How girls and boys expect disclosure about problems will make them feel: implications for friendships

Although girls disclose to friends about problems more than boys, little is known about processes underlying this sex difference. Four studies (Ns = 526, 567, 769, 154) tested whether middle childhood to mid-adolescent girls and boys (ranging from 8 to 17 years old) differ in how they expect that talking about problems would make them feel. Girls endorsed positive expectations (e.g., expecting to feel cared for, understood) more strongly than boys. Despite common perceptions, boys did not endorse negative expectations such as feeling embarrassed or worried about being made fun of more than girls. Instead, boys were more likely than girls to expect to feel "weird" and like they were wasting time. Sex differences in outcome expectations did help to account for girls' greater disclosure to friends.     

Child‐Care Subsidies: Do They Impact the Quality of Care Children Experience?

The federal child‐care subsidy program represents one of the government’s largest investments in early care and education, but little is known about whether it increases low‐income children’s access to higher quality child care. This study used newly available nationally representative data on 4‐year‐old children (N = 750) to investigate whether subsidy receipt elevates child‐care quality. Results indicate that subsidy recipients use higher quality care compared to nonrecipients who use no other publicly funded care, but lower quality care compared to nonrecipients who instead use Head Start or public pre‐k. Findings suggest that subsidies may have the potential to enhance care quality but that parents who use subsidies are not accessing the highest quality care available to low‐income families.     

Using Word Identification Fluency to Monitor First-Grade Reading Development

This study assessed the effects of sampling breadth on technical features of word identification fluency (WIF), a tool for screening and monitoring the reading development of first graders. From a potential pool of 704 first-grade students, the authors measured both a representative sample (n = 284) and 2 other subgroups: those with low reading achievement (n = 202) and those with high/average achievement (n = 213). Data were collected weekly on broadly and narrowly sampled WIF lists for 15 weeks and on criterion measures in the fall and spring. Broad lists were developed by sampling words from 500 high-frequency words, whereas narrow lists were created by sampling from the 133 words from Dolch preprimer, primer, and first-grade word lists. Overall, predictive validity for performance level, predictive validity for growth, and commonality analysis showed narrow sampling was better for screening the representative group and the high/average subgroup. Broad sampling was superior for screening the low-achieving subgroup and for progress monitoring across groups.     

Assessing and Promoting Cultural Relativism in Students of Counseling

Multicultural counseling is often promoted as a core element in counselor development. As such, educational efforts aim to increase counselors’ cultural relativism, or their ability to recognize their own enculturation and to appreciate the value of other cultural norms. This mixed qualitative-quantitative study explored the relationship between counselor and human service professional trainees’ moral development levels and their cultural assumptions after they had experienced a course in cultural diversity. Four themes were noted: (i) reflexivity about culture, (ii) orientation toward activism and advocacy, (iii) differences in attitudes toward sexual orientation and religion, and (iv) increased alertness to culture. Implications for culturally alert practice are discussed.     

Engaging “Others” in Civic Engagement through Ethnography of Communication

This essay explains how ethnography of communication informed a model of public participation designed to engage underserved populations in culturally sensitive deliberative discussions. Community college students successfully served as coresearchers to pilot test and assess the effectiveness of a community-service learning model of civic engagement research.     

Communication,Uncertainty, and Volunteer Membership

Approximately 25% of Americans volunteer annually (Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2011). As organizational members, they face uncertainty concerning their roles, their relationships, and their organizations (Kramer, 2004). Volunteers likely face different uncertainty management issues than employees who have been the focus of most previous research. Volunteers have a different psychological contract and different motivations than employees (Rousseau, 1990). This study examined issues of uncertainty management of volunteer members in a particular setting, a community choir. In particular, it found that supervisor and peer communication and other internal factors, such as more preparation time and less difficult tasks, were associated with higher levels of certainty for members of a community choir. In addition, higher levels of certainty and additional external factors such as family support for participation and lack of conflicts were associated with higher levels of satisfaction and identification and a greater willingness to recruit for the organization. Results have implications for improving communication to increase volunteers' certainty and increasing their voluntary participation in organizations.     

NGOs in India's elite newspapers: a framing analysis

Non-governmental organizations (NGOs) are deeply embedded within the socio-political landscape of India. NGOs were instituted by the Indian government specifically for the purpose of nation-building at the time of national independence in 1947 (Muttalib, 1987). In recent times however, NGOs have come under much scrutiny because of the expanding neoliberal agenda, and global discourse surrounding NGOs often involves questions of accountability. Communication scholars have studied NGOs in various contexts, but what remains unexplored is the question of how NGOs are portrayed within the media, which in contemporary society constitutes the public sphere or space of public opinion. It is important to look at the media because public legitimacy can have serious consequences for an NGO's ability to garner funds, influence policy, and build trust in beneficiary communities. This study thus asks the research question: How are NGOs framed in the Indian media? A qualitative analysis was employed to identify news frames or ‘interpretive packages’ used to talk about NGOs in two of the most widely-circulated English daily newspapers in India. The analysis identified four frames: the ‘do-good’ frame, protest frame, partner frame, and the public accountability frame. The findings show that, for the most part, NGOs are represented in a positive and even a nationalistic light, in spite of the larger global discourse interrogating NGO practices. The discussion elaborates on institutional, political, and historical reasons why NGOs are portrayed favorably in the newspapers.     

Streaming Video: The Collaborative Convergence of Technical Services,Collection Development,and Information Technology in the Academic Library

To meet the rapid evolution of visual media and changing patron expectations, Brigham Young University's Harold B. Lee Library created Byugle, a device to stream videos to their users. This article describes the new challenges streaming video creates for librarians and the cooperative efforts of subject librarians, technical services, and the Information Technology Department as they work together to meet these challenges to provide streaming media for their patrons.     

Program portfolios: documenting teachers’ growth in reflection‐based inquiry

Meeting the challenge of program accountability is a goal for teacher education programs across the USA. In this context, achieving effective assessment practices that provide concrete evidence of program participants’ knowledge and skills has become both an increasingly significant issue and a challenge to teacher education programs seeking to document the attainment of their program learning outcomes. This qualitative study examined the portfolio reflections of 51 teachers enrolled in an advanced master’s degree program whose learning outcomes are aligned with the core propositions of the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards. Using the four levels of reflection and a fifth level that emerged from data analysis, we examined the levels of development and change in teachers’ reflections across the program. This analysis helped the researchers to determine to what degree teachers developed a reflection‐based inquiry stance in their classrooms during the program. The study contributes new findings to the body of literature on the role and function of portfolios in teacher education programs seeking to document teachers’ understanding and application of specific program goals and professional standards as a result of professional development coursework. As an authentic assessment tool, portfolio data (i.e., evidence such as the reflections contained therein) can provide an important lens for capturing teachers’ approach to teaching and learning and provides insight into the complexity of professional development for practicing teachers.     

Emeriti faculty as mentors: the benefits and rewards of mentoring the next generation

ABSTRACT

This holistic single-case study reports on the benefits mentors derived from participating in the Increasing Minority Presence within Academia through Continuous Training (IMPACT) mentoring program. The IMPACT program was sponsored by the National Science Foundation Office for Broadening Participation in Engineering 15–7680 (awards #1542728 and #1542524). In this program, emeriti faculty were matched with underrepresented minority faculty in the engineering professoriate for career-focused mentorship. The conceptual framework of the Benefits of Being a Mentor grounded this study. Findings indicate mentors appreciate the opportunity to give back and remain engaged in the field, to relive past academic career experiences, and to support the next generation of engineering professors while adjusting to retirement. These findings aligned with the conceptual framework on three factors: rewarding experience, improved job performance, and generativity. Implications for administrators and faculty, as well as additional research areas, are discussed.