Rearranging pigeonholes: interrupting the ethnic hierarchy of a school's workforce

Increasing the cultural and linguistic diversity of the teaching workforce in Australia was a key recommendation of the House of Representatives Standing Committee Inquiry into Teacher Education in their report, Top of the Class (written by L. Hartsuyker Hartsuyker, L. 2007. Top of the class: Report of the inquiry into teacher education, (Report by the House of Representatives Standing Committee on Education and Vocational Training) Canberra, Australia: The Parliament of the Commonwealth of Australia.  [Google Scholar]). The report reflects findings from national and international research that support the need to increase the diversity of the teaching profession as a means to improve student outcomes, particularly given the increasingly diverse make-up of student populations. The Hartsuyker Report also notes, as a “national concern”, the relatively low enrolment of World English-speaking (WES) students in Australian teacher education courses and calls for targeted funding by the federal government for further research into why this is the case (as discussed by J. Han and M. Singh in 2007 Han, J. and Singh, M. 2007b. Getting World English speaking student teachers to the top of the class: Making hope for ethno-cultural diversity in teacher education robust. Asia-Pacific Journal of Teacher Education, 35(3): 291–309. [Taylor & Francis Online], [Web of Science ®] [Google Scholar]). This paper seeks to add to current research on the attraction and retention of WES students into Initial Teacher Education (ITE) programmes in Australia. It does so by relating some of the key findings from a case study of three WES Education Assistants, originally from Malaysia, who retrained to become teachers through an ITE programme at an Australian university. Significantly, as a result of a partnership developed between a school and a university, they entered the programme through an alternative access course, were awarded Recognition of Prior Learning for their work experience, and were able to remain in their community while studying externally. They were also provided ongoing mentoring support by the teaching staff and myself as programme co-ordinator. This paper aims to add to current research in this field by identifying the key driving and restraining forces that impacted on their ability to become teachers via an Australian ITE programme.     

Resilience Among Children Exposed to Domestic Violence: The Role of Risk and Protective Factors

Individual and family characteristics that predict resilience among children exposed to domestic violence (DV) were examined. Mother–child dyads ( n  =   190) were assessed when the children were 2, 3, and 4 years of age. DV-exposed children were 3.7 times more likely than nonexposed children to develop internalizing or externalizing problems. However, 54% of DV-exposed children maintained positive adaptation and were characterized by easy temperament (odds ratio [OR] = .39, d  = .52) and nondepressed mothers (OR = 1.14, d  = .07), as compared to their nonresilient counterparts. Chronic DV was associated with maternal depression, difficult child temperament, and internalizing or externalizing symptoms. Results underscore heterogeneous outcomes among DV-exposed children and the influence of individual and family characteristics on children's adaptation.     

Neoliberal contradictions in two private niches of educational ‘choice’

This article brings together ethnographies of two privileged educational settings in the United States – a private school in California’s Central Valley following the progressivist Sudbury model, and an affluent New England boarding school’s summer enrichment program. Each of these institutions serves as an alternative to and/or extension of publicly accessible education institutions during a neoliberal era of marketization and growing educational inequality. By comparing findings from ethnographic studies of each institution, we find that both celebrate open access and socially responsible pedagogical values in ways that obscure mechanisms of exclusion and an entrenched individualist ideology. We discuss two particular contradictions that manifest in both settings: first, a discourse of openness and inclusivity that belies the ways in which access is mediated by constructions of who best ‘fits’ the special learning community; and second, an outspoken allegiance to socially engaged values of diversity and democracy that belies the ways in which these values are commodified and appropriated for students’ individual advantage(s). In comparing such sites, we argue for the importance of tracing the mechanisms of advantage in under-researched ‘niches’ of the dynamically shifting and unequally accessed neoliberal marketplace for educational opportunity.     

Trust-building in the mentoring of students of color

Trust is a vital component of mentoring, particularly when protégés are people of color who have experienced racism and discrimination. My findings are part of a larger study that culminated in the formulation of a theory of multicultural mentoring. Trust was found to be foundational for successful multicultural mentoring relationships. In my study of how mentors establish trust with graduate protégés of color, the following mentor practices were found to promote trust: listening, maintaining excellent communication, having a holistic understanding of the protégé, self-disclosing, using humor, being willing to discuss race and culture, acknowledging mistakes, and behaving with integrity. The mentors not only worked to establish interpersonal trust, they also attended to institutional and sociocultural trust concerns that impacted their protégés. Considerable time, skill, commitment, and effort are required for mentors to establish trust with protégés of color. Recommendations for the provision of mentor support are provided.     

A shifting landscape: using tablets to support learning in students with diverse abilities

As technology becomes a larger part of people’s everyday lives, it is logical to think that it should also become a part of the learning process. The use of tablets in classrooms is becoming an area of interest as researchers are trying to understand what the benefits are – if any – to using these devices. This article gives an overview of some of the recent literature related to the benefits and challenges associated with the use of tablets with students in middle schools. Prevalent themes include the benefits of using tablets with students who have learning disabilities, and the challenges that can arise in the classroom, specifically issues of safety and security, access to apps and disruptive behaviours when using these devices. The authors share qualitative case studies of two teachers who have used tablets extensively with their students and discuss how their experiences resonate with the literature. The authors conclude with a summary of the affordances and constraints of using tablets with students who have special needs and offer workable solutions for some of the challenges educators face when using these devices.     

“Behind the Words”: Negotiating Literal/Figurative Sense When Translating the Lyrics to a Children’s Song in Bilingual Preschool

This study investigates how 6- to 7-year-old children in a bilingual preschool together with their teachers take on the challenge of translating the lyrics to a children’s song from Finnish to English. With an interest in how translation activities can engage children in communication and metacommunication, and facilitate the development of linguistic and metalinguistic awareness, how a decisive matter of translation – that of taking an utterance literally and/or metaphorically – is negotiated among participants is more specifically scrutinized. The study takes a sociocultural theoretical perspective on learning and communication. The study shows how this kind of activity allows teachers to scaffold children engaging in talk about linguistic and metalinguistic matters, pivotal to their language development and comprehension of this kind of text.