Intracultural Travel or Adventures at Home in The Ear, the Eye, and the Arm

Rather than look at children as they move between cultures, this article examines the child protagonists of The Ear, the Eye, and the Arm as they move within their own culture. Although this multi-cultural novel is from the science fiction genre, the psychological reality of encountering different peoples holds true. Tendai, Rita, and Kuda are unique characters: they live in isolation within their own culture. This isolation allows the children to experience each segment of their culture as if they were outsiders to it. Both the narrator and narrative are set up to help the reader find the various subcultures visited as lacking—this despite several overt statements about not making judgments. In the end, what could be a novel of understanding and acceptance turns out to be a terrific adventure story, but rather typical in that any culture that is not the protagonist's own is dangerous and inferior.     

‘Oh you must be very clever!’ High‐achieving women,professional power and the ongoing negotiation of workplace identity

This paper uses a gender perspective to problematise the connection between high educational achievement and a fulfilling professional career. Drawing data from an Australian study of women working as professional engineers in a range of locations, the paper investigates the ways in which the identities produced in the women’s educational experiences require further negotiation in dealing with the realities of their divergent workplaces. Through a deconstruction of the power relationships that form a key feature of the women’s reported workplace experience, the women are shown to engage in a range of tactics in the effort to achieve a degree of workplace acceptance and some professional recognition. The paper concludes by urging renewed attention to changing engineering education and workplace culture if the profession is to attract and retain able women.     

The power of student empowerment: Measuring classroom predictors and individual indicators

Despite spending more money per student than almost all developed nations, the United States lags behind in educational indicators with persistent disparities between privileged and marginalized students. Most approaches have ignored the role of power dynamics in predicting student performance. Building on the existing literature in school climate and empowering settings, this study explored the construct of student empowerment to identify both environmental factors that predict increased empowerment and outcomes associated with empowerment. A survey was administered to 381 students from five urban high schools. Results suggest that intrapersonal student empowerment is predicted by equitable power use by teachers, positive teacher–student relationships and a sense of community in the classroom. Highly empowered students reported better grades, fewer behavioral incidents, increased extracurricular participation and higher educational aspirations than students who were less empowered. Limitations are discussed alongside implications for educational practice and future research.     

Impact of New Information Technologies on Teachers and Students

This paper summarises findings from several commissioned studies, doctoral dissertations, and federally-funded technology in education projects coordinated by the authors in conjunction with international colleagues over the past five years. It features evidence regarding the impact of information technologies on teacher training and student achievement, and spotlights trans-national trend analysis through common instrumentation as the technique believed to be the most promising research avenue for the future.     

Developmental Dyscalculia and Down Syndrome: Indicative Evidence

ABSTRACT

This study investigated the hypothesis that developmental dyscalculia is part of the behavioural phenotype of Down syndrome. One hundred and fifty-one individuals with Down syndrome across three age groups contributed data. These age groups were: 6–8 years (n = 41); 13–15 years (n = 70); and 20–22 years (n = 40). Data were collected using the Stanford-Binet (Fourth Edition) and age equivalent scores on the Pattern Analysis and Quantitative subscales were used in the analyses. A repeated measure ANOVA showed a significant difference between performances on the two subtests with an interaction with age group. While performance on Pattern Analysis was better than on Quantitative for all groups the difference was most marked for the oldest group. Approximately 66% of the participants had a higher age equivalent score on the Pattern Analysis subscale than on the Quantitative subscale. It appears to be plausible that developmental dyscalculia contributes to the behavioural phenotype of Down syndrome and further investigation of this proposition is warranted.     

Self‐concept in Arab American adolescents: Implications of social support and experiences in the schools

The purpose of this study was to investigate three domains (Scholastic Competence, Social Acceptance, and Global Self‐Worth) of self‐concept in Arab American adolescents in relation to their school experiences, including discrimination, self‐perceived teacher social support, and self‐perceived classmate social support. Half of the sample either experienced some form of discrimination or knew someone who had. An experience of discrimination was significantly related to students' Scholastic Competence. Self‐perceived classmate support was significantly related to all domains of self‐concept; however, self‐perceived teacher support was not significantly related to any of the self‐concept domains. Implications of these results are discussed, as well as strategies for how to provide positive relationships for Arab American students and their families.     

Evidence of English language proficiency and academic achievement of non-English-speaking background students

The increasing number of international students enrolled in Australian universities over the last decade has met with a corresponding concern that many non-English-speaking background (NESB) students experience considerable difficulty in their courses. Consequently, concerns about admission procedures have been raised regarding how English language proficiency (ELP) is determined for NESB students (both domestic and international). In addition to standardised ELP tests, some universities accept other forms of evidence, such as the completion of English-medium courses. This large-scale quantitative study analysed data on 5675 undergraduate and postgraduate students available from one university's database over a three-year period to ascertain if its ELP requirements were sufficient to ensure the academic progress of adequate numbers of these students. The best evidence for potential academic success was found to be standardised tests while students submitting other forms of ELP evidence tended to have more difficulties.     

Orality in the library: How mobile phones challenge our understandings of collaboration in hybridized information centers

The domestication of mobile phones and a changing articulation of academic libraries as collaborative spaces present an opportunity for digitally-mediated collaboration—or do they? The intersection between the academic library's dynamic space and governing policies and guidelines, and the omnipresent mobile phone user is examined. Data was collected through document analysis and 46 ethnographic observations and interviews. How historical precedents, communication incongruence, and a lack of user studies can result in inconsistencies between academic libraries' visions and users' information practices is illustrated. Recommendations for policy-makers and managers of hybridized information centers are made. Specifically, guidelines regarding mobile phones should be revised to reflect a more in-depth understanding of mediated collaboration through mobile phone use.