Creating a Continuing Education Pathway for Newly Arrived Immigrants and Refugee Communities

With the increase in the number of displaced peoples, the demand for skilled social workers from diverse backgrounds to serve them is critical. This article explores a continuing education program that prepares precollege individuals from newly arriving communities who will work as entry-level workers serving these immigrant and refugee communities. The article focuses on the development of a Case Management Certificate Program as a response to community-identified issues, then presents a discussion exploring the educational pathways and unique contributions of these individuals. The article calls for the profession to explore how continuing education pathways can bridge service gaps, contribute to the knowledge base of social work, and meet current labor market demands.     

Turning in or tuning out? Listening to silences in education for critical political consciousness

What happens when a team of university education researchers initiates a social justice learning project in a local high school, and – despite the overall project’s considerable successes in cultivating students’ critical political ‘voice’ – is confounded by the periodic, apparent ‘silences’ of some of its young female students? Drawing on eight years of fieldwork in a groundbreaking high school social justice education classroom, this article examines the presumptions inherent in certain forms of social justice pedagogy, and the ways in which ensuing classroom disjunctures may, in fact, lead to deeper insights about education for youth critical social consciousness. The article focuses on two, interrelated issues: the unsettling and sometimes confounding ‘silences’ of female students and the correlation between such silences and social justice educators’ attenuated ability to recognize and support the myriad ways in which minority female students may encounter, negotiate, and articulate their own particular forms of Freirian conscientización.     

Introducing veteran critical theory

Research on student veterans is in an infant state. As veterans continue to enroll in institutions of higher education, researchers must explore new ways of knowing student veterans. It is not enough to only describe and model this growing demographic, researchers must also have a tool for criticism and question. The next in an important tradition of emancipatory paradigms, this article suggests a critical theory built on current critical conversations but adapted for the unique characteristics of the student veteran. The article defines the need for a critical theory (Veteran Critical Theory), explains 11 tenets for this new theory, and discusses how these tenets could be used by administrators, faculty, student affairs professionals, and students in the higher education community.     

The postmodern perfectionist,the pragmatic hedonist and the materialist maximalist: understanding high school students’ profile choices towards or away from mathematics,science and technology (MST) fields in the Netherlands

This study focuses on high school students’ profile choices and the choice for or against the Nature and Technology (NT) profile in the Netherlands. A mixed-methods approach is used to study cultural values that affect this choice. The quantitative part of the study shows that being female is negatively correlated with the choice for the NT-profile, irrespective of the grade average for mathematics, chemistry and physics. It further shows that students’ ethnic background does not have a significant effect on this choice. The qualitative part of the study reveals that students’ choice processes towards or away from NT can be categorised in three ideal types: the postmodern perfectionist, the pragmatic hedonist and the materialist maximalist. Gender differences appear to be more pervasive across these types than differences in ethnic background.     

Examining Teachers’ Attitudes and Experiences with Coaching to Inform Research-Based Practice: An Iterative Developmental Design Study

The purpose of this qualitative study was to examine teachers’ attitudes and experiences with coaching. This study was conducted in advance of a planned randomized controlled trial of a coaching intervention to better align the model with teachers’ needs and goals. Thirty-four K–5 general (n = 26), special education (n = 6), and educational support staff (n = 2) working in two high-poverty schools participated in focus groups. Interrater reliability between independent coders was high (К = 0.92; range: 0.76–1.0). Thematic analyses identified facilitators and barriers to teacher participation in the planned intervention and were used to improve upon the existing coaching model. Themes focused on advantages and disadvantages to coaching and characteristics of effective coaches and coaching models. Implications of findings for research and practice are discussed.     

Social Justice: A Case-Study Examining the Influence of Primary Headteachers in Two Manchester Schools

Presently, there are a growing number of students in the primary schools in northwest England who are living in broken communities, exacerbated by the most recent global recession. Through social justice theory, this paper examines the influence of head teachers as they look to balance administrative and pedagogical experiences in the schools. Using a qualitative methodology, including observation, in-depth interviews, and field notes this case study focused on head teachers, teachers, and parents from two primary schools in the northwest of England. Specifically, this study investigates the influence of the headteachers while identifying a social justice pedagogical epistemology and strategies being used by teachers and schools who work with students from communities typically identified as living in low socio-economic areas. Foundational to this research is the belief that headteachers, families and teachers need to make concerted, intentional efforts to engage in and acquire appropriate knowledge for building effective, communicative relationship in order to benefit student achievement. A social justice perspective therefore should provide an unequivocal commitment to acting in just ways related to concepts of fairness and equity.     

The Accessibility of Higher Education in the Russian Regions

This article provides a comparative analysis of accessibility of higher education across Russian regions in terms of the following three factors: the availability of admission opportunities; financial affordability; and geographic accessibility.

The study will be of interest to government agencies in higher education at various levels, analysts and researchers, as well as a wide range of readers focused on regional differences in higher education systems and policies.     

Quality Improvement in University Counseling Centers

University Counseling Centers (UCCs) experience high clinical demands and severe client presentations leaving counselors with limited time and resources to evaluate delivery of services. In this article, we present clinician-friendly quality improvement (QI) strategies used at a large Midwestern university and provide recommendations for implementing QI programs at other UCCs even as their resources may vary. With counselor-led efforts examining and evaluating services, UCCs can use QI programs to inform and improve counseling practices as well as advise university administrators about the positive outcomes of the center’s work.     

Assisting College Students With Athletic Disengagement

This article examines college student disengagement from sports, presents a multidimensional concept of athletic identity, and introduces a new measure intended to assist college counselors in their work with disengaged athletes. The Multidimensional Athletic Identity and Engagement Scale (MAIES) is introduced (Cronbach alpha .98, with subscale alphas between .78 and .96), and the results of exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses and convergent and divergent validity with 250 college student participants are presented. Using case examples, the authors discuss how counselors may use the MAIES in their work with students. Limitations of the study and suggestions for future research are discussed.     

Approaching Knowledge Management Through the Lens of the Knowledge Life Cycle: a Case Study Investigation

More organizational leaders are recognizing that their greatest competitive advantage is the knowledge base of their employees and for organizations to thrive knowledge management (KM) systems need to be in place that encourage the natural interplay and flow of tacit and explicit knowledge. Approaching KM through the lens of the knowledge life cycle allows for the design and development of KM solutions that are systemic and address the dynamic nature of organizational knowledge. In this paper we provide a review of the literature regarding how organizational knowledge may be studied and propose a methodological framework for investigating the knowledge life cycle. To illustrate the framework we present a recent case study in which it was successfully used. This framework is intended to be useful to learning and performance improvement professionals who work in organizational KM as well as to researchers who wish to conduct further research in this area.