Becoming a ‘Girl’: post‐structuralist suggestions for educational research

Post‐structuralist analyses have yet to be used widely by feminist classroom researchers. Some, such as Bronwyn Davies and Valerie Walkerdine, have showed how post‐structuralism provides a conceptual language which transcends agency/structure dualisms, as well as avoids the simplicities of theories which invoke a monolithic notion of patriarchal power in understanding girls’ classroom experiences. This paper attempts to spell out some of the diverse benefits of post‐structuralism for feminist empirical research in education.     

Further Progress Towards a Standardised Curriculum-based Measure of Reading: Calibrating a new passage reading test against the New South Wales Basic Skills Test

Results are presented from a pilot study and a larger scale study aligning a curriculum-based passage reading test, the Wheldall Assessment of Reading Passages (WARP), with the literacy components of the New South Wales Basic Skills Test (BST). A strong relationship between the WARP and BST Literacy is demonstrated, particularly for Year Three students. Representative (approximate) norms for students in Years One to Five on the WARP are reported, based on the results from a school with a BST literacy profile that is very similar to that for the state of New South Wales as a whole.     

A Two-State Study of Family Child Care Engagement in Quality Rating and Improvement Systems: A Mixed-Methods Analysis

ABSTRACT

Research Findings. The current study is a mixed-methods investigation of family child care provider participation in voluntary Quality Rating and Improvement Systems (QRIS) in 2 states. Study 1 is an analysis of matched QRIS and child care licensing administrative data extracted from both states in May, 2014. Poverty and population density variables were added to the dataset by aligning U.S. Census data and Rural Urban Commuting Area codes (RUCA) to the matched state child care data. Participation patterns differed in the 2 states relative to provider characteristics (subsidy receipt, years licensed, and location). Study 2 consists of focus groups with participating (n = 22) and non-participating (n = 19) providers. Professionalism and financial incentives emerged as significant in attracting family child care providers to QRIS. Although family child care providers identified several clear benefits to QRIS, many more challenges emerged that negatively impact their participation. Practice or Policy. As most states are employing a QRIS framework to integrate quality improvement efforts, perspectives from this sector of early care and education are often overlooked. Study findings suggest that QRIS can be more responsive and effective with family child care providers if more consideration of their unique features are considered in systems design and implementation.     

Professional storytelling in clinical dental anatomy teaching

The aim of the present work was to see if storytelling in a clinical dental anatomy course would increase student satisfaction. We enhanced teaching by spontaneous storytelling in problem‐based learning, in half of the third‐year dentistry class. At the end of the course, we administered an anonymous questionnaire to the students in the class, consisting of 12 questions that students had to answer on a Likert scale of 1–5. An overall satisfaction score was obtained and we used a linear mixed model to compare differences in satisfaction between the two groups, with “group” as the fixed effect. We also conducted an exploratory factor analysis of the responses to investigate whether there were distinct constructs within the data. Overall satisfaction is high, with students “with stories” having higher satisfaction than those “without stories.” The former group consistently gives higher satisfaction scores, regardless of which question is being asked. Factor analysis provides evidence that storytelling nurtures reflective learning, while students work on their clinical anatomy problems. Anat Sci Ed 1:84–89, 2008. © 2008 American Association of Anatomists.     

The Profound Sound of Ernest Hemingway's Typist: Gendered Typewriting as a Solution to the Problems of Communication

Beginning in the late nineteenth century, the association between women and typewriters first generated and then ameliorated anxieties over the potential unfaithfulness of the writing technology. Typing techniques designed to minimize miscommunication developed in response to fears of and frustrations with the machine. Gendered typewriting reconciled a perception of the typewriter as a powerful means of expression with the desire for a trustworthy mode of communication. Through an examination of literature and typing tutorials, this article shows gender's regulatory function in the pursuit of clear, reliable, and faithful communication processes, suggesting that gender functions primarily as solution to, rather than as a problem for, communication.