Assessment of first sexual intercourse in young women with a history of childhood sexual abuse

Women reporting childhood sexual abuse (CSA) that involved actual or attempted penetration may not identify this as their first sexual intercourse. Data were drawn from a population-based, prospective cohort study spanning adolescence to adulthood. CSA prior to age 16 and age of first sexual intercourse with a male were assessed retrospectively. More than half of women reporting CSA in the form of actual or penetrative abuse reported an age of first sexual intercourse at or beyond 16 years. Direct questioning about CSA is needed to accurately ascertain sexual history.

Girls back off mathematics again : the views and experiences of girls in computer based mathematics

The views and experiences of girls in two co-educational mathematics classrooms in which computers were regularly used were researched. Data were collected by observation and videotaping of lessons, questionnaire, and interviews of students and the teachers. In this paper case studies of six girls are presented. Their ‘stories’ reveal a diversity of experiences and views and multiple gender identities. High achieving girls persisted as “outsiders within,” other girls “backed off”, and exceptional girls challenged gender stereotypes. Implications for social justice in mathematics in the age of the super highway are discussed.

Student views of computer based-mathematics in the middle years : does gender make a difference?

How the use of computers in mathematics classrooms was viewed by students in two middle years mathematics classrooms was the focus of the research described in this paper. The primary data sources consisted of questionnaires, classroom observations supported by videotaping of mathematics lessons, and interviews with two girls and two boys from each class. Thus both qualitative and quantitative methods were used. Girls viewed the computer-based lessons less favourably than did boys. In general, the boys were likely to believe that computers contributed to their experiencing pleasure in these lessons, and to making mathematics more relevant to them. Girls were typically more concerned about whether computers facilitated learning and enabled success in mathematics. The attitudes of students to computer-based mathematics were related to their views of computers.

Factors influencing mathematics and science teachers' self-assessment as teaching 'out-of-field' in rural and regional schools

Teaching 'out-of-field' occurs when teachers teach a subject for which they have no disciplinary or methods qualification. The incidence of out-of-field mathematics, science and technology teaching are particularly high in rural and regional areas. Given that mathematics and science are key areas of policy concern, there is an urgent need to understand teachers‟ position in this increasingly common practice in order to provide appropriate system responses. This paper asks the question, how are mathematics and science teachers‟ professional identities influenced by having to teach out-of-field? Twenty teachers who had taught science or mathematics at some time in their career, two school leaders, and two support staff, took part in semi-structured interviews, which I then transcribed. This paper reports on a thematic analysis of a subset of the data that isolated factors influencing teachers‟ self-assessment of themselves as out-of-field or in-field. Excerpts from the interviews are used to introduce and contextualise these factors within rural and regional settings. These factors are used to generate a theoretical model, the Boundary Between Fields (BBF) Model, that enables analysis of the impact of these factors on identity construction during a boundary crossing event. The Model highlights the influence of support mechanisms, contextual factors and personal resources on the nature of teachers‟ negotiation of subject boundaries and its impact on professional identity. This innovative model provides a platform for re-conceptualising these experiences as opportunities for professional learning occurring within schools as communities of practice, where teachers are supported and enabled to expand their professional identity. These findings provide insight for policy-makers, school leaders and teacher educators, into the complexity of the issue for teachers, as well as the conditions required for such teaching to be considered learning opportunities.

Understanding the role of affect in producing a critical pedagogy for history museums

While the existence of uncritical exhibition practices that support nostalgic narratives about the past cannot be denied, this paper is focused on demonstrating both the existence of critical exhibitions and on explaining how they work. In particularly, this paper looks at the ways in which the production of affective, nonrational forms of experience aimed at inducing a heightened level of engagement on the part of visitors is being used to facilitate a more critical reflection on the relationship between past and present. My examples, drawn from curatorial practices in Australia dealing either with contact histories or histories of migration, will be used to explore how explicit forms of engagement with the senses in contemporary exhibition practices gesture toward not only a new understanding of the pedagogical role of museums but also to new forms of pedagogical practice.