What determines the return to education: An extra year or a hurdle cleared?

The 1973 Raising of the School Leaving Age from 15 to 16 has been used to identify returns to years’ schooling. However, because the first set of “high stakes” exams are taken in the UK at age 16, the reform affected the proportion with qualifications, as well as schooling length. In order to shed light on whether the returns reflect the extra length of schooling or the increase in qualifications, we exploit another institutional rule – the Easter Leaving Rule – which we argue only affected the probability of obtaining qualifications (and not the length of schooling). We find sizeable returns to academic qualifications – increasing the probability of employment by 40% points – and our results suggest that qualifications drive most of the returns to education.     

Family rearing antecedents of pubertal timing

Two general evolutionary hypotheses were tested on 756 White children (397 girls) studied longitudinally: (1) rearing experiences would predict pubertal timing; and (2) children would prove differentially susceptible to rearing. Analysis of pubertal measurements, including some based on repeated physical assessments, showed that mothering and fathering, earlier and later in childhood, predicted pubertal development, but only for girls, with negative parenting appearing most influential; maternal harsh control predicted earlier menarche. Rearing effects varied by infant negative emotionality, proving stronger (and opposite) for girls who in infancy were lower rather than higher in negativity. Maternal menarche, controlled in all analyses, was a stronger predictor than rearing. Findings are discussed in terms of theory development, genetic and nutritional influences, and sample restrictions.     

Dragon wings and butterfly wings: implicit gender binarism in early childhood

Despite explicit focus on addressing gender inequality in educational settings in Australia, without challenging gender binarism, inequality will persist. This article demonstrates the everyday and implicit means through which hierarchical gender binaries continue to be perpetuated. Observational fieldwork undertaken in three Australian early childhood settings with 13 members of staff and 53 children (ages 2–6) demonstrates how bi-gendered language, as well as wider discourses and practices, are being engaged in these settings. The data indicate that gender binarism continues to be (re)constructed and reinforced through subtle, but omnirelevant, invocations of gender. This happens in the constant categorisation and addressing of children by attributed gender alongside the hierarchisation of gendered attributes, and the sanctioned performativity of bi-gendered heteronormativity in play situations. This demonstrates how children continue to be encouraged into binary gendered practices in their most formative years and that this will, in turn, perpetuate gender inequalities.     

Infant Crying Levels Elicit Divergent Testosterone Response in Men

SYNOPSIS

Objective. Lower baseline testosterone (T) among men is generally associated with more sympathetic and nurturant responses to infant stimuli. The effect of exposure to infant crying on men’s levels of T, however, is not well understood. The present study aimed to measure men’s T responses to high and low levels of infant crying. Design. Changes in fathers’ (n = 18) and non-fathers’ (n = 28) salivary T levels from baseline were measured in response to caring for an infant simulator programmed to cry often (high-demand condition) or infrequently (low-demand condition) during a 20-min caregiving simulation. Results. Men exposed to low-demand conditions exhibited significant T reductions from baseline, whereas men in high-demand conditions exhibited increases in T. Compared to men who displayed decreases in T following the caregiving simulation, men who displayed increases in T provided less sensitive care. Conclusions. Results suggest a potential role of high levels of crying in provoking physiological reactions among men that may set the stage for hostile or aggressive responses. More research is needed to illuminate contextual factors that contribute to men’s variable responses to infant crying.     

Prior Sexual Victimization and Disclosure of Campus Sexual Violence Among College Students

Using survey data from a large, public university, the authors examined the relationships of precollege sexual violence experience to revictimization and disclosure. Among victims of campus sexual violence, those with prior sexual victimization were no more or less likely to disclose to campus resources and were less likely to disclose to peers. Results suggest that institutions need to be prepared to support students with a range of victimization experiences. There is also a need for earlier and expanded sexual violence education and awareness efforts.     

Man of Letters,Literary Lady,Journalist or Reporter?

The enormous changes wrought in the British newspaper industry during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries brought about a revolution in newspaper reading habits, financing and influence, all aspects of which have been well documented by historians of the press. But what of the contributor, particularly the freelance whose millions of words formed, mostly anonymously, the content of the new mass market press? How did writers negotiate changes in the literary marketplace during this time as editors demanded more ‘news’ and less in the way of whimsical paragraphing, and sketches, the traditional newspaper output of the professional man, or woman, of letters? Through the study of memoirs, correspondence and the fictional output of contributors to the press during this time, it is possible to discern the often fraught relations between writers and their most lucrative market.     

Kindergarten Scores,Storytelling, Executive Function,and Motivation Improved through Literacy-Rich Guided Play

This study explored the effects of literacy-rich sociodramatic guided play on kindergarten student literacy performance and behavior. Kindergarten students of varying socioeconomic status attending two elementary schools in the same school district participated in this repeated measures, counterbalanced design study. Students received the mandated grade-level literacy instruction with a supplemental 15 min block of time designated for play-based literacy integration during which the intervention took place. During this short time, students working in small groups were given materials (miniature items, toys, letter tiles) to practice initial letter sounds and consonant–vowel–consonant rhyming word families using either an assigned activity (control condition) or a student-invented game that practiced the same literacy concepts (experimental activity). Students instructed through the experimental condition scored significantly better on the Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills (DIBELS) assessment with a medium effect size. Additional positive academic results included practice in story-composing, sequencing ideas into a complex cause and effect chain of events; application of new vocabulary; repeated practice of phonics and phonemic awareness skills to new examples; self-regulation of emotions; communication and negotiation with peers; and imagination, fantasy, humor, and creativity. Students evidenced preference for the experimental condition, continuing to repeat their games during recess or free time and to record them in their journals. Examples of student-generated literacy games are provided.     

Science and religion on the blackboard: exploring schoolmasters’ beliefs and practices in Senegal

This article treats the various forms of adjustment between scientific and religious discourses at school. It aims to analyse the beliefs and practices of schoolmasters and to explore how the oppositions between the ‘dominant’ discourses of Western science and those of religion are addressed in secondary education in Senegal. The analysis leans on the Actor-Network-Theory and the concept of ‘apparatus’ from Foucault. The article shows that, in the secular Republic of Senegal, contradictory messages on some sensitive issues are conveyed to pupils, in the classroom, by the official schoolmaster himself. The schoolmasters, whatever their religion, teach for religion in public schools (in a devotional sense); they do not teach about religion (in an academic sense). An ‘enrolment’ work is in progress in the official schools whereby pupils adhere to the ‘true’ religious discourse, challenged by the ‘true’ scientific discourse. The schoolmasters do not want to exclude the official curriculum but wish to teach religious knowledge. The State cannot limit each discourse to its own sphere of relevance and fails to impose its criteria on some actors who prefer those offered by their own religious networks. A Senegalese ‘national religious apparatus’ produces effects on schoolmasters’ educational practices and curriculum.