Validation of the Early Childhood Ecology Scale-Revised: A Reflective Tool for Teacher Candidates

Given increasing numbers of young culturally and/or linguistically diverse (CLD) children across the United States, it is crucial to prepare early childhood teachers to create high-quality environments that facilitate the development of all children. The Early Childhood Ecology Scale-Revised (ECES-R) has been developed as a reflective tool to help early childhood teacher candidates examine their beliefs concerning classroom ecology. Using cultural responsivity and classroom management theories as the theoretical framework, the authors posit that the ECES-R identifies five dimensions that promote a high-quality, culturally responsive classroom ecology. These include the sociocognitive, sociocultural, sociolinguistic, socioemotional, and sociophysical dimensions. Evidence for reliability and validity was established. Factor analysis supported the five proposed dimensions, with the identification of an additional dimension: sociocomfort.     

En Confianza: Co-constructing Professional Strength and Voice With Latina Early Childhood Educators

It is well documented in the literature that early pre-K reading experiences prepare children for the benefits of formal literacy instruction in the later grades. This is particularly true for young children from nonmainstream backgrounds. The objective of this article is to share the findings of a 4-year qualitative study investigating the relationships forged and teaching ideologies constructed by Latino pre-K teachers via critical “storying” within a culturally responsive professional learning community. Findings suggest that as teachers learned to recognize, listen to, and learn from the personal/professional individual and collective life histories of each other, their teaching efficacy was enhanced increasing their ability to develop effective literacy instruction that was culturally and linguistically responsive to the needs of young children.     

Revisiting the role of within-compound associations in cue-interaction phenomena

Although it is thought that within-compound associations are necessary for the occurrence of both backward blocking and unovershadowing, it is not known whether this variable plays a similar role in mediating the two phenomena. Similarly, the roles of within-compound associations in forward blocking and in reduced overshadowing have not been tested independently. The present experiments evaluated how the strength of within-compound associations affects backward blocking, unovershadowing, forward blocking, and reduced overshadowing. Using an allergy task, the strength of within-compound associations was varied by taking advantage of the participants’ prior knowledge of common and uncommon food pairings. Backward blocking and unovershadowing effects were present only when highly memorable compound cues were used. Moreover, the magnitudes of both retrospective revaluation effects were affected by the strength of within-compound associations. Forward blocking and reduced overshadowing effects were independent of within-compound associations. These results have important theoretical implications for causal learning research.     

Latinas’ heritage language as a source of resiliency: impact on academic achievement in STEM fields

Cultural Studies of Science Education - This article highlights how the preservation of heritage languages is essential in the construction of three Georgia Latina participants’ cultural...     

Veteran teachers’ identity: what does the research literature tell us?

This paper provides an overview of research on veteran teachers and teacher identity. It analyses issues at the personal, situated and professional levels that have been shown to impact on veteran teachers’ identities. The search included empirical studies published in peer-reviewed journals between 2005 and 2016. In total, 19 papers were analysed. Findings revealed that many studies focused on veteran teachers’ resilience. Issues concerning veteran teachers’ identities are key to understanding why they remain in the profession and are able to sustain their motivation and commitment over time. Many veteran teachers portrayed in the literature built on their confidence regarding their professional competence and relied on internal and external issues to maintain their motivation and commitment to teaching. The role of emotions in the transformation of veteran teachers’ identities and the permeable boundaries of the personal, situated and professional scenarios influencing veteran teachers’ identities are highlighted in the paper.     

Defining and Communicating What “Intercultural” and “Intercultural Communication” Means to Us

In order to engage in our larger discussion, we needed to share our definitions, framings, and theorizings of what “intercultural” and “intercultural communication” mean to us and how we inflect these based on our own experiences, identities, and perspectives. Discussants break down how they understand the notion of “intercultural” behind commonly used and circulated terms in our scholarship.     

Local e-government 2.0: Social media and corporate transparency in municipalities

Various authors have highlighted the potential contribution of the internet to enhance the interactivity, transparency, and openness of public sector entities and to promote new forms of accountability. The search for new styles of governance which promote higher levels of transparency and the engagement of citizens is viewed as a way of improving citizens' trust in governments. As the social media are becoming ubiquitous, both academics and practitioners need some initial and reliable background data about the deployment of this kind of technology at all levels. The aim of this work is to provide an overall view about the use of Web 2.0 and social media tools in EU local governments in order to determine whether local governments are using these technologies to increase transparency and e-participation, opening a real corporate dialog. In addition, the paper tries to identify which factors promote the level of development of these tools at local level. Our results show that most local governments are using Web 2.0 and social media tools to enhance transparency but, in general, the concept of corporate dialog and the use of Web 2.0 to promote e-participation are still in their infancy at the local level.     

Using the Concrete-Representational-Abstract Sequence to Teach Conceptual Understanding of Place Value,Rounding, and Expanded Notation

This study investigated the effects of a place value intervention with third-grade students with learning disabilities. The intervention added content to a research-based intervention using the concrete-representational-abstract (CRA) sequence. The added content reflected current mathematics standards for third grade. Students’ place value understanding was measured using probes in which students had to identify the value of each digit within a three-digit number, round three-digit numbers to the nearest 10 or 100, and write three equations showing an expanded form of a three-digit number. A single-case, multiple-probe-across-students design showed a functional relation between CRA and completion of items requiring place value understanding. Students completed a generalization task by estimating the sum of a given equation.