“Depend On,Rely On,Count On”: Economic Subjectivities Aboard <Emphasis Type="Italic">The Polar Express</Emphasis>

Christmas literature and film produced for children is an important, albeit under-researched, site for the production of cultural values and norms. This paper analyses Chris Van Allsburg’s 1985 picture book The Polar Express, the 2004 Warner Brothers feature film of the same title, the film’s official website, and resources for teachers distributed online by Houghton Mifflin, considering how these texts construct childhood subjectivities in economic terms. The argument made is that nostalgic depictions of ordered, middle-class lifestyles, the representation of social class inequalities as immutable structural norms, and signifiers of corporate capitalism, together locate childhood and child subjectivities as inexorably tethered to socio-economic circumstance and experience. Dr. Sue Saltmarsh is a Senior Lecturer in the School of Teacher Education at Charles Sturt University, Australia, where she lectures in Cultural Politics of Education and Qualitative Research Methods. Sue’s recent work concerns the ways that cultural texts and practices construct children and childhood in economic terms, utilising poststructuralist theory as a lens through which to explore the discursive production of economic subjectivities.     

Inclusion and mastery: variations on the theme of subjection

This article undertakes a discursive analysis of the concepts of ‘inclusion’ and ‘mastery’ using memory stories generated in a collective biography workshop. The five authors analysed their memories from childhood and adolescence on two separate and competing concepts that currently inform educational practice: inclusion and mastery. These stories of mastery/non‐mastery and inclusion/exclusion often exceeded or transgressed dominant normative discourses concerning the competent performance of autonomous selves. Drawing on the work of several theorists, they authors explored these transgressions. In so doing, their analysis extends Butler’s theorising of the human subject as constituted through processes of exclusion and differentiation.     

Critical Enquiry in Art in the Primary School

This article considers how primary teachers might introduce children to critical studies, in the light of an examination of recent developments in art theory, to show how these can inform our approach. It looks at the work of one teacher, Caron Ementon, to show how this relates to contemporary art theory. Thus, practice is contextualised within theory and vice versa. Some procedural principles are suggested which, in responding to developments in art theory, can provide an approach to critical enquiry that is educationally enriching. This approach can enable children to relate to the work of other artists in ways that are appropriate to their own level of development. It also lays the foundations for later learning, in terms of procedural knowledge both for interpreting art works, and, ultimately, for understanding that theory itself. Furthermore, the metacognitive dimension of critical enquiry, implicit both in the theory and the concomitant processes of learning described, opens up rich possibilities for developing critical thinking.     

Creating a Program to Deepen Family Inquiry at Interactive Science Exhibits

Abstract A common goal of science museums is to support the public in science inquiry by engaging groups of visitors with interactive exhibits. This article summarizes the efforts of a team of researchers and practitioners to extend and deepen such inquiry by explicitly coaching families in the skills of scientific inquiry at interactive exhibits. The first phase of the project, reported here, involved designing a “best case” program that worked for small groups of casual visitors under ideal circumstances, facilitated by an experienced educator in a quiet laboratory near the public floor. The final program, called Inquiry Games, taught visitors to sandwich their spontaneous physical experimentation between two additional phases: asking a question to drive their investigation at the beginning; and interpreting the results of their investigation at the end. Provisional evaluation data suggest that the Inquiry Games improved visitors' inquiry behavior in several ways and was rated as very enjoyable by them. Encouraged by these indicators, we suggest ways in which this program might be implemented on the open museum floor.     

Establishing the Reliability and Developmental Validity of a Neurobehavioral Assessment for Preterm Infants: A Methodological Process

The Neurobehavioral Assessment of the Preterm Infant was developed in 3 phases: a pilot study, an exploratory study, and a validation study. In the exploratory study, clusters characterized by conceptual cohesion and face validity were systematically subjected to statistical analyses to determine whether they also had high test-retest reliability and developmental validity. In the validation study, a shortened version of the test was used with an independent cohort of 290 preterm infants. A step-by-step methodological process was used to test whether the results from the exploratory study would generalize over cohorts, different versions of the test, different hospitals, and changes in examiners. This process yielded 7 highly stable, developmentally valid, and representative preterm neurobehavioral functions that generalized over the exploratory and the validation studies. These were: motor development and vigor, scarf sign, popliteal angle, alertness and orientation, percent asleep ratings, irritability, and vigor of crying.