Attitudes Toward Spanish and Code-Switching in Belize: Stigmatization and Innovation in the Spanish Classroom

Through the analysis of survey and interview data, we investigated the attitudes and perceptions of 32 multilingual teachers of Spanish in Belize, a code-switching (CS) context where Spanish is in intense contact with English and Belizean Kriol. More specifically, we examined teachers’ and students’ attitudes toward Spanish and CS and teachers’ perceptions vis-à-vis students’ attitudes toward Spanish instruction. The study revealed that whereas some teachers held negative views of Northern Belizean Spanish, they did not markedly perceive standard Spanish as “better” than the local variety of Belizean Spanish. The analysis also showed that most teachers had a positive predisposition to the use of CS as a pedagogical tool in their classrooms, a finding that suggests that ultra-normative attitudes toward Spanish varieties are not prevalent among these educators. In view of students’ attitudes, teachers concurred that students had overwhelmingly negative attitudes toward standard Spanish, in line with previous findings. We argue that educational reforms and status-planning efforts are vital to destigmatize Spanish and to promote its maintenance alongside Belizean Kriol and English.     

Curriculum stasis: the disconnect between music and technology in the Australian curriculum

Technology is a dominant mediating factor impacting on current human behaviour and social change, which both acts on and is acted upon by other phenomena. This changing social landscape, along with new expectations and requirements, drives our educational priorities and curriculum agenda. There is no denying the prevalence of technology found in the statements and guidelines of the national Australian Curriculum. Further, the National Review of School Music Education identified the importance of technology in school music education in 2005. The curriculum guidelines illustrate an understanding of technology in Music and the Arts that is both vague and limiting. In 2015 we are at a point of curriculum stasis, an equilibrium that highlights a disconnect between music, technology and Australian music education. This article investigates current secondary school Years 7–10 (ages 11–15 years) Music and Arts curriculum statements concerning the use of technology and compares this to the general capability information and computer technology (ICT) curricula. There is wide recognition that digital technology is essential in teaching and learning, but this is not reflected in contemporary Australian Arts and Music curricula.     

Reformation of VET and demands on teachers’ subject knowledge – Swedish vocational teachers’ recurrent participation in a national CPD initiative

This study investigates continuing professional development (CPD) of vocational teachers, with a focus on recurrent participation. Vocational teachers need to be competent as teachers and in relation to their vocational teaching subject. Reformation of Swedish vocational education in order to strengthen the working-life connection imposes demands on teachers to have up-to-date knowledge about the vocations related to their vocational subjects. To support the reform, vocational teachers have been offered to participate in a new national CPD initiative targeting their vocational competence. The study concerns participation in this initiative. Drawing on a socio-cultural perspective, vocational teachers’ CPD implies boundary-crossing between school and working-life. Theory concerning adults’ participation in education is considered relevant to understand conditions for such boundary-crossing, and learning, among vocational teachers. The article specifically investigates patterns in vocational teachers’ recurrent participation, which is expected to clarify the factors influencing further participation in professional development. The strongest predictor of recurrent participation, when adjusting for the influence of other factors, is the type of municipality that the teacher comes from, with low populated municipalities having the lowest likelihood of participation. Furthermore, recurrent participation is more likely by participating teachers from adult education or from privately owned schools, and by male teachers.     

PIAAC results on opportunities for informal learning in the workplace in Spain / Resultados PIAAC sobre las oportunidades para el aprendizaje informal en el puesto de trabajo en España

This article uses data from the PIAAC (Programme for the International Assessment of Adult Competences) Background Questionnaire to describe conditions related to informal learning (IL) in the workplace and opportunities to learn informally in organizations in Spain. PIAAC data indicate that in Spain, informal learning processes in organizations are a common, everyday practice. However, some differences have been found in the intensity of this learning by gender, the position that the employee occupies and the business sector in which the organization is framed. This study opens some future avenues to develop further knowledge about IL mechanisms and practices in the workplace, as a strategy to help towards the development of people and organizations.     

Trait Affection Given and Received: A Test of Hofstede’s Theoretical Framework

This study sought to address Hofstede and McCrae’s (2004) call for systematic cross-cultural comparisons of trait-like attributes. Specifically, we examined the extent to which Danish, Icelandic, Polish, and American adults’ trait affection given and trait affection received are (a) dependent on national origin, and (b) associated with Hofstede’s dimensions of cultures (i.e. individualism-collectivism, masculinity-femininity, power distance, and uncertainty avoidance). The participants (N = 606) completed a questionnaire in English that consisted of the trait affection given and trait affection received scales. Results of a multivariate analysis of variance and linear regression analyses revealed that people’s trait affection given and received are (a) dependent on national origin, and (b) associated with Hofstede’s dimensions of cultures.     

Self‐efficacy,school resources,job stressors and burnout among Spanish primary and secondary school teachers: a structural equation approach

This study examines the relationship between school resources, teacher self‐efficacy, potential multi‐level stressors and teacher burnout using structural equation modelling. The causal structure for primary and secondary school teachers was also examined. The sample was composed of 724 primary and secondary Spanish school teachers. The changes occurring in the Spanish teacher role in the last decade were taken into account to select job stressors. The results obtained revealed that external (school support resources) and internal (management classroom self‐efficacy and instructional self‐efficacy) coping resources have a negative and significant effect on job stressors. In turn, job stressors have a positive and significant effect on teachers’ burnout considering it as both a unidimensional and multidimensional construct. Furthermore, the hypothesised structure of burnout dimensions revealed that emotional exhaustion plays a key role in explaining Spanish school teachers’ burnout. Practical implications of these findings are discussed.     

Faculties of Education in Traditional Universities and Universities of the Third Age: A Partnership Model in Gerontagogy

This article discusses “Universities of the Third Age”, whose function is quite distinct from established universities' traditional role in teaching, research, and community services. Consequently, there is an urgent need to develop a model of partnership between traditional universities and Universities of the Third Age, ensuring better training for educators working with senior citizens. Determining the roles of teachers, supervisors, and students will facilitate greater cooperation, and allow for a linkage of Universities of the Third Age (U3A) with traditional faculties of education, as well as further refinement of the theoretical and practical professional training of future educators of older people.     

Individual, family, and neighborhood factors distinguish resilient from non-resilient maltreated children: a cumulative stressors model

OBJECTIVE: Children who are physically maltreated are at risk of a range of adverse outcomes in childhood and adulthood, but some children who are maltreated manage to function well despite their history of adversity. Which individual, family, and neighborhood characteristics distinguish resilient from non-resilient maltreated children? Do children's individual strengths promote resilience even when children are exposed to multiple family and neighborhood stressors (cumulative stressors model)? METHODS: Data were from the Environmental Risk Longitudinal Study which describes a nationally representative sample of 1,116 twin pairs and their families. Families were home-visited when the twins were 5 and 7 years old, and teachers provided information about children's behavior at school. Interviewers rated the likelihood that children had been maltreated based on mothers' reports of harm to the child and child welfare involvement with the family. RESULTS: Resilient children were those who engaged in normative levels of antisocial behavior despite having been maltreated. Boys (but not girls) who had above-average intelligence and whose parents had relatively few symptoms of antisocial personality were more likely to be resilient versus non-resilient to maltreatment. Children whose parents had substance use problems and who lived in relatively high crime neighborhoods that were low on social cohesion and informal social control were less likely to be resilient versus non-resilient to maltreatment. Consistent with a cumulative stressors model of children's adaptation, individual strengths distinguished resilient from non-resilient children under conditions of low, but not high, family and neighborhood stress. CONCLUSION: These findings suggest that for children residing in multi-problem families, personal resources may not be sufficient to promote their adaptive functioning.     

History of childhood abuse in Portuguese parents

OBJECTIVE: The study examines the self-reported prevalence of childhood physical and sexual abuse in a large sample of Portuguese parents. METHOD: Nearly 1,000 parents (506 mothers and 426 fathers) were selected through public primary schools from the Northern area of Portugal. All completed the Portuguese version of the Childhood History Questionnaire (CHQ) [Journal of Family Violence 5 (1990) 15]. RESULTS: Results show that the prevalence of abuse was 73%, but more severe physical abuse involving sequelae/injury was reported by 9.5%. Most physical abuses began prior to age 13, with half continuing after age 13. No gender differences were found for rates of physical abuse. However, among the milder physical abuse without sequelae/injury, those women who experienced "whipping" or "slapping/kicking" were more likely to do so from their mothers than fathers. Among men who were "slapped/kicked" this was more likely to be from their fathers. Low rates of sexual abuse were found at 2.6% with no gender or age differences. Lack of a supportive adult in childhood related to the more severe abuses, but only in adolescence. Portuguese rates of abuse were consistently lower than those reported in USA and Spanish studies using the CHQ. CONCLUSIONS: This is the first retrospective, self-report study of childhood abuse in a large sample of Portuguese parents and, even with a participation rate of 69%, shows lower rates than in US and Spanish samples.     

Competitive State Anxiety Inventory-2 (CSAI-2): evaluating the Swedish version by confirmatory factor analyses

The Competitive State Anxiety Inventory-2 (CSAI-2) is one of the most frequently used instruments when assessing competitive state anxiety in sport psychology research. However, doubts have been expressed about the factorial validity of both the English and the Greek versions of the scale. Hence, a revised version of the inventory (CSAI-2R) has recently been suggested to be more psychometrically sound (Cox et al., 2003). In the present study, the aim was to evaluate the psychometric properties of the Swedish version of the CSAI-2 using confirmatory factor analyses. A total of 969 athletes (571 men and 398 women) competing in 26 different sports completed the Swedish version of the CSAI-2. Three different factor structures were evaluated: the original three-factor model (with cognitive anxiety, somatic anxiety and self-confidence), a two-factor model in which self-confidence was excluded, and a three-factor model containing 17 items (CSAI-2R). The results revealed that only the 17-item model displayed an acceptable fit to the data. Although some doubts remain about the amount of variance that can be attributed to error variance in the subscales, the results suggest that it is better to use the CSAI-2R rather than the original CSAI-2.