Markets,schools and the convertibility of economic capital: the complex dynamics of class choice

While economic capital is not synonymous with cultural, social or symbolic capital in either its constitutional or organizational form, it nevertheless remains the more flexible and convertible form of capital. The convertibility of economic capital has particular resonance within ‘Celtic Tiger’ Ireland. The state’s reluctance to fully endorse an internal market between schools has resulted in middle‐class parents using their private wealth to create an educational market in the private sector to help secure the class futures of their children. Using data from recent studies of second‐level education in Ireland, and data compiled on the newly emerging ‘grind’ schools (private tuition centres), we outline how the availability of economic capital allows middle‐class parents to choose fee‐paying schooling or to opt out of the formal school sector entirely to employ market solutions to their class ambitions. The data also show that schools actively collude in the class project to their own survival advantage.     

STEM‐focused high schools as a strategy for enhancing readiness for postsecondary STEM programs

The logic underlying inclusive STEM high schools (ISHSs) posits that requiring all students to take advanced college preparatory STEM courses while providing student‐centered, reform‐oriented instruction, ample student supports, and real‐world STEM experiences and role models will prepare and inspire students admitted on the basis of STEM interest rather than prior achievement for postsecondary STEM. This study tests that logic model by comparing the high school experiences and achievement of students in ISHSs and comparison schools in North Carolina. After identifying ISHS and non‐STEM comparison high schools serving students who were similar in terms of socioeconomic status and academic achievement prior to high school entry, we employed propensity‐score weighting and HLM modeling to estimate the impact of attending an ISHS on a set of outcome measures obtained from student surveys and from the state's longitudinal student data system. Analyses of student survey data found that attending an ISHS raises the likelihood that a student will complete pre‐calculus or calculus and chemistry in high school, leads to increased involvement in STEM extracurricular and out‐of‐class activities, and enhances interest in science careers and aspirations to earn a master's or higher degree. Analyses of student outcome data from state administrative records revealed a positive impact of inclusive STEM high school attendance on grade point average (GPA) but not on ACT scores. © 2016 The Authors. Journal of Research in Science Teaching Published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 53: 709–736, 2016

     

Deepening Understanding of Science and Mathematics Education Reform Principles: Novice Teachers Design Web-based Units Using Project 2061's Curriculum Analysis

Journal of Science Teacher Education -     

Does science education need the history of science?

This essay argues that science education can gain from close engagement with the history of science both in the training of prospective vocational scientists and in educating the broader public about the nature of science. First it shows how historicizing science in the classroom can improve the pedagogical experience of science students and might even help them turn into more effective professional practitioners of science. Then it examines how historians of science can support the scientific education of the general public at a time when debates over "intelligent design" are raising major questions over the kind of science that ought to be available to children in their school curricula. It concludes by considering further work that might be undertaken to show how history of science could be of more general educational interest and utility, well beyond the closed academic domains in which historians of science typically operate.     

Lecture: Impact of Digital Scholarship on Research Libraries

ABSTRACT

The future of research libraries will be shaped by broader developments at research universities in the areas of creating, sharing, disseminating, and curating knowledge. Universities face fundamental policy choices in all of these areas that have been recast by developments in information technology. This article discusses trends in digital scholarship practices across the humanities, science, and social science disciplines and examines implications for academic institutions and their research libraries as a means of framing these policy choices.

This article originally published in Journal of Library Administration, Vol. 49, Issue 3, pages 227–244, 2009. doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/01930820902785041.