bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Awareness of illness moderates self-assessment of psychotic symptoms
Authors: Martinez Agulleiro Luis , de Filippis Renato , Rosson Stella , Patil Bhagyashree , Prizgint Lara , Talasazan Nahal , Meltzer Herbert Y , Kane John M , Gibbons Robert D , Guinart Daniel
Published: November 2021

Objective:

Self-reports or patient-reported outcome measures are seldom used in psychosis due to concerns about the ability of patients to accurately report their symptomatology, particularly in cases of low awareness of illness. The aim of this study was to assess the effect of insight on the accuracy of self-reported psychotic symptoms using a computerized adaptive testing tool (CAT-Psychosis).

Methods:

A secondary analysis of data drawn from the CAT-Psychosis development and validation study was performed. The Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale and the Scale of Unawareness of Mental Disorders were administered by clinicians. Patients completed the self-reported version of the CAT-Psychosis. Patients were median-split regarding their insight level to compare the correlation between the two psychosis severity measures. A subgroup sensitivity analysis was performed only on patients with schizophrenia spectrum disorders.

Results:

A total of 159 patients with a psychotic disorder who completed both CAT-Psychosis and Scale of Unawareness of Mental Disorders were included. For the whole sample, CAT-Psychosis scores showed convergent validity with Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale ratings ( r = 0.517, 95% confidence interval = [0.392, 0.622], p < 0.001). Insight was found to moderate this correlation (β = –0.511, p = 0.005), yet agreement between both measures remained statistically significant for both high ( r = 0.621, 95% confidence interval = [0.476, 0.733], p < 0.001) and low insight patients ( r = 0.408, 95% confidence interval = [0.187, 0.589], p < 0.001), while psychosis severity was comparable between these groups (for Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale: U = 3057, z = –0.129, p = 0.897; disorganization: U = 2986.5, z = –0.274, p = 0.784 and for CAT-Psychosis: U = 2800.5, z = –1.022, p = 0.307). Subgroup of patients with schizophrenia spectrum disorders showed very similar results.

Conclusions:

Insight moderates the correlation between self-reported and clinician-rated severity of psychosis, yet CAT-Psychosis remains valid in patients with both high and low awareness of illness.
Accidental identification of peritoneal encapsulation during an autopsy after a car accident
Authors: Cioffi Andrea , de Simone Stefania , Cipolloni Luigi , Baldari Benedetta
Published: November 2021

Peritoneal encapsulation is a rare congenital pathological condition. Typical of this pathology is the presence of an accessory peritoneal flap that encloses the entire mass of the small intestine. Subjects with this condition often do not show symptoms and, in most cases, finding of it is accidental. We report a case of peritoneal encapsulation, not previously identified and found during an autopsy; the deceased, positive for HIV and affected by a Kaposi’s sarcoma, died following a road accident. Unlike other cases in the literature, the peritoneum encapsulated all abdominal organs and not only small intestines. Notwithstanding, there were no signs of intestinal ischaemia or intestinal obstruction.
The Effect of a Functional Strength Training Intervention on Movement Quality and Physical Fitness in Adolescents
Authors: Liao Ting , Duhig Steven J , Du Geng , Luo Bingting , Wang Yong Tai
Published: November 2021

This study compared a 12 week Functional Strength Training (FST) program on functional movement and physical performance to typical physical education (PE) classes for middle school (MS) and high school (HS) students. We randomly assigned 266 participants ( M age = 14.35, SD = 0.57 years; M height = 164.82, SD = 6.13 cm; M mass = 55.09, SD = 12.19 kg; M BMI = 20.11, SD = 3.54 kg/m2) into an FST or control group. The FST group trained in flexibility and stability, functional movement patterns, and health-related functional strength. The control group continued regular physical education (PE) classes. Each group trained three-times/week in 45 minute sessions for 12 weeks. Outcome measures included the Functional Movement Screen protocol and seven physical performance tests, assessed every four weeks over a 12 week period. We employed a mixed model ANOVA with Bonferroni post-hoc tests to examine differences between and within groups. Compared to the control group, the FST group significantly ( p < 0.01) improved Functional Movement Screen total scores (25.7%), curl-ups (70.4%), pull-ups (281.6%), and flexibility (83.6%). We suggest including the FST program in the MS and HS PE curriculum.
Selective Optimization and Compensation, Skilled Golf Performance, and Age
Authors: Hayslip Bert , Petrie Trent A. , Jones Gretchen , McIntire Mae , Louden Linda
Published: November 2021

The present study tests predictions regarding skilled golf performance and age-based upon Selection, Optimization, and Compensation (SOC) theory. Participants were 1,324 adults (17–85 years old) who competed in a three-day major amateur golf tournament. Findings indicated that older golfers were most likely to identify difficulties in their games worthy of remediation, relied on performance-enhancing equipment to the greatest degree, and scored higher on SOC selection. For such players, SOC selection and remaining competitive predicted better tournament performance. Older players were also less likely to rate a variety of game improvement techniques as effective, less likely to engage in preround preparation, and were less likely than younger players to engage in SOC optimization and compensation strategies. This pattern of findings to a large extent also characterized middle-aged players. Despite a mixed picture of support for SOC theory, these findings provide valuable insights into its application to aging and the competitive sport domain.
regulating motherhood through markets: Filipino women’s engagement with microcredit
Authors: Parmanand Sharmila
Published: November 2021

The Philippines is a global leader in deploying microcredit to address poverty. These programmes are usually directed at women. Research on these programmes focuses on traditional economic indicators such as loan repayment rates but neglects impacts on women’s agency and well-being, or their position in the household and relationships with their partners and children. It is taken for granted that access to microcredit leads to enhanced gender freedoms. In line with the growing body of work in feminist scholarship that critiques the instrumentalist logic of microfinance institutions (MFIs) in relation to women, this research foregrounds stories from interviews with female borrowers in Zamboanga City in Southern Philippines to provide grounded illustrations of how microcredit is reshaping relationships between women and their families, women and poverty and women and the state. Borrowers used loans to meet their family’s needs even at the cost of harassment from creditors, indebtedness, increased workloads and conflict with partners. These narratives challenge the dominant neoliberal discourse of female empowerment through access to credit by exposing how microcredit is part of a complex set of regulations around ‘good motherhood’ and consumption, where women’s moral worth is based on their willingness and ability to lift their families out of poverty.
Governance and Design of Digital Platforms: A Review and Future Research Directions on a Meta-Organization
Authors: Chen Liang , Tong Tony W. , Tang Shaoqin , Han Nianchen
Published: November 2021

The burgeoning digital-platforms literature across multiple business disciplines has primarily characterized the platform as a market or network. Although the organizing role of platform owners is well recognized, the literature lacks a coherent approach to understanding organizational governance in the platform context. Drawing on classic organizational governance theories, this paper views digital platforms as a distinct organizational form where the mechanisms of incentive and control routinely take center stage. We systematically review research on digital platforms, categorize specific governance mechanisms related to incentive and control, and map a multitude of idiosyncratic design features studied in prior research onto these mechanisms. We further develop an integrative framework to synthesize the review and to offer novel insights into the interrelations among three building blocks: value, governance, and design. Using this framework as a guide, we discuss specific directions for future research and offer a number of illustrative questions to help advance our knowledge about digital platforms’ governance mechanisms and design features.
Multistakeholder Agency: Stakeholder Benefit Alignment and National Institutional Contexts
Authors: Chen Victor Zitian , Duran Patricio , Sauerwald Steve , Hitt Michael A. , van Essen Marc
Published: November 2021

The alignment among multiple stakeholder benefits is a valuable performance indicator for the benefits generated by a firm for various stakeholders. Our research seeks to augment stakeholder-agency theory with an institutional perspective to analyze how national institutions affect stakeholder benefit alignment. We suggest that the current development of stakeholder-agency theory has overlooked the alignment of different stakeholders’ benefits and the external institutional contexts as critical determinants in ensuring such alignment. We conceptualize stakeholder benefit alignment as a positive relationship between different stakeholder groups’ benefits, and propose an institutional framework grounded in relative stakeholder salience. Using this framework, we argue that stakeholder benefits are better aligned when national institutions enhance the ease of withdrawal, legal protection, and private enforcement for intrinsically less salient stakeholders, and when a long-term oriented culture characterizes a society. We found supportive evidence by employing a meta-analytic approach based on 530 correlations from 94 primary studies representing 23 economies. Our study adds new insights to the stakeholder-agency literature by conceptualizing and quantitatively examining the degree of alignment across different stakeholder benefit dimensions, focusing on national formal and informal institutions as boundary conditions.
Making Sense of the Links: Professional Development, Teacher Practices, and Student Achievement
Authors: Wallace Marjorie R.
Published: November 2021

Background/Context

Although there is substantial evidence that high-quality professional development can improve teacher practices, less evidence exists for the effects of teacher professional development on intermediate outcomes, such as teacher practices, and their ultimate effects on K–12 student achievement. This work links professional development through teacher practices to examine their separate and combined effects on student achievement.

Research Questions

When teacher characteristics and teacher preparation program are controlled, what are the effects of teacher professional development on (1) teacher practices in mathematics and reading, and (2) subsequent student mathematics and reading achievement?

Population

The study uses students (n = 1,550–6,408) nested within teachers (n = 168–1,029) from six existing databases, two from the 2000 Beginning Teacher Preparation Survey conducted in Connecticut and Tennessee, and four from the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP Mathematics 1996, 2000, and NAEP Reading 1998, 2000).

Research Design

This quantitative study employed a hybrid structural equation model built based on relationships indicated by the literature. Using extant large-scale data sets, the model was first tested using the smallest data set and then confirmed using successively larger state and national data sets.

Conclusions

Professional development has moderate effects on teacher practice and very small but sometimes significant effects on student achievement when the effects of professional development are mediated by teacher practice. In spite of differences in samples, academic subjects, and assessments, the effects of professional development on teacher practice and student achievement persist and are remarkably similar across analyses.
Bridges to Success in High School for Migrant Youth
Authors: Gibson Margaret A. , Hidalgo Nicole D.
Published: November 2021

Background/Context

Among the children of immigrants, one of the populations placed at greatest risk of not finishing high school are the children of migrant farmworkers. Although it is difficult to track graduation rates for migrant students because of their mobility, the U.S. Department of Education estimates that only half of all migrant children finish high school. These children face many of the same obstacles as children of immigrants whose families must cope with severe economic hardships, but they also must deal with additional challenges associated with their families’ migratory lifestyles and living situations.

Purpose

This article offers some background on the barriers that migrant youth face in school; describes the services provided to these young people by the federally funded Migrant Education Program, focusing on the authors’ research on the role of migrant education resource teachers; and discusses the implications of study findings and related research for improving educational opportunities for low-income children of immigrants.

Research Design

Findings are drawn from 4 years of ethnographic research in one Northern California high school, where 80% of the Mexican-descent migrant students in the Class of 2002 completed 12th grade, and from a set of comparative interviews carried out with migrant education resource teachers in four additional high schools. The analysis centers on the nature of the relationships that develop between migrant students and migrant teachers, including the teachers’ multiple roles as mentors, counselors, advocates, and role models, and on the kinds of support provided to students that help them navigate successfully through high school.

Conclusions/Recommendations

Study findings suggest that the migrant students’ school persistence and academic success were due at least in part to the supplemental services they received from the Migrant Education Program and, in particular, to the support provided to them by the migrant resource teachers. A key to the teachers’ effectiveness was the holistic nature of their relationships with students and their ability to connect students with the resources and networks needed for school success. In addition, the migrant teachers’ own identities as academically successful Mexican Americans, many of them the children of migrant farmworkers, increased their ability to serve as role models and to help students build bridges between their multiple worlds. Findings support many of those reported in the literature on successful college outreach programs. Unlike these programs, the Migrant Education Program is not selective; it serves all eligible students. Sometimes you're a teacher, sometimes you're a counselor, sometimes you're a social worker, sometimes you're a health consultant. It's so rewarding and the beauty of this job. — Migrant education resource teacher They are like the symbol that you can do it, too. When I see them, I think: “They did it. Why can't I do it?” — Migrant student
Evidence, Interpretation, and Persuasion: Instructional Decision Making at the District Central Office
Authors: Coburn Cynthia E. , Toure Judith , Yamashita Mika
Published: November 2021

Background/Context

Calls for evidence-based decision making have become increasingly prominent on the educational landscape. School district central offices increasingly experience these demands. Yet there are few empirical studies of evidence use at the district level. Furthermore, research on evidence use among policy makers in noneducation settings raises questions about the models of decision making promoted by evidence-use policies, suggesting that they do not take into account key features of the interpretive process or the organizational conditions that shape how decision making unfolds.

Purpose/Objective/Research Questions/Focus of Study

The central premise of this article is that only by understanding the patterns by which personnel in school district central offices actually use information, and the factors that affect this use, can we begin to understand the promise and possibilities of evidence use. We ask: What is the role of evidence in instructional decision making at the central office level? What factors shape how decision processes unfold?

Research Design

We draw on data from a longitudinal case study of one midsize urban district, which we followed from 2002 to 2005. We relied on in-depth interviewing, sustained observation, and document analysis. We identified 23 decisions related to instruction that were captured in our data over the 3 years and for which we had at least three independent sources of information. We analyzed each decision using a coding scheme that was developed from prior research and theory and elaborated through iterative coding. We then used matrices to compare across decisions and to surface and investigate emerging patterns.

Conclusions/Recommendations

We argue that decision making in complex organizations like school districts is centrally about interpretation, argumentation, and persuasion. These processes are shaped in crucial ways by preexisting working knowledge and practices that guide how people come to understand the nature of problems and possible avenues for solutions. They are also influenced by organizational and political factors, including the organizational structure of the central office, resource constraints, and leadership turnover. We close by suggesting implications for efforts to foster substantive and productive use of evidence at the central office level.
Smuggling Authentic Learning into the School Context: Transitioning from an Innovative Elementary to a Conventional High School
Authors: Depalma Renée , Matusov Eugene , Smith Mark
Published: November 2021

Context

What Varenne and McDermott described as “conventional schooling” is characterized by underlying values of competition and credentialism implicit in an unconscious, cultural framework for U.S. institutional schooling. Schools that define themselves in opposition to this cultural heritage consider themselves innovative schools and tend to explicitly reject conventional practice in favor of a collaborative “free-choice learning environment.”

Focus of Study

We analyze the institution of conventional U.S. schooling through the interpretive lens of students who were experiencing it for the first time in their first year of high school. We were interested in how students who had attended an innovative collaborative elementary school interpreted their former innovative and current conventional schools and how they used these interpretations to form coping strategies for success in the new environment.

Setting

The study was based at the Newark Center for Creative Learning (NCCL). Founded in 1971, the school terminates after the eighth grade.

Participants

We followed a cohort of 13 ninth-grade NCCL “graduates” through their first year of conventional high school. We also solicited views from their parents and former (NCCL) teachers.

Research Design

We employed a qualitative case study approach designed in collaboration with teachers.

Data Collection and Analysis

We conducted four focus-group interviews with NCCL alumni and analyzed their postings to a private asynchronous Web discussion set up exclusively for them to discuss their experiences. We also surveyed their parents, invited parents, staff, and students to a videotaped discussion of our emerging results, and invited personal e-mail feedback on our emerging interpretations.

Findings

The students in our study were generally academically successful in their new high schools yet clearly expressed a distinction between what they considered authentic learning and what they considered strategies for academic success in their new conventional schooling environments. Analysis of their discourse revealed distinct response patterns characterizing concurrent (sometimes complementary, sometimes contradictory) projects of self-actualization and institutional achievement.

Recommendations

Our analysis suggests that a certain critical ambivalence toward credentialism and competition can be part of a healthy strategy for school success and that efforts to improve minority school performance should be modified to take into account the effect of the institution of conventional schooling itself, an aspect that has, to date, been underanalyzed.
Creating Epistemological Pathways to a Critical Citizenry: Examination of a Fifth-Grade Discussion of Freedom
Authors: Damico James S. , Rosaen Cheryl L.
Published: November 2021

Background/Context

Research has demonstrated that moving from traditional teacher-directed, monologic practices to dialogic discussions remains a daunting challenge. The reasons for this staying power are multiple: Teachers often stick with familiar canonical texts; districts often mandate the literature teachers must use; standardized tests emphasize discrete skills, strategies, and bits of knowledge rather than open-ended interpretations and responses; and many new teachers either continue to be trained with a monologic framework or have had few experiences with classroom discussions in their own education.

Purpose/Objective/Research Question/Focus of Study

Although literature curricula and instructional goals get increasingly framed reductively in the form of mandated curricula and basal readers, and student achievement is measured through batteries of tests, findings from this study show how dialogic literature discussions and the forging of epistemological pathways can help us see children and teachers as intimately involved in the exploration and coconstruction of knowledge and ways of knowing fundamental to developing an informed, critical citizenry. The research question is, How do a group of fifth-grade students and their teacher cocreate and navigate an epistemological pathway during a whole-class literature discussion? Subquestions are, (1) What ideas are introduced, explored, and examined during the discussion? (2) What practices do students engage in during the discussion? (3) What practices does the teacher engage in during the discussion?

Setting

The study took place in a multiracial fifth-grade classroom in an urban elementary school.

Research Design

This is a qualitative case study of how the examination of a key idea— freedom—unfolds during one literature-based discussion.

Data Collection and Analysis

The primary data sources for this study were a videotape and transcript of one class discussion. The ideas that were explored in the discussion and the questions asked by the students and teacher were identified. Then the specific practices of the teacher and the students as the discussion ensued were noted, which led to analytic categories associated with the content of the discussion (the nature of knowledge) and the practices (nature of knowing) that the participants engaged in.

Conclusions/Recommendations

This study demonstrates how an epistemological pathway metaphor offers a way to understand the complex and fluid web of meaning that students and their teacher coconstruct and the navigation practices that the participants enacted as they engaged in a dialogic discussion that explored students’ questions and probed the meaning of the concept of freedom. Conclusions point to the importance of creating classroom spaces for dialogue, and investigating what ideas get explored and the practices that teachers and students engage in. This leads to implications for preparing teachers to facilitate dialogic discussions.
The Mean is Not Enough: Using Quantile Regression to Examine Trends in Asian–White Differences Across the Entire Achievement Distribution
Authors: Konstantopoulos Spyros
Published: November 2021

Background

In recent years, Asian Americans have been consistently described as a model minority. The high levels of educational achievement and educational attainment are the main determinants for identifying Asian Americans as a model minority. Nonetheless, only a few studies have examined empirically the accomplishments of Asian Americans, and even fewer studies have compared their achievement with other important societal groups such as Whites. In addition, differences in academic achievement between Asian Americans and Whites across the entire achievement distribution, or differences in the variability of the achievement distribution, have not been documented. However, this is an important task because it provides information about the achievement gap for lower, average, and higher achieving students.

Purpose

The present study examines differences in academic achievement between Asian American and White students in average scores (e.g., middle of the achievement distribution), in extreme scores (e.g., the upper and the lower tails of the achievement distribution), and in the variability of the achievement distribution. The main objective of this study is to determine the achievement gap between Asian American and White students in the lower and upper tails of the achievement distribution to shed some light on whether the achievement gap between the two groups varies by achievement level.

Participants

I use data from four national probability samples of high school seniors to examine Asian American–White differences in achievement from 1972 to 1992. Specifically, I used data from the base year of the NLS (NLS:72), the base year of the High School and Beyond (HSB) survey of 1980, the first follow-up of the HSB survey in 1982 (that is HSB:80, HSB:82), and the second follow-up of NELS (NELS:92).

Research Design

The study is correlational and uses quantile regression to analyze observational data from the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s.

Findings

The findings indicate that the Asian American–White gap is more pronounced in mathematics than in reading. In 1992, the gap in the middle and the upper tail of the mathematics distribution is greater than one third of a SD, which is not a trivial gap in education. In reading, the gap is overall smaller, and nearly one third of a SD in 1992 in the upper tail (favoring Asian students).

Conclusions

It appears that Asian American students are indeed a model minority group that performs not only at similar levels but also at higher levels than the majority group, especially among high achievers in mathematics (and reading in the 1990s).
Children of Immigrants in Schools in New York and Amsterdam: The Factors Shaping Attainment
Authors: Crul Maurice , Holdaway Jennifer
Published: November 2021

Background/Context

This article considers the ways in which school systems in New York City and Amsterdam have shaped the educational trajectories of two groups of relatively dis-advantaged immigrant youth: the children of Dominican immigrants in New York and the children of Moroccan immigrants in Amsterdam. It describes the salient features of the two educational systems and the ways in which they structure opportunity for children of immigrants. In terms of public policy, the United States and the Netherlands have taken quite different approaches toward the integration of immigrant students: The Netherlands actively seeks to integrate students and provides additional funds and special programs, whereas the United States has taken a more laissez-faire approach.

Purpose/Objective/Research Question/Focus of Study

The article analyses available data on young second-generation Moroccan and Dominican youth and their school careers in two cities: New York and Amsterdam. It aims to look at the influence of institutional arrangements and the way that the educational system facilitates or hampers the educational integration of two highly disadvantaged groups.

Research Design

The article is based on available data on the Moroccan population in Amsterdam and the Dominican population in New York. This includes primarily the Dutch SPVA surveys and other local Amsterdam studies, and the Immigrant Second-Generation in Metropolitan New York (ISGMNY) study.

Conclusions/Recommendations

Both Moroccans in Amsterdam and Dominicans in New York show relatively low levels of educational attainment. Drawing on data from a number of studies of Moroccans in Amsterdam and on the ISGMNY study, the article shows that although differently structured, neither school system does an adequate job of serving disadvantaged immigrant students. It is interesting, however, that opportunities and impediments for the two groups are shaped differently and appear at different times in the school career. Successful practices in both countries show how extra investment of resources can increase equality of opportunity.
Ensuring Proper Competency in the Host Language: Contrasting Formula and the Place of Heritage Languages
Authors: Andrew Marie Mc
Published: November 2021

Background Context

In most immigrant-receiving societies, an important question, both for researchers and policy makers, has been the weighing of the relative efficiency of different formulas in the learning of the host language by immigrant students, especially the potential impact of specific services on social integration and the role of heritage languages.

Purpose Objectives Research Question Focus of Study

This article tries to go beyond the most conspicuous elements of these controversies to look at the variety of practices that different societies have adopted. Given the questions just raised, a specific focus is given to the degree to which such endeavors follow an immersion or specific services formula on the one hand, and to the role that they grant to heritage languages on the other. Five major immigrant-receiving societies have been chosen, and their choices regarding either issue are contrasted: Britain, two Canadian provinces (Quebec and Ontario), the United States, and Belgium (Flemish Brussels).

Research Design

To ascertain the extent to which transferable conclusions about best models and practices can be drawn from international comparison, evaluation research on the strengths and weaknesses of each of these formulas is reviewed, with a focus on their short and middle-term linguistic outcomes given the paucity of data on their long-term educational and social outcomes. In conclusion, we identify the minimum threshold of consensus regarding the policy and program conditions that foster a proper mastery of the host language by immigrant students without jeopardizing other dimensions of their school or social integration.

Conclusion/Recommendations

Three recommendations for policy makers can be drawn. First, flexibility and diversity of formula, both regarding the specific-services-versus-quick-integration dilemma and the place of heritage languages, seems a much better option than the one-size-fits-all model given the great variety found within the immigrant student population. Second, regardless of the model adopted, a fundamental winning condition lies in the recognition that the linguistic integration of newcomers is a collective responsibility and thus necessitates the establishment of close links between specific services, whenever they exist, and regular classrooms. Finally, research points to the necessity of focusing attention on schools and classrooms, especially pedagogical practices and teaching strategies, instead of being obsessed with models and formula.
Teaching the Nation: Religious and Ethnic Diversity at State Schools in Britain and the Netherlands
Authors: Sunier Thijl
Published: November 2021

Background/Context

The article presents the outcomes of international comparative anthropological (qualitative) research on multiculturalism, citizenship, and nation building in schools in Paris, Berlin, London, and Rotterdam. The findings presented here are based on fieldwork carried out over a period of 1 year at secondary schools in the Dutch city of Rotterdam and in London. The project has demonstrated a close relationship between national specific modes and trajectories of integration and the ways in which the schools deal with diversity.

Purpose/Objective/Research Question/Focus of Study

This article addresses the growing diversity in religious and ethnic backgrounds among students at primary and secondary schools in Western Europe. The debate about the place of religion in school has gained momentum after the arrival of large numbers of migrants, especially those with a “new” religious background, such as Islam. Their presence challenges existing arrangements and privileges and puts matters that were previously taken for granted back on the agenda. Religion and ethnicity at school touch on a fundamental issue, namely the place of state schooling in the making of modern nation-states. Several issues need to be taken into account: To what extent is religion a legitimate moral resource? Why should one learn about religion, and who should teach it to whom? Is it more important to get religious nurturing or to study the plurality of different belief systems? Should the school accommodate religious and cultural diversity, or should it rather be a neutral arena that deliberately disregards this diversity? These questions do not arise together in one package but present themselves in fragmented, occasional, and contingent ways.

Setting

The data were collected during intensive ethnographic fieldwork in four secondary schools in Neuköln (Berlin), Saint Denis (Paris), Crooswijk (Rotterdam), and Haringey (London).

Research Design

Qualitative fieldwork, case study in secondary schools.

Conclusions/Recommendations

The outcomes of the study demonstrate that although schools are, to a large extent, unique settings that cannot be lumped together, they are crucial sites where principles of national civil incorporation are transmitted to pupils. Although the two schools described in this article resemble each other to a large degree in terms of ethnic composition of the neighborhood, problems faced, and policies adopted by the school board, they each have their specific way of dealing with ethnic and religious diversity. These ways reflect national specific political culture in each of the two countries.
The Children of Immigrants and Host-Society Educational Systems: Mexicans in the United States and North Africans in France
Authors: Alba Richard , Silberman Roxane
Published: November 2021

Background/Context

The educational fate of the children of low-wage immigrants is a salient issue in all the economically developed societies that have received major immigration flows since the 1950s. The article considers the way in which educational systems in the two countries structure the educational experiences and shape the opportunities of the children of immigrants.

Purpose/Objective/Research Question/Focus of Study

This article examines the educational experiences of the children of Mexican immigrants in the United States and of North African immigrants in France. Both groups are low-wage labor migrants with low educational attainment relative to the native born.

Research Design

The article uses data from the U.S. Census and the 2003 Formation Qualification Professionelle Survey in France, as well as analysis of other research on the two countries, to compare educational processes and attainment for the two groups.

Conclusions/Recommendations

The comparison of the two systems shows that although the French and U.S. educational systems differ in many ways, the outcomes are in fact quite similar. In both systems, the children of low-wage labor migrants are tracked into the low streams of the educational hierarchy and have lower attainment than their native-born peers. At the same time, in both countries, a small percentage of children of immigrants do manage to succeed. The authors conclude that despite apparent differences between the two systems, residential segregation and educational tracking produce these similar outcomes, which also reflect the determination of native-born middle-class parents to preserve their privileged status and to thwart efforts to make the educational system more open.
The Educational Attainments of the “Second Generation”: A Comparative Study of Britain, Canada, and the United States
Authors: Rothon Catherine , Heath Anthony , Lessard-Phillips Laurence
Published: November 2021

Background

This analysis compares the educational attainments of the “new” second generation in Britain, Canada, and the United States using three nationally representative datasets.

Objective

To assess how the second generation has fared within Western educational systems. The study examines the achievements of seven minority ethnic groups: Africans, Caribbeans, Chinese, Filipinos, Indians, Irish, and Pakistanis.

Setting

Britain, Canada, and the United States.

Research Design

Secondary data analysis

Conclusions

The study suggests that there is a strong association between the educational level of the parental generation and that of the second generation. There is substantial inter-generational progress (measured relative to the majority population in the country of destination), especially among women. Most groups perform as well as or better than members of the majority population of the same age and similar parental background. Chinese of both sexes are notable for their high performance. Indians also tend to make strong intergenerational progress; for Caribbeans, Africans, and Filipinos, this is more muted. The performance of the second generation in Britain is slightly poorer than that in the other countries. This is probably explained by the lower selectivity of the first generation in Britain rather than by institutional features.
Collaborating for Change: How an Urban School District and a Community-Based Organization Support and Sustain School, Family, and Community Partnerships
Authors: Sanders Mavis
Published: November 2021

Background

Research suggests that schools’ capacity to successfully implement and sustain reform programs may rest, in part, with district-level facilitation. The importance of district leadership has been established for a variety of educational reforms, including school, family, and community partnerships. However, few studies have been conducted to understand how successful district leaders implement and sustain school, family, and community partnerships as an educational reform.

Focus of Study

This case study seeks to fill this gap. It describes leadership strategies employed by the office of parent involvement in an urban school district in the United States. More specifically, this article focuses on the collaborative relationship between the office of parent involvement and a community-based parent involvement organization (CPIO).

Research Design

The study employed a multiple case study design, which included interviews with district, school, and parent leaders; observations of workshops, meetings, presentations, and other work-related activities of key district-level respondents; document collection and review; and school site visits.

Findings

Analyses suggest that the collaboration between the district's office of parent involvement and the CPIO has helped to support and sustain school, family, and community partnerships as a reform initiative for nearly a decade. The relationship has resulted in (1) complementary parent leadership training for school-based partnership teams, (2) joint planning and implementation of districtwide partnership activities, and (3) community advocacy for district partnership personnel and resources.
Home–School Literacy Connections: The Perceptions of African American and Immigrant ESL Parents in Two Urban Communities
Authors: Dudley-Marling Curt
Published: November 2021

Background/Context

Educational reform has emphasized the importance of parent involvement. Perhaps the most common instantiations of parent involvement are various efforts to encourage particular reading practices in the home. Although there is some research supporting the efficacy of “family literacy” initiatives, these efforts have been criticized for their deficit orientation and cultural insensitivity. Some educators have attempted to create family literacy practices considerate of the cultural and material demands of families, but no one has investigated how parents actually experience these initiatives.

Purpose/Objective/Research Question/Focus of Study

This research examined parent perceptions of school-to-home literacy initiatives intended to encourage particular literacy practices in the homes of families living in two predominantly poor urban communities served by underperforming schools; specifically, How do African American and immigrant ESL parents living in these two urban communities experience various school-to-home literacy initiatives? These groups of urban parents were interviewed because they and their children are especially likely to be targeted by family literacy initiatives. The study focused on school-to-home literacy practices that attempted to influence literacy in the home because these are the most common instantiations of family literacy.

Population/Participants/Subjects

The participants included 18 African American and 14 immigrant ESL parents living in two large urban centers in the northeastern United States. Research Design: Open-ended, qualitative interviews were conducted with the participants to elicit parents’ perceptions of school-to-home literacy practices. Interviews ranged from 30 to 60 minutes in length and were conducted by two doctoral students trained by the author.

Data Collection and Analysis

Interviews were audiotaped, transcribed, and, if necessary, translated into English. Based on multiple readings of the data, several core themes were identified that were the focus of the data analysis. Data were analyzed through a process called modified analytic induction to develop a “loose descriptive theory” of how these urban parents experienced school-to-home literacy initiatives.

Conclusions/Recommendations

The analysis of the data indicated that school-to-home literacy practices, as experienced by these parents, did not always fit well with family routines, cultural values, or expectations. The analysis also highlighted a one-way model of school-home communication that provided few opportunities for school-to-home literacy initiatives to respond to the needs of individual families. It was concluded that a model of family literacy considerate of families’ cultural and material needs depends on creating spaces for parents to share their needs, expectations, and values—and for school officials to listen.
Navigating Disparate Pathways to College: Examining the Conditional Effects of Race on Enrollment Decisions
Authors: Engberg Mark E. , Wolniak Gregory C.
Published: November 2021

Background/Context

This study draws from the growing body of research dedicated to understanding how students navigate disparate pathways to college. The extant research has demonstrated the various stages that undergird the college choice process, drawing largely from economic and sociological perspectives related to human capital formation, status attainment, and social and cultural resources. Despite this growing body of research, our understanding of the college choice process across racial groups remains inconsistent and unclear.

Purpose/Objective/Research Question/Focus

The purpose of the current study is to better understand the various factors and resources that influence the decision to attend a particular college or university, with an emphasis on how the choice process manifests across different race groups. Through the development of a series of statistical models, we offer a unique glimpse into whether a common model of college choice exists, while exploring the possibility that the process and underlying factors that influence matriculation may differ depending on one's racial group membership.

Research Design

Using admissions and financial aid data from eight private colleges and universities, we performed secondary data analyses on general and race-conditional models of college choice.

Analysis

The current study primarily used blocked logistic regression to understand the main and conditional effects of enrollment for the general population and across four race groups.

Conclusions

Our findings suggest that the college choice process unfolds differently for students depending on their racial group membership. Although our models captured a significant amount of the variance for each racial group, our study reveals important distinctions related to the college choice process based on students’ academic preparation, the overall academic quality of their secondary milieu, and the strength of established feeder networks between a particular high school and college. Overall, our findings provide conceptual guidance for researchers interested in studying the college choice process and emphasize the importance of examining conditional effects to fully appreciate how the process unfolds for all students.
The Story of a Library: Research and Development in an African Village
Authors: Parry Kate
Published: November 2021

Background

Although education in Africa is expanding, little is being done to support learners’ literacy outside the school. Rural people have little access to books and so cannot develop their reading skills.

Purpose of Study

The project described here has both an educational and a research purpose: to complement formal schooling by making reading material available to students and others, and to document the development of new literacy practices by investigating and recording readers’ preferences.

Setting

The site is near the trading center of Kitengesa in Masaka District in Uganda. It is a rural area where most people depend on subsistence farming and the sale of food and cash crops. Many have been to school, however, and basic literacy is widespread.

Intervention

The project has consisted of the establishment and development of a community library, in cooperation with a local private secondary school. It is supported by funds that the author and other supporters raise in the United States and Canada.

Research Design

The research is a case study that follows an action research model. The intervention was initially based on observational research together with consultation with representatives of the community; it was carefully documented from the outset and the findings used to inform the project's further development.

Data Collection and Analysis

The data consist primarily of the library's records of members joining, books borrowed, and users’ declared purposes in coming to the building. The written records are supplemented by observations of behavior in the library and interviews with users.

Results

Local responses indicate that there is considerable potential for developing a reading culture in the area. Story books have proved to be most popular, but school textbooks and newspapers are also much in demand. The project has attracted interest from foreign visitors, who have used the library as a base for initiating other development projects.

Conclusions

The Kitengesa experience demonstrates that a community library is a cost-effective way of supporting literacy development and enabling research on literacy practices. It also provides a base for other grassroots development projects. The suggested way forward is to build on this experience by encouraging the growth of similar libraries throughout Uganda.