Looking back to look forward: M��ori cultural values and the impact on career

The career stories of 22 M??ori in this study expressed the dynamic cultural contexts in which career processes have been enacted. A new typology of cultural career identities was developed focusing on diversity among M??ori on issues pertaining to what being M??ori means to them and the subsequent influence on participants?? career stories. The three types presented in this study provide a template from which to begin discussions on the intersection between culture and career.     

Older people’s health information needs

This paper, originally given at the Health Libraries Group conference ‘First aid for the front line’ in September 1998, argues that older people’s health information needs are in many respects little different to anyone else’s. It looks at different formats of information that may be helpful for older people, and at the needs of two specific groups, carers and elders from ethnic groups. Direct user involvement in the development of information is seen as important. It is emphasized that there is a particular need for primary care workers to know how other services, such as those within social care and the voluntary sector, operate. The paper ends by looking at the information professional’s role in providing resources and training to such workers, and suggests a broader remit for the profession as a whole, to help to ensure social inclusion for older people.     

Creative arts outreach initiatives in schools: effects on university expectations and discussions about university with important socialisers

ABSTRACT

For youth in disadvantaged schools, university expectations and participation are often limited by access to social and cultural capital that support expectations. This study investigated the utility of creative arts outreach initiatives (CAI) in supporting students’ university expectations and building cultural capital in homes, schools and neighbourhoods in the southwest corridor of Perth, Western Australia. Cultural capital was operationalised as discussions about university with parents, teachers and friends as important socialisers. The CAI provided task-based programs that connected students with industry professionals and university academics to access new social and cultural capital, develop skills that satisfied learning objectives and increase navigational capacity for higher education participation. Multi-group latent growth models were estimated for university expectations across 3 time points and university discussions with important socialisers at time 3 using a propensity-score matched sample comprising 176 students aged between 11 to 18 years from eight high schools (program group?=?88, control group?=?88, females?=?64%). Results indicated stability in levels of university expectations for program participants and increased discussions about university with parents, teachers and friends. Findings support the inclusion of people-rich, co-curricular creative arts programs such as CAI in disadvantaged schools to build social and cultural capital that supports and potentially widens higher education participation in this region.     

Regulation of social contact by the female rat during the postejaculatory interval

Mating behavior of male and estrous female rats was observed in a large cage through three ejaculatory series. Movement, 22-kHz ultrasonic vocalizations, sexual behavior, and distance between animals were studied during the postejaculatory interval (PEI) to help establish how copulatory contact is maintained and reinitiated for successive ejaculations. Females moved more than males throughout the three series. The duration of vocalization by the male during the PEI increased in the presence of an experienced female. During the male’s vocalization, the rats exhibited a period of immobility that usually began with the experienced female’s terminating contact by moving away from the male and ended when the female reinitiated contact by moving toward the male. Virgin females did not show this pattern of movement. Experienced females maintained a greater distance from the male during the PEI than did virgin females. We conclude that the behavior of the experienced estrous female assures both considerable spatial separation during the male’s refractory period and the reinitiation of contact.     

Child and family-level correlates of direct and indirect peer victimization among children ages 6–9

The purpose of this study was to examine the prevalence and child and family-level correlates of direct and indirect victimization by peers among children ages 6–9. Four hundred and twenty-five children were included in the final sample. Data for this study were drawn from the first wave of the Developmental Victimization Survey. Logistic regression models were used to examine associations between children's demographics, anxiety, depression, anger, parent–child relationship, and exposure to family violence and children's experience of direct or indirect victimization by peers. The results showed that increased depression scores and exposure to family violence were associated with increased risk for direct and indirect victimization by peers. Black children were more likely to experience direct victimization and less likely to experience indirect victimization compared to White children. Child's race significantly moderated the association between parental criticism and indirect victimization. Child's gender did not significantly moderate these associations. Implications for developmentally specific prevention and intervention approaches that are grounded in a social-ecological framework are discussed.     

HEALTH EDUCATION TECHNIQUES FOR DENSE RESIDENTIAL SETTINGS

As part of a larger study, senior citizens living in a residential setting that provided in‐house nursing services emphasizing health education were found to have significantly greater health knowledge and significantly more (self‐reported) healthy behaviors than those in residences receiving traditional nursing services and providing less health education. These outcomes can probably be attributed to the greater amount of health education the former group received from the nursing service.

Group methods of instruction and the use of multiple educational methods, techniques and devices are known to achieve more effective behavioral change. Yet all study participants reported having obtained health information in an individual (rather than a group) setting. Health education in dense residential settings is likely to achieve behavioral change effectively and efficiently if certain steps outlined herein are followed.     

To be seen and heard: Enhancing student engagement to support university aspirations and expectations for students from low socioeconomic status backgrounds

An important goal for educators is to foster student engagement in order to support a sense of valuing and aspiring to higher levels of education. To value education, students need to perceive that they are welcome, express their ideas and engage meaningfully in each education space they enter. Therefore, ‘pupil voice’ has the potential to become an important influencing factor regarding the degree to which students become self-regulated learners, value educationand consequently support their aspirations and build their expectations to go on to university. This study examines the role pupil voice plays in building cognitive and emotional engagement, and whether this, in turn, builds desire for further study and expectations for university entry. Pupil voice is operationalised as the extent to which the student feels heard, involved and supported by the school community. Student survey data was collected (N = 542) from a low socioeconomic status region of the southwest corridor of metropolitan Perth, Western Australia. Structural equation modelling substantiated our serial mediation hypothesis. For students, a discernible pupil voice significantly and positively increased cognitive engagement (self-regulated learning), which increased emotional engagement (valuing education) that, in turn, increased university desires, which led to increased university expectations. The results of this study underscore the importance of policies and practical interventions designed to develop strong student–teacher relationships, where students feel they are both seen and heard.