Face[book] Management: Self-Presentation of Political Views on Social Media

This study explores Facebook users’ management behaviors related to their—and their friends'—political communication via social media, utilizing the concepts of context collapse and self-presentation. A new two-factor measure of Facebook management was developed, pilot tested (N = 139) and implemented in a survey utilizing a national sample (N = 352) of individuals aged 18–29. Results indicated Facebook users are not generally engaging in the strategic management of political disclosures or the political content to which they are exposed. However, as network sizes increase, participants engage in more disclosure behaviors and make greater efforts to manage content exposure. Additionally, participants with strong political beliefs engage in more Facebook management behaviors, possibly indicating an effort to limit cognitive dissonance.     

Libraries,Literacy and Development: Combined Libraries as an Option for Developing Countries

Abstract

Public and school library development has been slow in Third World countries. This can only be overcome by a shift in perception whereby libraries become important to national development and educational and literacy goals. When considering transformation in library mission and delivery systems, combined school and public libraries offer an alternate and innovative model. Research has determined conditions under which combined libraries are successful and when these success factors and conditions in developing countries are juxtaposed, striking correlations appear. Combined libraries may offer the integration necessary in a climate of scarcity; they may provide the framework in which libraries can serve all the people by contributing to a literate environment and literacy efforts, while supporting formal education and development programs.     

White children's empathy-related responding and prosocial behavior toward White and Black children

Relations among White (non-Latinx) children's empathy-related responding, prosocial behaviors, and racial attitudes toward White and Black peers were examined. In 2017, 190 (54% boys) White 5- to 9-year-old children (M = 7.09 years, SD = 0.94) watched a series of videos that depicted social rejection of either a White or Black child. Empathy-related responses, prosocial behaviors, and racial attitudes were measured using multiple methods. Results showed that younger children showed less facial concern toward Black than White peers and greater increases with age in concern and prosocial behaviors (sharing a desirable prize) for Black, compared to White, targets. Children's facial anger increased with age for White but not Black targets. The findings can extend our understanding children's anti-racism development.     

Representation of indigenous languages employing a religious screen for the discursive construction of students' postcolonial national identities: A curious case of ‘internal colonisation’ and ‘cultural invasion’ in Pakistani schools

This study problematises the discourses of Pakistan's national curriculum textbooks to investigate how they represent Pakistan's indigenous languages/cultures through the prism of religion to constitute secondary school students' particular postcolonial linguistic identities. It also draws on the perspectives of 12 teachers and 424 students to record their responses. Taking insights from Paulo Freire's cultural invasion, Robert Blauner's internal colonisation and selected postcolonial perspectives, the study notes a dynamic interplay of the sampled textbooks, schoolteachers and the school as a site of discursive social practices. Jointly, they position students within an exclusionary homogenous Urdu-loving group—a language which is represented as Arabic's tributary. Indigenous languages are recognised, however, as an adjunct to Arabic and Urdu, emphasising their role in the proselytisation of Islam in the region. Similarly, fine arts and indigenous cultural festivals are represented from a particular religious lens. The students strongly identify with this curious case of internal colonisation and cultural invasion, and support it. They exhibit self-righteousness and aversion towards linguistic/cultural pluralism and minorities, which entails implications for Pakistan's national cohesion and educational parlance of equity and inclusivity.     

The impact of political factors on international student mobility

International student mobility contributes to a knowledge-based economy and forms an important component of a highly educated migration. This paper aims to identify how far political factors—including political discrimination, restrictions, freedom, UK migration policies and social cultural norms and policies—enhance or inhibit individuals' capabilities to become mobile. It offers a novel conceptualisation of mobility, drawing on structuration theory and the capability approach, to reveal the link between structure, capability and agency in the mobility process. Semi-structured in-depth interviews were conducted with 40 PhD students, two professors from Turkey in the United Kingdom and three international education experts. A capability list established shows how mobility occurs when students' capabilities (freedoms) fail to flourish and they lose their power (capacity) to influence society due to the political environment in the home country. ‘Impo-mobility’, derived from the word ‘imposed’, is proposed to refer to highly educated people having to become mobile as a result of impositions placed upon them by home and host-government political practices. An appealing political environment is necessary if Turkey is not to lose highly educated individuals and the United Kingdom is to remain a global player in international higher education.     

Heterogeneity in children at risk of math learning difficulties

This study recruited 428 Singaporean children at risk of math learning difficulties (MLD; M_age = 83.9 months, SD_age = 4.35 months; 41% female). Using a factor mixture model that considered both quantitative and qualitative differences in math ability, two qualitatively different groups were identified: one with generalized difficulties across different math skills and the other with more focal difficulties in arithmetic fluency. Reading, working memory capacity, and numeracy (number line estimation skills and numerical discrimination) uniquely explained group membership. Children within each group differed in the extent of difficulties they exhibited, with numeracy variables differentially contributing to math ability in each group. Findings speak against a dimensional view of MLD and underscore the conceptual limitations of using basic numeracy performance to profile learning difficulties.     

Moving Beyond the Ableist Roots of Educational Psychology: Audit of the Field and a Path Forward

Educational Psychology Review - In the current literature review, we studied the articles published between 2010 and July 2020 in six prominent educational psychology journals to determine the...     

Exploring Kid Space in the wild: a preliminary study of multimodal and immersive collaborative play-based learning experiences

Educational technology research and development - Parents recognize the potential benefits of technology for their young children but are wary of too much screen time and its potential deficits in...     

Daily fluctuations in young children’s persistence

Children's behavior changes from day to day, but the factors that contribute to its variability are understudied. We developed a novel repeated measures paradigm to study children's persistence by capitalizing on a task that children complete every day: toothbrushing (N = 81; 48% female; 36–47 months; 80% white, 14% Multiracial, 10% Hispanic, 2% Asian, 1% Black; 1195 observations collected between January 2019 and March 2020). Children brushed longer on days when their parents used more praise (d = .23) and less instruction (d = −.22). Sensitivity to mood, sleep, and parent stress varied across children, suggesting that identifying the factors that shape an individual child's persistence could lead to personalized interventions.     

Contributions of bilingual home environment and language proficiency on children’s Spanish–English reading outcomes

This study examines the influence of language environment on language and reading skills and the cross-linguistic contributions to reading outcomes in 132 Spanish–English bilingual children ages 7–12 (52% female; 98% Hispanic). We present three major findings: children's language knowledge is separable into general (e.g., phonological awareness) and language-specific (e.g., meaning, grammar) skills; regular Spanish use positively relates to children's Spanish language and reading skills and does not limit English skills; and Spanish reading comprehension is positively associated with English reading comprehension. The model explains a significant percentage of the variance in English (R² = .89) and Spanish (R² = .87) reading comprehension outcomes. Findings shed light on the interdependence of Spanish and English as they relate to bilingual reading acquisition.