It Follows: precarity,thanatopolitics, and the ambient horror film

In the 2014 horror film It Follows, a teenage woman is terrorized by a fatal curse that passes from victim-to-victim via sexual intercourse. The subject of the curse is relentlessly pursued by vacant-minded assassins that take the form of friends, loved ones, and strangers. The film is set near the infamous dividing-line of Detroit’s 8 Mile Road, between what remains of the suburban working-class and the sacrifice zone of post-industrial urban triage. I argue that It Follows confronts audiences with the spectral manifestation of precarity: the deliberate and unequal redistribution of human fragility to populations who are the most socially and economically vulnerable. First, the generic shift from a specific monster to an anonymous and relentless force redeploys horror convention to draw attention to the conditions that induce horror within the prevailing socioeconomic order. Second, the film renders such precarity visible by contrasting the mise-en-scene of the suburban enclave with zones of postindustrial ruin; the relative comfort of the former predicated on the vulnerability of the latter. The film maps a landscape of postindustrial ruin, enacting a visual and narrative critique of thanatopolitics, the biopolitical organization of death under late capitalism.     

Sharing Our Library Facility: Prescott Valley Arizona Public Library

The present Prescott Valley Public Library facility was created in 2009 as a space that was meant to be shared. The building was designed to be aesthetically unique and people friendly. Key elements include an auditorium for Town Council, a multifunctional meeting room with a kitchen and multimedia projection capabilities, a roof top terrace, outside patios, PC lab, Digital Media Lab, and a variety of smaller gathering spaces. Additionally, we share our facility with a satellite campus of Northern Arizona University, which affords frequent opportunities to collaborate in novel ways to connect with our community. Sharing is a value we learn early in life and it is the hallmark of professional librarianship. It is challenging, sometimes frustrating work. But the rewards far outweigh the risks. Those rewards extend to every citizen in our shared, county network—Yavapai Library Network. Throughout this article, we present a variety of practical aspects related to our experience, which may guide and inspire others to share their library space within their community.     

The semantic differential technique in the examination of teacher attitudes to handicapped children

The study investigated the relationship between the attitudes of educators to exceptional children and the amount of contact with such children, knowledge about them, and the demographic variables: sex; age; and teaching experience of the respondents. A Semantic Differential technique was used and ten scales were rated over four concepts: physically handicapped children; emotionally disturbed children; mentally retarded children; speech impaired children. Attitude, represented by factor scores on a ‘social acceptability’ dimension, was correlated with the independent variables and produced low (r<.30) and inconsistent coefficients. An analysis of variance of the means of the ten scales over the four concepts indicated a more negative evaluation of the concept representing emotionally disturbed children than of the other three concepts. The evaluations were made in response to disability labels, and the results point to the need for further empirical research into the effects of labelling children on the attitudes of educators.     

Educational Policy on Emotional Intelligence: Does It Make Sense?

Educational policy on emotional intelligence appears to be based more on mass-media science journalism than on actual educational and psychological research. The first section of this article provides an overview of the research areas of emotional intelligence, social and emotional learning, and character education; it further examines how these areas became linked in the popular press. The second section examines the scientific evidence for whether emotional intelligence underpins social and emotional learning, how emotional intelligence relates to success, and whether it is central to character. We conclude that educational policy in this area has outpaced the science on which it is ostensibly based, and recommendations for the future are made.     

Can Cooperative Learning Achieve the Four Learning Outcomes of Physical Education? A Review of Literature

Physical learning, cognitive learning, social learning, and affective learning are positioned as the legitimate learning outcomes of physical education. It has been argued that these four learning outcomes go toward facilitating students’ engagement with the physically active life (Bailey et al., 2009; Kirk, 2013). With Cooperative Learning positioned as a pedagogical model capable of supporting these four learning outcomes (Dyson & Casey, 2012), the purpose of this review was to explore the empirical research in the use of Cooperative Learning in physical education reported on the achievement of learning in the physical, cognitive, social, and affective domains (or their equivalents). The review found that while learning occurred in all 4 domains, the predominant outcomes were reported in the physical, cognitive, and social domains. Affective learning was reported anecdotally, and it became clear that more work is required in this area. The article concludes by suggesting that research into the outcomes of this and other pedagogical models needs to focus on learning beyond the initial instructional unit and extend over a period of years and not just weeks.     

New roles for teachers unions? Reform unionism in school decentralization

Of late, teachers unions have worked together with district management in new and notable ways. This paper examines the role of teachers unions in shaping the Together Initiative (TI), which seeks to increase autonomy and broaden decision making in urban schools in one northeastern state. In general, state-level union leaders have taken more consistently reform-oriented stances than those adopted by their district-level counterparts. We found that district-level union leaders supported TI’s growth and were willing to work with district leaders to reform schools in districts where labor-management relations had been collaborative in recent years and in schools where union leaders trusted the principal. Where labor-management relations were less positive and the union viewed principals as more arbitrary, union leaders practiced more industrial-style leadership.     

Pedagogy in Counselor Education: 2011–2015 Update

This research update includes a quantitative content analysis of 133 peer‐reviewed articles regarding teaching and learning published in 21 journals of the American Counseling Association and its divisions between January 2011 and December 2015. The authors discuss the focus areas, pedagogical foundations, and methodologies of the articles in comparison with the findings of the original 2001–2010 study.     

Do Off-Campus Students Use E-Books?

ABSTRACT

The number of electronic books (e-books) that are available is increasing rapidly. Libraries are acquiring them individually, in large groups, and as part of collections. Off-campus librarians perceive them to be the best solution to the problems and expenses related to loaning and shipping print books to off-campus students. This study looks at the usage of e-books by off-campus students at Central Michigan University (CMU) to see if usage patterns can assist librarians with e-book collection development to support off-campus programs.     

"Bridging the Gap": The Effects of the Success For All Program on Elementary School Reading Achievement as a Function of Student Ethnicity and Ability Level

This study examined the effects on reading achievement of the Success For All (SFA) program for minority and nonminority students attending elementary school in a small midwestern city. SFA uses a research-based kindergarten program, beginning and intermediate reading programs in Grades 1–3, one-to-one tutoring for low achievers, family support, and other elements. Findings from a comparison between two SFA schools and two matched control schools showed that on individually-administered reading tests, minority (African American) students in the SFA schools performed comparably to their nonminority counterparts at the four schools while significantly outperforming control school minority students. Although overall program effects were not significant, SFA was also effective for the subsample consisting of the lowest-25% achieving students. Longitudinal results over four years showed stable benefits for the lowest-achievers, but some decline in overall program effects relative to the first two years.