reading: comparing subtypes of children with dyslexia at letter, word, and connected text levels of reading

The majority of work on the double-deficit hypothesis (DDH) of dyslexia has been done at the letter and word levels of reading. Key research questions addressed in this study are (a) do readers with different subtypes of dyslexia display differences in fluency at particular reading levels (e.g., letter, word, and connected text)? and (b) do children with dyslexia identified by either low-achievement or ability-achievement discrepancy criteria show similar differences when classified by the DDH? To address these questions, the authors assessed a sample of 158 children with severe reading impairments in second and third grades on an extensive battery and classified them into three reader subtypes using the DDH. The results demonstrated that the three DDH subtypes exhibited differences in fluency at different levels of reading (letter, word, and connected text), underscoring the separate reading profiles of these subtypes and the different possible routes to dysfluency in reading disabilities. Furthermore, the results suggest that the different patterns among DDH subtypes are primarily driven by the ability-achievement discrepancy group. The implications of these findings are discussed for intervention, reading theory, and a more refined understanding of heterogeneity.     

Speaking and listening in the primary curriculum: some themes and their impact

In a previous phase of a project based in a group of UK primary schools, speaking and listening was found to be an effective focus for improved learning across the curriculum and for teachers’ professional development. At the project's second stage and in the light of recently changed Department for Education guidelines, these findings have been extended to exploration of strategies in the development of pupils’ communicative skills and the potential value of these when transferred to other, cross-curricular contexts. Teachers’ perspectives have again been considered, in terms of their ability to manage the strategies but also of the impact on their views of themselves and their role. Data in the form of transcribed classroom recordings, observations and interviews, plus teachers’ diaries and pupils’ work, have been analysed for these purposes. They show that the skills in question can indeed be taught and will transfer across contexts when teaching is of a ‘dialogic’ character.     

Comparing the self-concept of students with and without learning disabilities

This study compared self-concept in 50 middle school children with learning disabilities (LD) and 70 of their peers without LD. The students, primarily Hispanic, completed the Piers-Harris Children's Self-Concept Scale, and each obtained a score in six subdomains. Differences were found between the groups on the Intellectual and School Status and Behavior subscales, with students without LD scoring higher on both scales. There was no difference between groups on global self-concept. The limitations of this study are identified, and directions for future research are provided.     

Thematic continuities: Talking and thinking about adaptation in a socially complex classroom

In this study I rely on sociocultural views of learning and teaching to describe how fifth–sixth‐grade students in a Fostering a Community of Learners (FCL) classroom gradually adopted scientific ideas and language in a socially complex classroom. Students practiced talking science together, using everyday, scientific, and hybrid discourses as they studied endangered species. Students' overarching content themes, or “thematic continuities,” acted as generative scaffolds for developing complex lines of inquiry, leading ultimately to the appropriation of aspects of the biological principle of adaptation. Thematic continuities provided an organizing framework for thinking and talking about previously disconnected science facts, and set the stage for the adaptationist stance. Mixed method data analyses relied on written assessments, in‐depth guided clinical interviews, video and audiotaping of small and large group participant structures, in‐class student work, and ethnographic notes. Data analysis included two discrete levels, the macro (whole and half class) and the intermediate (case study of one small group) to capture both holistic and detailed aspects of dialogue. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 45: 1–30, 2008     

Explain This,Explore That: A Study of Parent–Child Interaction in a Children's Museum

Parents visiting a gear exhibit at a children's museum were instructed to encourage their children (N = 65; ages 4–6) to explain, explore, or engage as usual. Instructions led to different patterns of play at the exhibit: Encouragement to explain led to greater discussion of gear mechanisms, whereas encouragement to explore led to more time connecting gears. In the explain condition, parents’ questions predicted their children's discussion and further testing of gears. Questions also predicted the amount of time children spent on a follow-up task. Parents’ exploration predicted an increase in exploration by their children. These data indicate that minimal interventions impact parent–child interaction at a museum exhibit and that prompts to explore or explain uniquely influence parent and child behavior.     

Listening to Mothers II: Report of the Second National U.S. Survey of Women's Childbearing Experiences: Conducted January-February 2006 for Childbirth Connection by Harris Interactive(R) in partnership with Lamaze International

With permission from Childbirth Connection, the concise version of the Listening to Mothers II "Survey Methodology" is reprinted here. Harris Interactive(R) conducted Listening to Mothers II: Report of the Second National U.S. Survey of Women's Childbearing Experiences on behalf of Childbirth Connection. The survey consisted of 1,373 online interviews and 200 telephone interviews with women who had given birth in U.S. hospitals in 2005, with weighting of data to reflect the target population. Interviews were conducted from January 20 through February 21, 2006. The methods used to conduct the survey and analyze the data collected are described.     

Modification of acoustic and nociceptive reflexes in the rat by visual stimulation

Three experiments demonstrated in the rat that the flexor reaction to a nociceptive cutaneous stimulus (a .5-msec, .5-mA electric shock to the feet) was inhibited by a preceding light flash. In the first, the optimal lead time was at 50 or 100 msec compared to separations of 5 or 400 msec. In the second, the inhibitory effect was shown in ambient noise approximating threshold, indicating that the response decrement was not caused because the light may have blocked a facilitating effect of a moderate background noise level. In the third experiment, the light flash inhibited both the flexor reaction to the cutaneous stimulus and to an acoustic startle stimulus with which it was randomly intermixed. These findings reveal that inhibition is not specific to a particular modality of eliciting stimulus input, though it may be restricted to a particular class of motor events, that is, to flexor reactions.     

A test to measure problem-solving skills in science of children in grades one,two, and three

The aim of this study was to develop a reliable and valid group test that would evaluate some of the science problem-solving skills of children in grades one, two, and three. The primary grade children used in this study were from three different socio-economic areas: Area I has been described as a low-income urban section; Area II is characterized as a middle-income outlying-urban area; and Area III is a high-income suburban region. The problem-solving skills identified for use in this instrument are: (1) the ability to recognize the problem presented; (2) an understanding of science principles needed to solve the problem; (3) the ability to collect data; and (4) the ability to reason with “if-then” statements. The findings from the preliminary testing were used to clarify ambiguities in test directions and format and to calculate the difficulty and discrimination of each test item. After an item-by-item analysis of student performance, a final form of the instrument was constructed. The data from this final form was used to determine time limits, scoring procedures, test validity, reliability, and norms.