The Participation of Boys and Girls in Home Economics

This study examined whether male students dominated classroom interactions in home economics lessons and whether other classroom processes sustained gender divisions in this subject in two Form I and two Form II classes in two schools. The sample included two female home economics teachers and all the students in the four classes (34 boys and 31 girls). Data were collected during five 60‐minute observation sessions in each class (inter‐observer reliability reached 94%) and structured interviews with both teachers and 24 students (three boys and three girls from each class). Statistically significant (p < 0.001) differences were found in the number of times students were helped by the teachers (boys received 76% of teachers’ help) and in the number of reprimands they received (boys received 87%). Boys and girls received a comparable amount of praise but boys received a greater amount of interaction in all other categories (direction of teacher questions, choice of students to answer questions, call‐outs and calling students by name) although these differences were not statistically significant. There were major individual differences between students of the same sex in all the categories. More boys (19) than girls (seven) were high participants in different classroom processes. Most of the students in mixed‐gender kitchenettes co‐operated in cleaning up. Teachers expected the same standard of work from all the students but they allotted more special jobs to girls.     

Autonomy versus affirmative action: What price social justice?

This study measures all the marginal direct and indirect costs of an affirmative action/equal employment opportunity (AA/EEO) program at a single institution through cost analysis procedures identifying cost generating variables in three categories: personnel, operating expenses, and capital outlay replacement value. Costs were weighed against benefits, as measured by number of women and minorities hired. Since costs and benefits should be evaluated only in relation to effectiveness of implementation procedures, program administration was assessed through a series of interviews with faculty chairs. Total compliance costs incurred for the university in one budget cycle amounted to 0.4% of the total institutional budget, and the great majority of these costs were expended indirectly, in faculty time. Representation of women and minorities was increased by approximately 1.9%, despite lack of strong leadership from the central administration and haphazard program administration. Although the costs incurred in implementing AA/EEO are negliglible compared to other social justice legislation, educators still decry its expense. Thus, we argue that educators are not concerned with the actual dollar outlay for AA/ EEO but instead use its intangible educational costs as a symbolic issue in their struggle with the state over university autonomy.     

The Validity and Reliability of OFSTED Judgements of the Quality of Secondary Mathematics Initial Teacher Education Courses

The inspection by OFSTED's Initial Teacher Education and Training (ITET) team of courses of initial teacher education is high stakes. An unsatisfactory report can lead to course closure. Even a satisfactory report can lead to reductions in quota resulting in a spiral of decline in course viability. The high stakes nature of the inspection means that there has to be complete confidence in the level of validity and reliability of the inspection process. This paper presents an analysis of the complete cohort of published inspection reports of providers of secondary mathematics initial teacher education Post-graduate Certificate of Education (PGCE) courses carried out by the OFSTED ITET team in the period 1996-1998. The analysis demonstrates that there is considerable variation in the reports in terms of word length, how particular criteria seem to be applied and how judgements are expressed. With the complexity of the framework for inspection it is impossible, given the current model of inspection report, to properly distinguish between consistency of application and the loading given to any particular criterion. Attention to the transparency of the inspection process and to matters of validity and reliability is crucial if there is to be confidence in the inspection system.     

Learning molecular behaviour may improve student explanatory models of the greenhouse effect

We assessed undergraduates’ representations of the greenhouse effect, based on student-generated concept sketches, before and after a 30-min constructivist lesson. Principal component analysis of features in student sketches revealed seven distinct and coherent explanatory models including a new Molecular Details model. After the lesson, which described the invisible molecular behaviour of gases, this group (n = 164) produced significantly more expert-like representations of the greenhouse effect, and included fewer novice ideas. The key behaviour that greenhouse gases emit radiation in random directions is new to most students and directly counters common explanations involving reflection and ‘trapping’ of radiation in the atmosphere. Thus, learning molecular behaviour of greenhouse gases may help students replace non-expert explanatory models. This Molecular Details model has not been previously identified, and is unlikely to have emerged from human evaluation of student sketches alone. When teaching the greenhouse effect, we propose that interventions explicitly incorporate greenhouse gas behaviour.     

Urban Middle School Students’ Stereotypes at the Intersection of Sexual Orientation,Ethnicity, and Gender

Heterosexual urban middle school students’ (N = 1,757) stereotypes about gender typicality, intelligence, and aggression were assessed. Students (M_age = 12.36 years) rated Facebook‐like profiles of peers who varied by gender, ethnicity, and sexual orientation. Several hypotheses about how the gender, ethnicity, and sexual orientation of target peers intersect to shape stereotypes were tested. As predicted, a peer's sexual orientation determined stereotypes of gender typicality, with gay and lesbian students viewed as most atypical. As expected, ethnicity shaped stereotypes of intelligence, with Asian American students seen as most intelligent. Gender, ethnicity, and sexual orientation independently and jointly affected stereotypes of aggression. These results demonstrate the value of an intersectional approach to the study of stereotypes. Implications for future research and practice are offered.     

Evidence-based Practice in Education: The Best Medicine?

This paper explores the reasons why the notion of 'evidence-based' practice has gained prominence in educational research. The ascendancy of 'evidence-based' practice is attributed to a crisis of legitimation in educational research. The paper offers a critical exegesis of a systematic review conducted under the auspices of the Effective Practice and Organisation of Care (EPOC) subgroup of the Cochrane Collaboration.     

Feminist scholars working around the neoliberal university

A considerable scholarship now describes the increasing neoliberalization of universities and the accompanying impacts on academic research and researchers. However, less attention has been devoted to issues of research project leadership, especially for academics with feminist commitments. This article reports results of a qualitative study of 12 senior academic women from 6 countries who are known for feminist research and explores how they pursue their projects in the context of contemporary changes and challenges. Rather than positioning faculty as passive participants, this study acknowledges their agency within institutional structures, albeit somewhat constrained. The results reveal the range of strategies employed by feminist researchers in various national contexts that enable them to maintain their critical focus despite increasing pressures to conform to neoliberal agendas.     

Effect of Mother's Employment Status on Adolescents' Self Perceptions and Academic Performance

Existing research has not as yet demonstrated that mother's employment per se has consistent effects on adolescent perceptions and academic performance. Recent investigations have focused on the effect of mother's employment and occupational status on adolescents self assessments and school outcomes in intact families. In addition, the effect of father's occupational status on adolescent perceptions and achievements was assessed. A sample of 1675 year students (896 males and 779 females) served as subjects for this investigation.

The major results were that mother's employment outside the home was associated with low preference for science subjects among males while for females, mother's employment status was associated with high preference for mathematics subjects and a favourable attitude to doing well in school. In addition, the occupational status of mothers who did work was related to the amount of control male adolescents felt they had over events affecting their lives: boys with mothers employed in low‐status occupations tended to have more external control orientations than those with mothers employed in high‐status occupations. Also, males with mothers in low‐status occupations had lower preferences for mathematics subjects than males whose mothers were employed in high‐status occupations. However, no variables were entered into the predictive model of mother's occupational status for the female sample. Father's occupational status was also found to be associated with a number of adolescent's perceptions. Implications of these results for research into the effects of mother's employment status and mother's and father's occupational status for adolescent perceptions and performance were discussed.     

The impact of maternal characteristics and contextual variables on infant-mother attachment

This prospective study examined the effects of maternal characteristics, social support, and risk factors on infant-mother attachment in a heterogeneous sample. Two hundred and six women between the ages of 18 and 40 were interviewed during their last trimester of pregnancy and 1 year postpartum. Structural equation modeling revealed that maternal attachment experiences were significantly related to prenatal representations of the infant and of the self as a mother, which were significantly related to infant-mother attachment assessed by the Strange Situation. Maternal risk factors were significantly related to prenatal representations, and social support from other women predicted infant-mother attachment. The overall model indicated a good fit. Thus, both individual and contextual factors were important in explaining infant attachment security.     

Course-level modeling of preservice teacher learning of technology integration

We introduce an analytic approach to examine preservice teachers' technology integration learning as a process mapped against their technology-related course experience in a technology integration course. The approach assumes that (1) the preservice teachers have common course learning experience; (2) their data are collected pre- and post-course and paired; (3) the sample size is large enough to generate a structural covariance model; (4) the measurement is contextualized to the course characteristics around the types of technology tasks/tools used in the course and whether or not they were explicitly taught. The approach was applied to 368 preservice teachers' paired data to illustrate how the approach addresses the methodological issue of construct validity in TPACK measures, highlights the importance of technology integration course experience, and provides useful insights into a particular technology integration learning to its stakeholders.