Peace as an event,peace as utopia: a re-imagining of peace and its implications for peace education and development

This paper aims to provide a new approach to peace in order to contribute to a theoretically informed approach to peace education and development practice. Arguing that liberal peace can be counter-productive and can actually betray peace, I offer an alternative approach in order to contribute to thinking on peace for educators and development practitioners. Introducing the theory of peace that I developed in my recent Ph.D., I explore how utopian and post-structural theory conceptualises peace as an open-ended promise, facilitating alternative thinking about peace and how to engage with it. I then discuss the implications this has for praxis and finish by looking at how the work of translating peace is an important aspect of peace education and development.     

Six elements for technology integration in multicultural classrooms

Abstract

Although the number of computers in American schools multiplies, educational inequity remains evident in the area of technology. The socio-economically disadvantaged, the physically disabled, and the culturally and linguistically different have limited knowledge of and experiences with technology. Equitable access to technology requires the infusion of effective multicultural teaching strategies into educational technology use. These strategies must be broad enough to be inclusive of diverse learners, yet specific enough to be valuable as a guide to multicultural teaching. Similarly, they should allow for individual creativity and personal differences in teaching and learning. In this paper, the author proposes and defines six elements for integrating technology in culturally diverse classrooms: cultural awareness, cultural relevance, culturally supportive environment, equitable access, instructional flexibility, and instructional integration. These six elements are based on research on effective teaching of diverse students. They are not exhaustive of good instructional practices for technology use with diverse learners. Nevertheless, the author found their application in the evaluation of 32 technology-integrated units both informative and effective in identifying how teachers integrated computers for diverse learners. The author recognizes the need for further validation of these criteria and for research on effective teacher use of technology in multicultural settings.     

Networking resources,owning productivity: a post-development alternative in Mindanao?

This paper explores the practices of one small non-governmental organisation (NGO) in Mindanao working innovatively to challenge power and interests by linking resources to local communities who control their productivity. While this may seem like social capital, I suggest that the agency over production, and the deeply political and ideological nature of the recipient communities, calls for a different reading. The regard for the contextual and contestational politics suggests that a radical alternative is emerging. I use post-development theory to frame the analysis of this example, posing the question: Is this practice a radical alternative to the internationally framed global development discourses, or are we witnessing the reproduction of these discourses in new forms?     

Two-Part Share Contracts, Risk, and the Life Cycle of Stars: Some Empirical Results from Motion Picture Contracts

What determines the market value of a star? This paper examines the size of fixed payments to leading actors in the U.S. motion picture industry from a sample of contracts between 1959 and 1989. Competing explanations for the size of compensation, including rent capture, risk sharing, signalling, and portfolio optimization by studio executives are explored. The size of fixed payment across all contract types moves with an actor's history of participating in top-20 grossing films over the past five, ten, fifteen, and twenty films. Further, the impact of past top-20 successes is enhanced by the length of the actor's career. When contracts are divided into those with both fixed payments and share payments and those with only fixed payments, the fixed payment in two-part share contracts is influenced to some extent by risk concerns, in addition to the actor's star power. Fixed-payment-only contracts are most strongly influenced by measures of signalling and star power. Data on both types of contract provide strong support for the rent-capture theory: actors are paid rents upfront for the star value they add to the production.     

Development of Reading in Grades K–2 in Spanish‐Speaking English‐Language Learners

Development of English‐ and Spanish‐reading skills was explored in a sample of 251 Spanish‐speaking English‐language learners from kindergarten through Grade 2. Word identification and reading comprehension developed at a normal rate based on monolingual norms for Spanish‐ and English‐speaking children, but English oral language lagged significantly behind. Four categories of predictor variables were obtained in Spanish in kindergarten and in English in first grade: print knowledge, expressive language (as measured by vocabulary and sentence repetition tasks), phonological awareness, and rapid automatic naming (RAN). Longitudinal regression analyses indicated a modest amount of cross‐language transfer from Spanish to English. Hierarchical regression analyses indicated that developing English‐language skills (particularly phonological awareness and RAN) mediated the contribution of Spanish‐language variables to later reading. Further analyses revealed stronger within‐ than cross‐language associations of expressive language with later reading, suggesting that some variables function cross‐linguistically, and others within a particular language. Results suggest that some of the cognitive factors underlying reading disabilities in monolingual children (e.g., phonological awareness and RAN) may be important to an understanding of reading difficulties in bilingual children.     

Co-streaming classes: a follow-up study in improving the user experience to better reach users

Co-streaming classes have enabled library staff to extend open classes to distance education students and other users. Student evaluations showed that the model could be improved. Two areas required attention: audio problems experienced by online participants and staff teaching methods. Staff tested equipment and adjusted software configuration to improve user experience. Staff training increased familiarity with specialized teaching techniques and troubleshooting procedures. Technology testing and staff training were completed, and best practices were developed and applied. Class evaluations indicate improvements in classroom experience. Future plans include expanding co-streaming to more classes and on-going data collection, evaluation, and improvement of classes.     

Bridging Cognitive Science and Real Classrooms: A Video Methodology for Experimental Research

We describe a new approach to the use of video-based technology for conducting controlled experiments in classroom contexts. Specifically, we describe a process for editing video recordings of live classroom lessons to create multiple versions, such that only one aspect of the lesson is systematically varied. Other aspects of the instruction are all held constant, including audio, curricular content, student participation, and other notoriously hard-to-control details of the interactional context that impact learning (e.g., gestures, affect). These edited lesson versions can be randomly assigned to students by condition within classrooms to meet a high standard for random assignment. This technology provides opportunities for deriving causal data on the efficacy of teaching practices through stimuli approximating a typical everyday classroom context.     

Bringing the social into pedagogy: unsafe learning in an uncertain world

The paper describes a collaborative curriculum development project implemented over 3 years at 2 universities in the Western Cape Province of South Africa. The project involved a short module in which students in their fourth year of study interacted and learnt collaboratively across the boundaries of institution, discipline, race and social class, about the concepts of community, self and identity. The pedagogic approach adopted is described, as well as the responses of the students, and a brief reflection on some of the learning outcomes attained. The paper considers the learning processes which the curriculum development team experienced, and suggests that in order to facilitate learning for an ‘uncertain world’, the curriculum designers, too, need to engage in learning processes in which they make themselves vulnerable, mirroring some of the learning processes they expect the students to undergo.     

Who's the winner? Children's math learning in competitive and collaborative scenarios

Games are frequently used to promote math learning, yet the competitive and collaborative contexts introduced by games may exacerbate gender differences. In this study, 1st and 2nd grade children in the U.S. (ages 5–8; N = 274; 70% White, 15% Asian, 2% Black, 1% Native American, 14% mixed or other race; 17% Hispanic) played either a competitive, collaborative, or solo game to learn about a challenging novel math concept: proportion. Overall, both social contexts boosted perseverance and task attitudes. However, analyses revealed the competitive condition yielded gender differences in attention to proportion in the presence of competing cues, with older boys underperforming in the competition condition. Potential explanations for these findings, as well as implications for classroom math learning, are discussed.