Promoting Social Inclusion in Educational Settings: Challenges and Opportunities

The goal of this article is to provide a critical analysis of barriers to social inclusion and integration in schools and propose inclusive educational practices that help connect and unite diverse students. Diversity is defined broadly to refer to a range of differences (i.e., overall heterogeneity) across students. We review theoretical frameworks that help explain group dynamics and contextual conditions that contribute to exclusion (i.e., peer victimization, rejection, friendlessness) of students based on ethnicity, sexual orientation, body weight, and so on. We argue that to be able to facilitate inclusion (acceptance by peers, cross-group friendships), educators and school administrators need to be aware of group and interpersonal dynamics. They must also comprehend how some common school practices highlight differences and segregate students in ways that further promote divisions and reinforce negative stereotypes. We propose proactive school-based practices as “built-in” preventions to increase social inclusion. Also, relevant intervention approaches are reviewed. To conclude, we discuss teacher education and professional development and make recommendations for future research.     

Salivary biomarker levels and diurnal variation: associations with medications prescribed to control children's problem behavior

This study examined associations between medications prescribed to control children's problem behaviors and levels of, and diurnal variation in, salivary cortisol (C), testosterone (T), and dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA). Saliva was collected in the morning, midday, and afternoon from 432 children ages 6-13 years. Relative to a no-medication comparison group, children taking (1) antipsychotics had higher DHEA levels and flat C diurnal rhythms, (2) Ritalin or Adderall had flat T diurnal rhythms, (3) Concerta had higher T and DHEA levels, (4) antidepressants had flat DHEA diurnal rhythms, and (5) hypotensives had flat DHEA diurnal rhythms and higher T levels. Medications prescribed to control children's problem behaviors should be monitored in studies of the endocrine correlates and consequences of developmental psychopathology.     

Strategic approaches to civic responsibility: The essential role of cocurricular events

Do cocurricular events on your campus reach their potential for developing students' sense of civic responsibility? The authors make four recommendations for making student learning the focus of these activities.     

An analysis of conditions and trends in student teaching in the United States

Arguably, the student teaching experience is the single most powerful learning experience in preservice teacher education in the United States. Although influenced by the current and past policy context, it is perhaps the oldest as well as the most common partnership between K-12 schools and teacher preparation programs. Despite the centrality of this experience to learning to teach, limited research has been conducted on the nature or characteristics of student teaching in our institutions of higher education or how it has changed over the years. This analysis examines two national samples assessing the status of student teaching experiences in the United States, taken 40 years apart. Its purpose was to analyze conditions and trends in student teaching partnerships. Results indicate that although the experience is now more uniform and intense, fewer supervisor visits are required. Based on the comparison of themes, additional recommendations for narrowing the research-to-practice gap in student teaching practices are proposed.     

The Ethnographer of Communication at the Table: Building Cultural Competence,Designing Strategic Action

Ethnographers of communication are increasingly working within interdisciplinary teams to address social problems in communities, corporations, and governments. This special forum brings together ethnographers of communication to reflect on the opportunities, tensions, and challenges involved in using the ethnography of communication to seek workable solutions to social problems with fellow scholars, practitioners, and community members. Through empirical case studies, contributors demonstrate how the ethnography of communication is used to build cultural competence and design strategic action.     

The last step: Adding theory to practice

Colleges and universities have not adequately dealt with the education of the experienced adult student. Currently these students are forced to choose between traditional courses and independent studies and the assessment of learning. Courses and independent studies force students to spend time re-learning that which they've learned through experience. Even worse, students don't learn to integrate theoretical knowledge with practical knowledge. Assessment, on the other hand, places little emphasis on theoretical knowledge and provides little opportunity for interaction with other experts in the field. This paper outlines the problems inherent in those options and presents another alternative: educational workshops which focus on the theories in a field and the relationships between those theories and practical experience. In these workshops students gain the theoretical knowledge so often not gained through experience, and have the opportunity to interact with and learn from other experienced adults without being forced into the traditional classroom geared toward younger less experienced students.     

Character,Social–Emotional,and Academic Outcomes Among Underachieving Elementary School Students

Students with persistent disruptive behavior problems lose valuable time in academic lessons, are a distraction for classmates, and cause stress for teachers. Recent meta-analyses indicate that 87% to 92% of published studies on school-based interventions targeting student problem behaviors report results from demonstration projects (involving highly trained staff under ideal circumstances) rather than routine practice programs. This study investigates the routine use of a schoolwide classroom management program and its relationship to elementary students’ social and academic outcomes. Three years after training in the classroom management program, 56 second-, third-, and fourth-grade teachers in an urban school district were assessed for fidelity to the program. Program fidelity was determined via direct observation in the classroom and validated by teacher self-ratings of fidelity and administrator ratings of teacher fidelity. Dependent variables included student engagement during academic lessons, out-of-school suspension rates, and report card grades. Results indicated that high program fidelity was significantly related to greater academic engagement and fewer suspensions, but not higher report card grades. This study adds to the scant literature on implementation fidelity of routine programs with high-risk populations.