Rethinking the marginalizing discourses around teenage pregnancy

ABSTRACT

This article examines the literature on schooling for teenage mothers in order to expose the normalizing discourses that position young mothers as at risk for failure. Through an exploration of the historical and socio-cultural positioning of teenage mothers over the past few decades, the author illustrates the schooled responses to adolescent mothers and the responses of adolescent mothers to school structures and marginalizations. The article concludes with suggestions for further research that would address the achievements and the strengths of young mothers and may provide space for thinking about other groups of students who have traditionally been labeled at risk.     

Some orderly nonmonotonicities in the trial-by-trial acquisition of conditioned suppression: Inhibition with reinforcement?

The trial-by-trial acquisition of conditioned suppression was examined under a wide range of conditions. Frequently, the acquisition functions were nonmonotonic. In conditions containing four or more trials in sessions of 2 h or less, suppression, once established, tended to be significantly stronger on the first trial of a session than on one or more subsequent trials. The data from six conditions are presented to exemplify those under which nonmonotonicities did and did not occur. It is suggested that the nonmonotonicities are similar to effects described by Pavlov (1960, Lecture 14), effects which he believed reflected the growth of inhibition despite continuous reinforcement. Interpretations of the results in terms of reactive inhibition, short-term habituation, conditioned inhibition, inhibition of delay, and disinhibition are discussed.     

Constructing school knowledge after the Wall: the case of textbook publishing in the former German Democratic Republic

Organisational ecology and world cultural perspectives are used to analyse the struggle of the former East German textbook publisher Volk und Wissen after reunification. We argue that the normative expectations of Western Germany with respect to instructional materials clearly emulate world cultural principles, and so Volk und Wissen’s transition into Germany’s fiercely competitive educational publishing market offers an interesting test of the effects of educational globalisation. Reliance on the marketing expertise of Cornelsen, a Western German firm that acquired Volk und Wissen in 1991, helped the firm survive, but also retaining a ‘monist’ epistemological stance that was consistent with that of teachers trained in the socialist system.     

Learning English Spellings: strategies employed by primary school boys

Abstract The use of visual and auditory information in learning to spell is explored, together with the effect, if any, of semantic information. One hundred boys aged from seven to eleven were tested, using eight nonsense words with contrived meanings. It was expected that visual information would be helpful in spelling irregular words and that, with age, use of strategies would become more flexible, incorporating semantic (along with visual and phonological) information. Contrary to expectations, it was only with the 10‐ and 11‐year‐olds that visual information produced better results than auditory presentation alone but for them, in conjunction with oral responses, it did aid spelling. Such a finding is in keeping with Ehri's Amalgamation Theory (1980) which suggests that, in order to be able to manipulate printed words, the learner must draw on several strategies and accepts that no single strategy can be used to overcome all irregularities in written English.     

Culturally Appropriate Context: Unlocking the Potential of Response to Intervention for English Language Learners

The number of young children whose home language is not English continues to increase every year in the United States. Challenges for English language learners (ELL) involve low academic achievement related to low expectations and inappropriate instruction, and inappropriate assessment instruments or procedures resulting in overrepresentation of ELL students in higher incidence disabilities. In addition, the lack of effective instructional strategies for teaching ELL students often lead to behavioral problems and poor social interaction skills. The purpose of this article is to examine the learning context of young ELLs relative to culturally and linguistically responsive intervention. Components and potentials of response to intervention model were investigated. Essential factors involved in culturally and linguistically responsive intervention were identified. Finally, challenges in preparing culturally appropriate context were discussed.     

Food deprivation and conditioned flavor preferences based on sweetened and unsweetened foods

In four experiments, rats’ preferences for flavors consumed under high deprivation versus low deprivation were measured. In Experiment 1, rats preferred flavors received in unsweetened food under high deprivation to flavors received in unsweetened food under low deprivation. This preference did not vary with amount of food used to deliver the flavors (1-g vs. 16-g wet mash). Sweetening the food (0.10% saccharin) eliminated this preference when 16 g of mash was received, but not when 1 g of mash was received (Experiments 2 and 3). Sweetening the mash even more (0.15% saccharin) eliminated the preference when 1 g of mash was received, as well as when 20 g of mash was received. We suggested that the reinforcing value of sweetness is reduced by increasing deprivation level.     

Predicting persistence at university from information obtained at intake

This study is part of an ongoing project investigating the first stage of the process of student transition to university. The aim of this study was to determine whether information about student approaches to making their course choices could have been used to identify those who subsequently changed or withdrew from their courses. Retrospective studies of discontinuing students have frequently identified factors based on such information as being associated with withdrawal, however there have been few attempts to use such factors in predictive studies. Multivariate analysis indicated that combinations of the information obtained could discriminate between students who persisted and those who withdrew from their studies. As the proportions of variance accounted for by these combinations were small, it was concluded that the information had value in describing types of conditions under which students were likely to be at risk, rather than in making predictions about individual students. The methodology should be of interest to other researchers as it demonstrates ways in which multivariate strategies may be applied to survey data, in this instance to identify stereotypes of students likely to behave in particular ways with regard to their enrolment.The authors contributed equally to this paper.     

Randomized trial of a statewide home visiting program: impact in preventing child abuse and neglect

OBJECTIVES: To assess the impact of home visiting in preventing child abuse and neglect in the first 3 years of life in families identified as at-risk of child abuse through population-based screening at the child's birth. METHODS: This experimental study focused on Hawaii Healthy Start Program (HSP) sites operated by three community-based agencies. From 11/94 to 12/95, 643 families were enrolled and randomly assigned to intervention and control groups. Child abuse and neglect were measured by observed and self-reported parenting behaviors, all hospitalizations for trauma and for conditions where hospitalization might have been avoided with adequate preventive care, maternal relinquishment of her role as primary caregiver, and substantiated CPS reports. Data were collected through annual maternal interviews (88% follow-up each year of all families with baseline interviews); observation of the home environment; and review of CPS, HSP, and pediatric medical records. RESULTS: HSP records rarely noted home visitor concern about possible abuse. The HSP and control groups were similar on most measures of maltreatment. HSP group mothers were less likely to use common corporal/verbal punishment (AOR=.59, p=.01) but this was attributable to one agency's reduction in threatening to spank the child. HSP group mothers reported less neglectful behavior (AOR=.72, .02), related to a trend toward decreased maternal preoccupation with problems and to improved access to medical care for intervention families at one agency. CONCLUSIONS: The program did not prevent child abuse or promote use of nonviolent discipline; it had a modest impact in preventing neglect. Possible targets for improved effectiveness include the program's implementation system and model.     

Facilitating communication between education and health services: the provision for children with speech and language needs

In this article, James Law, Marie Gascoigne and Nina Soloff, of the Department of Language and Communication Science at City University, London; Geoff Lindsay and Sue Band, of the Institute of Education, University of Warwick; and Nick Peacey and Julie Radford, of the Institute of Education, University of London, explore provision for children with speech and language needs. The authors report the outcomes of Government-funded research into the provision of speech and language therapy services and identify 13 key themes which emerge from a review of these findings. They proceed to make a series of important and challenging recommendations, many of which focus on the need for enhanced collaboration at a range of levels.     

Exploring relationships between oral reading fluency and reading comprehension amongst English second language readers in South Africa

Most analyses of oral reading fluency (ORF) are based on L1 reading, and the norms that have been developed in English are based on first language reading data. This is problematic for developing countries where many children are learning in English as a second language. The aim of the present study is to model the relationship between English reading fluency and comprehension among rural English-second-language learners (ESL) in South Africa. We use data collected in 2013 by the National Education and Evaluation Development Unit in South Africa. This survey tested 4697 Grade 5 students from 214 schools across rural areas in South Africa. A sub-sample—1772 students—were selected for an ORF test. For these students there exist data on both reading comprehension and reading fluency. Although a number of studies have analyzed the relationship between fluency and comprehension, none have been conducted on a large-scale for ESL learners in a developing country such as South Africa. The present research contributes to the literature by analysing the size, significance and uniformity of this relationship for ESL learners in South Africa. Preliminary findings indicate a threshold at 70 words-read-correct-per-minute which is lower than the typically used threshold of 90 words-read-correct-per-minute of English first language readers.