“It’s Everybody’s Job”: Youth and Adult Constructions of Responsibility to Take Action for School Change through PAR

The Urban Review - Participatory action research (PAR) with youth holds potential to spur social justice-oriented change due to its explicit orientation to transform systemic inequity. Whereas...     

Educational disparity and the persistence of the black–white wage gap in the U.S.

This paper examines the relationship between contemporary racial inequality of schooling and the black–white wage gap in the U.S. In particular I ask: what policies would be effective at reducing the black–white wage gap in the U.S.? In order to address this question, I develop a model of human capital accumulation in which agents differ by race. I calibrate the model to reflect the U.S. system of education financing since the mid-1950s, and find that more than half of the black–white wage gap in the U.S. in the early 1990s can be accounted for by differential human capital accumulation by race. This indicates an increased role for policy in addressing racial inequality in the U.S. The results of the policy experiments conducted in this paper indicate that a conditional cash transfer program and a policy of decreased reliance on local property tax revenue would be effective in reducing the black–white skill and wage gaps.     

Globalization or Colonization in Online Education: Opportunity or Oppression?

ABSTRACT

A proliferation of student enrollment in online higher education, particularly in social work, may reflect a neoliberal shift from public good to private commodity. Critical theory is an excellent lens to assess whether there has been such a shift. While online higher education represents opportunities for information globalization, consciousness-raising, and social justice, it may also be an instrument of colonization related to profit generation, reliance on market transactions, and power related to discourse. Recommendations made here include targeted student recruitment and accessibility, geographically and culturally grounded knowledge integration, cultivation of market skills and student voice, and intentional outcome measures.     

Investigating the Unit of Study Approach as a Way to Teach Writing to Early Childhood Education Preservice Teachers

The purpose of this study was to better understand the learning opportunities within a university writing methods course centering on a unit of study experience. Specifically, we wanted to investigate what early childhood education preservice teachers (PSTs) learn about poetry and the writing process when engaged in a poetry unit of study. Our findings revealed that a unit of study format: (a) served as a vehicle to deconstruct and develop new genre awareness; (b) helped PSTs live process aspects of writing instruction; and (c) supported PSTs in developing genre-specific knowledge through the use of mentor texts.     

The Influence of Relative Humidity and Intrinsic Chloride on Post-excavation Corrosion Rates of Archaeological Wrought Iron

ABSTRACT

This study examined the impact of relative humidity (RH) on the corrosion rate of 129 archaeological iron nails from two sites. Oxygen consumption of individual nails in controlled RH was used as a corrosion rate proxy to deliver quantitative data on corrosion rate as a function of RH. This was negligible at 20% RH, slow up to 40% RH for both sites, and increased rapidly at 60% RH for Roman nails from Caerleon (Wales) and at 70% RH for medieval nails from Billingsgate (London). The nails were digested and their chloride content was determined and related to their oxygen consumption at specific RH values. While a generic pattern of corrosion as a function of chloride was identified, for any single concentration of chloride corrosion rate was not predictable. Desiccation is in common use to control post-excavation corrosion of archaeological iron; quantifying how differing levels of desiccation changed corrosion rate provided a scaled tool for identifying corrosion risk, estimating object longevity, and calculating cost benefit for storage options.     

Relationship orientation,jealousy, and equity: An examination of jealousy evoking and positive communicative responses

The intentional evoking of jealousy has received little attention in interpersonal research, yet eliciting jealousy in another may perform critical functions in relationships such as meeting personal needs and relational goals. The purposes of these two studies were to examine how evoking jealousy may be used as a communicative strategy in relationships, and to develop the Evoking Jealousy Scale. Two studies examined evoking jealousy, relationship orientation (exchange versus communal), positive responses to jealousy, and equity in relationships. Results from study one indicated both exchange oriented and communal oriented individuals make attempts to evoke jealousy from their partners. Results from study two indicate the only variable in this study related to the active strategy of evoking jealousy was being exchange oriented. Feelings of equity, being overbenefited, and communal orientation each were related to positive responses to feeling jealous. The Evoking Jealousy Scale was developed and tested in study two and appears to have good face validity, unidimensional factor structure, and internal reliability     

The affective orientation to communication: Conceptual and empirical distinctions

Affectively oriented (AO) individuals are people who are aware of their emotional states, value that information, and use it to guide social interaction. Although this concept sounds similar to others related to self‐awareness, emotionality, and patterns of information seeking, the process is both conceptually and empirically unique.

Study One compared individuals on AO and several measures which share underlying dimensions: affect intensity, self‐consciousness, extroversion, neuroticism, monitoring vs. blunting behavior style, and beliefs about romance. Affective orientation was moderately related to affect intensity and private self‐consciousness, and exhibited small correlations with monitoring of information‐seeking, extroversion, and idealism of romantic beliefs. Study Two assessed the stability of AO responses. Across a 4‐week time period AO remained highly consistent and thus did not appear to be a function of feelings at the time.     

Students Designing Video Games about Immunology: Insights for Science Learning

Exposing American K–12 students to science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) content is a national initiative. Game Design Through Mentoring and Collaboration targets students from underserved communities and uses their interest in video games as a way to introduce science, technology, engineering, and math topics. This article describes a Game Design Through Mentoring and Collaboration summer program for 16 high school students and 3 college student mentors who collaborated with a science subject matter expert. After four weeks, most students produced 2-D video games with themes based on immunology concepts from the educational science game Immune Attack. Findings from three groups that finished their games and one group with an uncompleted game are explored.     

Gauging Students’ Untutored Ability in Argumentation about Experimental Data: A South African case study

This paper reports on a study into the untutored ability of Grade 10 students to engage in argumentation about the interpretation of experimental data, and the effect of unsupported small group discussions on this ability. In this study, argumentation intends to promote critical thinking. The sample includes 266 students from five South African schools across the resource spectrum, forming 70 friendship groups. Students are required to provide written interpretations of experimental data, and justify these interpretations based on the evidence and concepts of measurement. Individual responses form the basis of small group discussions after which students again provide written justified interpretations of the readings. The data show an initial low level of argumentation, with significant variation according to school resource levels. Considerable improvement in the level of argumentation occurs merely through small group discussions unsupported by the teacher. The findings suggest several factors influencing argumentation ability such as experience with practical work, perceptions of the purpose of small group discussions, the language ability to articulate ideas and cultural influences. Methodological issues arising from the study and implications for teaching and assessment are discussed.