The cost of being professors and administrators of color in predominantly white institutions: unpacking microagression,isolation, exclusion,and unfairness through a critical race lens

ABSTRACT

Teaching in predominantly white institutions is a terrific challenge for professors of color. In addition to being expected to fulfill professional obligations, including publishing, teaching, advising, and mentoring students, professors of color constantly have to fight against microaggression, lack of diversity, inclusion, and fairness in the academy. Drawing on critical race theory and testimonios from professors of color from diverse backgrounds, this essay seeks to examine ways in which these professors have experienced these intersecting forms of oppression in the academy. Their testimonios showcase their resilient spirit resisting institutional oppression. This essay presents a very complex portrait of the experiences of professors of color and goes on to offer suggestions that might be helpful to those interested in social justice issues in higher education.     

Disentangling the impact of semantic and formal factors in the acquisition of number inflections: Noun, adjective and verb agreement in written French

In written French, the acquisition of the nominal plural (-s) occurs earlier and faster than the acquisition of the verbal plural (-nt) (Totereau, Thevenin & Fayol, 1997, Learning to Spell). The reasons for this difference are not well known. The objective of the present research is to test two alternative hypotheses, which may provide an account of this difference by exploiting a particularity of written French: The agreement of adjectives. According to the first hypothesis, the nominal plural is acquired before the verbal plural because it is semantically grounded, unlike the latter. According to the second, the early emergence of noun agreements is due to the fact that -s occurs more consistently than -nt. These two hypotheses lead to different predictions, that can be tested empirically, with regard to the agreement of adjectives. These predictions were studied in three experiments using sentences recall or completion tasks presented to children from 7 to 10 years old. The results confirm the semantic hypothesis but reveal an impact of consistency on performance.     

The Training of Physical-Education Teachers in France and China: A Comparative Analysis of Curricula and Attitudes

This study in comparative physical education examines the curricula followed by physical-education teachers in China and France. It explores how theories of physical education and sport in each country have developed out of specific political, cultural and educational contexts, yet resulted in strong similarities in terms of the priority given to training programs. Nonetheless, it can be seen that the two curricula reflect genuinely divergent concepts of physical education influencing both theory and practice. The attitudes of Chinese and French teacher-trainers towards physical education and sport are shown to display significant ideological differences with regard to the meaning and educational import of these activities.     

The acquisition of subject-verb agreement in written French: From novices to experts' errors

Recent studies have shown that many subject-verb agreement errors consist of making the verb agree with the immediately preceding noun, as in The smell of the rubbish-bins are foul. Assuming that it is the automaticity of the agreement operation which is responsible for these attraction errors in expert writers, the present studies aimed at demonstrating the gradual automatization of this operation in young writers by examining developmental changes in the occurrence of agreement errors. In three experiments we found that subjects' performance moves from systematic errors in number agreement in young children (e.g., no use of plural marks) to attraction errors in fifth graders and older adults through an intermediate phase characterized by an attention-demanding and easily disrupted computation of verb agreement displayed by some second graders. Attraction errors are a byproduct of the automatization of the implementation of the agreement process.     

Characteristic(s) of Hypermedia and How They Relate to Knowledge

This article offers a redefining of three problem areas associated with the cognitive effects of the semiotic characteristics of hypermedia, highlighted by the first years of research on this objective: the hypertext associativity, the non-linearity and the rapprochement of real and hypertext navigation. We focus on the question of navigation, and try to show how this question arises in hypermedia, and why it arises in a way, which is more important than in other supports, such as books. In addition, we show how the semiotic characteristics of hypermedia which are identified in the first part of the article (non-linearity, absence of reading a default unique path, etc.) makes illusory the aim of completely understanding the ideas of the author, as can happen with a book. The relationship to knowledge offered by hypertext is no longer based on the understanding of a body of knowledge prepared in advance by the author, but on a users personal reconstruction. This reversal calls into question the way of defining the navigation mentioned above, which implicitly assumes the need for the users to mentally picture for themselves the formal organization of the whole of the document being studied. Spécificité(s) des hypermédias et rapport au savoir. Cet article propose un recadrage de trois problématiques propres aux effets cognitifs des spécificités sémiotiques des hypermédias, stigmatisées par les premières années de recherche sur cet objet : l'associativité hypertextuelle, la non-linéarité et le rapprochement entre navigations réelle et hypertextuelle. Nous nous arrêtons sur la question de la navigation, et tenterons de montrer comment cette question se pose dans les hypermédias, et pourquoi elle s'y pose de faÇon plus importante que dans d'autres supports, comme le livre. Par ailleurs, nous mettons en évidence comment les spécificités sémiotiques des hypermédias identifiées dans la première partie de l'article(non-linéarité, absence de parcours de lecture par défaut unique, etc.)rendent illusoire le but d'appréhender le propos de l'auteur dans sa totalité, comme on peut le faire dans le livre. Le rapport au savoir proposé par l'hypertexte se fonde non plus sur l'appréhension d'un ensemble de connaissances préconstruit par un auteur, mais sur une reconstruction propre À l'utilisateur. Ce renversement remet en question la faÇon de cadrer la navigation évoquée plus haut, qui suppose implicitement la nécessité pour l'utilisateur de se représenter mentalement l'organisation formelle de l'ensemble du document consulté. Die Charakteristikas der Hypermedien und ihre Beziehung zu Wissen. Dieser Artikel versucht drei Problemstellungen - aus den ersten Forschungsjahren auf diesem Gebiet resultierend - neu zu definieren, die mit den kognitiven Auswirkungen der semiotischen Charakteristikas von Hypermedia assoziiert werden : die Assoziativität von Hypertext, die Nicht-Linearität, und die Gegenüberstellung von wirklicher zu hypertextueller Navigation. Wir versuchen der Frage nach der Navigation in den Hypermedien nachzugehen, und warum diese Frage hier von grössere Bedeutung ist, als bei anderen Medien, wie bespielsweise Büchern. Wir zeigen überdies, wie die semiotischen Charakteristikas von Hypermedia (identifiziert im ersten Abschnitt) illusorisch das Ziel erreichen, die Ideen eines Autors vollständig zu verstehen, wie es bei einem Buch der Fall ist. Die durch Hypertext ermöglichte Beziehung zu Wissen basiert nicht mehr auf einem vom Autor vorkonstruierten Ensemble von Kenntnissen, sondern auf die Rekonstruktion durch den Leser. Diese Umkehrung wirft die Frage nach der Definition der oben beschriebenen Navigation auf, die implizit die Notwendigkeit voraussetzt, dass sich der Leser die formelle Organisation des Dokumentes verbildlicht.     

Cognitive Profiles in Elementary Algebra: the PÉPITE Test Interface

The work presented here is part of a multidisciplinary project, called the PÉPITE project. Its aim is to set up a system to diagnose student profiles starting from a multidimensional analysis grid to evaluate their competences in elementary algebra. This paper deals with the design, the making and the evaluation of an interface in Computer Based Learning Environments. In it, we present the method adopted to set up software which proposes tasks to the students and collects data for the diagnosis module.We consider here the problems linked to the re-use of didactic know-how based on pencil-and-paper tasks and in particular how to transfer these tasks to a data processing environment. These problems are considered from the interface designer's point of view. In an attempt to make this clear, we make a distinction between ergonomic problems connected with the functioning of the interface and problems related to the field of application. © IFIP, published by Kluwer Academic Publishers