A Content Analysis of Problematic Behavior in Counselor Education Programs

Counselor education programs are obligated by accreditation standards and professional codes of ethics to identify counselors‐in‐training whose academic, clinical, and personal performance indicate problematic behavior that would potentially prevent them from entering the profession ( McAdams, Foster, & Ward, 2007 ; Rust, Raskin, & Hill, 2013 ). Despite these obligations, there are no systematic criteria by which to address problematic behavior. This content analysis describes policies used by the Council for Accreditation of Counseling and Related Educational Programs' doctoral counselor education programs that define, assess, and remediate problematic behavior.     

Participatory action research in two primary schools in a rural Tanzanian village: an exploration of factors to cultivate changes in teaching and learning

Access to primary and secondary education in Tanzania has drastically expanded in the past two decades. In response to this success, its ministry is now targeting improvements in educational quality through additional reform. Yet teacher absenteeism, physical abuse, overcrowding, lecture-based pedagogy and a system of accountability based primarily on state and district examinations centered on rote memorization impose great obstacles to students being prepared for future employment and further education. This study draws insights into how traditional teaching and learning methods in one rural village in Tanzania can be changed through examining a collaboratively created intensive after-school program that focused on three content areas and used a participatory action research approach centered on cooperative inquiry. The key elements of the participatory action research approach drawn upon were using a participatory model to create a community of co-learners, designing the curriculum collectively, students collecting data in their communities about identified problems, requiring all participants to contribute, student groups disseminating their findings through presentations and an ongoing support system for teacher development in applying a student-centered pedagogy. Students responded through increased school attendance, confidence, self-esteem and active engagement while teachers incorporated participatory methods of instruction in their classrooms. The factors accounting for the consensus of support by villagers and school and government leaders for the program include community and government buy-in, the creation of a community of learners, consistent follow-up support for teachers and reinforcement of expectations.     

Curriculum Management in the Middle School

Critical friendship is a flexible form of assistance for development and research, and one that had a key role in the international Carpe Vitam Leadership for Learning project. Whilst conforming to common features and engaging in similar activities there were some differences in the way critical friendship was enacted across the eight sites. The work of the critical friends contributed to the development of the leadership for learning principles, which in turn provide a framework for considering critical friendship and deepening our understanding of its nature. Dialogue, a focus on learning, and concern with the conditions for learning are all found to be core features of critical friendship, and were themselves subjects of the critical friends’ work.     

Concerns about the Disproportionate Use of Economic Research in the FCC'S Media Ownership Studies from 2002–2007

An analysis of the studies used by the U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) in its media ownership proceedings from 2002–2007 found a disproportionate use of economic research to support the agency's rule changes. The use of this research in policymaking is important because the FCC's reliance on economic literature may have helped justify a “procedural” definition of what constitutes the public interest, and a “neoliberal” faith in the wisdom of market forces to ensure that the public interest is being served. The findings suggest that the inclusion of a broader range of scholarship, especially media research, would not have supported the FCC's decision to further relax media ownership rules.     

Experiencing and Managing Uncertainty about Climate Change

This paper joins uncertainty management and problematic integration literatures to better understand how people experience and manage uncertainty about climate change. Interviews with 235 stakeholders from private, public, and non-profit organizations in the state of Washington indicate an interesting disparity of certainty and the role of climate-related information. A majority of participants (n=137) were certain that energy use and climate change are related, and far fewer (n=13) were certain that they are not related. Our interpretive analysis indicates notable differences regarding the way people experience and management uncertainty.