Beyond Warmth and Conflict: The Developmental Utility of a Boundary Conceptualization of Sibling Relationship Processes

Translating relationship boundaries conceptualizations to the study of sibling relationships, this study examined the utility of sibling enmeshment and disengagement in predicting child adjustment difficulties in a sample of 282 mothers and adolescents (mean age = 12.7 years). Mothers completed a semistructured interview at the first measurement occasion to assess sibling interaction patterns. Adolescents, mothers, and teachers reported on children’s adjustment problems across 2 annual waves of assessment. Supporting the incremental utility of a boundary conceptualization of sibling relationships, results of latent difference score analyses indicated that coder ratings of sibling enmeshment and disengagement uniquely predicted greater adolescent adjustment difficulties even after taking into account standard indices of sibling relationship quality (i.e., warmth and conflict) and sibling structural characteristics (e.g., sex).     

The intra-active production of normativity and difference

Drawing on memory stories told in a collective biography workshop about children’s encounters with schooling, this paper experiments with re-imagining the child-student-subject as an ‘emergent intracorporeal multiplicity’ [Fritsch, K. 2015. “Desiring Disability Differently: Neoliberalism, Heterotopic Imagination and Intra-Corporeal Configurations.” Foucault Studies 19: 43–66, 51]. From the feminist new materialist perspective that the authors work with, the child is configured not as an entity prior to, or separate from, encounters with education systems, but emergent with-in them. This paper focuses on difference in human relations, and in particular on the intersections of disability and gender. It does so not in terms of essential characteristics of individuals, but as emergent, in-the-moment, with others. In focussing on the detail of lives-in-their-making, the authors ask, with Barad [2007. Meeting the Universe Halfway: Quantum Physics and the Entanglement of Matter and Meaning. Durham: Duke University Press], if we are interested in justice, how we are to ‘understand our role in helping constitute who and what come to matter?’     

Family Instability and Young Children's School Adjustment: Callousness and Negative Internal Representations as Mediators

This study examined the mediating roles of children's callousness and negative internal representations of family relationships in associations between family instability and children's adjustment to school in early childhood. Participants in this multimethod (i.e., survey, observations), multiinformant (i.e., parent, teacher, observer), longitudinal study included 243 preschool children (M_age = 4.60 years) and their families. Findings from the lagged, autoregressive tests of the mediational paths indicated that both children's callousness and negative internal representations of family relationships mediated longitudinal associations between family instability and children's school adjustment problems over a 2‐year period (i.e., the transition from preschool to first grade). Findings are discussed in relation to the attenuation hypothesis (E. J. Susman, 2006) and emotional security theory (EST; P. T. Davies, M. A. Winter, & D. Cicchetti, 2006).     

Science and citizenship education

I argue that there is potential for collaborative work between science educators and citizenship educators. However, following comments about that potential, I raise a number of challenges. Those challenges relate to the public perception of science, narrow academic perspectives of some science educators, and problematic attempts to develop a form of science education that, at times, some have claimed is relevant to — or, even, a form of — citizenship education. The latter point is considered with reference to some science educators’ perceptions concerning the nature of citizenship and citizenship education. I argue that the perceptions of some science educators seem to suggest significant differences in understanding from at least some of those who would regard themselves as citizenship education specialists. In the final main section of the article, I suggest, briefly, some ways in which further work to develop collaboration between science educators and citizenship educators could be considered.     

Quality Talk and dialogic teaching—an examination of a professional development programme on secondary teachers’ facilitation of student talk

This study used the Quality Talk and dialogic teaching approach with a group of secondary school teachers (N = 7) to train their facilitation of dialogical discussions by small groups of students. The study used video and audio analysis to assess the teachers’ observable behaviours during these discussions, before and after professional development; for example, types of Quality Talk questions asked. The study also used face‐to‐face interviews, held before and after the professional development, to investigate the teachers’ beliefs about learning through discussion. Results show that although the number of high‐quality questions from the teachers did not increase, the quality of the questions students asked of each other did improve, and resulted in extended periods of dialogic spells. Positive developments were found for teachers’ beliefs about the use of dialogue to foster deeper thinking with their secondary school‐aged students.     

Maternal Unresponsiveness and Child Disruptive Problems: The Interplay of Uninhibited Temperament and Dopamine Transporter Genes

This study examined how and why dopamine transporter (DAT1) susceptibility alleles moderate the relation between maternal unresponsiveness and young children's behavior problems in a disadvantaged, predominantly minority sample of 201 two‐year‐old children and their mothers. Using a multimethod, multisource design, the findings indicated that a genetic composite of DAT1 susceptibility alleles (rs27072, rs40184) potentiated associations between maternal unresponsive caregiving and increases in children's behavior problems 2 years later. Moderator‐mediated‐moderation analyses further revealed that the DAT1 diathesis was more proximally mediated by the potentiating effects of children's uninhibited temperament in the pathway between maternal unresponsiveness and disruptive behavior problems. Results are interpreted in the context of supporting and advancing the biosocial developmental model (Beauchaine & Gatzke‐Kopp, 2012).     

Monitoring Standards in Mathematics in Year 2: an 8 year cross‐sectional study

The National Curriculum was introduced into British primary schools in 1989 to raise standards of attainment, especially in the basic skills of English and mathematics. Other steps taken to raise standards included putting basic skills at the heart of the school curriculum and teacher training and publishing school performance tables to focus attention on standards. What has been the effect of these measures on children's mathematical attainments? This paper analyses the mathematics standards of eight cohorts of Year 2 children from five randomly selected primary schools within one Local Education Authority (LEA) (n = 1502) who had all done Mathematics 7 from 1989–1996. Examination of the means of the standardised mathematics scores for each cohort reveals evidence of stable standards in attainment over the 8 years. There are fewer over‐achievers than one would expect and this indicates that less children in this sample are doing really well than was the case when the test was standardised. Discussion centres on the cost effectiveness and utility of the National Curriculum, assessment procedures and the publishing of school performance tables in raising mathematical standards at Key Stage 1. The need for an effective system for monitoring educational standards throughout the UK is raised.