A case study of the diversity culture of an American university athletic department: perceptions of senior level administrators

The topic of diversity has received considerable attention from scholars who study sport within the context of higher education in the USA. But despite this interest in the topic, an in-depth focus on how college and university athletic departments effectively manage diversity is missing from the literature. Therefore, we conducted an intrinsic case study of an American university athletic department in efforts to highlight its unique diversity culture (i.e. how it creates and sustains a culture of diversity and inclusion) and the potential impact this culture could have on its various educational stakeholders, and how they interact in this organizational or workplace setting. Findings from our qualitative case study with senior level administrators uncovered two major interrelated themes. First, this institution of higher education has a history and culture of valuing diversity, and this in turn has positively impacted the athletic department's commitment to diversity. Second, the integration of the athletic department into the broader university culture, particularly because of its organizational structure, has enabled this department to better embrace diversity and avoid some of the educational challenges many of its peers face. Research and practical implications are discussed in this study.     

Imagining a future,living in the present and remembering the past

The remit for this short piece was to identify themes emerging from the articles in this edition by Julie McLeod, Duncan Waite and Eugenie Samier, to consider how these themes reflect on the current field, and to identify their ongoing relevance. Additionally, I was asked to consider the current challenges that the field is facing and what this means for research and journals such as this one. My short response is that our research has to matter. It has to matter to us as individuals so that what we do is worthwhile; it has to matter that we can provide rigorous research that is reliable so that it can inform policy makers and administrators; and it has to provide teachers and students with a greater understanding of why they are doing what they are being asked to do.     

Bullying and the Unique Socioemotional Needs of Gifted and Talented Early Adolescents: Veteran Teacher Perspectives and Practices

Much is written at the elementary school level concerning bullying and the socioemotional needs of gifted and talented (GT) students; however, in the last 10 years, little qualitative research exists concerning the early adolescent GT age group. In the social environment of classroom life, early and current research indicates that many of these students experience neurotic perfectionism, overexciteabilities (OEs), developmental asynchrony, and bullying. The formation of autonomous classes (GT-only classes) has afforded some hope concerning the amelioration of such problems; nevertheless, in this study, detailed evidence of classroom bullying in the form of social ostracism and teasing has been found with this GT age group. If left unchecked, psychological autopsies have shown these students suffering emotional difficulties and even committing suicide as a result of school and classroom torment. With such potential for classroom bullying problems, few studies address what veteran teachers of early adolescent GT students do to keep students psychologically safe. Within the social milieu of classroom life, and in comparison to research standards, this study explores three efficacious teacher perspectives and practices.     

The invisible impact of educational research

Although there are policy calls for educational research to discover ‘what works’ and thereby inform decision making directly, the research literature argues instead for research to have a ‘conceptual’ impact on practice. Empirical studies also suggest that, when teachers use research, their use is conceptual; research influences the content and the process of their thinking, changing attitudes and perceptions and making educational decision making more intelligent. This study investigates the ways in which educational research has achieved impact on practice from the perspective of the researchers. A sample of highly-rated impact case studies in the UK’s research assessment exercise (REF2014) were subject to content analysis, using qualitative coding techniques. Analysis shows that most research is ‘invisible’ to education practitioners because it is embedded in educational policies, technologies, and services. This ‘invisible use’ is unlikely to realise the conceptual benefits claimed for research utilisation. If educational research is to make educational decision making more intelligent at its point of use, it will be necessary to re-think current notions of quality in research impact.     

Meta-ethnography of autoethnographies: a worked example of the method using educational studies

ABSTRACT

Despite questions about autoethnography in the ethnography and education research family, autoethnography is published in selective peer-reviewed journals in education and in the social and health sciences. Even critics of autoethnographic studies note their ‘rising acceptance in the past 15 years’ [Delamont, S. 2009. “The Only Honest Thing: Autoethnography, Reflexivity and Small Crises in Fieldwork.” Ethnography and Education 4 (1): 51–63]. However, there has been less effort towards qualitative meta-synthesis to learn what other insights might be gained from collections of studies. With the advent of meta-autoethnography [Ellis, C. 2009. Revision: Autoethnographic Reflections of Life and Work. Walnut Creek, CA: Left Coast Press], each author can find a way to synthesise her/his own autoethnographic works, however, synthesising autoethnographies of different authors has received no attention. This article examines a critical, systematic approach to the meta-ethnography of autoethnographies and offers a worked example of the method using educational studies.     

Children's responses to the interactivity of storybook apps in family shared reading events involving the iPad

This paper reports on some data on the effects of screen‐based interactivity on children's engagement with storybook apps during family shared book reading that were gathered in a 2‐year, small‐scale ethnographic case study in Spain. Data analysis focuses on the complex interplay between the storybook app's interactive features and the children's responses to them. Our findings show that interactive elements increase the child's autonomy, as they tend to promote the importance of the reader, positioning him or her as a collaborator, storyteller, an author or an internal character in the fiction; something that can materialise in exciting narrative strategies that can trigger powerful responses to digital literary texts in emergent readers, including playing, creating new fictions or engaging emotionally with the story. Finally, we argue that the Reader Response models that have been used over recent decades to understand children's reading experiences with storybooks need to be revised to better understand their current experiences with interactive texts.     

Externalizing behavior problems and interest in reading as predictors of later reading skills and educational aspirations

This study examined the developments in children’s externalizing problems and interest in reading during their first four years of school (Grades 1–4) and investigated whether this development predicted the children’s Grade 6 reading skills and educational aspirations. Data comprised (1) teachers’ ratings of externalizing problems and children’s (N = 642; 43% girls) self-ratings of their interest in reading, collected between Grades 1 and 4, and (2) measures of reading fluency and comprehension, and children’s self-reports of educational aspirations, collected at Grade 6. First, latent growth modeling showed that a higher level of externalizing problems in Grade 1 was associated with a lower concurrent interest in reading. Second, a positive association between the initial level of interest in reading and a linear change in externalizing problems indicated that children with a lower interest in reading in Grade 1 were rated by teachers as exhibiting higher levels of externalizing problems, which nonetheless declined over the course of their first four years of school more than among other children. Third, a higher initial level of externalizing problems with a linear change in these problems across Grades 1–4 was a predictor of lower subsequent educational aspirations and poorer reading comprehension in Grade 6. Analysis of the indirect effects indicated that a higher level of externalizing problems was associated with a lower concurrent interest in reading, which, in turn, was related to poorer future reading fluency and lower educational aspirations. The findings imply that problem behaviors are interlinked with academic skill development and motivation across the first six years of school.     

Teachers’ positioning towards an educational innovation in the light of ownership, sense-making and agency

The positioning of eleven teachers towards an innovation was studied in the light of ownership, sense-making and agency. Semi-structured and video-stimulated interviews were used for data collection. The findings show that these three concepts are useful for describing similarities and differences between teachers in terms of their positioning towards the innovation. Considerable differences were found between teachers regarding their ownership, sense-making, and agency. Exploring the relations between these concepts revealed that a high degree of agency often went together with a high degree of ownership, but seemed to be moderated by the sense-making process.     

The effect of television viewing on ethnic prejudice against immigrants: A study in the Italian context

Television viewers construct many different meanings from the programs they watch. Here, we investigated whether ethnic prejudice is differentially influenced by the genre of television programs in their portrayal of ethnic minorities. We also wanted to determine whether a higher educational level reduces ethnic prejudice and television use. A self-reported questionnaire was administered to 401 Italian adults. Structural equation modeling was used to analyze the relationships between ethnic prejudice and television program contents and educational level. Viewing Reality and Variety Shows was positively related to ethnic prejudice, News and Public Affairs was negatively related, and Films and TV series had no apparent influence on prejudice. Educational level was negatively related to both ethnic prejudice and watching Reality and Variety Shows, and positively related to viewing News and Public Affairs and Films and TV series programs.     

Effects of key state policies on private colleges and universities: sustaining private-sector capacity in the face of the higher education access challenge

The relationship between key state policy variables — (1) relative (private–public) tuition prices, (2) state student-aid funding, and (3) public institution density — and the competitive position of private colleges and universities is examined. Elite private schools are found to be nearly impervious to state policy. Large and moderately selective private institutions are adversely affected by public institution density and low public prices. Such prices divert students who would otherwise prefer these private institutions to similar public schools. State student aid funding most affects the enrollment market shares of the small, low-selectivity private colleges enrolling the greatest proportions of minority and modest-income students. The findings suggest state policies in this era of strong demand for higher education and constrained public sector capacity should use price signals (student aid and public institution pricing) to encourage students to consider seriously whether private higher education might serve their needs as well as or better than public institutions.