Critical considerations in becoming literacy educators: pre-service teachers rehearsing agency and negotiating risk

This article looks closely at the talk of two pre-service teachers over time to examine how they used language as a way of rehearsing their evolving agency as literacy educators. Drawing on critical sociocultural theory, I use Agency Tracing to highlight how pre-service teachers’ agentic actions are not isolated phenomena but ones developed and planned with others in language. Through rehearsals, they considered possible options and outcomes of actions before taking risks, therefore bolstering their confidence to act and resist individual and institutional Discourses of literacy. Analysis reveals that because pre-service teachers rehearse agency over time via language, such agency can be developed in teacher education coursework and field experiences. Findings indicate four recommendations to foster agency: rehearsals over time, dissonance to the point of frustration, observations and approximations in field experiences, and interactional spaces for critical reflection.     

The role of university-based induction in beginning elementary teacher enactment of effective mathematics teaching

The purpose of this paper is to describe the school-based contextual constraints perceived by beginning elementary teachers as they attempted to enact their visions of effective mathematics teaching and the components of a mathematics-specific, university-based induction program designed to support elementary teachers in their teaching of mathematics. A significant number of beginning teachers in the program indicated that curriculum pacing guides and grade level teachers often discouraged their enactment of effective mathematics teaching. We describe the components of the induction program in general and then discuss the specific ways that program mentors, who were elementary teachers with expertise in mathematics teaching, supported beginning teachers in navigating the constraints identified. Data suggest that supporting teachers’ pedagogical agency to navigate local school contexts should be an additional consideration in teacher preparation and induction programs.     

Adolescents' collaboration in the classroom: Do peer relationships or gender matter?

Peer collaboration can be a useful tool in a school classroom to help students perform at their best. With whom should students be paired, though? Previous research yields inconsistent findings regarding whether the benefits of peer collaboration depend on the gender or friendship of collaborators. We paired students with a same‐gender friend or a nonfriend in their classroom to examine whether friendship and specific dimensions of relationship quality were important for understanding adolescent (N = 132 high‐school students) boys' and girls' performance on a scientific reasoning task. Dimensions of relationship quality were related to task performance with greater perceived conflict predicting poorer performance. Girls outperformed boys, but the difference was marginal and nonsignificant after accounting for dimensions of relationship quality. Friends' and nonfriends' performance was similar. Results are informative for educators who use collaboration as an instructional technique and for other professionals who work to support the development of effective reasoning and problem‐solving skills among adolescents. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Affirming Cultures,Communities and Experiences: Teaching for Social Justice in Teacher Education Literacy Courses

In this article we share several activities we use in our teacher education literacy courses that incorporate a social justice lens. For each activity we suggest resources, offer examples we have created and used in our teaching, and share research to support each activity. The activities build on each other, with the intent of increasing preservice teacher knowledge of how to teach for social justice by moving beyond awareness and understanding lived experiences of students to affirming cultures and experiences of all students, creating inclusive and equitable classrooms. By experiencing teaching from this stance in our courses, we hope that our preservice teachers take up and teach from a social justice stance in their future classrooms.     

Where are the numbers? Counting museum visitors in France

ABSTRACT

In the early twenty-first century, the Louvre is the most visited museum in the world. Yet little is known about how visit numbers to French museums developed. Compared to the Anglo-Saxon world, the collection and publication of visit data began late and was initially far from systematic. Some figures were collected in the late nineteenth century, but correspondence from the early twentieth century indicates that not even the Ministry of Fine Arts, overseeing the National Museums, was always aware of them. More complete numbers appeared from 1922 when entrance fees were introduced. However, visitors entering on free days were not yet counted. In the 1930s, data collection for the National Museums was systematized by the Directorate of National Museums, but figures were rarely published. The aim of this article is, therefore, to establish the sources that might be used for a quantitative approach to museum visiting in France and to reflect on the reasons for the initial indifference towards the counting of visitors and the standardisation with international practices over time. The article argues that the triggers for changes in the culture of counting in France were both internal and external. A prolonged debate about the introduction of entrance fees took place from the start of the Third Republic to the interwar years and let to the search for existing numbers in France and abroad. The Fine Arts Administration compiled data about practices in other countries and a number of monographs on the subject were published. The press also frequently referenced foreign examples. These documents provide a fascinating insight into comparisons and emulation of foreign practices at the time, allowing us to rethink the modern obsession with counting as the result of a transnational process.     

How girls and boys expect disclosure about problems will make them feel: implications for friendships

Although girls disclose to friends about problems more than boys, little is known about processes underlying this sex difference. Four studies (Ns = 526, 567, 769, 154) tested whether middle childhood to mid-adolescent girls and boys (ranging from 8 to 17 years old) differ in how they expect that talking about problems would make them feel. Girls endorsed positive expectations (e.g., expecting to feel cared for, understood) more strongly than boys. Despite common perceptions, boys did not endorse negative expectations such as feeling embarrassed or worried about being made fun of more than girls. Instead, boys were more likely than girls to expect to feel "weird" and like they were wasting time. Sex differences in outcome expectations did help to account for girls' greater disclosure to friends.     

Forthcoming events

The aims of this study were to quantify the effects of factors such as mode of exercise, body composition and training on the relationship between heart rate and physical activity energy expenditure (measured in kJ?·?min^?1) and to develop prediction equations for energy expenditure from heart rate. Regularly exercising individuals (n = 115; age 18?–?45 years, body mass 47?–?120?kg) underwent a test for maximal oxygen uptake ([Vdot]O_2max test), using incremental protocols on either a cycle ergometer or treadmill; [Vdot]O_2max ranged from 27 to 81?ml?·?kg^?1?·?min^?1. The participants then completed three steady-state exercise stages on either the treadmill (10?min) or the cycle ergometer (15?min) at 35%, 62% and 80% of [Vdot]O_2max, corresponding to 57%, 77% and 90% of maximal heart rate. Heart rate and respiratory exchange ratio data were collected during each stage. A mixed-model analysis identified gender, heart rate, weight, [Vdot]_2max and age as factors that best predicted the relationship between heart rate and energy expenditure. The model (with the highest likelihood ratio) was used to estimate energy expenditure. The correlation coefficient (r) between the measured and estimated energy expenditure was 0.913. The model therefore accounted for 83.3% (R ²) of the variance in energy expenditure in this sample. Because a measure of fitness, such as [Vdot]O_2max, is not always available, a model without [Vdot]O_2max included was also fitted. The correlation coefficient between the measured energy expenditure and estimates from the mixed model without [Vdot]O_2max was 0.857. It follows that the model without a fitness measure accounted for 73.4% of the variance in energy expenditure in this sample. Based on these results, we conclude that it is possible to estimate physical activity energy expenditure from heart rate in a group of individuals with a great deal of accuracy, after adjusting for age, gender, body mass and fitness.