Opening Doors: Teaching LGBTQ-themed Young Adult Literature for an Inclusive Curriculum

LGBTQ themes are often neglected in many schools' curriculum. Currently, an LGBTQ-inclusive curriculum framework is not required in most school districts across the county. Therefore, it is important to understand how teachers regard LGBTQ issues; how they address the needs of students in the middle school and high school English classroom who identify on this spectrum or who come from LGBTQ families; and how they incorporate literature that may be considered “controversial” in their future school districts. In this study, English/Language Arts preservice teachers (PSTs) (certification 7–12) were invited to participate in a book club and self-select young adult (YA) literature centering on characters who identify on the LGBTQ spectrum. During two book club meetings, three themes emerged that embody how literature can become a mirror as well as a window for students and assist youth in identity formation and confirmation. Moreover, literature has the potential to empower readers to take action on controversial issues, especially when readers are in positions to make change (no matter how subtle). Although the data collected were from PSTs, our aim with this article is to expand these three themes as overarching messages for practicing educators today, urging the importance of a more inclusive curricula involving LGBTQ literature.     

Integrating storytelling and quantitative career assessment

International Journal for Educational and Vocational Guidance - Combining quantitative career assessment with narrative career counselling is a career counselling challenge. The Integrative...     

Infant vocalizing and phenotypic outcomes in autism: Evidence from the first 2 years

Infant vocalizations are early-emerging communicative markers shown to be atypical in autism spectrum disorder (ASD), but few longitudinal, prospective studies exist. In this study, 23,850 infant vocalizations from infants at low (LR)- and high (HR)-risk for ASD (HR-ASD = 23, female = 3; HR-Neg = 35, female = 13; LR = 32, female = 10; 80% White; collected from 2007 to 2017 near Philadelphia) were analyzed at 6, 12, and 24 months. At 12 months, HR-ASD infants produced fewer vocalizations than HR-Neg infants. From 6 to 24 months, HR-Neg infants demonstrated steeper vocalization growth compared to HR-ASD and LR infants. Finally, among HR infants, vocalizing at 12 months was associated with language, social phenotype, and diagnosis at age 2. Infant vocalizing is an objective behavioral marker that could facilitate earlier detection of ASD.     

Found my place: the importance of faculty relationships for seniors’ sense of belonging

ABSTRACT

While previous literature documents the importance of sense of belonging for a positive educational experience, much of this research is focused on students early in their college careers and incorporates a single measure of sense of belonging. In contrast, the current study sought to explore whether senior students’ faculty-related engagement influences their sense of belonging, particularly their feelings of institutional acceptance as one aspect of sense of belonging. This study utilizes data from 8939 seniors in the 2014 administration of the National Survey of Student Engagement to explore these relationships. Results suggest that increased student–faculty interaction, use of effective teaching practices, and participation in research with faculty have a positive impact on feelings of institutional acceptance for seniors. Furthermore, certain student demographics (first-generation, age, gender, race/ethnicity), college experiences (enrollment type, online learning, STEM major, college grades, living situation, Greek affiliation), and institutional characteristics (control type, minority-serving institution, selectivity, Carnegie type) also play a role in this aspect of belongingness. Institutions can use this information to increase programming and resources for improving student engagement with faculty.     

Educational attainment in the short and long term: was there an advantage to attending faith,private, and selective schools for pupils in the 1980s?

ABSTRACT

This paper asks whether private, selective, and faith schools in England and Wales in the 1980s provided an academic advantage to their pupils, both in the short and longer term. Using longitudinal data from the 1970 British Cohort Study, we examine academic outcomes in compulsory schooling and further education, and the highest qualification gained by age 42. School sector differences are substantially attenuated by controlling for prior pupil characteristics. Nevertheless, a residual effect of private, grammar, and secondary modern schooling remains, both in the short and long term, controlling for both pupil and school characteristics. In the case of faith schools, however, the apparent advantage is restricted to the short term once pupil characteristics are controlled. A unique feature of our analysis is that we control for the individual’s faith of upbringing, which is important in reducing what could otherwise be seen as a distinctive Catholic school advantage.     

Integrating Video Documentary Into the Classroom: A Community Assessment Assignment

Community assessment is a strategy commonly taught to social work students to identify a community’s strengths and challenges. This article describes the value of using video documentary as part of a community assessment assignment. We identify the advantages of using video documentary in the assessment process and the reporting of findings. We discuss the preproduction, production, and postproduction steps necessary to produce a video documentary and illustrate how such assignments can be incorporated into a social work course. We conclude by identifying the educational benefits accrued to students.     

Project Outcome results in action

ABSTRACT

The Public Library Association’s performance measurement initiative, Project Outcome, is a free online toolkit designed to help public libraries understand and share the impact of essential library programs and services by providing simple surveys and an easy-to-use process for measuring and analyzing outcomes. Interviews of participating libraries and community stakeholders were conducted in 2017 to create five success case studies. What PLA learned is that libraries using Project Outcome surveys can leverage their outcome data into actionable results—tracking their impact across time, improving and expanding programs and services, supporting new and deepening existing partnerships, and increasing library championship.     

Building a Springboard: regionalization within the Microelectronics in Schools and Colleges Development Programme

The Departments of Education in England, Wales and Northern Ireland have indicated that the recently launched Development Programme in Microelectronics in Schools and Colleges is to be structured along lines 'comparable' to NDPCAL, the National Development Programme in Computer Assisted Learning (Department of Education and Science, 1979). This paper considers some of the possible consequences of this intention. Drawing upon the reports and evaluation studies of NDPCAL, their own personal experience within NDPCAL and the theories of innovation of Donald Schon, the authors identify 'regionalization' within the Microelectronics in Education Programme as the key to its long-term success. Alternative approaches to the development of regional infrastructures for the support of the innovation are explored and a proposal is made for the establishment, within the new Programme, of 'regionalization' projects.     

Place,community and information behavior: Spatially oriented information seeking zones and information source preferences

Even in a digitally advanced society, much of our daily lives is based in place, but information behavior research has largely ignored place as theoretically relevant to information behavior. This study explores the implications of a place-based approach to studying information practices, and examines factors that influence information seeking and sharing in place-based communities among parents of individuals with disabilities. Based on qualitative data gathered from 35 parents of individuals with disabilities, it proposes a spatial model of information source preferences based on the theory of information horizons, and discusses implications of the model for future research related to information seeking and places. It also presents substantive place-related findings about local information needs, including discussion of the local parent network as an information seeking system.