Variability in the age of schooling contributes to the link between literacy and numeracy in Côte d'Ivoire

Literacy and numeracy are correlated throughout development, however, our understanding of this relation is limited. We explored the predictors of literacy and numeracy covariance (i.e., shared fluency between literacy and numeracy) in children (N = 1167, girls = 563) in rural Côte d'Ivoire, with specific focus on how developmental timing of instruction may relate to covariance. Many Ivorian children experience late enrollment and grade repetition, leading to variation in age-for-grade; participants were between grades 1 to 6, but their ages ranged from 5 to 15 (M = 9.19, SD = 2.07). Phonological awareness, numerical magnitude, ordinality, working memory, and inhibitory control were cognitive predictors of covariance. Age-for-grade was negatively related to covariance suggesting that covariance is related to timing of instruction.     

Where are the “People Like me”?: A Collaborative Autoethnography of Transnational Lives and Teacher Education in the U.S.

ABSTRACT

Global multicultural teacher education courses and programs have made claims to offer Prospective Teachers (PSTs) a global understanding of diversity and multiculturalism. However, there is very little research that has examined the classroom experiences of PSTs and teacher educators. Drawing on a collaborative autoethnography, this article explores the ways our transnational identities shaped our experiences (as a PST and a teacher educator) in a global teacher education course focused on diversity and multiculturalism. We were guided by the following research question: How do we, as South Asian transnational migrants, experience the curriculum of a global multicultural education course in the United States? We found that the curricular nationalism within multicultural education courses often negates any critical engagement with the influence of transnationalism on immigrants and their educational experiences. Transnational migrants are expected to translate their experiences, cultural practices, and life ways to fit into the container of the U.S. nation-state. Furthermore, there was a visible absence of narratives and research about transnational lives and identities in the course curriculum. As teacher education programs prepare PSTs to enter classrooms with growing immigrant populations, it is important that we attend to this glaring gap in both practice and research.     

Curriculum innovation within an evaluative state: issues of risk and regulation

The English EAZ experience illustrates the difficulties of developing an innovative, responsive and inclusive curriculum within an evaluative state characterized by high stakes testing. Consequently, while government exhortations to ‘raise standards’, ‘innovate’ and ‘promote social inclusion’ clearly serve an important rhetorical function, they may underestimate the challenges involved and overestimate the capacity of schools within disadvantaged areas to ‘make a difference’.     

A Multidimensional Assessment of Teachers’ Knowledge of Algebra for Teaching: Developing an Instrument and Supporting Valid Inferences

Numerous researchers have suggested that there are multiple mathematical knowledge and skill areas needed by teachers in order for them to be effective teachers of mathematics: knowledge of the mathematics that are the goals of instruction, advanced mathematics beyond the instructional material, and mathematical knowledge that is specific to what is needed to teach students. The research reported here is about the development of a test of teachers’ knowledge in these three areas related to the teaching of algebra. The test development process is described and the results of several analyses are reported that had the goal of checking whether valid inferences can be made about the hypothesized components of teacher knowledge.