Use of Standard Deviations as Predictors in Models Using Large-Scale International Data Sets

Measures of variability are successfully used in predictive modeling in research areas outside of education. This study examined how standard deviations can be used to address research questions not easily addressed using traditional measures such as group means based on index variables. Student survey data were obtained from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development to examine standard deviation predictors in multilevel models. These predictors and interactions explained additional variation in the dependent variable beyond the control variables. Models using biased and unbiased standard deviations were compared. Meaningful differences were found between the models. Findings supported how standard deviation predictors may increase explanatory power and accuracy of models commonly used in educational research.     

Body Donation after Medically Assisted Death: An Emerging Consideration for Donor Programs

Around the world, the recent introduction of assisted death laws has meant that undertaking medical assistance in dying (MAID) is now an option for some persons wishing to end their life. Some of these people donate their bodies to medical science, and by doing so have created a new route from which donor programs can now receive bodies. Such donations have also illuminated a myriad of novel ethical questions. This article considers the emotive and controversial topic of MAID in relation to body donation, describing the experiences of McMaster University, Canada, where several MAID body donors have been received by the anatomical donor program. It provides background on the development and implementation of MAID in Canada, and describes the experience of staff and students at McMaster to MAID donations. It also explores the relevance of MAID to body donation programs, and discusses several of the ethical challenges facing body donation programs who may encounter MAID body donors. These include the appropriateness of accepting MAID donors, issues with informed consent, the effect of personal engagement with MAID donors, information sharing around MAID donations, governance issues, and negative historical parallels between MAID and euthanasia. Suggestions on how to manage MAID body donation focus on how issues affecting institutions, faculty, and students may be approached utilizing appropriate transparency and communication, some of which may facilitate student professional development around the topic of MAID. It is also suggested that the development of ethically appropriate guidelines on MAID body donations may positively guide the anatomical community.     

Is Multipotentiality a Problem or Not? A New Look at the Data

Multipotentiality is widely cited as a characteristic of the most gifted individuals. It refers to their ability and interest to pursue various activities and goals especially as related to leisure and career choice. Multipotentiality appears beneficial, but can also lead to problems in career decision-making. Evidence for such problems, however, is contradictory and often anecdotal. This research, a follow-up study to Rysiew, Shore and Carson (1984), through the examination of longitudinal empirical data, sought to ascertain the outcomes of multipotentiality and to examine its effects on career decision-making. The sample comprised 180 participants (110 males and 70 females), which is 73% of 1984 sample. The average verbal IQ (Otis & Lennon, 1969) was 124.5. Results show that multipotentiality seemed not problematic, and evidence for career indecision was lacking. As for moderating variables, participants' considered experiences to be beneficial.     

Mixed Messages: The Problem of Class in Mary Norton’s <Emphasis Type="Italic">Borrowers</Emphasis> Series

Scholars have posited various theories as to which sector of society Mary Norton’s Borrowers most closely reflect, from exploitative aristocrats to helpless victims. Through social and literary contextualization, this article highlights the ways in which Norton represents social class in the series and explores the competing ideologies embedded in the texts. Madelyn Travis is Website Features Editor for Booktrust and Associate Editor of The Journal of Children’s Literature Studies. She has contributed to The Horn Book magazine and The Ultimate First Book Guide. She has an MA in children’s literature from Roehampton University and will shortly embark on a PhD at Newcastle University.     

Education and symbolic violence in contemporary Turkey

This article examines the perceptions of education in Turkey, which refer to a nebulous package of formal education and a cultured stance. Guided by the literature on symbolic violence, we argue that underprivileged groups misrecognize arbitrary hierarchies by considering them just and inevitable. Elite tastes have been internalized by other groups in a particular historical context of education and culture. We investigate the historical roots of this seemingly ahistorical constellation of power relations around education and then consider the implications for the neoliberal period. Then, we contextualize the responses to symbolic violence. Subordinate groups complicate the effects of symbolic violence by exhibiting diverse responses that range from outright submission to implicitly questioning cultural and moral boundaries, creating class and ethnic others in the process. This occurs by constructing cultural and moral boundaries, especially targeting the ‘vulgar’ culture of celebrities and Kurds.     

The acquisition of notions of qualitative speed: The importance of spatial and temporal alignment

An understanding of kinematics is predicated upon the ability to understand preliminary notions of movement and speed. This study investigated the order of acquisition of intuitive notions of qualitative speed. The results indicated that an array of prerequisite, equivalent, and independent relationships existed among the tasks administered. The levels of difficulty implied within the hierarchy formed confirmed the evolution of reasoning for notions of qualitative speed found by Piaget. The findings also indicated that the concepts investigated were interrelated and separable into distinct categories based upon spatial and temporal aspects of the motion. The alignment or nonalignment of objects, either spatially or temporally, provide an indication of the difficulty of the task presented and explain the order of acquisition of notions of qualitative speed.     

Cultural Images of Children, Parents and Professionals: Italian Interpretations of Home-School Relationships

This article explicates selected findings from a recently completed collaborative investigation of home-school relations in five Italian cities: Reggio Emilia, Milano, Trento, Parma, and San Miniato. The purpose of the investigation was to understand the transactional relationships among national social policy, cultural values, and local practice relative to infant care and preprimary education. The article focuses on both the continuity and sub-cultural variations associated with two national guidelines-gestione sociale [participatory social management] and l'inserimento [the initial entry of young children into out-of-home care]. These cultural concepts served as the basis for an examination of home-school relationships as interpreted at the policy, programmatic, and interpersonal level. Common themes relative to gestione sociale and l'inserimento were identified across the five cities; local and regional differences were also apparent in the translation of policy into practices. The study revealed diverse sociopolitical and theoretical interpretations of effective home-school relationships, leading to structural variations in how each guideline is operationalized and valued. Collaborative analyses led to a deeper understanding of the Italian cultural value of relationships as central to definitions of program quality, the emotional well- being of adults as well as children, and the situatedness of early childhood education within community and national contexts.     

Access to higher education: the hope for democratic schooling in America

The American aspiration for higher education as a road to a better life for everyone is threatened. As the economic and social gap between the upper third of the population and the bottom third widens, so access to better education, especially to higher education, becomes increasingly difficult to achieve. The traditional role of hope in the American Democratic Dream of a just and fair society is being eroded, as increasing numbers of Americans are marginalized, jailed, recruited into military service, and consigned to jobs with minimal salaries. But low‐paying jobs are not new in American history; what is new is that the hope for higher education and improvement in one's economic and social status is slipping away. The lower expectations result from federal cuts in support of education and for scholarships for higher education. This article reviews the conditions that are undermining the traditional visions of democratic schooling in America.