Examining the Perspectives of Latino Families of Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder Towards Advocacy

Rapidly becoming the largest ethnic group of American students, compared to White students with disabilities, Latino students with disabilities receive less services and their parents are more likely to struggle to receive services. Yet, it is unclear how Latino families advocate for their children with disabilities including how cultural values facilitate their advocacy efforts. In this study, four focus groups were conducted with 46 Latino parents of children with autism spectrum disorder. Parents reported advocating by being assertive but not aggressive, being involved in school activities, communicating with the school and documenting the communication, and relying on knowledge and faith. Parents also reported facilitators (i.e., knowledge and resources, increased parent-school communication, and greater peer support) and barriers (i.e., poor school experiences, school related-stress, and stigma and discrimination) to advocacy. Implications for research, policy, and practice are discussed.     

Systemic cognitive-developmental therapy: A counselling model and an integrative classification schema for working with partners and families

Systemic Cognitive-Developmental Therapy (SCDT) represents a holistic, non-pathological, and integrative approach to partner and family counselling. The model directly links developmental constructs to the counselling process and offers specific assessment and treatment strategies that can be easily learned and applied in the immediacy of the counselling encounter. Additionally, it offers a classification schema that clinicians can use to organize familiar counselling and therapy approaches into a developmental framework. This article introduces the theory and practice of SCDT, illustrates the techniques and strategies specific to the model, and provides illustrative partner, family, and client examples for clarification.Paper presented in April, 1994 at the International Conference on Counselling in the Family in München, Germany, sponsored by the International Round Table for the Advancement of Counselling.     

Sharing a place-based indigenous methodology and learnings

Abstract

Building on a methodology of Cooperative Inquiry, the outcomes of five interconnected place-based learning projects from Australia are synthesised and elaborated in this paper. The methodology can facilitate the everyday living and sharing of an Earth-based consciousness: one that enriches Transformative Sustainability Education (TSE) through recognising meanings and stories in landscape, and celebrates Indigenous ways of knowing, being and doing. Indigenous-led environmental education is shown to link with one of the longest continuous environmental education systems in the world and it is contended that because of its ongoing history, environmental education carries a cultural obligation. In Australia, every landscape is Indigenous and storied, and all Australians have an inherent right to learn that joy in place, along with the responsibility to care for it. Teaching and learning a relationship with place as family, is one way that environmental education can lead that campaign. This place-based methodology is a lifetime commitment involving everyday actions for change, a whole-of-education dedication.     

Joining up the episodes of lifelong learning: A regional transition project

In this paper, we explore the rationale, process and outcomes of the Regional Interoperability Project on Progression for Lifelong Learning, a project that established a model of cross‐sector collaboration in personal development planning technology in the UK. With specific reference to the widening participation agenda, and grounded in the perspective of lifelong learners, the project tested an approach in which discrete nodes of an individual’s learning journey are joined up through technology services. The paper describes the development of conceptual and practical tools to assist transitions between various communities of learning. A set of scenarios was developed, involving study to study and study to employment, while practical tools included development of UK LeaP draft interoperability standard (BS8788)‐compliant links between ePortfolio software, and the actual test transfer of data. The results indicate that recognising the smallest individual elements in the process is important, both in a technical sense and as a means of personalising learning and assisting transition between sectors. Through developing connections between these elements, the project partners engaged in lifelong learning.     

A perinatal intervention program for urban american indians part 2: the story of a program and its implications for practice

This is the story of how a culturally aware staff successfully intervened with a clientele of another culture. A high infant mortality rate for American Indians in Milwaukee, WI, prompted a community health agency to initiate a program to address the problem. Efforts were made to educate the American Indian community about the importance of both prenatal and postnatal care. Part 1 of this report was published (Davis & Prater, 2001) and presented the design and implementation of the program, as well as program outcomes. Here, Part 2 describes aspects of the same program, including the personal story of a client and the results of an evaluation conducted by a three-person research team. Implications for practice are also presented. Among these are suggestions for hiring and retaining staff, locating and retaining clients, addressing cultural sensitivity, and identifying administrative actions that enhance program operation. The personal stories of two additional clients are included to illustrate the difficult reality of some clients' lives and the resulting necessity for flexibility and resourcefulness on the part of program staff. This program represents the positive impact that program workers had on the problem of American Indian infant mortality.     

Mathematical problem solving and young children

Educators of young children can enhance the development of a problem-solving thought process through daily activities in their classrooms. An emphasis should be placed on the actual thought process needed to solve problems that occur in everyday living. Educators can follow simple suggestions to create problem-solving situations for all ages of children. The process of thinking through a problem and finding a solution is more important than traditional mathematics counting and memorizing useless facts. Even very young children are capable of a problem-solving process that is on the appropriate developmental level. The problem-solving process is constructivist in nature, as each individual perceives problems according to her or his background and developmental levels. Educators need to make a conscious effort to capitalize on all stages of problem-solving thinking to enhance future mathematical development.     

National unity in cultural diversity: how national and linguistic identities affected Swiss language curricula (1914–1961)

Abstract

By the end of the nineteenth century, the relationship between the state, language and schooling had become extremely close: a state was supposed to be “national”, and a real nation was supposed to be monolingual. Following the literature on nation-building, it is because schooling was charged with the task of forming such nations that curricula intended for the great majority of pupils included only one language. The theory of a direct effect of national identity on curricula was elaborated by focusing on the typical monolingual nation-state. This paper discusses the theory from the perspective of a multilingual state: Switzerland. The study’s analysis shows that in the 1914–1945 period the Swiss state’s multilingualism became part of the Swiss national identity and learning another national language became a matter of patriotic education. However, this new conception did not affect all curricula in the same manner. The economic and pedagogical rationales given voice by actors other than the state seem to be equally important factors in explaining the decisions made regarding language curricula as a state’s national identity. Therefore, warning is given against the assumption that a school’s language policy automatically aligns with a state’s national identity.     

Technology-Mediated Writing Instruction in the Early Literacy Program: Perils,Procedures, and Possibilities

The purpose of this qualitative case study was to examine one kindergarten teacher's use of digital and multimodal technologies to mediate early writing instruction and explore the students' appropriation of that instruction to support their independent writing. Data sources included observations of writing instruction, as well as students' participation during independent writing time, student writing samples, and interviews with case study participants. Data were analyzed inductively using a semantic relationship analysis (Hatch, 2002). Results of the study revealed that the teacher used a range of technologies to demonstrate what it means to compose narrative texts and how young children could go about it. Students were attentive and motivated to participate in writing instruction and related activities, given their fascination with the technology and multimodal texts their teacher created. Students appropriated important concepts and strategies from their teacher's technology-mediated instruction, which they used to compose narrative texts during independent writing time.