The Importance of Professional Networks

Abstract

In the introductory column by new column coeditors Amy Cooper Cary and Rosemary Pleva Flynn, the authors explain the goals and methodology for the column, and address the significance of professional networking. Authors focus on networking strategies and resources for both new and seasoned archivists.     

Balancing pressures for SENCos as managers,leaders and advocates in the emerging context of the Covid-19 pandemic

This article considers the role of the SENCo during Covid-19 pandemic conditions of school lockdown with partial reopening for children classified as ‘vulnerable’. It is argued that the existing pressures and tensions already experienced by SENCos – for example, related to time, workload, status, and their prescribed managerial and strategic role – have been highlighted by pandemic conditions. Pressures resulting specifically from the pandemic are reflected by considering how SENCos will adjust to enact their role during this time. It is concluded that an advocacy role for pupils with special educational needs and disability, who are at risk of becoming increasingly marginalised within school and wider communities during this pandemic, should now be considered a central element of the SENCo’s remit.     

Toward a Developmental Science of Politics

In this monograph, we argue for the establishment of a developmental science of politics that describes, explains, and predicts the formation and change of individuals’ political knowledge, attitudes, and behavior beginning in childhood and continuing across the life course. Reflecting our goal of contributing both theoretical conceptualizations and empirical data, we have organized the monograph into two broad sections. In the first section, we outline theoretical contributions that the study of politics may make to developmental science and provide practical reasons that empirical research in the domain of politics is important (e.g., for identifying ways to improve civics education and for encouraging higher voting rates among young adults). We also review major historical approaches to the study of political development and provide an integrative theoretical framework to ground future work. Drawing on Bronfenbrenner's ecological systems model as an organizing scheme and emphasizing social justice issues, we describe how factors rooted in cultural contexts, families, and children themselves are likely to shape political development. In the second section of the monograph, we argue for the importance and utility of studying major political events, such as presidential elections, and introduce the major themes, rationales, and hypotheses for a study of U.S. children's views of the 2016 U.S. presidential election. In addition, we apply a social-justice lens to political thought and participation, addressing the role of gender/sex and race/ethnicity in children's political development broadly, and in their knowledge and views of the 2016 U.S. presidential election specifically. In interviews conducted within the month before and after the election, we examined two overarching categories of children's political attitudes: (a) knowledge, preferences, and expectations about the 2016 election, and (b) knowledge and attitudes concerning gender/sex and politics, particularly relevant for the 2016 election given Hillary Clinton's role as the first female major-party candidate for the presidency. Participants were 187 children (101 girls) between 5 and 11 years of age (M = 8.42 years, SD = 1.45 years). They were recruited from schools and youth organizations in five counties in four U.S. states (Kansas, Kentucky, Texas, and Washington) with varying voting patterns (e.g., Trump voters ranged from 27% to 71% of county voters). The sample was not a nationally representative one, but was racially diverse (35 African American, 50 Latinx, 81 White, and 21 multiracial, Asian American, Middle Eastern, or Native American children). In addition to several child characteristics (e.g., age, social dominance orientation [SDO]), we assessed several family and community characteristics (e.g., child-reported parental interest in the election and government-reported county-level voting patterns, respectively) hypothesized to predict outcome variables. Although our findings are shaped by the nature of our sample (e.g., our participants were less likely to support Trump than children in larger, nationwide samples were), they offer preliminary insights into children's political development. Overall, children in our sample were interested in and knowledgeable about the presidential election (e.g., a large majority identified the candidates correctly and reported some knowledge about their personal qualities or policy positions). They reported more information about Donald Trump's than Hillary Clinton's policies, largely accounted for by the substantial percentage of children (41%) who referred to Trump's immigration policies (e.g., building a wall between the United States and Mexico). Overall, children reported as many negative as positive personal qualities of the candidates, with negative qualities being reported more often for Trump than for Clinton (56% and 18% of children, respectively). Most children (88%) supported Clinton over Trump, a preference that did not vary by participants’ gender/sex or race/ethnicity. In their responses to an open-ended inquiry about their reactions to Trump's win, 63% of children reported negative and 18% reported positive emotions. Latinx children reacted more negatively to the election outcome than did White children. Girls’ and boys’ emotional responses to the election outcome did not differ. Children's personal interest in serving as U.S. president did not vary across gender/sex or racial/ethnic groups (overall, 42% were interested). Clinton's loss of the election did not appear to depress (or pique) girls’ interest in becoming U.S. president. With respect to the role of gender/sex in politics, many children (35%) were ignorant about women's absence from the U.S. presidency. Only a single child was able to name a historical individual who worked for women's civil rights or suffrage. Child characteristics predicted some outcome variables. For example, as expected, older children showed greater knowledge about the candidates than did younger children. Family and community characteristics also predicted some outcome variables. For example, as expected, participants were more likely to support Trump if they perceived that their parents supported him and if Trump received a greater percentage of votes in the children's county of residence. Our data suggest that civic education should be expanded and reformed. In addition to addressing societal problems requiring political solutions, civics lessons should include the histories of social groups’ political participation, including information about gender discrimination and the women's suffrage movement in U.S. political history. Providing children with environments that are rich in information related to the purpose and value of politics, and with opportunities and encouragement for political thought and action, is potentially beneficial for youth and their nations.     

Only a game? Player misery across game boundaries

ABSTRACT

Videogames often confront players with frustratingly difficult challenges, fearsome enemies, and tragic stories. As such, they can evoke feelings of failure, sadness, anger, and fear. Although these feelings are usually regarded as undesirable, many players seem to enjoy videogames which cause them. In this paper, I argue that player misery often originates from a fictional or lusory attitude which brackets game events from real-life, making the player’s emotions solely relevant within the game context. As they are part of the game themselves, these negative emotions can be enjoyed and easily relativized, since players can acknowledge that their cause is ‘only a game’. However, there are feelings of misery associated with the playing of videogames which are not caused by either the game’s fiction or challenge. In the last part of this paper, I describe a qualitatively different kind of player misery: one that is caused by elements that are not perceived as part of the game by the player, and is not bracketed from real life by a lusory or fictional attitude.     

What they say is what they do? Comparing task-specific self-reports,think-aloud protocols,and study traces for measuring secondary school students’ text-learning strategies

European Journal of Psychology of Education - This study investigates the correlation between three data gathering methods for uncovering differences in secondary school students’...     

“I'm just not that great at science”: Science self-efficacy in arts and communication students

Research in science education confirms the importance of self-efficacy in students' persistence and success in the sciences. The current study examined the role of science self-efficacy in nonspecialist, arts and communication-oriented students encountering science in a general education context. Participants (N = 275) completed a beginning- and end-of-semester survey including a Science Self-Efficacy Scale, a “connection to science” measure—the Inclusion of Science in Self Scale—and a Science Anxiety Scale. Participants also responded to two open-ended “sources of science efficacy” questions, and provided background/demographic information and access to their academic records. Results showed a significant increase in science self-efficacy and connection to science—although no change in science anxiety—over the course of the semester. The observed shift in self-efficacy for minority and international students was of particular note. These students started the course with lower confidence but, by the end of the semester, reported comparable science self-efficacy, and achieved similar grades to their White/Non-Hispanic and US resident classmates. Contrary to expectations, science self-efficacy did not predict performance in the class. However, students' self-reported sources of efficacy indicated increased confidence in using science in daily life, and confirmed the value of mastery experiences and of personally meaningful, student-centered course design in scaffolding student confidence. Results are discussed in terms of the individual and instructional factors that support science self-efficacy and student success in this unique, general education science environment.     

Rediscovering the teacher within Indian child-centred pedagogy: implications for the global Child-Centred Approach

The Child-Centred Approach (CCA) is increasingly promoted within India and internationally as a response to the challenge of delivering quality education. From identifying and examining Indian indigenous and global concepts of CCA within traditional and contemporary child-centred pedagogic discourse, this paper reveals the complexities of underlying agendas within the domestic and international setting and the implications of this for the integration of CCA and the ‘child-centred’ teacher in India. Based on empirical analysis of teachers’ interviews, the findings demonstrate that the role of the teacher continues to be largely overlooked in spite of a willingness from teachers to engage within the child-centred pedagogic discourse. Disempowerment, a lack of autonomy and limited professional status are highlighted. Therefore, this paper calls for the rediscovery of the ‘child-centred’ teacher to advance from within the nation. Without this, it is asserted that the authenticity of the CCA model will continue to be compromised, and with it, any indigenous expressions of a similar epistemology will be fundamentally restricted.     

Early stages of proportional reasoning: a cross-sectional study with 5- to 9-year-olds

European Journal of Psychology of Education - The present study cross-sectionally investigated proportional reasoning abilities in 5- to 9-year-old children (n = 185) before they...