Creating a Culture of Thinking that Cultivates the Perspective-Taking Disposition

Through action research, the researchers engaged a group of third grade children in a project that offered a variety of learning activities to develop the children’s perspective-taking ability. As a result the teachers found a significant increase in the emotional connection of the students to the characters in the literature.

Social Justice as a Disposition for Teacher Education Programs: Why is it Such a Problem?

The authors question the actions of National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education (NCATE) leadership for removing social justice in the glossary of terms to describe dispositions for education graduates, trace the origins of the multiple discourses surrounding social justice, and argue for problematizing social justice issues.

Jerash: The landscape, urban space, and architecture

The peculiarities of Roman architecture, town planning, and landscape architecture are visible in many of the empire's remaining cities. However, evaluation of the landscapes; and analysis of the urban fabric, spatial compositions, and the concepts and characteristics of its open spaces are missing for Jerash (Gerasa in antiquity) in Jordan. Those missing elements will be discussed in this work, as an example of an urban arrangement that survived through different civilizations in history.^ To address the characteristics of the exterior spaces in Jerash, a study of the major concepts of planning in Classical Antiquity will be conducted, followed by a comparative analysis of the quality of space and architectural composition in Jerash. Through intensive investigation of data available for the area under study, the historical method used in this paper illustrates the uniqueness of the site's urban morphology and architectural disposition.^ An analysis will be performed to compare the design composition of the landscape, urban fabric, and open space of Jerash as a provincial Roman city with its existing excavated remains. Such an analysis will provide new information about the roles these factors and their relationships played in determining the design layout of the city. Information, such as the relationship between void and solid, space shaping, the ground and ceiling, the composition of city elements, the ancient landscapes, and the relationship between the land and architecture, will be acquired.^ A computer simulation for a portion of the city will be developed to enable researchers, students and citizens interested in Jordan's past to visualize more clearly what the city looked like in its prime. Such a simulation could result in the revival of the old city of Jerash and help promote its tourism. ^

An analysis of teachers' perceptions of informal science professional development

Science professional development, which is fundamental to science education improvement, has been described as being weak and fragmentary. The purpose of this study was to investigate teachers' perceptions of informal science professional development to gain an in-depth understanding of the essence of the phenomenon and related science-teaching dispositions. Based on the frameworks of phenomenology, constructivism, and adult learning theory, the focus was on understanding how the phenomenon was experienced within the context of teachers' everyday world. ^ Data were collected from eight middle-school teachers purposefully selected because they had participated in informal programs during Project TRIPS (Teaching Revitalized Through Informal Programs in Science), a collaboration between the Miami-Dade school district, government agencies (including NASA), and non-profit organizations (including Audubon of Florida). In addition, the teachers experienced hands-on labs offered through universities (including the University of Arizona), field sites, and other agencies. ^ The study employed Seidman's (1991) three-interview series to collect the data. Several methods were used to enhance the credibility of the research, including using triangulation of the data. The interviews were transcribed, color-coded and organized into six themes that emerged from the data. The themes included: (a) internalized content knowledge, (b) correlated hands-on activities, (c) enhanced science-teaching disposition, (d) networking/camaraderie, (e) change of context, and (f) acknowledgment as professionals. The teachers identified supportive elements and constraints related to each theme. ^ The results indicated that informal programs offering experiential learning opportunities strengthened understanding of content knowledge. Teachers implemented hands-on activities that were explicitly correlated to their curriculum. Programs that were conducted in a relaxed context enhanced teachers' science-teaching dispositions. However, a lack of financial and administrative support, perceived safety risks, insufficient reflection time, and unclear itineraries impeded program implementation. The results illustrated how informal educators can use this cohesive model as they develop programs that address the supports and constraints to teachers' science instruction needs. This, in turn, can aid teachers as they strive to provide effective science instruction to students; notions embedded in reforms. Ultimately, this can affect how learners develop the ability to make informed science decisions that impact the quality of life on a global scale. ^

A study of dual cultures in dyadic relations

Elderly caregiving, a fact of life for millions of Americans, has gained significance with the increase in the elderly population. Over 25 million family caregivers in the US, most of whom are women rearing their own children, care for severely ill or disabled family members. The increased flow of women into the labor force has caused this traditional role to be entrusted to hired caregivers, mainly home health aides. ^ This case study describes and explains the dyadic experiences of elderly Jewish clients and their Jamaican home health aides in a mixed-culture environment. The inquiry was conducted with a purposive sample of four dyads, their case manager, and the placement officer, all of whom were selected through a home care agency in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Strategies of data collection including non-participant observation, interviews, document analysis, and researcher's journals. Data from verbatim transcription of interviews and field notes were coded, sorted into emic categories, and reduced as linkages were identified via cross-case comparison. Three major themes—mixed-culture experiences, relationship building and maintenance, and agency role perceptions—emerged from the interpretative analysis of the data. ^ Assertions from these findings include that dyads have established a range of relationships to meet their personal needs, expectations, and desires in these goal-driven relationships. Relationally, they have reached interactional synchrony with some achieving the ideal family-type bond. Cultural difference is but one of the many contextual variables in the home care environment, which has its own cultural norms and expectations. Conflicts transcend cultural difference and seemed more a factor of individual relational disposition. ^

Teachers’ Knowledge, Awareness and Pedagogy of Global Education in Secondary Schools

For the last fifty years, social studies teachers have been prepared to teach from a global perspective, but since September 11, 2001 have faced a difficult challenge teaching from a global perspective. This study examines ninety secondary school teachers’ global knowledge and their disposition toward teaching from a global perspective.

Toward an understanding of how individuals overcome challenges to development: A phenomenological study of an inner -city student's attitude toward academic orientation and life

The purpose of this qualitative case study was to gain an understanding of the phenomenon of academic orientation by seeking the insights into an inner-city Haitian-American middle school student's attitudes and world view toward education and life. A phenomenological approach was used in order to explore the way in which Cindy, a minority student, gives meaning to her lived-experiences in terms of her desire to meet academic expectations and her ability to overcome social adversity and/or other risk factors.^ The study attempted to answer the following two research questions: (1) What provides the focus for Cindy's (the subject's) approach to her school work and/or life? (2) What are the processes that give meaning and direction to academic orientation and life for Cindy? In-depth interviewing was the primary method of data collection. In addition, journal and sketchbook entries and school district records were used and classroom observations made.^ The nature of the study to understand lived-experience facilitated the use of the case study method and a phenomenological method of description. Data analysis was conducted by means of an adapted form of the constant comparative approach. Patterns in the data which emerged were coded and categorized according to underlying generative themes. Phenomenological reflection and analysis were used to grasp the experiential structures of Cindy's experience. The following textural themes were identified and confirmed to be essential themes to Cindy's experience: personal challenge to do her best, personal challenge to want to learn, having a sense of determination, being able to think for self, having a disposition to like self, achieving self-respect through performance, seeing a need to help others, being intrinsically motivated, being an independent learner, attending more to academic pressure and less to peer pressure, having motivational catalysts in her life, learning and support opportunities, and having a self-culture. Using Mahrer's humanistic theory of experiencing, Cindy's development was interpreted in terms of her progression through a sequence of developmental plateaus: externalized self, internalized self, and integrating and actualizing self.^ The findings of this study were that Cindy's desire to meet academic expectations is guided by a meaning construction internal frame of reference. High expectations of self in conjunction with other protective factors found in Cindy's home and school environments were also found to be linked to her educational resilience and success. Cindy's lived-experiences were also found to be related to Mahrer's theory of human development. In addition, it was concluded that "minority" students do not all fit into social categories and labels. ^

Polemos and Paideia: On the Weaponization of the School in Late Capitalism

A popular refrain in the politics of American education, often buttressed by a steady stream of studies, contends that ‘we are falling behind’ students from other countries. Sometimes this decline is specified in terms of discipline, but the general premise is that American students lag behind their foreign counterparts, with special dread attached to the notion of falling behind adversaries such as China. The failure to rectify our educational inadequacies apparently portends a genuine crisis, the loss of global dominance. The articulation of such fears is particularly instructive in discerning the political role of education in late capitalism, its conceptualization and uses within the context of politics. How do the fears of falling behind speak to the political role of education in late capitalism? I draw upon the ideas of the Herbert Marcuse and his Marxist intervention into Freudian psychoanalysis. Using Marcuse’s framework, I argue that in late capitalism the political role of education, formerly understood to serve life affirming value, has been reoriented to further the aims of the death drive. The fears of falling behind, and the policies that have followed, are symptomatic of a disposition toward education that has reconfigured the school as a means of conquest, subjugation, and war.