Ellen Marie Rice and Gail T. Schneider
During the past decade considerable attention has been placed onenhancing teacher professionalism primarily through increasing teacherparticipation in decision making regarding…
Abstract
During the past decade considerable attention has been placed on enhancing teacher professionalism primarily through increasing teacher participation in decision making regarding issues affecting teachers′ schools and classrooms. This focus on teacher involvement in decision making is not without precedent. Studies pertaining to participative decision making have guided the field and practice of educational administration for over 40 years. Nonetheless, questions continue to persist regarding how to engage teachers most effectively in decision making. Is a replication of a study conducted in 1980 which investigated the extent of teacher involvement in schoolwide and instructional issues, teachers′ interest and expertise in decision issues, and teachers′ job satisfaction. The intent of the replication was to determine if, after a decade of attention on enhancing teacher involvement in decision making, teachers′ perceptions of their actual and desired involvement and their job satisfaction have changed. This study tested empirically the relationships between levels of teacher involvement in decision making, teachers′ interest and expertise regarding selected decision issues, and teacher job satisfaction. In addition, this study explored possible relationships between changes in teachers′ decision involvement and the reform initiatives of site‐based management.
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Drawing on accounts from 22 lesbian couples with children conceived using donor insemination, this chapter explores how the respondents’ selection of parent terms, such as “momma”…
Abstract
Drawing on accounts from 22 lesbian couples with children conceived using donor insemination, this chapter explores how the respondents’ selection of parent terms, such as “momma” and “mommy,” influences day-to-day negotiation of parenthood. Term selection was affected by personal meanings respondents associated with terms as well as how they anticipated terms would be publicly received. Couples utilized personalized meanings associated with terms, such as terms used by families of origin or reflected in a parent’s cultural background, to help non-biological mothers feel comfortable and secure in their parenting identities. Some families also avoided terms that non-biological mothers associated too strongly with biological motherhood and felt uncomfortable using for themselves. Families also considered whether parent terms, and subsequently their relationships to their children, would be recognizable to strangers or cause undue scrutiny to their family. However, not all of the families selected terms that were easily decipherable by strangers and had to negotiate moments in which the personal meanings and public legibility of terms came into conflict. Overall, these accounts illustrate the importance of parent terms for lesbian-parent families, and other nontraditional families, as a family practice negotiating both deeply personal meanings surrounding parent–child relationships and how these terms, and the families, are normatively recognizable in public spaces.
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Sophie Soklaridis, Rowen Shier, Georgia Black, Gail Bellissimo, Anna Di Giandomenico, Sam Gruszecki, Elizabeth Lin, Jordana Rovet and Holly Harris
The purpose of this co-produced research project was to conduct interviews with people working in, volunteering with and accessing Canadian recovery colleges (RCs) to explore…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this co-produced research project was to conduct interviews with people working in, volunteering with and accessing Canadian recovery colleges (RCs) to explore their perspectives on what an evaluation strategy for RCs could look like.
Design/methodology/approach
This study used a participatory action research approach and involved semistructured interviews with 29 people involved with RCs across Canada.
Findings
In this paper, the authors share insights from participants about the purposes of RC evaluation; key elements of evaluation; and the most applicable and effective approaches to evaluation. Participants indicated that RC evaluations should use a personalized, humanistic and accessible approach. The findings suggest that evaluations can serve multiple purposes and have the potential to support both organizational and personal-recovery goals if they are developed with meaningful input from people who access and work in RCs.
Practical implications
The findings can be used to guide evaluations in which aspects that are most important to those involved in RCs could inform choices, decisions, priorities, developments and adaptations in RC evaluation processes and, ultimately, in programming.
Originality/value
A recent scoping review revealed that although coproduction is a central feature of the RC model, coproduction principles are rarely acknowledged in descriptions of how RC evaluation strategies are developed. Exploring coproduction processes in all aspects of the RC model, including evaluation, can further the mission of RCs, which is to create spaces where people can come together and engage in mutual capacity-building and collaboration.
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This article examines the use of alternative texts to represent the Holocaust and to teach secondary students about this event. An alternative text is anything other than a…
Abstract
This article examines the use of alternative texts to represent the Holocaust and to teach secondary students about this event. An alternative text is anything other than a traditional textbook. Alternate texts may include poetry, novels, graphic novels, films, or plays. By using alternative texts, teachers can engage students in multiple perspectives to stimulate critical thinking in their classrooms. Alternative texts, furthermore, can shift the paradigm of how teachers and students think about morally and ethically complex subjects. In order to facilitate such a shift, teachers, scholars, and students should view different ways of representing difficult subjects in the classroom. The Holocaust is a difficult subject to teach due to the scale of moral issues and scope of this crime against humanity. Traditional means of teaching the Holocaust, using maps, textbooks, and primary source documents are important but fail to create changes in students perspectives because there is little space for students to become more empathetic and apply history to current world events. Providing students with texts including narratives, poetry, and first-person accounts can add humanity into what some view as one of the most inhumane events in history and thus shift the paradigm for high school students.
Weiwen Mu, Wenbai Chen, Huaidong Zhou, Naijun Liu, Haobin Shi and Jingchen Li
This paper aim to solve the problem of low assembly success rate for 3c assembly lines designed based on classical control algorithms due to inevitable random disturbances and…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aim to solve the problem of low assembly success rate for 3c assembly lines designed based on classical control algorithms due to inevitable random disturbances and other factors,by incorporating intelligent algorithms into the assembly line, the assembly process can be extended to uncertain assembly scenarios.
Design/methodology/approach
This work proposes a reinforcement learning framework based on digital twins. First, the authors used Unity3D to build a simulation environment that matches the real scene and achieved data synchronization between the real environment and the simulation environment through the robot operating system. Then, the authors trained the reinforcement learning model in the simulation environment. Finally, by creating a digital twin environment, the authors transferred the skill learned from the simulation to the real environment and achieved stable algorithm deployment in real-world scenarios.
Findings
In this work, the authors have completed the transfer of skill-learning algorithms from virtual to real environments by establishing a digital twin environment. On the one hand, the experiment proves the progressiveness of the algorithm and the feasibility of the application of digital twins in reinforcement learning transfer. On the other hand, the experimental results also provide reference for the application of digital twins in 3C assembly scenarios.
Originality/value
In this work, the authors designed a new encoder structure in the simulation environment to encode image information, which improved the model’s perception of the environment. At the same time, the authors used the fixed strategy combined with the reinforcement learning strategy to learn skills, which improved the rate of convergence and stability of skills learning. Finally, the authors transferred the learned skills to the physical platform through digital twin technology and realized the safe operation of the flexible printed circuit assembly task.
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Dean J. Connolly, Gail Gilchrist, Jason Ferris, Cheneal Puljević, Larissa Maier, Monica J. Barratt, Adam Winstock and Emma L. Davies
Using data from 36,981 respondents to the Global Drug Survey (GDS) COVID-19 Special Edition, this study aims to compare changes, following the first “lockdown,” in alcohol…
Abstract
Purpose
Using data from 36,981 respondents to the Global Drug Survey (GDS) COVID-19 Special Edition, this study aims to compare changes, following the first “lockdown,” in alcohol consumption between lesbian, gay, bisexual and other sexual minority (LGB+) and heterosexual respondents with and without lifetime mental health and neurodevelopmental (MHND) conditions.
Design/methodology/approach
Characteristics and drinking behavior of respondents to GDS who disclosed their sexual orientation and past 30-day alcohol use were described and compared. LGB+ participants with and without MHND conditions were compared, and logistic regression models identified correlates of increased drinking among LGB+ people. The impact of changed drinking on the lives of LGB+ participants with and without MHND conditions was assessed.
Findings
LGB+ participants who reported that they were “not coping well at all” with the pandemic had twofold greater odds of reporting increased binge drinking. LGB+ participants with MHND conditions were significantly more likely than those without to report increased drinking frequency (18.7% vs 12.4%), quantity (13.8% vs 8.8%) and that changed drinking had impacted their lives.
Originality/value
This study, which has a uniquely large and international sample, explores aspects of alcohol use not considered in other COVID-19 alcohol use research with LGB+ people; and to the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study to explore alcohol use among LGB+ people with MHND conditions.
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BLAISE CRONIN, GAIL MCKENZIE and LOURDES RUBIO
The scale and nature of acknowledgement behaviour was investigated in four academic disciplines: history, philosophy, psychology and sociology. Data were derived from four…
Abstract
The scale and nature of acknowledgement behaviour was investigated in four academic disciplines: history, philosophy, psychology and sociology. Data were derived from four high‐ranking scholarly journals over a twenty‐year period. More than 5,600 acknowledgements were classified using a six‐part typology. Cross‐disciplinary similarities and differences were observed. Populations of highly acknowledged individuals were identified for each discipline. The frequency distributions of acknowledgements exhibited high levels of concentration. Authors' acknowledgement behaviours were highly consistent.