Estranged students in higher education: navigating social and economic capitals

ABSTRACT

Family is widely regarded as a cornerstone of student support. When family support exist as an essential form of social capital making, rupture of family ties places students in a disadvantageous position. This paper focuses on estranged students’ accounts of their experiences of higher education, highlighting how capital dynamics shape their academic trajectories. Based on interviews with 21 estranged students, our research uncovers different dimensions of estranged students’ struggles and successes as they move through academia. This paper explores the social imagination that surrounds the university student, or ‘student experience’, as resting upon family support. The authors propose that widening participation policies and practices need to be more attuned to the realities that mark estranged students’ experiences, as they are not only impacted by the scarcity of either economic or social capital, but also by the instability of interrelated capitals that contribute to precarious and volatile experiences.     

On Your Mark,Get Set … Talk! The First-Ever NASIG Speed Rounds

This article examines the purpose, structure, and short-term outcomes of a new Strategy Session format introduced at the NASIG Twenty-Second Annual Conference. Borrowing from the trend in modern matchmaking known as speed dates, this interactive Strategy Session employed a moderated round robin format that brought publishers and librarians together to discuss serials topics of common interest. Limited by the clock, participants had the opportunity to ask questions and share thoughts from their perspectives as serials producers and serials consumers. Though of limited duration, discussions could touch on any topic related to the creation, use, and impact of serials in the participants' respective areas of work and interest. The Strategy Session was offered in two time slots on the first day of the conference.     

Caregiver perceptions of sexual abuse and its effect on management after a disclosure

Objective

The aim of the study was to examine caregiver management strategies for child sexual abuse (CSA) when presented with hypothetical scenarios that vary in physical invasiveness.

Methods

One hundred fifty three caregivers were given 3 scenarios of CSA with 7 management strategies presented in the 21-item Taking Action Strategies (TAS) scale. Caregivers were asked to rate strategies according to their willingness to carry out each action with rating of 5 = greater likelihood of carrying out the action specified while a rating of 1 = a lower likelihood of carrying out that action. CSA scenarios included exposure to pornography/masturbation, fondling, and penetration while management strategies including fighting the accused, blaming the child, and outreaching to the authorities. Repeated measures ANOVA was used to compare mean TAS scores for the management strategies across CSA scenarios.

Results

The difference between TAS scores across the abuse scenarios was statistically significant (p < .001). Mean TAS scores reflected greater preference for taking action if the abusive act was perceived as more physically intrusive (exposure to pornography/masturbation-TAS 3.5, fondling-TAS 3.7, penetration-TAS 3.8). Caregivers reported being less willing to handle a disclosure of CSA without outreach (TAS 2.5 and 2.0 for fighting and blaming the child, respectively) and more willing to manage a disclosure with outreach to authorities (TAS 3.8, 4.5, and 4.7 for outreaching to Child Protective Services [CPS], to the child's healthcare provider and police, respectively). A predictor of caregiver outreach to authorities identified was the caregiver having past interactions with CPS.

Conclusion

Perception of the physical invasiveness of CSA and demographic factors can impact caregiver management strategies after a disclosure.

Practice implications

Results suggest that several factors influence caregiver management of sexual abuse. These factors warrant further study, as they are potential contributors to declining trends in CSA cases observed. Other implications include the need for educational efforts targeting caregivers. These interventions should focus on dispelling myths about the perceived physical invasiveness of CSA. These perceptions should not mitigate a caregiver's decision to involve the authorities in their management after a disclosure. Lastly, despite criticisms of the child protective systems, caregivers with past encounters with CPS view these related agencies as valuable resources.     

Does skill specialisation influence individual differences in drag flicking speed and accuracy?

Research has revealed that individual soccer goalkeepers respond differently to penalty shots, depending on their specific perceptual and motor capabilities. However, it remains unclear whether analogous differences exist between individual penalty takers, and if specialising in penalty taking affects the occurrence of differences between individuals. The present study examined individual differences in penalty shot speed and accuracy for specialists in penalty taking versus non-specialists. Expert specialist field hockey drag flickers and equivalently skilled non-specialists performed drag flicks towards predetermined targets placed in the face of a standard field hockey goal. Comparisons in shot speed and accuracy were made at a group level (specialists vs. non-specialists) as well as between individuals. Results revealed differences in both speed and accuracy between specialists, but only differences in speed between non-specialists. Specialists generated significantly greater shot speed than non-specialists (P < .001) and were more accurate to some, but not all, targets (top left, P < .006, bottom left P < .001). In addition, it was found that in specialists increasing practice correlated with decreasing accuracy. This may indicate that excessive practice could potentially reduce a specialist’s accuracy in shooting towards specific targets.     

Clarifying the link between acculturation experiences and parent–child relationships among families in cultural transition: The promise of contemporary critiques of acculturation psychology

The field of acculturation psychology has been the focus of recent critique, calling into question current conceptualizations of acculturation experiences among families in cultural transition. This paper will consider how these critiques can inform theory and research that aims to clarify the link between the process of acculturation and the quality of parent–child relationships among families in cultural transition. For example, while the concepts of process and change are central to psychological approaches to understanding acculturation, this has not always been successfully reflected in choice of research methodology. Further, some theorists highlight the problem of conflating culture and national identity and of homogenizing culture into a few essentialize traits, psychological characteristics or sets of discourses. This paper will outline how a focus on the dynamic and complex process of acculturation opposes ideas of acculturative experiences as acontextual, ahistorical, and independent with some teleological endpoint. It is suggested that acculturation experiences should be reconceptualized as a dialogic, relationally constituted, and continually negotiated (unfinalizable) process. Finally, it is suggested that narrative and qualitative methodologies represent an especially useful way to highlight the fluctuations in acculturative experiences within a family context, and might offer greater promise in clarifying the link between acculturation experiences and the quality of parent–child relationships among families in cultural transition.     

Gender and Bilingual Education: An Exploratory Study of the Academic Achievement of Latina and Latino English Learners

Although biliteracy plays a vital role in academic achievement, there has been little research on the unique needs of female and male English language learners. Becoming biliterate is a complex process, compounded by other variables such as 1st-language background, class, culture, and gender. Among these variables, gender has been the least examined and reported for English language learners in the United States. This exploratory quantitative study investigates the interplay between gender and biliteracy in a diverse urban school district. The quantitative data demonstrate gender variations across all years and grade levels and on both English and Spanish assessments.     

The (De-)evolution of Evolution Games: A Content Analysis of the Representation of Evolution Through Natural Selection in Digital Games

Given the diversity and complexity of education game mechanisms and topics, this article contributes to a theoretical understanding of how game mechanisms “map” to educational topics through inquiry-based learning. Namely, the article examines the presence of evolution through natural selection (ENS) in digital games. ENS is a fundamentally important and widely misunderstood theory. This analysis of ENS portrayal in digital games provides insight into the use of games in teaching ENS. Systematic database search results were coded for the three principles of ENS: phenotypic variation, differential fitness, and fitness heritability. Though thousands of games use the term evolution, few presented elements of evolution, and even fewer contained all principles of ENS. Games developed to specifically teach evolution were difficult to find through Web searches. These overall deficiencies in ENS games reflect the inherent incompatibility between game control elements and the automatic process of ENS.     

Beyond known uncertainties: Interventions at the fuel-engine interface

The following article describes the history of the fuel-engine interface in two case studies (from 1900 onwards) with the goal of understanding the complexity of such an interface composed of two technological systems that do not form a clear hierarchical relationship. A technological setting with two divergent cores is particularly prone to external influence, in particular to governmental regulation.The proposed framework in this article complements and extends the existing literature on technological community in particular regarding: (a) the importance of the interface between industries that are not subordinate to one another, (b) the role of the regulator, and (c) the focus on hidden uncertainties. This study illustrates how certain types of uncertainties within complex innovative projects can result in inertia and sub-optimal solutions. The proposed framework has implications for theory, management, and policy practice.     

Effect of Internet Literacy in Understanding Older Adults’ Social Capital and Expected Internet Support

This article investigates whether knowledge of Internet usage among older adults is related to social capital as well as their expectations to obtain social support online. A U.S. national survey of adults aged 60 and older (n = 1,101) found that Internet literacy is significantly associated with their expected Internet support and bridging and bonding social capital even after controlling for age, Internet use, and other factors.     

Virtually Unpacking Your Backpack: Educational Philosophy and Pedagogical Praxis

In this autoethnographic, conceptual philosophical reflection, the author inquires: Can my students and I, in a technologically mediated virtual space, harness the work of philosophy of education scholars to engage in a shared experience of (re)considering paths to sensitivity to diversity for equity and equality? The author engages the reader in a theoretical hike through a philosophical argument for attending to philosophical theories of education. She focuses on the work of Jane Roland Martin regarding sensitivity and cultural (mis)education and draws heavily on the scholarship of Barbara Thayer-Bacon regarding relational “(e)pistemologies,” constructed thinking, and democratic community. After examining her own practices, the author contends that in the reality of the growth of online education, she is tentatively optimistic that educators can facilitate authentic examination of educational practices in the light of theoretical work and push beyond superficial engagement to lasting transformative growth for the sake of equitable student achievement.