Children's learning and developmental potential: examining the theoretical informants of early childhood curricula from the educator's perspective

The early childhood curriculum is informed by a complicated array of developmental and learning theories. In recent times these theories have been most readily articulated in approaches to curriculum planning emerging from the Developmentally Appropriate Practice (DAP) guidelines and the project work in Reggio Emilia. Drawing on a common theoretical heritage, each of these approaches places a certain emphasis on ideas emerging from cognitive constructivism and developmental theory. This paper explores the nature of these theoretical informants as they are played out in both DAP and Reggio Emilia. Findings from a study aimed at examining educators' conceptions of cognitive constructivism and developmental theory as utilised by DAP are reported, with the responses by four educators regarding these understandings in relation to their developing awareness of the Reggio Emilia approach detailed. The paper identifies differences in orientation between the educators' conceptions of developmental theory and constructivism relative to DAP and Reggio, and indicates the potential value further research in this area holds for examining how common theoretical informants can be played out to different effect across early childhood curricula.     

Lifting Stress from the Day: A Women's Well-Being Online Community Art Project

This article tells the story of a university community engagement project that began in the late spring of 2020 when the world went into lockdown. Increased concern over women's welfare and well-being was brought into question in relation to those who are vulnerable with complex needs and had suffered societal-induced hardships. In conjunction with an innovative women's community project, this study considered the value of art-based online support as a platform from which to offer a non-judgemental and mindful space with a focus on identity and empowerment. The study is based on weekly art drop-in online workshops for vulnerable women and considers the value of hybrid ‘spaces’ as a pedagogical and practical model of communicative support and collective care. Findings from this community-engaged project highlight the responses and shifts within subjectivities through situated art experiences. As art educators, it offers us an understanding of the potential for cumulative and affective artmaking to build communities of care as an inclusive and emancipatory learning tool.     

In practice: Harvard houses: The value of the tutorial system

Harvard University's residential colleges—living‐learning communities where faculty, graduate students, and academic professionals live alongside undergraduates—provide unparalleled support by integrating the academic with the everyday.     

The School Counselor Alumni Peer Consultation Group

School counseling literature indicates that school counselors experience isolation and frustration and that partnership projects between counselors and counselor educators are potentially valuable. The author describes the school counselor alumni peer consultation group, which provides (a) support and networking opportunities for new counselors and (b) a forum for studying counseling issues and for developing strategies to solve problems. This innovative strategy for professional development and collaboration has implications both for counselor educators and for school counselors.     

Becoming Schoolgirls: The ambivalent project of subjectification

In this article, the authors examine the concept and practices of subjectification; that is, the processes through which we are subjected, and actively take up as our own the terms of our subjection. They use Judith Butler's theorising of subjection both as a starting point for working with their own memories of being subjected in school settings, and as the theoretical basis of their analysis of subjectification. Their method of working, which they refer to as collective biography, is derived from Haug et al. 's methods developed in Female Sexualization . Their memories focus on aspects of the achievement of the individual, appropriate(d) schoolgirl subject who simultaneously constitutes herself and is constituted through discourse. They analyse the illusion of autonomy through which modern subjects are made possible, and the inevitable ambivalence that is experienced as schoolgirls take themselves up appropriately within the possibilities made available to them. Through re-membering their own pasts, and the embodied and emotional detail through which we became (and go on becoming) subjects, they open up for inspection the contradictory ground of the humanist subject, and in particular the feminine humanist subject, as it is achieved in educational settings.     

Modernising governance: The impact on policy and research communities in the United Kingdom

This article is concerned with exploring some of the changes in governance which are taking place at global, national and local levels and which directly affect the work of professionals located in both policy and research communities. These changes are explored at the level of institutional relationships and premised on the view that groups and individuals are positioned differently in relation to policy and research. Professionals bring with them their own personal values and world views of education which exist alongside those of the institution in which they carry out their professional activities, and both individual and institution are located within wider political frameworks and structures. The article focuses on one agenda which is operating within the modernising government, that of 'joined-up policy'. Drawing on my experiences as a researcher working within the policy community, I examine the ways in which this particular agenda is working and what it means in practice for those working in policy and research communities.     

Histology education in an integrated,time-restricted medical curriculum: Academic outcomes and students' study adaptations

In an ever-changing medical curricular environment, time dedicated for anatomical education has been progressively reduced. This happened at the University of Michigan Medical School starting in 2016–2017 when preclinical medical education was condensed to one year. Histology instruction remained integrated in organ system courses but reduced to a lecture-only format without scheduling time for laboratory exercises, requiring students to study virtual histology slides on their own time. In accordance with the shortened instructional time, the number of histology examination questions was reduced more than twofold. This study analyzed students' histology examination results and assessed their motivation to learn histology and use of educational opportunities before and after these curricular changes were implemented. Students' motivation to learn histology and their evaluation of histology lectures increased in the new curriculum. However, students devoted less study time to studying histology. Students' cumulative histology examination scores were significantly lower in the new curriculum and the number of students with overall scores <75%, defined as a substandard performance, increased more than 15-fold. Academically weaker students' histology scores were disproportionately more affected. As medical educational strategies, priorities, and curricular frameworks continue to evolve, traditional didactic topics like histology will need to adapt to continue providing educational value to future health care providers.     

From working group to standing committee: A history of diversity,equity, inclusion and accessibility work at the Society for Scholarly Publishing

• The Society for Scholarly Publishing's (SSP) Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Accessibility (DEIA) Committee began as a grassroots initiative in 2016.
• Over a a period of 4 years, the committee evolved from a six-member task force to a large standing team consisting of more than 25 individuals.
• The task force developed a strategic plan consisting of three major objectives that formed the basis of the group's strategic initiatives. The committee implemented several DEIA nitiatives that provided education and resources to SSP members about DEIA within their workplaces and promoted DEIA practices in the work that SSP committees were doing on behalf of the organization.