Special education professional development needs in Zimbabwe

Since 1980 when Zimbabwe obtained political independence, special education has not received the same priority as the entire education system. One of the manifestations of this discrepancy is the shortage of qualified special education teachers in the country. In order to address this trend and promote the development of special education, researchers have suggested the need for professional development in the area of special education. The purpose of this study was to identify the special education professional development needs of both special and general education in-service teachers in Zimbabwe. A semi-structured survey instrument, developed by the first and second authors, which included open- and closed-end questions was used in this study. The sample consisted of 204 schoolteachers drawn from two school districts of Zvishavane and Gwanda. The participating schoolteachers overwhelmingly expressed the need for more professional development in the area of special education. The schoolteachers also identified several topics that they considered to be important for professional development.     

Increasing the number of feminist scientists: why feminist aims are not served by the Underdetermination Thesis

Recent feminist philosophers of science have argued that feminist values can contribute to rational decisions about which scientific theories to accept. On this view, increasing the number of feminist scientists is important for ensuring rational and objective theory acceptance. The Underdetermination Thesis has played a key role in arguments for this view [Anderson (1995) Hypatia 10(3), 50–84; Hankinson Nelson (1990) Who knows? From Quine to a feminist empiricism. Temple University Press, Philadelphia; Longino (1990) Science as social knowledge. Princeton University Press, Princeton; Longino (2002) The fate of knowledge. Princeton University Press, Princeton; Kourany (2003) Philosophy of Science 70, 1–14]. This thesis is alleged to open an argumentative “gap” between evidence and theory acceptance and provide a rationale for filling the gap with feminist values. While I agree with the conclusion that feminist values can contribute to rational decisions about which theories to accept, I argue that the Underdetermination Thesis cannot support this claim. First, using earlier arguments [Laudan (1990) in: R. Giere (ed) Minnesota studies in the philosophy of science, vol 14, pp 267–297; Slezak (1991) International Studies in Philosophy of Science 5, 241–256; Pinnick (1994) Philosophy of Science 61, 664–657] I show that Underdetermination cannot, by itself, establish that feminist values should fill the gap in theory acceptance. Secondly, I argue that the very use of the Underdetermination Thesis concedes that feminist values are extra-scientific, a-rational, factors in theory acceptance. This concession denies feminists grounds to explain why their values contribute to rational scientific reasoning. Finally, I propose two alternative ways to explain how feminist values can contribute to rational theory acceptance that do not rely on Underdetermination.

The Mass Termination of Black Veteran Teachers in New Orleans: Cultural Politics,the Education Market,and Its Consequences

Abstract

This article chronicles the mass firing of veteran teachers in New Orleans, most of them African American, following Hurricane Katrina. The role of Teach for -America in providing inexperienced White teacher recruits from outside the community is critiqued. Countering the ahistorical discourse that blames Black veteran teachers for the shortcomings of New Orleans public schools, the author reveals what is lost if the culture of the community is replaced by the culture of the market.     

Laughing to sexual education: feminist pedagogy of laughter as a model for holistic sex-education

This paper describes and analyses the ‘feminist pedagogy of laughter’ deployed in an original sex education presentation for college students, entitled Sexual Pleasure, Health, and Safety (SPHS). This work seeks to advance scholarship on liberatory education and humour in education by emphasising how we can use laughter to casually and joyfully deconstruct sexism, racism and heterosexism as they concern sexual stigma, violence, health and pleasure. This style of pedagogy also defuses discomfort around stigmatised topics and identities, disrupts oppressive norms about sex and bodies, and builds communities that enhance learning. We position the feminist pedagogy of laughter as a technique that may be replicated to empower participants to pursue sexual pleasure and wellbeing despite sexist, racist and heterosexist obstacles. Educators may apply the feminist pedagogy of laughter to create sex education lessons and curricula that participants can enjoy, learn from and apply in real life. The pedagogy may be especially useful in supporting high-impact lessons within the time constraints of university life.     

Best Practice in Middle-School Science

Using socio-ecological theory, this study explores best practice (educational practices correlated with higher student performance) in middle-school science. Seven schools with consistently higher student performance were compared with three demographically similar, average-performing schools. Best practice included instructional approaches (relevance and engagement, inquiry, differentiated instruction, collaborative work, moderate amounts of homework, and integration of language literacy and science) and administrative practices (nurturing a climate of opportunity to succeed in science, offering professional development based on data and dialogue, engaging teachers in standards-based curriculum revision and alignment, and recruiting the right fit of teacher). It is argued that best practice entails multiple levels of teaching and administrative praxis that together form a school-wide socio-ecological system conducive to higher performance.     

Sexual resourcefulness and the impact of family,sex education,media and peers

Building on a recently developed theoretical model of sexual self-control, 178 undergraduate women completed measures of learned resourcefulness, reasons for consenting to unwanted advances, and sexual self-efficacy – variables consistently shown to be unique predictors of sexual resourcefulness. Additional measures assessed in this investigation included media internalisation, peer values, parental and school discussions of sexual topics, body image preoccupation, body image satisfaction, and perceived timing of pubertal development. Along with the aforementioned unique predictors of sexual resourcefulness, receiving more information from the mother about dealing with unwanted sexual advances emerged as another direct contributor. Also in concurrence with past research, it was found that women scoring lower in sexual resourcefulness and having more reasons for consenting were more likely to engage in unwanted non-coercive sexual activities, with greater media pressures, higher appearance orientation and lower learned resourcefulness having a shared impact. Implications, limitations, and directions for future research are discussed.     

THE SUBSCRIPTION AGENCY AND LOWER SERIALS BUDGETS

The objective of the literature review was to determine whether the existence of the Internet has had a significant impact on health information literacy among the elderly in developed nations. Results were truly mixed, which led to the conclusion that, despite its worldwide acceptance and usage, the Internet has not had an all-encompassing influence on the ability of seniors to make informed health decisions, which is the ultimate product of good health information literacy.     

The Relationship Between Exposure to Sexual Music Videos and Young Adults' Sexual Attitudes

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between exposure to sexual music videos and young people's sexual attitudes (i.e., premarital sexual permissiveness and endorsement of the sexual double standard). Items gauging exposure to 75 music videos ranging in sexual explicitness were used to measure sexual video viewing among a sample of 266 undergraduate students. As expected, exposure to more sexually explicit music videos was associated with more permissive attitudes toward premarital sex and stronger endorsement of the sexual double standard, regardless of gender, overall television viewing, and previous sexual experience. Implications of these findings and suggestions for future research are discussed.     

Higher-Order Comprehension Processes in Struggling Readers: A Perspective for Research and Intervention

Many children struggle to learn to read, and these difficulties can persist well into adulthood. To address this problem, researchers have investigated the processes that underlie reading. An informative body of work has thus identified basic skills (e.g., decoding, vocabulary knowledge) as necessary for successful reading. Researchers also have begun to examine comprehension skills and their contributions to the reading process. In this article we describe research from the cognitive sciences on the processes that underlie higher-order, coherence-oriented comprehension to provide an empirically and theoretically driven perspective for investigating struggling readers' difficulties. We show that this perspective is particularly beneficial in the development and assessment of instructional approaches by relating it to existing, effective interventions. Finally, we demonstrate how our own research activities have derived from this perspective and how preliminary findings extend our understanding of readers' difficulties. This work seeks to address existing challenges in the field of reading comprehension while also suggesting new ways of investigating the plight of struggling readers.     

Effects of a Tier 2 Supplemental Reading Intervention for At-Risk Fourth Grade Students

This study investigated a Tier 2 intervention in the context of a Response to Intervention (RTI) model for 123 fourth grade students who were identified as having a high probability of reading failure. A randomized control trial was used to evaluate the effects of a 24 session multi-component supplemental intervention targeting fluency and expository comprehension of science texts. Intervention students performed significantly higher on comprehension strategy knowledge and use and science knowledge, but not on word reading, fluency, or other measures of reading comprehension. Moderators of intervention effects were also examined; children at higher risk in the intervention condition appeared to benefit more in comparison to lower probability children in intervention and compared to higher probability children in the control condition.