A Year of Equity literacy: community actions and invitations

School inequity is a persistent and ‘wicked’ problem communities have a responsibility to solve. Here, we argue that critical literacy advocacy within community‐based settings provides an unprecedented opportunity to examine and disrupt school inequity and promote sustainable actions towards justice‐based solutions. This article connects critical literacy and equity literacy theoretical frameworks to describe a series of invitations and actions that focused on addressing school inequity in one town. Here, authors offer lessons learned from a community‐led school equity literacy campaign where researchers and participants collectively organised and reflected on a public event series entitled ‘Year of Equity’ (YoE). Three key YoE processes are described: facilitating book clubs, facilitating a community conversation event and forming action committees. These processes relied on critical equity literacies through the promotion of new relationships and shared experiences centring on engagement with a variety of texts, through a focus on incremental change over time.     

How reliable are MSCA profile interpretations?

This study evaluates the reliability of profile analysis for assessing differential abilities on the McCarthy Scales for Children's Abilities (MSCA). Subjects were enrolled in private schools and ranged in age from 5–5 to 6–5. The test-retest interval ranged from 3 to 6 weeks, with a mean interval of 24 days. Results indicated 70.9% of the sample showed profile variability not reasonably accounted for as real fluctuations in measurable abilities. General application of the null hypothesis procedure for calculating statistical significance of scaled score differences as a basis for interpretive judgments is discussed.     

Learning to solve problems on the Web: aggregate planning in a business management course

In this paper, we articulate a model for designing learning environments that engage learners in solving problems and can be delivered to learners at a distance via the World Wide Web. These environments include a problem (including representation, context, and manipulation spaces), related cases, information resources, cognitive tools, and collaborative support. We apply this model to an environment on aggregate planning in an operations management course. Students represent the problem, collect resources and experiences, and solve the problem using a spreadsheet, which can be machine scored. Field trials showed that students were challenged, and they liked being able to see the results of their manipulations instantly.     

Listening to People Listening to Music: Lessons for Museums

The language people use to talk about something can constrain as well as facilitate understanding. This essay explores the lessons learned through a study of how people talked about music to examine what it can mean for museums and museum experiences. The study itself had people talk about their interest, background, and ways of engaging with music, then listen to random cuts of preselected music to talk about what they were hearing. Several themes emerged from the study, suggesting there are clusters to ways in which people frame their experiences of music, which extend to how people might understand the museum experience and what museums might do to make that experience more relevant.     

Calming Fears and Building Confidence: A mentoring process that works

This study suggests that the process of mentoring education students is not reserved for master mentor teachers but can also be done by more advanced students. The author shares her two-year experience of enlisting Master of Arts in Teaching intern teachers to mentor senior-level baccalaureate students during the practicum attached to a 12-hour integrated content block. The qualitative data collected through interviews and open-ended survey questions reveal that the mentoring experience was positive for both sets of students.     

Action Research,Master of Arts in Teaching Interns and a University/School Partnership: A win,win, win situation

This paper discusses a 2-year study conducted in a professional development school involving Master of Arts in Teaching intern teachers and at-risk readers in Grades 2-6. A reading club for the at-risk readers provided the setting for intern teachers to conduct action research. The premise of the work was twofold: to develop intern teachers' action research skills, and to improve the reading skills of at-risk readers. Results indicate that intern teachers became more reflective and effective teachers through working with students in the club, and the students showed gains in reading skills and a more positive self-perception.     

Embarrassment: The effects of embarrassor and target perceptions

This study investigated the role perception plays in embarrassing situations between same‐sex friends. We argued that when two same‐sex friends share a common experience where one was embarrassed due to something the friend did or said, the embarrassors and targets would differ in (a) their perceptions relating to the degree of embarrassment falt, (b) their attribution of intentionality, and (c) the degree to which the embarrassment affected their relationship. One hundred and sixty‐three same‐sex friend dyads were asked to report their perceptions about a commonly shared embarrassing incident. Results showed that only 52.5% (n = 84) of the embarrassors recognized that the target experienced embarrassment. Further analyses were then conducted on these 84 dyads. We found that embarrassors and targets tend to agree on the intent of the embarrassor. However, no associations were found between perspective and degree of embarrassment felt nor degree of relationship consequences. Implications of the findings and limitations are discussed.