News framing of the U.S. immigration debate during election years: Focus on generic frames

This study examined the frames used in the news coverage of the U.S. immigration debate during election years. Stories from four major U.S. newspapers, the Los Angeles Times, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, the St. Petersburg Times, and The New York Times, were content analyzed. The analysis revealed that the conflict frame was the most dominant frame in the news coverage of the U.S. immigration debate whereas no significant changes in the framing of the U.S. immigration debate were found over time. The human interest frame was more likely to have a pro-immigration tone compared to other frames. The findings of immigrant characteristics showed that the “illegal” characteristic was the most frequently used to identify immigrants.     

Bourdieu,Department Chairs and the Reform of Science Education

Using the insights of the French sociologist, Pierre Bourdieu, this article considers the role of the science department chair in the reform of school science education. Using Bourdieu’s ‘thinking tools’ of ‘field’, ‘habitus’ and ‘capital’, we case study the work of two teachers who both actively pursue the teaching and learning of science as inquiry. One teacher, Dan, has been a department chair since 2000, and has actively encouraged his department to embrace science as inquiry. The other teacher, Leslie, worked for one year in Dan’s department before being transferred to another school where science teaching continues to be more traditional. Our work suggests that there are three crucial considerations for chairs seeking to lead the reform of science teaching within their department. The first of these is the development of a reform-minded habitus, as this appears to be foundational to the capital that can be expended in the leadership of reform. The second is an understanding of how to wield power and position in the promotion of reform. The third is the capacity to operate simultaneously and strategically within, and across, two fields; the departmental field and the larger science education field. This involves downplaying administrative logics, and foregrounding more inquiry-focused logics as a vehicle to challenge traditional science-teaching dispositions—the latter being typically dominated by concerns about curriculum ‘coverage’.     

Participation in Education as an Invitation to Become Towards the World: Hannah Arendt on the authority,thoughtfulness and imagination of the educator

This article draws on Hannah Arendt’s analysis of authority in education, along with her insights into the workings of the imagination and the thinking process, to argue that participation in education should be conceived as an invitation to become towards the world. The potential of this invitation, the article argues, is located in the educator’s imaginative and thoughtful responsibility to receive the young as they are and as they are becoming on the one hand, and to represent the world to them, on the other hand. The ways in which this potential can be negated are examined in relation to Arendt’s accounts of non-thinking and wilfulness. The article advances to the conclusion that participation in an education is possible only where young persons are received by educators who are persistently awake to their responsibility to receive the young people they educate anew.     

Commentary

This longitudinal case study of a single school examines changes in the educational beliefs of 10 elementary‐school teachers who experienced a constructivist‐based trans‐disciplinary curriculum (CTC). After 3 years of experiencing a CTC, which emerges through theme‐oriented and project‐based learning, teachers’ educational beliefs had changed to demonstrate multiple views rather than pure beliefs. Teachers’ beliefs form a mosaic of complementary visions and the process of change in teachers’ beliefs reflects the ‘overlapping’ rather than the ‘staircase’ metaphor.     

The Vocabulary of Letters of Boys and Girls 12 to 15 Years of Age Inclusive

This study presents an empirical investigation of the optimum amount of teacher intervention in experience-based instruction. Teachers trained in the Mini-Society Instructional System were asked to keep a journal of daily experiences that included their role, and the roles played by their students, in the formation of the Mini-Society. The journals were evaluated with respect to the extent of the teacher’s intervention in the Mini-Society’s development. The results indicated that non-intervention was the most effective teaching strategy, and that students in non-interventionist teachers’ classrooms showed greater acquisition of specific concepts and more autonomy than students in classrooms where the teacher used overt or covert intervention.     

Preparation programs leading to licensure in broad‐field social studies at state regional colleges and universities

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to determine the status of preparation programs leading to licensure in broad‐field social studies, grades 7–12, at state regional colleges and universities and the relationship of these programs of study to National Council of Social Studies (NCSS) Standards, state licensure requirements, degree programs of study at state supported major research institutions, and major reports on educational reform. The research found that of the 30 institutions studied only 21 offered degree programs leading to licensure in broad‐field social studies. All 21 institutions exceeded state minimum requirements and although the mean semester hour requirements in general education, professional education, and specialty studies components minimally exceeded the NCSS recommended standards and were similar to those at major research institutions, there was an absence of assurance by institutions that students possessed a depth of understanding in the disciplines within the major. Likewise, degree programs have been minimally affected by the recommendations of the major educational reform reports.     

Screen Survival of Movies at Competitive Theaters: Vertical and Horizontal Integration in a Spatially Differentiated Market

This article empirically examines the effects of vertical integration and horizontal control on the exhibition of films at competing theaters in a market in which some theater owners are integrated into film distribution and others are not. It analyzes the duration of the exhibition runs of movies released by distributors who owned no theaters in Singapore during 2002 and 2003 through a survival model. The estimation shows that films released by these distributors are exhibited for shorter periods in distributor-owned theaters than in independently owned (i.e., unintegrated) theaters, and in theaters that belong to large theater chains than in the theaters of small theater chains. A spatial aspect of competition among theaters with different owners is revealed in the finding that a film is more likely to stay on at the theater at a given time when an adjacent rival theater still runs the same title. The increase in the probability of screen survival due to the spatial rivalry is greater the nearer the competing theater. These results are found when both film and theater-specific variations are controlled for.