Curricular decision-making among public sex educators

The content of sex education in government-funded schools in the USA varies dramatically and reflects its contested nature and goals. Drawing from 50 interviews with sex educators working in the public, government-funded school system in a Midwestern US state, this study explores the processes through which sex educators decide what and how to teach. Working from the theoretical framework of argument sphere theory, and, specifically, socio-scientific controversy, we find that sex educators often resolve the competing arguments they face through processes that we call deliberative conflation and deliberative co-optation. Deliberative conflation involves the use of criteria from one or more argumentative spheres to judge evidence appropriate to a different sphere. Deliberative co-optation involves the use of discourse practices from one sphere to make arguments actually grounded in another. Both of these processes enable the reconciliation of otherwise incommensurate arguments, but they do so in ways that foster unstable and ambiguous curricular decisions. Our findings provide guidance towards improving sex education and its attendant outcomes.     

Genetics and Forensics: Making the National DNA Database

This paper is based on a current study of the growing police use of the epistemic authority of molecular biology for the identification of criminal suspects in support of crime investigation. It discusses the development of DNA profiling and the establishment and development of the UK National DNA Database (NDNAD) as an instance of the 'scientification of police work' (Ericson and Shearing 1986) in which the police uses of science and technology have a recursive effect on their future development. The NDNAD, owned by the Association of Chief Police Officers of England and Wales, is the first of its kind in the world and currently contains the genetic profiles of more than 2 million people. The paper provides a framework for the examination of this socio-technical innovation, begins to tease out the dense and compact history of the database and accounts for the way in which changes and developments across disparate scientific, governmental and policing contexts, have all contributed to the range of uses to which it is put.     

Civic knowledge and open classroom discussion: explaining tolerance of corruption among 8th-grade students in Latin America

Abstract

The endorsement of anti-corruption norms is a normative assumption in legal systems with freedom of information acts, where citizens are expected to act as monitors of the public service. Tolerance of corruption counteracts this assumption. We studied tolerance of corruption among 8th graders from Latin-American samples of the International Civic and Citizenship Study 2009. We proposed a model where associations between students’ socioeconomic status (SES) and tolerance of corruption are explained by civic knowledge, authoritarianism and open classroom discussion. This model accounted for 36–43% of the variance within schools, and 87–96% of the variance between schools, across six countries. The socioeconomic gap in tolerance of corruption was mainly present between schools. In addition, students with higher civic knowledge were less tolerant of corruption, partially explained by authoritarianism, while open classroom discussion also had indirect associations with tolerance of corruption.     

Genetic Change and Continuity from Fourteen to Twenty Months: The MacArthur Longitudinal Twin Study

Genetic change as well as continuity was investigated within the domains of temperament, emotion, and cognition/language for 200 pairs of twins assessed at 14 and 20 months of age in the laboratory and home. The second year of life is marked by change rather than continuity: correlations from 14 to 20 months averaged about .30 for observational measures of temperament and emotion, about .40 for language measures, and about .50 for mental development. 2 types of genetic change were examined: changes in the magnitude of genetic influence (heritability) and genetic contributions to change from 14 to 20 months. In general, heritability estimates were similar at 14 and 20 months. Evidence for genetic influence on change from 14 to 20 months emerged for several measures, implying that heritability cannot be equated with stability. Analyses of continuity indicated that genetic factors are largely responsible for continuity from 14 to 20 months.     

The erosion of moral education

This paper discusses two closely related themes: first, the lack of provision of moral education; second, the loss of moral direction in society. The author argues that a proper moral education is one that provides an adequate understanding of the moral sphere, just as the study of mathematics involves acquiring a grasp of mathematical thinking. While moral norms appear to differ from one culture to another, the author contends that there is a basic commonality at the level of essential moral principles. The paper concludes by arguing against any system where rights — particularly those of any loosely definable minority — restrict the freedom of others. The author laments that justice has become limited to a political definition of what is just. Thus politics has replaced morality as the arbiter of our behaviour.

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Zusammenfassung Dieser Artikel diskutiert zwei eng miteinander verknüpfte Themen: zum ersten den Mangel an moralischer Bildung, zum zweiten den Verlust einer moralischen Richtschnur in der Gesellschaft. Der Autor argumentiert, daß eine sinnvolle moralische Erziehung zu entsprechendem Verständnis der moralischen Sphäre führe, so wie das Studium der Mathematik die Erfassung des mathematischen Denkens einschließe. Während sich moralische Normen anscheinend von einer Kultur zur anderen unterscheiden, behauptet der Autor, daß es auf der Ebene der wesentlichen moralischen Prinzipien eine grundlegende Gemeinsamkeit gibt. Der Artikel schließt mit einer Argumentation gegen jedes System, wo Rechte — insbesondere jene einer jeglichen lose definierbaren Minderheit — die Freiheit anderer begrenzen. Der Autor beklagt, daß der Begriff Gerechtigkeit zu einer politischen Definition dessen, was richtig ist, eingeschränkt worden ist. So hat die Politik die Moral als Leitfaden unseres Verhaltens ersetzt.

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Résumé Cet article traite de deux sujets intimement liés: l'absence d'éducation morale d'une part, et la perte d'orientation morale dans notre société d'autre part. L'auteur explique qu'une éducation morale appropriée est celle qui permet d'appréhender la sphère morale tout comme l'étude des mathématiques implique de saisir la pensée mathématique. Bien que les normes de moralité semblent varier d'une culture à l'autre, l'auteur soutient qu'il existe une base commune au niveau des principes moraux essentiels. Il argumente dans sa conclusion contre tout systéme dans lequel les droits — et plus précisément ceux de toute minorité quelconque — entravent la liberté des autres. L'auteur déplore le fait que la justice en soit réduite à une définition politique de ce qui est juste et que la politique ait remplacé la moralité pour arbitrer notre comportement.

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Sumario Este trabajo trata de dos temas estrechamente relacionados entre sí: en primer lugar, la carencia de educación moral, y en segundo lugar, la pérdida de orientación moral en la sociedad. El autor sostiene que una educación moral apropiada es aquella que provea un entendimiento adecuado de la esfera moral, así como con el estudio de las matemáticas se adquiere un entendimiento del pensamiento matemático. Si bien las normas morales aparentemente difieren de una cultura a la otra, el autor opina que existe una base común en el nivel de los principios morales esenciales. Al final del trabajo se manifesta contra todo sistema en el que los derechos — en especial, aquellos de toda minoría vagamente definible — restrinjan la libertad de los demás. El autor lamenta que la justicia haya quedado limitada a una definición política de lo que es justo. En consecuencia, la política ha suplantado a la moralidad como árbitro de nuestra conducta.