Disability Equality in the Classroom‐a human rights issue

The author argues that disabled women are kept out of the mainstream of education by the design and lack of representation on decision‐making bodies. A project in Surrey, a model of good practice, is described, where resources were attracted to disabled women's needs.     

Analogical encoding with and without instructions for case comparison of scientific phenomena

The study aimed to extend current research on conditions that better support analogical encoding through mutual alignment. We focused on two variables that have not been examined independently in previous studies: the joint presentations of two cases of a scientific phenomenon and the explicit instructions for comparison. One hundred and sixty-five 5th graders and one hundred and sixty-eight 7th graders were presented with two pairs of scenarios, one about heat flow and the other about the state change of matter. Participants were randomly assigned to three conditions: sequential presentation of scenarios, joint presentation of scenarios and joint presentation of scenarios with explicit instructions to compare analogically. Results show that for both pairs of scenarios, analogical encoding was promoted more in the condition of joint presentation of scenarios with instructions for comparison. In addition, 7th graders benefited more from this condition than 5th graders.     

Ethical gaps in studies of the digital divide

There are many reports about the digital divideand many discrepant interpretations of what thereports indicate. This pattern of competinganalyses, often in relation to identical datasets, has endured for a good part of the lastdecade. It is argued here that a major problemwith much of the digital divide research is afailure to include ethical concerns as anexplicit part of analyzing and interpretingdigital divide gaps. If researchers includemore recognition of ethics with their findingsabout divide gaps, it is likely that they willproduce better research and findings as well asmore defensible linkages between study reportsand policy deliberations.     

Typical scope of time commitment and research outputs of Thesis by Publication in Australia

ABSTRACT

The Thesis by Publication (TBP) is an approach to doctoral education that offers the advantage of achievement of a doctoral degree while at the same time facilitating development of transferable knowledge and skills necessary to enter and sustain a career in contemporary academia. There is a need to build deeper understanding of the demands of the TBP, and the characteristics of those who select it over the more common traditional approach to enable universities to provide doctoral education programmes and policies that are responsive to doctoral students’ needs. Such knowledge can also facilitate timely completion, and improve understanding of the extent of TBP candidates’ contribution to institutions’ research outputs. This study draws on survey data from 246 doctoral graduates from universities in Australia, where the TBP is comparatively new but increasing in popularity. The article identifies the characteristics of candidates who complete a TBP in Australia, before exploring the typical scope of time commitment, through making visible their length of candidature. Finally, volume, type, authorship and publication status of research outputs are detailed, enabling prospective candidates and their supporting institutions to gauge the possible scope of time commitment and research outputs to inform support services and policies, and to guide supervisory and student choices between traditional and TBP models.     

Disciplining Dalmar: a demand to uncover racism and racialization in pursuit of culturally relevant pedagogy

The need for multifaceted analyses of the relationships between how the United States acknowledges racism and how schooling can be structured to mitigate its negative impacts has never been greater, especially given rising attention to the racial “achievement gap.” In suburban, elite Pioneer City, a series of initiatives I will refer to as “the transformation” aimed to eliminate racial disparities in educational achievement through simultaneous efforts to redistribute students from a racially and economically isolated elementary school and train all district staff in a particular brand of culturally relevant pedagogy. This paper draws from a larger yearlong study in which I used critical ethnographic methods to explore tensions between a goal of systemic change and reproductive forces at play in Pioneer City Schools. Focusing on one third-grade student, I offer insights into how the school district’s equity-minded policy changes find their way into one classroom, both reflecting and complicating preexisting ways of viewing the role of race in young children’s lives.