Reading and writing between different worlds: Learning,literacy and power in the lives of two migrant domestic workers

Over the last decades, studies exploring women's literacy have highlighted the way in which literacy practices are embedded within social norms and structures of power. This article draws on research with a group of female migrant domestic workers from Nepal who attended literacy support sessions at the Migrant Resource Centre in London. It explores the way in which their engagement with literacy and learning interacts with the gendered relations of power they experience as they move between different transnational spaces and social fields. It suggests that a consideration of the opportunities and constraints that they experience as migrant domestic workers is critical for understanding their engagement with literacy, and for thinking about possibilities for greater gender justice in the lives of migrant domestic workers like them.     

What happened to those fans several years later?: empowerment from Super Girls’ Voice for girls in China (2007–2015)

This longitudinal study explored the popularity and social significance of the 2005 season of the prominent Chinese television show Super Girls’ Voice (a talent show similar to Pop Idol in the UK) regarding gender issues. Based on three focus group studies of the show’s young female audience conducted in 2007, 2010, and 2015, we contend that tomboyish contestants, specifically Li Yuchun, were designated androgynous by most participants. Androgyny was largely perceived as a flexible gender identity that integrated the favorable appearance and personality traits of femininity and masculinity, a view that challenges normative femininity. Most participants also applied this meaning of the term to their own social lives, while some of the participants who were of school age in 2005 applied it to both their social lives and their construction of gender identity by copying the androgynous style. From a time-related perspective, however, we suggest that those participants who had copied the androgynous style were more willing to conform their appearance to the standards of normative femininity several years later, and renegotiated their gender identity in alignment with traditional patriarchal norms.     

On the impact of early marriage on schooling outcomes in Sub-Saharan Africa and South West Asia

This paper examines the effect of age of marriage on women's schooling outcomes for 36 countries from Sub-Saharan Africa and South West Asia. We employ an instrumental variable approach to account for the endogeneity of early marriage driven by socio-economic and cultural factors. Our results show that delaying early marriage by one year is associated with an increase of half a year of education in Sub-Saharan Africa and nearly one third of a year of education in South West Asia as well as a lower likelihood of dropping out from secondary school of 5.5% in South West Asia.     

Effective investment in women's futures: Schooling with learning

Women's schooling has long been regarded as one of the best investments in development. Yet countries vary widely in the extent to which a year of schooling conveys useful skills and knowledge and hence schooling and education cannot be treated as synonyms. Using two different cross-nationally comparable data sets which contain measures of schooling, assessments of literacy, and life outcomes for more than 50 countries we show the association of women's education, defined as schooling and the acquisition of literacy, with four life outcomes (fertility, child mortality, empowerment, and financial practices) is much larger than the standard estimates of the gains from schooling alone. In our preferred instrumental variables (IV) estimates, that correct for the attenuation bias induced by measurement error, the gain from education is more than 3 times larger than the standard OLS estimates of gains from schooling alone. While our results are not causal estimates, if anything like our results are true in the causal pathways whereby schooling and learning lead to improvements in women's well-being this implies the estimates of the costs and benefits of expansions in grade attainment versus improving learning need to be adjusted accordingly.     

Reciprocal elucidation: a student-led pedagogy in multidisciplinary undergraduate research conferences

There is no previous study of the benefits of attending a national multidisciplinary conference dedicated to undergraduate researchers, despite the growing number of such conferences internationally. This paper addresses the gap in knowledge of the learning gains from these conferences, and reveals a student driven learning process, a multidisciplinary signature pedagogy. It presents the results of 90 in-depth interviews with student conference participants conducted over three consecutive years of a multidisciplinary National Conference of Undergraduate Research (2012–2014). This paper uniquely captures the student voice on their perceived learning gains from this experience. The results reveal that some students co-create a pedagogy of Foucauldian reciprocal elucidation, through a sense of ‘unfinishedness’, allowing them to reflect on their own learning in the light of divergent perspectives, questions and frames of reference. Bidirectional exchange of ideas and insights enabled students to ask and answer questions that transformed each other’s thinking, allowing them to arrive at understandings they could not have achieved by themselves. The opportunity to present research in an authentic setting beyond disciplinary and institutional contexts developed students’ skills and confidence, giving additional value over and above the recognised benefits of engaging in research. The undergraduate research conference is framed as a threshold experience for the development of self-authorship. Significant implications for practice include supporting constructive dialogues between students and the creation of authentic and professional multidisciplinary contexts for sharing research.     

Child sexual abuse in the Roman Catholic Church in Germany: Comparison of victim-impact data collected through church-sponsored and government-sponsored programs

At around the same time in 2010, the German government and the Roman Catholic Church in Germany each set up a critical incident reporting system (CIRS) to gather information on child sexual abuse that had taken place within the Church. The objective in both cases was to solicit stories from victims and former victims and allow them to have input into a review process. The existence of these two similar systems, one initiated by the institution involved in the abuse and the other by an independent entity, provided an opportunity to compare the background and motivation of victims who chose to communicate through one channel or the other. Data were obtained on a total of 927 individuals, 571 through the church CIRS and 356 through the government CIRS, who had reported that they had experienced childhood sexual abuse within the Roman Catholic Church. Some differences were found between the two groups in terms of gender, the reported frequency of abuse, and the desire for compensation. These differences highlight the need for an effective complaint management system to offer not just one but complementary channels of communication. In addition, the findings confirm the feasibility and value of a CIRS approach and the use of so-called ‘citizen science’ in politically driven review processes.     

参与和赋权:中国乡村社区建设中的参与式影像研究

本文关注参与式影像的在中国社区建设中的实施与效果。研究发现:中国参与式影像实践形成了三个热点地区,在中国乡村社区建设中在社区论坛、社会纽带、社区教育等方面发挥了多重效果;参与和赋权是中国参与式影像发展的两大指标,参与式影像实践在个人和集体层面上有助于公民表达权、知情权、参与权、决策权和监督权的实现。     

乡村教师的赋权增能:困境与转向

在乡村教师队伍建设和教师专业发展运动的助推下,教师"赋权增能"的问题受到广泛关注,而当前我国乡村教师的赋权增能情况却不容乐观,普遍存在决策参与、课程自主以及专业发展上的缺失。文章从乡村教师赋权增能的内涵、意义、缺失原因等方面进行了分析,建议从管理体制上提升教师的决策参与权,从教育理念上加强教师的课程自主权,从教师培训上保障教师的专业发展权,从而最终实现对乡村教师的赋权增能。     

精准教研视域下的教师评课反馈分析模型研究

听评课在一线教研中占据重要地位,但学界忽视了对评课反馈文本的分析与应用,而数据赋能驱动的精准教研为创新听评课带来新视角,促使听评课实践从粗放式的经验型转向循证式的精准型转变。为解决教师评课反馈文本的精准化分析问题,研究通过文献综述、理论建构、专家调查与真实数据印证等多种方法,设计与开发了“两型六维四级”样式的评课反馈分析模型,即包括指导与促进两种类型的反馈倾向,涵盖处方、情报、质询、阐释、启示、支持等六个反馈维度,以及清晰、精准、解析、方略等四级反馈特征。研究发现,该模型对于分析评课反馈文本具有较强的可操作性、引导性、通用性,未来可用于引导教师规范评课反馈行为、评估与诊断教师听评课成效以及作为听评课信息系统研发的智力支架。     

The effect of drawing on children's experiences of investigations following alleged child abuse

The primary aim of the study was to evaluate investigative interviews from the perspectives of the children, comparing children who drew with children who did not. One hundred twenty-five children, alleged victims of sexual abuse, were asked about their investigative experience. The uniqueness of the study is that all of the interviews were conducted according to the NICHD Protocol and that children were randomly assigned into one of the two research conditions (drawing vs. non-drawing). The results clearly demonstrate the advantage that drawing has on the children's experience of the investigation, with children in the drawing group more often reporting feelings of hope and success. This study provides practical guidelines for practitioners by emphasizing the beneficial effects that drawing can have. The study stresses the importance of integrating into forensic investigations interventions that enhance children's testimonies and ensure that the investigation is an empowering experience that generates feelings of trust, self-worth, and justice.