‘Invisible’ teachers of literacy: collusion between siblings and teachers in creating classroom cultures

The promise to raise literacy standards significantly at age 11 in economically disadvantaged areas has been an important part of the present British Government's educational policy. Integral to this promise has been the introduction of official home/school ‘contracts’ or ‘agreements’, which oblige parents to engage in specific literacy activities with their children. However, evidence from a longitudinal study of family literacy practices in East London suggests that family and community members other than parents might play a crucial role in initiating young children into literacy. Siblings particularly have been found to be efficient ‘teachers’ of school literacy practices. In this paper, I investigate particularly ways in which an unspoken collusion takes place between teacher and older sibling revealed during ‘play school’ sessions in Bangladeshi British households in East London.     

La Parte Chusca of a Pedagogical Here and Now: Oaxacan Teachers’ Heteroglossic Joking About State Repression and Educational Reform

Faced with repression and reform, humor has become tactical for public school teachers in Oaxaca, Mexico, engaged in a decades-old movement that after 2006 involved intensified street- and school-based pedagogies. This piece explores how humor adds to a political project via mocking names, images, and dictates of elite leaders to bring a here and now to what is taken as inaccessible in the teachers’ political lives. Humor forms part of an (e)sc(h)atology in which critical practices are part eschatological, a call for definite transformation, and part scatological, embodied vulgarity. La parte chusca (the funny part), its (e)sc(h)atological contribution, angles toward critical literacies in Oaxaca and beyond.     

Maternal mediation in book reading, home literacy environment, and children’s emergent literacy: a comparison between two social groups

The researchers addressed two questions: (1) Does maternal reading mediation and family home literacy environment (HLE) relate to children’s emergent literacy (EL) level? and (2) Do the relationships among these variables differ as a function of socioeconomic strata (SES) level. A total of 94 5–6-year-old children, 47 from low SES (LSES) and 47 from high (HSES) families, and their mothers participated. Mother–child interactions while reading an unfamiliar book were videotaped and their verbal expressions were coded for extracting maternal mediation level. Children’s independent EL level was assessed prior to the interaction. Compared with the LSES group, HSES children showed higher EL levels and their homes had a richer literacy environment. Maternal mediation level differed by SES: LSES mothers paraphrased text more often; HSES mothers’ higher mediation level included a discussion of the written system and making connections beyond the text. In the HSES group, maternal mediation level and HLE related to children’s EL; no such relationships appeared in the LSES group. Results are discussed in terms of children’s socio-economic background and their reading experiences. Implications for researchers and educational practices about the relationships between children’s literacy development, SES, HLE, and parental mediation are discussed.     

Parent question use during shared reading time: How does training affect question type and frequency?

This study was designed to examine whether participation in a shared reading workshop alters the frequency with which parents ask their children questions during book reading sessions, particularly questions designed to strengthen component reading skills that they may not have known about before training. Participants in the reading workshop series (N = 57) were taught strategies for asking questions about story content and word structure to build children's language and literacy skills. Findings suggest that parents may be somewhat familiar with traditional dialogic reading strategies focused on story content and utilize them without instruction, whereas parents may be less knowledgeable about sound or print‐focused skills and do not employ strategies focused on word structure until instructed to do so. It is also notable that parents do not use all story content prompts equally. This information can be used by school psychologists to refine the messages educators share with parents about how to best support their children's reading development.     

Growing up in a tourist destination: developing an environmental sensitivity

Abstract

This paper explores how the socio-cultural milieu of a community may foster a sense of environmental stewardship among children and young people. Ethnographic fieldwork, carried out in a popular tourist destination in Australia, revealed that the overt impacts of tourism activity such as littering provoke negative feelings among children and young people; these perceptions can in turn translate into a sensitivity towards the environment. While debated in some circles, a Significant Life Experiences (SLE) lens is useful in understanding children and young people’s lived experiences of – and sensitivity to - environmental issues in the communities where they are raised. SLE is employed in this article to explore how a sense of stewardship towards the environment is developed among children and young people growing up in a tourist destination. Findings suggest they actively contribute to protecting the environment in a variety of ways from regular beach clean ups and educating visiting tourists to participating in rallies and anti-development protests.     

论信息管理人员的信息素质及其培养

21世纪是一个信息化的社会。对于从事信息管理的高校信息管理人员来说,除具备基本的素质之外,还应具备信息素质。信息管理人员的信息素质包括信息意识、信息能力及信息服务等。对高校信息管理人员的教育和培养应从提高信息管理人员对信息素质的认识和提高实际水平等方面进行。     

新农村建设中的资源开发与环境保护——以湖北省保康县马桥镇尧治河村为例

我国新农村建设中资源开发与环境保护存在的主要问题是资源开采规模普遍较小,环保措施不到位;过度开发,不注重生态平衡;只顾初级开采,忽视深度开发、轻视加工利用,无可持继发展规划;开发产生的"三废",形成新的污染源。问题产生的根源是认识不足;缺乏有效的政策和法律体系;资源开发利用缺乏总体规划;尚未形成政府推动、市场驱动、公众行动的运行机制。应该从建立统筹城乡与区域的资源开发与环境保护管理机制;建立合理的循环经济模式;做强加工业,提高资源的循环利用率;调整农村产业结构、扩大就业、实现农民增收;加快立法进程,加大执法力度;加强宣传教育、增强农民环保意识;坚持从"九节一减"等方面来解决我国新农村建设中资源开发与环境保护问题。     

新世纪国内中小学教师教研素养研究述评——兼议教学反思与教研之间的关系

本文用分类的方法,对新世纪国内以中小学教师教研素养为主题的研究进行了述评,发现这方面的研究主要从中小学教师教研素养现状及其产生的原因;教师从事教研的必要性及其原因;提高教师教研素养的方法、模式;研究型教师具有的特点及能力构成;适合教师的教研方法等角度进行。本文也讨论了教学反思与教研之间的关系,发现教学反思与教研之间关系密切。     

Health literacy and consumer health information

The rigours of the past few years have demonstrated the importance of good health literacy levels with the imperative of being able to obtain and interpret information to maintain and improve one's health never more apparent. With this in mind, this issue is focused on consumer health information, the gender and population group differences that exist in information seeking behaviour, the challenges of understanding medical explanations and terminology, and existing criteria to assess and ultimately produce better consumer health information.