Educating World Teachers for Cosmopolitan Classrooms and Schools

This essay responds to the question of what it might mean to educate “world teachers” for cosmopolitan classrooms and schools through an examination of an ethnographic play entitled Satellite Kids. The author begins with the idea that teachers need to develop or build up “intercultural capital”, that is, knowledge and dispositions that will help them in intercultural exchanges of teaching and learning. The author then explores what such knowledge and dispositions might entail through an analysis of Satellite Kids. The play's focus on issues of power, identity, and intercultural conflict within a Canadian cosmopolitan school makes an interesting case study for exploring what intercultural knowledge and dispositions might look and sound like, and how the educational project of building intercultural capital is different from the project of multicultural education that has been dominant in Western teacher education throughout 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s.     

Pondering purposes,propelling forwards

ABSTRACT

This article, based upon the closing plenarydelivered to the recent conference of Professional Practice, Education and Learning, reflects upon the developments of the ProPEL network over the past seven years and its possibilities for future directions. To provide some context for these reflections, the article begins by outlining key challenges facing contemporary professions and their education. Against these, I consider themes and emphases that have characterised ProPEL initiatives and the papers presented to its conferences. Then, I compare these to the sorts of questions and issues that appear to be most urgently debated in other scholarly communities concerned with changing professional work and knowledge, particularly the dramatic transformations of professional roles through new digital technologies and artificial intelligence, transnational demands and new organisational forms.The article ends with questions for educators researching professional practice: where we need more focus, where perhaps we need less, and what may be productive ways forward.     

The effect of instructional quality on low‐ and high‐performing students

The study assessed the effects of the quality of reading and math instruction and classroom climate on the academic skills and engagement of 314 children in 245 classrooms at the end of third grade. All of the children in the study were from families with low incomes. On a classroom observation measure developed for the study, regression analyses revealed that relatively high ratings on the reading and math instruction subscales, which were scored after a half‐day observation, predicted better reading and math achievement test scores, respectively, for third graders who had previously had poor academic performance, but did not have a significant effect for relatively high‐performing students. High teacher ratings on the reading instruction and classroom climate observation scales predicted high levels of student engagement. The findings suggest the importance of high‐quality teaching for economically disadvantaged children who have poor academic skills.     

College Students’ Appreciative Attitudes Toward Atheists

Atheists are often marginalized in discussions of religious and spiritual pluralism on college campuses and beyond. As with other minority worldview groups, atheists face challenges with hostile campus climates and misunderstanding of their views. The present study used a large, multi-institutional sample to explore predictors of non-atheist college students’ appreciative attitudes toward atheists. Substantial differences were found across identities; secular and spiritual worldview groups hold the most positive views, whereas Christians and Muslims have the most negative attitudes. Interactions with worldview diversity—but not general religious/spiritual engagement—consistently predict more positive attitudes, and these relationships sometimes vary based on students’ own worldviews. These results suggest that colleges and universities can create more inclusive environments for atheists, who constitute a sizable minority group on today’s college campuses.     

Comparing Multi-Informant Assessment Measures of Parental Monitoring and Their Links With Adolescent Delinquent Behavior

Objective. Parents’ poor monitoring of adolescents’ whereabouts and activities is commonly linked to adolescents’ increased engagement in delinquent behaviors. Yet, different domains of parental monitoring (parental monitoring behaviors versus parental knowledge) and reports from multiple informants (parent versus adolescent) may vary in their links to delinquent behavior. Design. Seventy-four parental caregivers and 74 adolescents completed survey measures of parental monitoring and knowledge, and adolescents completed self-report surveys of delinquent behavior. Results. We observed low-to-moderate magnitudes of correspondence between parent- and adolescent-reports of parental monitoring behaviors and parental knowledge. Adolescent self-reported delinquent behavior related to parent and adolescent reports of parental monitoring behaviors and parental knowledge, with adolescents who self-reported engagement in delinquent behaviors evidencing lower levels of parental knowledge and higher levels of poor monitoring compared to adolescents who did not self-report engagement in delinquent behaviors. Adolescent self-reported engagement in delinquent behaviors evidenced stronger links to parental monitoring when based on adolescent reports of monitoring (relative to parent reports), whereas stronger links held between adolescent self-reported delinquent behavior and parental knowledge when based on parent reports of knowledge (relative to adolescent reports). Conclusions. Links between monitoring and adolescents’ delinquent behavior vary by the kind of monitoring measure completed as well as the informant completing the measure. These findings inform measurement selection in research and clinical assessments of parental monitoring and adolescent delinquent behavior.`     

Reducing the Academic Risks of Over-Optimism: The Longitudinal Effects of Attributional Retraining on Cognition and Achievement

Although optimism is generally regarded as a positive dispositional characteristic, unmitigated optimism can be problematic. The adaptiveness of overly optimistic expectations in novel or unfamiliar settings is questionable because individuals have little relevant experience on which to base such expectations. In this four-phase longitudinal study we examined over-optimism in students when making the transition from a familiar academic setting (high school) to a novel academic setting (college). In particular, we focused on the efficacy of attributional retraining (AR), a control-enhancing intervention, to ameliorate the scholastic transition of overly optimistic students in terms of academic-related causal attributions and control perceptions, course grades, and overall GPAs. Results suggest that overly optimistic college students who did not receive the AR intervention increasingly endorsed maladaptive causal explanations for academic performance, and performed at the same level as students with extremely low optimism. Conversely, as expected, over-optimists who received the AR intervention significantly increased in their use of adaptive causal explanations and perceptions of control, in addition to academically outperforming the no-AR/over-optimists. These findings indicate that the potential risks associated with over-optimism may be reduced by pairing optimism with AR to induce adaptive cognitions, thereby facilitating achievement.     

Role stressors,engagement and work behaviours: a study of higher education professional staff

The study used data provided by 349 professional staff employees from 17 different US higher education institutions to assess aspects of their working conditions that could influence their own work engagement and the work-related behaviours of their colleagues. Relationships among three role stressors (role ambiguity, role conflict and role overload), work engagement, organisational citizenship behaviours, and in-role behaviours were examined using correlation, regression and relative weight analyses. The higher participants’ perceptions of role ambiguity, conflict and overload, the lower were the levels of their own work engagement and organizational citizenship and in-role behaviours of their colleagues. Work engagement partially mediated the relationships between role ambiguity, conflict and overload and both organizational citizenship and in-role behaviours. The analysis indicated that role ambiguity had the strongest relationship with work engagement, organisational citizenship and in-role behaviours, followed by role conflict and then by role overload. Practical implications are discussed and managerial interventions suggested.     

Emergence of graphic symbol functioning and the question of domain specificity: a longitudinal training study

The impact of social scaffolding on the emergence of graphic symbol functioning was explored in a longitudinal training study. Links among graphic, language, and play domains in symbolic development were also investigated. The symbolic functioning of 16 children, who were 28 months at the outset of the study, was assessed in comprehension and production tasks across the three domains at monthly intervals from 28 to 36 months, and again at 42 months. Training was delivered in between monthly assessments during weekly visits. Half of the children received training, which consisted of the experimenter drawing common objects and highlighting the relation between pictures and their referents, for 16 consecutive weeks early in the study (early training, ET). The remaining half received a placebo version of training for these 16 weeks, followed by actual training for 4 weeks in the fifth month (late training, LT). After the first 4 months of training the ET group was found to have accelerated comprehension and production of graphic symbols relative to the LT group. After the fifth month, the LT group reached the same level of graphic symbol performance as the ET group. There were strong positive correlations found among graphic symbol functioning and language and play, and between play and language. These findings support the view that graphic symbolic development can be influenced by cultural scaffolding, that more extensive training is needed early rather than later in development, and that interrelationships exist among symbolic domains.     

‘Waiting on the World to Change’: Advocacy versus Apathy and Focusing on What Really Matters

ABSTRACT

The author discusses the big picture of higher education, which pertains to the perpetuation of decreasing civil discourse and increasing challenges in higher education. These may be attributed to several factors including decreased funding, increased mental health crises, heavier workloads, and systemic inequities. Even though major initiatives across most campuses include diversity, inclusivity, civility, and internationalization, significant inequalities still exist. Toxic leaders supported by conducive environments and supportive followers may be at least partially responsible. Solutions are presented that may assist in stopping the perpetuation of inequitable, overtaxed systems, in order to improve the lives of individuals in society as a whole while making higher education truly diverse, inclusive, innovative, ethical, and impactful.