We’re Not Migrating Yet: Engaging Children’s Geographies and Learning with Lands and Waters

Considering the places, the geographies, of children’s learning, of human learning, is fundamental to seriously considering not only the “whats” or the content of learning but perhaps more importantly the “whys” and the “hows” of learning and the overall goals of education. The whys and hows of education construct what is deemed relevant and irrelevant as well as what is rendered invisible to the “here and now” to children’s lives (Apple, 2004; Iorio & Parnell, 2015; Nxumalo et al., 2011; Tesar, 2015). We argue in our work that issues of place, and relevancy to the “here and now”, is always intertwined with constructions of relations between the human world and the more than human natural world and the ways in which culture, history, and power shape these constructions. With this, we must consider ways in which human and more-than-human relations inform the design of learning environments toward thriving, more just futures

Indigenous Pedagogies: Land, Water, and Kinship

Indigenous communities, across lands and waters, engage in and build complex knowledge systems emergent from particular values and ways of perceiving and being in the world (Cajete, 1994; Deloria & Wildcat, 2001). Indigenous knowledge systems, values, and ways of being are understood and enacted within socio-ecological systems grounded in reciprocal kin relations. Meaning: for Indigenous peoples, teaching, learning, living, and being in relation with human and more-than-human beings is central to our knowledge systems. In Issue #49 of the Bank Street Occasional Papers, Indigenous Pedagogies: Land, Water and Kinship, we bring together Indigenous educators and researchers to demonstrate how Indigenous teaching and learning takes form across contexts

Transforming the Field of Family Engagement: Co-designing Research Practices Measures for Ed Justice and Community Wellbeing

Our project — the Family Leadership Design Collaborative (FLDC) — is a national network of scholars, practitioners, and family and community leaders who work to center racial equity in family engagement. We do this by reimagining how families and communities can create more equitable schools and educational systems. We engage in research to develop "next" (beyond current "best")1 practices, measures, andtools to foster equitable toward community wellbeing and educational justice.The FLDC is a participatory design research project (PDR). PDR emerges from design- based research and is an iterative research process that attends to power, relationships, and histories of oppression/resilience through partnering with young people, families, and communities. PDR advances theories of human learning alongside new sets of relations, practices, and tools towardssocial justice and change-making.We do this through a practice of PDR called solidarity-driven co-design. Co- design is a process of partnering and decision- makingthat engages diverse peoples to collectively identify problems of practice and innovate solutions. raceCo- design has the potential to foster change- making that is responsive, adaptive, and equity- oriented.

Anti-Carceral Human Rights Advocacy

The theory of carceral abolition entered the mainstream during the 2020 global protests for Black lives. Abolition calls for divestment from carceral institutions like police and prisons in favor of the expansion of social and economic programs that ensure public safety and nurture community well-being. Although there is little scholarship explicitly linking abolition to international human rights, there are scholars and advocates who implicitly echo abolitionist theories by critiquing the international human rights regime\u27s overreliance on criminal law. These critics argue that relying on carceral institutions to address impunity for human rights abuses and promote gender justice does little to combat the underlying causes of human rights violations, unlike interventions that promote economic, social, and political equality. Other human rights advocates also implicitly align with abolitionist theories in calling for the decriminalization of certain behaviors such as HIV/ AIDS transmission, sex work, and drug use; as their criminalization leads to human rights abuses against marginalized communities. This article presents a comparative analysis of carceral abolition, critiques of the carceral emphasis in human rights, and decriminalization human rights advocacy and examines their ideological alignments to provide a theoretical foundation for the practice of what we term anticarceral human rights advocacy. We define anti-carceral human rights advocacy as the de-emphasis on carceral responses to human rights violations in favor of social and economic interventions that prevent abuse, heal survivors, and transform perpetrators. From this comparative analysis, we offer the following guiding principles for the practice of anti-carceral human rights advocacy: (1) document abuses of carceral systems; (2) do not advocate for solutions to human rights abuses that strengthen carceral systems; (3) elevate economic, social, and cultural rights, non-discrimination, and accountability mechanisms that are not based in retribution but rather in healing and transformation; (4) work closely with global anti-carceral advocates and communities directly impacted by carceral systems; and (5) practice and/ or exercise solidarity with decriminalization human rights advocacy. We provide examples of what these guiding principles could look like in practice by analyzing the evolving anti-carceral human rights work of the author-affiliated Walter Leitner International Human Rights Clinic. Our hope is that this article provides theoretical and practical guidance for human rights advocates who question the ability of carceral systems to prevent and address human rights abuses, and who seek an advocacy framework that can deliver a more expansive vision of justice than carcerality allows

Indigenous Water Pedagogies: Cultivating Relations Through the Reading of Water

In this paper we put forth a model of Indigenous pedagogies that cultivate more ethical relations and complex thinking about water. The first dimension of Indigenous water pedagogies is relations with water which involves ethical decision-making involving water and other more-than-human beings that are in relation to water. The second dimension is reading water which involves learning to make sense of complex phenomena to build theories and explanations about water is it exists in the environment. Together, these two dimensions support complex thinking and decision-making about water in a way that is guided with reciprocal relations with water. We discuss three examples of Indigenous water pedagogies as they are enacted in the context of an Indigenous STEAM program that spans across two sites and involves interactions with the Chicago River, Puget Sound, and rain

A stem-cell-derived platform enables complete Cryptosporidium development in vitro and genetic tractability

Despite being a frequent cause of severe diarrheal disease in infants and an opportunistic infection in immunocompromised patients, Cryptosporidium research has lagged due to a lack of facile experimental methods. Here, we describe a platform for complete life cycle development and long-term growth of C. parvum in vitro using air-liquid interface (ALI) cultures derived from intestinal epithelial stem cells. Transcriptomic profiling revealed that differentiating epithelial cells grown under ALI conditions undergo profound changes in metabolism and development that enable completion of the parasite life cycle in vitro. ALI cultures support parasite expansion \u3e 100-fold and generate viable oocysts that are transmissible in vitro and to mice, causing infection and animal death. Transgenic parasite lines created using CRISPR/Cas9 were used to complete a genetic cross in vitro, demonstrating Mendelian segregation of chromosomes during meiosis. ALI culture provides an accessible model that will enable innovative studies into Cryptosporidium biology and host interactions

Recasting Families and Communities as Co-Designers of Education in Tumultuous Times

This policy memo, jointly released by the National Education Policy Center and the Family Leadership Design Collaborative, explores how justice-based approaches to family engagement can enable parents and families, particularly from communities of color, to contribute as fellow leaders in transforming schools and educational systems to better serve all children, families, and communities.</p

A variant in LIN28B is associated with 2D:4D finger-length ratio, a putative retrospective biomarker of prenatal testosterone exposure

The ratio of the lengths of an individual's second to fourth digit (2D:4D) is commonly used as a noninvasive retrospective biomarker for prenatal androgen exposure. In order to identify the genetic determinants of 2D:4D, we applied a genome-wide association approach to 1507 11-year-old children from the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children (ALSPAC) in whom 2D:4D ratio had been measured, as well as a sample of 1382 12- to 16-year-olds from the Brisbane Adolescent Twin Study. A meta-analysis of the two scans identified a single variant in the LIN28B gene that was strongly associated with 2D:4D (rs314277: p = 4.1 108) and was subsequently independently replicated in an additional 3659 children from the ALSPAC cohort (p = 1.53 106). The minor allele of the rs314277 variant has previously been linked to increased height and delayed age at menarche, but in our study it was associated with increased 2D:4D in the direction opposite to that of previous reports on the correlation between 2D:4D and age at menarche. Our findings call into question the validity of 2D:4D as a simplistic retrospective biomarker for prenatal testosterone exposure

Refining the accuracy of validated target identification through coding variant fine-mapping in type 2 diabetes.

We aggregated coding variant data for 81,412 type 2 diabetes cases and 370,832 controls of diverse ancestry, identifying 40 coding variant association signals (P &lt; 2.2 × 10-7); of these, 16 map outside known risk-associated loci. We make two important observations. First, only five of these signals are driven by low-frequency variants: even for these, effect sizes are modest (odds ratio ≤1.29). Second, when we used large-scale genome-wide association data to fine-map the associated variants in their regional context, accounting for the global enrichment of complex trait associations in coding sequence, compelling evidence for coding variant causality was obtained for only 16 signals. At 13 others, the associated coding variants clearly represent 'false leads' with potential to generate erroneous mechanistic inference. Coding variant associations offer a direct route to biological insight for complex diseases and identification of validated therapeutic targets; however, appropriate mechanistic inference requires careful specification of their causal contribution to disease predisposition

Rare and low-frequency coding variants alter human adult height

Height is a highly heritable, classic polygenic trait with ~700 common associated variants identified so far through genome - wide association studies . Here , we report 83 height - associated coding variants with lower minor allele frequenc ies ( range of 0.1 - 4.8% ) and effects of up to 2 16 cm /allele ( e.g. in IHH , STC2 , AR and CRISPLD2 ) , >10 times the average effect of common variants . In functional follow - up studies, rare height - increasing alleles of STC2 (+1 - 2 cm/allele) compromise d proteolytic inhibition of PAPP - A and increased cleavage of IGFBP - 4 in vitro , resulting in higher bioavailability of insulin - like growth factors . The se 83 height - associated variants overlap genes mutated in monogenic growth disorders and highlight new biological candidates ( e.g. ADAMTS3, IL11RA, NOX4 ) and pathways ( e.g . proteoglycan/ glycosaminoglycan synthesis ) involved in growth . Our results demonstrate that sufficiently large sample sizes can uncover rare and low - frequency variants of moderate to large effect associated with polygenic human phenotypes , and that these variants implicate relevant genes and pathways