Equity and Advocacy Expectations of Culturally Diverse Families’ Participation in Special Education

The authors contend that the equity and advocacy expectations imbedded in the legal mandate for parent participation in the special education decision-making process directly contradict the hierarchy of professional status and knowledge on which the positivist paradigm of professionalism is based, and are also in conflict with the values held by many families from culturally diverse backgrounds, contributing to low levels of participation and advocacy. They argue the need for professional education to incorporate opportunities for professionals to identify the cultural assumptions imbedded in the field of special education towards more balanced and effective collaboration.     

Indian adult education and the post‐colonial legacy

Under the Raj education concentrated on reproducing a small Anglicized elite capable of administering the country. Adult education was minimal and confined to a few urban centres. After Independence Indian adult education was burdened with the project of modernization as India under Nehru and the nationalist movement desperately tried to industrialize the state according to western and soviet models. Despite the relative success of the first Five Year Plan's literacy programme, levels of funding dropped while bureaucracy and falsification of figures increased. Despite Gandhi, Indian education also suffered from elitist discourses inherited from the British Raj which assumed a ‘trickle‐down’ effect and resulted in the over‐balancing of the system towards higher education. Western experts (with the honourable exception of Frank Laubach) have tended to confirm the bias, but even Laubach's agenda raised suspicion. Only with the coming of the NAEP in 1978 was a serious attempt to redress the balance made. Subsequent radical educationists have once again taken up the banner of ‘Gandhi’ in the cause of educating the very poor and the project of modernization has given way to more needs‐based programmes.     

Developing a Theoretical Framework for Response: Creative Writing as Response in the Year 6 Primary Classroom

Focusing on the creative writing of Year 6 boys as they make the transition to Year 7, this article establishes a theoretical model for creative writing as response. In line with Bakhtin's notion of utterances as ‘interpersonal’ (1986), the model demonstrates the complexity of creative writing – the text is influencing of and influenced by an author's participation in ‘figured worlds’ (Holland, Lachicotte, Skinner and Cain 1998), but also influencing of and influenced by future respondents. This article suggests that ‘weaker framing’ (Bernstein 2000) in creative writing pedagogy has the potential to alter boys' identities and refigure their worlds.     

Strengthening Capstone Skills in STEM Programs

In this article we describe a curricular strategy that improves the full range of skillsets critical to capstone success. Improved Capstone (ICap) was developed and implemented across the thermo-fluids topical area in the undergraduate Mechanical Engineering Technology Program at the University of Hartford. ICap experiential courses sequentially introduce challenging and open-ended assignments that foster cognitive learning. Using a scaffolding structure, assignments are organized into three modules: (1) classical, (2) transitional, and (3) design of an experiment. ICap enables students to assume greater responsibility for their learning experiences and liberates the instructor to become a mentor. Consequently, higher level skills important in the capstone course are strengthened: critical thinking, quantitative reasoning, teamwork, communications, information literacy, and design process.     

解决分布式需求的内在冲突

2006年8月,GEN(I网络创新的全球化环境)项目组公布其项目的设计原则。来自普林斯顿大学、麻省理工大学、华盛顿大学等学校的十二位专家编写了这份报告。该报告阐述了GENI的研究范围、用户的需求、需求的内在压力,以及工程设计的原则。报告指出了GENI的价值主张,广泛的部署、多样化可扩展的网络技术集合、对真实用户流量的支持仍是GENI关注的原则和方向。上期已经介绍第一部分——“分布式需求定义GENI的重心”,本期刊出第二部分——“解决分布式需求的内在冲突”。