General experiences + race + racism = Work lives of Black faculty in postsecondary science education

Existent research indicates that postsecondary Black faculty members, who are sorely underrepresented in the academy especially in STEM fields, assume essential roles; chief among these roles is diversifying higher education. Their recruitment and retention become more challenging in light of research findings on work life for postsecondary faculty. Research has shown that postsecondary faculty members in general have become increasingly stressed and job satisfaction has declined with dissatisfaction with endeavors and work overload cited as major stressors. In addition to the stresses managed by higher education faculty at large, Black faculty must navigate diversity-related challenges. Illuminating and understanding their experiences can be instrumental in lessening stress and job dissatisfaction, outcomes that facilitate recruitment and retention. This study featured the experiences and perceptions of Black faculty in science education. This study, framed by critical race theory, examines two questions: What characterizes the work life of some Black faculty members who teach, research, and serve in science education? How are race and racism present in the experiences of these postsecondary Black faculty members? A phenomenological approach to the study situates the experiences of the Black participants as valid phenomena worthy of investigation, illuminates their experiences, and seeks to retain the authenticity of their voices.     

Social justice,race and class in education in England: competing perspectives

‘Narrowing the gap’ and addressing low educational achievement of specific social class and ethnic groups has long been an expressed government concern. This paper considers the links between poverty, ethnicity and gender and school attainment and the interrelations of these factors using national data sets and other quantitative data. The limitations of single-theme analyses and their potentially misleading implications are explored. Related to this, the failures of social and educational policies to bring about greater equality are examined. Competing perspectives on low attainment and their positions are critiqued. The paper argues that ethnic and class discrimination stems from the same structural arrangements contrived for the advantage of more affluent sectors of society. Theoretical development is needed to bring together class, race and other discriminatory features and construct more sophisticated causal analyses that relate to the web of economic, status and power regimes and the negative processes of ‘racialisation’.     

In Their Own Words: Teachers' Reflections on Adaptability

Current research explores adaptability by gathering teachers' reflections on their adaptations. However, the field knows little of what the term adaptability means to teachers who currently teach in today's educational context. In this article, adaptability is discussed from the perspectives of 3 practicing classroom educators, teaching in various contexts (geographic region and grade level). Teachers' voices of adaptability are examined and a definition of adaptability is discussed. Obstacles are presented in these teachers' efforts to adapt their instruction in their respective contexts. Teachers then discussed the ways in which they navigated these obstacles to modify their instruction to fit a variety of learners and experiences despite these constraints.     

An “Ideal” Home for Care: Nel Noddings,Thomas Hill Green,and an Ontological Support for a Phenomenology of Care

This paper is grounded in a deep appreciation of Nel Noddings’ “ethics of care” as an important contribution to moral philosophy and moral education. We seek to offer some philosophical reflections that have the potential to strengthen this important alternative to mainstream ethics and to how moral education might be conceived and practiced differently. After identifying some ambivalence in Noddings’ own position toward abstract philosophy, and despite the practical reasons for this that we share, we then find grounds for pressing in this speculative direction, some of which indeed accord with Noddings’ own statements and philosophical concerns. To show how such further philosophical reflection upon her relational morality could help, we focus on elaborating a perspective on ontological issues that we find in the work of Thomas Hill Green, a 19^th century idealist, and seek to show its compatibility with Noddings’ more pragmatic stance. A concluding point addresses, and dispels, a possible worry that the grand narrative structure of Green’s idealism might undercut Noddings’ aim of having an ethic that is melioristic and open.     

Predicting Future Trends in Adult Fitness Using the Delphi Approach

Abstract

This study determined how experts see the future of adult fitness by using the Delphi Technique as a measurement tool. Experts (n = 50), all Fellows of the American College of Sports Medicine, were selected on the basis of their reputations in adult fitness. Three questionnaires were submitted to the panel. In the first questionnaire each expert listed five or more events, trends, or developments they thought would take place and five or more events they would like to see take place in the next 25 years. From the events and trends listed on this questionnaire, 100 items were generated that formed the basis for the last two questionnaires. Responses to the items on the second questionnaire were evaluated on a 5-point Likert scale for probability and desirability. In the third questionnaire, group means and standard deviations were calculated and recorded for each item. Only those items which were significantly (p < .01) higher than 3.0, the average probability or desirability response on the Likert scale, were included in the analysis. The items were divided into seven categories: fitness in sport and recreation, fitness and wellness, fitness in industry, fitness in education, fitness in business, research in fitness, and fitness equipment and facilities. The highest single mean for any item for both probability (M = 4.31) and desirability (M = 4.83) was increased awareness of health and fitness among the elderly.