A Sociocultural Analysis of School and Community Settings as Sites for Developing Environmental Practitioners

This article presents analyses of two cultures that emerged from a school/community partnership to develop high school students' competencies as environmental practitioners and serve the needs of a community-based environmental organization. The first culture was situated largely within the school setting, but was linked to the environmental agency through a requirement that students provide service for that organization, which they did primarily through conducting a water quality study to contribute to a watershed management plan. The second culture was situated mostly within the environmental agency itself, and emerged as a group of independent-study students became involved in its daily work. These two activity settings were the units of analysis for delineating salient elements of each culture, and for developing profiles of the types of environmental practitioner identities that were implicit in each. These analyses led to the identification of constraints on students' development within each setting, and then to recommendations for making both cultures more conducive to students' learning and development as environmental practitioners.     

What are the personal attributes a teacher needs to engage Indigenous students effectively in the learning process? Re-viewing the literature

ABSTRACT

Background: Teachers have the potential to make an enormous positive impact on the lives of their students, and may enter the classroom with a deep-set belief that education is, fundamentally, benevolent and good. However, such an uncritical stance may fail to account for the negative experiences of Indigenous students in Australia, where teachers are often cited as the primary reason Indigenous students leave school or refuse to go to school. Despite this, Aboriginal communities remain strong advocates of education and continue to lobby for a genuine and meaningful role in decision making.

Purpose: Given teachers’ critical influence, a collaboration was formed between the two authors: a Gamilaroi (Aboriginal) woman and a non-Indigenous Canadian woman, to conduct a review of the research. We asked: ‘What are the personal (non-academic) attributes a teacher needs to engage Indigenous students effectively in the learning process?’

Method: The literature review focused primarily on the Australian context and used a framework-based synthesis approach, whereby a decolonising ‘Relationally Responsive Standpoint’ framework was identified a priori. This provided the structure for extracting and synthesising the literature.

Findings and Discussion: The themes arising from the literature review were organised and considered through the framework, which foregrounds awareness through Respecting (self/motivations), Connecting (interpersonal) and Reflecting (knowledge) before concluding by Directing (future role). In Directing, the implications of the findings are discussed through yarning, a dialogical and dynamic approach with a strong future focus regarding the next steps of research and action.

Conclusions: Reviewing the literature in this way offers teachers, researchers, teacher educators and, arguably, policy-makers an opportunity to consider the personal attributes necessary to engage Indigenous students. It highlights the importance of critical self-reflection to being a relationally responsive teacher. We believe that the findings span international and professional boundaries and could impact on Indigenous Peoples globally, if all professions engage with an understanding of their own axiology and ontology.     

Hegemony and the politics of education in Hong Kong: from the post-war era to the post-handover era

ABSTRACT

The process of Chinese nation-building in education reveals the hegemonic strategies of the colonial power and the adaptation of indigenous forces when Hong Kong was undergoing decolonisation and the transfer of sovereignty. The return of Hong Kong to Chinese sovereignty has been a crucial indicator for the potential re-unification of China, as it presents a model for the possible future reintegration of Taiwan. The idea of hegemony applies to different dominant groups in the two periods under review. In the first period, London attempted to influence the development of groups in Hong Kong and incorporate them into the colonial programme. In the second period, Beijing attempts to influence groups in Hong Kong facilitate the reintegration of Hong Kong into a larger Chinese identity. Yet, it is far too simple to picture a unilateral exercise of power by an identifiable centre and consider the periphery as mere objects of successful manipulation by the centre. Continued study of the evolution of nation-building in education, under the influence of a series of complex and shifting factors of the Hong Kong society, will be enlightening for the comprehension of the ever-changing and increasingly complicated political culture.     

Shifting occupational identity: doing,being, becoming and belonging in the academy

Becoming more scholarly can be challenging for many in the academy, including for those transitioning from professional roles. This paper presents the initial findings of an ongoing action research project that set out to explore and develop aspects of identity among a group of Australian occupational therapy academics. Thirteen participants committed to collaboratively address a personal desire to become more scholarly and an institutional demand to be more productive in relation to research and publication. Through this first phase of an action research process, participants explored and qualitatively defined issues impacting on their occupation. Emergent themes that were explored using an occupational lens incorporating: doing, being, becoming and belonging, highlight identity confusion and regression, mixed perceptions about the comfort and camouflage of teaching and participants' desires to become and be more scholarly. Taking an occupational lens adds to the identity conversation, illuminating how doing within a supportive group nurtures belonging, being and becoming. Our findings, of relevance to academics following non-traditional pathways into the academy, suggest optimism around using action research for the active cultivation of scholarship and occupational theory to understand how academic identity may be developed within a supportive group.     

Harnessing the Power of Social Media in the Classroom: Challenging Students to Create Content to Share on Social Media Sites to Improve Learning Outcomes

Many young adults consume news, political, and historical information through social media sites, and yet students do not always connect this information to the academic knowledge they learn in their classes. In addition, while students learn academic writing and presentation skills, they may not feel equipped to present the knowledge that they have learned to a non-academic audience. I detail a class assignment in which students produce a social media project that imparts academic knowledge to a general audience. These have taken the form of short videos, websites, a documentary and even poems and songs. Drawing on a survey of the students, as well as a content analysis of the projects, I find that the project is successful in achieving several teaching goals, including knowledge retainment, critical thinking skills, making real world connections with class material, student empowerment, and improving communication skills.     

Perfectionism in Academically Gifted Students: A Systematic Review

Educational Psychology Review - Perfectionism has long been recognised as a psychological factor that can enhance or interfere with the healthy adjustment of young students who are academically...     

Assessment of Autism Symptoms From 6 to 18 Months of Age Using the Autism Observation Scale for Infants in a Prospective High-Risk Cohort

The objectives were to characterize behavioral signs of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) in younger siblings of diagnosed children (high-risk; HR) and examine classification features of the Autism Observation Scale for Infants (AOSI). Participants (501 HR and 180 low-risk [LR]) were assessed between 6 and 18 months using the AOSI and at age 3 for ASD diagnoses. Total AOSI scores differentiated HR infants later diagnosed with ASD starting at 12 months. ROC analyses identified 12- and 18-month cutoff scores associated with 0.52 sensitivity and 0.74 specificity and 0.73 sensitivity and 0.65 specificity, respectively. Although classification accuracy does not support use as a standalone screen, the AOSI identifies features associated with ASD starting at 6 months and differentiates HR infants with ASD by 12 months.     

North West Cross Institutional Action Learning developing women's leadership

ABSTRACT

Human resource development professionals in Higher Education are continually striving to develop efficient interventions to increase the capabilities of their leaders. As a result of evaluating feedback from an action learning (AL) programme designed and delivered in North West Higher Education Institutions in the UK for women in senior academic and professional service roles, we are able to share how AL can be utilised to transcend and supplement traditional leadership training. The article discusses the approach taken to support participants to develop vital leadership behaviours through the acquisition of critical questioning and reflective habits whilst developing strong supportive cross-institutional relationships with other higher education leaders.     

Preservice teachers’ articulated noticing through pedagogies of practice

Elementary preservice teachers at six universities engaged in a task that provided them opportunities to articulate their professional noticing within video representations, written decompositions, and animated approximations of practice. The preservice teachers’ written accounts indicated that a majority attended to students or student thinking; however, when asked to illustrate their noticing through animation, focus shifted to the classroom teacher. Findings indicate the extent to which preservice teachers articulated specific mathematics concepts within and across pedagogies of practice and highlight the critical importance for selecting and utilizing multiple types of tasks to better understand preservice teacher noticing. Implications for eliciting and supporting preservice teacher noticing are discussed.