Emily S. Kinsky and Debra C. Smith
Building on theories of adolescent learning, including cognitive, personal, social, and moral development, this chapter considers how using media literacy techniques to analyze a…
Abstract
Building on theories of adolescent learning, including cognitive, personal, social, and moral development, this chapter considers how using media literacy techniques to analyze a children’s television program can create wide-awake, active learners while dissecting media messages. By analyzing children’s television for its portrayal of race and ethnicity, this chapter will explore the role media play in children's understanding of people and cultures outside of their own. A textual analysis of episodes of Maya & Miguel, the chapter describes the depiction of several cultures found represented on the program including White, Asian, African, Dominican, and Mexican and how race, ethnicity, and culture is framed in the television program.
Some theories suggest that television is a primary tool in the socialization of children. Children are attracted to the animation in cartoons, the colors, the movement and the easy-to-follow simplicity of the dialogue. Given the impressionable nature of children, it is possible that they begin to act out the biased nature of the cartoons they watch. Thus, considering their vulnerability, information literacy is relevant to discerning media messages. In this way, information literacy converges with media literacy and visual literacy. Guiding children to interrogate what they view is critically important especially when they are at an age where they can be easily influenced by misinformation or dominant messages. Additionally, the volume of information is steadily increasing in the 21st century as are the modes for accessing, creating and manipulating information. Thus, this work will demonstrate how promoting participatory learning by objectively viewing media and exercising reflective thinking will be important components of children’s education in this millennium.
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This study aims to model the creative pedagogy of children's book development and then engages teacher education students in this work, as a way to explore and express conceptions…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to model the creative pedagogy of children's book development and then engages teacher education students in this work, as a way to explore and express conceptions of teacher quality, across cultural perspectives.
Design/methodology/approach
This self-study engages a/r/tography and currere to explore teacher quality in a teacher education classroom in a Chinese university. A/r/tography (Irwin et al., 2006) considers teacher quality through the conventional lens based on standards and through a more aesthetic lens shaped by cultural nuances and personal experiences. This self-study engages currere (Pinar, 2004) as a methodology marked by contiguous living inquiry explored with an abstract lens aimed to see openings for insight leading to transformation (Pourchier, 2010).
Findings
Discussing similarities and distinctions across the presentation and conceptualization of teacher quality in the created children's books promoted dialogue considering intercultural, international pictures of a caring student–teacher relationship. A/r/tographic, currere approaches to exploring this enhanced reflective insight and supported acceptance of diverse notions of teacher quality.
Originality/value
As 21st-century global societies evolve, the meaning of progress also evolves from vertical linear trajectories to horizontal, webbed transformations, driven by differences leading to rhizomatic global connections. A/r/tography and currere are meaningful methodologies to explore the concept of teacher quality from aesthetic angles and on a more personal level so that our understandings may be shaped meaningfully by more diverse perspectives and voices.
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Researcher Highlight: Dr. Carter G. Woodson (1875–1950)
This chapter focuses on Norman K. Denzin's vast and enduring contributions to sociology and the study of research methods and methodology, particularly with respect to “us[ing…
Abstract
This chapter focuses on Norman K. Denzin's vast and enduring contributions to sociology and the study of research methods and methodology, particularly with respect to “us[ing] the tools of the critical sociological imagination” (Denzin, 1989) as we conduct our research. Through revisiting and extending lessons and principles from his book The Research Act (1989) – especially the need for “triangulation” – in relation to C. Wright Mills' Sociological Imagination (1959), this chapter explores how cultivated critical sociological imaginations can help researchers best meet our “obligations to change the world, to engage in ethical work that makes a positive difference” (Denzin, 1989) throughout all phases of the research act.
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This paper aims to use two case studies of digital archives designed by library and information professionals and historians to highlight the twin issues of academic authenticity…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to use two case studies of digital archives designed by library and information professionals and historians to highlight the twin issues of academic authenticity and accuracy of digital representations.
Design/methodology/approach
Using secondary literature, the author established a hypothesis about the way in which academic researchers engage with electronic texts. It is argued that academics are often distrustful of the authenticity of much that appears in digital form and doubtful as to its accuracy. The case studies are used as a means to demonstrate the measures that library and information professionals can take to assuage these concerns.
Findings
Given reasonable financial resources and staff, it is relatively easy to adopt a transparently academic approach. Accuracy is much more problematic, and is often compromised by the unwieldy nature of these types of projects.
Originality/value
Most evaluations of digitisation projects have not focused on the issues of academic authenticity and textual accuracy; indeed, the latter is difficult to gauge when the ASCII text is hidden and where there is little incentive for designers to be honest about the potential flaws in their search engines. Also, there has been little discussion in academic literature on the distribution of staff and financial resources within projects.
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The Lucas Factory in Wolverhampton is the Actuation Division of Lucas Aerospace which manufactures a large range of products covering powered flying control systems and actuators…
Abstract
The Lucas Factory in Wolverhampton is the Actuation Division of Lucas Aerospace which manufactures a large range of products covering powered flying control systems and actuators, engine pneumatic actuation systems, general airframe hydraulic systems and components, and fuel management equipment.
Kate Warren, Sam Ramaiah and Rehman Teagle
As part of an initial needs assessment for a community development project to improve access to health and social care services for new migrants, a local epidemiological profile…
Abstract
As part of an initial needs assessment for a community development project to improve access to health and social care services for new migrants, a local epidemiological profile of new migrants was produced for Walsall in the West Midlands. Data were compiled from Office for National Statistics estimates of international migration, National Insurance Number applications from overseas nationals, ‘Flag 4’ GP registrations by new immigrants, United Kingdom Border Agency asylum bulletins, and Citizens Advice Bureau immigration queries. It is estimated that there has been a steady influx of between 800 and 1,400 new migrants per year into Walsall. The majority are young adults from Asia and Eastern Europe, and are living in the southern part of the borough. This information needs to be updated regularly, shared with relevant partners and used to inform commissioning decisions.
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Mary McCaslin and Alyson Leah Lavigne
Bruner (1985) once challenged learning theorists to define their model of the learner rather than design curriculum and instruction materials directed at a vague, and perhaps…
Abstract
Bruner (1985) once challenged learning theorists to define their model of the learner rather than design curriculum and instruction materials directed at a vague, and perhaps nonexistent, target. We suggest that motivation theorists do the same. The model of co-regulated learning that we describe (McCaslin, 2009) first posits learners who: (1) are social by nature (biological adaptations) and by nurture (socialization) (Baumeister & Leary, 1995; Geary, 2002; Olson & McCaslin, 2008); (2) have basic needs for participation and validation that can inform student dispositions toward school (McCaslin & Burross, 2008); and (3) differ in how and in what they participate – their adaptation (McCaslin & Burross, in press, p. xx). Second, the co-regulation model of the learner asserts that motivation and identity are mutually informative; what I am and am not willing to do inform who I am and the person I might become. Both motivation and identity are based on opportunities denied, taken, or missed and on the interpersonal relationships that do or do not support and validate them. Opportunities and relationships are based, in part, on cultural norms and challenges that delineate individuals historically and presently in time and place (see McCaslin, 2009 for full explication of these and related constructs). Motivation is at the core of identity. Thus, motivations of today's learners inform not only their school achievements, but also the adults they may become. If motivation is the core of emergent identity now and in the future, what then is at the core of motivation?