10,305 research outputs found
Comparing demographics of signatories to public letters on diversity in the mathematical sciences
In its December 2019 edition, the \textit{Notices of the American
Mathematical Society} published an essay critical of the use of diversity
statements in academic hiring. The publication of this essay prompted many
responses, including three public letters circulated within the mathematical
sciences community. Each letter was signed by hundreds of people and was
published online, also by the American Mathematical Society. We report on a
study of the signatories' demographics, which we infer using a crowdsourcing
approach. Letter A highlights diversity and social justice. The pool of
signatories contains relatively more individuals inferred to be women and/or
members of underrepresented ethnic groups. Moreover, this pool is diverse with
respect to the levels of professional security and types of academic
institutions represented. Letter B does not comment on diversity, but rather,
asks for discussion and debate. This letter was signed by a strong majority of
individuals inferred to be white men in professionally secure positions at
highly research intensive universities. Letter C speaks out specifically
against diversity statements, calling them "a mistake," and claiming that their
usage during early stages of faculty hiring "diminishes mathematical
achievement." Individuals who signed both Letters B and C, that is, signatories
who both privilege debate and oppose diversity statements, are overwhelmingly
inferred to be tenured white men at highly research intensive universities. Our
empirical results are consistent with theories of power drawn from the social
sciences.Comment: 21 pages, 2 tables, 2 figures; minor textual edits made to previous
versio
Education as Liberation?
Scholars have long speculated about educationâs political impacts, variously arguing that it promotes modern or pro-democratic attitudes; that it instills acceptance of existing authority; and that it empowers the disadvantaged to challenge authority. To avoid endogeneity bias, if schooling requires some willingness to accept authority, we assess the political and social impacts of a randomized girlsâ merit scholarship incentive program in Kenya that raised test scores and secondary schooling. We find little evidence for modernization theory. Consistent with the empowerment view, young women in program schools were less likely to accept domestic violence. Moreover, the program increased objective political knowledge, and reduced acceptance of political authority. However, this rejection of the status quo did not translate into greater perceived political efficacy, community participation, or voting intentions. Instead, the perceived legitimacy of political violence increased. Reverse causality may help account for the view that education instills greater acceptance of authority.
"Third places" and social interaction in deprived neighbourhoods in Great Britain
This paper explores social interaction in local âpublicâ social spaces such as local shops, pubs, cafĂ©s, and community centres in deprived neighbourhoods. More specifically, it examines the importance, role and function of these places, which have been described by Oldenberg and Brissett (Qual Sociol 5(4):265â284, 1982), Oldenburg (Urban design reader. Architectural Place, Oxford, 2007) as being âthird placesâ of social interaction after the home (first) and workplace (second). It does so by drawing on data gleaned from in-depth interviews with 180 residents in six deprived areas neighbourhoods across Great Britain, conducted as part of a study of the links between poverty and place funded by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation. The paper notes that local third places are an important medium for social interaction in these areas, although their importance appears to vary by population group. It notes that shops appear to be a particularly important social space. It also identifies some of the barriers to social interaction within third places and concludes by highlighting some of the key implications for policy to emerge from the research
"Third places" and social interaction in deprived neighbourhoods in Great Britain
This paper explores social interaction in local âpublicâ social spaces such as local shops, pubs, cafĂ©s, and community centres in deprived neighbourhoods. More specifically, it examines the importance, role and function of these places, which have been described by Oldenberg and Brissett (Qual Sociol 5(4):265â284, 1982), Oldenburg (Urban design reader. Architectural Place, Oxford, 2007) as being âthird placesâ of social interaction after the home (first) and workplace (second). It does so by drawing on data gleaned from in-depth interviews with 180 residents in six deprived areas neighbourhoods across Great Britain, conducted as part of a study of the links between poverty and place funded by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation. The paper notes that local third places are an important medium for social interaction in these areas, although their importance appears to vary by population group. It notes that shops appear to be a particularly important social space. It also identifies some of the barriers to social interaction within third places and concludes by highlighting some of the key implications for policy to emerge from the research
Identifying student- and class-level correlates of sixth-grade studentsâ listening comprehension
Despite the importance of listening, little investigation of potential correlates of listening comprehension in the language of schooling is done. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to investigate which student- and class-level characteristics are related to sixth-grade students' listening skills in Flanders. A sample of 974 students in 70 classes completed a listening test in order to gather information on their ability to understand and interpret oral information. Further, different questionnaires were administered to the students, their parents and teachers. The results of the hierarchical regression analysis with multilevel design showed that the differences in listening comprehension skills could be primarily attributed to differences in student-level characteristics. The results indicated that students with higher working memory ability, more vocabulary knowledge and lower extrinsic listening motivation performed significantly better on the listening test. In addition, the educational level of the parents and the language diversity in the class was significantly related to students' listening skills in the language of schooling. This study is an important starting point in unraveling the black box of listening skills in the elementary school context. Suggestions for further research and practice were made
Diffusion of Lexical Change in Social Media
Computer-mediated communication is driving fundamental changes in the nature
of written language. We investigate these changes by statistical analysis of a
dataset comprising 107 million Twitter messages (authored by 2.7 million unique
user accounts). Using a latent vector autoregressive model to aggregate across
thousands of words, we identify high-level patterns in diffusion of linguistic
change over the United States. Our model is robust to unpredictable changes in
Twitter's sampling rate, and provides a probabilistic characterization of the
relationship of macro-scale linguistic influence to a set of demographic and
geographic predictors. The results of this analysis offer support for prior
arguments that focus on geographical proximity and population size. However,
demographic similarity -- especially with regard to race -- plays an even more
central role, as cities with similar racial demographics are far more likely to
share linguistic influence. Rather than moving towards a single unified
"netspeak" dialect, language evolution in computer-mediated communication
reproduces existing fault lines in spoken American English.Comment: preprint of PLOS-ONE paper from November 2014; PLoS ONE 9(11) e11311
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