Teachers' views of teenage sexual morality

This paper examines the discourses of morality drawn on by secondary school teachers in England to describe their attitudes to pupils' developing sexual identities. Although teachers recognized their own formative role in the sexual socialization of pupils and identified homophobic attitudes among boys, they were ambivalent about how far they could intervene in homophobic bulling in school. However, they failed even to recognize the widespread misogynistic bullying of girls by boys as a problem. Teachers expressed anxieties about girls' ownership of sexual knowledge and sexual agency while perceiving boys to be sexually immature and less ‘responsible’. We explore possible reasons for teachers' neglect of misogynistic bullying and their labelling of girls as sexually precocious. We argue that the discourses shaping teachers' attitudes to sexual morality and sex education were largely embedded in a form of liberal individualism that impeded them from confronting the structurally reproduced relations of gender domination.     

“If You Show Who You are,Then They are Going to Try to Fix You”: The Capitals and Costs of Schooling for High-Achieving Latina Students

Schools are supposed to be places where students learn academic and technical skills while also expanding their social networks. Although much research exists that examines academic achievement from a variety of lenses, schools and educators continue to lack insight into the various strengths—or capital—students bring with them to school alongside the barriers—or costs—they face once there. To help bridge the gap between the extant research and what is practiced in schools, we provide insight into what educators can do to capitalize on students' strengths and minimize the barriers to achievement. This article draws from two theoretical frameworks, Community Cultural Wealth (CCW) and Racial Opportunity Cost (ROC), and two qualitative research projects that examined Latina high school students' academic achievement from a capitals and costs perspective. Although significant research has identified assets-based approaches to schooling, our results indicate that the interplay between the norms of the school and the norms the students embraced played a critical role in terms of creating conditions for a positive school experience. Based on our findings, we offer recommendations for educators to address the costs that students experience.     

Families Are Learning in Science Museums

This report is based on research findings of a National Science Foundation (NSF)-funded study conducted by the Philadelphia/Camden Informal Science Education Collaborative (PISEC), which consists of four institutions: The Franklin Institute Science Museum, the New Jersey State Aquarium, The Academy of Natural Sciences, and the Philadelphia Zoological Garden. The first year's study addressed the question “How can we identify and measure family learning in science museums?” It documented a relationship between learning levels and observable behaviors. On the basis of coding family conversations and interview data for level of learning, we see that families do learn from exhibits and that the level of learning is related to specific observed behaviors. Grouping these behaviors as performance indicators provides a useful measure of exhibit learning.     

Enhancing Family Learning Through Exhibits

Can enhanced exhibits produce measurable increases in active family learning? Four Philadelphia area science institutions—The Franklin Institute Science Museum, the Academy of Natural Sciences, the New Jersey State Aquarium at Camden, and the Philadelphia Zoo—have investigated the answer to this question as part of the PISEC (Philadelphia-Camden Informal Science Education Collaborative) Family Learning Project. PISEC is conducting research and exhibit development aimed at increasing the understanding of family learning in science museums and identifying the characteristics of successful family learning exhibits. The PISEC project is organized into three phases: (1) a research study to establish behavioral indicators for family science learning (Borun et al., 1996); (2) the development and evaluation of four exhibit enhancements aimed at achieving family science learning goals (Borun and Dritsas, 1997); (3) a research study comparing the frequency of learning behaviors for treatment families that have used enhanced test exhibits to control-group families that have used only the test exhibits. The results of the first two phases of this project have been discussed previously. This article describes the research study conducted during Phase 3 of the project. Results of the study show that all four modified exhibits produced significant increases in performance indicators. Using seven characteristics of successful family exhibits—multi-sided, multi-user, accessible, multi-outcome, multi-modal, readable, and relevant—as a guide to exhibit development proved to be an effective strategy for increasing active family learning.     

Shirt sponsorship by gambling companies in the English and Scottish Premier Leagues: global reach and public health concerns

While the nature of gambling practices is contested, a strong evidence base demonstrates that gambling can become a serious disorder and have a range of detrimental effects for individuals, communities and societies. Over the last decade, football in the UK has become visibly entwined with gambling marketing. To explore this apparent trend, we tracked shirt sponsors in both the English and Scottish Premier Leagues since 1992 and found a pronounced increase in the presence of sponsorship by gambling companies. This increase occurred at the same time the Gambling Act 2005, which liberalized rules, was introduced. We argue that current levels of gambling sponsorship in UK football, and the global visibility it provides to gambling brands, is a public health concern that needs to be debated and addressed. We recommend that legislators revisit the relationship between football in the UK and the sponsorship it receives from the gambling industry.