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1 – 10 of over 2000Kathryn Hynes, Emilie Smith and Daniel Perkins
Policy‐makers are looking to after‐school programmes to improve family and child wellbeing and are searching for evidence‐based ways to improve the quality of after‐school…
Abstract
Policy‐makers are looking to after‐school programmes to improve family and child wellbeing and are searching for evidence‐based ways to improve the quality of after‐school programmes. This study examines whether the Good Behaviour Game, a behaviour management curriculum designed for school classrooms, can be easily migrated to academically focused after‐school programmes. Our results are based on programme observations, qualitative interviews and ratings of implementation fidelity. We describe the structure and activities in these after‐school programmes and then identify challenges to implementing and evaluating classroom‐based interventions in the after‐school setting.
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Leila Sadeghi and Len F. Marquart
The 2005 Dietary Guidelines for Americans recommend that children consume at least three daily servings of whole grains. Data from a pilot after‐school program indicated that…
Abstract
Purpose
The 2005 Dietary Guidelines for Americans recommend that children consume at least three daily servings of whole grains. Data from a pilot after‐school program indicated that graham snacks, containing 5 g whole wheat per serving, were consumed in the range of 73‐88 percent, similar to the refined grain counterpart. This paper aims to examine whether a full serving (16 g) of whole grain delivered in a graham snack is acceptable as tested among children participating in an after‐school snack program.
Design/methodology/approach
Subjects included ∼100 children (grades K‐6) participating in after‐school snack programs. Over eight weeks, children were offered graham snacks containing 5, 8, 12, and 16 g whole wheat flour per 30 g serving. Plate waste was used to measure graham snack consumption, as children placed their unfinished snacks in a receptacle and waste was measured after each session. At week nine, a subgroup of children participated in taste tests and rated each snack for liking on a nine‐point hedonic scale. Another subgroup was enrolled in group interviews to provide input about their perceptions of the products' quality and suggestions for improvement.
Findings
Consumption for the 5, 8, 12, and 16 g graham snacks was 80, 76, 79, and 80 percent, respectively. The taste tests results showed no significant difference in rating of the four‐graham snacks. The focus groups indicated that overall, the products are well‐liked, particularly for texture.
Originality/value
This paper suggests that graham snacks can contribute a significant dietary source, nearly one full serving of whole grain when offered in children's natural environment through an after‐school snack program.
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Mark Y. Lineburg and Brian C. Ratliff
This chapter examines practical strategies to address issues related to poverty in small to mid-sized urban districts. Data clearly demonstrates that students in poverty perform…
Abstract
This chapter examines practical strategies to address issues related to poverty in small to mid-sized urban districts. Data clearly demonstrates that students in poverty perform at a lesser rate than their affluent peers. The greatest challenge facing public school leaders is educating students in poverty. This chapter is informed and supported by the existing educational research base and drawn primarily from our authentic experiences as educational leaders in public schools. The information shared is realistic, practical, and uniquely derived from day to day public school life.
Sophia L. Ángeles, Lucas Cone, Sarah Jean Johnson and Marjorie Faulstich Orellana
In this chapter, the authors illustrate how the use of ethnographic methods as a mode of cultural inquiry can support educators in developing students’ competencies to navigate in…
Abstract
In this chapter, the authors illustrate how the use of ethnographic methods as a mode of cultural inquiry can support educators in developing students’ competencies to navigate in and across cultural contexts. The authors report on an undergraduate service learning course held at the University of California, Los Angeles, which combines attendance in a university class with weekly visits to a play-based after-school club located in a multicultural immigrant community. The chapter draws examples from the required field notes written by undergraduate students about their visits to the after-school club, as well as oral comments by the students gathered through interviews. As a way of offering practical engagement in the lifeworlds of the demographically diverse children attending the after-school club, the authors apply examples from the undergraduates’ statements to consider the value of the course – and the engagement it requires with anthropological methods and multilingual and multicultural children – in supporting students’ cultural competence. In doing so, the authors demonstrate what they believe to be a worthwhile approach for cultivating cultural competence in higher education in a socially just and culturally responsive manner.
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Anna Sparrman and Karin Aronsson
David Buckingham (1998, 2000) has recently argued against rigid dichotomies in the contemporary study of commercial artefacts and childhood culture. On the one hand, children are…
Abstract
David Buckingham (1998, 2000) has recently argued against rigid dichotomies in the contemporary study of commercial artefacts and childhood culture. On the one hand, children are seen as easy victims of commercial exploitation from big companies, and on the other, they are seen as highly competent agents, immune to any outside influence. Both views feature different types of romanticism. The view of children as victims is partly created around Victorian ideas of childhood innocence, whereas the romantic view of the active child sees children as open, creative, and competent learners, who effortlessly acquire new literacies, including media literacies. Such a view is partly implicitly inscribed into the Swedish School Curriculum (1998) (Läroplan för det obligatoriska skolväsendet, förskoleklassen och fritidshemmet. Lpo 94. [Curriculum for the compulsory school, the pre-school class and the after-school centre. Lpo 94]). In his criticism of the passive-active dichotomy, Buckingham argues in favour of studies of actual practices, that is, what young people actually do with artefacts and media, instead of empty speculations, far away from children’s play arenas. Buckingham’s own studies are mainly based on group interviews with children in the U.K., where he has analysed what was said on a micro level. A fundamental principle in his research is that children’s agency can be seen in their language use. Also, he advocates that we contextualize children’s activities by analysing the social processes of which they form a part. One way of doing this is to relate a study of children’s everyday interactions to media debates and to changes in our views of children as social agents (Buckingham, 1994).
Keqing Zhong and Jae Park
This policy review paper is an analysis of the Double Reduction Policy (DRP) of China that was promulgated in July 2021. It looks into its rationale as well as different…
Abstract
Purpose
This policy review paper is an analysis of the Double Reduction Policy (DRP) of China that was promulgated in July 2021. It looks into its rationale as well as different stakeholders' early reactions to the policy.
Design/methodology/approach
Critical policy analysis (CPA) method was used to identify (1) the artefacts, such as language, objects and acts, that were significant carriers of the DRP; (2) communities of meaning, interpretation, speech and practice that are relevant to the DRP and its implementation; (3) the local discourses relevant to the DRP; and (4) the tension points and their conceptual sources (affective, cognitive and/or moral) by different DRP stakeholders. As per the comparative education field, this paper compares the pre-DRP and post-DRP periods to tease out how the policy affects different stakeholders of education.
Findings
The DRP in China could be attributed to diverse factors such as demography, socialist economic and developmental visions and manpower structure. The implementation of the DRP has generated uneven reactions among different stakeholders and geographical regions both in speed and scale. While education stakeholders have no choice but to adopt the policy, they face challenges derived from a sudden halt of private educational resources and subsequent increased duties of parents and schools.
Originality/value
The significance of this early policy analysis lies in offering an insight into education development in China by analysing and deliberating the DRP from different perspectives.
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Casey Pennington, Karen Wohlwend, Summer J. Davis and Jill Allison Scott
This paper aims to examine tensions around play, performance and artmaking as becoming in the mix of expected and taken-for-granted discourses implicit in an after-school ceramics…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to examine tensions around play, performance and artmaking as becoming in the mix of expected and taken-for-granted discourses implicit in an after-school ceramics makerspace (Perry and Medina, 2011). The authors look closely at one adolescent girl’s embodied performance to see how it ruptures the scripts for compliant bodies in the after-school program. While these performances take place out-of-school and in an arts studio, the tensions and explorations also resonate with broader issues around student embodied, performative and becomings that run counter to normalized school expectations.
Design/methodology/approach
A contemporary approach to nexus analysis (Medina and Wohlwend, 2014; Wohlwend, 2021) unpacked two critical performative encounters (Medina and Perry, 2011) using concepts of historical bodies (Scollon and Scollon, 2004) informed by sociomaterial thing-power (Bennett, 2010).
Findings
Playing while painting pottery collides and converges with the tacitly desired and expected ways of embodying student in this after-school artspace. Emily’s outer-space alien persona ruptured expected discourses when her historical body and embodied performances threatened other children. While her embodied performances facilitated her becoming a fully present participant in the studio, she fractured the line between play and reality in violent ways.
Originality/value
As literacy researchers, the authors are in a moment of reckoning where student embodied performances and historical bodies can collide with all-too-real violent threats in daily lives and community locations. Situating these performances in the nexus of embodied literacies, unsanctioned play and thing-power can help educators respond to these moments as ruptures of tacit expectations for girlhoods in school-like spaces.
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The purpose of this paper is to explore the marketing opportunities for after-school educational services in the Chinese context by examining children’s perceptions of…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to explore the marketing opportunities for after-school educational services in the Chinese context by examining children’s perceptions of intelligence using visual methodology.
Design/methodology/approach
Altogether 30 Chinese children aged 9–12 studying in grades four to six were asked to draw what comes to mind for two statements: “This is an intelligent child” and “This is a child of average intelligence.” After doing the drawings, the children were interviewed face-to-face to answer questions about the personalities and social relationships of the children depicted in the two drawings that they had produced.
Findings
A child described as intelligent was imagined wearing glasses, studying hard and obtaining excellent academic results. A child described as of average intelligence was imagined as having many friends, playing a lot and experiencing tension with parents over studies. Participants had a restrictive view of intelligence and associated intelligence with academic success. They endorsed both a growth mindset and a fixed mindset of intelligence. On the one hand, they endorsed a growth mindset of intelligence as they associated intelligence with personal efforts and practices. On the other hand, participants endorsed a fixed mindset of intelligence as they tended to avoid challenges and appeared to be threatened by the success of others. Participants imagined that an intelligent child would experience poor relationships with friends.
Research limitations/implications
The findings were based on a nonprobability small sample. The study did not investigate the socialization process of such perceptions.
Practical implications
Educational services and nonschool activity service providers can position themselves as agents to help students develop meta-analytical skills in embracing challenging tasks. Marketers can develop courses and learning materials that teach children different learning strategies. They can use incentives to encourage persistence and resilience in meeting challenges. This study uncovered the emotional and social needs of intelligent children. A new market segment was identified that targets children with high intelligence. Educational service providers can design curricula and activities to support high-performing children in developing empathy and good communication skills. Educators can assist those who perform well academically to nurture genuine friendships and improve social relations with peers.
Social implications
The prevalence of the private tutoring industry in the Chinese context may introduce educational disparity, as families with low resources will not be able to afford these services. Nonprofit organizations can provide similar educational services at a low cost to bridge the gap. The narrow view of intelligence expressed by participants, and their lack of awareness of the wide range of types of intelligence, indicates that education service providers can develop the confidence of a child with average intelligence through appreciation of his or her unique talents beyond academic achievements.
Originality/value
This study explores attributes associated with intelligence among Chinese children using an innovative visual method. The marketing implications can apply to other societies where the after-school tuition market is prevalent.
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Purpose – The chapter describes how teacher preparation programs can design effective off-campus clinical programs. Information provided is applicable to clinical practicums…
Abstract
Purpose – The chapter describes how teacher preparation programs can design effective off-campus clinical programs. Information provided is applicable to clinical practicums, capstone experiences, and to individual course assignments at the undergraduate and graduate levels.
Methodology/Approach – The author describes the foundational components involved in designing a high-quality off-campus clinical-based program. These components include selecting and building a partnership with an off-campus site, using forms, fees, space, and materials, engaging families, aligning assignments to course content, grading, supervision, and acquiring funding.
Practical implications – In addition to the foundational components involved in designing an effective off-campus clinic, the chapters describes a university-based model that uses two different off-campus clinical-based experiences that support community-based programs and local area schools.
Social implications – The chapter addresses the need for teacher preparation programs to build partnerships with off-campus community-based programs to better prepare teachers to meet the literacy demands of all students, particularly students living and learning in urban communities.
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This article explores, identifies and conceptualises everyday audiobook reading practices amongst young adults.
Abstract
Purpose
This article explores, identifies and conceptualises everyday audiobook reading practices amongst young adults.
Design/methodology/approach
Semi-structured interviews were conducted with ten Swedish audiobook users aged 18–19. The material was analysed using qualitative content analysis and focused on their audiobook use during an average weekday, as this was the time that they listened the most. The theoretical framework consists of theories on practice, time and everyday routine.
Findings
Five timespaces emerged when audiobook practices were most prevalent: morning routines, commuting routines, school routines, after school routines and bedtime routines. Within these timespaces, several practices could be identified and conceptualised. Three mobile practices were commute listening, exercise listening and chore listening while more stationary practices were homework listening, schoolwork listening and leisure listening. An unexpected finding was how audiobooks routinely were used to aid respondents’ wellbeing. This wellbeing listening was used to alleviate stress, loneliness and help listeners relax or fall asleep. Furthermore, respondents switch between Music, Audiobooks and Podcasts, which is conceptualised as MAP-switching.
Originality/value
There is a scarcity of research on audiobook use, and this paper contributes with new knowledge on audiobook reading practices, how audiobooks fit into everyday routine and provides concepts to aid further research on audiobook practices.
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