The locker room : Eroticism and exoticism in a polyphonic text

Critical race theory now encompasses a polyphonic telling of story in which multiple, shifting identities are seen in relation to each other and situated within historical contexts. Locating the fictive voice of an administrator forced to deal with change at a small private university, the article begins with a flashback to confrontations demanding that he reexamine his positions in relation to both work and social life. The second part of the article is an analytic discussion of the voices of narrator and other actors and concludes with a critical reconceptualization of polyphony. Much in the same way that critical race theorists have injected story-telling into legal scholarship in order to deconstruct and then reconstruct knowledge, the authors urge education researchers to move away from methodologies and systems of analysis that derive from white liberal discourse and ironically serve to maintain the status quo by leaving in place conservative structures and reward mechanisms.     

Case Study: Improving Customer Satisfaction,Quality, and Performance Using Performance‐Centered Solutions at ADDS Communications

A team of performance consultants looks closely at the operations of a cable services provider to identify existing performance gaps, barriers to performance, declining customer satisfaction ratings, and increased call volumes. The team used performance‐centered design (PCD) solutions in order to overcome technical support challenges through increased first‐call resolution. This article summarizes the root cause analysis, process, and the application of PCD solutions to close performance gaps, along with lessons learned from this case study.     

Mother–Child Attachment From Infancy to the Preschool Years: Predicting Security and Stability

Relations between maternal mind‐mindedness (appropriate and nonattuned mind‐related comments), children's age‐2 perspective‐taking abilities, and attachment security at 44 (n = 165) and 51 (n = 128) months were investigated. Nonattuned comments predicted insecure preschool attachment, via insecure 15‐month attachment security (44‐month attachment) and poorer age‐2 perspective‐taking abilities (51‐month attachment). With regard to attachment stability, higher perspective‐taking abilities distinguished the stable secure groups from (a) the stable insecure groups and (b) children who changed from secure to insecure (at trend level). These effects were independent of child gender, stressful life events, and socioeconomic status (SES). The contribution of these findings to our understanding of stability and change in attachment security from infancy to the preschool years is discussed.     

Enhancing students’ mathematical reasoning in the classroom: teacher actions facilitating generalization and justification

A proof is a connected sequence of assertions that includes a set of accepted statements, forms of reasoning and modes of representing arguments. Assuming reasoning to be central to proving and aiming to develop knowledge about how teacher actions may promote students’ mathematical reasoning, we conduct design research where whole-class mathematical discussions triggered by exploratory tasks play a key role. We take mathematical reasoning as making justified inferences and we consider generalizing and justifying central reasoning processes. Regarding teacher actions, we consider inviting, informing/suggesting, supporting/guiding and challenging actions can be identified in whole-class discussions. This paper presents design principles for an intervention geared to tackle such reasoning processes and focuses on a whole-class discussion on a grade 7 lesson about linear equations and functions. Data analysis concerns teacher actions in relation to design principles and to the sought mathematical reasoning processes. The conclusions highlight teacher actions that lead students to generalize and justify. Generalizations may arise from a central challenging action or from several guiding actions. Regarding justifications, a main challenging action seems to be essential, while follow-up guiding actions may promote a further development of this reasoning process. Thus, this paper provides a set of design principles and a characterization of teacher actions which enhance students’ mathematical reasoning processes such as generalization and justification.     

History of education in Brazil: the construction of a knowledge field

This article analyses the general characteristics of the construction of the field of history of education in Brazil. To do so, it highlights the existing historiography and aims to describe the process of institutionalisation of this knowledge field, which, in general terms, has been focused on the area of teacher training. Since the nineteenth century, however, it has also been possible to identify systematic historiographical efforts in Brazil that are not directly related to the school system, but rather to the teaching of and research into the history of education within Brazilian universities. The article addresses the organisation of the field, the ways in which it has been structured and the strategies of academic legitimisation employed to achieve this. These include the regular production of dissertations and doctoral theses, the publication of books and journals, academic events and the creation of research groups and scientific associations, through which research findings have found national and international circulation. This set of indicators creates conditions for an understanding of the expansion and reconfiguration of the field of history of education that began in the 1980s, as well as of the challenges this phenomenon presents to current historiography and teacher training in Brazil.     

Designing Science Learning with Game-Based Approaches

Given the growing popularity of digital games as a form of entertainment, educators are interested in exploring using digital games as a tool to facilitate learning. In this study, we examine game-based learning by describing a learning environment that combines game elements, play, and authenticity in the real world for the purpose of engaging students’ learning of science and enhancing student motivation. We discuss the design of the environment and present research conducted. Our findings demonstrate that the design of an engaging, interactive environment using a game-based approach can help students have fun while learning.