Examining stress reactivity in neonates: relations between cortisol and behavior

The association between cortisol and behavioral reactivity to a medical heel stick and a neurobehavioral exam was examined in 100 healthy African American neonates, who have been underrepresented in this area of research. Using continuous measures, behavioral distress was associated with cortisol reactivity to both stressors. High levels of behavioral distress, however, were associated with cortisol reactivity only in response to the neurobehavioral exam. In contrast, low levels of behavioral distress were associated with cortisol reactivity only in response to the heel stick. The results highlight potentially important parameters for exploring the relation between biological and behavioral reactivity to stress such as the operationalization of behavioral distress and the context in which a stress response is elicited.     

Teacher learning communities and educational change in Scotland: The Highland experience

This article discusses the issue of the sustainability of educational change in the light of findings from research undertaken in tandem with a development project initiated by a Scottish Education Authority, The Highland Council. The paper reviews some of the key themes that have emerged from recent literature on educational change, before drawing on the project data to address two key issues: the factors that have helped to promote and sustain changes within the schools; and the barriers to innovation experienced in these schools. We conclude the article by identifying a range of considerations that should be taken into account by those seeking to innovate and we suggest that, while the Highland model for change has enjoyed a degree of success in inculcating change, more needs to be done to address systemic issues, such as the pervasive influence of a narrow attainment agenda in shaping classroom practice.     

Career Identity Among Community College Students

Career identity development is salient in adolescence and young adulthood, but little research has assessed career identity in populations other than four-year college students. Context should be considered when examining career identity, and to address this gap in the literature, the current study examined the extent to which parental support for career, work experience, and career decision self-efficacy (CDSE) influenced career identity evaluation (i.e., engaging in in-depth career exploration and identification with one's career) in a sample of community college students. Results showed that parental support for career was predictive of CDSE, and CDSE was predictive of career identity evaluation, which suggests parental support for career indirectly affects career identity evaluation through CDSE. In contrast to expectations, work experience was not associated with CDSE or career identity evaluation. Findings suggest differences in career identity development for two-year community college and four-year university students.     

Pre-service teacher perspectives on the importance of global education: world and classroom views

In an era of international multimedia exposure and a global economy, there is no question that global education (GE) must be part of the school curriculum. Effective delivery of GE is reliant on adequate teacher preparation. A group of teacher educators at one University sought to raise the profile of GE with pre-service teachers through the integration of global perspectives in various courses. This paper explores pre-service teacher perceptions of the importance of GE and their learning as a result of this emphasis. Additionally, pre-service teacher preferences for further learning about GE are examined. It is apparent that pre-service teachers are interested in GE, especially in terms of how they can incorporate it in their teaching and, with exposure over a number of semesters student understandings develop, creating better prepared teachers of GE. Not surprisingly, these students were primarily focused on their future classroom practices rather than their role in the world more generally. Additionally, it was clearly evident that unique GE approaches were linked to specific teaching disciplines, an indication that GE continues to be a difficult concept to incorporate without explicit guidance for integration, something not always easy in a university setting.     

Guiding a diverse mix of first-year business students: implications for university administrators,instructors and students

This article describes a collaborative research project by the institutional research group and a team of faculty members at a Canadian university. In response to an increasingly diverse mix of students, the researchers set out to develop an understanding of relationships between student characteristics, categorized as demographic differences, personal attributes and academic preparedness, and student outcomes measured by both grades and student perceptions. Significant differences were found in grades outcomes based on characteristics such as international status, secondary school grades, study habits and writing skills. However, these differences were not evident in student perceptions of course value or learning achievement. This study has important implications for university administrators (recruiting, intake assessment and student support), instructors (understanding of diversity characteristics and how students perceive learning experience) and for students, who can be given an opportunity to better understand how their own personal characteristics might affect their learning experiences and outcomes.     

Play therapy with emotionally damaged adolescents

Abstract

Adolescence is a critical period of development for all individuals, but particularly for those who have suffered earlier emotional difficulties or abuse. If these problems go unresolved, patterns of behaviour which become established during this period may be more difficult to change later on. However, more traditional talk therapies may be resisted by adolescents. This article argues that non-directive play therapy, given age-appropriate adaptations, offers an approach which, since it encompasses both play and verbal communication, is well suited to addressing adolescent concerns, particularly those of early adolescence.This argument is illustrated by two accounts of therapy with a boy and a girl, both in early adolescence, which show how a more traditional non-directive counselling approach was combined with play therapy by the adolescents themselves, allowing exploration of emotional difficulties on all levels of mental functioning. The cases show how traumatic or painful early memories may be reworked on a bodily and emotional level, without the feeling of over-intrusion risked by a directive or interpretive stance.     

Queering the teacher as a text in the English Language Arts classroom: beyond books,identity work and teacher preparation

Classrooms reflect and contribute to normative sex, gender and sexuality categories in school culture, rules and rituals. Texts, materials, curriculum and the discourse we employ as educators perpetuate the pervasiveness of these categories. This paper explores some of the less visible ways in which sex and gender categories are constructed in US English Language Arts (ELA) classrooms, and how institutionalised heteronormativity positions students within normative categories of sex, gender and sexuality. These limiting conversations are difficult to identify and even more difficult to challenge. But it is precisely this dynamic – the subconscious reinforcing of sex and gender binaries – that upholds the dominance of the institution of heterosexuality. Merely addressing lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer (LGBTQ) issues in the field of teaching reading, writing and literacy is an incomplete strategy. To disrupt normative narratives in the ELA classroom, educators must first identify the everyday practices occurring in school spaces, specifically recognising the teacher as a text. For sustained challenges to institutionalised norms, ELA teachers must engage in this work outside of LGBTQ-inclusive instructional materials and anti-homophobic education, and this paper offers specific methods for disrupting mainstream narratives in ELA classrooms.