“I want to speak like the other people”: Second language learning as a virtuous spiral for migrant women?

This article contributes to scholarship on migrant women’s second language (L2) education in North America and Europe. Questioning reductionist understandings of the relationship between female migrants, their receiving communities and L2 education, the authors consider existing literature as well as their own qualitative work to investigate the challenges, opportunities and agency of migrant women. Weaving together and thematically presenting previous scholarship and qualitative data from interviews, participant observations and classroom recordings from a mixed-gender L2 adult migrant classroom in Austria and an all-women L2 migrant classroom in the United States, they trouble conceptualisations which position women primarily as passive recipients of education and in need of emancipation, while simultaneously elevating communities as agentic providers of these. Specifically, the authors emphasise that (1) L2 proficiency is not a guarantee for migrant women’s social inclusion or socioeconomic advancement; (2) migrant women’s complex challenges and agency need to be recognised and addressed; and (3) all involved in L2 education of migrant women do well to become learners of their own experiences of oppression, including their complicity in it.     

Impact of the National Writing Project's College-Ready Writers Program in High-Need Rural Districts

By 2013, all 50 states and the District of Columbia had adopted college- and career-ready standards in English language arts and mathematics, placing a greater emphasis on argument writing to prepare students for life after high school. Solving the specific problem of how to help teachers teach to new standards for argument writing as well as the broader problem of improving teaching and learning requires continued efforts to understand how to support teachers in making substantial changes in instruction. This paper reports on a district-randomized controlled trial of the National Writing Project's College-Ready Writers Program (CRWP), implemented in high-need rural districts in 10 states, testing one instance of professional development paired with supporting curricular resources and a formative assessment tool designed to shift instruction to align with the new college- and career-ready standards in English language arts classes in Grades 7–10. Researchers randomly assigned 44 rural districts either to receive two years of CRWP or to be in a business-as-usual control group and found positive impacts on teacher practice and student source-based argument writing.     

Concurrent validity of the Polar s3 Stride Sensor for measuring walking stride velocity

With this research, we sought to establish the accuracy of stride velocity data collected by the s3 Stride Sensor Participants walked along a GAITRite mat at self-selected slow, preferred, and fast velocities, with two s3 Stride Sensors attached to their right foot. The start position was systematically varied such that the GAITRite system would record the second through sixth strides at each walking velocity. Both slow and preferred walking velocities were underestimated by 14% relative to the GAITRite (p < .05), while independent of walking velocity, Strides 2 and 3 were underestimated by 26% and 9% (p < .05), respectively. Researchers should use caution when interpreting data collected at slow and preferred walking velocities and during the first three strides.     

I like to do it, I'm able, and I know I am: longitudinal couplings between domain-specific achievement, self-concept, and interest

The longitudinal development of the intraindividual coupling between academic achievement, interest, and self-concept of ability (SCA) was analyzed in a sample of approximately 1,000 children between grades 1 and 12 (ages 6-17). Across all calculated indexes, the average level of coupling was positive. Individuals generally felt competent and interested in domains where they achieve well, and were interested in domains where they perceive their personal strengths. The degree of coupling was the highest between interest and SCA and the lowest between interest and achievement. For all indexes, evidence for an increase in coupling across time was found. Female gender was related to a lower level of coupling. There was evidence for a positive effect of conscientiousness on the amount of coupling.     

Relations Between Dialect Variation, Grammar, and Early Spelling Skills

Relationships among African American English (AAE), linguistic knowledge, and spelling skills were examined in a sample of 92 children in grades one through three whose speech varied in the frequency of morphosyntactic AAE features. Children were separated into groups of high (AAE speakers) and low (standard American English, SAE, speakers) use of AAE features in speech, and asked to produce, recognize, and spell four inflected grammatical morphemes because variable omission of these endings in speech is a morphosyntactic characteristic of AAE. The groups differed in their spelling and elicited spoken production of inflections, but not recognition of these forms. AAE speakers omitted the inflections more often at each grade. Density of morphosyntactic AAE features in speech was related directly to spelling inflections, but this effect was mediated by children’s understanding of standard grammatical forms.     

Personal constructs and the enhancement of adolescent engagement in reading

In this article, Nicole Irwin analyses the literature concerning enhancement of reading engagement for adolescents. She argues that cognition is irrevocably linked to the affective domain, and that voluntary engaged reading can be enhanced more effectively by attention to the perceptions of learners in addition to their cognitive skills. With Personal Construct Psychology as the framework, Nicole examines the constructs that readers develop about themselves, shaped by their understanding of (1) the purpose and nature of reading, (2) gender and (3) parents’ attitudes and behaviour concerning reading. The possible implications Personal Construct Psychology might have for education policy, culture and classroom practice are considered.     

Sexuality and relationships education: toward a social studies approach

Globally, gender norms and power differentials profoundly affect both girls' and boys' sexual attitudes, practices and health. One avenue for enabling young people to reflect on traditional gender arrangements that endanger their health—and to lay the groundwork for satisfying sexual lives—is sexuality and relationships education (SRE). Unfortunately, many SRE programmes address gender norms and critical thinking skills either superficially or not at all. Moreover, in some developing countries, SRE programmes do not reach the majority of girls aged 15–19, a high proportion of whom are simply not in school. This paper argues for grounding SRE within a social studies framework, emphasizing gender and social context. Such an approach can foster critical thinking skills, can provide a foundation for subsequent lessons on explicitly sexual topics, can illuminate the links between gender inequality and other social issues, can allow for a human‐rights emphasis that may prove politically less controversial than technical sexuality topics, and may ultimately prove vital to achieving better sexual health outcomes. The experience of community‐based programmes provides lessons for designing and evaluating such approaches in schools.     

Fostering partnerships with families: academic service-learning in the Little Village

ABSTRACT

Strong family-teacher partnerships increase family engagement, promoting positive outcomes for children. Early childhood educators need knowledge, skills, and dispositions for establishing strong, meaningful partnerships with diverse families. This research investigated the impact of academic service-learning (ASL) on undergraduate students’ knowledge, skills, and dispositions for partnering with culturally and linguistically diverse families to promote young children’s early academic learning. Participants included nine undergraduates in an early childhood teacher preparation course, ten culturally and linguistically diverse families, and thirteen 2- to 5-year-old children. In this mixed-methods study, written student ASL reflections, pre- and post-ASL student surveys, and parent evaluations were analyzed. Three themes emerged from the analysis: (1) Students entered the ASL experience with excitement and a mostly positive approach; (2) Early to mid-semester, students articulated a high degree of nervousness and discomfort as well as challenges to partnership-building, yet also noted family interest and engagement; and (3) Mid- to late semester, most students expressed their growing confidence in their own skills for relating to diverse families, and identified family strengths. Our findings support ASL as an effective teacher-preparation pedagogy to help students build family-teacher partnerships.